The plan was to ride 1,000+ miles over a three day weekend to get my Honda Trail to Illinois, where I might be taking it on another adventure in September. I have ridden back and forth between Denver and Chicago many times on larger motorcycles. Once was Iron Butt Association certified as a Saddle Sore 1000 doing the ride in under 24 hours, but more often I have done the trip as a two day weekend ride stopping overnight in Lincoln, Nebraska or Kansas City along the way. My big concerns were mostly weather issues I had experienced in the past, storms, strong winds, semi-trailer accidents, and grass fires along the road.
What remained of the bicycle “safety flag” I had on my Trail was recently lost, but for a long haul on pavement I wanted extra visibility so I cut some material from a hi-viz vest and used reflective tape and cable ties to make a replacement that would hopefully hold up better. The idea is to have a bright flag that moves around high up, catching people's attention, especially truckers and folks in tall vehicles. The flag also acts like an antenna topper and helps me find where I parked the bike since I'm a bit vertically challenged. I slapped the remainder of the reflective tape on three sides of the top case just to use it up and improve nighttime visibility of the bike. I will likely remove it and do a more thought out application of reflective tape later.
For equipment I have my travel tool kit, HJC F70 helmet, Held Rodney II gloves, Alpinestars Web Gore-Tex boots, Aerostich R3 Lite suit, a UV protective buff/neck gaiter to prevent sunburn and neck chafing from the suit collar, a spare quart of Honda Pro GN4 10w-30 motor oil, a 16 oz bottle of Slime just in case as I am carrying spoons and patches but no spare tube, and an older Android phone with no SIM but maps downloaded for offline navigation use mounted to a QuadLock with a wireless charger plugged into a port on the accessory USB socket. Cellphone navigation is not my favorite, but I didn't put much thought into using a navigation device for this trip so my Garmin Zumo XT is on a different bike in Illinois. My route plan was roughly Colfax Ave, US 36, and Old Route 66. I put that together by searching a few points on Google Maps that I wanted to pass through, selecting the option to avoid highways and tollways, and then dragging and dropping the little yellow "Pegman" street view guy along the route to make sure most of it had reasonable speed limits (not over 65 mph), wasn't the terrible rain grooved roads for miles on end, and had adequate opportunities for other vehicles to pass a slow moving CT125. I needed to haul some things from my storage unit in Colorado back to Illinois so I ended up with a mostly empty North Face 69L base camp duffel bag strapped on top of the Expedition 134 top case with ROK Straps. The duffel may have been able to fit inside of the top case, but I didn’t want to risk squashing things and I like having the side pocket on the duffel bag easily accessible for small items like sunblock and a headlamp. For the next adventure I'd prefer to do without the duffel, and keep items handy in a smaller bag.
Day 1 - Friday July 28th
Tower of Jewels at Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, Colorado. If you are into old amusement parks, this one is run down with many rides not in service, but it has a lot of patina charm and it's cool to see so many pre-WWII attractions still standing.
The Cyclone! Built in 1940. Unfortunately it is a SBNO (standing but not operational) landmark coaster.
Road washed out from extreme flooding in Adams County, Colorado. The detour for this was loose gravel and the OEM tires at recommended inflation (great for road travel) got very squirrely. I hit a ridge of built up gravel and the bike went into a wobble, really thought I was going to dump it within the first 100 miles of the trip, but luckily saved it by backing off the throttle and gently rear braking. After that bit of excitement I slowed down and ran maybe 15 mph for the rest of the gravel detour.
Passed a gas stop with a partial tank only to realize several miles down the road that the next gas stop likely wouldn’t be close enough, and I had yet to fill my spare fuel container since last emptying it when I stored the bike. Back tracked a good 10 miles, kicked myself in the butt for it, fuelled up, filled the spare, on back on the road again.
Cope Memorial Park
As someone who grew up with phone phreaking I don’t pass up payphones! This Northern Telecom “CENTURION” unit is not operational. It is actually the replacement for a different non-operational payphone that was stolen from the park in 2021. The original payphone was donated to the town and was installed in the park as a roadside attraction and quirky landmark along US 36, never having been connected there.
