Pic Heavy Ride Report - MS to Bella Coola & Back 11,000 Miles Heat, Hail & Bears

[Trent]

That stretch of highway across Oregon is a sweet ride, if it is not 105 degrees, but gets me frustrated with the 55 mph speed limit. Since Oregon has no sales tax, one way they make up for loss of revenue is by keeping the speed limits ridiculously low for maximum speed ticket $$$$. They just passed a law to raise all the speed limits to 65 now.. thankfully... And.. Ya gotta have a full tank when you leave Bend!! Ha ha!!
A lotta gas stations in Oregon and Idaho have those beer stands now. Ya can't drink it on site... just fill your big growler jug and take it home. The Fast Eddy's by my house where we hooked up has 26 beers on tap now.

 

[DK Custom Products]

That stretch of highway across Oregon is a sweet ride, if it is not 105 degrees, but gets me frustrated with the 55 mph speed limit. Since Oregon has no sales tax, one way they make up for loss of revenue is by keeping the speed limits ridiculously low for maximum speed ticket $$$$. They just passed a law to raise all the speed limits to 65 now.. thankfully... And.. Ya gotta have a full tank when you leave Bend!! Ha ha!!
A lotta gas stations in Oregon and Idaho have those beer stands now. Ya can't drink it on site... just fill your big growler jug and take it home. The Fast Eddy's by my house where we hooked up has 26 beers on tap now.

Yeah, the limit of 55 is not bad in the mountains and curvy roads, but then when you have 127 miles of basically flat straight road at 55 mph...AND, you ride half of it THREE times...well, yep, a bit frustrating.

Yep, full tank out of Bend next time.

I found a pic of the gas station...52 beers on tap, and in this one they had a bar and some tables, which were all crowded with folks imbibing. :xzqxz:

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 15

Today we have a short 200 mile putt to Meridian, ID. We'll be staying there for a couple of days with Marys' mom. Been a couple of years since we've seen her. Both of us are pretty excited...always a good visit with her.


Leaving out of Burns, we see a fellow traveler...

...then settle in for some more flat, straight miles at 55-60.

It is not long before...

...we get into some hills and curves....

...this is definitely more fun than long, flat and straight.

Mary holds the camera way out to the side for a different perspective.

There are some pretty great views also!

Day 15 continued in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 15 continued.


Going thru the little pass...

We drop down into Vale, OR.

Always thankful to see farmers growing food. We'd all be a bit hungry without them.

A bit before we hit the Idaho border, Oregon raises the speed limit a bit.

Idaho!

And a more realistic speed limit for chewing up some straight miles.

Set the cruise on 80 mph, hardly any traffic, and we're enjoying the wind! *Mary in the mirror. *

Off the interstate, in Meridian, about 5 miles out. Great day!

It's been just under 5000 miles since we left home. Sometime in the next day or so, I'll be doing a fluid change, and it's time for new plugs also. Plus I probably should *get 10 States worth of bugs washed of the TG.


Kevin

 

[cdculbertson]

Kevin,

My wife and I are greatly enjoying your travelogue with Mary's photos. You guys are really living the dream!

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Great pics .. Mary is very good at catching the feel of the ride.

 

[Recall]

Kevin,

Great ride report and excellent photos. Thanks for sharing and allowing us to ride along with you.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Kevin,

My wife and I are greatly enjoying your travelogue with Mary's photos. You guys are really living the dream!

Great pics .. Mary is very good at catching the feel of the ride.

Kevin,

Great ride report and excellent photos. Thanks for sharing and allowing us to ride along with you.

Thank you, glad you're enjoying.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 16- Meeting and riding with Trent & Barbara



Yesterday was a lot of family visiting! ThumbUp

I also got the oil and primary fluids changed out, oil filter cleaned, plugs changed, and most of the bugs cleaned off.

Autozone was kind enough to let me change the fluids in their parking lot, then I gave them the used stuff that was drained out.

I also got my slip-ons configured back to the time tested set-up! ThumbUp ThumbUp ThumbUp


Yesterday I also met up with Trent at the HD dealership (that now has an Indian Dealership in the same parking lot). Trent and I talked about where we would ride today. He also gave me some good ideas on routes to take when we leave Meridian for Missoula.




Meeting up with Trent at the Fast Eddy gas station. Looked over each others ride. His is the same color as our '11, really miss that color.

