My blogs will have picture of my riding buddy and good friend Brian after we depart. But to follow up on his progress, he's had his bike serviced and put a taller windshield on his bike as well. He's good to go! He also ordered the same rain suit that I did. Initially, he was just going to order the pants and he has a waterproof jacket already, but after getting the pants and seeing how high quality they were, and seeing my jacket, he's going to get the jacket as well. Likewise, I had generic rain pants from Gander mountain, which are perfect for soccer sidelines, but hardly the right ticket for driving rains at 60mph on a motorcycle. So I came to my senses and ordered the matching pants for my jacket as well. We both also have waterproof gloves.
We both realize that it's next to impossible to think that we'll be riding for a week in and around the smoky mountains in May without getting rained on. It's GOING to happen, and we need to be prepared for it. I think we are.
More updates and photos of Brian's bike for sure once we're on the road......
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Still preparing
Still sorting things out. 2 weeks from today, we'll be on the road and although I feel like I'm fairly prepared, I had a few things left to do and I wanted to do another "test pack" just to make sure that I really had the space that I thought I had. I spent a lot of time re-doing all of my GPS directions and tank bag maps this past week. I had done them using Mapquest, but the Mapquest app just doesn't work well on my phone at all, and causes issues with my bluetooth headset in my helmet as a result. So I re-did everything, which took hours, but I believe will make my navigation much better for the trip. I have picked restaurants for each night, and printed maps for the state parks and other locations that we'll be stopping at along the way.
The first order of business was to change my oil and clean my air filter. Changing the oil went flawlessly. I always buy the kit that has the new crush washers in it, as re-using misformed crush washers can cause the fragile engine case to split as the washers can get cone shaped and forced into the case can cause a costly engine case split, especially if you get a little too happy with the amount of torque that you put on the drain plug bolts. All good though - new oil, filter, crush rings, and o-rings in the filter compartment. The oil that came out really didn't look bad at all, with 1,400 miles on it. This is a good thing since I'll be asking this oil to last 2,000 miles before I can get home and change it again. Well within the recommended interval, but lots of guys change every 1,000 miles.
As far as the air filter, however, I'm sure it is the original foam filter. It's fine to clean and re-oil these, but at 15 years old, this one had seen it's last day as it ripped in a couple of places while I was cleaning it. I did some quick research and found that lots of the thumpertalk.com (one of the really exceptional forums that I frequent) guys like the Twin Air brand replacement filter elements. So a quick check on Amazon and I found they on Amazon prime, I ordered on last night, and believe it or not, it was delivered TODAY! I love Amazon prime! This one did not come pre-oiled, so a few sprays with the FAB-1 filter oil, and a careful stretch around the filter cage and I was back in the air filtration business (you can see in the photos below that the filter is NOT installed....had the side cover off and was doing my test packing before the filter was delivered.)
So what did my test packing reveal? Well, basically......I can't bring as much crap as I thought that I could. In the first photo below, I have the Wolfman dry duffel stacked on top of my top box, because it was just too full to put on the seat and still have anywhere to sit. But with 24 pounds of crap (yes, I weighed it) that high, on top of an already somewhat heavy top box, it's just too much weight for the rack, and too high for my center of gravity. Something had to give. Time for plan B.
Plan B - Unpack some of the really unnecessary stuff. By getting rid of some extra shirts, hiking boots, and a USB battery charger (this is redundant, as I have charging capabilities, a laptop, and a spare phone battery still packed), I was able to cut the weight of the pack from 24 pounds to 14 pounds, and also made it thin enough to pack in front of my top box. This will be less weight, put it down lower and over the seat instead of the rack, and also provide me with a makeshift backrest. The other way just was NOT going to work. Picture 2 is how the bike will look when I roll out of Elgin.
