Italy 2010 Part 2

I'm back from Italy. Not much more to add to my Part 1 post. I was glad I rented the GS bike while I was there. I am planning on buying a new motorcycle in a couple years and heard a lot of great things about the GS so I wanted to try one and put it through the ringer. I put on about 1500 miles during the week. I rode in a bunch of different conditions. I spent a day riding around the twisty hills of Tuscany, Umbria, and Marche. I rode 300 miles of slab in the rain to Venice. I spent a day riding around urban traffic in Rome. The bike performed well in all conditions, but it just doesn't have the same comforts I am used to with the RT model. I do a lot of long distance riding and the GS doesn't have the wind protection the RT has so you get fatigued a lot faster on the GS. I found myself laying on the tank bag and crouching to stay out of the wind stream on the autostrada. I got tired after a 300 mile day and that normally doesn't happen to me. I think I will stick with the RT when the time comes for a new bike. I stopped at the Ducati World Headquarters in Bologna on my way up to Venice. I spent a couple hours walking around the museum and parts of the factory. I was surprised of the lack of security at the place. I just walked around and no one said anything to me. I even ate lunch in their cafeteria. A crowd of people gathered around my BMW in the parking lot and they were all looking over the bike. The parking lot was filled with Ducati bikes so I suppose a BMW is a novelty to them. I talked to one of the guys in the parking lot who designs parts and I asked him why I was able to walk around so freely and he told me that once you are through the gates, you can pretty much do whatever you want. Not sure about that. Anyway, I spent a few hours there and then made my way up to Veneto to visit with friends for a couple days. I spent a day riding around Rome on Friday which was a lot of fun. I was surprised how easily I was able to get around. I had the best meal of the week at a little place next door to the one-star hotel I was staying in near the train station. I took the train to the airport and that was it. I would like to live over there again one of these days, but I'll settle for the occasional trip to the timeshare.

Italy 2010 Part 1

I am in Italy this week. Les and I purchased a timeshare in Tuscany back when we lived in Naples. The website for the timeshare is: http://www.borgodivagli.com/. Back in 2002, this place was a pile of rocks in the Tuscan hillside with a goat path leading to it. It is very remote. Les and I came here and saw the potential of what it would look like when it was complete so we purchased a week/year for the next 50 years. I have travelled throughout Italy and most of Europe and this is the most beautiful, serene, calm place I have ever seen. Unfortunately, we don't get here every year due to work and scheduling and a bunch of other excuses. We have given the week as gifts to friends and they have all had the opportunity to enjoy it as well. Last summer, I decided I would come here and booked the trip a long time ago. I decided to rent a bike while I am here this time. I rented a brand new 2010 BMW R1200GS (in the picture). I rented the bike in Rome and rode up here yesterday. It is a different experience riding a bike around the hills of Tuscany and Umbria. The plan for the week is to relax today, hit the roads around here tomorrow, ride up to Venice and Vicenza to visit friends on Tuesday, return to the Borgo on Thursday, spend the day riding around Rome on Friday, and fly back on Saturday. That's it.