A bit later Barbara showed up. She had just finished an escort. Respect.

We had just a bit of traffic getting out to the road to go over Lowmans Pass. Looking ahead....

...and looking behind. It was really good to be riding with other Tri-Glides up in the mountains!!!

Views were fantastic!

Barbara up close.

Coming up is a fantastic 31 miles, going over the pass and down into Lowman.

Along the way we swapped places with Barbara for a bit...for Mary to get pics from a different perspective.

The road just kept getting better...

...and the views nicer.

Day 16 continued in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 16 continued.


Trent set a good pace. Guaranteed we were closer to 50 mph than 25 mph.

We're over the pass now, we had climbed to 6100 ft.

What a great road, long sweepers, tight turns, lots of elevation changes.

We stopped in Lowman for a few minutes. It was really fun for Mary and I to ride with Trent & Barbara today.

When riding the pass to Lowman, I had thought we were going to turn around, returning the way we had come. Instead, we continued the loop we had started, taking a different route back. We stopped for gas a bit down the road from Lowman.

Really enjoying the ride! Idaho definitely has some good folks, some good roads, and beautiful scenery!

Looking back...Barbara in a fantastic setting.

This is just one of the long grades (not the 7% one) we pulled on the way home.

Trent paid me a high compliment...at least I took it that way...he is riding a Stage IV TG and mine is a our own special blend of a Stage I. After pulling up a long 7% grade hill, right behind him the whole way at 85 mph, he said I have my TG running really well.

Arriving back in Meridian, we met up with Trents wife, Marione, and had a nice dinner.

Myself and Barbara & the 3 TG's lined up in the restaurant parking lot...

All 4 of us. Thank you Marione for taking the pic.

We had a great meal, great conversation, a fun time. *We are really looking forward to our next visit so we can spend more time!


Kevin

 

[consitter]

A stage IV?

What's that?? Sounds fast and expensive.

 

[Mixitman]

A stage IV?

What's that?? Sounds fast and expensive.

My brain stopped at "fast".. and now I want to talk to my dealership about it.. but..

 

[Trent]

High compression beefier pistons, custom machined better breathing heads / valves, bigger air sucker intake, 259E cams, {you have the 255's now} beefed up clutch to handle the torque, a few other tweaks.
When we got to the top of that hill that Kevin is talking about, I was in 5th gear, but was maxed out. I think he was maxed out also. Shift into 6th at the top, then if there is no traffic in the way on the downhill side,,, you really go Zoom!

Around $8,000 to $9,000 depending on what you end up doing... Some say you should just drop in a 120R instead, which works for me. If and when I blow this one up, that is what I will prob do. So far, 10K on it, runs great, has reeeaaalllyy long legs, great hill climbing abilities. My dealer does not have a Trike dyno, so the tuner guy used the same map from an identical build on a dyno'd Ultra, then tweaked it.

I can usually go up that same hill in 6th gear depending on the number of slow pokes messing me up in the left lane.. Not sure what Kevin has done to his, but he stayed right behind me all the way up that long 7% grade. I am pretty sure I weigh more than those two together.

Sorry about hijackin' the thread Kevin. :cxtv:

 

[consitter]

High compression beefier pistons, custom machined better breathing heads / valves, bigger air sucker intake, 259E cams, {you have the 255's now} beefed up clutch to handle the torque, a few other tweaks.
When we got to the top of that hill that Kevin is talking about, I was in 5th gear, but was maxed out. I think he was maxed out also. Shift into 6th at the top, then if there is no traffic in the way on the downhill side,,, you really go Zoom!

Around $8,000 to $9,000 depending on what you end up doing... Some say you should just drop in a 120R instead, which works for me. If and when I blow this one up, that is what I will prob do. So far, 10K on it, runs great, has reeeaaalllyy long legs, great hill climbing abilities. My dealer does not have a Trike dyno, so the tuner guy used the same map from an identical build on a dyno'd Ultra, then tweaked it.

I can usually go up that same hill in 6th gear depending on the number of slow pokes messing me up in the left lane.. Not sure what Kevin has done to his, but he stayed right behind me all the way up that long 7% grade. I am pretty sure I weigh more than those two together.

Sorry about hijackin' the thread Kevin. :cxtv:

Thanks for the explanation. Let's me know I'm too poor for it, but can drool anyhow.