The only items still left on my list are to lube my chain (which I'll do every evening) and on Monday the anti-vibration inserts that I bought should arrive. These install in the ends of the handlebars and REALLY cut down on handlebar vibration. They're designed by the guy that invented similar items for use in helicopter controls. Lots of bikers SWEAR by them. The bar vibration on the bike isn't bad, but the last time I did a lot of highway miles, my hands were tingling when I got done. Every advantage that I can take for this long trip will be explored. I keep going over in my head what I've missed, and the reality of it is, I can't think of ONE thing that I expect to go wrong or that I've overlooked. I believe the bike is up to the task. Anything COULD happen....the damn thing could break down at the end of my street when I leave, but I don't have any nagging feeling like, "I really should have looked at THIS before I go". I feel pretty good about how the bike it set up.
Picture 1 - Not gonna' happen:
Picture 2 - This'll work:
Monday, April 25, 2016
Where do I put all this stuff?
So.....how much stuff can you actually carry in my storage additions, and where does it all go? Here's my comprehensive list of what and where:
Wallet
Comb
Heater (of the concealable 9mm type)
Cell phone (when not on bike)
Benchmade pocket knife
In waterproof
duffel:
1
pair Duluth pants (make sure both fit over boots)
1
pair Duluth insulated pants (unless wearing them)
1
pair shorts
3
shirts
7
Pair of socks
7
Pair of underwear
Sealskinz
waterproof socks – in ziplock bag
Phone
wall charger
Pair
of Cushe shoes
USB
Speaker
Duluth
crushproof hat
First
aid kit from Maxpedition bag (see contents listed below)
In first aid
kit from Maxpedition bag:
Toothpaste
Tooth
brush
Q-tips
Shampoo
Disposable
razors
Band
aids
Polysporin
Anti
Biotics
Nail
clippers
Insect
repellent
Sunscreen
Adhesive
tape
Lip
balm
Eye
drops
Hand
wipes
Nitrile
gloves
Tweezers
Comb
Floss
Foam
ear plugs
Spare
phone battery - charged
Deodorant
In action
packer (top box):
Tool
Roll – bottom
Siphon
hose
Extra
2.5 gallon sized ziplock bags
Thermal
shirt & Thermal liner for jacket (in ziplock bag if not wearing) – bottom
(for padding)
Motorcycle
cover/alarm (alarm in small ziplock bag) – bottom (for padding
Paracord
– bottom
Kryptonite
lock/key – bottom
Extra
tie downs - bottom
Zip
ties - bottom
Chain
lube spray – standing up, on bottom
Plexus
spray for cleaning face shield and windshield
Spare
Oil – standing up, on bottom
Laptop/charger
– in ziplock bag, between soft items
Rain
Pants/Rain jacket – in ziplock bag
In tank bag:
Spare
bank card
Spare
lock & key for bike/kryptonite
Sun
glasses/regular glasses
Soft
cloth for cleaning face shield and windshield
Maps/Hotel
numbers, etc. Notes for trip
Metal
pad for sidestand
Pen/Pad
of paper
Baseball
hat
Registration/Insurance
card
Headlamp
Flashlight/batteries
Gloves
– either pair not wearing
Leatherman/bits
Waterproof
Medicine box
USB
cables for phone, speaker, and headset
Hand
cleaner packetsWallet
Comb
Heater (of the concealable 9mm type)
Cell phone (when not on bike)
Benchmade pocket knife
Here's the plan
My friend Brian and I have been planning this trip for months. I wanted to take a road trip on my DRZ400s. I was thinking a weekend up to Wisconsin and back, or something along those lines. Brian was thinking bigger, though. He really wanted to do some of the ride through the Smoky mountains. The "Tail of the Dragon", Blue Ridge Parkway, Cherohala Skyway. So that's what we set our sights on.
For the past several months, I've been planning this trip. It's actually been a few years since I was able to take any type of vacation, and with 8 days on the schedule, I want to maximize them. The ride down and back will be 2 days each way; between 350-400 miles each of those 4 days. Not a huge amount, in a car, but on a motorcycle, things are different. And on what is essentially a 400cc dirt bike, things get even more interesting. Brian's Harley is made for the road; my bike was made for the trails, with just enough "stuff" on it to make it street legal.
The first order of business was addressing the issues that make my bike less road worthy. The top 3 are:
1 - The stock seat is HORRIBLE. 50 miles into a ride you start to get "monkey butt".
2 - The stock gearing is just OK for the highway, but taller gearing will make long stretches of road a bit nicer.
