Showing 0 to 24 of 29 Results

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11735)

2014 New Mexico Trip : Being Open on the Road : Joining Finding Cannonball's Trail Centennial Ride

There are many ways to travel. Most people like to book reservations and know exactly where they are going to end up when. For me that feels too much like day to day life. I learned a long time ago when I was in a very different place, that being flexible and open on the road can unlock doors that from the start you would not have imagined possible. I've tried to share this view, but in practice it's harder than in theory. I had parted company with John and Lucy and headed out from Cano ...Read More

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11736)

2014 New Mexico Trip : Guest Post : On the Subject of Passengering

This is a guest post by my traveling companion, John St John, that he originallly posted to Facebook and that I am sharing here with permission. Yesterday, Yermo gave Lucy a day-long course in "passengering". His methodical approach, taking nothing for granted, was also instructional to me. As a rider who grew up on a motorcycle, as both pilot and passenger from the age of 8 or 9, there is much that I take for granted. Such as: when the bike leans, the passenger leans with it. I could neve ...Read More

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11738)

2014 New Mexico Trip: The Unexpected

As I've mentioned so many times in the past, I'm ill. It's one of the reasons that my bike has so little mileage on it despite me having owned it for so long. There were a number of years where it simply hurt too much to ride. At some point, I discovered that I could manage my condition by modifying my diet. Everything(tm) changed after that. In this modern prepackaged world, it's a fairly difficult diet to follow but I manage and have been doing much better for the last many years. However, ...Read More

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11739)

2014 New Mexico Trip: Dust Storms in Texas and Route 191 from Clifton to Eager, AZ

I woke unusually early, 6:30 AM which might as well be no-man's time, and spent the extra hours writing while listening to yet another wind storm making a ruckus outside. Even after a few hours, the ruckus didn't die down. Venturing out into the light, I noticed the sky was an unusual orange brown color. "Smog?" I wondered but thought that I was too far from any major cities for that to be the case. Sand and silt could be seen blowing along the pavement in the 20mph or so winds. Looking at my b ...Read More

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11740)

2014 New Mexico Trip : Carlsbad Caverns

Just start. Don't worry where it ends up, even if you risk it ending up someplace that you're not going to like, like Texas. What is true for traveling by motorcycle is also true of writing. When I travel with others, regadless of who it is, I never seem to take the time to gather my thoughts and compose them into words. It somehow seems rude to take so many hours away from close friends that mean the world to you when you see them so rarely. There have been many moments over the last couple ...Read More

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11741)

2014 New Mexico Trip : A First Ever Off on Them Thar Curvey Roads

Some too many days ago in a state far far away called Virginia ... "Do you like them thar curvey roads?" the man behind the counter asked in a thick southern accent. "Why yes, Sir. We certainly do." I replied wondering what kind of local roads we were about to discover. "If you take a right down in Tazewell onto Route 16 it goes over three mountains and is real curvey and pretty. I think they call it that thar 'Back of the Dragon'." We would have ridden right past it had he not mentione ...Read More

Yermo
9 years ago
Blog Article (11742)

New Mexico - Days 1 & 2 - Shirking all Responsibilities

I am remiss. Too tired to write, I've opted to do something insufficient rather than do nothing at all. The last two days of slow twisty Virginia and West Virginia roads have simply been fantastic. Unfortunately, my GPS has failed so I have no tracks to share. I joked with my traveling companion, John St John who rode down from New Hampshire to join me on the trip across, that we should just spend the new few weeks exploring West Virginia. The roads here are that good. Roads of note: Smoke Ho ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11751)

2013 Meandering Trip Back : An Abrupt End

Many years ago, I had a recurring dream. I stood alone next to my motorcycle on a desert slope that descended into a great flat valley with tufts of green grass dotting a brown landscape bounded by mountains on either side. The road, shimmering in the distance from the heat, descended to disappear in the expanding flatness. It was silent except for the sound of the ever present wind. There was a profound sense of ending, of loss, as if this scene would be my last moment. The vision from my d ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11752)

