Coop's Corner: April 2018

Monday, April 30, 2018

Old '61

Originally a Military Road from St. Paul to LaCrosse starting around the 1850's the highway from St. Paul south that followed the Mississippi River and later was MN Star Route 3 until the 1920's. From what I can tell, this section was paved in 1926.

Hard to imagine today's traffic barreling down these narrow lanes at 65 MPH.

This section south of Red Wing.....

As a Federal Highway, 61 ran from the Canadian border in Minnesota to New Orleans.

A busy week with car repairs, cars replaced, a deer incident (we're now up to 8 total) but this weekend I managed some miles again on both the TW200 and the KLR. The bike being sold was on blocks all week, missing its front wheel and had the rest of them blocked in well enough that it was just too much trouble to get anything else out. A new tire on rim, wheel on bike and the Sold bike out for a test run. Soon there will be time on some of the other machines.

Next weekend, we gather for the Slimey Crud Run. It will be the next blog Post.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Only Today

Only today did I finally get out for a ride, my first of the season if you don't count my short foray out on the frozen Mississippi River a couple of long months ago.

Lots has been going on...

Last weekend, 8" of blowing snow here in Frontenac, 22" a short 50 miles north of us
Plowing and shoveling
Plowing and shoveling
Plowing and shoveling
Closed on mom's house sale early week
Spent 3 days...to, in and from Columbus, Nebraska for my employer
Ducati officially sold via ADV though we're still working out the details of transport to the PNW
Attended author John Weiss's Back Roads presentation of his book at the Lake City Library
Received the new Contour +2 camera mount for my modular helmet....and attached it
Dropped Peg off at MSP for her trip to Canada
Yesterday morning, coffee at Diamond's
Yesterday morning, Moto Guzzi Breakfast
Attempted to drop off my stash of brass and copper at Kirschbaum's but too late
Dropped off the Ducati front wheel with Marty to get a new tire mounted
Attended author Lorry Wendland's presentation of her book(s), 19th Century Frontenac

Today, prepping for our upcoming Slimey Crud Run weekend and finally.....

Rode my motorcycle.

But first, Monday afternoon near Emerson, Nebraska.....remnants from the same storm that got us in MN.

I stopped in at the Columbus Curry Bros. Motorsports and the news was in keeping with what sadly has been the recent ongoing theme, "....we just aren't selling bikes......". The showroom was stuffed with 4 wheelers. I bought anti-freeze, to celebrate Spring. :)

In Lake City some local things were learned and I always appreciate time spent with someone that enjoys being off the main highway.

Dropped off the Ducati's front wheel so that new owner Josh can actually use the bike (or ride it back to Washington?). Will be going back there next weekend and hopefully a freshly mounted front wheel won't be the only thing picked up.

At the Moto Guzzi breakfast, only 1 rider out of 10 attendees. Bob's Eldorado a spotless and lovely example.

Saturday afternoon, a presentation by Lorry Wendland of her new books in our Town Hall, the oldest, continuously used government 'center' in the state. A SRO crowd, my mom and her siblings were there as were 3 of our cousins that grew up on the Century Farm where we now live. The cousins were instrumental in contributing facts, photos and stories that were included in the books.

Of course I bought both and can't wait to dig into them, though it won't be until after riding season. Literally 1200 combined pages of photos, information on families, buildings, dwellings, etc. I really enjoyed Lorry's presentation and as you can imagine, some of the "oral histories" that we've all come to know and mostly love weren't always the complete or even part of the real story. Lorry and her collaborators did their best to dig deep and dig deep they did.

It seemed to work helmeted in the house so I have every reason to believe that it will be fine out in the wind.

As you can see, we continue to be plagued by wildlife. Taken this morning from a single spot where 8 deer and 32 turkeys were able to be seen.....and that without even really trying; the ratio of toms to hens quite favorable.

The soybean harvest continues.....

This morning, these fliers were incredibly noisy....but on the video, all you can hear are the robins and birds much closer to Terra firma. I shot 10 videos of equivalent length, tried to Post the best one. In other words, these guys were doing these loops for 15 minutes. Later, there was another group exactly overhead doing the same thing.

Absolutely NO speeding, I watch ever so closely. 4000 RPM, exactly 54 GPS MPH.

Local motocross park......

