Royal Enfield experience in USA

therider — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 09:53:21 +0000

Vaibhav, my enfield buddy from Bangalore, craved for a bullet motorcycle after a long 8 years of stay in the US. We picked up a nice 2005 Bullet 500cc from Paradise, CA last weekend. Original plan was to ride the 200 odd miles home on the same day, but thanks to the freezing cold, rain and gusty winds, we only made it to Folsom by nightfall. Left the bike with Vaibhav’s cousin brother there for the week and went back there yesterday.

Saturday started well. Cloudy weather, no rain. Soulful breakfast at Ihop. We needed to fix the sticking throttle first. Borrowed tools from a tire shop, removed the tank and took care of the pinched throttle cable. Problem solved. The mechanics and a few customers stopped by to admire the bike.

We took some country roads to avoid the major freeways. And boy that was a good decision. CA-160 and CA-4 was fantastic. Two lanes, no traffic, lush greenery everywhere. An Indian guy followed us taking photos for a few minutes, totally dumbstruck seeing a bullet. On a photo break, a passing patrol officer stopped to check out the bike.

After 165 blissful miles we were home. Went to Kragen to pick up some necesssary tools and got to work on the bike. We did the following, including a late night visit to walmart for more tools:

1. Carb adjust for idle speed.
2. Front brake cable lubing and brake adjust (clockwise rotation of the link shaft).
3. Oil change to Pennzoil 20w/50 non-synth. Planning to do again after 1000mi to change oil filter.
4. Air filter check (no dirt right now),
5. Pushrod tappets adjustment.
6. Clutch cable tension adjustment.
7. Rear wheel alignment and chain tension adjustment.
8. Replace spark plugs.

The bike is much better after front brake adjustment and rear wheel alignment.

X-Country USA 2009 status archive

therider — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 08:42:03 +0000

In July 2009, we had a long motorcycle trip from west coast to east coast and back, covering 10,360 miles in 30 days. Thanks to iphone and facebook, I can recount the details of the days from the status updates. Here is an archive of the updates during that time:

Very productive day today. new battery and front tire done. ordering rear tire + wheel from ebay. helped piyush installing hard bags on his VFR. June 28, 2009, 12:35am

Instamapper.com rocks. Just set up a gps tracker for our month long cross country motorcycle ride. http://bit.ly/O9d9w June 29, 2009, 1:38am

New rear tire should come today. Bike should be ready by evening. Dry run of packing to follow afterwards. July 1, 2009, 9:16am

Feeling infinitely lucky to have a wife who is excited to be on a motorcycle trip for 30 days. July 2, 2009, 1:09am

Seems like I can lose weight and stay young on a motorcycle: http://bit.ly/73jOX and http://bit.ly/10WZFS July 2, 2009, 2:15pm

Started at 7am. Breakfast stop at Benicia. July 3, 2009, 7:24am

175 miles done. I-5 is a bit sedate. July 3, 2009, 9:57am

At Weed, CA. 325mi done. Touched 97F peak at Redding. Morning was 58F. July 3, 2009, 12:35pm

At Chemult, OR. Blinded by greens and blues. Don’t wanna leave Oregon. July 3, 2009, 4:27pm

Got rained on day 1. Awesome. The smell of wet soil took me home in monsoon. This IS home. July 3, 2009, 4:27pm

Day 1 over. 555 miles. Staying at Bend, OR at my coworker’s place. July 3, 2009, 8:05pm

Day 2 begins. Shivering cold in Bend. July 4, 2009, 4:33am

Breakfast stop at Madras, OR. Wish there was a dosa/idli restaurant. July 4, 2009, 6:24am

Chilling at Kennewick near Pasco WA. In 2007 I almost bought an yellow Goldwing from here. July 4, 2009, 11:43am

Watching awesome fireworks beside lake flathead. 50 more miles to Whitefish, MT. July 4, 2009, 8:47pm

Reached Whitefish, MT. 670 miles in 17 hours. Will camp at a guy’s place who I sold my Canon 5D last year. July 4, 2009, 10:50pm

Idaho rocks. No bullshit tax. Cheap gas. 75 limit roads, even on mountains. July 4, 2009, 11:53pm

Chilling at Whitefish. Slept at 2am, woke up at 7:30. Will visit Glacier NP today. July 5, 2009, 8:05am

