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Jun 27, 2024TranscriptCommentShare

Unfold our FTC disclosure melodrama here ...

B4D2R

Robin and Brian discuss pre-tour maintenance, lodging logistics and roadside double D's. Music by Otis McDonald. Download our feed here.

Transcript

As legible as we are intelligible ...

Robin: Welcome to the pre sevens group tour episode, which you'll be hearing post sevens, as well as the post sevens group tour episode, which is impossible to hear pre sevens. So I guess it works out. Here's what this episode is about because it is heaven. All right. Ready? One, two, three. Everybody's freaking out, man. Not really, but sort of. I'm getting more communications than I'm used to about tour, tour, Robin tour. And I'm like, yeah, like sit there eating my sandwich. Because I've got 7,000 miles already under my belt. And I've led this tour since 2017. I went to tr.bike and moused over digi tools. I packed everything on the list. I made sure all the hotels are waiting for us. They're all paid up. I got my sweep writer. They will be riding with a spot X and a first aid kit. And we're going to go on a motorcycle ride, whatever. And I am excited about it. Don't get me wrong. I'm like, I love riding these roads. I'm anxious and excited to ride the roads that you helped compile.

Brian: You're giddy like a school girl. Okay. Got it.

Robin: I'm giddy enough to the point where I know that I still love riding motorcycles, but the feedback I'm getting from people who are, some of which may be just uncovering their bike, like, oh, the season's beginning. Meanwhile, you and I still have gravel in our teeth from New Mexico. I'm just sort of like, yeah, that's where I'll be. That's what I'm doing next. Munching on pretzels, you know? And that's kind of what this episode is about to some extent, because there are some small rubbery grommets in the machine. I wouldn't say they're bolts, no loose bolts in the machine, just some small rubbery grommets that are going to be eaten up by all this. So yeah, I went through the packing checklist. If you go to TRN up by mouse over digi tools and click on packing checklist, that is currently for a tour. That's pretty much everything I pack. I pack all of that there. And there, you know, anybody who reads through it is eventually going to be like, why would I do that? And that's the point at which you stop. It becomes gradually more ridiculous to either better trained or less trained eye. At that point you say, okay, that's enough. I got everything I need and you're, you're off. Right? Yeah. It's already packed up. It's been, I mean, I have those set up as go bags for anything I do, whether I'm coaching an MSF course or leading a tour. Nice. Now I don't think he's going to make, he's not going to make it this round, but I thought about seeing if Travis wanted to join in. Oh, actually, let me send him a message right now on Marco Polo and just let him know that if he wants to join in Marco Polo, either that, or maybe he's, he's halfway down the checklist and still working on it, I don't know. He's halfway down the twins list is what he's doing. He's dealing with the kids. First things first hit me. You and I are going to break the Cardinal rule. We're going to perform semi major maintenance on the motorcycle the day before a prepaid commercial group writing tour, I'm going to go to tear it up, like, and look at my maintenance records. Cause that's where the information is.

Brian: Is there an article about this? Do not, do not screw with your bike the night before you're coming from Wisconsin to Indy. Yes.

Robin: So you're going to be like in the middle, three fourths of the way to my destination.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: I think it's like 200 some odd miles to the destination after that, but we're doing about 400 miles tomorrow. Cause we're not taking the slab. We're doing purely backroads. We're going to do the Mayberry approach, the Brian ringer finding fun roads and the flatlands method, which is an article on the website. I'm going to give you some material information, a list of everything that needs to be itemized and ready to rock.

Brian: When I get there stuff to have for Robbins, strangely enough, the first one. Do you have grip glue? Not specifically. Okay. I have glues of assorted parts.

Robin: That hairspray tip that people say about putting grips on or more so putting on a grip puppies. It doesn't really, I mean, if it gets wet, this hairspray is like designed to come off in the shower. So all of a sudden my grips become all slosh, which isn't good. So I was thinking about gluing the grip puppies on.

Brian: Okay. Uh, I can, I can scare up some rubber cement. I can scare up some weather stripping cement. Uh, I could go get some grip glue tomorrow.

