Thursday night before the trip, Dream Rider Dave called and had to abort the trip due to a family issue. We were bummed but decided to go with out him and his wife anyways.
After working pretty tirelessly most of two weekends and several weeknights in hundred degree weather and nearly hundred percent humidity, we finally got the trailer hitch mounted, trailer lighting setup, new tires on, oil and transmission fluid changed, a few final bike adjustments, packed, and one last lawn mowing pass completed. I had a lot of help in from Chuck and Al, who suffered through most of the heat on Saturday afternoon with me. By Sunday afternoon we were about one and half days past our planned departure time, but we still plenty of time to make to Bloomsburg, PA where the BMW MOA was having the nation (international) annual rally.
Our general plan was to go east across northern Iowa (avoiding Minnesota where much of the state including public restrooms was shutdown), then north through Wisconsin to the Michigan UP, take Mackinaw bridge to lower Michigan. Then make our way east to Niagra Falls via Ontario and then over and down through Ontario and New York to Bloomsburg, PA. It was a little over a 1500 mile ride which trumped the warmer 1100 mile route which was basically due east. It looked like a fun route.
At about 5:00 PM Sunday we jumped on Pig, the R1200GSA, filled up, and headed east on Highway 20. The first thing we noticed was that we were bottomed out the suspension badly. Every time we hit a crack in the road, my passenger said ouch. US Hwy 20 is a relatively smooth road. After jumping up and down on the pegs a few times to test things, we pulled over to Correctionville, IA to discuss what to do. My concern was that even if we were able to adjust to rougher ride, we would eventually damage something very expensive on the bike. After being nearly exhausted from the weather getting ready, having few things go as expected for the prior ten days, we decided that maybe it would be best to throw in the towel and go home. Once we got home we realized that the heat was following us to Pennsylvania and maybe aborting the trip was a positive thing. Sleeping outside in 90+ degree nights is not necessarily a lot of fun, we've done that before. On Monday we rescheduled our vacation. We are now going to the Top Of the Rockies Rally in a few days where its around 50 degrees most every night in July.
Monday, I went down and ordered the best suspension money can buy (and also the most durable). Dave gave me a substantial "good guy" cash discount. The rear spring on the used suspension which Chuck and I put on the weekend before last (also in high heat) was shot. The suspension was said to have had only 10,000 miles on it, but in hindsight I should have left the original GSA shocks on which had 50K on them. The original shocks had been OK for 2-up test ride a week before that. The "newer" GS shocks could barely support just passenger and 25#'s of trailer tongue weight. The cost of the new Ohlin shocks will have me working for another 3 months after I'm 65 just to pay for them, so I just hope Wal-Mart will still needing greeters by then.
Thursday I started getting excessive heat warnings for Bloomsburg on my Droid, so I think we made a good decision. I hope Big (Jim) Johnson and the other riders are playing it safe, drinking a lot of fluids and staying cool as much as then can at the National. We feel sort of bad about not being able to join in with their misery.
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