06.01.07Preparation: The BikePosted in Uncategorized at 7:36 am by jwalters There have been a couple comments asking about how we are preparing for the trip. There has been a lot of thought into the bikes and routes, time of year to go, money needed, camping gear, clothes, bike maintenance, and on and on. I’ll try and fill you in on some of the things I have done to get ready for the trip. First order of business, the bike! I am riding a 2006 Suzuki DR 650. These bikes are known as Dual Sport bikes, much like the Kawasaki KLR 650, Honda XR650L, Yamaha XT 600, KTM 640s and even the BMW F650. These bikes are light weight, go anywhere machines much like a Jeep. This go-anywhere capability will be great in the Alaskan outback, allowing us to explore places most bikes not dare go! Also, these bikes are, typically, much easier to maintain and work on. As an air cooled single cylinder “thumper”, there is little to go wrong, and provide a much more reliable bike than other larger street machines. Of course this capability comes at a price. These bikes do not have hyperbike speed or plush sofa like ergonomics like a Goldwing, Road King or BMW RT. While dual sports can run at Interstate speeds, being so light and tall, they are susceptible to wind gusts from semi-trucks and RV a lot more than most bikes. Therefore, these bikes are most comfortable on county and state highways, cruising at 65mph. Turns out, this is where you meet the most interesting people and see the most amazing sights, so its no problem to us. As far as the bike is concerned, my DR 650 has lots of farkles (functional sparkles), if you’ve heard of the term, you’ve either spent too much time over at advrider.com or you are well versed in Geekology. Nevertheless, I have done several modifications to my DR 650 to make it more road worthy and capable on such a long trip. Oddly, the most miles I’ve ever put on the bike in one day was the first week I owned it, and everything was stock (yes even the seat). I managed 800+ miles in 24 hours. So while lots of this stuff makes life easier, most of it isn’t necessary. Although, things like a center stand can save your butt, if you are left to change a tire in the middle of no where. 1. Custom IMS Corbin Seat (raised 1 1/2 inches)
Ask anyone who has done some miles on their DR and the first thing they’ll say is get a Corbin seat! These seats aren’t “softer” than the stock seat, but they are wider and give your butt more surface area. 2. IMS Tank
This tank is larger than the stock tank which allows me to cover 200+ miles between gas stops. This is very useful on long trips, reducing the number of gas stops needed. Also, having extra fuel while traveling on the Dalton highway is always a good thing. 3. Cee Bailey windscreen
This was a windscreen I got for the DR which has been really nice. It takes the wind off your chest allowing your arms to be more relaxed while riding. Again, not a necessity but after a 4,000 mile trip, one way, I ‘ll be looking for all the help I can get. 4. Ebach front and rear springs Japanese motorcycles are great, but if there is anything they lack, it is good suspension. Especially for a large 6′8″ 290lbs American like myself. These springs give my bike it proper ride height even with me and all my gear on board. 5. Pro Moto Billet Rear Aluminum rack and Panner Protectors This is the rack I have attached to the DR. Unlike the KLRs, the DR doesn’t come with one stock. This was an aftermarket rack that has been really nice. As you can see from the pictures I have mounted my Givi case to the top of the rack. The Panner Protectors screw into the rack, and protect my soft saddle bags from hitting the hot muffler. 6. SW Motech Skid Plate This little bit isn’t needed for my riding style but it does help protect the underside of the bike and provides a nice place to pick the bike up, if I need to change a front or rear tire. 7. SW Motech Centerstand Unlike my Suzuki Bandit, my DR doesn’t come with a stock center stand. I really like them, and can be very helpful in changing tires and loading gear without tipping the bike. 8. Dynojet jet kit w/ K&N Air Filter and airbox mod Can always use more power. Nuff said. 9. Heated Grips Nothing more chilling than riding in 50 degree weather in the pouring rain with wet hands. These little buggers are filaments you place under your rubber grips and keep your hands nice and toasty. This keeps your hand dexterity at its best, which is always a good thing on a bike.
