50cc - Ya Baby!!!!

[Nick_Ninja]

HB and HT,

I have friends in Fontana, CA that we could ask about hanging for a night. That's about 1.5 hours from Vegas down by San Bernadino. Don't know anyone anymore in San Diego cuz they all retired from the NAVY over six years ago.

Mods are #1 in my book. Especially the bar risers. I'm using GEN-MAR risers as of now because HELI-BAR didn't make any till last month for the ZZR. Gas stops are a must just to keep focus. Lighting and reflective markings are necessary too to maintain visability while traveling on the DARK SIDE.

I'd be into getting together for telling lies and drinking beer somewhere to get all items on the table for discussion. You name the spot and time.

[Anonymous]

Harry,

With normal riding (i.e. generally nice, with the occasional drop-and-fly through traffic) I can get 140 miles before the RLOD. With some recent changes I actually got 170 miles out of a tank! (160 at the RLOD) - I'm going to explore those further just out of principle, but I have no idea how far I can get if I just put it in 6th gear and cruise at 85mph. I'll have to experiment with that out on I-76 or something where traffic won't suck so bad. I'd like to see stops at 130 miles max just to be safe, though I might be able to push her a bit farther - I just don't want to be in the middle of nothin with no gas. Though carrying some extra will help ease my mind on that one.

I'm curious ... has a sportbike ever done this ride? You mentioned that superhawks never have, I'm just wondering. I know the Harley's outnumber everything else by orders of magnitude I'm sure (for the ones that have actually completed the thing).

[Nick_Ninja]

If you want to see who all has compleated what ride (ALL IBA RIDES) and on what type of machine go here :

http://www.ironbutt.com/rides/ssbbfin.htm

Many different types of bikes and models but here is the winner:

:arrow: Oldest and smallest Motorcycle to finish the 50cc Quest:
Doug Stout 1972 Honda CB350

[gary n]

Harry,
You don't need to plan gas stops for my Superhawk. There is no way I can ride it for 5000 miles in 9 days. I guess I'm too old. If I go I will have something with better ergos and range.

Ralph,
I found a 6 gallon aluminum tank for the Superhawk. i think it's made in England and it was going to be $600-$800. The only other large tank I could find was from CarboTex and it was $1300 for a carbon fiber tank.

I pulled this from the Iron Butt site and organized it. These are all the finishers of the 50CC.
4 BMW K75
4 BMW K100LT
5 BMW K100RS
7 BMW K1100LT
13 BMW K1200LT
2 BMW K1100RS
4 BMW K1200RS
1 BMW R100RT
11 BMW R1100GS
1 BMW R1150GS
2 BMW R1100R
12 BMW R1100RT
1 BMW R1150RT
7 BMW R1100RS
1 H-D DynaWideGlide
2 H-D Electra Glide
1 H-D Electra Glide Classic
7 H-D Electra Glide UltraClassic
1 H-D Police FXR
5 H-D Road Glide
1 H-D Road Glide/sidecar
8 H-D Road King
1 H-D Sportster
1 Honda CB350
1 Honda CB750
1 Honda CBR1000
1 Honda CX500
37 Honda Gold Wing
1 Honda Gold Wing Trike
1 Honda Hurricane
1 Honda Pacific Coast
2 Honda Shadow
9 Honda ST1100
1 Honda V65 Sabre
2 Honda Valkyrie
1 Honda VTX
8 Kawasaki Concours
1 Kawasaki Nomad
2 Kawasaki Voyager
3 Kawasaki Vulcan
1 Kawasaki ZX-1100
1 Suzuki Bandit
1 Suzuki GS850GL
1 Suzuki GS1100
2 Suzuki Intruder
1 Suzuki V-Strom
1 Triumph Sprint
1 Yamaha FJ1200
1 Yamaha GTS1000
2 Yamaha R6
1 Yamaha Venture
1 Yamaha Virago

[Nick_Ninja]

:arrow: Here is a site that specializes in fuel cells for the petrol challenged :

http://www.eti-fuelcel.com/home.htm

[Nick_Ninja]

Here is the SAMPSON site for custom made fuel cells :P :

http://www.sampson-sporttouring.com/fuel-cells.html

[Anonymous]

I pulled this from the Iron Butt site... These are all the finishers of the 50CC.
...
2 Yamaha R6

WOW, 2 R6's did this?!?!
I'm impressed!

[Harry Biker]

Man you guys are good w/ yer keyboards!! Glad to see we made it to page 2.

