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Need honest opinions on weather and travel.

buckshot85

buckshot85

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Aug 18, 2013
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Here's the deal. My wife and I planned a trip to Kansas City to tour the HD factory on this coming Monday the 23rd. We have had this planned for a few months. This is the 2 hour steel toe tour at $35 a pop. We have taken several day trips up 450 miles, but this was going to be our first long trip. As mother nature would have it, the weather does not look good. KC report is severe t-storms with high winds and possible hail on Monday.

We will leave this Saturday morning and ride til Des Moines and stay the night. Get up Sunday morning and ride to her sisters in KC to spend the night. Then be at the factory at 8:30am on Monday for the 9:00am tour. Afterwards, head to Worth for a t-shirt and start heading home. We have off of work Tuesday and Wednesday yet. Iowa weather says t-storms likely the whole time.
My gut says to take the car and my heart says to ride the bike. This blows the high hard one. My wife wants to ride as I do, but, what is the smart thing? What would you honestly do? I think it's about 600-650 miles one way. Thanks Guys.
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Go with your gut... take the cage unless you are FULLY prepared for any and all weather. Just remember that weather patterns do change.

Sent from my SAMSUNG GALAXY S4 using Tapatalk 2
 
I Agree with Spazz just be prepared maybe leave a bit early looks like Sun & Mon are the worse with 40% right now it's like that every day in Florida...
 
Take the cage if something happened and someone got hurt you wouldn't forgive yourself. If you were getting rid of the bike I could understand forcing the ride but I don't think that is the case. Just my opinion tho. If you were by yourself maybe a different story but not with your chick.
 
Thanks guys. Gotta watchful eye on the internet weather sights. Will have to call my sister-in-law after we drop the dog off at the kennel Saturday morning before we leave and have her check one last time on the forecast and decide then.
 
Hey Buckshot.... i am in Des Moines & there is a lot of flooding going on in the entire state! My wife and i have a trip planned to head over to the Dubuque area Wed-Sat and we are changing our plans. If you take the Scoot just be very very careful. Here in Des Moines yesterday(Thursday) we had 2" of rain just in a 2 hour span. Some other areas north west of us got almost 5" in the early part of the day and got more with afternoon storms! Also the Omaha/Council Bluffs area has some flooding going on too! I heard they closed I-29 up by Sioux City to use as a levee!
Just be careful if you take the scooter!
Scott....
 
We decided to make a run for it. Gonna head out in the morning after dropping off the dog. Have rain gear, will travel. If it stops raining long enough for us to get a pic or 2 I'll post them after we get back. Thanks all.
 
Hey guys. Well, we took the scooter and made it back alive. As luck would have it, we had 3 - 3 minute showers south of Des Moines on Sunday morning and that was it. It poured today literally 5 minutes after we got home and I drove in the garage. Total mileage was 1,443 miles. All the storms skirted us the whole way down and back. Rain gear never came out of the bag. My wife said she was praying, but I think it was just her, my good luck charm.

I gotta sore ass, so does she. We stopped by our dealership to check on a different seat and thank the guys for the pre-trip help.

Overall a great trip. Bike ran well. We drove hard and no issues. Iowa DOT needs to learn how to butt the road slab to a bridge slab. We hit VERY HARD, ALOT on the interstate at every bridge, front and rear. Missouri and Wisconsin were great.

Had a semi blow rear inner dual tire in front of us yesterday on 80 east of Des Moines. We were able to get over in to the left lane and escape the debris, but the 2 cars behind us caught some.

Had a great meal at the 801 Chophouse in Des Moines Saturday evening. Without question the best steak and PEI mussels I ever had.

The factory tour was also great. I sat on a 500 Street. Very little, but feels pretty good. Saw the Dyna, Sportster and V-rod/Street lines. The V-rod and Street are built on the same line, but have zero common parts. Very clean facility. The tour guide made it a point to keep saying that there is something very exciting coming out of that factory soon and to keep an eye out for it.?????? Watched a wheel get laced. There parts storage is tremendous , but only holds enough for no more than 3 days worth of production. The factory really isn't as big as you would think. Saw the V-rod and Street engines getting built. With the tour fee of $35 we received a blaze orange riding vest with the HD bar and shield on the back, 2 different pins, $5 off a purchase in the gift shop and a group photo in the plant.

Stayed by a friends house last night in Dubuque. I will set this up for you. The gravel road leading to his driveway is about a mile long. His driveway is 1.3 miles of two-track going down into a creek bottom. I called him from Cedar Rapids to see how his lane was. He said great, come on over. Ah, No. We got down the gravel road so, so. His lane had ****ting nickels. It was like grease. Now, I hate gravel and have not driven on much of it. I used to have dirt bikes about 20 years ago. It was a handful for me to keep this tank going straight. This morning we headed out to breakfast. I had my wife ride with him in the truck along with our luggage and her jacket and helmet. This way I could hopefully handle it better. I figured I had one chance to get up this steep part that was still greasy. All turned out good and breakfast hit the spot.

Wayside in Iowa, just about to enter Missouri.
GodNbwq.jpg


At the HD factory
QTz0bTB.jpg

dVy95w1.jpg



Things learned:
I still hate big cities.
Don't believe my buddies road reports. (He doesn't ride)
Watch the semi tires.
Need a new seat.
Iowa bridges suck.
Bring my good luck charm. (My wife)
Baggers are not dirt bikes.
Thanks to all the opinions and well wishes. It was a long trip and we are glad we did it.
 
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Sounds like you had a wonderful time thanks for the update and pictures. Something I always forget to do is stop for pictures to busy riding I guess. Have a gravel driveway also a little over 1/8 mile and last month I put more gravel on it. Riding the bike in and out never crossed my mind until it I was almost done. Not the smartest thing I have ever done for the bike but it needed it for the long run. Couple years it should be good and packed in and not 3 to 4 inches deep anymore.

Life goes on even if you don't think everything out first lol
 
I'm glad you had a good safe trip.

I wanted to take the steel tow tour of the engine plant in Milwaukee when I was at the HD museum a month ago but it was not open.


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So glad you had a good trip makes that sore ass worth it lol! Thanks for sharing the pics very nice!
 
Great report and interesting to hear. Glad that you had a good time and stayed safe. I am planning a 2600 mile trip in September of 2015 from Georgia up to Niagra Falls, Poconos, York Harley Davidson Factory, and Hershey PA. A 13 day trip, I have never done a long trip up to now so it should be interesting. Thanks again for sharing you experience.
 
Sounds like you two had a lot of fun on your trip! Thanks for sharing!
 
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