Robin: Hey, if you have an excuse to do it, get on the bike, go for a little ride. But these are by no way demands. They're hopeful requests and we'll see what happens. The major maintenance that people are now just like, was that it? You're going to put some grip puppies on there. Do you even wrench bro? The major maintenance isn't all that major. The truth is, is that the shaft on my 2016 BMW R 1200 RS, which has 104 points, something thousand miles on it, that shaft has never been replaced and it needs to be because it is distinctively notched both front and tail. You feel it click to center. I'm like, oh, that's good. I think it's supposed to. Nope. Nope. Free play. I had one ordered and mailed to Brian's house. Brian is the halfway point for this tour. You felt nothing but free play?

Brian: No notch, no, nothing. It is on my work bench awaiting its, uh, awaiting its fate.

Robin: So that will be a process. Not much of one fairly easy to deal with, especially if I'm the megaphone. I've maintained the notched shaft drive for quite some time now. And it basically is going to go something like this. You've got Molly 77, right? Molly grease.

Brian: Yeah. Molly grease. Yeah. It's a Molly paste. Yeah.

Robin: There is a tutorial from the Grumpy Goat YouTube archives, which I will send your way. You'll see what I'm up against. It's pretty easy to do.

Brian: Yeah. I've done this before too, on a, on an older BMW. Okay. So you know the score. Nothing. Yeah. Nothing was rocket surgery.

Robin: It will still, it needs to be my surgery. You know your noise. I know mine too for this bike specifically. We'll make good on it. We're not going to mess with the union pivot that can stay on, but we're going to pull the rear wheel. We're going to unscrew the rear speed sensor. We're going to remove the bolts from the rear brake caliper. Basically one is conjoined to the fender. The other is not. Then we're going to unseat only the front of the rear boot. This is where we got to be careful. I don't know if it's supposed to be there or not, but the boot has a tear in it. But here's the thing. So there's a plastic rim on the inside that has a couple of teeth. That's what hooks it into place when it's fastened. We're going to pull those teeth off and it's what's below the teeth. That's still connected to the rubber below that. It tends to get kind of, it's getting a little flimsy. Like it's detached. I'm okay with that. That's fine. We're just going to carefully pull it back.

Brian: I've got duct tape, you know, if you want to.

Robin: Oh, perfect. Like liquid electrical tape. Oh yeah. A couple of wraps, electrical tape.

Brian: It'll be good.

Robin: No problem. Gorilla tape and then cover that in black liquid electrical tape. And then it'll look like the real thing. Basically Burt Monroe, the tires.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: So we'll unseat those teeth, bring it back. And that's when we will finally unseat the final bolt that holds the fender on and let the whole thing slowly hang down. Now it won't hang down by itself. We have to take a Phillips head screwdriver, the longest one you got. I've got long ones. Then we need to turn the knuckle on the back of the shaft to a very specific position so that it will want to look down at the rear housing, and that will allow the rear housing to set away from that component at that point, a little bit, Jimmy jam, shake a leg. We can pull the shaft right out. No problem. And then get the new one completely lubricated. Begin to feed it in to the front, which will have the boot loosened up on that side as well. Get it to mount up on the splines, have the bike in neutral, turn it to the right position.

Brian: Yeah.

Robin: Reversal the process. Haynes manual style. Rebuilding your entirely dismantled engine is simply a reversal of the unbuilding process.

Brian: Okay. Yeah. This will be no problem.

Robin: I got to bang that out basically right when I get to your door. And it's really most important that you hear about that boot, because I don't want to tear it out. It needs to go back on.

Brian: I will keep my fingers away from that. Yeah. And we'll have my lift. So it'll be nice and easy and civilized.

Robin: No, no scrambling around in the dirt, like cavemen, you know, eight millimeter Allen, six millimeter Allen T 30 T 40. We do not need the 24 millimeter hex. That would be if we were going to remove the entire drive unit, then we get into some fluids. So you've got the Molly grease that will lubricate everything on the internals. We're going to need something that is almost a rubberizing compound. It doesn't have to be the sealant that they use on the boots for these BMW. It's in a container that has to be kept perfectly closed at all times, because as you open it, you take a brush and you dip into it as though you're, you know, at a barber shop getting a shave. It looks just like the shaving cream. All right. You brush this onto the surface of the swing arm, and then you also brush it onto the boot. You then click the boot into place, wipe off the excess, come back in about 15 minutes to 30 minutes, and it becomes rubber sounds like contact cement, maybe whatever it is, the tub that they recommend for them, something the size of a cottage cheese container is like 500 bucks, damn Germans, what the hell? So what do I use? What do you act? What do people actually use? Anything that is a water displacement, goo, residual sloshy snot that can be brazened onto the surface points, then close that, wipe away the excess. And it's always still there. Every time I come back to it, looks nasty. And then you cover away the first layer and then it's clear again, and it's still there. That's good enough for me.

