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Indiana Backroads
Indiana Backroads
Rick Jemison
September 1998
Saturday was a beautiful day here in corn country. Hit the road on my '81H about 0830. Heading west on I70 for about 30 miles to the Cloverdale exit and took Ind 231 South to Spencer (nice ride on a two lane - casually curved (easy 60 mph sweepers) road). Spencer is home to one of the most unique Mickey D's I've seen - I wish I had stock in this place - it is ALWAYS FULL!
I had made it to Spencer in about 90 minutes of leisurely riding and stopped for a well deserved break with some OJ and a muffin! Back on the road after 30 minutes and headed back East toward Bloomington (home of IU in the beautiful Hoosier national forest - highest point in Indiana near here). If you like large, broad leaf trees, this is a beautiful place!. This is Ind 46 and is a nice road for 25 miles between Spencer and Bloomington. Picked up US37 near Bloomington and headed south to Ind45 (on the other side of Hoosier National forest). This is another nice road with fair to not-too-shaggy twisties (very enjoyable at 50 - really enjoyable at 65-70!) Uh - deer in high abundance here! We're supposed to have more deer in this state than most states in the US!
I followed this for about 40 miles give or take to Bloomfield, IN, a little berg (geez, they had a housing authority there! That amounted to a - really nice apartment building with maybe 20 units! ha!). Beautiful city park here and on the West side of town over Mill creek is a very nice Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial bridge. I turned North on the other side of Bloomfield and headed back on Ind231 to US67 and headed back Northeast on this back to Indy. Went just north of Spencer again. US 67 is a nice divided highway but is fairly straight and except for the quaint Indiana bergs is pretty much a way to get from where you are to where you're headed. As such, speeds in excess of the "posted" limit are common with the locals.
At this point I ran into a guy on a Jap bike. Nice looking though I didn't really get a close look at it. He was gassing up in a roadside station as I past by. He caught me about 10 miles on the other side of the little town and beeped as he went by - me with my feet up on the highway bars relaxing with a bit of jerky and a coke! He was clipping right along and was almost 1/2 mile ahead of me in no time. As I finished my little fairing snack I realized I really didn't know what type of bike that was and headed out for a look. I considered downshifting but was over 110 in a snap. Caught him in hardly anytime. Honda 750. He was a bit taken back that a fat guy on a bike covered with bags and fairing and eating twinkies as he rolled down the road could catch him that fast. I don't think he knew much about the 1100. He smiled and really eyeballed my bike this time. A few miles more riding side by side and he pulled off heading for where ever. Mutual waves and I was on my own again. Nice guy - mid twenties. I think the helmet he had locked on the side of the bike might have done a bit more good on his head but......
By now it was just past noon. Temp was 92F and the humidity was hitting damn near 100%! I'd ridden about 180 miles and it was hot even running down the road at 75! I was leaned back, relaxing as I entered Indy from the South. I rolled up on the light at High School Rd. and US67 (busy intersection on the south side) at about 70mph. I was thinking about ....... something else and it just didn't seem to register when the light changed - at least for a minute. I demonstrated a (if I do say so myself) very nice performance stop and was sitting at the light calmly waiting for the light to change in less than a couple of seconds. Of course, everyone else was looking at me like I was naked! She really stops good - straight line, no swerving; the front tire squeaking nicely, letting me know it was working, ha!
I headed up the ramp onto I465 (the real Indy 500) and was taking a commanding position in the traffic in just a few seconds. Less than 5 minutes and I was getting off at Washington St. I'd been gone roughly 6 hours, had covered 200 miles getting roughly 35 mpg overall (with speeds ranging from 60 - 110+) and I still had the whole afternoon to do what fats guys like doing (no my wife's a power shopper! ha!). I sat on the porch with a cold beer admiring my stable of XSs! Hmmmm. That case looks like it's got a fingerprint on it. I'll have to wipe that off - afterwhile........
