A Milestone for Dudley and Me

[Phil Tarman]

At 8:30 AM this morning, on I-76 at about milepost 106, we passed 30,000 miles whilst cruising along at 76mph.

Without a windshield, the Schuberth C-3 is incredibly quiet. Howsomever, my neck and shoulders are somewhat tired. I will post a picture of this event when I get home tonight.

 

[vacanefan]

Congratulations on the first known NT in the USA to hit 30,000. (At least to my knowledge)

 

[mntsansea_girl]

Keep on Truckin' on down the line...

Wow, I was really proud over being at 9800... Guess I need to start "riding ,riding, riding...
Up to the old inn door...":smile:

 

[banjoboy]

Phil, I think you and I are the leaders of SAD. I think a fairer way is to calculate drops per 1,000 miles or so. If that were the case, you'd be number two. I just passed 9k. Thanks for being the leader/moderator for our group.

Terry

 

[Chuck 500]

Congratulations on the MILEstone.

Chuck

 

[Phil Tarman]

Congratulations on the first known NT in the USA to hit 30,000. (At least to my knowledge)

August before last (I'm talking 2010) at the Iron Butt Association National Meeting in Denver, I met Bob Higdon, the IBA legal counsel and historian. He had the only other NT at the meeting. He had bought his at Brookhaven Honda, in Brookhaven, MS in October of 2009, and by August 2010, he had 30,000 miles. He traded that bike in on 2nd ABS version at Brookhaven Honda in October 2010, and they had it for sale for a few months. His mileage after 1 YEAR was 36,000 miles.

The last time I communicated with him, he only had 6,000 miles on NT#2. I guess he's turned into a wuss in his old age.

I do know that he had to change his name. Someone rode a 60s vintage Triumph to a finish in the Iron Butt Rally this year, and before the Rally started Bob said that if the guy finished we could all call him Sally Higdon.

At any rate, as far as I know he's the mileage champion among NT owners at this point.

 

[Phil Tarman]

If you look at post # 1 on this thread, you can see what an odometer looks like at 30,000 miles.

 

[Mellow]

Just 20k more and you get one of these:

 

[vc_slim]

Congrats. Keep on truck'n, er uh, moto'n Phil.

 

[Warren]

At 8:30 AM this morning, on I-76 at about milepost 106, we passed 30,000 miles whilst cruising along at 76mph.

Without a windshield, the Schuberth C-3 is incredibly quiet. Howsomever, my neck and shoulders are somewhat tired. I will post a picture of this event when I get home tonight.

So you are going down the road at 80, no windshield and you whip out the camera to take a picture of your odometer. I guess one gets pretty comfortable with their bike after riding it for 30K miles

 

[RedLdr1]

So you are going down the road at 80, no windshield and you whip out the camera to take a picture of your odometer.

Phil,

You just got busted big time... But congrats for hitting the "30"....

 

[ken45]

At 8:30 AM this morning, on I-76 at about milepost 106, we passed 30,000 miles whilst cruising along at 76mph.

Without a windshield, the Schuberth C-3 is incredibly quiet. Howsomever, my neck and shoulders are somewhat tired. I will post a picture of this event when I get home tonight.

Congratulations

If I may ask, what's the story on "no windshield"?

Ken

 

[bicyclist]

Congratulations

If I may ask, what's the story on "no windshield"?

Ken

It's a SAD story.

Congratulations, Phil. By the way, I think Higdon got himself a Super Ten.

 

[Phil Tarman]

No Windshield Story: Some dummy goes into hospital for blood draw. Leaves ignition turned on (as Rick said, I'm old and my mind wanders). Comes out, bike won't start. Leaves it there for the day while he borrows his own car back from BMW-riding friend who had final-drive failure. Comes back after dark to start bike and sees that bike has fallen over THREE times, due to fudge-like concistency of hospital parking lot when temp soars above about 82. Dummy knew this; had a sidestand plate in right fairing pocket; but it was cool at 8:30AM. Good Samaritans picked the bike up three time. Third Good Samaritan picked up bike and put a board under the sidestand. Apparently windshield hit adjacent vehicle. Dummy had thrown away stock windshield on Saturday before bike fell over on Tuesday. New CeeBailey + 2" is on a brown truck and will arrive at my office at about 10:15AM Tuesday AM.