Brian: I have a Hylamar.

Robin: Will that be easy to remove in the future? Uh, yeah. Me cleaning that off should not rip the rubber off of the remainder of the thing that holds that thing into place, which by the way, once you put it all back together, it's pressed into place. Even when it's hanging at its lowest point, it's actually compressed against the metal, which is another win-win. What I got written here is the rubber boot gets whatever silicone paste comes closest to becoming a soft cured rubber mission automotive is okay. We put it all back together top to bottom. Could you suspend it from the top pin? Put the rest back on. And we are goal. And we're going to do all this at your house after a 400 mile ride, and that's the truth.

Brian: Sounds good. How do you feel about this? 20 minutes and we'll go get pizza. All right.

Robin: It probably won't take that even. We'll probably get it done pretty quick. I know I've been rambling, but I got to bang it out when I get there. So what are your thoughts?

Brian: Should not be a problem. I'm a well-equipped for all that stuff. So yeah, it shouldn't be a problem. Do you use like RTV for that? Rubber noise there, weatherstrip cement, or what do you need for that? I'm always unclear.

Robin: I am in fact using mission automotive silicone paste. It's basically a waterproof dielectric grease. That's it. And if we think of a better idea, all the better, but it can't, it has to be easy to wipe away in the future. Oh, okay. Thick lubricant oxidation. Excellent on metal rubber gaskets. It works on gaskets. There you go. A spark plug. So we're just trying to displace water.

Brian: I see. I've got tons. There you go. So that's the riveting first segment. Riveting. I tell you, we're going to be wrenching. We're not gonna be riveting, but anyway, yeah. So, so basically you've done this all before, except we revised the last segment of it. And a triple sevens happens. And then the following weekend is, uh, basically I'm running like a, the vintage Suzuki rally, uh, in, in Southern Indiana, and you're going to go to that too. It's always like just today, I got two emails in a row this early this morning. Like, oh, I can't find, you know, I can't find anybody to watch my kid or, you know, it's, it's starting, you know, you always get a lot of, and in your case, people are paying to be there and, and so they're motivated, but it's really funny for this, uh, Suzuki rally. You always, you know, you run out of rooms, you don't have any place to put people, blah, blah, blah, and, and then they inevitably, you know, we have 25, 30 people stuff happens that can't make it. It's just kind of funny. It's like, just, you don't have to feel bad. It's just, it is what it is. That's what life is.

Robin: It's always a bummer when the people that respond to the fact that an event is happening are the ones who are like, yeah, no, man, I'm sorry. Can't do it. Here's an elaborate reason why I can't do it. I bet you there are a lot of other people that are reading this and also won't be able to do it because of this response. And that's like, you're creating a negative daisy chain. Stop it.

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like Yoda, you know, do or do not. There is no try. Yeah. Don't reply all with that crap. Nobody cares. Yeah. It's funny. And the other part is a lot of people are showing up on old bikes and, but you do, like you mentioned something earlier, uh, every year people show up who like roll it out into the sunshine for the first time on Thursday, you know? Yeah. Yeah. What do I bring?

Robin: How do I do this?

Brian: What's a motorcycle? I don't know what my name is. Yeah. Off I go into the, into the twisty roads. Yeah. I always tell people get out there and do some riding and it's been a beautiful spring around here. And you know, this one attracts mostly people from Ohio and the Midwest and Indiana, Kentucky. But yeah, we get people from all over, but yeah, it's like, get out and ride people. Geez. Yep. Make sure your bike's ready. We always end up fixing bikes. They're old, but we'd rather ride and eat. Eating's important. Eating's good. I thought it was interesting in your, in your list of it's under TRO.bike, the moto packing checklist. There's two schools of thought here. Like bring, bring all the underwear you're going to need and socks and so forth. And in your school of thought is wash your delicates every night. No, I do it in the shower. So you can carry less.

Robin: Now I did hear an awesome concept from Mel Bolt. Shout out to Mel Bolt, friend of mine, fellow MSF instructor. What you can do is if you start collecting t-shirts, really it's time for them to go. Keep them on a bag on the, on the passenger seat, wear them and throw them in the garbage as you go.

