Looking Back On 2010 Riding Experiences
As I look back on this year's riding season, for the most part, I
feel pretty good about how things went. I had fewer close calls
than previous seasons caused by "cager" errors, with one exception
which I'll mention later. Riding a touring bike this season versus
the cruiser I rode for the last 4 years provided some great
benefits but, also, created a challenge I had not properly prepared
for. Lastly, dealing with unexpected road closures and detours
caused some problems that we will need to better plan for in the
future. Let me run through these in more detail and I would
encourage all of you to take a look back over your riding season
and do a similar critique.
We were riding North from Dubuque, IA along the "great river road" on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. It was about 9AM on a beautiful Saturday morning and we were riding the speed limit or slower and taking in the beautiful scenery. The road would change from 2 lanes to 3 lanes to allow for passing on one side and we had just gotten that extra lane on our side going up a hill. I had an RV behind me and he seemed to be in no hurry either but I put my right turn signal on to move over to the right lane to allow him to pass me if he wanted too. I started to pull into the right lane and checked my mirror one more time when a car comes flying aroung the RV passing him on the right going about twice the speed limit. I pulled back into the left lane as he flew by me. If I had not taken a second look, he would have creamed me!! It turned out to be a non-event and my wife didn't even notice that we had narrowly avoided a tragic incident, but it sure rattled me for a while. I was not expecting this and it caught me "off guard". I will never forget to take that second look as it saved us from a very bad day!!
Going from a cruiser to a Honda Goldwing has allowed us to take longer trips in comfort. In previous seasons, we would ride 3,000 to 4,000 miles. This season, with our Goldwing, we rode 8,500 miles. This is great but what I did not adequately consider was the fatigue factor. Riding 3 to 4 hours on the cruiser was about all we could do before our hind ends were saying "enough already!!" On the Goldwing, we could ride all day with very little discomfort. On 3 occasions, we rode all day and were on our way home or back to our hotel and encountered either traffic delays or detours that were not expected. These added extra miles and time that was not planned for and I was already tired. I was able to get back OK but I was pushing myself beyond my endurance limits and was not comfortable. The added frustration of having to deal with a closed road with no detour route posted along with my GPS not being very helpful after being on the road for 8 hours, was more than challenging. Lesson learned; allow a safety factor for the unexpected!! When we travel, we try to stay off the expressways and take the secondary roads. This has its pros and cons. The biggest is time, and if we are going to take some very long trips we are going to have to take the Interstate in the interest of saving time to and from. The other con is road closures, detours, roads not on the GPS and ever changing names of roads. This has become a challenge as the road names listed on a map and or GPS don't always match-up with the road signs. This is a particular problem here in Iowa and makes it difficult to be sure you are going on the route you had planned. We will spend more time planning our routes next year and looking at more detailed maps to make sure we have all the possible names. Taking alternate routes is not necessarily a bad thing but it usually adds time and messes up the continuity of the trip. Those are my "learnings" from 2010 and I would love to hear yours.
We were riding North from Dubuque, IA along the "great river road" on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. It was about 9AM on a beautiful Saturday morning and we were riding the speed limit or slower and taking in the beautiful scenery. The road would change from 2 lanes to 3 lanes to allow for passing on one side and we had just gotten that extra lane on our side going up a hill. I had an RV behind me and he seemed to be in no hurry either but I put my right turn signal on to move over to the right lane to allow him to pass me if he wanted too. I started to pull into the right lane and checked my mirror one more time when a car comes flying aroung the RV passing him on the right going about twice the speed limit. I pulled back into the left lane as he flew by me. If I had not taken a second look, he would have creamed me!! It turned out to be a non-event and my wife didn't even notice that we had narrowly avoided a tragic incident, but it sure rattled me for a while. I was not expecting this and it caught me "off guard". I will never forget to take that second look as it saved us from a very bad day!!
Going from a cruiser to a Honda Goldwing has allowed us to take longer trips in comfort. In previous seasons, we would ride 3,000 to 4,000 miles. This season, with our Goldwing, we rode 8,500 miles. This is great but what I did not adequately consider was the fatigue factor. Riding 3 to 4 hours on the cruiser was about all we could do before our hind ends were saying "enough already!!" On the Goldwing, we could ride all day with very little discomfort. On 3 occasions, we rode all day and were on our way home or back to our hotel and encountered either traffic delays or detours that were not expected. These added extra miles and time that was not planned for and I was already tired. I was able to get back OK but I was pushing myself beyond my endurance limits and was not comfortable. The added frustration of having to deal with a closed road with no detour route posted along with my GPS not being very helpful after being on the road for 8 hours, was more than challenging. Lesson learned; allow a safety factor for the unexpected!! When we travel, we try to stay off the expressways and take the secondary roads. This has its pros and cons. The biggest is time, and if we are going to take some very long trips we are going to have to take the Interstate in the interest of saving time to and from. The other con is road closures, detours, roads not on the GPS and ever changing names of roads. This has become a challenge as the road names listed on a map and or GPS don't always match-up with the road signs. This is a particular problem here in Iowa and makes it difficult to be sure you are going on the route you had planned. We will spend more time planning our routes next year and looking at more detailed maps to make sure we have all the possible names. Taking alternate routes is not necessarily a bad thing but it usually adds time and messes up the continuity of the trip. Those are my "learnings" from 2010 and I would love to hear yours.
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