Long way 2 indy

[JimC]

Long way 2 Indy
Day 1
September 10th 2008
590 miles

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is exactly 980 miles from my front door. A distance one can ride in one day. Not a easy day, but doable. I would be doing it in 2 days, roughly 1100 miles. That’s not very long by any means, so you might be wondering why I came up with the title "Long way 2 Indy" ? I really has nothing to do with the miles, but more with time.

See its been a trip that is 20 years in the making! 1988 was the first year the big boys in motorcycle racing came to the states. By big boys I mean the Grand Prix racers that spend most of their season racing around the tracks of Europe and other exotic countries. Back then they raced 500cc 2 stroke motorcycles, now they race 800cc 4 stroke bikes.
As a kid growing up I was a huge fan of these guys, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson and my personal favorite Randy Mamola.

They all got their start racing in the states, but graduated to the "GP's" as we use to call them. Before the internet I would wait weeks to find out who won each race. Each month the motorcycle magazines would have short articles on how the local boys were doing. Back then ( 80's ) the Americans dominated the sport.
Now the series is known as "motoGP" and up until this year the only place to watch them in the US was at Laguna Seca race track in Monterey CA. Because of my fear of flying and it would take 4 days to ride out to CA I figured I would never get to see these guys race in person. Laguna Seca also had a problem keeping the race every year. There were several years in the 90's they didn’t come and a 9 year stretch ended in 2005 when they finally came back to the states.

But in mid 2007 the rumor mills were busy with stories of the GP boys coming a little closer to home. Indianapolis Speed Way was trying to host a round of the 2008 MotoGP series. I really didn’t think it would happen, but as it turned out the track was modified and the dates were chosen.

This was doable.

Little did I know what was going on just a few hrs north of me back then. there was this long haired, skinny legged crazy rider from mid state Maine tearing up the back roads on his sport bikes and
following the racing scene just as intently as I was.

We truly were brothers from different mothers. And we didn’t meet until sometime in 2005, but immediately we had a special connection. Racing! It was just a given we would be doing this trip together. A few other riders that we've had a pleasure to get to know wanted to come along as well. A plan was hatched
LETS RIDE!
Tuesday afternoon the Lunnie Bin arrives from Maine.

The next morning we all meet at my office for the official kick off. I wanted to leave from my office so not to upset my children any more then they were. Ive done many long trips over the last 25 years of riding, but its becoming increasingly hard to do these. My 2 youngest girls really get upset when I leave, and to be honest I miss all my girls at home when I go on these rides. Having a big send off at the house with other riders would make it worse for them.

Phat Pat arrives to see us off. More on him later, but for now we got a few hrs of riding the MA pike to pick up another crazy masshole.
We meet up with Dave on the pike just before the NY line.

Our crew for the next few days of riding. Left to right, Jason,Patrick, Hoss, Tim, Dave and OSJ, very diverse crowd on a even more diverse choice of machines.

Not your typical touring bikes for sure. Some think you need the latest greatest road sofa for long highway riding, but we are going to blow that stereotype out the window for sure!
Patrick on his Buell CityX

Jason on his Ninja 636 (with 60,000 miles!)

Hoss on his Triumph 675

Dave on his ST1300

Tim on his V2K Vulcan

And of course me on my Multistrada

As soon as we cross over into NY we get off the highway for a few hrs of nice back roads. A small taste of Ductchess county NY was great, but it quickly led us to the Catskill region. A great place in itself for a destination on your motorcycle. When I planned out these routes I wanted to use as many back roads as possible, but we still needed to get some miles done. So not too many photos were taken on this day.

We crossed the mighty Hudson river using the Rip Van Winkle bridge, then took Rt22a into the Park. Rt214 took us south to Rt28. Then in the little hamlet of Phoenicia we took a right onto Rt30. This is where one of 2 themes for this ride begins...

Speed!

Yup, I dont condone the actions that these young men ( and Dave ) did while on this ride, but I sure had some fun riding with them. Anyone that has taken there bike on rt30 thru the Pepaction Reservoir knows what Im taking about. Its a great road!

