Day 5 - Welcome to Central Time

Today was miserable riding, highway 12... all day, no turns, lots of wind, as fast as you can go. 370 miles later we are in Minnesota! Everyone talks like the movie Fargo - a favorite movie.




My goal was to make the first three legs without a single stop, 260 miles. No fluids with breakfast. I left early. I made it to the checkpoint in Aberdeen (260 miles) and coasted in on fumes. The wind was brutal, I can usually get 320 miles on my aux+main fuel tank (6.2 gallons), I had less than a 1/10th of gas left when I got there. I cut the engine when I saw the gas station and coasted in. Made it! Hopefully I scored well.

Rest of the ride was uneventful. Got into town about 1:30. Found a Napa auto parts place, local hardware store, bought some things for my maintenance. Today I changed out rear tire, engine oil, filters, exhaust gasket, cleaned air filter and checked my variator (transmission).

Simon (scooter me) had the same problem I did on day 1 - seized/spun the bearing on the rear wheel axel. His luck that mine broke on day 1 and I had extra parts!!! He picked up my scotch at dinner!






Lots of parking lot maintenance tonight. Very resourceful. Maroy managed to turn a motorcycle lift into a bearing press using that + 2x4 and a bottle jack. Worked well.

Jim is back to his "normal" self (ha!) - story telling and carrying on in the parking lot. After his 2008 wreck, the last three days had to be nerve racking with all of the terrain we covered. He should have a smooth ride from here on out, challenging navigation but not at all threatening.

Scooter ran great today now that I've worked through 4 days if problems.

Tomorrow is going to be a challenging day of riding. 400+ miles, we zig zag all the way across the state of Minnesota. Checkpoints are going to be hard to find, the roads all very backroads, going to have to be on top of my navigation. There is a break at Aerostich in Duluth! Shopping time!

The official hotel was a dump. For $33 a night, or $16 for 6 hours, what do you expect. Brian and I are staying with the rich people down the road at the econolodge, $65/night.

Day 5 - Bowman to Ortonville, MN Photos