[BritishJim]

Day 1 - We meet

Really fretted about picking up the bike this morning in Chicago from the people storing it for me, just knew they would let it fall over. Brought my touch-up paint just in case. The bike was in perfect condition, whew! Shout out to the people at Rolando’s Car Care in Elk Grove Village. Thought I would stop by the local Indian Dealer, another one of the motorsports places that sell a lot of other things. Was really interested in getting a t-shirt from there as the name of the dealership is "Route 66 Indian Motorcycle". Perfect, couldn't pass that up. Was told by quite the surly person behind the desk who never looked up or stopped typing on his computer they were all out that said Route 66 except for some ladies tees. Ok, got one for Sandy, which she really likes. Would have checked out what else they had but so turned me off that paid and left.

The group met for the first time this afternoon. A British couple (he is a retired police officer) that will be renting a Harley CVO. Couple from South Carolina (retired engineer, much like myself), they shipped in their Harley Tri-Glide and an older couple (he taught music) who are renting a convertible Mustang GT. The owner of RideFree, Wil Sakowski, is our guide. We drove out to Chicago Harley to pick up their bikes and was surprised to only see a few bikes on the floor. Turns out, this place only rents bikes and sells a ton of Harley apparel.

We all enjoyed dinner and the group seems to be meshing well. We will not be going into Chicago to the actual start of Route 66. Wil said it is very difficult to get around and would end up doing damage to our bikes. That was fine with all of us. Going to be cold at the start tomorrow at 13 C ( 55 F ). Weather is forecasted to get warmer as we head South and no appreciable rain. Tour is staring out great!

 

[BritishJim]

Day 2 - Naa, we won't need the rain gear...

Got out of Chicago, which we all appreciated and after about an hour, got to seeing Historic Route 66 signs and all the towns along the way saying, "Get your kicks at <town name here>". Weather was high 50's but clear. Started making stops at scenes you see other people stop at. Was a bit longer day for travel and rain starting in the afternoon did not help. Mixed with the low temperatures, did not make for happy bikers, or should I say, Mrs. Happy Biker who, bless her heart while not saying it, the eyes said it all, "The weather will be fine you said, we don't need to bring the rain suits, you said!" Stopped at Walmart, picked up a coat, vest and some thermal underwear which made it tolerable but still squishy socks when we finally got to Springfield.

To be honest, we chalk this up to learning and developing experience points (just like this whole TRiO experience) as this is our first long ride of any amount, namely we're taking it in stride and making notes so as to do better next time. So far, the weather looks fine for the rest of the trip. Will be 58 and sunny leaving Springfield tomorrow morning, quickly warming up hitting 85 by the time we get to St. Louis. Smiles should be back in bloom by then.

Got a chuckle out of the 'Route' Beer for sale.

Our group, who met for the first time yesterday, getting along great. Wil, the owner and guide, is taking the picture. Having a small group like this is really nice!

Famous stop to get a picture of your ride. Note the stylish new Walmart coat my Sandy is wearing. We did bring jackets but are the Air Rider Mesh Armored Shirt, which is what I'm wearing. Have to tell you, when they say the shirts are designed for hot weather riding, they mean it as you can feel the cold air going right through the jacket. Will be great to use when we get to hotter days but forget it for keeping you warm.

 

[BritishJim]

Day 3 - Here comes the sun.

Wow, what a difference a day makes. Got in to Springfield 58 deg and soaked. The next morning, bright sunshine and 75 deg. There was a car show going on that took over most of downton Springfield with about 600 cars.

Out onto the open road and finally feeling like we're on Route 66 with perfect weather. Stopped for this shot on the 'Red Brick Road'.

Came across a few EagleRider (Harley) tour groups. 20 people and very regimented stops. What's funny, many from Eagle rider group came over to check out what this crazy Indian with two front wheels, some saying, "Always heard about this, never seen one". In a sea of endless black motorcycles, ours does stand out.

Now check out the size of the tour we're on. Very thankful we went with RideFree.

 

[thehueypilot]

If your interested in what you missed at the start of Route 66 in downtown Chicago here is a photo of it which is just a sign.

Tim

 

[BritishJim]

Day 4 - We brake for flea markets and doughnuts

Well, unfortunately we did not stop for the doughnuts BUT the group voted next time we would revolt and when our guide realizes there is no one behind him, he'll come back. Wonderful start to the day leaving St. Louis, sunshine and 75 deg for the morning. Found some really slow twisting roads that you can just loose yourself in. Stopped for lunch at a very popular BBQ place and even though busy, our waitress was very attentive and the food excellent!

Down the road, set up the bikes and the mustang for a nice group shot. Had some people come by and wanted to get a picture with us.

