The Glade 4.0

So I'm planning a huge trip the end of June. I've got a pretty aggressive ride schedule, but if anyone is along the route and would like to try and meet up let me know.

Here's the route I'm planning.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source= ... 331055&z=5

Edited title for clarity.

Wow! That's awesome! Wish you were coming through Mississippi...the Natchez Trace is pretty not bad for this sort of thing.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Yeah, there's a lot of beautiful places in this country, and I'm hoping to eventually get a chance to ride through them all.

These long trips are starting to become a little more regular for me, so be careful what you wish for...

Wow, that is an epic route for sure, that will be amazing! We demand frequent pics and stories.

You're welcome to visit anytime!
We've had 2 Gladers visit us so far...we'll get everyone to pass through Mississippi to see us eventually.

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

If the Indians are in town when you pass through Cleveland I'll treat you to a ball game.

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Probably won't have time for a full game, but could probably make a late lunch work. I have to be in Pittsburg that evening for a scheduled event.

I'll recommend the Trace ride for you in the future... My dad and I did the trace, and then up through Tennessee, and it was a gorgeous ride.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

OK, I'm (a) gonna need details, and (b) insanely jealous. Yeah, that's a pretty epic trip, I have to say.

Are you camping, hoteling, crashing at friends? Sounds like you've done bike trips before, so I won't ply you with advice. It's been a very long time since my epic ride - five weeks, in the days before Google maps. I dropped my cycle computer about four days before the end, and the battery popped out, erasing all my mileage data. I still have no real clue how far I rode ...

How long are you planning to be on the bike? (3900 miles ... 100 miles/day ... At least six weeks? Wow, nice.)

Are you riding by yourself? I have to say, the Wisconsin stretch looks pretty fun, as does the Blue Ridge Mountains part. Doing any dirt, or is this all road?

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

So at a high level, the trip will be just shy of 4k miles over 17 days. I'll be staying with friends or family for all but 3 nights (Roanoke, Savannah and Lexington). Those 3 nights, I'll get a hotel. With the amount of miles I'm putting on each day, I need to make sure I've got a decent bed to sleep on so I can recover.

The bike is a 2005 FJR1300 and it will be all road. I'll be riding solo, unfortunately my wife doesn't have as much vacation time as I do, so this is my way of burning off my extra.

The plan is to leave on Wednesday, June 16th. 430 miles day 1 to Chicago and staying with a friend. 450ish miles day 2 to Pittsburg and staying with a friend for the weekend and attending a summer solstace party with more friends. 250 mile easy day to MD to visit family for a couple days. First day after leaving there is riding the whole blue ridge highway/skyline drive. Next 2 days are basically a push down to FL to spend the weekend with a buddy. FL to NC is my biggest day at 530 miles to visit my Uncle for a couple days. My Uncle lives about 2 hours away from Deal's Gap/The Dragon's Tail, so have to do that. 318 turns in 11 miles, I can't freaking wait. Then it's up through Indiana back to Chicago, and back home.

The Wisconsin route will actually be fairly boring, it's just I-94. It's fairly nice as interstate goes, but still super slab.

What I've found with long trips like this is that if you actually want to get somewhere in a reasonable time you've gotta hit super slab and punch it. So what I've done is to try and concentrate the "fun roads" into a couple of seminal routes.

As for long distance riding tips, I'll certainly take any that folks have. I've done a couple of longer trips over the years so mostly know what I'm doing, but always open to hear a new trick/tip. The key things that I've found that help make it successful are the following:

Microfiber riding shorts/underwear
ATGATT (all the gear, all the time)
Start early, finish early (before it gets too hot in the day)
Take Advil regularly and before you get stiff/sore
Stop every 2 hours for at least 15 minutes, even if you don't feel like you need to stop. Make sure you walk around and stretch.
Avoid all sugars and energy drinks. Usually all I eat during the day is a little granola and jerky at each 2 hour stop. Keeps my blood sugar level constant throughout the day. Then a good solid meal for dinner after I've made it to my destination.
Drink lots of water. Regularly.