Rick Jemison
September 1998
Saturday was a beautiful day here in corn country. Hit the road on my '81H about 0830. Heading west on I70 for about 30 miles to the Cloverdale exit and took Ind 231 South to Spencer (nice ride on a two lane - casually curved (easy 60 mph sweepers) road). Spencer is home to one of the most unique Mickey D's I've seen - I wish I had stock in this place - it is ALWAYS FULL!
I had made it to Spencer in about 90 minutes of leisurely riding and stopped for a well deserved break with some OJ and a muffin! Back on the road after 30 minutes and headed back East toward Bloomington (home of IU in the beautiful Hoosier national forest - highest point in Indiana near here). If you like large, broad leaf trees, this is a beautiful place!. This is Ind 46 and is a nice road for 25 miles between Spencer and Bloomington. Picked up US37 near Bloomington and headed south to Ind45 (on the other side of Hoosier National forest). This is another nice road with fair to not-too-shaggy twisties (very enjoyable at 50 - really enjoyable at 65-70!) Uh - deer in high abundance here! We're supposed to have more deer in this state than most states in the US!
I followed this for about 40 miles give or take to Bloomfield, IN, a little berg (geez, they had a housing authority there! That amounted to a - really nice apartment building with maybe 20 units! ha!). Beautiful city park here and on the West side of town over Mill creek is a very nice Viet Nam Veteran's Memorial bridge. I turned North on the other side of Bloomfield and headed back on Ind231 to US67 and headed back Northeast on this back to Indy. Went just north of Spencer again. US 67 is a nice divided highway but is fairly straight and except for the quaint Indiana bergs is pretty much a way to get from where you are to where you're headed. As such, speeds in excess of the "posted" limit are common with the locals.
At this point I ran into a guy on a Jap bike. Nice looking though I didn't really get a close look at it. He was gassing up in a roadside station as I past by. He caught me about 10 miles on the other side of the little town and beeped as he went by - me with my feet up on the highway bars relaxing with a bit of jerky and a coke! He was clipping right along and was almost 1/2 mile ahead of me in no time. As I finished my little fairing snack I realized I really didn't know what type of bike that was and headed out for a look. I considered downshifting but was over 110 in a snap. Caught him in hardly anytime. Honda 750. He was a bit taken back that a fat guy on a bike covered with bags and fairing and eating twinkies as he rolled down the road could catch him that fast. I don't think he knew much about the 1100. He smiled and really eyeballed my bike this time. A few miles more riding side by side and he pulled off heading for where ever. Mutual waves and I was on my own again. Nice guy - mid twenties. I think the helmet he had locked on the side of the bike might have done a bit more good on his head but......
By now it was just past noon. Temp was 92F and the humidity was hitting damn near 100%! I'd ridden about 180 miles and it was hot even running down the road at 75! I was leaned back, relaxing as I entered Indy from the South. I rolled up on the light at High School Rd. and US67 (busy intersection on the south side) at about 70mph. I was thinking about ....... something else and it just didn't seem to register when the light changed - at least for a minute. I demonstrated a (if I do say so myself) very nice performance stop and was sitting at the light calmly waiting for the light to change in less than a couple of seconds. Of course, everyone else was looking at me like I was naked! She really stops good - straight line, no swerving; the front tire squeaking nicely, letting me know it was working, ha!
I headed up the ramp onto I465 (the real Indy 500) and was taking a commanding position in the traffic in just a few seconds. Less than 5 minutes and I was getting off at Washington St. I'd been gone roughly 6 hours, had covered 200 miles getting roughly 35 mpg overall (with speeds ranging from 60 - 110+) and I still had the whole afternoon to do what fats guys like doing (no my wife's a power shopper! ha!). I sat on the porch with a cold beer admiring my stable of XSs! Hmmmm. That case looks like it's got a fingerprint on it. I'll have to wipe that off - afterwhile........