One-tank Jaunt to Jersey

Bridgewater Bears from left: Joanna, Captain, Jim, Fonz, CT Blogger and Pogy down front.

Motorcycle Polar Bear Blog, ride to The Eagles, Bridgewater, NJ, Sunday, November 8, 2015.

By: Chris Loynd

New Jersey Matt was a surprise visitor when I arrived at our Stratford, Conn. Dunkin' Donuts departure point. Our destination this Sunday is right in his backyard. So he headed up to Connecticut to get a few miles in this Sunday. He's done it before, sort of a Polar Bear ride in reverse.

When we got to the Eagles, Matt quickly said his goodbyes, and so missed the weekly group photo. He said something about having a babysitter for the afternoon. And if you've ever had kids, well, here's hoping you enjoyed your afternoon Matt!

Fonz joined us this week. We hadn't seen him on the first two rides. He told me it had been too warm for Polar Bear riding. "But I woke up," he said, "heard the heater running, and figured it was time to ride."

Jim joined us for the first time this year. He and Joanna were waiting for us at the bus stop. We picked them up but stayed up on I-287, using the Tappan Zee going out instead of the GW Bridge.

We rode down to an Eagles Club in New Jersey, home to the famous AMA New Jersey Corn Boil. (A summer ride worth two Polar Bear bonus points.) Club members put on a great feed for a paltry $12, coffee included.

We sat at big round tables after working our way through a crowded sign-in. Somehow Jim and Joanna ended up at the table next to us instead of our table. That seemed to work just fine for them; Jim brought Joanna to our group in the first place. They chatted happily on their own.

Instead we were joined by a couple of Polar Bears from Maryland. Who knew? Outlanders like us. Most of the Bears are from New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York.

One of the girls worked for a Navy contractor building submarines. She commutes between Newport News and Groton. Table talk soon centered around submarine classes, building techniques and general specifications. I don't think any state secrets leaked. In fact, it sounded to this neophyte like our Captain knew more about the subject than the expert from Maryland.

He never once mentioned his own submarine project. I was sorely tempted to tip his hand. But one advantage of getting older is that I've learned respect other's business . . . and mind my own.

Our ride was a nice, easy distance, less than 250 miles round trip.

As such, I decided to skip the gas stop my comrades needed to make on the way home. My Honda ST1100 has one of the largest gas tanks fitted to a motorcycle, 7.4 gallons. My gauge at the gas stop was reading only a quarter down. The bike's range is advertised to be more than 300 miles.

It wasn't like there wouldn't be another gas station on the way home. So I figured to test the bike. Worst case scenario, I figured I could drop out of the group and fill up. Worst, worst, case scenario: I have a siphon and my buddies just filled their tanks!

Confidence can be a fragile thing. As we rode over the Tappan Zee Bridge mine faded. This bike is 18 years old. I bought it used. It's relatively new to me. I've never really run the tank down past a quarter. What if the gauge is off? There's no reserve. I'll just sputter and die.

My speedometer always reads exactly five miles fast. I've checked it with the GPS. Does that mean my trip odometer is showing more, or less miles? Doubts filtered in as I rode for home.

I made it to my home gas station with a quarter tank still showing on the ST's gauge. I brimmed the tank to the same point I'd filled it after last week's ride. The pump said it delivered 4.812 gallons. So 7.4 divided by four equals 1.85 gallons per quarter tank. With my quarter tank the gauge says is still available, 1.85, plus the 4.812 I just replaced, equals 6.662 gallons. So there must be slightly less than a gallon reserve when the fuel light comes on and the tank reads empty. Not to bad.

Next I checked the trip OD against the GPS. They matched exactly at 245 miles. So if I figure right, I divide the 245 miles by the 4.812 gallons, to get 50.91 mpg. Yes, there's some small variation for where exactly the fuel reaches the bottom of the filler neck. Even discounting that by, say, 10 percent, I still got 45 mpg.

Yeah, I gotta go touring on this bike next summer.

LD Diva and the boys at Eagles.

CT Polar Bears, New Jersey Matt, in yellow, is an honorary member.

Fonz's first sign-in.