M2m 2013

[Pain]

This ride hasn't happened yet, but the M2M (Milwaukee to Minneapolis) ride is this Saturday. Leaving the Fuel Cafe at 9am, and wandering (really wandering) the back roads of Wisconsin and Minnesota to (eventually, probably) reach Diamond's Coffee Shop in the Twin Cities.

If you haven't done an M2M, it's a 'planned' ride from one city to the other, using - well to call them secondary roads might be over inflating their egos. Freeways are used to get out of, and into, the urban areas because it leaves more time for non-urban areas.

The route is 'announced' around 730am at Fuel. Announced meaning there are half sheets of paper with poorly written instructions on them. There may also be stickers. There is no riders meeting, and no organized discussion of the route or who is riding with who. Riders are expected to ride their own ride and not be stupid. No one from the event will yell at you for being stupid, they assume physics will take care of it.

The route is in no way specially marked, and (as I mentioned) the instructions are notional. Expect to get lost. Also expect to be on roads you have never been on before. These roads may or may not be on the route, but who cares. Some of the roads will make you very happy to be a motorcyclist. Others will - well there are probably more of the first type further on anyway.

I am going to be at Fuel, probably before 8 (or at least by 845), and I have every intention of (eventually) making it to Diamonds. I am also riding Suffering, my xs1100H, which got new tires today for the occasion. My last M2M was on the 250, on the way to Alaska, and I blogged about it. I expect this one will, at least, be faster.

Post ride, I will wander back over here and share some pictures, and of course I think everyone in the area should come along.

[natemoen]

Man, wish I was still in Milwaukee to join you! Sounds awesome, never heard of it when I was there!

[Pain]

It's very much a thing of VinMoto - a loose network of Vintage Motorcycle clubs around the USA. This particular event is set up by MilVinMoto (the Milwaukee chapter) and TwiVinMoto (from the Twin Cities). They don't advertise much, since they don't want it to get out of hand.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Pain,
Sounds like a fun day out. Have a good time
I look forward to reading another of your excellent reports on what happened.
We doi love pictures
Phil

[Pain]

Hi Pain,
Sounds like a fun day out. Have a good time
I look forward to reading another of your excellent reports on what happened.
We doi love pictures
Phil

Working on it. Getting ready to take the xs11 down to Georgia this week. Time seems short.

[Pain]

And now, a story

I had heard of a few friends who wanted to try this year's M2M, but I hadn't agreed to ride with anyone. I was planning to meet a friend at the ferry, a routine stop along the route, who had been wanting to go to Diamonds. She was using this as an excuse.

Since I was on my own I headed to Fuel, arriving at 0745, impressively early for me, and I was optimistic about being able to look over the route before the 9am start.



I'd even taken the extraordinary measure of purchasing a Minnesota map, in hopes of minimizing how lost I was going to get over the course of the day. This plan was almost immediately foiled.



Page one of the route sheet (it was double sided) listed not county highways, but names roads. Google struggled to find them, or where they intersected, and none of them were on my Wisconsin map. So, I gave up trying to plan the ride and got breakfast.



As the morning wore on more and more bike appeared and grabbed route sheets (no sticker again this year, apparently 09 was the last of those), and started looking at maps. One couple, riding together, had state atlases, large books with all the roads mapped out, and they seemed to be able to see where they were going. It was too cumbersome for me.



There was a similar crowd across the street. Not everyone was going, but there were a fair number of MN plates - people who were just riding home.

At 9am the church bell rang, and bikes started. I didn't leave the the very first group, but I also wasn't far behind. On the freeway, before the first turn, I linked up with an Aprilla, and we would ride together to the ferry.

The M2M isn't a race, but my friend had said she wanted to get to Diamonds while they were still open and serving coffee, which meant 8pm. Suffering (my xs11) has a Venturer tank, and I can ride over 200 miles without stopping. This meant the ferry was less than a tank of gas away.