Our first encounter with the "law" goes like this. We going thru a long right hand sweeper, speed limit was 30mph. I think we were not close to that, but I digress. It was one of those long corners that you cant see all the way around. At about 3/4 of the way thru, which is the point I start to accelerate hard coming out of these corners I see a sheriff SUV parked on the opposite side facing us. The deputy looked right at me as I sailed thru the corner, with 5 other guys behind me going the same speed. I thought to myself, oh boy what a way to start the trip. But he just watched us roll by and didn't turn on the lights.
Once we reached Colechester the 2nd theme was brought into play
FOOD!

Whats a road trip without road food? At one of the fuel stops we took our first break of the trip and had some sandwiches.


This is also were I realized my side stand bolt had fallen out AGAIN! Another long trip with no side stand but luckily the bolts for the center stand stayed in place. And having Tim or Dave come over to help me get off the bike and up onto the stand sure made dismounting a lot easier

After lunch we crossed over into PA onto rt370. This road brought us down to Nicholson PA. We didn't find the missing Bengal Tiger that escaped from a zoo back in 1986, which has never been found, but we did see this massive structure.

(photo stolen from the web, my photo didnt come out)

From here we made our way to PA 87. Which is 70 miles of just about perfect motorcycle road. Rt 87 has it all, long fast sweepers thru farmland, tight corners thru dense forest and classic northeast villages and towns in-between

[JimC]

If you have the chance to ride in this area of PA don't skip this road. You will not be disappointed. Once we reached Williamsport we needed to make up some time. Some highway riding was called upon, and we quickly made our way west to Greensburg PA. Our resting spot for the night.


No land speed records were broken on this leg, and really nothing out of the ordinary either. Just 180 miles of mostly highways and some secondary roads.

Greensburg PA was picked for one reason. This sandwich..


The Primanti Brothers restaurant is a Pittsburgh staple, luckily they have a few stores in the suburbs of town. I had seen this sandwich featured on the food channel and had placed it on my list of things to try. This was invented for the truckers that didn't have the time to sit down and eat a whole meal, meat, potatoes and bread. So they stuffed it all into one sandwich. I went with the original while the guys went with other known dishes.



We also met up with one of Tim's friends from the Vulcan club he rides with. He wore his Hines Ward shirt just to remind us we were in Steelers country. BOO!


Anyway after a good meal and some chatting we found our way to the Knights Inn for our first nights rest. We hung out for a while chatting outside the rooms about the days adventures, but it didn’t take long for us to all go to bed after 600 miles of riding



Day 2 to come!

[JimC]

Long Way to Indy
Day 2
September 11th 2008
510 miles

The morning came quickly, 5:30 am is when my roommate and me woke up. Good thing because at 5:45 the diesel truck that was parked right outside our room was fired up, waking the rest of the hotel. By 7:30 we were ready to roll.

Tim lead the first leg, I70 took us westbound and into West Virginia. Traffic was heavy but bearable. We saw several bikes loaded up and heading west, heading for Indy Im sure.

Once we crossed into Ohio we got off the express way and headed south on rt7. Our original plan was to meet up with Easy Ed ( here he is on riding somewhere in MA)
[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME~1/HP_Owner/LOCALS~1/Temp/2203434860076979221S600x600Q85.jpg[/IMG]
somewhere along the route. He was supposed to be spending that night in Morgantown WV and then leading us to Indy. But work got in his way and he had to cancel the ride.

So instead we took a right onto Rt78 from Rt7. Well if your from this area Im sure you know about rt78, and maybe there are some better roads in that area, but I will tell you this road is 80 miles of perfect riding.


Tim was leading when we got to this road, and I knew it was gonna be a twisty road so I had planned on passing him at some time. I dont think he was expecting it when I did. We all blew by 2 cars and a 18 wheel truck on the first straight section we came to.

To allow for all six of us to get past these vehicles I had to really yard on it. Low and behold Tim and Dave were right behind me. I remember looking into my mirror and watching Tim on that big fat cruiser bank the bike into the first long right hand sweeper and think I hope he's got enough ground clearance to make this corner! We all made it around at triple digit speeds.

The next 20 miles was mind blowing. There were passing zones in the middle of some of the corners. This was because the road went thru fields after fields with long views around each and every corner. I didn't take any photos for this leg of the ride, it was all about staying in the zone. But every time I looked in my mirror I saw a red ninja and a silver ST right on my tail.