Thanks for showing the list of bikes Gary. Makes me think I'd like to be the 1st and only FZ1 rider to do this ride,(course that likely won't stick)
Gary, if the weather were to hold perhaps we could balst on down to Big D to get yer clone????? Course you'd have to ride "B"

I agree w/ the insect...2 R6's on this ride...AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

Wall crawler, Have you thought about my challenge for you to show us your home country next year?? Perhaps it's time for the wife to visit the parents again so you can come play with your scooter trash friends

Henry,(who's currently MIA) would just love this......
but I was looking @ the map last night & thought, yep, for the distance we'll be covering to 50CC we could make Prudo Bay

But that can wait I suppose. Course Henry, we could add to our collection...1st the Pacific, then the Atlantic,(we could get a little Gulf of Mex if we wanted) and then we could get the ARTIC OCEAN :!: :!:

[Nick_Ninja]

Here is a link from another bunch that is out there getting a 50cc dose . It seems that they have reasearched this quite a bit.

http://personal.bellsouth.net/m/n/mnwj/50cc.html

[towneh]

greetings ALL,
i've talked a lot to reps of MTF who also have a lot of goodies pertaining to 50cc and the like. they have a level of co-ordination and planning that would cause NASA's department heads to swim! here is their URL:

http://publish.bsu.edu/00amleduc/MTF/50cc/50ccsd.htm

they are beginning to set up data, etc for their 2003 c2c ride which will occur in March.

other items:
NADY units; very cool with the AUX input and the squelch/spark canceling feature but it is still a FRS. not meaning to diminish its value here but it is nice that we can still pick up the same freq so we can still use our 'old' Motorla Talkabouts.... I move that we hook Harry's on-board cb/stereo featured on his U-Glide (read:"Millennium Falcon") to a NADY unit so that we all have 'trucker talk'/tunes!!! I'm going to order up a couple of VOX earbuds (#50256) for my Talkabouts this week and testing will begin soon afterward. Gary, could we meet up with Harry in say 2-3 weeks for some random testing utilizing your NADY?

i plan to chat with my family (s.o. side..) who live at the end of route 8 ( a popular place to start the 50cc in San Diego) in the near future. i don't know how they will take it and their place is small. The fact that they are 60 to 70 yrs old may come into play as well....

i'm going to start laying out the route/validation gas stops for the Aerostitch wonderland. i've already done a lot with the 50cc route but still playing variables for the mid-point... although it would be nice to have it where it would be free (Harry's dad's place), there is a lot to be said for a straight thru..... the iba folks have no problem with a loop back to the 'free' option so long as we sufficiently document the route we take (see the iba rules for route documentation). the route/validation gas stops that the MTF takes which can be best described as "straight thru..." is available for our use; it is accurate and tested..... FREE! planning continues....

so, make fun of me on my old, quiet sportbike will you !?!?!

later,
henry

[Nick_Ninja]

I will be packin camping gear. Mission Bay has a campground.

[gary n]

Henry, I don't know if you remember but I met you on the the ride we did to the Bucksnort Tavern on ride-to-work-day this summer. As for bikes - I think yours is great for this kind of trip but they are even harder to find than the older CBR1000F's I'm looking at.

I'm not tied to the Nady radio, it's just bought and paid for so I would rather not duplicate it. I didn't even think about CB radios until Harry mentioned it. I would prefer to have one to listen to the truckers for road conditions, smokey reports and just general entertainment for those long straight stretches. Does anyone know who makes a earpiece/mike and push-to-talk button? Now, do I mount an 8' whip to the swing arm or dual firesticks on the bar ends?

Harry, I'm not quite ready to pick up that bike in Dallas. I'll give them a little more time to sell it. And I certainly don't want to ride *B* all the way down there. If I go, it will be this winter so I have time to do some mods before spring.

[towneh]

greetings all,

gary>>>
yes, i do remember you now. it is a good thing there weren't a lot of people with us that day....

absolutely, keep and use your NADY unit. it has special features that are specific to use on a motorcycle. many of the places that sell it include a headset (?) that has PTT (push-to- talk) and the unit is VOX capable. here is a URL to see what i'm talking about:
http://www.wildwestelectronics.net/mrc-11.html

if you don't have one of these jewels, you could search the net to find one at a good price.

i've got a pair of Talkabouts; one for my spouse and one for me. i've done the net search for the Talkabout VOX earbud X 2. i'd get them anyway because we've found the key microphone/speaker units to be bulky. i'm anxious to try the earbuds on the motorcycles with harry and you.... lets find out if we can tolerate the 'plain jane' radios.

jeff>>>
camping at mission bay sounds interesting. i think i need a compression bag for my sleeping bag. i've got to start budgeting for necessary 'toys'.

tires, tune-up, radar detector, radio(?), fuel cell(?), flip-up windshield, heli bars(?), aerostitch suit and wiper, and some bags (i.e. saddle/tail)....... say....... Santa ?!?!?

later,
henry

[Harry Biker]

It's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!

