Certainly a ride to remember

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Scott58 · #1 Unread post by **Scott58** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 3:49 am

Got back late last night and it was a great trip. Mainly called due to rain.

DAY 1: We loaded up our gear and left my house around 9am saturday and headed west on us 20. Weather was good until we got about 30 miles east of S. Bend when the rain hit. And I mean rain. It was a monsoon and by the time we got to an over pass we were soaked. The Rebel and his Magna didn't care, but we sure did. (I could of swore I heard the rebel call me a pansy). Once we got under the over pass the diadora boots came off and I poured about a 1/2 cup of water out of each one of them. (Water resistant doesn't mean water proof). Quick change of socks and out came the plastic bags to wrap my feet in. Within about 20 minutes the rain had passed and we were on the road again. As quickly as the weather got bad it turned great and US 20 became the scenic cruise we hoped it would be. Town after town rolled by but your not going to make good time and by the time we got to Toledo (gas $1.85 sweet) it was obvious Niagara Falls wasn't going to happen on the first day. The Rebel and magna both were running well and my Rebel maintained speed like it was a much larger bike (with perks I'll talk about later). We made it to Elyria, OH by 8:30pm and stopped for the night.

DAY 2: After a quick shower and coffee we decided we needed some interstate miles to make up some time and got on I-90. Speed limits in ohio are 65mph so I wasn't concerned with the Rebels ability to do hours of it and at 8am off we went. Those of you who have concerns with the Rebel on the interstate forget about it. It performs really well for a bike of this size. I had absolutly no problems with wind, trucks, any of it and although I can't say how much of this the flyscreen had to do with it, it all worked. We hit speeds up to and including 80 mph and i never once touched full throttle. The sweet spot seems to be about 72mph when it sounds like your riding in a swarm of angry hornets, but it just seemed to be another day for the Rebel. We stopped and to eat in pennsylvania (great omellettes) and gased up. The scenary in penn is beautiful and the day stayed great on into new york and north past buffalo. It turned ugly again however, about 15 miles south of niagara falls where monsoon season kicked in again with no overpasses in sight. We pretty much just said screw it and kept going. The bikes didn't sputter or miss a lick and it might as well been a nice sunny day as far as they were concerned. We finally found a car port next to one of those information stationed and pulled under that to wait. The storm again passed within 30 minutes and we were on our way. We were at the falls by 5:00 and although a bit wet enjoyed the sights. We left niagara falls by 7:30 and headed south where we got rained on 3 more times (oh joy) and finally stopped for the night in Williamsville.

DAY 3: woke up to drizzle, but it passed before we were ready to takeoff so the start of the day was pretty good. Got on highway 219 and headed south. We had a storm front behind us and a storm front in front of us (The weather channel is a wonderful thing) and did our best to stay between them. It worked for most of the day and we made it into pennsylvania where we stopped at the Zippo lighter factory. (that is a very cool place) Spent the better part of 2 hour looking around the museum and buying tourist trap kind of stuff. Then it was back on the road to try and outwit the weatherman. We were good until 4:00 when we hit the worst we had seen. Visability dropped to about 20 feet which effectively ended Day 3 at brockway, Penn.

DAY 4: Wokeup to fog and after checking the weather channel again decided Rabbit Hash, ky wasn't going to happen. Huge storm front just below indianapolis that stretched all the way to the east coast so we headed west just above the storm. It was a good ride (all the none rain stuff was). We cruised across pennsylvaina into pittsburgh where we got into some serious traffic and almost lost each other. (He couldn't quite understand that 18hp is very different then 100hp and that once i lost my momentum it took me a few minutes to get it back). He jumped ahead and about 40 cars got between us and I lost sight of him. Within about 10 minutes I entered a long tunnel and fortunately could hear the growl of his engine somewhere ahead (tunnels echo pretty well). We were able to get back together just outside of some submarine dock they had on a river that goes through there and we stopped and took some pictures. I took over 200 pictures on this trip (sweet!). We were off again and made it to cambridge, oh (through a short strip of W. Virginia) where we stopped for the night.

