Tires, Boxes and New England Tour

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July 29, Wednesday

I was up and on the way to my sister’s place in Derry, NH just a short ride north. I arrived around 8:30, and couldn’t figure out how to get past the front door of her apartment building. She didn’t answer the phone, and I didn’t know the “code” to buzz her apartment. Up to the office, which opened at 9, then armed with a code, I tried Shirley’s again. Still no joy. I figured I could go find a tire guy anyway, so off I went and found the big Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki shop. On the way back, Shirley called me to ask where I was. Apparently she’d been in the apartment the whole morning, and just didn’t hear any of the calls. Tires showed up at 10, we went for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, then I checked in with the motorcycle shop. For $30 apiece, they would change out the tires off of the bike, for $60 if they were still on the bike. So, I pulled out my tools, removed the tires one at a time, replaced the brake pads, and put the new tires on. 2 hours later, with some dirty hands and lost sweat, I was all set to go. I waved goodbye to my sister, and headed for Hillsborough NH, home of Micatech. I found Bob and Sue’s shop with no trouble, and they gave me a grand tour of the facility. He has been there since 1976 doing various metal work projects, and he hopes to really come on strong with the Micatech bags. These bags, as I’m sure I’ve said before, are awesome. In my humble but accurate opinion, they are by far the best bags on the market. Sure, you pay a little more for them, but you bought a BMW when you could have bought an old Honda right ? Besides, after five “Lay downs from a stop”, the bags are in perfect condition, still waterproof and no dents or dings. My bike has actually LAID fully on the side bag, rear wheel in the air, and done NO damage to the bags. I like that. It’s worth the money. And it’s not that much more money anyway. Bob’s attention to customer service is also great. More about that tomorrow. While I was talking to Bob, it started to rain something fierce. Leaving Micatech all suited up, I rode up the hill to the 1840 Hotel, got a room that was adequate, rode back into town for a tasty Chinese meal of mango chicken, and then sloshed back up to the hotel again. I pulled lots of stuff into the room to dry, leaving Bear uncovered, since he was already fully soaked anyway.

July 30, Thursday

I rode back to Bob and Micatech, handed over my top box to Bob's employees, and as suggested, walked over to the local diner for some breakfast. Bob and Sue came to join me about an hour later and we had a nice chat. After a bit, we returned to the shop, where my top box now had the "new" hinges installed, ones that will not slide apart when leaned over on the side stand, and they even put a new gasket around the lip, as the old one had been getting pretty torn up by me trying to close the lid when it wasn't quite lined up properly. This is true customer service. Next Bob and I discussed what had happened to shelf. He is glad to be able to inspect the old ones so he can see how they began to split. We discussed possible ways to re-enforce the angle that takes a lot of flex-abuse while riding. This is another area where I really appreciate Bob's attitude. Not only does he listen to the customer, he actually pro-actively goes after their ideas for improvement, and implements them ! He has already changed the hinges on all production bags since we spoke several months ago about the issue of the lid sliding off the top box. We discussed the handles on his new line of bags for the F800GS, which will also fit the F650 and even some of the jap brands. I may have to do a product review for them.
After departing Hillsborough, I headed west to Vermont. Crossing the border over a cute little steel bridge, I realized I had one more state to go to finish getting the "two wheels in 48 states" personal award. I stopped at a cheese factory and compared Vermont cheddar to Oregon cheddar. Both are great. So is Wisconsin cheddar, so I guess maybe I just like cheddar. I found a little state park campground and set up for the night, dodging mosquitoes all the while. Good thing Deb was on Nantucket or she'd have been very chewed up.

July 31, Friday

On the road through Massachusetts, very New England-ish of course, and back on to the Cape to meet Deb's ferry at 12:30. I arrived a little early, had a bite, and soon she showed up. We took off north to get through Boston, with a bit of rush hour traffic unfortunately, but we made it into New Hampshire and stopped for some supper. There'd been some light rain along the way, so we'd suited up appropriately. While we were in the restaurant, we happened to glance out the window, and the trees and bushes seemed to be making right angles to the ground. Out I ran to the bike, got our rain gear and helmets, and covered up the bike, just as the gulleywasher hit in earnest. Wow. This is the first real deluge we've seen on the whole trip. The road was awash about 2 feet deep, and cars were splashing water up about 6 feet or more into the air as they unsuspectingly ran through the wash. We decided to find a spot close, and once the rain let up a bit, we spent the night in Portsmouth. Way too much money for a room around here.

Sorry, but for some reason I didn't take many pictures of this section of trip. Oops.

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