Matt Wise 45,000 Mile - 45 Day Ride

Matt Wise has composed a detailed report on his record setting 45,000 mile - 45 day long-distance ride. It's a fascinating recap of the birth of the idea, the planning, and the accomplishment of the actual ride. Ride along with Matt as he crisscrosses the U.S., completing several certificate rides and near certificate rides in the process of completing this historic ride.

Matt is a member of the Defective Gene Pool Hall of Fame. The "Defective's" are just that - riders who have some sort of loose screw, or defective gene as we refer to it, that causes them to ride ridiculous miles, usually for nothing more than a piece of paper with Mike Kneebone's signature at the bottom. With this feat Matt may have put himself at the top of the Defective list. We're honored to have him in our ranks and equally honored that he chose our website to host his ride report.

To read the full report, go to www.dfwdefectivegenepool.com and click the button on the Home Page labeled The Fastest 45 Days.

For those who are not going to read this full report as it is quite long. I am excerpting this fairly short conversation he had with another guy gassing up at a gas station he stopped at. I thought it was hilarious

As I was beginning to refuel the bike and start documenting the stop, I could see him quickly poke his head around the fuel pump a couple more times thinking that I didn’t notice him. After a few moments I heard him ask his first question in a somewhat high pitched nasally voice from the other side of the fuel pump. “Been riding long?” I assumed he was talking to me and that he was inquiring about my trip as both the bike and I appeared to have been on the road for a while. I replied with “19 days now” to which he responded with a long drawn out high pitched “ooohhhhhh….” that tapered off at the end. Almost as if I had provided an answer to a long standing difficult question. I was fairly certain that this would not be the last question he asked, but I was not expecting what followed next. “So, did you just get your license” as if I had just told him that I had been riding for 19 days of my entire life. I said, “No I’ve had my license for over 30 years now, this trip has been 19 days long so far.” He responded with another “ooohhhhhh……” followed by a brief pause and then another question. “Where are you heading that’s taking you so long to get there”? He clearly assumed that I was not making good time on this trip, so I simply responded “just out site seeing around the country.” He responded with another “ooohhhhhh……” followed by a brief pause then another question. “Did you see the Grand Canyon?” I said “no” and he responded with a shorter “oh.” “Did you see Hoover damn?” I said “no” and he responded with another short “oh.” “Are you going to check out Las Vegas?” I said “no, but I’m going to pass through there later” and he responded with a short “oh.” He then made a comment and I think my response was somewhat unexpected to him. “Not seeing to many sites are you”? I replied to him “I’m seeing all the sites I want to see and those aren’t on my list.” This time he responded with an “ooohhhhhh…….” followed by a brief pause then another question. “So how many more days of site seeing do you have left?” I said “26 based on the current plan.” Again, I heard another “ooohhhhhh……” followed by a brief pause.“You know you might be able to do your special site seeing quicker if you were traveling in a car” he said. I replied to him “I doubt it; so far I’m averaging around 1000 miles of riding each day and plan to keep this pace till I’m done.” This time there was a long pause before I heard him softly mutter in a low-key questioning tone “what” although I don’t believe he was actually asking me a question. At this point I was done with the fuel stop and needed to use the bathroom, so I wished him safe travels as I packed up and headed inside.

I just finished reading about his 45 days. It would be really interesting and fun to spend an evening with him and get the rest of the story. I'm sure the daily challenges would keep me riveted for days. Thanks for posting this.

Just thinking about planning a trip like this would give me a headache. Crazy, just dam crazy is all. I can't even imagine the cost. Fuel alone would be around $2,500.00 then you have to eat.

Good for you,

Dave

08FJR4ME said:

Just thinking about planning a trip like this would give me a headache. Crazy, just dam crazy is all. I can't even imagine the cost. Fuel alone would be around $2,500.00 then you have to eat.
Good for you,

Dave

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Don't forget the cost of your spouse in Europe for a month...........;-)

LOL!

It is the divorce lawyers and settlement that will get costly. In my case, I would need to pay for gas, food and other expenses for two bikes and two people. Having a wife that rides has its cost.

Pterodactyl said:

It is the divorce lawyers and settlement that will get costly. In my case, I would need to pay for gas, food and other expenses for two bikes and two people. Having a wife that rides has its cost.

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Not if you invite her and she declines to do multiple, back-to-back SS1Ks.

BTW: It was great catching up with the DFWDGP clan at the annual RTE a couple of weeks back. Thanks, Cliff, for organizing these events.

it is a great read indeed.

That was an amazing read.

Great read, thanks for posting