3 - There is NO wind protection. Yeah, it's a dirtbike. Not really "supposed" to have wind protection. But in this role that I'll be asking of it, wind protection will make this trip possible for a guy my age. Haha.
So to address those issues, I've done the following:
1- After much research, I sent my stock seat out to Fisher Upholstery, who made the seat 4" wider and replace and re-contoured the foam in it. I can tell you that this seat upgrade completely transformed the manners of the bike. It's SO much more comfortable. I took a 220 mile ride a few weeks ago and never even noticed the seat....meaning to say it was never a comfort issue. Here's a picture of the new seat:
2 - I bought my 15 year old bike last year on the cheap (as in REALLY cheap). The bike was in great shape, with only 2,678 miles on it. Low miles, seems to have been well maintained, but man, those 15 year old tires were really dry rotted and not looking great. I rocked them for a while, just around the local area, but a long road trip called for some new, safer tires. Since all of my riding is on paved roads, I opted for Shinko 705 tires. Cheap, decent reviews, long wearing. This point was supposed to address the gearing, not the tires.....so in addition to having the new tires mounted and balanced, the shop installed a 41 tooth rear sprocket for me, down from the 44 tooth stock sprocket. This essentially gives me 5 mph more top end at the same RPM level as the stock gearing. In practice, it makes a noticeable difference. I can cruise at 65 now without feeling like I'm going to kill the engine. You can see the new tires in the photo above. They may look a little "off roady", but they are essentially street tires.
3 - Although the bike came with a generic windshield, with hokey mounting brackets, my "shake down" trip revealed just how poorly engineered it was. The mounts were loose, and at 65mph on my way home, the whole windshield shifted abruptly, breaking a piece off the bottom of it, and (more concerningly) shifting the entire windshield sideways. Literally sideways....so the left half of my body was getting blasted with wind. Very uncool. So back to researching - I found the best option for a long road trip in a Parabellum windshield. Super high quality, substantial mounting brackets, and designed FOR my model of bike. In my testing, it's been awesome. Very pleased with this purchase. I was fairly certain that my crappy "universal" windshield would not have survived the first 2 days of our trip, so I'm not too unhappy that it broke during my shake out trip. Here's how the new windshield looks. Again, not everyone's cup of tea on a "dirtbike", but then again, not everyone sets out for a 2,000 mile road trip on a "dirtbike".
4 - Other stuff that I did to prepare:
STORAGE: I had to have storage on the bike to carry 8 days worth of clothes and stuff that I might need on the trip. I had previously bought a custom made rear rack from a member of one of the forums that I belong to. It's all stainless and very high quality. He even powder coated it white for me, which is pretty rare. On top of that, I had heard about some of the adventure touring guys using Rubbermaid "action packers" on their rear racks. Only about $20, pretty sizeable, and they just work. This is NOT waterproof by any stretch, so anything that's going in there that has to stay dry is going into a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag. This will not let water pour in....most like "leak" in at highway speeds, but the ziplock bags solve that issue altogether.
I also bought a Wolfman Expedtion dry duffel bag (the yellow bag in the photo). This thing holds a LOT! All of my clothes and such for 7 days (I'll always be wearing 1 day's worth) with plenty of room for expansion if I pick up some souvenirs (t shirts, etc) from the trip. This will also double as a makeshift backrest for me. If it doesn't work out in that capacity, or bothers me where it is when I'm riding, there are different mounting options. This thing is DEFINITELY waterproof...no questions about it.
I also added two "agri tubes" bolted to the sides of the action packer (top box), which are designed to hold instruction books for tractors, but work perfectly to hold other stuff, too. In my case, each one has a 30 ounce MSR Fuel bottle in it. This will give me almost a half gallon of extra fuel, should I run out. On my bike, this is good for about 25 miles. Hopefully I'll never need to open them.
Being a big fan of the Wolfman brand now, I bought a Blackhawk tank bag, which holds quite a bit for being a small as it is. I also bought the rain cover for it.