Damn, are all the prettiest American girls living in Whitefish ? July 5, 2009, 10:52am

At Choteau, MT now. 200 miles today. Scenary overload all day. Glacier NP and then beautiful roads in evening. July 5, 2009, 10:54pm

Wish there were tech jobs here at Montana. This state is too good. My head is hurting with pretty overload. July 5, 2009, 11:21pm

Bfast stop at Great Falls, MT. 60 miles today. July 6, 2009, 8:19am

Instead of Monday morning blues we are drowning in the greens of rural Montana. And popcorn clouds made for us… July 6, 2009, 8:54am

Loving the life on the road. This is how we wanna live, work hard and ride harder. July 6, 2009, 3:14pm

Visually drunk and totally fallen in love with Montana. My previous favorites Colorado and Oregon got pushed down in my list. July 6, 2009, 3:15pm

Piyush’s VFR got a leaking right fork seal. Ouch. We did two quick fixes and hope he can get it fixed properly at SLC on his way back. July 6, 2009, 5:07pm

At red lodge, MT. Camping beside a river. 385 miles today. July 6, 2009, 6:16pm

The VFR fork leak got fixed by a masking tape trick. Thanks a ton to Goldwing yoda Susan Coles. July 6, 2009, 6:34pm

Soaking in the sights and sounds of nature. Never camped this close to a river. July 6, 2009, 8:42pm

Damn the night was one of the coldest I ever spent out. 48F is the morning temp at 5:10am MDT. July 7, 2009, 3:20am

Sun is probably rising from west today. Priti wants to shower in this 48F morning at the campground. July 7, 2009, 3:41am

Yellowstone turned out to be least fun in the trip. The slow road is painfully sedate on a motorcycle. Not sure I will ride here again. July 7, 2009, 3:10pm

Yellowstone SUCKS on a bike trip. 80 miles through the park at 35mph. NEVER again on a bike ! July 7, 2009, 3:13pm

Waiting for old faithful to erupt. July 7, 2009, 7:45pm

Enjoying the ride through grand Teton park. Light is not right so will come back for sunrise and sunsets. July 8, 2009, 8:30am

At Casper WY. 350 miles done. Got 43.3 mpg on highway instead of usual 38. Woot. Thought slow park roads gave earlier 44 mpg. July 8, 2009, 4:42pm

Casper to Douglas WY – 50miles. Dialed in 80mph cruise and it felt like flying a private jet. July 8, 2009, 5:47pm

Camping at KOA of Douglas WY. Beautiful location, free wifi, heated pool. After a 400 mile day I could not ask anything better. July 8, 2009, 5:53pm

Watched a beautiful sunrise. Now heading to Sturgis, South Dakota. July 9, 2009, 4:22am

Marathon day tomorrow. 700 miles to Chicago to meet up with parents. July 9, 2009, 8:31pm

Had a solid sleep, ready to start in 15 min. July 10, 2009, 3:44am

I totally absolutely hate construction zones and sun in the face. Would love to live in a permanently cloudy place !!!!! July 10, 2009, 5:27am

Ice cream stop at DQ. Worthington, MN. 200 miles done. Minnesota is very green. July 10, 2009, 7:39am

On autopilot almost whole day at 80-85mph. Wing is eating miles for breakfast. July 10, 2009, 9:17am

Snack break at Albert Lea, MN. Boiled eggs taste better with tortilla chips than salt alone !!! July 10, 2009, 10:14am

Fastest day of the trip so far. 440 miles in 8 hours. Lunch break near la crosse, MN. July 10, 2009, 12:23pm

Last fillup at Monona, WI. 630 miles done in 12 hours, 150 more to go. Still have lots of energy! July 10, 2009, 4:35pm

At Chicago. 775 miles in 15 hours. Longest so far. July 10, 2009, 7:51pm

Change of plans: leaving Chicago on Monday instead of Sunday. July 10, 2009, 7:59pm

Got a good look at my face. Resembles grilled chicken. July 11, 2009, 6:30am

Doing oil change myself at a shell service station. They gave me a pan, gloves, rags and a cardboard. Cool. July 11, 2009, 9:04am

Chicago feels like Kolkata. Got cooked in traffic on a short trip to change oil. July 11, 2009, 11:37am