Home, then on the TW200.

Not sure what it does at GPS 54, but it's a lot more than 4000 RPM and its done that a lot.

125.1 Official miles for my first outing; the West loop on the KLR, the East loop on the TW200.

It's Been Good.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Not Taking It For Granted

Eric and I use these words between ourselves all the time and they're meant for the global, biggest picture. Enjoy life, live it .... in 4 words.

I'm using this Post's Subject words here in a more focused way and that is towards appreciating our access to the local world that we ride, explore and enjoy our motorcycles in. That local world in general includes what's often called the Upper Midwest.

Far from being a recent discovery, I mention it here because the concept has bubbled to the top lately after spending (far too much?) time on the RE Himalaya forums listening to comments both from current UK/AUS owners and those potential owners on our continent. As of this writing, the bike hasn't been released in the USA yet. None of us are owners yet though some are closer to be than others.

" ..... 24 hp???......."

" 70-75mph top speed??......"

"Off road handling....."

There are many traits and features important to we riders; no bike satisfies all though we all appear to hope that one day, someone will ..... All well and good. The ideas and discussion make for lots of fodder online, coffee shops and meeting places.

We're lucky to have the choices in machines that we have, both new and old. We've an avocation that thrives on modifications, personalizing, enhancing both cosmetically and functionally. We make them fit better, run longer, go faster, go slower, on and on. Seldom satisfied with "off the showroom floor", there are an endless variety of ways to make them ours.

My personal expectations for the anticipated joy and I use that word with great confidence, that will result from my rides is based on experience and the knowledge of how and where I go. When I first began my blog, I soon discovered and came to appreciate the fact that my riding environment is not a match for everyone else that rides.

Blog friends on the coasts, from urban areas, the real mountains, our Plains, other countries are all quite varied (Tony, your rides on Oahu especially so :). Speed limits, speeds actually used, traffic volumes, distances between, elevation, population density, etc. all have an impact. Even here close to home, my coffee time with friends in Minneapolis gives me an appreciation for the differences in what constitutes a quick "30 minute" ride. My 30 minutes in the saddle result in a far different trip than someone that mounts there machine in a downtown condo garage.

So, all of this about a machine "that fits" environment, mood, time spent and so on.

Here you're looking at 15,000 square miles that includes a good portion of nearby Wisconsin. We live right on the MN/WI border and can actually see more of WI from our front door than we can of MN. The ratio of paved:gravel in the southern half is 90:10 and as you get to the top of the image and then off the map completely on up to Lake Superior the ratio works to 10:90.

Settled by loggers and then farmers, certainly in the majority of this view, homesteads were built on 80 and 160 acre chunks; access roads were needed for all of those agricultural products for shipping to market. In general, the entire SW corner of the above map is considered the Driftless Region, an area that was missed by the leveling of glaciers and as a result, the roads follow the contours of ridge and valley.

It's a lot of roads and for us, a lot of riding. Every year, a different mix but this is what happened in 2017.

Just over 13,000 miles last season, 1500 of which were on the KLR in Wyoming so that means 11,500 were ridden in this region here......... A decent amount of Iowa and Minnesota miles as well, some of them down there in the corner though not all on the map.

If you haven't seen this, check out this Post from a few summers ago. There was a followup done here.

A long weekend over to Road America for the AHRMA races and then some camping on Lake Michigan, using my Little Mule, the TW200.

Also, a Post highlighting a couple of my "Bayfield at Halloween" rides up to the south shore of Lake Superior. One year I did it on the TW200.

So there you have it; where and how I spend my very best riding time; what I do and enjoy as well. For all of the people that the new 2018 Royal Enfield is not a good fit for, it was just about built for me in most every way. As such, it will get used a lot.

Each riding season, I attempt to use a different machine for not only the various rallies that I attend, but for the weekend riding I do. As I've quipped more than once to my friends, the other machines in the garage are already feeling jealous...and neglected.

Good riding, we are lucky to have an abundance of it.

Eric, I'm not taking it for granted.

ADDED Saturday 4/7/2018

This zoomed in region represents most of the Driftless Region....LaCrosse in the upper left corner, Madison just off the lower right. 80 miles wide, 45 miles 'high' ~3600 sq. mi. You can see how many I missed but rest assured I got most of the best ones. :)

Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)