2010 Minuteman Rally Report Part 3

I took my rest bonus at a truck stop somewhere in VT. It was a productive rest bonus because I got 5,000 points for the rest; the truck stop sold VT-made syrup so I got 3,000 points for purchasing the syrup there, plus I filled the tank. All in all I thought I was in pretty good shape even though the last couple bonuses were a bust. At 1:15 am, I moved out into the darkness and found the next bonus location (an auction site) within about 30 minutes. I was ready to begin my routine. I got off the bike, went to get the flag and rally book to bag the bonus when it hit me. Pow—no flag! I thought for a moment and realized I likely left it at the last bonus location. Shit! I just started to laugh and say out loud “rally over.” All I could do was laugh. I got my head straight and realized I still had four hours until the rally was actually over which gave me time to go back, get my flag, and maybe bag one or two more bonuses. It was a long haul back to the flag; about 75 miles on the slab and then 75 miles back to where I started. The picture in this post is where my flag was parked for about four hours. During that time on the slab I was doing all sorts of calculations on the GPS to figure the best route back to the bonuses and rally headquarters. I quickly figured that I only had about an hour to bag as many points as possible so I only went to the two with the highest value that were left on my list. I hit a 750 pointer which I was so happy about; then the sun started to come up and I knew I needed to book. I made one more stop in Brattleboro VT, but could not find the bonus so the last third of the rally was basically a bust with only 750 points nailed to my rally book. I quickly filled the tank near Brattleboro and hauled ass back to the barn in Northampton. I checked-in at 5:51 am. I had nine minutes to spare. I spent those nine minutes thinking I should have spent nine more minutes searching for that stupid bonus in Brattleboro. Anyway, the line at the scoring table was long so I gathered my stuff and found a dark corner of the hotel and crashed for about an hour. When I got up, the line at the scoring table was longer so I just wandered around the hotel and talked to the folks and started to hear about the top scorers. I had calculated 24,000 points and was hearing numbers like 30,000 for the top finishers so I thought I would be in the middle of the pack somewhere. My friend Paul Saucy and I were the last two to get scored. Paul ended up with 27,175 points. He only went 891 miles so that was a very efficient ride for him. It was his first rally as well. He ended up in 5th place. At the scoring table, I argued a bit with the Rallymaster regarding one of the bonuses, but I lost the argument and didn’t push it. Paul was next to me at the table and just said “it’s 50 points dude, forget it, he’s the Rallymaster.” I took his advice. Paul ended up losing 350 points at the table so I guess I couldn’t complain too much. Brunch was then served around 11:00 and we all ate and waited for the results. The Rallymaster announced the top 10 finishers and I wasn’t in the announcement, but I knew I must have been close because 10th place had 24,124 points. It was Adam Peirce who was riding on a KTM bike and only went 721 miles. Very efficient. I went a total of 1,078 miles for 24,045 points. I would have been under 1,000 miles if I didn’t go back for my flag. I ended up heading for home around 12:00. I was probably the first one out of the parking lot after the ceremony; I just wanted to get home and take a nap. I was very happy with my results for my first rally, but still a little pissed that I did not break into the top 10. Fast forward two days and the results get posted on the Minuteman website: http://www.minutman1000.com/. Guess who’s in the top 10? Oh, hell yes—Me! There was a tie for 4th place so everyone moved up one from there. I must have been in 11th because my name is now in the top 10, misspelled, but in the top 10 nonetheless. I was pumped when I saw that. Even with all the mistakes, I still cracked the top 10. If I rode my plan perfectly, I would have been in 6th, right behind my buddy Paul. It was a good rally and I am looking forward to the next.

2010 Minuteman Rally Report Part 2

All the bonus location coordinates leading up to Rockwood ME were exactly correct. The GPS told me when to stop and I was exactly where I was supposed to be. However, when arriving in Rockwood the coordinates for the church I was suppose to take a picture of was actually a gas station. I ran into two other riders at that gas station and we asked the attendant where the church was and it was about a third of a mile down the road. The other two riders were taking a break at the gas station, but I was still in rally mode and had no time for this break business so I went to the church, took the picture, and left. At the scoring table, I found out that the guy who programmed the coordinates for this bonus got gas at that gas station and those were the coordinates he used as the bonus. It wasn't a big deal, but it was about eight minutes of time wasted and in a 24-hour rally that's a lot of time if you ask me. On my way back down to more bonuses in NH and VT I saw about seven other riders heading up to the bonus in Rockwood. It was a sizeable bonus at 2,000 points and it was a real easy ride there. Most rally riders will find a high-value bonus and work their routes around that bonus and since I saw the other riders, I knew I had to stay on top of my game because they were all likely doing the same or similar route as mine. I bagged a couple 900 point bonuses in Maine on my way into NH and VT. I told myself I would stop at 11:00 for my rest bonus. The rest bonus was worth 5,000 points and only needed to be two hours long. Around 10:30, I approached an area in NH where there were two 500-point bonuses very close to each other. One was a monument at a Quaker church. It was very remote and along a dirt road. My GPS basically shut down at this point and it was pitch black and I could not find either bonus location. I was going down this dirt road that turned into a dirt path that turned into a grass path that turned me into a nervous wreck. There was no place to turn around so I kept going down the path and after about a mile I came to a house with a wide driveway area so I could turn around. A dog came running from the house barking like crazy and as I was turning around he was nipping at my foot; once I came about I bolted out of there. I still had the larger problem of being lost in the middle of nowhere with no GPS reception. I kept going along several different dirt roads giving up on the bonuses and just trying to find my way out of there. At one point I thought I popped a tire so I was paranoid about riding on it. I finally came across some pavement and found a street light to park under and check the pressure in the tires. The tires were at 36 and 42 psi which is exactly where they were supposed to be. I was pissed at myself at this point. I missed 1,000 points and lost an hour of rally time. It was about 11:15 pm now and I found a gas station to stop and rest for a little while. I couldn’t really rest, but I tried. I got going again exactly two hours later at 1:15 am.

