Madison Summer: cage vs. bike

[der_saeufer]

Hi (north) central FFs:

I'm a law student at UCLA. I hate LA (I'm not from here; UCLA is a great law school and I love it, but LA as a place to live is not for me). To that end, I scored an internship for the summer in Madison. I really want to explore the wider area and expect that I'll be going 4-5 hours away on a somewhat regular basis. I've really enjoyed the time I've spent in the Great Lakes region and am seriously considering moving there after I graduate, so I want to make the most of the summer. (Full disclosure: I'm 30 and have lived all over the place after growing up in Colorado, so it's not a random idea)

All I have here in LA is my '04 DL650 and a bus pass. My dilemma is this: do I ride to Madison in May and back in August so that I have my bike, or do I fly and buy a boring American car off Craigslist for $1000? (buying a car in LA and driving is out of the question--cars here are surprisingly expensive and the sub-5k end of the price spectrum is dominated by sketchy sh!t with salvage titles and/or owners who can't be bothered to maintain their cars). I can fly for roughly the price of gas alone.

I've already got my housing lined up; I'm living on the isthmus walking distance from work, so that's a non-issue. The bike or cage will be used for after-work and weekend trips.

So, ADVers of da nort woods, convince me to ride... or tell me why it's a crap idea.

[Big Augie]

You would be fine with the bike for that time of year, check with the folks in the Madison M&G thread, lots of good peeps in there.

[Moto da Vinci]

It is a great time of year to be in Madison. Since you will be living on the Isthmus, you will have access to everything within walking distance - stores, great restaurants, bars etc. Most of the busses go through the Isthmus so while the bus system is only fair, you at least have that going for you.

There are great roads to the west and southwest, great roads the other ways too but you might have to travel a little farther. Unfortunatly, there is not a lot of off road places near Madison, not without traveling north. That being said, if you are willing to go a few hours north, there is some great stuff. If you are looking for specific off road riding ideas, do a search on "Cannonshot". He does a lot of great routing/mapping. While I don't know him personally, I have seen a ton of his work here.

[DrPhill]

sell your bus pass, load the bike up and make it an ADVenture....thats why you have the bike right?

The weather is fine here those months and you will have plenty of daylight and roads to explore in WI, IA, MN & farther.

Phill

[OZbeemer]

Ride the bike. Then if you really need a car for a reason, drop the few bucks and rent from enterprise or the like. Cars are maintained for you, and if you watch they run deals on weekend rates.

Enjoy the area!!!!

[Grainbelt]

Just ride the bike and get a zipcar membership.

http://www.zipcar.com/madison/find-c...t_id=610439426

[Powershouse]

You could have a lot of fun with that bike in WI. To the south and west is the wonderland known as the Driftless region that wasn't scraped flat by the glaciers, and as a result has all sorts of twisty roads that go over the hills and through the valleys. As an added plus, the county roads are all paved so that dairy farmers can reliably get the milk to market, these roads are all named with letters and known as the alphabet roads. There are also plenty of little gravel roads to explore in the coullees.

The problem that you will have as I see it is crossing the mountains as you head east in early May. Could be sketchy, definitely bring a heated liner.

[der_saeufer]

Thanks for all the help! I guess I should start getting the bike ready for the road trip. I needed an excuse to get rid of the Shinko 705s on there anyway.

I actually have a Zipcar membership that I never use, so thanks for that reminder. And Cannonshot's ride reports with 80 million pictures are a great advertisement for riding in the area.

As for the mountains in May, that's definitely a concern--my family is in Denver, so I'm quite familiar with how cold it gets at 11,000'. I'll probably be stopping in Denver for a few days. Hopefully the weather holds up. If not, I'll have time to go around via ABQ. I'm more concerned with the suck factor of riding across the country in August, but I suppose that's what riding in the early morning is for.

[little john]

yell when you get this way and I'm sure some of us will help hook you up with passable dual sporting, nothing like east of LA or CO , but good. madison isnt too bad an area to have a bike. an hour west you are well into the driftless area and alphabit roads to play on, a bit more than that( north of the WI Dells) and there are sand roads to fall on all day long. 4 hrs north and thats where the good dual sport riding is in the National forests.

[Roland44]

Originally Posted by DrPhill

sell your bus pass, load the bike up and make it an ADVenture....thats why you have the bike right?

The weather is fine here those months and you will have plenty of daylight and roads to explore in WI, IA, MN & farther.

Phill

Best idea! +1 on this...

[elron]

Post up when you get settled in.

[zed88]

Bring the bike. You will be here for the best part of the season. Not sure where you are working but my company services the IT needs of quite a few law firms and companies in Madison. I make it up for the occasional biz meeting and lead quite a few group rides all over sw wisconsin during the summer. We also have the flat four tour out of chicagoland sportbikes which is quite fun.

[Northwoods Yeti]

Originally Posted by little john

an hour west you are well into the driftless area and alphabit roads to play .

Oh yeh!

I did just that last weekend.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcfynINaXIo

[der_saeufer]

Originally Posted by Northwoods Yeti

Oh yeh!

I did just that last weekend.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcfynINaXIo

Hot damn. It's hard to tell from the camera, but the road in the video looks like it's in pretty nice shape too. That and the Lake Michigan shoreline are on my (very) short list so far. I had a KLR almost identical to that (mine was a '98, so blue-green) but I sold it last month because I never rode it. My hands are going numb thinking about riding it 2000 miles in 4 days, though

I should be out there just after Memorial Day, so I'll let everyone know so I can say hey. (And I'll be posting a brag pic of the odo at 100k somewhere between Omaha and Madison)

The only question left is what kind of tires to get and whether to do them here or in Denver. I'm stoked for the summer, though I'm still not looking forward to the ride out.

[Northwoods Yeti]

Originally Posted by der_saeufer

Hot damn. It's hard to tell from the camera, but the road in the video looks like it's in pretty nice shape too. That and the Lake Michigan shoreline are on my (very) short list so far. I had a KLR almost identical to that (mine was a '98, so blue-green) but I sold it last month because I never rode it. My hands are going numb thinking about riding it 2000 miles in 4 days, though

I should be out there just after Memorial Day, so I'll let everyone know so I can say hey. (And I'll be posting a brag pic of the odo at 100k somewhere between Omaha and Madison)

The only question left is what kind of tires to get and whether to do them here or in Denver. I'm stoked for the summer, though I'm still not looking forward to the ride out.

That's HWY 108 north of West Salem, WI [aka. "Mindoro Cut"]. When I was there the pavement was near perfect, not a speck of gravel in the corners. I'd do the tires in Denver, if they can last that long. Once you get in the "Middle" of the country tires tend to square off from lack of corners. I always had good luck with Metzler Tourances on my Tiger should work for a Wee.


If you like the CUT then you might like Wildcat Mtn. Hwy 33 by Ontario, WI. It's about 30 miles from Mindoro


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_XKl593ee8


Hell we haven't even discussed the gravel and two-track in the North woods yet!!!