We slowed down when we reached the little villages, and it allowed the whole group to catch back up. Then we came to the second half of this road. The long sweepers were gone replaced with tight corners. Some just after rises that take your breath away, and some corners were right in the middle of those crazy rises. It was insane!

Then we reached Ohio rt 555 or triple nickle as its called.


I think they should change it to 666 because its a road that will kill you and send you to hell. This road was just nuts. My kids would call this a roller coaster road for sure. By this time I was exhausted from Rt78 and just started making a few mistakes on setting up for corners. This road messed with my mind and I needed to slow down and regroup.

Just a few hrs away we reached our next stop for the day and had a moment to talk with everyone about the ride. Seems everyone had the same impression on rt 78, which was AWESOME and the same for Rt555 which was scary.

Our stop was just outside of Columbus Ohio at the...

As we pulled in a group from New England was just leaving, Koolio on his Multi was leading a bunch of Ducks from MA heading to Indy.

Just as we pulled into the covered area Hoss noticed he picked up a stow away somewhere along the road. A nail in his brand new tire. We pulled out the plug kit and the compressor and fixed it fast.

Then we went in and enjoyed the museum for a nice break. Here are some random shots

[surfrat]

Thanks for sharing, looks like you guys had a great trip!

[Bill_Anderson]

I have always enjoyed your ride reports and this is another great one.

[John]

Originally Posted by Bill_Anderson

I have always enjoyed your ride reports and this is another great one.

+1

[JimC]

Day 4,5 & 6
Race Days
After a great night of sleeping in our new hotel we awoke to find a new visitor on Friday, Ike
Hurricane Ike that is!

We heard it might be raining during race weekend but we were not expecting this. Hurricane Ike hit land in Texas then proceeded to head north east and went right thru Indy.
That was not going to dampen our spirts. We quickly got ready and headed to the track

Our hotel was located on the northeastern corner of Indy, the track was located on the southwestern side. Traffic was miserable for the 20 mile ride. Plus the rain really started falling hard, and it didn't help that I took a few wrong turns in the city and turned the ride into a 1 hr ordeal.
When we finally arrived we were greeted by the sounds of 800cc racing motorcycles blasting around the track. It was truly a moving moment for me. Here were the best racers in the world and I was here to watch them!


We found our seats and sat down to watch the last few minutes of practice. Our seats were in the turn 7 Terrace. Which put us pretty close to the track, and it turns out the corner right in front was a good spot for passing.

Then the rain came! Tim hunkered down and started snapping some photo's
Casey Stoner on his Ducati


Local boy, Nicky Hayden on his Honda

One of my all time favorites Loris Caporossi on his Suzuki. Which was one of the slowest bikes on the track but sounded the best!

And the best racer to ever ride a motorcycle, Valentino Rossi

[JimC]

After a very wet practice we walked around the track to check things out. It wasn't very crowed, seeing it was a wet Friday we were not too surprised.




My Ducati umbrella came in handy. Yes that's the same one they all busted my balls about packing on the bike back on the first day.
We made our way over to the other side of the track to check out some other seats. This next photo is from corner J, we had to sneak in.

From this spot you get a great view of turns 10 thru 16 and the sounds of those machines blasting down the front straight is just amazing. When a pack of them were together you couldn't hear to the person next to you

From this spot I called Mrs OSJ to see if she was all packed and ready to go. Of course she was ready. Her plane leaves New England at 7pm and she arrives in Indy at 11pm. My wife is just as big a fan as I am when it comes to motorcycle racing and when she told me she found cheap airfare to Indy we had to make room for her.
After the practice was over we all decided to head back to the hotel. It was a long wet day, but fun none the less. The ride back was soggy and traffic was a mess once again.
Pizza and wings were ordered for dinner, and we just hung out together at the hotel for the night. At 10pm Tim and I hopped on the bikes and rode to the Airport to greet Mrs OSj when her plane arrived.
Oh and I almost forgot, look who was on the top of the leader board for the day.

That's right, a Kawasaki had the fastest time of the day. Tim was hopeful for race day.....

Yeah right!

