It’s getting close to the big two-wheeled extravaganza at IMS — the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sept. 12-14. If you have any concerns about parking for your bike, let me assure you that there will be plenty!
But one important thing to note is that you will not be able to ride in the big gate on 16th Street, Gate 2. So be prepared to enter on 30th street at Gate 10.
Here’s how to ride to the track and park your bike, riding in from the Crawfordsville Road exit on Interstate 465 (keep clicking on the map to magnify the view):
Here’s how to get to the Brickyard from I-65 (keep clicking on the map to magnify the view):
Finally, here’s how to get to IMS coming from downtown (keep clicking on the map to magnify the view):
There is plenty of parking. Be smart and get a pass so that you don’t have to hassle with trying to find a spot.
Cheers,
Jarrod
First, a quick picture of me and the lady on your trip down to Kentucky for the IndyCar Series race. We left with two others on Saturday morning, Aug. 9. It was Megan’s first long trip on the bike, and it turned out to be a great trip. Here is a picture of our stop in Madison, Ind., where we stayed the night after the race.
Our route only took us about four hours, considering we took several breaks. Thanks to my top box on the Tiger, Megan was able to sit back and enjoy the ride. This also made it a lot easier on the driver since I didn’t get head butted every time I shifted! Here is the route.
Marker A: Was Megan’s Parents, That’s were Van was dropped off.
Marker D: First stop at BP in Nashville.
Marker E: Lunch at Mikey D’s
Marker K: Stop at the Broadway Tavern & Inn to pick up our room keys.
Marker O: Kentucky Speedway.
Back to the Scrambler…Here is the “Before” picture
Not sure if anyone caught my appearance on the 3-2-1 video blog with Jana Strange or not. In that episode, I went over the Scrambler and mentioned that I still wanted to eliminate the fender. Well, over the past couple of nights, I did just that.
The reason why I combined two kits is to get the ideal setup. The kit from British Customs (BC) has a license plate with a built in LED tail light. The kit from Newbonneville.com (NB) has a better bracket system for the rear blinkers and has OEM connectors for both the front and rear blinkers. The nice thing about the brackets for the rear blinkers on the NB kit is that they provide screws that go directly into the back side of the shock mount. The BC kit requires you to remove the shock mounts and place the blinkers on the outside of the shock. This is not only less attractive, but it causes much more work and makes the signals stick out farther then desired.
The other disappointing thing about the BC kit is that it doesn’t come with completed OEM connectors like the NB kit.
So here is how the kit was combined. The BC taillight was used with the rear signal/taillight harness that was provided by NB.
Here is how the process went. I went ahead and took off the headlight and attached the new front signals and connected them. Checked the function, and they seemed to work properly. At the same time, Matt was working on the rear taillight, and Phil was drinking beer and eating pizza.
Once Matt started to troubleshoot why this light wasn’t working or the tail blinkers weren’t working and etc., we blew a fuse or two, and I had to take the rear window washer fuse out of my FJ Cruiser to finally get all the pieces working. So after about an hour of incomplete circuits, we decided to take the front headlight apart again and switch the front signals. Magically, it made everything better, and the system was working.
It’s done. Just waiting on my artist to finish up my pin-up girl, and I am set!!!
Jarrod
So I missed by blog last week. I really just didn’t have anything nice to say, so I kept my thoughts to myself.
Last weekend was a full weekend of riding. The weather was outstanding, and everyone had the weekend off after the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard and a bare weekend with the IndyCar Series taking their first weekend off in six weeks!
At the home front, it was busy – busy riding, that is. On Saturday morning, a group of us met downtown across from the new Dunkin Donuts. Our original plan was to meet on the Circle, but there was a Lotus Car show that had the area blocked off.
The group consisted of six total riders on two Triumphs, three Suzukis and a Ducati. Paul Riley and Phil Sparks were the other to IMS employees that made the trip, along with Paul’s son, friend and Matt, a buddy of Phil and I.
Everyone was roughly on time, and we left downtown at 9 a.m.
We typically take the same routes when we ride down to Brown County. For the first leg of our trip, take a look at this route:
This route took us down Highway 37 until old 37, which is an nice warm-up road. You really don’t get into anything crazy. The one thing that kind of sucked was the fact that the road was slightly damp in a lot of the areas. Old 37 then runs into Bloomington. You then hop on 45, shoot around the north side of the town and head northeast on 45, which is probably my favorite road in central Indiana.
Be sure to turn the volume down on your computer. The audio isn’t the best, but you can see me leading the pack:
That stretch took us about 1.5 hours, and we stopped in Nashville, Ind., for some BBQ. Once we filled up with food and gas, we hit the road for our second stretch. Here is the route. We ride south on 135 around Brown County Park through Story, Ind. From there, we continue on 135 to IN-58:
We took a break at the 446 intersection and lined up the bikes. I’m on the far left, and Paul is on the far right in his orange Hayabusa.
Once we took a quick break and chatted with an ‘ol timer on his Harley Sportster, we rode up 446 across Lake Monroe. Once we got to Bloomington, the group split up. Matt and I headed for 45 again on our way home and the others went straight to 37 and went home.
Here is the ride home Matt and I took:
The ride was excellent. We started around 9 a.m., and I was at home by 3:30 p.m. I had plenty of time to relax before my family got home. That night, Megan went out for a wedding shower, so it was just me and the boys. Van and dog Rex hung out and watched a movie and called it a early night.
The next morning, I had baby duty since Mommy was out all night with her friends. It was fun; Van is in a great stage right now. I bet he will be walking on his own on my next blog.
In the afternoon, Megan had another baby shower that required her to take Van; this one was with the mothers and grandparents. I took the opportunity to hop back on my bike and take it over to storage and get my Scrambler out. I met up with Ron Pitman, another IMS employee, and we took a Sunday cruise around west Indianapolis. Here is our route, which I think is a great on if you want to stay close to the city:
From here we pretty much back tracked our route back to a parking lot at Raceway and 56th Street, parked for a few minutes and talked MotoGP. Buy tickets, ride to the track – it’s going to be a blast!
See you next week.
Jarrod