Sunday, April 16, 2017

Mini Bike World Record recap and Raffle Announcement

What a long strange trip it was. The estimated amount of miles we did right now is 2,678.4 miles. When we translate the GPS recorded miles, it should be higher.
   But the important reason we did this was to bring about awareness of ALD and to support The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation and their website www.aidanhasaposse.org .You can find out all about ALD at this link
We are having a raffle to raise money for this, in case you didn't know. The drawing is going to be next weekend LIVE on Facebook- The website - https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTU2MzY
will be open for merchandise and to take donations but please get your raffle tickets no later than Tuesday morning ( so do it NOW if you haven't already. The foundation is tranfering all the internet ticket sales onto actual ticket stubs and mailing them to me here in South Carolina where I will be drawing a winner LIVE on Facebook next weekend.. The grand prize is this rare  David Uhl print, #6 of 9 and yes, it is signed by David Uhl. If the winner would like, I will sign it too.

Another prize is this Biltwell helmet hand painted by Darren McKeag. It is really amazing!

Biltwell  also donated a  500 dollar gift certificate for some lucky winner!
Not to be outdone, Spectro Oils prize packages will go to eight lucky winners!
Metzeler Tires is going to give a set of motorcycle tires to a lucky winner too.

 So tune into my Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/beanre next weekend for the LIVE broadcast of the winners of these great prizes and more.
And if you don't have your raffle tickets, get there NOW, right here at this link-                 https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTU2MzY

Sunday, April 9, 2017

New chances to win!!!!!!!

  As the news stations in San Diego covered, our mini bike tour cam to an end at Waterfront Park in San Diego on Friday, April 7th, exactly 20 days after we began in Daytona Beach, Florida. I mission for awareness of ALD and support of The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation continues. The raffle for the great prizes will end soon but first let me tell you about another giveaway.
 Berry Wardlaw of Accurate Engineering has decided to donate one pound of bacon ( thick or thin sliced) to the winner who can guess the amount of miles we did  added with the amount of flat tires we had. He also will generously donate 100 dollars to The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation. I will match that as will my partner, Tim "Bacon" Ford, making a grand total of 300 dollars to the Foundation. All you have to do is guess how many miles we rode, and add the number of flat tires we had to that number. This contest is only going to last a couple of days so you better hurry. Like to win more? How about a David Uhl Print?
This print is our grand prize of our other raffle. It is a rare 6 out of 9 prints, signed and delivered to your address worth over 3500 dollars.
  Second prize is this awesome hand painted Biltwell helmet by legendary Iowa artist, Darren McKeag. It is so cool. I was suppose to wear this helmet for the entire ride but it was such a work of art, I just could not do it. It is brand new in mint condition. It truly is priceless!!!!
 
  Biltwell not only donated this helmet to be painted but they contributed to our expense account for
 this ride, donated generously to The Aidan Foundation and also will give some lucky winner a 500.00 dollar gift certificate 
for anything on their website
 Our other sponsor, Spectro Oils, which we ran in our mini bikes keeping them rolling the entire way coast to coast, helped with our expenses, donated to The Aidan Foundation and also are giveaway 8 different Spectro Oil and  Spectro bike shine packages for you
And if all this wasn't enough, how about a brand new set of Metzeler tires for your bike!!!!!!
To get in on a chance to win these great prizes, click on this website The Foundation has created here
All the money goes directly to the Foundation. This will be only for a few more days before we draw so DO NOT put off any longer. Don't miss out on these prizes and your chance to support a great cause while being a history making part of Team Bean're.


Here is what one San Diego news channel had to say about us.............