HAHAHAHAHA

OMG, I'm so naive and clueless sometimes. I thought you were doing a bike trip. You know, like, on a bicycle. I was wondering why you had all those freeways in there, thinking you'd figure out the real route on the way or just weren't telling us the details.

OK, so I'm not so jealous as I would be if you were on a bicycle. Sorry, very little advice I can give you about motorcycle touring!

_________________
This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

HEH.

Yeah, that would be a truly epic bicycle ride. It's been years since I spent any time on a bicycle, hell 30-50 miles would probably kill me today.

Hah! I thought you were going on a bicycle trip as well.

I was reading through the 400+ mile days and thinking you were insane... I wouldn't want to do more than 150 or so, and that would be a pretty killer day. For a longer trip, I don't think more than 80-100 would be wise consistently.

This also makes sense from when I was looking at your route.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

OMG me too!! Hahahahaha! I was thinking to myself holy ****, Aizle is the man to bicycle 450 miles every day and call 250 miles an "easy day" ahahahahahahaha!!!!

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

Whoo whoo! All aboard the Clue Train with me!

Glad I'm not the only one!

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This cold and dark tormented hell
Is all I`ll ever know
So when you get to heaven
May the devil be the judge

Put me in that bucket too. I figured you quit your job, sold your **** and were going on a "walk-about".

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Toot toot!!

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"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Jesus of Nazareth

When you defined your trip as epic, that led me to believe it was a bicycle trip of mammoth proportions. I kinda figured after looking a little more closely at the details that it was instead a motorcycle trip.

Either way, hope it is a blast!

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This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays.

LOL. yea, 450 miles a day would be pretty epic.. for one day.. let alone 17 straight...

When I was training for racing, riding 70 miles a day several times a week was working pretty hard (and very time consuming)

Not to mention the fact that he'd have to average 60+ miles an hour for 450 miles, which would surely be a record :p

I noticed on his trip map, he had automobile selected as the form of travel, so I was pretty sure he was on a motorcylce. =)

I had a friend who tripped down to Deal's Gap from Pennsylvania last year. They took their bikes in a truck, though. One guy blew a fork seal, one guy lowsided, another guy crashed pretty bad. It's easy to get carried away at The Gap/TotD ... but other than that, nice looking place.

Just make sure you have roadside assistance on your insurance and I'd try to map out a few shops along the way in case something happens.

A weatherproof GPS would be a must.

There's no way in **** hell I'd ride 450 miles in a day, but then again, both bikes I've owned have been like sitting on a sawhorse.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Deal's Gap is a monster! I've taken three different bikes through there - a crotch rocket when that was still my thing, and then a couple cruisers after I slowed down and wasn't bulletproof any more. Aside from the people who literally kill themselves on it every so often, it's nuts to see where people nail chunks of fairings and whatnot to the trees, as monuments to where they dumped.

Anyway, if you're staying with your uncle for a couple days in the area, I highly recommend this:

Deal's Gap and Cherohala Skyway route

The Cherohala Skyway is well worth riding, too. It doesn't have the insane, blind switchback curves that Deal's Gap does... it's more like Blue Ridge. Lots of long, sweeping curves, except on top of the mountain, riding a ridge line instead of shooting the gap between a couple mountains. The views are fantastic. There are plenty of websites about it - check 'em out!

Edit: Curse you! Now I want to get out and ride. I've never ridden Hwy 28, but just found a site talking about it (it got nicknamed "Hellbender" and I'm just now discovering it?!). So, revised route!

Bigger triangle-ish route-thing.

Yeah, the FJR is a cruise missle. I've done the Pittsburg left of this trip before, and it happily did 85-95 all day long on the way out there. I've got a Corbin seat for it as well, so it's more comfortable than stock. That said, my *** will definately be sore by the end of this whole thing.

Yeah, I'm definately going to be taking it easy going through there. Last thing I want to do is dump the bike and injure myself when I'm alone and 1200 miles from home. It's also why I'm doing it at the beginning of a day, rather than at the end.

**** YEAH! Vacation time has been approved!

Have a great trip Aizle!!

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"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

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