Leaving Colorado and entering Kansas
In Kansas I visited the St. Francis Motorcycle Museum
Soaking up the beauty of the Great Plains
Even with the rolling hills, there was a noticeable performance improvement from the engine once I got down around 3,000 ft elevation. The bike has more guts and holds it speed a little better on inclines than it did when it was over a mile high.
I bought this "Ozark Trail Universal Mount Expandable Bike Water Bottle Cage" at Wally World as I wanted a bottle holder large enough for a Nalgene or Gatorade bottle. The rubber snapped at the largest size setting so I am likely going to return it, but it got the job done for this ride at least. The collapsible funnel makes it easy to start a fresh bottle of oil, once it's not full anymore I found that I don't need a funnel to pour into the oil fill hole without spilling. I would only recommend this Muc-off funnel if you are going to keep it in a ziplock bag. It is difficult to clean and the silicone material attracts every bit of dirt that you don't want in your engine oil. I tape the cap on opened containers to try to keep them from spilling everywhere. Oil consumption was less than I expected for running wide open throttle most of the day. I sometimes backed off a smidge from wide open throttle and ran it a little slower as that small change in RPM makes the bike's vibrations and sound quite a bit calmer.
Lodging is something I should have planned for better...or at all. Being used to taking the main roads or having a tent with me, I didn't anticipate the sparse accommodations along this route. In Smith Center, Kansas the first motel I stopped at was booked up, so I called every other one in town only to find none had any vacancies. I called ahead to the three places listed in Mankato, the Dreamliner Motel said they had a room so I thought I was set for the night and rode on that way looking forward to getting some shut eye. When I pulled up to the motel there were laundry machines and mattresses in the parking lot and only one vehicle parked there... absolutely not. I'll sleep on a park bench, in a field without a tent, heck I've even slept next to a vault toilet backpacking, but I do not mess with high probability of bed bugs. Running out of options for sleeping indoors for the night, I decided to search a bit off route and called the Victorian Inn in Superior, Nebraska. The office said they were closing but they'd leave a key for me and I could square up in the morning, huzzah! Back heading East, then a 20 minute detour North into Nebraska and I was kicking off my boots around midnight. Of course the room had a Victorian decor style to it and everything was a bit dated, but well kept and clean. It had a physical key on a diamond keyring, that's the kind of character I enjoy from old motels. A fine part of the American road trip experience.
What remained of the bicycle “safety flag” I had on my Trail was recently lost, but for a long haul on pavement I wanted extra visibility so I cut some material from a hi-viz vest and used reflective tape and cable ties to make a replacement that would hopefully hold up better. The idea is to have a bright flag that moves around high up, catching people's attention, especially truckers and folks in tall vehicles. The flag also acts like an antenna topper and helps me find where I parked the bike since I'm a bit vertically challenged. I slapped the remainder of the reflective tape on three sides of the top case just to use it up and improve nighttime visibility of the bike. I will likely remove it and do a more thought out application of reflective tape later.
For equipment I have my travel tool kit, HJC F70 helmet, Held Rodney II gloves, Alpinestars Web Gore-Tex boots, Aerostich R3 Lite suit, a UV protective buff/neck gaiter to prevent sunburn and neck chafing from the suit collar, a spare quart of Honda Pro GN4 10w-30 motor oil, a 16 oz bottle of Slime just in case as I am carrying spoons and patches but no spare tube, and an older Android phone with no SIM but maps downloaded for offline navigation use mounted to a QuadLock with a wireless charger plugged into a port on the accessory USB socket. Cellphone navigation is not my favorite, but I didn't put much thought into using a navigation device for this trip so my Garmin Zumo XT is on a different bike in Illinois. My route plan was roughly Colfax Ave, US 36, and Old Route 66. I put that together by searching a few points on Google Maps that I wanted to pass through, selecting the option to avoid highways and tollways, and then dragging and dropping the little yellow "Pegman" street view guy along the route to make sure most of it had reasonable speed limits (not over 65 mph), wasn't the terrible rain grooved roads for miles on end, and had adequate opportunities for other vehicles to pass a slow moving CT125. I needed to haul some things from my storage unit in Colorado back to Illinois so I ended up with a mostly empty North Face 69L base camp duffel bag strapped on top of the Expedition 134 top case with ROK Straps. The duffel may have been able to fit inside of the top case, but I didn’t want to risk squashing things and I like having the side pocket on the duffel bag easily accessible for small items like sunblock and a headlamp. For the next adventure I'd prefer to do without the duffel, and keep items handy in a smaller bag.