Brian: Yeah. Or stick them in the collection box at Goodwill or whatever. Hand them off to somebody in need. Goodwill washes them.

Robin: So I thought it was interesting, but yes, I basically, my clothes, like my showers take long because I'm washing my socks and underwear and shirt for two days later. And I get out of the shower, get on tomorrow's clothes, wear them to dinner, try to be good to them. Stink my way through a ride the next morning. Repeat this round. I am bringing a third set.

Brian: Well, were people talking? Was it, was there, was there pushback on this?

Robin: No, no, no, no, no. It was more just like seven days. There's a chance of Montezuma's revenge. Let's just make sure I don't take the hit.

Brian: You're not exactly running around Appalachia looking for the cuisine. Let's put it that way. Yeah. You can find fine dining and excellent food. Yes. It's here and there, but in general, you just need fuel to keep moving. I'm ready for the next bit. I have no idea what the next bit's going to be. The logistics.

Robin: Now, this is one of those things where I was hoping Travis could come hang out. He's leaving with me tomorrow for this tour. So basically I've created a document that needs to be easy to access. You got to love this technological day and age. Quite frankly, it's dated. We've been, we've had the internet for a very long time, but for those of us that were there when it started, we can't stop looking back and thinking, thank goodness that I can access mutually usable information. So we have a Google doc that is a collection of hotels and more importantly for those hotels, the reservation numbers, there was a sevens where half of my profits got eaten up by a hotel in Parkersburg, West Virginia. I won't name my name then, but I will say that we are staying at a much finer place this round. Everything is booked. Everything is paid for. I have the reservation numbers. I have the transaction dates and receipts. All of this is in a Google doc because there was a time where when we got there, we're like, yeah, we don't remember any of that and they would not take any proof. It wouldn't, we couldn't get a key. I had to buy the rooms again. So they're fine.

Brian: So did you book directly with the hotel or through a third party?

Robin: Directly. Not real happy with them. Now, everything is laid out for Travis to use as sweep. When we get to a destination, he hops up the bike, he walks in, he's getting key. I'm keeping everybody jazz hands, get every park, even a comfortable razzle-dazzle, a little soft shoe, whatever Travis goes in. Hey, I'm here for TRO, get the keys, hand them out to people. You're here, you're here, you're here. They can go right to the room. Everything's all set up.

Brian: Nice.

Robin: So that's all situated. That was a lesson learned that definitely a very smart thing to do with any given tour is make sure that you have the information in hand when you get there. So when they say like, yeah, I don't know, I guess you have to pay again. No, you won't. You have a police officer hand them the information. Anything you want to add to that? I would imagine that having led as many rides and rallies as you have in large groups, have you had any negative experiences, more importantly, for the benefit of good listening, have you had any unexpectedly positive experiences that were a matching result to being well-organized?

Brian: One thing I think has worked out less well than it could have in the past. Renting like a cabin. And nowadays you do that with Airbnb or Vrbo or something like that. But we've done this before in the past. And then you show up and there's just way too many people for the space or, you know, you have to, you have to figure that out. You know, that one of the, it's one of those things where there's nothing like going there and learning about it and getting good information. Sometimes you can't do that. But there've been times. Yeah. I guess we're going to be on the floor over here.

Robin: You know, every house is a 20 bedroom house. If you make the closets and cabinetry into a room.

Brian: Yeah. Some, some of the ones you'll find. And again, this is, this is nothing new to Airbnb or Vrbo or any of those. It's always been a thing. Honestly, there's a hell of a lot to be said for a chain hotel, you know, by and large, I mean, you got screwed over by a chain, so whatever, but there's a lot to be said for that. I also say I used to camp a lot and campsites are crazy. It's like, just get a room, you know, it's not that much more money and you don't have to carry all that crap. And if you're camping, you do it for the experience, not for a place to stay.

Robin: It does depend on where you're camping.

