While it's still a bit cold for Motorcycle riding I did receive tickets to Alinea and figured this would be the best place to post a quick trip report.
We had a 5:30 seating and you have to arrive on time or you get bumped with no refunds so we left extra early and even though we had problems finding the restaurant (hint there is no signage, just a black exterior) we ended up being about an hour early. We grabbed street parking and went to the Black Duck across the street and grabbed a few drinks and waited. About 5:00 we headed over and dropped our keys off for the valet and headed in.
The restaurant had a cool atmosphere and architecture but I'll leave it
as a surprise. The staff greeted us by name and had been briefed on all
our info which was a slightly eccentric way of doing things but it
established a bit of mystery.
Back in July a friend invited me along to her family compound up on Kekegama Lake in Sarona, WI. Even though it was rainy as hell I decided to take the sportster and hope for the best.
The trip up was a downpour until I hit Janesville then the sun broke through the clouds and I dried out a bit. After a decent afternoon of riding, the sun started to go down and the rain came back along with a decent amount of fog to make the trip from Eau Claire a pain.
I have been getting e-mails from J&P hyping their rally and have really wanted to check out the National Motorcycle Museum's new building so I decided I would make a run out there. The original plan was to head out as far as Poopie's in Savanna on Friday the 28th and have a few drinks and camp but when Friday came the weather was constant rain so I decided to wait it out. I was also hoping to get new tires installed as my rear was pretty
bald with over 5000 miles on it but the shop wasn't able to get me in
til the next week. Saturday morning was still a rainy mess and I almost called the trip off. But the rain started to clear by Saturday afternoon so I got my shit together and headed out to the moonlight fleamarket in Belvidere. Right as dusk was starting to fall I rolled into Marengo on Rt. 173 and took my foot off my highway pegs so I could reach the controls and I heard a loud ping noise and watched my left peg assembly bounce away.
Luckily it was bright enough I could go back and find it but the bracket that allows it to be indexed was a goner. The grade 8 bolt holding it to the motor mount snapped. Now running somewhat later I stopped in Marengo to grab cash and throw on my clear glasses.
Once I got to the fleamarket I plunked down my $4 only to find the midway pretty empty of sellers due to the earlier rain.
The neatest item i found was this 50's PBR delivery jacket. Unfortunately, it was a few sizes too big and the seller seemed to think it was worth $225 so I wasn't buying.
I had an issue with a broken highway peg. After I replaced the peg I took the bike out for a spin and all was well.
Two days later I took a cruise up to Fontana, WI from Crystal Lake to check of the lake at night. On the way the bike sounded like it was sputtering a bit and the horn sounded really funny. I assumed the horn or the switch was going bad. After i took a walk I hopped back on and the bike barely started, I assumed the battery must have been going out and made a note to check it. I moved the bike then parked again to chuck my extra keys in a saddle bag. Big mistake! The bike wouldn't turn over.
I tried push starting it but I was having trouble getting enough speed with all my gear. After ditching my helmet and jacket I was able to get started but realized my attempts at starting had used up what little juice I had left. Determined to get home or closer to home while I had her running I took off. I was still thinking it was a bad battery but rev'ing the bike just made the gauges go dim and the needles sputter to zero. Trying to use the turn signals was caused the gauges to drop out and the headlights to dim. I realized I had no charging system. :-(
My old roommate plays in a great band called the Empty Pockets. They generally play bigger events and private parties but as luck would have it they were booked to play in Milwaukee at Discovery Pier for a free concert by the lake. I took it as a sign I should attend and headed up.
Parking was a bit of a mess and the museum garage was trying to charge me $8 to park my bike, so as you can see I squeezed into a quasi-legal space in front of a suburban.
The band was setup right on the end of the pier which was really neat because there was some sailboat regatta going on in the background adding to the scenery.
On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.
Kris Kristofferson knew how to write a song.
I awoke slightly hungover in Harvard after the exciting Drinkstravaganza we call Milk Days and rather than stumble about town and retread Kris's song I decided to go exploring.
First stop was to head up to Lake Geneva and try out my gopro chest mount on Snake Road. For those of you who have missed it, it's one of the best motorcycle roads within an hour of Chicago or Milwaukee. Left and right sweepers, elevation changes it's like they took orders. Next time you are in the area head out of lake Geneva to the west and pick either entrance to Snake road, it slithers around the hills and million dollar estates and loops back to 50.
Here's the video I got.
After walking around downtown Lake Geneva I decided to visit WOCRR in Paddock Lake so I shot over east on 50. After a short pitstop I decided to head up to the Kenosha area and put the Gastro in MotoGastro.
First stop was the Pleasant Prairie Mall to get some expired goldfish. Pepperidge Farms has an outlet store for product that is nearing expiration at super steep discounts. Unfortunately I unleashed the inner fatty beast and bought way too much stuff. I ended up with a cart full of weird goldfish flavors and colors, baked snack crackers and Milano cookies.
A few weeks back I decided to head into Chicago for the Mods Vs. Rockers Motorcycle and Scooter show.
Being as it was a Saturday I figured traffic would be decent and I was wrong. I got stuck a few times in deadlocked traffic and the Sportster was running very hot. I was tempted to lanesplit but I never have the balls and always end up roasting in traffic wishing I was in California. Luckily I only had about 5 miles of 90 when traffic got bad so I was only delayed about 20 minutes and once I got on the surface streets the bike would cool down right? Wrong again, once I got off I had about 5 more miles on the surface street which was totally backed up and I was really wondering if hell could be much hotter. After a bit a big BMW tourer flew by splitting in the Bicycle lane. The bike was running rough and starting to ping so I decided to follow suit. After I got behind the beamer I made great time and I was thankful I gathered the Cahones or I'd Still be waiting.
Once I got close to the show I fell in behind a hottie in a distressed leather jacket and a retro bell half helmet riding a beautiful triumph and suddenly the heat became the last thought on my mind. We both pulled up and snagged 2 questionable spaces right on the lip of the drive heading into the show. I started to gear down when the security guard came up and asked if I had just parked my bike. I thought I was going to get yelled at and told to move but he said it was the same price to register the bike in the show or pay for admission and pointed to the 50 person line for spectators. I walked up to the show entry and plunked down my $10. Sadly Triumph Girl also entered the show and I lost track of her due to the bikes being sectioned by brand. I headed to the very back corner where they stuck the Harleys and my get was off like a prom dress.
I present the show bike with the least votes, not pictured is the fat-assed spectator with the shortest walk. I walked around aimlessly snapping pictures of bikes that caught my eye. Sadly the british bikes and scooters were mostly sparkly clean fresh off the showroom deals. The neatest bikes were the custom Harleys and Metrics that chose to attend.