2nd day of lazing around in Chicago. In a train, going to meet up with a school senior who was a student of both my parents. July 12, 2009, 10:38am

En route to Cleveland, OH. Had a feast of a lunch at my school junior’s place in south bend, IN. Feeling sleepy every 20 miles July 13, 2009, 9:44am

Getting robbed by tollbooths in IL, IN and OH. Damn things are making us pay every few miles. July 13, 2009, 12:15pm

Started hating east coast already. Lost count of the cash gone in tolls, and am not even in NY/NJ yet !!! Can the gps help avoiding tolls ? July 13, 2009, 2:49pm

Staying with sister’s batchmate and family at South Euclid, OH. 395 miles today and 4125 miles so far. July 13, 2009, 4:16pm

Mentally still in pacific time. The road lag is not going away easily. July 14, 2009, 5:23am

Reunited with a school friend after 7 yrs. At Ithaca, NY now. 400 miles today, 4525 miles so far. July 14, 2009, 8:01pm

Met up with a ST13 rider at Fultonham, NY. Enjoyed sone awesome rural roads and also had a scary little ride on gravel road. July 15, 2009, 1:32pm

Having mac chicken at a service area on I-88E at Schenectady, NY. July 15, 2009, 2:10pm

100 more miles of awesome Vermont twisties before Nashua, NH. July 15, 2009, 3:57pm

At Nashua, NH. 360 miles today, 4880 so far. July 15, 2009, 6:46pm

Off to stony brook. July 17, 2009, 8:28am

Stony Brook, here I come. Lunch at my favorite Chinese buffet Yin Yang. July 17, 2009, 10:54am

Got fried in traffic around NJ-NY. Turned off engine many times to prevent boiling the coolant. July 17, 2009, 11:11am

Took I-495 and northern state pkwy. Memories, memories… July 17, 2009, 11:12am

Priti forgot to show ezpass when getting on NJ turnpike I-78 from Bayonne. What to do to avoid fines ? July 17, 2009, 9:23pm

Going to manhattan with friends. Time for some street photography which I should have done long back. July 18, 2009, 12:42pm

Charmed by NYC at night. I think I like this city more than SF which has no season at all. July 18, 2009, 5:03pm

Had a fantastic thai dinner at Yum Yum Too near 9th and 46th. July 18, 2009, 9:15pm

1am feels like 7pm in NYC. Awesome. July 18, 2009, 9:18pm

10mph on I-95 near Rutgers. HATE it. Should have taken 206 at 45mph . Goodbye east coast. I will likely not miss ya. July 19, 2009, 10:40am

Finally got rid of the congestion on I-95 and at walt Whitman service area. 100 more miles to Maryland. July 19, 2009, 12:08pm

Escaped from mile long 10 mph toll plaza queue insanity at last. Entering Maryland. July 19, 2009, 1:19pm

Dear Priti, repeat after me 50 times: we will never ever ever ever ever even think of living in NY/NJ area !!! July 19, 2009, 1:21pm

At Baltimore. Meeting Ja from Stony Brook after 3.5 years. July 19, 2009, 3:09pm

Met mejomashi and family at Ellicot city, MD. Now with Ayan and Aritra at Ashburn, VA. July 19, 2009, 8:02pm

Got stuck at 5mph construction zone traffic for an hour on I-66. The awesome cloudy weather kept me calm. Don’t know how people go to work. July 20, 2009, 8:40am

Got blown over at Luray Caverns at Virginia. Raining now, gonna be an awesome monsoon ride to Durham, NC. July 20, 2009, 1:08pm

Raining cats and dogs, taking a bite at burger king near Luray Caverns. July 20, 2009, 1:29pm

Checked into 360 motel at Midlothian, VA. 220 miles today, 5960 miles so far. July 20, 2009, 5:31pm

Midlothian VA to South Hill VA. 90 miles non stop in 70 min. My fastest sprint so far. Reward: bfast at Dennys. July 21, 2009, 4:02am

Slept like a log at Kools’ place in Raleigh. Fully charged up for the ride south. July 21, 2009, 9:02am

Rode into heavy downpour before walterboro SC. Taking shelter below an overpass due to very low visibility. Quite fun. July 21, 2009, 1:51pm

Staying at Savannah today. Bike tires wore unevenly and it is wobbling a bit. Have to fix it tomorrow. July 21, 2009, 4:05pm