I did stop once. Two riders were pulled over. They were fine, it was just a bathroom stop (one was a woman, and there was a conveniently tall patch of grass there. The four bikes stopped attracted more attention, and unfortunately the stop had occured near Sun Prairie Rd (look back at the route sheet above), but this Sun Prairie was before the TT intersection. Riders hoping to leap frog past us turned onto Sun Prairie (due to a bend in the road and cruel fate, it was "going straight" that led them to this pass) which ran for a while and then ended, 10 miles further on.

Knowing this wasn't the turn meant I kept going, and stayed on route to the ferry.



Motorcycles are supposed to be on the right and all the way in the front, to load first, but when we started filtering up it caused a small riot among the parked cars, so we just piled into a car spot in one of the lanes, assuring people we didn't actually take a spot on the ferry, parking in aisle between the rows of cars. Later, another driver got out and complained to us that we hadn't filtered up, and we pointed him to one of the louder complainers. Neither were on our ferry.

On the other side I met up with my friend, riding an xs850, and we continued on. Her speedo cable had broken on the way to meet me that morning, so we had only my trip meter for fuel stops. I set the distance around 100 miles, which was well before her reserve, and filled my spare gas can just in case. It meant more stops, and I watched my average speed drop on the GPS (no route, but good for other things). She hadn't been riding as much this year and was a bit more tentative in the corners as well. Can't blame her for that, ride your own ride is a mantra.

We stopped for lunch in a gas station food court, which was actually good, and pressed on. Time was getting tight, so I didn't take pictures. Still, I was pretty sure we would make the 8pm time she was hoping for.

Then we came across another rider on the side of the road.



Her Honda Interceptor had run out of gas. Oddly enough, I still had a full spare gas can, and wouldn't need it at this point, so I put it in her tank. That was when she broke bad news #2, her starter was out, had been all day. Bump starting was easy when there had been gas in the carbs, but there wasn't now.

This was the same rider who had been at the false Sun Prairie earlier in the day. She had been riding with a friend (named Crowbar, her name I still can't remember), who had left her to head to the next town and get gas. We tried bump starting her bike, then tow starting it with Suffering once we ran out of hill (where we learned neither of us knew much about towing motorcycles). No luck. No, there wasn't a 'prime' setting on her fuel tank.

After 30-40 minutes of rather sweaty work (no breeze on this stretch of road, and it was hot. We were also plagued by little gnats) she refused more help, telling us to get moving. She lived in the twin cities, and she expected Crowbar back soon. I said we would try to catch him if we saw him, to let him know she had fuel now but still couldn't get the bike started. We did see him, but he blew past us, returning our wave but not stopping.

We reached Diamonds about 820pm, so my friend missed out on her coffee, but there were still riders there.



No coffee, there is beer but we pass, and catch up on stories from other riders. There was a lot of getting lost, and 3 or 4 riders had minor off road excursions. No one was hurt, and more riders were rolling in so we weren't the last (I would've been surprised if we had been).

After an hour or so, we got back on the bikes to find food. Two years ago, on my way to Alaska, she had done the whole M2M with me and we found a fantastic pizza place (okay, we were told about it. It was fantastic though), but this year I decided to find something a bit healthier, more for her than me.

Good Earth Restaurant, which was close to the hotel we were sharing, was excellent, and we both drank far too much of the (caffeinated) tea. It was cool and soothing after the long ride.



GPS from the end of the ride.

The next morning we were hoping for all you can eat pancakes at Diamonds, but (sadly) it wasn't the same weekend this year. We talked about going back to Good Earth, but instead headed back to Diamonds.



Simple American fare, and quite good.

After brunch we said our good byes and headed back to our respective homes. It was a long ride home, all interstate, but a glimpse of what I would have to do a week or so later when I rode down to Georgia to visit a friend. Yes, the xs1100 was going on that trip too. I like the 250, but that bike just isn't the best for long rides on the interstate.

I'll try and share my next adventure too. Promise. Well to try, I mean.

[MaximPhil]

Hi Pain,
Thanks for another story. Nice to see Blue still going along for the ride.
Phil

[natemoen]

Awesome, I too am glad Blue got to go with!

Your ride reports are always great!