[yoitsemo]

So I've done an hour ride here and there the last couple months, but today I'll be doing around 3hrs and ~150miles through some county roads to head to Tampa, FL for my friends wedding.

I'll be riding with my one bag bungied down to the passenger part of the seat and another on my back.

Don't mean to brag, but the FL weather has been amazing for riding the last week.

 

[flatrack]

Nice weather, sure rub it in lol. I think tonite we'll be down to minus 10C.

Happy trails and ride safe!

 

[Moto4Life]

I'm jealous... Always wanted to ride somewhere in FL. Keep us posted!

Good luck and send some photos from there

 

[Schu]

Forecast for tomorrow morning at 6am shows 48F so I'm riding to work tomorrow. Not bad for November in Michigan. That will seem like Florida weather compared to what Flatrack is dealing with.....

 

[flatrack]

I don't know, 48F is still pretty chilly on the interstate, unless you're rocking heated gear

 

[Schu]

No heated gear.
Brooks leather jacket and chaps, turtle neck shirt, gauntlet gloves, and full face SHOEI.
Pretty chilly indeed.

This SCR has an awesome head light. All my other bikes are vintage 70s era. Not so awesome headlights.

 

[flatrack]

You can have it lol, mine's parked, stored until spring. My garage is full so I rented a heated locker, it was that or build a bigger garage lol. It's my fingers that go first, considering heated gloves but they are spendy. Yeah, the halogen bulb is pretty good but if you really want to light up the night check out the Opt7 LED headlight bulb, apparently they are three times brighter...

 

[yoitsemo]

Oh gosh, -10°C sounds awful right now.

I got real lucky this weekend and didn't have any rain, but did break quite the sweat on my way out of Tampa on Sunday. I really could not wait until I was out of the city area and away from a street layout that had stop lights every quarter mile.

I know most of you are experienced riders, but like I said, this was first trip longer than an hour.

Some things I learned:

- Riding with a decently loaded backpack gets pretty strenuous after an hour. Even with the chest buckle my neck began killing me no matter the angle of my shoulders/arms.

- Other bikers always seem to be going the opposite way. Not sure why, but I probably waived to other riders at least 50 times and was the only bike on my side of the road for 98% of the trip both ways.

- County/State roads may take a bit longer to travel, but the view of the landscape and variety of curves definitely make up for it extra time.

- Lastly, the interstate is **** terrifying. I really wanted to get back home, so once I got out of the city I decided to head to I-75. Knew it would be a good couple hours at 70mph (120km/h) until I'd exit but **** if I didn't make it passed the second exit before deciding to get myself the **** out of there. Didn't have much of a problem with the traffic, but the condition of the lanes was terrible. No pot holes, but it seemed like every 500 meters the lane I would be in would suddenly be missing the very top layer of asphalt and I could feel the tires shifting around on the grooves of the road. At one point I tried to move on over to the next lane, but had to pop up over near 2-3 inches of asphalt, which gave me a nice little wobble. To heck with that. Took the next exit and ended up turning onto the first highway heading north. Turned out to be a real popular one too for it's curves.

 

[flatrack]

Im with you on the freeway issues...I'll take a secondary road every chance I get - not that I don't like going fast sometimes... but its nice cruising along at 50mph enjoying the ride without traffic and all that wind! YES - backpacks are brutal on a roadtrip!

Gainsville, nice! Tom Petty country!

 

[eddie]

Don't know if your backpack's straps will work like this,
but I let my sling pack hang loose until the weight's on the seat behind me and not pulling down on my shoulders.
With a waist strap to secure it, it's not tiresome at all.

 

[yoitsemo]

Don't know if your backpack's straps will work like this,
but I let my sling pack hang loose until the weight's on the seat behind me and not pulling down on my shoulders.
With a waist strap to secure it, it's not tiresome at all.

I'll try to do more of that set up next time. I was able to get some weight alleviated by having the backpack sort of resting on the bag that was strapped down behind me, so I definitely felt some of the weight taken away. I think most of my problem was that my backpack was full with my laptop, cameras and toiletries.

Probably going to get another bag similar to the one I had bungeed down so I can stack em.

 

[yoitsemo]

Im with you on the freeway issues...I'll take a secondary road every chance I get - not that I don't like going fast sometimes... but its nice cruising along at 50mph enjoying the ride without traffic and all that wind! YES - backpacks are brutal on a roadtrip!

Gainsville, nice! Tom Petty country!

Most definitely! A buddy of mine drums for the local Tom Petty tribute band 'Heavy Petty'. They had a great turnout from the town after he sadly passed that was an amazing thing to see everyone come together for.

Most of the roads I ride are pretty straight, boring, but scenic. Easily averaging 60-70mph on those. There's a lot of other lesser traveled roads that you have to take a bit slower but are absolutely great for their dips and turns.