Being Sunday, there was a flea market going on and we stopped and browsed. Turned out fortunate we did, we brought along a couple of snooze fans and the power socket broke on one of them. Was able to pick up a long, narrow cross-head screwdriver for 50 cents and make a temporary fix.

We are staying at a real Route 66 motel (overstuffed chairs, widowed woman running the place, park in front of your room) in Lebanon, Missouri. This was the type of accommodations we were expecting and have no problem with it.

 

[BritishJim]

Day 5 - Radio in every room

Easy paced day today so had a real breakfast and then visit to a classic car museum that included the TV Batmobile and the Cadillac from Ghostbusters.

Onward to an original Sinclair filling station that had all kinds of memorabilia and the owners quite the characters.

Stopping in Carthage, Missouri for the night staying at Boots Court. They are in the process of restoring this hotel to its glory in the 30's. Check out the sign that says radio in every room. That is true, no TV.

 

[BritishJim]

Day 6 - The bridges of Route 66

Started off in the 60's leaving Carthage and was 98 deg when we got to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Many Drive-In's along Route 66, most just relics, this one in operation Thu-Sat. Showing one of my favorite films, Wizard of Oz. Probably would not be the same watching from a motorcycle....

Bridges a plenty, some in working condition, others not carrying traffic anymore. This is a Marsh Arch bridge, whatever that is, but it rhymes.

Stopped at this firearms museum with a collection of over 11,000 guns. So much to see, and like most tours, never enough time to see it all.

Into Tulsa for the night, once again at a Route 66 motel.

Walked down four blocks to Tally's cafe (a big diner actually). Got my Dr. Pepper float so life is good.

 

[BritishJim]

Day 7 - The VIP treatment

Started out the morning with our tour guide picking up Krispy Kreme and sharing those, plenty left over so have breakfast for tomorrow morning for us.

What I have been sharing with the tribe is just a small sampling of all we do for the day, just giving a few highlights BUT there is a whole lot more to this trip.

There is a vintage motorcycle museum along the way but was closed. Wil makes a call and the owner came and opened it up just for us. Was full of unique bikes like a 1953 James Thunderbolt but also some well known like the Honda 750 Four.

Surprisingly, did not find any Indians in his collection but has a big Indian sign.

We end the day in Clinton, Oklahoma and got there shortly before 5pm when they lock the doors, sharp. Once again, Wil makes the call and they agree to allow us in and stay to 6pm, including keeping the gift shop open, which made the spouses happy (and have to admit, got a t-shirt myself).

Place was fascinating, each section you enter is a different decade starting with building Route 66, the heyday with the end of World War II and demise with the creation of the Interstate system. They left us on the positive note with how many are keeping the sprit of Route 66 alive and over 88% of the road is still there (different conditions but you can still travel it).

Captured this photo showing an Oklahoma Highway Motorman with his Indian motorcycle.

And this one tickled me, can you imagine anything like this today?

 

[wojo10]

Loving the updates.

 

[Tundra_Man]

Nice! Really enjoying your trip photos and stories.

I visited the Rainbow Bridge back in July on my Route 66 trip. (Before I got my Indian.)

 

[BritishJim]

Day 8 - On the REAL - Original - Mother road

Stopped in Elk City, Oklahoma at another Route 66 museum. This was different as it was actually a village with historical significance.

The main building you enter, and pay, does have Route 66 items but not quite as detailed as the one in Clinton, Texas. They did have this Indian on display.

Wil, our guide and owner of the touring company RideFree, took us to where there is a stretch of original Route 66 highway remaining and can say we really rode on Route 66. Just ignore that Road Closed sign....

Made it to Amarillo, Texas, staying at the hotel next to The Big Texan steak house, home of the free 72oz steak ( some conditions apply).

 

[BritishJim]

Day 9 - End of the road (at least for us)

Started off with visiting the Cadillac Ranch and did a little spray painting.

Crossed the midpoint of Route 66.

Had some great cinnamon rolls at the MidPoint Cafe.

Yet another car museum, certainly no shortage of these along the route.

Finishing up in Santa Fe. For us, we end our tour here, the rest of the group pushes on to Santa Monica. It was always planned to stop here for two reasons. 1) This was our first serious ride of any extended duration and did not want to press it the full 18 days and 2) we really did not have an interest in the second half of Route 66, had seen most of that by car.

Heading home. Learned a lot about operating the TRiO and have some questions for the designer. That I will save to another day when I get some rest. Hell of a trip!

 

[Wharf Rat]

So, If I recall, you trailered the bike to the starting point.
How are you getting it home? Or, what happens when you leave Santa Fe?