2010 Minuteman Rally Report Part 1

So, I explained the basics of this sport earlier, but wanted to get more into specifics about planning the ride and riding the plan. We received the bonus locations a few days before the rally and I probably spent about four hours in total mapping a route prior to the Friday evening dinner before the rally start on Saturday. On Friday night I spent about another hour fine tuning things. I didn’t change any of my route plans, but I did write down all of the bonus codes and what was required at each stop. I wanted to have that on my tank bag so I could quickly reference each location. That way I didn’t need to fumble around with the rally book before getting started at each location. This saved my ass big time because my GPS screwed me at the third bonus location. More on that in a minute. So, I had the plan and was ready to roll on Saturday morning. We had a riders meeting in the parking lot of the Clarion Hotel in Northampton MA at 5:30 in the morning prior to the 6:00 start. It was a very well organized event. We were instructed to line up three abreast at one end of the parking lot and my bike happened to be near the start so I was the second bike out of the chute. My basic route was planned at a thousand miles with 28 stops. I would hit MA, NH, ME, and VT. I stayed away from CT, RI, and NY. There was a bonus at Madison Square Garden and people actually went there for it. It seemed like a real time burner to go all that way. The point return for going that route was not worth it. Anyway, my first set of bonuses was in downtown Boston which is my back yard so I was pumped and off to a good start. However, I am not a Garmin power user so I am still learning the functionality of my GPS. One of the bonuses was the TD Garden where the Celtics and Bruins play. Anyway, I used to work next door to this place so I know the area and knew exactly where I would go for the picture which did not jive with the Garmin so because I didn’t pass the waypoint (according to Garmin) the GPS kept recalculating to take me back there. I was 10 miles on to the next bonus, but Garmin would not give me directions to it because I did not go by the TD Garden waypoint. I was so frustrated I deleted the route and just went with individual waypoints. Here is where my handwritten sheets really saved me. Because I had all the route codes as waypoints in the GPS and I had them in the order of my original route, I would just punch in the waypoint and go. It was one extra step when I would get back on the bike, but I didn’t have time to mess around with the route and it didn’t really take up any time because I had the general directions of the entire route in my head and could motor along without the need for immediate directions from the GPS. The key to success in these rallies is time management. You really need to have a quick efficient system of being able to get off the bike, get your rally flag, take the picture, fill-out the rally book, put everything away, and go. I purchased a piece of luggage for the back seat of the bike with a quick zipper which I stored everything in and made it easy to access. My stops were about 60 to 90 seconds. I would leave the bike running, get off the bike, only take one glove off, leave the helmet on and just flip it up, grab my stuff, take the pic, put everything away, and take off. I thought it was about as efficient as I could be. I might be able to shave a few seconds if I convert the zipper bag to a velcro bag, but otherwise I’m doing everything right. Gas stops need to be quick and efficient as well. I basically treat the gas stops like bonus stops with the same routine. From Boston I motored up the coast stopping in Wakefield MA, Newburyport MA, and Portsmouth NH before making the long haul up to Rockwood ME where I will pick-up in Part 2.

Moto Rally Indoc

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was planning to do the Minuteman 1000 24-hour Rally this year. I did it this past weekend and had a blast. There are two types of motorcyle rallies. There are the kind where you hang out with a bunch of like-minded riders like Sturgis or Laconia Bike Week and then there are real rallies where you are competing with other riders in a scavanger hunt kind of game. The way it works is that you get a bonus listing and you need to map the optimal route collecting the most points in a limited time. The Minuteman is a 24-hour rally so you have 24 hours to collect the most points. Points are given for a variety of things at the discretion of the Rallymaster. In this rally there were 80 bonus locations scattered around the mid-Atlantic, primarily New England, but with a couple locations in Canada. We were given the locations on Wednesday night and the Rally started Saturday morning at 6:00. When I got the locations I mapped a few different route options because we did not get the actual rules of the Rally until the group dinner Friday night. Sometimes you are given constraints like you can only visit this location from 8:00 to 10:00 or a daytime or nightime bonus. This rally is targeted for beginners so we were not slammed with a bunch of rules. Also, we were given additional point collecting opportunities on Friday night like 3,000 points for purchasing a pint of Vermont-made syrup in Vermont. We were also given points for resting. To earn the rest bonus you need a receipt with a date/time stamp from a place at the beginning of your rest period and a receipt from the same place at the end of your rest period. It could be an ATM receipt or a gas receipt or a coffee shop receipt, it doesn't really matter if both receipts are from the same place. Mine happened to be gas receipts. You also received points for maintaining a fuel log (receipts and odometer readings for each fuel purchase). Most of the bonus locations required a photo to prove you were there in order to claim the points. We were issued rally flags with a number and we needed to have our flag in the picture in order to collect the points. Some bonuses required a receipt and others required answering a question about the location visited like "how many flag poles are on top of the building at this location?" That's a little background about rallying. There are rules, but mostly it is about having fun. I am going to break this post into two. More specific details about my ride in the rally in part 2.