You can’t have too much light in the back country. These lights I have are cheap $20 lights from Autozone but they work very well. I have them aimed towards the shoulder of the road, giving me a little heads up if a dear, moose, or bear decides they want to play chicken. I wired a 12V cigarette lighter plug to my handlebars. This is great for charging cell phones, or powering my tired GPS. I say tired, because it no longer runs off battery and I must have it plugged in to a 12V source. Anyway, it works great and can be bought for $6 at Walmart (Aerostich sells the same one for twice the price).
More power, less weight. Big thanks to Iowa City Motorsports for this!
Since my Corbin seat was raised an inch and a half, my handle bars also needed to come up a bit. These little beauties did the job nicely. 16. Windshield braces I found that the Cee Bailey windshield was starting to bend in a lot, because it was only mounted to the plastic upper fairing. As highway winds increased it would bend the windshield down and over time, this stressed the plastic. So I owe another thanks to Iowa City Motorsports for giving me a wind shield kit to keep the Cee Bailey screen in place! As far as bike maintenance on the trip, I plan on doing all of it myself. Oil changes, filter changes, and valve adjustments can be done on the side of the road, or preferably in an OReilly Auto Parts parking lot. Since bike tires typically wear faster than car tires, we will be needing a new set of tires as we make our way North. We aren’t sure where exactly we’ll need them, but we will be calling a week or two ahead of time and order tires from a motorcycle dealer along the way. If we get a flat on the road, we’ll be carrying tire patch kits and spare tubes. Its a balancing act between covering the major items that can go wrong, such as, tire repair and trying to plan for EVERY event that could happen. We can’t pack for every situation, so we do our best to cover the easy stuff, and prepare ourselves for the unexpected. It’s an adventure after all! “Luck favors the mind bike that is prepared.” –Louis Pasteur (slightly modified) |
04.19.07April 19th 2007Posted in Uncategorized at 5:30 pm by jwalters This is my first official post! Keep coming back to my humble webpage as we gear up for our trip from Iowa to the Arctic Ocean and back! We hope to bring you up-to-date pictures and comments as we make our way to the Arctic Ocean, checking in every day or two from Internet cafes along the way.
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05.20.07Less than a month…Posted in Uncategorized at 6:14 pm by jwalters I can’t believe its been 2 years of formulating, waiting and and now finally jumping at my chance to take this trip. I felt I had read up on the trip well, maybe too well, but it wasn’t until I confirmed my time off with the boss, that I really started planning the trip and seeing the dates start to line up. Matt and I don’t want to have an itinerary on this trip. It is suppose to be an adventure where we sort of go-with-the-flow, see what we want to see and move on. Unfortunately, reality has a way of rearing its head and realizing we only have one month up North, we find some dates we don’t want to miss. Namely, our July 7th ferry rendezvous at Haines, AK where we will board the Alaskan Marine Highway Ferry and sail south to Bellingham, WA with the bikes on the deck below. This will be on our return leg home and will be a welcome 3 days off the bikes. We will be arriving at the port of Bellingham, WA July 10th, giving us 5 days to get home from the Seattle area. You can find more about the Alaskan Marine Highway here. So the July 10th date is fixed, June 15th - July 10th is pretty wide open. We hope to be in Alaska around June 25th. Have a week or two to explore the country side (which won’t be enough, but the trip is the vacation) and then start making our way to Haines, AK along the inside passage. Matt had a stroke of genius the other day. He thought it would be fun to bring only one tshirt and buy cool shirts along the way at diners and local pubs. I think I’ll do the same. I’m hoping to come away with 4 things on this trip. 1. Tshirts 2. A bike covered in bumper stickers. Here it is in its current condition. Looks a little naked eh?