Camping!? I'd camp on the coast! Hopefully there's no sand flees
Also camping on the way home in or near state/National parks would be awesome. My bike will easily chill > 1 case of beer

However, I'll likely hotel it the last sleep before the Bun Burner Gold. Call me a wuss if you will.......I may also choose this route over sleeping @ Henry's relatives if I end up on the floor,(which I'll assume is likely). Don't forgert campers that unless we use a police department,(which should not be our 1st coice for a witness) that you'll have to break camp potentially quicker than usual.
That may be an issue in Houston too,(sleeping on a floor) as theirs only so many beds/couches so we should think more about that.

I remember the last guy that called me a wuss...for leaving the pool area in Vegas the night before the trip back. I went to bed @ 10:30-ish for a 5am wake up call. He went to bed between 3:30am & 4am after drinking 20 beers!!!!! My hero!??
I must admit @ that moment I did not feel worthy

Course, after gassing our steeds
a whopping 90 miles after departure and this hearty sole,( 1/2 founder of the CSC) collapsed next to the ice machine & couldn't get up very well....I started to feel better about myself

It's starting to sound like we just might have 4 riders!!!

Gary, you don't like riding "B"?

I have a little story.........long story short.
I had a "Clone" that I wanted to trade for a Harley "bagger" in Vegas. 30 minutes before my departure my neighbor showed up w/ $15,500 cash and bought my bike. I also had $4K on me. So I called my friend who was to do the ride w/ me and told him to meet me @ my house as we had a change in plans.

He was not happy either that he had to ride me "B" all the way,(we took turns) but there was no way I was not going to take a bike vs a car/truck.

Anyhoo...500 or so miles into the trip it hit me like a brick!? Why was I now going to Vegas to buy a bike doh!! Not to mention I had just shy of $20K cash on me,(not a safe feeling) So I opted to buy my friends bike right there! He said nope. For the next 100 miles I kept raising the price and the greedy bastard kept saying no.

I ended up buying the bike I'll be most likely riding the coasts with you guys and his bike......it blew up 1 week after getting home

[Nick_Ninja]

So HB,

What is the reasoning of traveling this proposed route from WEST to EAST : :

Why would you want to go against the sun and time zones : :

Just asking and still open to either or.......

[towneh]

hi jeff,

harry thought the drive to the west would be shorter before getting into the 50cc. we'd also like to invite the Sportbike crowd to join us enroute to Las Vegas..... But, west-to-east riding was mostly for my benefit being a total 'newbie' for long distance riding AND that we'd be 'fresher' for the start.

in theory... going west-to-east we experience riding into shorter sunrises instead of longer longer sunsets goin' the other.....
(deep thoughts by jack handy...)
anyway you look at it, it is a LONG time on the road under just about any/all conditions.

later,
henry (aka neo-fyte

[Harry Biker]

Henry pretty much summed up my thoughts, but I'm on a break so I'll add to it.

We'll not only be fresher to start the timed run leaving Cali vs Leaving Florida, but we'll also be fresher @ dawn then dusk.

Yes we do lose out on a little day light traveling the opposite direction the sun is setting, but I don't know about you, but I've been on rides in the desert as the sun was setting, sweat and sun screen dripping into my blinding eyes for whatr seemed like 4 hours straight or more, it was not fun.

The other issue is the option of free lodging and an automatic witness who's a cop in Houston for the VERY difficult "BB Gold" that I'm/we're shooting for. If we go the other way, I'll need to find someone in the middle of almost nowhere.

[towneh]

greetings all,

i'm somewhat disappointed with our (harry et moi) attempt with the frs on the motorcycle... they were way too light, the mikes were too fickle, and there was a lot of erratic feedback.

i'm guessing that the NADY units with the helmet mike/earpiece do great things with squelching/suppression and the like.... (Gary, please 'chime in' here if you've got experience that answers the begging question of performance!!! -- aye or nay please).

i have found the 'going rate' is around $80 which yields the unit, ptt
headset, shi, etc.

Gary, do you have the helmet headset AND have you used it with others while cruising down the road ?

thanx,
henry

[Harry Biker]

Greetings fellow would be travelers. I know it's cold out,(course I did ride mine today ) and it may be difficult to have the neurotransmitters fire to think about anything other than turkey and/or Santa, Hanuka Charlie for our Jewish friends......

But, we have some decisions to make.

step1) decide if you're gonna ride! After that you're home free

My request would be something like this.....