 

[DK Custom Products]

High compression beefier pistons, custom machined better breathing heads / valves, bigger air sucker intake, 259E cams, {you have the 255's now} beefed up clutch to handle the torque, a few other tweaks.
When we got to the top of that hill that Kevin is talking about, I was in 5th gear, but was maxed out. I think he was maxed out also. Shift into 6th at the top, then if there is no traffic in the way on the downhill side,,, you really go Zoom!

Around $8,000 to $9,000 depending on what you end up doing... Some say you should just drop in a 120R instead, which works for me. If and when I blow this one up, that is what I will prob do. So far, 10K on it, runs great, has reeeaaalllyy long legs, great hill climbing abilities. My dealer does not have a Trike dyno, so the tuner guy used the same map from an identical build on a dyno'd Ultra, then tweaked it.

I can usually go up that same hill in 6th gear depending on the number of slow pokes messing me up in the left lane.. Not sure what Kevin has done to his, but he stayed right behind me all the way up that long 7% grade. I am pretty sure I weigh more than those two together.

Sorry about hijackin' the thread Kevin. :cxtv:

Yeah, I was maxed out in 5th also. Mine has a Performance Plus Stage I, not terribly expensive.

BUT, I did shift into 6th once on that hill, and I lost speed, so downshifted back into 5th. (we're about 330 combined, plus got that tall windshield on)

I told Barbara, maybe Trent too, that riding with them was the first time in over 70,000 miles on a Tri-Glide that Mary and I had ever ridden together with other Tri-Glides. It was a blast!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 17


Today we left out of Meridian. Between visiting with Mary's mom, brother, a couple of nephews, and the ride with Barbara & Trent, it has been a great few days here. Sad to leave.


Mary & her mom-

She took a pic of us right before we headed out.

Trent thought we would enjoy the road & seeing the deepest canyon in North America, Hells Canyon. He gave us a great route to follow. ThumbUp

So we are off to experience it!

Just past Payette...cool pic.

Looking back as we get close to Cambridge.

I did not recognize this car, but she's a beauty.

Super fun road out of Cambridge to Hells Canyon. This two wheeler would really speed up in the straights, then slow to a crawl in every curve. I had to slow way down in the straights so that they did not impede our fun ripping thru the curves. :laugh:

This is a really fun road!!!

After dropping down quite a bit thru the winding road, we hit the Brownlee. I think this is what is the beginning of Hells Canyon.

I was going to say, now the fun begins...but it was already a blast getting this far. But it does get a lot more scenic, and a bit tighter in a lot of the curves.

Continued in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 17 continued-


Following the asphalt down the canyon, we crossed the Snake River and are now in Oregon for a short while.

Following the Snake River down the canyon, the sights & the road....

...are creating a conflict in me...

...usually when there is a road like this...

...with so many twists and turns, elevation changes...

...I like to hit the curves hard and enjoy the road to its' fullest. But the sheer vastness, and beauty of what we are seeing is having me slow down to take it all in.

Here we are, approaching the dam, getting near the end of the road.

After crossing the dam, the sights just continue!

Approaching Hells Canyon Creek Visitor Information Center.

End of the road-

View from the parking lot behind the Visitor Center.

There are at least another 20 pics I want to share...doubling back thru HC, and then on up to New Meadows, ID.

Will continue the report tomorrow.

Kevin

 

[Whopper Stopper]

I am a newer member on the board and have not posted on this thread. I must say this has been one of the most entertaining threads I have ever followed. The work you went through with your commentary and the beautiful pictures have been a highlight for me these last 15 days or so since finding it.



I just wanted you to know there is at least one Minnesotan that applauds your efforts.



Thank You Both!



WS

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

I am a newer member on the board and have not posted on this thread. I must say this has been one of the most entertaining threads I have ever followed. The work you went through with your commentary and the beautiful pictures have been a highlight for me these last 15 days or so since finding it.



I just wanted you to know there is at least one Minnesotan that applauds your efforts.



Thank You Both!



WS

If you really want some entertaining reading ... search for Kevin's 2013 Alaska trip ... about 6-7 hours worth ... but really worth it.

 

[flyswatter]

Agree with previous post concerning Alaska trip. Very good read. Makes you feel like you are along for the ride.

Also enjoying this adventure....