3. Straw cowboy hat. 4. A bike christened by the Arctic Ocean! |
06.04.07Preparation: The GearPosted in Uncategorized at 1:07 pm by jwalters We are hoping to camp the majority of the nights on this trip. I have to admit, I’ll be a light sleeper when we are camping in bear country, but as my coworkers remind me, I don’t have to be able to out run a bear, I just have to be able to out run Matt But seriously, since we are going through some of the most scenic places in North America, camping is the preferred lodging for several reasons. First of all, what better way to meet like-minded folks, than around a camp fire. Second, its a lot cheaper than moteling it every night. Finally, it really allows us to have a flexible schedule. We won’t be tethered to main roads and cities for motels. If we can keep the motels to rainy nights or laundry days, I’ll be happy. Lets face it, having a real shower once in a while won’t be a bad thing either. The only downer to camping, is carrying all the gear. I’ll be taking a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad and camp stove. This stuff takes up valuable space on the back of the bike and adds weight. Aside from the camping gear, I’ll be bring a laptop along to keep this site up to date and of course a camera! Cloths will consist of my riding pants, a couple tshirts (that I buy along the way), my hiking pants that are convertible into shorts, rain gear and a pair of bicycling shorts. I will be taking a sweat shirt along as well, in anticipation of some cold nights up north. As well as a balaclava for under the helmet, and to wear as a stocking cap at night. There are a few other odds and ends I am taking along in the clothing department, but I won’t bore you anymore with the details. The other major items I am bringing are tools. I will be carrying tire irons, wrenches, allan wrenches, spark plugs (in case we foul plugs at elevation), spare tie downs, etc to fix minor items on the bike as we travel. The nice thing about two of us going on similar Metric bikes, is we can share tools. A good tip to anyone wanting to pack a tool kit on a bike, is to only service your bike at home with the tools in your pack. You will quickly see what is needed and what’s not. Like that number 7 metric wrench. |
06.05.07Update: Softball in the YukonPosted in Uncategorized at 7:53 am by jwalters Matt and I have been recruited to play on a premier softball team in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada June 21st. So it looks like we will be hauling our glove and spikes up North as well. (Shipping them home after the game) Ok, maybe recruited isn’t the right word and neither is premier, but we did weasel our way onto a softball team during the annual Dust 2 Dawson dual sport rally in Dawson City, YK! Since it happens to be a big bike get together, they’ve decided to make an extra softball team for the local league composed of misfits like us, who have traveled from all over the place to get to the D2D. Should be a blast, playing with complete strangers from all ends of North and Central America! I guess, this will make up for Matt missing his league play in North Liberty. Go Penn Way! Thanks to AKRider over at advrider.com for the planning on this. |
06.15.07In less than 12 hours…Posted in Uncategorized at 12:59 am by jwalters Matt and I spent the evening working on his bike, doing some last minute prep work before we shove off. The plan is to hit the road around noon on Friday (today, it is 2am at the time I am writing this). We have a date at Hi-Tech Motorsports in Billings, Montana in three days, where we will get tires changed. Until then, we are just going to head west through South Dakota and the Black Hills! Stay tuned!
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06.16.07Saturday June 16Posted in Uncategorized at 8:38 pm by jwalters We got an early start this morning, packed and on the road at 5:45am. We got up early partly because we were eager to hit the road, and a little scared a farmer was going to kick us out of his field! Got a good start before stopping for breakfast, at the Crossroads Cafe.
After breakfast, we hit the road for a few solid hours, and even found some dirt roads. Looking for some shade, we found some trees and parked the bikes for a while. Ate some sandwiches and got back in the saddle. Couldn’t believe how busy this gravel road, in the middle of no where was!
After a few more hours of pavement pounding we got our first glimpse of what the Badlands had in store for us as we crossed the Missouri river.
On highway 44 west, about 80 miles outside of the Badlands, we ran into two other guys on Harley’s from Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. We road with them for about 65 miles before we went our own way. If you guys get this, send me an email! We splurged and dropped the $10 to ride through Badlands National Park. Pretty darn cool, except the slow RV traffic wasn’t fit to sit behind, especially in todays heat.
We finally settled into a camp site (yes a legit site this time) in Wall, SD called Sleepy Hallow. This place has the nicest showers I’ve ever seen in a camp site… very welcome site after two days of riding in 95 degree heat with full riding gear, ie pants, coat, gloves and helmet. Needless to say, shower was top priority. And yes, Wall, South Dakota home of the famous Wall Drug Store! Free ice water and home of the $.05 cup of coffee. Thanks Tom Bair for the tip. Anyway, I was glad we stopped because Matt’s only Tshirt was getting pretty rank, and it was a good excuse to buy a new Wall Drug tshirt.
There is a chance of severe weather tonight, so things might get interesting. To the mom’s and grandma’s reading we have a safe place to go if things get bad. |
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One Tank At A Time Page 1 |