Friday, April 7, 2017

25 miles to Graceland

Waking up in Calexico, we had about 130 miles to get to San Diego. I pulled what I thought was a new tube from my bag and changed it out my front tire. I even used the C02 cartridges that The Old Bastards m/c gave us at the Payson fundraiser. Problem was, it wasn't a new tube. It had a pin hole and was flat before we left town. I had ride a flat there so I decided I was done fixing flats and rode it all day. I figured this would keep my speed down. My front bearings were also going out and were making sounds like an angry rattlesnake.
   Going from sea level up over 3000 ft of hills I thought would be the challenge. what I forgot was what goes up, must come down. The down hill twisty canyon roads were sketchy. If I leaned in the turns, my front tire wanted to wash out. I knew if I ever got it to jump the bead, I would really be doomed. Still, we made pretty good time and kept moving forward.
  Most of the way we were right beside the border. Here you can see the wall. It's not a good wall. I know walls. Believe me, I could build a better wall. I'm not going to tell you how, but you'll see... and it's going to be great.
   The entire day we saw more Immigration official in the SUV's. We even went through a few check points again. There was also a lot of signs telling us that human smuggling was a felony.  For that reason, we didn't pick up any hitch hikers.
   As we got closer to our destination, it looked like it was smooth sailing. My front tire was getting really warm and felt like it was going to wash out from under me and any second so I stopped to let it cool. Traffic had picked up in the canyon roads too and there was very little shoulder to ride on. We rested for awhile and then I took off down a mountain grade. Tim was behind me but I lost him. I went back and he had went over the handlebars. They were badly bent too. I was concerned until he rolled up his pants leg he had a little owwie that looked like it needed a Strawberry Shortcake Bandaide on his "compound fracture". I ribbed him for the rest of the day and I guess karma had enough and less than a mile from our good friend, Pat's house. the front end came out from under me and I went skidding down the street. Tim got the pleasure of watching. I was just happy that he didn't run over me when I came to a stop.
   Now the finish line for us is 25 miles away. It is at Waterfront Park in downtown San Diego.  We will be there at noon with the TV news waiting. Come see us!!!
And don't forget to check out The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation page at http://www.aidanhasaposse.org/ and please contribute to their cause on this link. You just might win some great prizes too!!!!!

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Problems at the border

Staying at The border of California and Mexico in a town called Calexico. On the Mexican side it is called Mexicali. I'm now about 120 miles from San Diego. This is what happened yesterday.
 We were heading into Mexico. We were going to cross the international border at San Luis, Arizona, It is about 20 miles south of Yuma. About 5 miles from the border we were stopped by the police. He was very friendly and wanted to know what we were doing. when he found out our plans were to go to Mexico, he shared some information about the bikes. Mexico would probably confiscate them at the border since we didn't have registration or licenses. Quite simply, if we didn't have paperwork saying they were ours, they would now be theirs.
Not being one to take advice well, we got escorted to the US Customs office on the American side of the same border. They confirmed this and said that even by some chance the border let us in on these bikes, they would most likely be confiscated shortly after and by law, we could also be arrested too. We decided to turn around and ride back to Yuma.
Yuma is on the border of California so in no time we crossed a bridge into California. The only problem was the sign was terrible and we like to get our pictures in front of the state signs. We turned back and took a different bridge across the Colorado river and back into Arizona only to find they had no welcome to California sign either. I guess the only good sign was on Interstate 8 but we didn't want to go on that. We stayed on frontage roads beside Interstate 8 that were in some of the worst conditions ever.They ended soon and then there was no other choice but to get on I-8. Even bicyclists had to take I-8 We even had to ride through an immigration checkpoint on I -8.Here is a good tip. When asked at an immigration checkpoint if you are an American citizen, never respond " Que?"
We got off at one of the first exits that we thought was a frontage road but instead it was The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreational Area.
Here we were, a could of guys in cheap black suits, riding mini bikes in the desert. But, hey, when in Rome.....
Our street tires were no match for the sand but they did succeed in throwing sand everywhere and in every nook and cranny.We decided to leave before we hurt the bikes or ourselves.
Back on 8 we looked for the next frontage road, When we found it, they had construction signs blocking at as they were re-paving it. Back on 8 we went but even the sides were under construction so we had to ride on construction roads for safety. There was a lot of steel rebar and other construction debris and I must have picked something up because I had a front flat tire. Now the interesting thing about those are, if you ignore them and just go faster, you can almost forget you even have one. Not wanting to deal with it, we rode on.
 Interstate 8 runs along the border and finally we got to highway 98 that runs even closer to the border. I spend the rest of the day, riding on that flat, with more border patrol vehicles and every branch of law enforcement there was but we never were questioned, Just a couple of suits riding mini bikes on the border.
Did I tell ya you can buy your mini bike tour tee shirts here> all proceeds go to The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation. Just click on this link and then hit the "shop" button
https://www.flipcause.com/secure/cause_pdetails/MTU2MzY

