Check List

What do I carry with me on a long motorcycle camping trip?  It's always a dilemma, do it minimally or be like a gypsy and carry the house.  What to carry in the limited amount of space one has on a motorcycle and am I missing something will be the two important questions.

There are various lists on the internet, I'm not going to invent the wheel again, this list was customized from one of the lists I had seen a while ago.

Motorcycle stuff:

• Boots & socks               Raingear              Bungee cords          Saddlebags
• Cargo net                       Spare fuses          Earplugs                 Spare key(s)
• Gloves & spares            Tankbag               Helmet                   Tire patch kit
• Jacket                            Toolkit                  Leatherman tool      Totes
• Lock/security stuff          Rain gloves           Windshield cleaner

Personal:

• Antihistamines                Soap                    Casual clothes          Sunglasses
• Chapstick                      Comb                   Towel(s)                  Deodorant
• Washcloth                     Shampoo              Shaving kit               Toothbrush & toothpaste

Clothing:

• Hat                               Sweatshirt              Swim suit                 Jeans (kevlar riding jeans)
• underwear                    T-shirts                  1 pair shorts
• Sneakers/sandals             Socks

Tech/Information:

• Camera                        Chargers                 Notepad & pen        Cellphone/mp3
• Passport/ID                 Contact #s               Driver's License
• Radar detector            GPS                         Registration papers   Insurance
• Laptop computer         Travel guide(s)          Flashlight
• Credit card(s)              Cash                        Membership cards (AAA, etc.) 

Miscellaneous:

• Bug repellent               Extra batteries          Cable ties                 First aid kit
• Ibuprophen/Tylenol

Camping:

• Flashlight                    Sleeping bag             Groundcloth             Sleeping pad
• Hatchet                      Stakes/rope               Lantern                   Tent, poles, rainfly
• Matches/lighter           Toilet paper               Bags                        

Cooking:

• Stove & fuel               Dishsoap & pad        Dishtowel                  Corkscrew/Can opener
• Condiments                Water bottle              Cooking pots
• Knife/fork/spoons       Cup

Food:

• Coffee                        Sugar & creamer        Salt packets
• Soups                         Instant food packs

Feel free to add anything I'm missing in the comments.

I am good at organizing and packing my own stuff, this is a picture of my bike packed for a 24 day cross country trip in 2010 including all camping equipment.

Yukon Problems

It's getting closer to my departure date and torrential rains are causing havoc in the Yukon.
Government officials are calling it "an unprecedented event" of mudslides and washouts all over the territory. The Alaska Highway between Watson Lake and Teslin was closed but should be open by now.  Various other parts of the Alaska Highway were also closed but repairs crews are working non-stop to re-open the major thoroughfare between Yukon and Alaska.

Check out more pictures from one of the guys that lives up there:
Album

More information can be obtained here:  Yukon 511
CBC News here:
Parts of Yukon highway reopen after flooding
Flooding creates weekend mayhem in Yukon

Fuel

One of the main concerns for anyone riding a motorcycle in remote areas is running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere.  If you ride a BMW R1200GS Adventure like my brother then you pretty much can go anywhere since it's got a range like a cruise ship.  My Super Ténéré with a 6.1 gallon tank has a range from 230 to 275 until dry depending on how you ride it.  I have done averages from 38mpg to 45mpg depending on the speed.  On the trip to Daytona I saw a worst average of 38mpg but we were doing speeds that I can't mention here.  On my usual rides I average 43mpg, not bad for a 1200cc engine.
On my trip to Alaska the bike will be loaded and heavy, the fuel average will probably be on the low side but I won't have any gas problems until I reach Coldfoot, Alaska, the last place with fuel until Deadhorse, aka Prudhoe Bay.  Google maps says the distance is 241 miles from Coldfoot to Deadhorse.  It would be risky for me to attempt to ride that distance, it's never good to run the bike until it's almost dry anyway.
To take care of the problem I bought a RotopaX 1 Gallon fuel container, the extra fuel will make me much more comfortable during this stretch of the trip.

RotopaX link

The crazy bunch

Bill from Tampa, Florida is also attending the Yukon Tenere gathering in Whitehorse at the beginning of July.  He is a fellow blogger and he has created a neat map with all the riders forum name's on the map showing the distance everyone is traveling to get to Whitehorse.  Bill, "Twitch" is his name on the Yamaha Tenere forum, is the one traveling the longest distance at 4028 miles.  "Pocreva" in Lillian, Alabama is second with 3725 miles and I'm the third with 3672 miles.  My forum name is "SuperTen"

Interactive map, click to zoom and see the names or click on the link below for a larger map

View Yukon Rally Participants in a larger map

You can follow Bill's blog here: Twitch's Travels

Yamaha Super Tenere Forum

2 Weeks

Two weeks to go, the bike is ready and since this will be the cleanest the bike will ever be I decided to take a few pictures.  The roads in the Yukon and Alaska are going to make a mess out of the bike and the salt used  in Alaska during winter is very corrosive to aluminum.

