Well, ok, it wasn't exactly touring. My wife had a series of tests to take to become a certified horse trainer. The tests took place in southern Virginia, and I convinced her to let me take her on my bike. While we had done some short trips together before, this was our first long overnighter.
Beforehand, I was joking that this trip would be my ticket to getting a larger, sport-touring bike, once she survived the many miles on my Tbird. Well, that didn't exactly prove true, as the Tbird was more than up to the task.
We left Friday around 12:30ish from Lancaster, PA. I had my National Cycle Plexifaring 3 on, as the route called for lots of slabbing miles. Our things were stuffed into a magnetic tank bag and a large rear bag. I was a bit hesitant at putting all of the weight of a full rear bag (probably 20-30lbs) on the relatively small luggage rack. However, the rack proved to be up to task, and my wife even leaned on the bag quite often for comfort.
We took route 83 from York to the Baltimore beltway, then headed down to the DC beltway. Luckily we bypassed rush hour around both beltways, however, we hit a major traffic jam just south of DC on I-95. The special HOV and motorcycle lanes south of DC were a godsend as we were able to get back up to speed and skip a lot of the traffic. It was stifling hot, in the mid to upper 90's, and we didn't fancy spending anymore time in the stop-and-go jam. Too bad the HOV lane filled up later on, and we spent maybe a 1/2 hour to an hour moving turtle-paced in the blistering heat. I would have loved to lane-split the whole affair, but alas it is illegal there.
We jumped onto route 1 briefly, which parallels I-95 here, and were rewarded by lower traffic volumes and a stop for dinner. Returning to I-95 after eating, the traffic eased up and we were able to blast down to Richmond. The Tbird did quite well battling the high speed traffic, and I daresay I cruised around 80-90 mph as much as possible. The 6th speed was great for this kind of high speed travel, and the Tbirds torque was more than adequate to allow quick changes of pace.
We finally rolled into our hotel in Emporia, VA at around 7:30. Seven hours in the saddle, minus breaks and eating, and just over 300 miles.
Saturday morning we were on the road by 7:30 to find the horse farm where my wife was to take her exams.
After dropping her off with the tank bag for her materials, I took off for a bit of backroad fun.
This area was near Fort Pickett, so I stopped and took a pic of their tank with my bird.
I then travelled south to the North Carolina border and the series of lakes and reservoirs there, the Raonoke River water basin.
I also happened by the John H. Kerr Dam.
And made it briefly into North Carolina. Here's a dilapidated gas station on the border there.
I scooted on back up I-85 to Mckenney at 1pm. I had done a little over 200 miles that morning on my own. My wife wasn't yet done with her exams. She said it would only be 45mins, but it ended up being a 2hr wait.
So, come 3pm, we headed north on I-85, which merged with I-95. North of Richmond we split off onto 301, crossed the Potomac, and passed the Thunderbird Motel (though I should have stopped for a pic). After dinner we jumped onto the DC beltway and headed north. We took the harbor tunnel by Baltimore, and the reverberating sound of my drilled silencers was awesome.
We then continued north through the night to Elkton, MD, where we collected our kids from my folks. We sat on my dad's Goldwing to see how the other half lives, and after taking a short spin on my Tbird, he surmised that we had done an 800 mile trip on a 50 mile seat.
I tore off the Plexi3 fairing and luggage for the backroads ride home, and the roadster aspect of the Tbird again began to shine. We made it home sometime after 11pm. Total mileage for the day was about 530 miles, 300 or so of it 2-up with my wife.
Total trip, 830 miles in about 36hrs.
The Thunderbird worked quite well as a tourer and is more than capable if you are up to it. I'm still running with the standard seat, which was the major complaint from the both of us. I find it's somewhat forward sloping slant rips at my upper thigh hair. The stock suspension is not exactly plush when you hit the harder bumps, but it's not all that bad, and handled the load pretty well (around 400lbs between us and the luggage). Also, it would've been nice to have a set of highway pegs for the freeway portions of the trip. The screen was quite adequate at wind protection, but it was maybe too adequate as I'd have prefered more wind to provide relief from the very hot weather. Our luggage was adequate, but quite full. I think a nice set of fabric panniers would help in this regard, though hard luggage would be a godsend.
Other than those fixable shortcomings, the Tbird did quite well for itself. The route was not optimal for riding fun as the majority of it was 4-6 lane freeway running. But, I never found the power lacking, and the Tbird did just fine at sparring with all the high speed traffic. I guess I can put off getting a sport-tourer for awhile longer.
. I could do a bunch of miles with that combination.
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