Brian: Yeah. But yeah, if you're in a tent, I mean, there are a lot of like Indiana state parks, they want like a lot of money, 25, 35 bucks to throw a tent on the grass and have a place to pee. That's terrible. But yeah, I kind of stopped camping as just a cheap way to stay anyplace a long time ago. And we also talked about stuff like one of the things I think has headed off a lot of trouble is I learned the hard way to really try to figure out if there's some sort of like huge event going on in the place where you're going to go. Yeah. Every couple of years, there's a giant bow hunting gathering in that it moves around the country. But one year it was in Bedford, Indiana, and it was the same weekend that we wanted to have is like this week-long bow hunting event, uh, where they're target shooting with bows and all this, you know, people with arrows everywhere. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Everywhere had no idea. We got everything scheduled. We started to try to figure it out and it's like, well, they're everybody's full, there's no place to stay. And it was, it was a big pain in the butt. And I've done that in other places, you know, figure out is there like some big country concert? A lot of times we're in rural areas, which is where all the good roads are. If, you know, Joe Yeehaw and, and, and chicken pluckers are going to be in town, you're not going to find a hotel for a hundred miles, you know, because there's like two in town. You kind of have to dig in and get a sense of, is there something going on that night? You know, like look on the hotel's website and see like, okay, it looks like there's, you know, it looks like there's plenty availability. I don't know, but that's something I've learned to do is do a little Googling, figure out, find the town's website. Oh yeah. There's going to be a, there's going to be a big hoorah there that night. Let's, let's do something else. Try to stay away from tourist traps around the weekends. I mean, some places are just always full of tourists, like anywhere around Smokies. My God, on the weekend, some places get ridiculous.

Robin: How do you feel about now that everything is in place and my bike is overstuffed minus one bag. We abandoned all of this and make Wisco Disco happen.

Brian: Let's get started on it. Let's try part of it. Okay. So for Wisco Disco, we need how many?

Robin: Three full days, three maps, non-repetitive, and we're in the center of Driftless Accents. Now I went on one of the routes that we would use just as a warmup. Travis and I went and rode the Boaz Kaz route. Created by Dale Hoke, who runs Driftless Riding Adventures. Driftless Roads, USA. That's the website. He was on the podcast years back. Problem is, is that the Boaz Kaz route will not do. Yes, I want this to be a level three, like a three helmets of difficulty out of five tour. But I want it to be that based on singular lodging location. So we need one place to drop our kit and then we go ride our bikes at level four and level five helmets from that location, discuss.

Brian: No, like this Boaz Kaz, whatever. It's a, it's really, it's, it's concentrated. So there's a lot, it's a lot of good stuff, but it's all in that one place. With three days to play with, you have the opportunity to really get a lot further out and come back different ways and do interesting things. You cross it, uh, Prairie du Chien, for example, that's a really beautiful route. Not super, super technical or anything, although you can get some, you can get in a lot of twisties, but it's got a lot of variety, got a lot of beautiful scenery along the river, and then you can cross back over around La Crosse. Are you, are you looking at his maps or building one of your own in your head? No, I'm looking at the, I'm looking at the Boaz one.

Robin: Yeah, no, we can do better together. We can do better. Actually, you alone can do better because you know, where you're looking for the landscapes, the ridgeline, you know, what we want, we want to go for the sweepers and the pavement and the hard cornering and the, the whoop ass and the rural and the, the hollows and the, all the weird named roads and the alphabet soup, we want that. And we want it in mass and not repetitive. That's the mission. The punchline to me telling you about the Boaz casting was that it didn't do the job and it won't do the job. They're great roads. They're wonderful riding. They're just not enough for the thrill seeking that I'm after.

Brian: Not to get all meta here, but one of the things I think is really important is to kind of experience a place that's different to branch out. Yeah. Like in the past, we've had rides where we get over into Iowa and it's a different planet over there. Absolutely. We also get over into some of the really interesting, we get pretty far North into Minnesota and then cross back over. Yep. So hit those, you know, those bluffs and stuff along the river. They're a lot of fun. There's a lot of scenery to look at. So basically like more variety, you know, get away from the dairy areas in Wisconsin and, you know, go experience something different and, and that you don't have at home.

Robin: And if we overflow, then you become the sweep rider. But for now, Maggie, you'll join us. What do you think?

Brian: I don't know what a sweep rider does. So you'll have to educate me.

Robin: Sweep rider, CPR certified, never passes. The last rider has a first aid kit on them and is a, an emergency guide to the correct location. Should people get separated?

Brian: Oh, okay. Well, that's easy. I'm not CPR certified right now, actually.

