Leaving Friday morning, 8/28 from KC

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cupcake_mike

Active member
Headed east to St. Louis, then on to Springfield, IL that first night. On to Hastings, MN via Janesville, WI on Saturday. Sunday coming back to KC via Omaha, NE. Should be 5-700 miles per day, the longest day will likely be Saturday, as I'll be meeting a group of riders about halfway to Hastings.

2000ish miles for the 3 day weekend is expected.

Shooting for as little interstate as possible.

Holler at me if you want to join for a leg or the whole trip.
 
EllenGtrGrl

EllenGtrGrl

Active member
You ARE making quite the loop. Janesville is not only south, but quite a bit east of Minnesota. I live 60 miles northeast of Janesville, in one of the Milwaukee's southwest 'burbs.

Have fun. The back roads in the Janesville area, are similar to the back roads where I live - nice, hilly, and winding.
 
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cupcake_mike

Active member
First day done. 560 miles riding over 9 hrs, including breaks. Longest day on the bike to this point was 275 miles (i got it 6 weeks ago).

Bike ran great and either it is breaking in nicely or just likes being flogged through the hills and corners, because my mpg went up from mid 30s to low 40s. The vast majority of my previous 2k miles on the bike was spent at 85mph, on straight roads, commuting to work.

My "touring" impressions. Glad i have only 120 miles between fillups because that seat isn't great, but neither are any other stock standard/ naked bike seats I've ridden so no surprise there. After about 3 hrs my right knee was screaming, again no surprise as this is the norm, a couple ibuprofen fixes that. Also found i can put my legs on top of the tank and lock my feet infront of the handlebars, while laying on my tail bag with the cruise on...for a couple minutes at a time is a great relief. I usually put at least 1" drop pegs on all my bikes for this reason and it does help a bit. I haven't seen any for the ftr, I'm going to talk to my friends at knight design, as they are who i always get drop pegs from and see if they can't run a set. Otherwise everything was great, it was high 80s to high 90s all day and i didn't feel overly warm on the bike and it ran great. Did notice a slightly different noise from the stock exhaust after my last gas stop, almost sounds like it blew a weld? I'll look at it in the morning, I've got some beers to drink.

Cheers!
 
lars9989

lars9989

Member
I periodically stand up on my pegs to stretch out, but not sure if you can do it with the stock pegs. I’ve always had the ProTaper pegs.
 
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cupcake_mike

Active member
well, the "reserve" on my FTR, at least this last fill-up is about 15 miles. Could sworn i got 25 out of it before. So, I'm on the side of the highway waiting for roadside assistance to bring me fuel.
 
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cupcake_mike

Active member
Saturday i did about 650 miles from springfield, il to hastings, mn. A couple friends intended on joining me for that leg, but life came up so i was solitary again, until after lunch when i met with a group and we road for the next 4 or so hours. Beautiful weather and roads. I think the exhaust "blowing", i thought i heard is my imagination. Put my bike on a buddy's lift while running and could feel no leaks at idle and when giving throttle. Was neck and neck with a couple modded 1125s most of the afternoon, the FTR held its own pretty well through the twisties, they got me on the straights when the stock speed governor kicked in.

Finished the 3 day weekend with my ride back home today, about 600 miles. The wear bars on the stock rear tire were worn clean through by the time i pulled into my shop, but can't see the steel belts yet, so that's nice. Gonna try to mount the new rear (trailsmart) before i start a week of night shifts tomorrow night. Hopefully it will last a bit more than the 3(ish)k out of the stock one.

Just over 1800 miles in the last 3 days. Pretty good time for a bike some think isn't a "tourer".
 
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