Heidenau K60 Scout tires have been ordered and will be mounted in Cameron,Wisconsin.  Why Cameron? Because that was the only place I found a dealer that sells the Heidenau's and it's on my route.  There is a dealer in Milwaukee and Cedarburg, Wisconsin but they would be out of the way.  There's a  BMW dealer in Omaha but that would be too far west.
I am planning on skirting Chicago and head north towards Cameron.  After I have the new tires I will head west passing Fargo and then in Jamestown start heading north crossing the border in Portal, North Dakota.

I bought a MadStad (link) adjustable windshield mount with a Crossbar to mount the GPS and radar detector.  I painted a portion of my windshield so I can mount and hide the EZPass toll tag used in most of the eastern states.  The vertical sides match perfectly with the adjustable windshield bracket.  I don't like to see the damn tag behind the windshield where most riders mount it.  Once it's mounted no one will even know I have one.  Now the ADV sticker stands out even more.

Hanging out back is Darth Vader.  My daughter gave me the little Vader as a present last Christmas, she knows I love everything Star Wars, since my bike is all black and I wear a black jacket and helmet, she says he complements the bike perfectly, I agree.

This coming week I will be working on what I will need to take with me and where to pack everything for my long trip.  I will be camping and cooking my own meals as much as possible.  There are lots of electronic devices to carry, laptop, cameras, chargers, compressor, things that take up lots of valuable space, it's always a trade-off when deciding what to take.

New Toys

Preparations are continuing and two very important items for my trip arrived this week.
It's nice to have fun and be able to document it but it is also very important to prepare for the unexpected specially when riding alone in remote areas.  One can never be too prepared for a trip of this magnitude.   Covering so many miles in remote areas where cell towers are non-existent is a little daunting.  I am an AMA member and they offer roadside assistance even in Canada but first you have to get in touch with them.  I have purchased GEOS MEDIVAC insurance which offers life-saving medical evacuation and emergency assistance including repatriation to a place close to home.  All these programs are good but you still have to get in touch with someone, and when out of cell phone signal the best way is to use SPOT.  The SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger provides a vital line of communication with friends and family when you want it, and emergency assistance when you need it.  The SPOT system provides Check-in/OK and allows you to keep in touch with family by letting them receive custom pre-programmed messages.   The SPOT lets them know you are okay and where you are by giving your location in Google Maps.  Your family and friends can keep track of your progress as well.  In the event of a life threatening situation you simply activate the SOS emergency services of your GPS location and that you need assistance.  The SPOT service combined with the GEOS insurance gives you peace of mind in case of a critical emergency.

AMA here
GEOS MEDIVAC here
SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger here

The second item I received this week was the GoPro HD Hero2.  The little camera will be used to document the trip by capturing the scenery while I'm riding.  This little jewel is waterproof to 197′ (60m), does an amazing job of  capturing professional full 170º wide angle 1080p or 720p videos and 11 megapixel photos at a rate of 10 photos per second.  Now all I have to do is find a spot to mount the camera on my bike.

GoPro HD Hero2 here

To record the movies on the GoPro I bought a SanDisk Extreme SDHC 32GB SD card which has the speed and capacity to record up to 4 hours of 1080p video.

More to follow

Preparations

Departure date is fast approaching for my trip up north and I still have work to do on the bike.  There's always too much to do around the house when you have a big yard and pool.  I opened the pool on Sunday and then spent Memorial Day working on the bike.  I like to take my time when working on the bike and really enjoy taking things apart and putting them together again just like when I was a kid.
I needed a place to carry tools and not take usable space inside my bags.  Twisted Throttle sells a Tool Tube that's perfect to carry a few tools and can be mounted easily on the bike.  The tube is plastic and waterproof.   I opted to mount it on the left side right above the exhaust.  It fits perfectly and does not interfere with the bag or anything I might put across the back seat since it's below the seat level.

