172 mile ride to get coffee

Sounds fun, eh? Believe it or not, this kind of thing is pretty commonplace among my Region 4 Buddies from STn.

The meeting place was Cedarburg, WI, 10 AM. It was 33°F when I left home, so I had to bundle up pretty seriously. I decided to take the back roads there, thinking that not only would it be more scenice, but perhaps less cold because I'd be going 25-65 mph instead of 60-80 mph.

I was wearing: long johns, a T-shirt, a thick fleece sweatshirt, a ski jacket, (it has a full collar and my motorcycle jacket doesn't) ski gloves, riding pants with liner, Gore-Tex Oxtar Matrix boots, and SmartWool socks. It was almost exactly 80 miles there. By the time I got there, it had warmed up to about 46°.

I stopped in the meeting place, Cedarburg Coffee Roastery, but it was packed, and they didn't have any food aside from bagels & pastries. So I went next door and got a sandwich and a tea.
Here's the roastery:


A half hour later, my buds started showing up, right as I was finishing breakfast.

We hung around for about 2 hours before I got bored of not riding and headed for home. Also, the wife wanted some quality time together, so I thought this was a good way to oblige her. Going home, I took the interstate, and was pleased to note that BurgerTime had no objections to maintaining 80 mph for about 70 miles straight. Heading home, I managed 61.6 mpg, in the 60° temperatures.

Here is the thread about this trip. On Page 3 of that thread, I posted some photos of my STn buddies.

On the way home, I realized that I needed a half inch torque wrench to torque the rear axle nut onto the FJR when I put the rear wheel back on. So I stopped in Home Depot, and they relieved me of $167. I did get a few other things; the torque wrench was only $70. It came in a blow-molded case. One surprise was that it also ratchets! The other surprise was how long it is; the case is 28" long, the wrench itself is only a couple inches shorter. It is one of the preset-type torque wrenches. To use it, one sets the torque, in either foot-pounds or Newton-meters, send the direction of the ratchet, and tighten until it clicks. Very nice.





Aside from the torque wrench, I got a Master combination key box, for when Kate or I locks ourself out of the condo or garage. I'll screw this to some piece of wood trim outside. Alos, I picked up I got a bunch of the high efficiency fluorescent bulbs that are a direct replacement for the incandescent bulbs that are so inefficient. They only draw 13 W, yet the put out the same amount of light as the 60 W bulbs they replace. Home Depot finally is carrying some that don't have mercury in them, so I bought two six packs of them. We replaced the vanity bulbs in our bathroom with these, and Kate says these are way too bright for 5 AM. They have some 9 W ones that supposedly put out the same amount of light as a 40 W incandescent bulb, but that's going to have to wait a while. I don't dare venture into the Depot again soon.

I also got a sweet pair of Fiskars utility shears that are titanium-nitride coated. They advertise that they can cut small wires and such. They should come in handy around the house for cutting open those god-forsaken plastic clamshell packages.




I just love this patch. I want to join the police too!


Not a bad turnout, at the coffee meet; I'd guess 20-25 bikes.