BunBurner 1500 Ride Report

Richard Thinks I am Crazy!  :)

My Summary

For all of you who haven't heard yet, my crazy "Gracefully Aging Gentleman" riding partner, Rocky, didn't get enough on the NE1000 ride. Now we are about to depart on a Northeast Bun Burner 1500. With the same attention to detail he exhibited on our NE1000 ride a couple of weeks ago, we now have a meticulously plotted route that will take us from Andover, MA to Harrisburg, PA, Wheeling, WV, Cleveland, OH, Buffalo, NY and back home.

"We can do it easy, only gotta average 62" he says with that weird glow in his eye, that enthusiasm blowing through all the logical reasons I have for trying to maintain my own fragmented sanity.

"My girlfriend will kill me", I wimper.
"What the hell," he says. "The ride will probably kill us both."

"I need new tires on my bike."
"So do I, and I'm getting them next week."

"I'm too old for that ####," I try as a last resort.  "So am I. So, can you be ready to leave by the second Saturday in September?"

Why fight it. "Yeah, O.K. Three weeks to get tires, tune-up, and smooth it out on the domestic front."

"Great! Now look, I want you to meet a couple friends of mine who are doing a 50cc next summer. New Jersey to San Francisco in 50 hours."

I'm dead,

Richard

Richard and I returned on Sunday Sept. 9th from our attempt to do an IBA Bunburner 1500, that is a trip of 1500 miles in 36 hours on a motorcycle!

We left Andover MA on Saturday the 8th, rode down CT, over to NY and thru PA, passed a corner of WV and then into OHIO and up to Cleveland. A little east of Cleveland we caught a short catnap of an hour and a half, then back on the road. Up to Erie PA, Buffalo NY, across the NY Thruway and onto the Mass pike back through Springfield, Worcester and back into Andover MA.

We left Saturday morning about 5am and returned Sunday at 2pm, 33 hours total... 1540 miles! WE MADE IT!!!  (With 3 hours to spare!)

We made great time getting into Ohio on this trip and were ahead of our plan.  We lost some time when we got separated in Cleveland, made a small exhaust adjustment on Richard's Venture and having to look for parts to re-mount the radar detector.  After our nap, I was shaky from 4 - 8am and we had to stop frequently.  A beautiful sunrise on the NY Thruway and we seemed to get our 2nd wind, we made good time the rest of the way in.  Weather was great and there were no traffic snags like we had on the 1000 the month before.

Thanks to everyone for their support, encouragement and advice. It was appreciated by us both... and Thank You Richard, for being the best riding partner this old Geezer could ask for!

Pat

This was our last LD event for this season.  The weather turns cold out here pretty early and shortens our riding season some.  We have had some conversation on a 50CC next year but my fuel tank/mileage would create too many stops.  That and the time off work would be prohibitive.  Maybe a Great Lakes Tour?  Circle all the Great Lakes in under 50 hours??  Who knows, how crazy are we??