Even though the Super Tenere has twin headlamps and they are very bright, one can never have enough light when it comes to riding at night and specially on gravel roads.  There are all kinds of expensive lights out there, I would have liked to install the LED ones but I couldn't justify spending over $400 for a pair of lights.  These lights will not be running lights, they are very strong and will be used mainly at night.  I fabricated my own mounting brackets and bought the lights at PEP Boys.
(I should have washed the bike, it's covered in bugs)

Next I tackled the electrics.  I had to install a fuse box to run all kinds of electronics.  One of the best fuse boxes on the marked is made by Eastern Beaver in Japan.  I had one installed on Goldie, my Kawasaki Concours, never gave me any problems and it's easy to change a blown fuse.  The Tenere has all the electronics under the right side panel including the battery.  4 half turn screws and the side panel is off exposing all the electronics and fuses.  Yamaha even left an empty spot for the fuse box.  Had to cut a little plastic but nothing a dremel couldn't take care of. The fuse box has 6 ignition switched circuits and 2 power on all the time, an external relay supplies power when the ignition is on.  The relay is mounted right under the box to the right.  I left the fuse box open so you can see the internal wiring and fuses.

The fuse box powers 2 Powerlet type accessory plugs mounted on a "Highway Dirtbikes" top clamp.
One of the Powerlets has power all the time, the other is switched through the ignition.  Even though they will have power when the bike is running, I can still switch them off since the power goes through 2 switches on the clamp (2 black switches).  The 3rd switch (red) will power the lights and the 4th switch (red) will power the radar detector.  The GPS will have power all the time so I can use it even when the bike is not running.
I installed a MadStad Adjustable Windshield Mount with Crossbar to mount the GPS and radar detector.  In the picture below I had removed the windshield to do some painting on it.  I will post a picture later.

I installed Handlebar Risers by SW-Motech to raise the bars by 1 inch.  They give me a more upright and comfortable riding position.
The radar detector is a Bell Cobra I had in my Mustang and the GPS is a Teletype World Nav 3500 designed for motorcyclists.  It's fully waterproof and routes can be imported and exported in standard formats.

More to follow.

Daytona - Day 4 - Return Home

After I blogged about my last day in Florida and the terrible accident we witnessed that night I kind of moved the trip to the back of my mind, in a sense trying to forget about it.  But we did return home safe and it was an easy ride home so I might as well put up a few more pictures from our return.
We left Daytona Beach and rode most of the day running into a few really bad thunderstorms in South Carolina that left us soaked.  It was a warm day and I was riding with jeans, we just continued right through the first shower and they got soaked.  We stopped a few miles down the road, put our rain gear and continued stopping in Rocky Mt., North Carolina for the night.  About 580 miles was enough for the day.

After getting a motel room we went looking for food and found a homely place at the Gardner's restaurant.

The place had a great buffet full of food I had never even heard off. I started by filling my plate with pulled pork, field beans, squash, yams and corn but then I added things I had never heard of, like hush puppies, collard greens, mustard coleslaw, corn bread sticks and apple fried sticks, luckily I had Wayne with me to help me decipher the ingredients.  I am always ready to try anything and I did, I must say, southern cuisine is really good, everything was so tasteful, my goodness, I was stuffed.

I also have a very sweet tooth, for dessert I had apple cobbler and papaya, a fruit I used to eat almost every week in my native country of Mozambique.

A sign inside the restaurant

The next day we continued north bypassing the Washington DC area and crossing various bridges in Virginia  and Maryland.  We were stopped for a while on the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial bridge in Maryland because of repairs, gave us a chance to get off the bikes and chat a little, it was again a beautiful day with a clear blue sky.

My signature shot on the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial bridge in Maryland.

A Bridge to Cross the Chesapeake. . .

Marylanders originally had to rely on boats to cross the Chesapeake Bay to and from the Eastern Shore. But as the population grew and automobiles became a more popular means of transportation, people began to call for a bridge that would cross the Chesapeake.......
Read more here

The next big bridge we crossed was over the Delaware River into New Jersey.  There are no tolls on the way north but we had already paid $4 on the way south a few days earlier.

The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a set of twin suspension bridges crossing the Delaware River. The toll bridges carry Interstate 295 and U.S. Route 40 between Delaware and New Jersey.
Read more here.

We enter New Jersey and start paying as soon as we enter the NJ Turnpike.  You can't travel across NJ without paying tolls and they are not cheap.  From the bridge to exit 7A, the exit I take to get home is $4.60 but if you travel the entire length from the Delaware Memorial Bridge to the George Washington Bridge crossing into NY you end up paying $13.85.

I arrive home safe and tired having covered 2468.9 miles on this entire trip.  On my last tank of gas I averaged 47.7 miles per gallon, must have been because of the traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike which kept the average speed low.