You've commited to 50CC by 2/1/03 and

Any reservations needed prior to and during the 50CC are made by 2/28/03. Also, we will not change times/routes/lodging after this date either,(for the timed ride).
I do not care if people want to go see Disney World prior to going home,(I don't) or anything else for that matter. Once the clock stops and we sucessfully complete this ride some may choose to hang out and/or take a different ride home or go see their Aunt Nellie.

If for some reason you find yourself unable to commit by Feb 1st, but feel something may open up in your life that would still allow you to do this ride, I don't have a problem with that. Just don't expect to make changes to the itinerary and you may be on your own come motel/camping time.

Also, I feel and apologize if I've already stated this- that we should limit the # of riders riding the entire stretch together to 4. If we end up w/ 6 riders,(which would be great), I believe we should have 2 groups of 3 or something like that as we can't afford a delay w/ 6 people waiting in line to use the john etc.

In addition, it's perhaps better to choose now if you want to partner up with another rider for things like breakdowns etc. I can assure you that nobody riding in my group will be left stranded for the buzzards, however, it's kind of a 1st come 1st serve kind of deal. I have chosen to ride this ride to the finish or be a DNF,(did not finish) if either myself or Henry has a catastophic bike failure. Thus, if Henry's Zookie implodes, both of our rides are done. If another rider's bike fails, I'll get them to safety and meet them back in Denver after I finish this ride.

Do we currently have anyone else that has fully commited to this ride besides myself and Henry?

[Nick_Ninja]

I am going. :!: I am camping. I am finishing. :!: I am going crazy waiting for this date to arrive

[Harry Biker]

And Jeff makes 3 :!: AWESOME!
What about camping after the 1500? Is that your plan @ least for now?
If so, we are shooting for Beumont area just East of Houston.

What are you thoughts as far as getting to San D. Would you prefer to iron butt it early on the 24th,(for the record, I could leave as early as 3pm on the 23rd if that interests anyone), or sleep in Vegas, or even bypass Vegas all together and travel South and then West vs I-70-I-15.

Are you planning an getting a CB?
Harry

[Nick_Ninja]

For the record I would prefer to travel with the sun and the time zones. (period).. If your reasoning is situated solely around accommodating fellow CSC travelers for a pre trip yak yak in Vegas well.......... they could join up on an East to West itinerary and cruise @ whatever speed deemed necessary to make San Diego. THEN WE COULD PARTY OUR ASSES OFF IN SIN-CITY TIL THE COWS COME HOME. Still I'm open for discussion....... REMEMBER -- THIS IS OUR TRIP. I DON'T FEEL A COMMITMENT TO ACOMODATE THOSE WHO ARE NOT COMMITED TO THE FULL BLAST. I would rather make the commitment to travel more hours to the east then to the west without guaranteed accommodations in the Huston area. Any way you look at it there will be one night on the road (6 hours at best) then crank in’ it on to the last stop…… get my drift. I’d rather spend my debauchery moments in Vegas than in Jacksonville FL. (Unless we do this in MARCH and go to DAYTONA :!: )

[gary n]

Harry,
I will have to hold out until closer to February 1 to commit. It will depend on how things are looking at work and if I get a bike that will work for this adventure.

Henry,
About the radios. I have used the Nady units on two separate weekends. Each weekend we rode about 700 miles. Here are my thoughts.

We have the MRC-11 units with the flexible metal gooseneck connecting the earpiece and microphone. I think it works best if you position the mic right under your bottom lip. I zip tied the push to talk button onto the throttle cable housing which worked really well. The radio can be clipped to your belt, put in a jacket pocket or in your tankbag. My friend used a special fanny pack from Radio Shack that has many pockets for communications/audio gear. He was also able to fit a CD walkman and other stuff in it too.

The radios worked well up to 80-85 mph. after that it was getting a little hard to hear because of the wind noise. They were really good at slower speeds (45 mph and slower)- when you are entering a town and deciding where to stop for gas/food. 3 AAA batteries lasted all weekend and were still good.

The only negative about the Nady units is that you do have to contend with all the wires. The Chatterbox units which attach to your helmet eliminate them but are much more costly.

After thinking about this for a while, I think I would prefer a CB radio if a compact one can be found that has a earphone/mic and PTT capabilities like the Nady radio. It would be nice to be able to listen/talk to truckers for road conditions etc.

If you are going to be on the toy run I will bring it with me so you can see it.

Gary

[Anonymous]

Let me see what I can come up with for CB's... Maybe I can bust out my mad bike-ninja skillz and rig it up for bikes, i.e. better cable management, 12v to run off the bike instead of needing to replace batteries 5 times during the trip, etc.

Assuming I go I'm also planning on some GPS navigation, plus we should all have tankbags with the paper backups (i.e. maps!) just in case.