[JimC]

Saturday morning came awfully fast. It was close to 1am when we got back from the airport with our newest member of the gang.
The next morning we awoke to bright sunshine and blue sky. Mrs OSJ brought the good weather with her, for at least one day that is. The forecast was for hazy hot and humid, just like a New England summer day.
Pat and Dave left together for the track while Michelle, Tim and I went shopping for a few things for race day. We arrived at the track just as Randy Mamola was finishing off his 2 up MotoGP rides. I had forgotten about this and was really bummed I had missed it.
Michelle and I took off together to explore the stores set up at Gasoline Alley. We got our gift shopping out the way and had some time to just relax and take in the event

We worked our way to the Ducati tent but left quickly, it was set up so poorly that there was no room to move. They need to take a few lessons from the big 4 on how to set up booths for big shows like this. And they had parking inside this mess for people that were there to watch the race. Someone had a very nice tri-colour 1098 parked that spectators thought was a show bike and were sitting on it.
I noticed this multi owned by Koolio from New England Ducati Owners group

and this multi from the Multistrada.net group.

out in the Ducati parking lot there were a few nice bikes as well. These MHR bikes really are special.

This is the parking lot were the famous knock over took place, which was on Sunday during the MotoGP race, this next photo is from the internet..

When this trip was planned I wanted to get some t-shirts made up for all of us that would be attending. I stole the art work from Michelle's favorite movie star and 2nd favorite biker....Ewan McGregor...His long way down logo fit nice with our Long way 2 Indy theme.


We are missing 2 others that were supposed to be with us, Easy Ed and Eric couldn't make the trip after last minute changes in their schedules. We had found this nice shady place to relax after watching Rossi take pole.
Some random shots from the day taken by Dave and Tim..





After a great day of watching some racing we headed back to the hotel. Dave wanted to treat us all to dinner before we needed to head back into town for the flat track racing.
We ate at the restaurant next to the hotel again, and had some more fried pickles. Then we all piled into the car rental and drove back to Indy for more racing. We did have some fun looking for a Starbucks so I could get a mocha latte to satisfy my craving for caffeine
It was a blast watching my first mile flat track race, and seeing Chris Carr win was even a bigger treat. But the big surprise was having King Kenny Roberts and Nicky Hayden come out and talk to the crowd before the final was awesome.


KR


Nicky

When we got back to the hotel it was late and we all were exhausted. We all felt like kids again on Christmas eve. But instead of opening presents tomorrow we will be watching the MotoGP LIVE!

[JimC]

Day 6 Monday 9/15

Monday morning we awoke at 4am. I had to get Michelle to the airport to return the car and get her to the gate by 5am. Pat started his long journey back to Mass.
Tim, Dave and the boys had an extra hour to sleep, there plan was to meet me just a little south of Indy for breakfast. I arrived at the meeting spot just a little early right around 6am

Seems Cracker Barrel had become a regular stop for us on this trip. I always thought they offered a great breakfast. We seemed to always get the same table as well

After 3 days in Indy it felt great to be back on the road. However I was a little sad to have dropped Michelle off at the airport. I knew how much she loved roads trips and would have really enjoyed this leg of the trip.
The plan was to head south towards Louisville KY then east to Lexington KY. This was going to be almost 300 miles of highway to start the ride.

Our ending destination for the day would be at the Deals Gap Motorcycle resort, yes the hotel that is right on the dragon. Originally I had planned to do all highway to get there. But one night while doing some reading on roads in Kentucky I came across a few places I would like to see. This would make our day a bit longer but everyone was up for a brake from the slab.
We arrived into the Daniel Boone National Forest around 11am.


Our first stop other than for fuel was here

This cool location which is on the National Register of Historic Places is located on Rt 77. Our first taste of a rural Kentucky road. We hung out here for a while and rode thru the tunnel a few times.





From here we turned out bikes south and followed Rt 11 south thru the Natural Bridge State Park and finally onto Rt 587. You can read about 587 on many motorcycle road websites. Its everything you read about. Small twisty and very fun!

After this fine ride thru the middle of nowhere we arrived at our next stop. Lunch. Usually I don't enjoy fast food restaurants on trips like this, but I couldn't skip this place
I got to thank Tim for these photo's. I forgot to take out my camera at this place.