I heard from "Sally" Higdon today and he had been saving his NT for the trip he and Kneebone are making to Ushaila, Tierra del Fuego, in February. He was riding his Nighthawk. Then the Super Tenere came out and he and Kneebone both bought one, after he had bought big lids and an undercowl from the UK. He says, "Sigh."

Then he goes on to say: "As a result (of the purchase of the Tenere for the South America trip), I began riding the NT with a vengeance again starting a couple of weeks ago. On August 27 the bike had 3,100 miles on it. The next day I began a 3,000-mile ride from Daytona up through New England and back to Daytona, the last day being a stretch from Annapolis that was 846 miles. Next Tuesday I'm heading out via Mississippi and Duluth to a gathering in Gerlach NV. Along the way I'll have an 8,000-mile service done in Brookhaven MS, a 12K service in Las Vegas, and an 16K service in Annapolis in early October. By the time I return to Daytona, the bike will have about 18,000 miles on it. So I'll have put about 15,000 on the poor thing in a little over seven weeks, if all works as planned."

That will be in addition to the 36,000 miles he put on his first 2010 NT between October 2009 and October 2010.

I believe Mr. Higdon is the reigning mileage king on NTs (at least in the US).

 

[Phil Tarman]

I'll ask him. Who is your dealer?

 

[Phil Tarman]

I just sent Bob a note telling him of your offer. If he's interested I'll get you guys together.

 

[Phil Tarman]

omg Phil...where do you go on this bike to rack up so much milage? I read somewhere online that the NT is capable of 200,000 miles with ptoper Maint. But why are you doing this? & I read you was doing 76mph? Ur gonna kill urself Phil. Plz have a care sir. Ur not exactly a Spring Chicken! I never drive over 50mph even on the freeway. Damn!

Aaron, like I said in another thread, if you ever come to Colorado, and you come on Interstates, you'd better be prepared to ratchet it up a bit or you'll get run over. Seriously. We've got 75mph speed limits in most of the west and you won't pass anybody doing 75. Somewhere up around 78-82, you cut down on the number of folks passing you and hold your own plus a little bit. I like to have most of the traffic going my way doing it a tad slower than I am.

I use the NT for my primary transportation and ride something like 330-340 days a year...or more. The determining factor in whether I ride or not is the possibility of precipitation. If I'm going to be here in town and it's raining, I'll probably take the bike, but if it's forecast to continue all day long, I might take the car. If I'm going on a trip, I'll usually take the bike. I need to go to towns where there are hospitals to visit my congregation from time to time, and if there's no snow on the road or forecast, I'll ride for those year round.

Last year, my long trips were a 4100 mile jaunt to Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ontario, which took me around the north shore of Lake Superiour. I also got in a 1000 mile ride in 19 hours on April 30-May 1. That was the first Iron Butt Association certified ride done on an NT in the western hemisphere.

This year, there was a 2500 mile trip to Texas for my 50th HS reunion, visits with some old friends, and meetings with two NT riders, Chuck500 from Houston and vc_slim from Austin. Greg Hall (vc_slim) and I rode a couple hundred miles in the Hill Country of Texas.

I'm pretty sure that the NT is easily capable of 2-300,000 miles, and the maintenance to do that should pretty much be routine.

You're right, I'm not a spring chicken, but even those I'm constantly creeping up on more advanced geezerhood, I'm not old yet!

 

[Bear]

A good rule of thumb for me has always been 5MPH over the posted limit. Most of our secondaries are 50 to 55--I usually cruise them at 60 to 67. On I-95 and I-295, the posted speed is 65--I do 70 unless traffic moves faster--then I go with the flow. I do the same with my cage. So far I have not had any tickets and doubt if I ever will get any following that rule. My State Police friends tell me that they look for weavers and people traveling well over 10MPH over the limit with no other traffic around them. If the right hand lane is doing 80--do 80.

 

[Phil Tarman]

The only time I've ever driven I-15 between LA and Vegas, I was driving a '93 Ford Escort with about 160,000 miles on it. I was just boppin' right along at 80. I don't think I passed ANYthing until I got to Utah.