Just a reminder that there is a small part of the Driftless Area in Northwest Illinois. We created the Land of Lincoln Route to explore this area.
While most of Illinois is flat or contains gently rolling hills, this part of the state displays the same contours as the rest of the Driftless Area. Â Two of the area's more popular roads are Blackjack Road and Stagecoach Trail. Both are featured on this route. Â In addition to all of the great roads, this route is also home to many historical sites and museums.
Galena, obviously, has great historical significance, but don’t overlook the Apple River Fort in Elizabeth, and the Blackhawk Battlefield Park near Stockton. This route also takes you past Charles' Mound which is the highest natural point in Illinois.
Click Here for more information about the Land of Lincoln Route!
Crash Video and Thoughts:
Some of you may not know that I (Dale) crashed my motorcycle last October. I was riding with some friends on the back roads of Iowa and some high winds blew me off the road. I was luckily not injured badly (sore and bruised) but the bike was totaled.
I always have a dash cam active while riding and was able to capture video of this crash. The person walking at the end of the video is me walking past the rear of the bike. Here is the video:
As you can see I'm riding out of a small valley into an open area. The wind is blowing from my left to right (look for the corn shocks). There are deep ditches on both sides of the road and there is tall grass in the ditch.
It appears that my rear tire dropped off the edge of the road and when that happened the bike went sideways throwing me off before doing a complete roll. I landed just off the edge of the road (luckily) in the tall grass.
My riding buddies helped me get the bike upright and back onto the road. We assessed the damage, and although there was quite a bit of damage, I was still able to ride it. We were on the first day of a 4 day trip, but I decided that my trip was over, so I rode the bike home and started the post-accident processes.
Damage to the bike: Scratched windscreen, broken windscreen mounts, bent crash bars, road rashed cam covers, damaged mirrors, scratched and broken body work, damaged front rim, broken Zumo mount, and maybe a few other things I'm overlooking.
Damage to me: Very sore right shoulder, sore ribs front and back on my right side, and a contusion on my left shin (probably from when I left the bike).
What worked well: My gear. I was in full gear helmet to boots. I was lucky to land in the grass, but my head was on the road and scratches to my helmet tell me I was partially in the road. Without a helmet I could have been digging gravel out of my scalp. I was using an Arai full face helmet which has since been replaced.
I was wearing my Gryphon Vancouver coat with integrated pads. This coat held up very well with no visible damage, just a few grass stains.
I was also wearing an Apple Watch. The crash tripped the fall detection system on the watch. It was going to call for emergency services for me but I cancelled the call. I didn't end up needing this service, but it's nice to know it worked in this case.
One pleasant surprise was my Quad Lock. The phone I had mounted was rock solid. It never moved and was still in good shape for me to use on my new bike.
My insurance is State Farm and overall it was a positive experience. I'm happy with their valuation of the bike and the coverage of my gear. I didn't have any big loss on non-oem equipment, so I'm lucky because that would not have been covered. There were some issues with coordination and communication after I took the bike to the shop, but it worked out in the end.
On the downside, as opposed to the Quad Lock, the item that failed me was my Zumo XT mount. This is a wimpy mount to begin with and the original locking mechanism was a plastic latch. I had read that these were prone to failing, so I had my Zumo anchored with a short lanyard. This proved to be a good choice because my Zumo was undamaged despite coming off the mount. The new mount I bought has replaced the plastic latch with a metal latch. This is good news and bad news. The good news is: the latch won't break, the bad new is: if something is going to break, it's going to be the backside of the Zumo itself.
In looking back at the crash, what led up to it and what happened afterwards, it really drove home the idea that I need to dress for the crash, not the ride. From the time the actual bike crash started to the time it was over was a matter of seconds. There was no time to 'brace for landing' or anything. In fact, I don't remember anything from the time the back tire started to lose traction until I was on the ground (I vaguely remember landing because I got the wind knocked out of me a bit).
This story ends with a new bike and a new riding season in front of us. We are looking forward to some great rides this summer and for many years to come. Here is our new ride!
Calimoto Import Fix:
We recently had a customer ask us for help because the route they purchased didn't import correctly into the Calimoto Desktop App. I tried it and got the same result (a mess). In talking with Calimoto representatives, they could not tell me why the route would work in the smartphone app but not the desktop app. However, they did give me some steps to take to make it work on the desktop app.
So, If you are a Calimoto user and you want to import one of our routes into the desktop app, please follow these steps:
Select Import GPX.
Click on "Completed Rides".
Upload your GPX file there and click "Import now".
Once imported, you can find the ride under Rides > Completed.
Open the ride and click on "Convert into route" (bottom right corner, see picture below).
You can then edit the route if needed and save it to your Planned Tours.
I have tried their solution and it was about 99% correct. I was easily able to make the final correction by moving 1 point.
So if you have any issues with the desktop Calimoto app, try the steps above and hopefully it will work for you. If not, please let us know and we will go back to Calimoto for more help.
It feels like spring right now and we are getting anxious for upcoming planned trips. Let us know what trips you have planned!!
Safe Travels
Dale and Renee