Robin: Well, we're going to work on that and it's worth it. Dang it. And if you're not everybody out there, two things you can do to make the world better. One, learn CPR and first aid to maybe learn a little bit of sign language. I think you should share your screen and you should start a ride with GPS route and you should begin building my Wisconsin Driftless tour.

Brian: All right. One of the things, I think we need a destination each day. All right. And I haven't figured that out yet. So maybe that's something we can talk about and then, and then start building around that. So let me, um, how about I do it?

Robin: I'll start a map and then you can direct me, but I'll help. I'll put, have some input.

Brian: All right. So you're going to start out in Richland center, Wisconsin.

Robin: That is the plan. This will be day one. Uh, Richland center, Wisconsin, bam, bam to bam, bam.

Brian: We're going to start the route. All right. So what you want to do is get on that, uh, four lane, uh, state high. No, if we get one route done today, we'll be doing well. Okay. What's a, a destination or a goal for the day rather than, you know, the, rather than just start picking roads and stuff. One thing that's really interesting to me is, uh, crossing the Mississippi, uh, and getting over into Iowa and into Minnesota.

Robin: Yeah. I'm looking at Winona.

Brian: Yeah. So like Winona, what is that? Minnesota yet?

Robin: It is Minnesota. Look at that. So should I click it as the destination?

Brian: Winona is the destination and see what kind of mileage we get. And so how much room do we, you know, how much do we have to play with here? And they have a bridge there, right? That's the other thing is you can look at, there's a bridge at Winona, one at La Crosse. We've made 95 miles. Okay. So there in back is close to 200 miles. So that doesn't allow for a heck of a lot of messing around.

Robin: But then again, just getting there. It looks like it's not a bad time. However, if we are looking at the 250 mark as a day, I think we have some stretchiness that we can work with and make good on and still be like, hell yeah. Or we just break it back. No big deal. We've picked a destination. And now I can just hit the control point button and drag things wherever I want and tether, whatever I want. So then the question becomes, how are we getting there, Brian?

Brian: You have to really balance entertainment and tightness and, and so forth with actually, you know, making progress towards your goal, because yeah, 95 miles away is a little stretchy to turn that into a 250 mile day. Better to overdo it and then subtract. Yeah. So one of the first things to think about is where are we crossing the river? Winona is a pretty far stretch. So you could cross the river at Winona or you could cross the river at La Crosse. The other question is, I know the river, uh, the bridge is one of those really wobbly ones that you can see through. A lot of people have a tough, I have a problem with that. So, yeah. So it's like a metal girder. Yeah. And there's two bridges in, uh, La Crosse. We'll cross back over in Winona. But if you look directly across the river from Winona, it's like a kind of a big flat area. But there are, there are some, yeah, there's some interesting stuff and then it gets flat and then you can. So yeah, maybe, maybe worth going ahead and crossing there. Like going through Dodge, like such. So across the Winona and you go north of Fountain City, for example. And you look at 95 Arcadia. So there's some named roads in Wisconsin, which I've learned may not be the greatest thing you want to hit. Yeah. But you can get on stuff like, uh, like out of Dewey Corners. There's a road called T that I know is really a lot of fun.

Robin: Okay. Zooming in on Winona and crossing back over. Where is, where's T at?

Brian: You cross the river at Winona, you go north of Fountain City. You hop on G and then get on 95 to Arcadia. Oh, I see. Yeah. Yeah. Get on 85 and then get on T. You could take that G that's off to the west a little bit of, uh, I'm betting that's more fun.

Robin: You take G to 95 is what you're talking about.

Brian: Correct.

Robin: Okay. I gotcha. That's what's for dinner right there. So then hop on.

Brian: That's what's for dinner. Then hop on, hop on 95. Yeah. Yep. So get on 95 all the way through Arcadia and then see how T's going, heading off to the south there.

Robin: Yes, I do. That looks like a lot of fun. One would hope.

Brian: Yeah. And you can see how it goes over a pretty pronounced ridge. Yes. So you want to follow the ridge down? Uh, that's a named road. It's not a, it's not a letter road. Oak Ridge. Yeah. Yeah. I gotcha. So you're going to need to get your little man and look at him.

Robin: Let's find out.

Brian: Yeah. See, there's no, there's no stripes of any kind. It's pretty narrow.

Robin: Oh yeah. That's a single, it's a lane and a half wide, but it is paved. And completely visible. What's your preference? You want me to stay on T through French upper Creek?