Day 1 - Friday July 28th
Tower of Jewels at Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, Colorado. If you are into old amusement parks, this one is run down with many rides not in service, but it has a lot of patina charm and it's cool to see so many pre-WWII attractions still standing.
The Cyclone! Built in 1940. Unfortunately it is a SBNO (standing but not operational) landmark coaster.
Road washed out from extreme flooding in Adams County, Colorado. The detour for this was loose gravel and the OEM tires at recommended inflation (great for road travel) got very squirrely. I hit a ridge of built up gravel and the bike went into a wobble, really thought I was going to dump it within the first 100 miles of the trip, but luckily saved it by backing off the throttle and gently rear braking. After that bit of excitement I slowed down and ran maybe 15 mph for the rest of the gravel detour.
Passed a gas stop with a partial tank only to realize several miles down the road that the next gas stop likely wouldn’t be close enough, and I had yet to fill my spare fuel container since last emptying it when I stored the bike. Back tracked a good 10 miles, kicked myself in the butt for it, fuelled up, filled the spare, on back on the road again.
Cope Memorial Park
As someone who grew up with phone phreaking I don’t pass up payphones! This Northern Telecom “CENTURION” unit is not operational. It is actually the replacement for a different non-operational payphone that was stolen from the park in 2021. The original payphone was donated to the town and was installed in the park as a roadside attraction and quirky landmark along US 36, never having been connected there.
Leaving Colorado and entering Kansas
In Kansas I visited the St. Francis Motorcycle Museum
Soaking up the beauty of the Great Plains
Even with the rolling hills, there was a noticeable performance improvement from the engine once I got down around 3,000 ft elevation. The bike has more guts and holds it speed a little better on inclines than it did when it was over a mile high.
I bought this "Ozark Trail Universal Mount Expandable Bike Water Bottle Cage" at Wally World as I wanted a bottle holder large enough for a Nalgene or Gatorade bottle. The rubber snapped at the largest size setting so I am likely going to return it, but it got the job done for this ride at least. The collapsible funnel makes it easy to start a fresh bottle of oil, once it's not full anymore I found that I don't need a funnel to pour into the oil fill hole without spilling. I would only recommend this Muc-off funnel if you are going to keep it in a ziplock bag. It is difficult to clean and the silicone material attracts every bit of dirt that you don't want in your engine oil. I tape the cap on opened containers to try to keep them from spilling everywhere. Oil consumption was less than I expected for running wide open throttle most of the day. I sometimes backed off a smidge from wide open throttle and ran it a little slower as that small change in RPM makes the bike's vibrations and sound quite a bit calmer.
Lodging is something I should have planned for better...or at all. Being used to taking the main roads or having a tent with me, I didn't anticipate the sparse accommodations along this route. In Smith Center, Kansas the first motel I stopped at was booked up, so I called every other one in town only to find none had any vacancies. I called ahead to the three places listed in Mankato, the Dreamliner Motel said they had a room so I thought I was set for the night and rode on that way looking forward to getting some shut eye. When I pulled up to the motel there were laundry machines and mattresses in the parking lot and only one vehicle parked there... absolutely not. I'll sleep on a park bench, in a field without a tent, heck I've even slept next to a vault toilet backpacking, but I do not mess with high probability of bed bugs. Running out of options for sleeping indoors for the night, I decided to search a bit off route and called the Victorian Inn in Superior, Nebraska. The office said they were closing but they'd leave a key for me and I could square up in the morning, huzzah! Back heading East, then a 20 minute detour North into Nebraska and I was kicking off my boots around midnight. Of course the room had a Victorian decor style to it and everything was a bit dated, but well kept and clean. It had a physical key on a diamond keyring, that's the kind of character I enjoy from old motels. A fine part of the American road trip experience.
Last edited:
I noted that I was going 55 mph in a 65 mph and that was full power from the engine room with wind gusting.
Even if you're not interested in that, his videos have been informative and entertaining.