2013 Meandering Back Trip: Bear Tooth Pass and the Australian

What you are able to lift today is largely due to what you have purposely lifted repeatedly before. How far/fast/well you can ride is largely dependent upon how much you have ridden before. Try to go fast on your first ride out and you are almost guaranteed to crash in the first corner. Lacking the relevant experience, you are likely to take actions based on the wrong sources, fear instead of discpline, blind reaction instead of planning. You enter the corner and everything /feels/ wrong. Yo ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11753)

2013 Gap To Seattle Trip : Day 18 : Pavements Ends

"Interesting interpretation for the word 'Highway' you have around here." I said to the diner waitress, a not-unattractive woman about my age who had an unfortunate and uncany resemblance to the main actor from the TV series House."Yep. Around here 'Highway' can mean just about anything including something without pavement." she replied. "And with thousand foot dropoffs." I continued. "Yep." was all she needed to say. A day earlier this would have been key intel. It was supposed to have been ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11754)

2013 Gap To Seattle Trip : Day 17 : Glacier

I was too tired to write last night so, completely out of character, passed out well before 11. At least I managed to sleep solidly for the first time in many days. I had vivid dreams involving mishaps involving a group of black bears. Foreshadowing? Montana is not what I expected. It doesn't seem to be an angry state the way Wyoming and Nevada seem to be. All the people I've encountered here are friendly, kind and surprisingly polite with open faces. It seems like everytime I have my hands f ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11755)

2013 Gap to Seattle Trip : Day 16? : Moments

Yun left early this morning for the airport. I was dead to the world. I woke up around 8:30, the latest I have awoken so far on this trip. The morning was slow. With Yun gone this trip is over and a new one begins. I was not sure where to go or what to do. I considered just going home. I considered staying at the Best Western where Megan and the rest of the staff had taken such good care of us. I did order Megan a bouquet of flowers as a thank you. Does anyone do that any more? "She'll proba ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11756)

Road Report : Day 13 and 14 : Broken Down in Spokane, Wa

We were riding along minding our own business heading towards route 12 through Idaho and on to points East, when suddenly over the intercom I hear, "Something's wrong with my bike. It won't engage. Somethings wrong with the clutch." We stopped on the side of the road and did some investigation hoping that maybe it was something that could be easily addressed. It wouldn't be the first time. Unfortunately, when the clutch is pulled in there is an ugly grinding sound. Letting the clutch lever out ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11757)

Road Report : 2013 Gap to Seattle Trip : Days on End : Being Thwarted

Each time I sit down to write at the end of the day, fatigue takes over. With all the best of intentions, I planned to catch up last night but passed out from fatigue. Too many hours sitting in Seattle rush hour traffic tooks it's toll. Unlike my travelling companion, getting up at 6 to write something doesn't work for meand by the time I'm awake enough, it's time to hit the road as is the case right now. We're in Seattle about to visit "Origin", the Original Starbucks from which all that is ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11758)

Road Report: 2013 Gap to Seattle Trip : Days 8 and 9 : Salt Ponds and Incredible Desert Roads.

"Mount Evans road was seriously scary. It felt like you were riding right into the clouds and there were no guardrails on those switchbacks! You could fall straight down for thousands of feet!" Yun said. "If I had been by myself, I would never have gone up. I would have seen how crazy this is and I would have just turned around. But to become more than you are, you have to let go everything you think you are. So I just did it and I was not afraid. So is this the real me? The me without fear? ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11759)

Road Report : 2013 Gap to Seattle Trip : Days 7 & 8 : Twin Peaks

It's 11PM central time as I sit in a Day's Inn in Wendover, Utah after a hard days ride through a heat that I do not have words to describe. "Blast Furnace in the face." is the best, albeit sorely lacking, analogy I could come up with. The thermometer on my Oil Burner hovered between 100 and 110. Needless to say, I don't do well in the heat, but I managed to get through it without too much complaint. Some many weeks ago, the original plan was to ride to Deals Gap for a week . Yun decided that ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11760)

