fmantek
Themenstarter
Vermont to New York City
Bike Rental
Jupiter's Motorcycle Rental in Brooklyn. I rented there before, friendly, good bikes, everything in great shape. The bigger bikes come with topcases, so getting your stuff in there for a weekend is no problem at all. This time I rented a BMW R1200RT - i make it a habit to rent different bikes, if they have some i can fit on (i am 6''5 and heavily built, so i am tad limited in terms of what is comfortable).
Bike performance
I didn't like the R1200RT too much. Not my type of riding, the engine is too quiet, the whole system feels not nimble enough for my taste (I ride an F800GS myself - so take this with a grain of salt. I also think the 1200GS is too heavy for my use ...). On wet roads i had not a lot of confidence in the tires - they had enough rubber left, but it felt slippery.
The ride
Saturday was an equipment test. I was on the road for a little over 9 hours, and it was raining 7 of them. 4 hours it was raining cats and dogs. So forget the trip, it all looked gray and washed out
. The gear performed well though. 7 hours of rain will bring most gear to it's limits in terms of water resistance (in my experience there is no water proof), so here we go:
-> Boots: Daytona Travel Star GTX. If you don't know Daytona Boots, and you are interested, highly recommended. You can walk in them, dance in them, ride in them. And they were still dry after that day. If you want to get yourself some nice boots, test them.
-> Revit Devender Jacked & Trousers. They use the 3 layer system, and i did not have the winter layer in it. I was damp underneath the goretex at the end of the day, but not wet. Not sure how much of the damp was just from sweating though. This is a very comfortable and well engineered suit, recommended.
-> Glooves. Rukka Appolo. They gave up after 3 hours of rain. My hands were looking very peculiar at the end of the day. I had to use the hotels hair dryer for 3 hours to get them dry again. Not recommended.
-> Helm: Shoei Multitec with SMH 10 Bluetooth/iPhone for navigation. That worked really well. I use only voice navigation, so the phone stays dry inside the waterproof pocked of the jacket. With an extra battery this worked for the whole trip (the SMH10 lasts easily longer than 10 hours, so no need to charge that guy). So i listen to music, record the trip and navigate with the phone with no problems for a 10 hour trip.
Sunday:
I woke up, my gear was nearly dry again, and the sun was shining the whole day. It was a beautiful trip back. It took 10:40 to get back to Brooklyn, the last 90min was the usual New York stop,go,between cars driving. Crazy traffic. Track is here:
http://gps.motionx.com/og/index.php?id=891481bd84a2c73d1d551389ec2a1df4&fb_action_ids=10151934737957925&fb_action_types=motionx-gps%3Arecord&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%7B%2210151934737957925%22%3A343809565711328%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151934737957925%22%3A%22motionx-gps%3Arecord%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
The best part of the trip was the Mohawk Trail, after North Adams. That was beautiful and well worth spending 7 hours in the rain the day before. The area around Mount Snow was also lovely. In general i like this, but i preferred the Adirondacks i visited in my last trip. Next i think i will try to White Mountains... if i have 3 days
Took around 4000 pictures with the HD Hero 2, 3500 on the way back. I used the battery pack, and fully charged, was able to pretty much take pictures very 10sec for the whole trip (i did recharge when i stopped for coffee etc, otherwise that would not last that long).
Riding was peaceful, not a lot of traffic (before NYC), the roads more or less in good condition. Even on dry road, the machine was very sensitive to the road condition, felt slippery.
Lot's of motorcycles on the roads though. Once there was a "pack" of 50 bikes coming my way, that sure looks impressive.
Curious: most motorcycles, certainly over 90% are either GoldWings or Harleys. Not a lot of sport bikes, and i think i saw not one 1200GS or similar Is this just east coast specific?
Bike Rental
Jupiter's Motorcycle Rental in Brooklyn. I rented there before, friendly, good bikes, everything in great shape. The bigger bikes come with topcases, so getting your stuff in there for a weekend is no problem at all. This time I rented a BMW R1200RT - i make it a habit to rent different bikes, if they have some i can fit on (i am 6''5 and heavily built, so i am tad limited in terms of what is comfortable).
Bike performance
I didn't like the R1200RT too much. Not my type of riding, the engine is too quiet, the whole system feels not nimble enough for my taste (I ride an F800GS myself - so take this with a grain of salt. I also think the 1200GS is too heavy for my use ...). On wet roads i had not a lot of confidence in the tires - they had enough rubber left, but it felt slippery.
The ride
Saturday was an equipment test. I was on the road for a little over 9 hours, and it was raining 7 of them. 4 hours it was raining cats and dogs. So forget the trip, it all looked gray and washed out
. The gear performed well though. 7 hours of rain will bring most gear to it's limits in terms of water resistance (in my experience there is no water proof), so here we go:-> Boots: Daytona Travel Star GTX. If you don't know Daytona Boots, and you are interested, highly recommended. You can walk in them, dance in them, ride in them. And they were still dry after that day. If you want to get yourself some nice boots, test them.
-> Revit Devender Jacked & Trousers. They use the 3 layer system, and i did not have the winter layer in it
. I was damp underneath the goretex at the end of the day, but not wet. Not sure how much of the damp was just from sweating though. This is a very comfortable and well engineered suit, recommended.-> Glooves. Rukka Appolo. They gave up after 3 hours of rain. My hands were looking very peculiar at the end of the day. I had to use the hotels hair dryer for 3 hours to get them dry again. Not recommended.
-> Helm: Shoei Multitec with SMH 10 Bluetooth/iPhone for navigation. That worked really well. I use only voice navigation, so the phone stays dry inside the waterproof pocked of the jacket. With an extra battery this worked for the whole trip (the SMH10 lasts easily longer than 10 hours, so no need to charge that guy). So i listen to music, record the trip and navigate with the phone with no problems for a 10 hour trip.
Sunday:
I woke up, my gear was nearly dry again, and the sun was shining the whole day. It was a beautiful trip back. It took 10:40 to get back to Brooklyn, the last 90min was the usual New York stop,go,between cars driving. Crazy traffic. Track is here:
http://gps.motionx.com/og/index.php?id=891481bd84a2c73d1d551389ec2a1df4&fb_action_ids=10151934737957925&fb_action_types=motionx-gps%3Arecord&fb_source=timeline_og&action_object_map=%7B%2210151934737957925%22%3A343809565711328%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210151934737957925%22%3A%22motionx-gps%3Arecord%22%7D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D
The best part of the trip was the Mohawk Trail, after North Adams. That was beautiful and well worth spending 7 hours in the rain the day before. The area around Mount Snow was also lovely. In general i like this, but i preferred the Adirondacks i visited in my last trip. Next i think i will try to White Mountains... if i have 3 days
Took around 4000 pictures with the HD Hero 2, 3500 on the way back. I used the battery pack, and fully charged, was able to pretty much take pictures very 10sec for the whole trip (i did recharge when i stopped for coffee etc, otherwise that would not last that long).
Riding was peaceful, not a lot of traffic (before NYC), the roads more or less in good condition. Even on dry road, the machine was very sensitive to the road condition, felt slippery.
Lot's of motorcycles on the roads though. Once there was a "pack" of 50 bikes coming my way, that sure looks impressive.
Curious: most motorcycles, certainly over 90% are either GoldWings or Harleys. Not a lot of sport bikes, and i think i saw not one 1200GS or similar Is this just east coast specific?