Brian: Yeah, we can stay on T there. I'll put it this way. Our target is a town called Mindoro and then south of Mindoro and C is a Mindoro cut.

Robin: Yes. So you want to do the Mindoro cut route? How do you spell Mindoro? M I N D U R O?

Brian: O R O.

Robin: Nice. Mindoro, Wisconsin. Been a while, man. The question is, can we get there in a more interesting way?

Brian: Right.

Robin: I'm going to go ahead and take double D because you gotta, I mean, what? If you don't take double D.

Brian: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So there's a river you got to get across there. So whatever. So then out of Mindoro, Mindoro cut is, is C south of Mindoro. Okay. You can stay on that VV blah, blah, blah. So take C. Yeah. So then you're, you kind of end up in another river Valley that you got to get across.

Robin: Nothing wrong with that. I'm looking at like going through Bangor, picking up double I and I.

Brian: Yeah. Those are looking good. Yeah. I, I, and then I, I, I, I, and then, uh, yeah. And then G and H, uh, we'll work you back East. Okay. Keep going. Yeah.

Robin: So one 60 over to G are you? Oh, I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying. Now we're south of Newburgh corners. Right. Jumping on G heading over to H going due East. Yeah. That's looks nice. Maybe pick up X to P yeah. I mean, it's not like I haven't done this before, but what you've done is you've set us up with an onslaught of accessibility. This is really good. So we could stay on P all the way to this lower Ridge, man.

Brian: Yeah. Like, like I know P is really nice all the way over to one, one 31.

Robin: Yes. Now, do we want to do one 31 though? Or do we want to basically I S doesn't look bad, but I think you're right. We can just pick up P all the way through and through over one 31 down to Lafarge.

Brian: P actually continues. If you go a little bit North on one 31. Oh yeah. So there's options here. You can go in that area. That is the only issue is we're at 217 miles, but we're, we're not too far. Okay. I think, uh, pick up P a little North on one 31, keep going on P yep. As P goes through Dilley and all that. You're kind of spoiled for choice here, but yeah, there's a lot of great ways to get back to Richland center. You know, this, this D down here, you could hook back a little bit on 82 and then get on a or D a and N D stuff like that. Okay. Yeah. I see what you're talking about. So remember we have to kind of fix the, the outbound part of the route.

Robin: Yes. It's like, don't worry about the creative process. Just cut and trim later. Right. D looks better to me and I could stay on D for a while, though.

Brian: I don't know if it's going to be D yeah. D will take you pretty much all the way back to Richland center.

Robin: And it has a double D attachment. The question is, is it any good? Let's do a quick spot check. I'm going to drop a little guy in here on D. This looks pretty freaking brilliant. I'm not angry about it.

Brian: It's got a line in the middle. What, uh, what else do you need?

Robin: Yeah, it'll work. So D we can also pick up. I got to do it again, man. There's no way you can draw my attention away from a double D. We're taking it. And double D continues all the way. Let's make sure it actually lights up. Oh, we lose it when we get back to D. So we'll just pick it back up on, uh, basically on 80 here.

Brian: So you're pretty close to Richland center. Yeah. So you can, that's pretty damn good. We started at our destination. We worked our way back right now. The route's going to be what? About 270 miles. So there's some stuff a lot to fix, but yeah.

Robin: That's no big deal. We'll trim it. I've got no beef with that.

Brian: Yeah. And then we got to awesomify the outbound route. Yes. Cause yeah, we just let that happen. I'm going to save this.

Robin: I think there's a way to collaborate. I'm going to say it's time for us to go on this episode. I'm going to share this with you so you can edit it. And when I get back from sevens, we'll pick up right where we left off and make something good. What do you say?

Brian: I say, that sounds good.

The Gist

Robin's ready to lead another 777 tour, meaning seven riders, through seven states, in seven days. That means breaking one of his own hard learned rules regarding "big" maintenance the night before the event. All of this while the customers are getting fidgety.

This blends nicely into group tour planning and more specifically, lodging. Previous tours have seen both support and sabotage where hotels are concerned. We're lookin' at you, Parkersburg, WV.

To lighten things up, though ... Brian has a lot of great ideas for our newly revamped "Wisco Disco" tour. While the bulk of it will indeed be anchored in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota have a few tricks up their sleeve as well. TLDR: always ride the double D's.

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