Road Report: 2013 Gap To Seattle Trip : Days 5 and 6 - Getting out of Dodge

By: Yermo Two days ago we left the Ozarks to journey out into the god forsaken flat also known as Kansas. "Ugh", I thought as Yun objected to a plan to take secondary roads across. "But the Interstate is such boring flatness." I tried to explain. "It's going to suck." I commented as I could just imagine how much complaining, I mean 'communicating', I was going to hear in the headset while going across. I had really hoped we could do a more interesting way across. There has to be more to Ka ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11761)

Road Report : Gap to Seattle Trip : Day 3 : Failure is an Option

Keeping to my word, I got up promptly at 6AM without complaint and managed to start moving with a purpose. As expected, there wasn't anything at the complimentary "breakfast" that I could eat but luckily for me Audrey had made me some of my emergency "muffin rations" which served me well enough. (These are muffins made out of nuts, honey, raisins and berries. They are very good albeit a bit messy to eat.) Yun and Danny were already there when I arrived. Danny likes to talk and his stories are ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11762)

Road Report : Gap to Seattle Trip : Day 2 : The Liability of Goals

By Yermo."Maybe you should try to sleep in a bit tomorrow. Getting up at 6AM is too much all at once cold turkey like you're doing." Yun said trying to emulate some compassion for his road weary companion who against all odds had managed to arise unprodded promptly at 6AM after having gotten up at 5AM the previous day. He was not looking all that good."No, I'm really going to try to get up at 6AM every day on this trip and do it Yun style, full frontal assault, no complaining." I replied statin ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11763)

Road Report : Gap to Seattle, Day 1 : Angry Clouds and DIsappointment

So Yun said he wanted to go cross country after our Gap trip and he asked me to join him. Thus I find myself in North Carolina at the present moment. I didn't sleep last night. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I slept for maybe two and a half hours. At the present moment, many hours later, I'm on the verge of collapse. Today, Yun and I embarked on our mad rush 21 day trip across the US. Day one was dominated by fantastically cool air and ominous troubled clouds. We did more miles than ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11764)

Road Report: A Study in Trust: Two-Up n the BlueRidge Parkway and Deals Gap

By Yermo: Better late and imperfect, than never ... finally I've taken some time to write .... "I'd like to go and see these places you've talked so much about." she said. So with that one statement a plan was set in motion. Audrey and I would ride two up on the Beloved Blue Oil Burner down the Blue Ridge Parkway and through Deal's Gap. Yun had initially planned to join us on his R1100S but a scheduling snafu prevented that from happening. Since I had promised to ride with him this summer, I ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11768)

Road Report - Deals Gap 2013 - Fear, Communication and Feel.

By Yermo. And so it came to pass that we embarked on another trip to ride that famous road in the Smokey Mountains as we have now done as a group four times and I have done at least 12 times. In many ways. it was a trip similar to the previous ones but there were also stark contrasts. There was the pre-trip preparation. Each time it's a mad dash to get everything done. I left plenty of time but I began to feel rather poorly and tasks that should have taken part of a day took days on end. O ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11769)

Road Report Day 1: A Trial By Fire on Peters Mill Run Trail

Rob posted into the forum that he wanted to do a weekend off-road riding and camping trip at the Peters Mill Run and Taskers Gap trail system in the George Washington National Forest. We've been street riding through that area a number of times and it's simply beautiful so I was imagining a peaceful and entertaining weekend of riding along wooded hilly trails maybe involving some mud since it had been raining so much. Peters Mill Run Trail near Edinburgh,Va. It's 6 miles between points 1 ...Read More

Yermo
10 years ago
Blog Article (11770)

The 2013 Trans Am Trail Trip and the Mighty DR

Written by Yermo. For the last many months, I've been spending the majority of my time developing software for the site. It's been an all-encompassing effort, which is why I haven't been writing. I have this naive wish to turn Miles By Motorcycle into something cool that we can all use to plan trips, organize rides and tell the inevitable tall tales that come up along the way. It's turned out to be so much more work than I ever imagined. It's almost May and I've been at this since last July. ...Read More