 

[BritishJim]

Very astute, good catch noticing that! I had it set up for a friend of mine to drive the car and trailer down to Santa Fe to arrive when we did and come back the next day, luggage in the car. He totally let me down. Fortunately, being the anal retentive retired aerospace engineer, always have backup plans. We dropped the luggage off at FedEx in Santa Fe to ship home and rode the bike back to Colorado Springs. Fortunately, was a nice day and 5 hours to home. Got in around 2pm just in time as the temperature dropped to 55 and the heavens opened up with rain.

I have some follow up on my performance with the TRiO and things we learned on this trip. All good, that I'll share after getting some rest. We got a year's worth of riding in 9 days, combined with our first time riding with a group. Loved it but worn out, we're glad we made the decision to just do Chicago to Santa Fe. I will say, we did talk about doing Route 66 Part II, Santa Fe to almost LA. Our current thinking is to map this out ourselves of all the places and routes we want to take. Will take the car and trailer the bike so we'll have the luggage and not need to do freeway driving of the bike. We'll stop at certain places and ride the bike, kinda like best of both worlds, travel Route 66 with both car and bike. THAT idea is very preliminary and is just jello at the moment.

Her expression says "throughly enjoyed the trip and now glad to be home".

 

[BritishJim]

Ready now to share what we learned on this trip. The first, most important > always, always, always bring your rain gear. In hindsight (and isn't that where we get most of our best suggestions?), spent all that time getting suits that fit us and then leave them home because the 10 day forecast did not show any significant amount of rain. WRONG. Enough said, move on.

The bike and TRiO performed perfectly, all that prep work with the new saddle, windscreen, high flow air intake paid off. There is a 'feature' I learned about the TRiO that I'll go into shortly. Cannot say enough good about that Russell Day Long saddle, not once did we ever think about the seat. Sandy developed a problem about halfway in the trip where her Shoei helmet was pressing on her right ear and by the end of the trip was unbearable. I did try cutting a few areas where I thought might be pressing but made no difference. Thinking the extra small was too small, tried again a small and that was just too loose so XS is right. We've not had a chance to do riding and have a few things to try still.

Riding with the TRiO. Taking that extra year to learn to ride both a motorcycle (again) and one that has a TRiO was invaluable. In particular, the private lessons with Ride Like a Pro instructor, Jersey and time spent with the TRiO designer, Bob Mighell. The first morning the group left our hotel in Chicago, the leader made a right turn out of the parking lot and then an immediate U-turn. Had I not practiced slow, tight circles with Jersey, we would have failed (ran into the kurb) and the trip would be over before it started.

During this 9 day adventure, my LED screen, that had been getting harder to see in sunlight/hot temperature, got to the point where it was useless. Had previously researched what others said about that with the only solution to put in a new LED screen. Have that on order and will have the dealer install that next week.

My stopping with the TRiO on, which I have on all the time, improved exponentially. The secret was keeping my head up, looking straight ahead and using a whole lot more rear brake. Stops were straight and smooth. Now for the 'feature' that has been there but just learned about during this trip and with recent discussion with the guys at Tilting Motor Works. Up to now, have stayed off gravel road and tried to avoid rough road. That was not an option on this trip. Playing 'follow the leader' many times were on gravel or rough road and going slow meaning the tilt lock was on. Felt like the bike kept trying to pitch over and then righten. The leader of group said he wanted to tell me to ship the bike home and rent a car. In one area, just happen to notice the light indicating when the tilt is released (blue) and locked (green) was flashing like a pinball machine. No wonder I was having trouble keeping level, but why was it doing this on just rough roads?

After getting back home, spoke with the designer of the TRiO, Bob Mighell who said yes, that is what it does. He explained it this way. As we know, you go above 7mph the tilt unlocks, below that it locks. The other trigger is acceleration/deceleration, what the front wheels report to the micro-processor. That is why from a standing start the tilt unlocks in half a second and you make your tuns like a regular bike. Looking at a big example, going slowly over a sleeping policeman (speed bump if you prefer). As the front wheels travel up the bump, they slow down (decelerate - lock) and then come down the other side (accelerate - unlock). Taking that over rough road or through gravel, the system will constantly lock/unlock at slow speed. The current way of dealing with this 'feature' is to travel over the rough/gravel road above 7mph.

Bob then went on to say they were working on an 'Always On' secondary switch to deal with just that issue. The tilt would stay on no matter what. Perfect, I thought but then threw a curve ball at me, he is no longer working there. A year ago, Bob sold his Tilting Motor Works to Arcimoto (hence the move from Washington to Oregon) and was time for him to move on and invent new things. He was not abandoning the current owners and would monitor the Facebook Tilting Motor Works/TRiO Owner's Group. There's a Facebook group, I asked? NOW I learn about it! Bob said to contact the guys in charge at TMW and see what is the status, if any, on the always on switch.