DAY 5: the rest of this trip was pretty much interstate until we got to indiana. After Richmond, In we got on highway35 for the last leg home. Other then stops for gas and a stop in james deans hometown (what a creepy place in a pod people kind of way. gave me the willies). I made it back to michigan city by 8:45. Overall it was a great trip.

Observations about the Rebel. This is a great bike there is just no doubt about it. Was it comfortable? I'd be lieing if i said i didn't figgit around a bit, but it wasn't really any worse then if you made me sit in my dining room chair for 10 hours. It's what happens when you sit in one place that long. Can it be made better? You bet. I plan on finding a used magna seat (now that is a comfortable seat) and retro fitting it to the Rebel. i watch them make choppers on TV all the time and frankly how hard can it be just to do a custom seat job. Why not just get a bigger bike for such long trips? That's certainly an option, but here are the pro's to the Rebel. If you want to do legal speed limits (and a bit above that to be sure) the rebel is very happy to do it. I went up grades that i thought sure were going to be problems, but weren't. Not only was the Rebel able to hold the speed but would also accelerate (not fast mind you, but when your doing 70mph already it was acceptable for a 234cc bike). And the true shining star of the Rebel is it's gas mileage. I averaged 86.5 mpg on this trip. It was incredable. 1530 miles on this trip and used a little over 17 1/2 gallons of gas costing me less then $36. Nothing like watching a magna gulp down $5 to your $2. A more comfortable seat and maybe some highway bars and your good to go. Also in this 1530 miles i added 1/3 qt of oil. Can't wait for my next long trip.

Ladymx · #2 Unread post by **Ladymx** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 6:26 am

Scott58, Sounds like it was a great trip even with the rainy spots. Glad you enjoyed the Rebel as well they are good bikes and really you dont need much more then them, but you know the rest of us speed demons just need to go faster now.

, but the gas mileage will get us for sure. Look forward to hearing about your next adventure.

#3 Unread post by **cb360** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 10:12 am

Good post Scott. Glad the Rebel held up for you. I'll make sure and show your post to my wife who just picked up a Rebel a few weeks ago.

CentralOzzy · Thu Jun 02, 2005 11:19 pm

EXCELLENT SCOTT!

Way to go!

How about some Pic's of you on the bike from this trip....you did take photos didn't Ya Scott??

To Upload Pics try here: http://picsplace.to/index.php

Scott58 · #5 Unread post by **Scott58** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 2:30 am

pics added http://www.freewebs.com/scott58/

Ladymx · #6 Unread post by **Ladymx** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:48 am

Great pics, nice house and love those attack kittens.

Scott58 · #7 Unread post by **Scott58** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 9:53 am

LOL. Everybody says they like the kittens. They are full blown cats now and it's hard to tell the 2 apart. Pretty good guys though.

honda599 · #8 Unread post by **honda599** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:16 am

Hey Scott

Your bike looks great along with the very nice pictures you took on your trip, especially at Niagara Falls. You certainly can't beat the fuel economy and reliability of the Rebel.

Cheers

Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:42 pm

Thanks for the pics. What kind of camera are you using?

Scott58 · #10 Unread post by **Scott58** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 2:49 am

i used a kodak DX 7440 4 megapixal. I really like the camera. It had one problem with the battery latch breaking, but the battery door holds it in place so it wasn't a big deal. I've read alot of people have this problem, but the camera takes such good pictures I didn't want to send it back. The pics on the site really don't do this camera justice as they are reduced to 640x480 using media resizing software. The original 4 meg size are awesome. I carry this camera on my person 24/7 and have taken thousands of pics with it night and day (it's got alot of different settings) plus the movie function is sweet. They're almost $100 bucks cheaper now since I got mine (i paid $300). Also got a 256 card when I bought it (I recommend that or larger). New bike, new camera. i've had a great year!!