Perfect day. Just as I pulled into Florida welcome center the rear tire blew. Guess the puncture was there for a while. July 22, 2009, 6:31am

Got lucky about the location to fix my puncture myself. Also met a Goldwing rider with yellow wing and trailer. July 22, 2009, 6:32am

Fixed puncture but tire won’t hold air. The big gash blew it. Now trying to reach a local gwrra member with trailer. Honda dealer is 30mi. July 22, 2009, 7:09am

Omg ! A local wing rider has a spare wheel with rear tire and he is on the way!!! Wooooot. July 22, 2009, 7:19am

The local winger came with wheel. We swapped the wheels in 10 min. Now at Jacksonville Honda getting a new Bridgestone. July 22, 2009, 10:15am

The wing rider had the spare wheel because he switched to a car tire (dark side). July 22, 2009, 10:20am

Don, the local winger is a pilot as well. He even rebuilt a plane!!! This GWRRA membership is fully worth. July 22, 2009, 10:30am

The best things in life are priceless. We meet the nicest of people un the strangest of places and situations. July 22, 2009, 3:28pm

On the road again. Zero wobble. Whether or not I shoulda examined the rear tire more during wobble does not matter now. Had a helluva day. July 22, 2009, 4:16pm

Don is the symbol of how life should be lived. We talked about motorcycles, aviation and boating as well. His wife does woodturning too !!! July 22, 2009, 4:21pm

Tire lesson #1: if front wobbles check rear tire 10 times. July 22, 2009, 4:43pm

Don had car tire on his wing for last 7k mi with no issues. Am convinced enough to get one next. 3x miles, more traction, tilts fine too. July 22, 2009, 4:45pm

At chuck’s place in Satsuma FL. He rides an yellow wing with an yellow car-shaped trailer. My fav color and combo. 225 miles today. July 22, 2009, 5:17pm

On US-17 to Orlando. 80F, 80% humidity and just trotted beside a goods train. Feels home. July 23, 2009, 4:48am

Reached temple terrace FL near Tampa after a non stop 120 mi ride from Kennedy Space Center. Rode through some hellish thunderstorm as well. July 23, 2009, 6:09pm

Don said priti should get her moto license before car and also should study towards a pilot’s lic as well so I can fly July 23, 2009, 7:58pm

Planning to ship all camping gear home tomm to reduce the excessive weight of the suitcase. We are unlikely to camp in this southern heat. July 23, 2009, 9:31pm

Shipped 20lb of stuff home. Suitcase should be much lighter after redistributing rest of stuff. July 24, 2009, 7:18am

Bailing on Clearwater beach. It can be out of the world but 25 miles through town at 15mph is making me sick. July 24, 2009, 9:42am

FL-98 is 10x better than I-75. Glad I ditched Clearwater. Still have my sanity and also prevented coolant boil-out of the bike. July 24, 2009, 12:00pm

Having a refreshing icee at Old Town, FL. Love these small towns, nice people and relaxed life. And no parking hassle ever. July 24, 2009, 1:04pm

Got first speeding ticket just when I thought the day was getting better. FL-98 is too good to ride near limits. Struggling to save the day. July 24, 2009, 4:24pm

Trying very very hard to enjoy the most gorgeous sunset at the same spot I stopped in 2005 on my first cross country bike trip July 24, 2009, 4:44pm

Stopping at a nice little town Appalachicola, FL. But it is Friday and inns are $$. Florida is giving me a bittersweet experience. July 24, 2009, 5:33pm

At the shore of the gulf of Mexico, st George island, FL. July 25, 2009, 5:07am

We got our Clearwater with 1% crowd. Patience pays off. July 25, 2009, 5:33am

With Suparno and Tusi at Baton Rouge, LA. Long day today, 510 miles. July 25, 2009, 6:03pm

Friend at Dallas is on-call today and got busy. We were unsure where to stay, then Priti found a contact at Uncertain, TX by a lake July 26, 2009, 1:38pm

Had an incredibly awesome stay at Uncertain, TX. The boat ride on the swampy Caddo lake was beyond any kind of our imaginations. July 27, 2009, 6:09am

Priti called Florida clerk of court to ask if online traffic school is possible for my ticket. And they said yes !!! My trip got saved ! July 27, 2009, 7:47am