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

teetering on the border

  What do you do when you are near the finish line but don't want to stop? Me and Tim have made our return flights for next week ( I hope people don't think less of me for flying home and not riding some other sort of 2 wheeled vehicle). We could easily be in San Deigo in a day. We're in Yuma now- 172 miles away. We were already slowing the pace. We started pulling over and taking more pictures, taking in more sights.
While exploring some back roads, Tim started shooting some Facebook Live and if there is a camera on, I have to take it up a notch. While cutting "donuts" with my mini, I fell over and lost the chain. Fixing mini's in the hot desert sun while wearing a black suit is no fun but I'd do it all over again.
Later while setting up my camera with a ten second timer, I tried to get us a riding shoot. Instead I captured us scrambling to get in position. What I missed though is seconds later, Tim hit second gear hard, wheelied big and flipped it backwards resulting in a yard sale of bike parts, luggage and him sprawled out to resemble a crime scenes chalk outline.
Tim bent his shifter but still ran fine.
Luckily he was wearing Biltwell gloves and the Biltwell helmet that he wore this entire trip. He likes his helmet so much, he sleeps in it. Well it saved him from having a serious bump on his noggin. 
We chilled in the desert, hiked looking for rattle snakes and prepared for our next adventure. Instead of going straight to San Diego, we're going to Mexico. And instead of just cutting across Mexico, we're going to go down deeper into Mexico, tracing the route that the El Diablo Run takes. Basically about a 400 miles loop. Why not right?
This gives you one last chance to get on board and support what this ride was all about ALD awareness and supporting The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation. You can go there online, educate yourself about what ALD is, sign a petition to get mandatory newborn testing and make a difference. 
Time is also running out to get your raffle ticket for this David Uhl signed print as well as many other prizes. Click on this link as the drawing will be when the ride is over-

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Rode across the desert on a horse with no name

   We started our ride across the desert floor today but don't let me get ahead of myself.
After crossing into Arizona, me and Tim did another 180 mile day even though we were still over 7000 feet in the mountains and were well below 32 degrees most of the day. Here is a crazy video of how cold we were!
We made it to Payson where Pinky and Long Jon welcomed us with open arms. They also had a great fundraiser planned for us on Sunday.
A big thank you to everyone that showed up and helped make it a success. Another thanks to the businesses that helped- The Spur in Star Valley and The Buffalo Bar and Grill and Printing by George that helped with my printing needs on a last minute notice.
 Even the best dog in the world showed up!
But Monday came and it was time for us to ride. We hugged Pinky and Long Jon and hit the highway.
We were out of the mountains but still had some pretty big hills coming down into Phoenix.
We raced a train then raced the sundown to make it to Wickenburg for the night. It was just a taste of the desert and tomorrow we push to Yuma and if all goes right, we may head south of the border for awhile.......
Now don't forget to get you raffle tickets for the great prizes we are raffling off. ALL proceeds go to The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation
You can get your raffle tickets as well as some great coast to coast mini bike merch here Click here to donate, buy raffle tickets and get merch !!!!!!!!! 

Saturday, April 1, 2017

Over the Hump

Yesterday was a test of endurance. It is hard to say " I think I can, I think I can"  when you really think you can't. Just getting across the dessert with about a 40mph constant side wind blowing made it seem impossible. Just look at the flag on my bike blowing.
 But we didn't do it alone. twice we had friends ride hundreds of miles to come out and help us along. Thanks guys and girls. Semper fi

      Now here is the bad news. I've been trying to deal with it for two days now. Keeping records for Guinness to verify this is a never ending task. I had been using a GPS tracking device to document this trip and somehow, while working on the bikes on the side of the road, it got lost. To make matters worse, I hadn't downloaded the date for a couple days so now I have a "hole" in the documentation. Not sure what Guinness will say but I know I rode every mile of this trip and I'm not about to stop now. I'm now using a mobile app on my phone. It seems to be working.
But let's not forget the most import reason I am doing this- to raise awareness of ALD and support The Aidan Jack Seeger Foundation. So as it is 23 degrees and snowing out, we'll continue on and I hope to take the time to click on the above website.