Spoke with Chris Smith at TMW, who remembered me well as he was one of the two who repaired my TRiO when I came back to Eugene the second time after I ran into, well, we don't need to go into that again. The always on switch is currently in R&D and has been installed on two bikes. It is an upgrade Chris personally wants to see get out, did not want to give a timeframe but felt confident it would happen since they are in the trial phase. Chris went on to say there is a software change they are working on and will come out with that adds a filter to analyze the acceleration/deceleration independently from the two front wheels. At this time, if either wheel detects a change, the processor acts on that. Chances of both wheels detecting the same change in speed over gravel or rough terrain are slim, and this filter would take that into account and keep the system locked. Chris says that change alone should solve 80% or better this issue. Looking forward to those changes (and apparently those on the Facebook group). In the meantime, I now understand what is going on when 'off road', can be ready for it and how to deal with it.

That wraps up a 2 year journey going from no bike with way too rusty experience to a trip we will cherish. By no means will this be the end. With newfound confidence in both riding and using/understanding the TRiO, we will be looking towards our next trips and will continue adding to this thread.

Let me finish with one last comment from this trip. Everywhere we stopped, people came up to us asking about our bike, what is it?, coolest thing they ever saw, can we take a picture? No one paid any attention to those black Harleys.

 

[BritishJim]

Mentioned that Sandy was feeling pressure against her right ear with her Shoei helmet, was able to remove just a small amount of padding and that relieved the problem. Was actually quite easy to get in there and the padding was made up of three layers glued together so was able to remove one layer.

 

[Kitulu]

Mentioned that Sandy was feeling pressure against her right ear with her Shoes helmet, was able to remove just a small amount of padding and that relieved the problem. Was actually quite easy to get in there and the padding was made up of three layers glued together so was able to remove one layer.
View attachment 712138
View attachment 712139

My wife had similar problems with her Shoei J-Cruize. I solved it by purchasing the thinner cheekpads.

 

[BritishJim]

So here is the part where I say, "What thinner cheekpads?". This was exactly why we went to Cycle Gear downtown where we bought the helmets, to get advice such as suggesting a thinner cheek pad. The only thing the fellow could do was recommend buying a different helmet. THANK YOU Kitulu for sharing that there are different cheek pad thicknesses for these Shoei helmets, I had no idea there was such an option. Guess that is a known area needing custom fitting.

Checking the owners manual, the helmet comes standard with 35mm thickness cheek pad and can go thicker to 39mm or thinner to 31mm

Got onto Revzilla and ordered the 31mm, let's see how she likes that.

Once again, what a terrific forum and group this is.

 

[Wharf Rat]

This was exactly why we went to Cycle Gear downtown where we bought the helmets, to get advice such as suggesting a thinner cheek pad. The only thing the fellow could do was recommend buying a different helmet.

Ummm.. That is precisely, why I stopped shopping at CG.
Too many online resources and sellers.

 

[BritishJim]

Couple of updates as we 'cool' our heels now that Winter has arrived in Colorado. Had the dealer put in the new LED screen but made little to no difference to the brightness, there are still conditions where it is almost impossible to see the screen. What caught us all by surprise, the odometer reset to zero. Wished I had researched a little more on this forum as that was a known feature when you replace the screen. I probably would not have done that but, it's done and move on. I did have to mention to the dealership I needed a letter with the previous mileage. Anyone looking for a TRiO equipped 2016 Roadmaster with only 30 miles? 😁

Installed the thinner cheek pads for Sandy's Shoei helmet and got to go out for a drive to try it out. Works like a charm, 4mm thinner made all the difference.

Whilst cleaning the bike, started cleaning the headlight and noticed could push it in. Hmmmm, don't remember that before. Seems they didn't quite screw something down after changing out the LED screen. Will take the bike in and have them fix that since it involves removing the faring. Also, can pick up the mileage letter then.

After the successful first half Route 66 trip, we're really anxious to get out on trips with this bike, shame that silly thing called Winter is here. Going to get the IronHorse trailer painted since I know we'll be making use of it. Was quite the struggle finding someone to paint it, was just looking for a simple red that was close to my car colour. One quoted over $5,000 (that's half the cost of the trailer) and ended up going with MAACO for $1,600 and have a booking for right after Thanksgiving to drop it off. They say should take about a week.

Last miscellaneous item, really learned the importance of letting the person behind you know you're slowing down when engine braking on this trip, hitting the brake to flash your brake lights. Had bought the ST2 Brake Module once before but gave it away thinking too much trouble to figure out how to install. Have another on order and have used the service manual to figure out the correct wires to connect to.

Happy Thanksgiving