Ride home to Erie Pa

[wilsons]

Well, I'm here! At home, sitting in the living room on the wireless with family, (yes I brought the widescreen laptop home ). I packed up the bike with about 40 to 50 or so extra lbs of stuff, and rode a little over 5 hours today. Made two stops, one in columbus at the beamer shop and one in Madina, for food/gas.

 

Had a real good trip, ran into some traffic but not nearly what I was expecting to see. Best 5hour trip home I've ever had.

 

Also with all that weight, and running 80 to 85 most the way home. I got 53.9MPG!!!! I was shocked to see that!!

 

Only problem I really had was when anyone would see a cop. Reason for this is *everyone* was running 75 to 85mph. Thats fine. We all keep the flow and pace, until a cop is seen, and then everyone does the break check, everyone slows down and everything gets congested with traffic, 30 seconds later we're all doing 80 again. Seems to me that this causes more problems than good, but oh well. They should set a national speed limit of 75 to 80.

 

Strangely enough on I90 people where doin around 70mph, I guess they all wanted to take their good old time. And aside from construction zones, normal pace was around 78mph.

 

I was amazed with the extra weight I had the bike performed and handled excellent. I knew I had the extra weight but it didn't hinder me in any way.

 

and that MPG!! Just awsome!!

 

Oh, only other thing was the wind. I need to find a way to better flow the wind around my helmet, I put my hand up around my neck, no annoying wind noise at 80mph. I'm thinkin about trying another wind jammer II around my helmet and making it tighter aorund my neck (or rather MORE around my neck) to see if that helps.

 

I think I dont wanna change the wind shield on the bike, I'd rather fix the real problem then put a bandaid on it!

 

help!?

[RT_Jim]

I ride with a Schuberth helmet that has a collar around the bottom of the helmet and I do think it helps with the windy days. Of course it is also an issue on windy days - I was out a week or so ago and the wind caught me the right (wrong?) way and I felt myself getting lifted up!

 

But it does help with the noise. I would try a bandana to see how that works first but then again, you need a windy day to test it.

 

Good luck!

 

(let me know the next time you're passing through Columbus - I'm always up for meeting and/or riding)

 

Jim

[wilsons]

hmm a bandana around the neck? I guess that would be a good shot, ill try that tomorrow

 

I got a scorpion helmet, and I really like it, save this lil wind issue. I have some thoughts and ideas to try, and the bandana will be one!

 

Sounds good, lets meet up for lunch sometime.

[tom collins]

my former RS did the exact same thing. i was using a shoei helmet that fit a tad loose, so i felt like a bobble head figure. at a rally, i tried (and bought) an arai that fit much more snuggly (secure, not tight) at more points around your head, thus it did not shake nearly as much. this helmet also included a small wind deflector under the chin bar that can be lowered about an inch that further helped. caveat, it did not completely cure the problem, but went a very long way. i tried both a taller shield and the stock shield on that bike and had buffetting either way, it is a tough problem. maybe the aftermarket shields for the ST are better?

good luck with this problem and i am sure that everyone with an ST or an RS would be interested in whether you find a solution.

 

tom collins