No more bad moods and fights with Priti for a while July 27, 2009, 7:49am

Reached Midland, TX and got a motel. Incredibly sleepy day today but 530 miles done. 8670 miles so far. July 27, 2009, 7:01pm

At monahans sandhills state park. Feels like visiting the gobi desert in Rajasthan except for the cool 75F temps. July 28, 2009, 6:43am

Lunch at a Mexican place by I-10. My god, the waitress is hotter than Salma Hayek ! July 28, 2009, 11:18am

Getting roasted in blistering 101F Texas heat now. July 28, 2009, 12:37pm

Had to ride 2 miles on unpaved road. Not fun on wing. Parked little far from house since it is a steep gravel slope to the house from road. July 28, 2009, 7:33pm

Imagine. 10pm. Moon playing hide-n-seek. 3 ladies and us sat in a natural hot springs pond in the woods for an hr. Au naturale, except me! July 28, 2009, 9:19pm

Had a beautiful morning ride from Bayard to Silver City on mountain spirits scenic byway. 75F at 6000 elev. Now on US-70W from lordsburg. July 29, 2009, 9:04am

Had a refreshing light snack at a small town Duncan, AZ. July 29, 2009, 10:04am

Getting oven roasted at 104F desert heat in AZ. Picking up another chilled soda at Globe, AZ. 100 more miles to Scottsdale. July 29, 2009, 12:56pm

50 miles from Scottsdale. Temp when moving is 108F but not too bad since it is dry. We can survive. July 29, 2009, 2:03pm

Reached Scottsdale, AZ. New record temp 113F but still better than humid 95F in Florida. July 29, 2009, 3:08pm

Anyone want a quadruple bypass burger from heart attack grill at Chandler AZ ? July 30, 2009, 8:10am

Priti’s iPhone 3G did auto shutdown and won’t come back up. Anyone knows how to hard reset it ? July 31, 2009, 5:47am

Thanks everyone for the iPhone reset tip. I tried all those but the phone decided to ignore everything for a couple hours, then booted up. July 31, 2009, 10:34am

Staying at Caltech/Pasadena with Priti’s ex-roomie from IISc. 415 miles today, 9920 so far. Will cross 10k tomm the 30th day of the trip. July 31, 2009, 4:17pm

Walked a few blocks for a juicy chicken burrito. Walking back is not fun. Burp. July 31, 2009, 8:09pm

Met up with 2 friends of Priti in Marina Del Ray and Los Angeles. Starting for home now on 101. August 1, 2009, 9:30am

Telling the GPS to route home, finally !!! August 1, 2009, 9:50am

101 is nice but has lots of slow sections. Should have taken I-5. Still 270 miles to go. August 1, 2009, 12:41pm

Last fueling done at Soledad, CA. 100 more miles to home. August 1, 2009, 4:08pm

At Gilroy. Waiting for Piyush at a gas station. August 1, 2009, 5:03pm

Reached Sunnyvale at last after a 30-day, 10360 mi xcountry motorcycle trip. Running to a friend’s daughter’s first bday party. August 1, 2009, 6:02pm

Finally, home. Can’t believe the trip is over. August 1, 2009, 6:33pm

America on two wheels – 2009

therider — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:52:00 +0000

This summer we decided to finally embark upon our long cherished motorcycle adventure – a coast-to-coast-to-coast trip in 30 days. We have no fixed route, no hotels booked. We will camp almost all the way. The plan is to take a northern route through Yellowstone and Glacier NP, then head to New York via Chicago. On the east coast I want to show Priti around my graduate school at Stony Brook and visit my favorite lighthouse at Montauk. Then, maybe a short hike up to Maine via Boston. The return is either the quickest central interstates or a longer southern route through Florida, depending on available time.

We are leaving on 3rd July. Piyush, our roommate will come along till Yellowstone and Glacier NP with shiny new hard bags on his red VFR.

Here is a gps-tracker-on-a-map to follow us along the trip: Spot us on the map. It needs a password, please ask me about it.

Update (Feb 2010):
Priti has uploaded the trip photos in her flickr gallery: X-country trip, July 09
My flickr gallery is still a work in progress: X-country USA – July 09

Here is my status archive retrieved from facebook.

Too many projects, too little time » motorcycle

Royal Enfield experience in USA

X-Country USA 2009 status archive

America on two wheels – 2009