The Hell Ride

View Larger Map In the morning I was up and packed, rolling east on I-94 out of Billings as the horizon was starting to glow. It was a cool 47F.  At the last minute I made a decision to go the northern route, via North Dakota, as I have seen South Dakota too many times. It's also quicker, and the scenery is a bit more interesting the first couple hundred miles. Stopped to brew a cup of coffee and have a chocolate chip cookie.

The road was smoother too. The valleys and ridges of central Montana gave way to the badlands of North Dakota. Then it got flat and a stiff 64F wind blew at 45 mph gusts out of the north until I got to Minnesota. For 400 miles I rode at an angle. It sucked. This was tougher than the Ironbutt. But I was determined to make it home today.

When I angled south after Moorhead the wind was at my back. The sun set, I put away the sunglasses and had some almonds. There wasn't much traffic in the Twin Cities at 8pm, and for some reason there was a nice lack of bugs the last 200 miles too.

22:06 I rolled into the garage, a 900'ish mile day.

5200.6 miles spread over eight days of riding - probably the most ambitious ride I've undertaken so far. The FJR handled it with aplomb, the suspension compliant on the interstates and with two clicks more rebound, lively on the backroads. When cruising at 85mph at 4500rpm in 5th gear, a quick twist lunges the bike forward to 100 mph to get out of blind spots or faster when passing. Lots of luggage capacity, and averaged about 42 mpg. The beaded seat is a god-send for my derrier, the wind-shield protection from cold and what little rain I had. Now I've got a leaky fork seal to deal with, and I am still debating whether to fix 2nd gear.




We'll see ....