And the final couple of "storage" items that I bought are a Wolfman (seeing a trend here?) bottle holder, which I have mounted on to the side of my rack and put a "The coldest water" water bottle into it. The water bottle is awesome.....keeps liquids cold or hot for HOURS. Literally. Definitely not an overrated item. We'll be stopping at least every 100 miles for gas, but it's still nice to have a little extra something on the bike with water or fluids.
Here's a picture of everything except the bottle holder: (also note the old, crappy windshield and mounts)
Here's where the water bottle holder is mounted:
One more upgrade that was worthwhile and noteworthy was replacing the stock 50 candlepower (seemed like it anyway!) headlight with something brighter. Again, after much research it seemed that the best option for me was a LED bulb from Cyclops. They are well engineered bulbs, and don't require a lot of hacking things up to work, like some of the other options. It was a direct H4 replacement bulb, and required very little in the way of tweaks to make it work on the DRZ. While we are going to try to avoid night riding as much as possible, especially on unfamiliar mountain roads, it may happen and I'd rather be able to see where I'm going. I don't have any before pictures, but trust me when I tell you this light ROCKS. It's a nice, white daylight color, and has the cutoff shields so it won't blind oncoming traffic with light bleed. The other nice thing is that it only draws 20 watts of power. Again, this picture may not tell the whole story, but here is the low beam on a dark road that goes slightly uphill. On level ground, the beam projects even further:
RIDING GEAR:
The first things that I bought when I got the bike were good protective boots, good summer gloves, and a decent textile jacket. For this trip I added a few things.
A proper rain jacket (the pants I had already should be fine....just going to sew some elastic strips on the bottom of them to keep them down on my boots).
I also bought waterproof cold weather gloves. Wet or cold hands are NOT cool. Especially if it rains all day.
Since my boots aren't truly waterproof, I bought "Sealskinz" socks. These are knee length, and completely waterproof. NOT the type of sock you want to be wearing all day or while walking around necessarily, but they'll keep my feet dry in the case of a downpour.
Other socks I bought were some smartwool compression socks. Long distance riders swear by these things to keep your blood circulation going and keep your legs from getting tired. Not cheap, but if they help, they'll be worth it.
OTHER GOODIES:
1 - I bought and installed a handlebar mounted RAM mount for my phone. Since I'm using my phone for GPS instructions, it would be nice to see it. And since the Samsung Galaxy S5 is extremely water resistant, I'm not too worried about it if it rains. (assuming it's not on charge at the time - that charging port must be closed to maintain water resistance).
2 - I bought and installed a cigarette lighter socket to plug a charger into. For charging my phone, and also the item I'll mention next. This was simple since my bike came with the wiring for a battery minder. This guy can plug right into the battery minder socket. Pretty slick. I bought a 3 port lighter adapter charger as well. Proper USB cable lengths were bought as well.
3 - I bought and installed a Sena Bluetooth headset into my helmet. This is really slick. It allows me to stream music, get GPS directions, and also make and answer cell phone calls. I'm still learning the inns and outs of the whole phone calling issue, but I'll have it down by the time we leave. A great addition!
So besides all the stuff, I put plenty of prep work into routes, hotel reservations, and things to do each day. Hopefully we'll stick to the schedule and see the things that we want to. Most of what we have planned are rides on some of the best motorcycle roads in the world. More to follow......
For the past several months, I've been planning this trip. It's actually been a few years since I was able to take any type of vacation, and with 8 days on the schedule, I want to maximize them. The ride down and back will be 2 days each way; between 350-400 miles each of those 4 days. Not a huge amount, in a car, but on a motorcycle, things are different. And on what is essentially a 400cc dirt bike, things get even more interesting. Brian's Harley is made for the road; my bike was made for the trails, with just enough "stuff" on it to make it street legal.
The first order of business was addressing the issues that make my bike less road worthy. The top 3 are:
1 - The stock seat is HORRIBLE. 50 miles into a ride you start to get "monkey butt".
2 - The stock gearing is just OK for the highway, but taller gearing will make long stretches of road a bit nicer.
3 - There is NO wind protection. Yeah, it's a dirtbike. Not really "supposed" to have wind protection. But in this role that I'll be asking of it, wind protection will make this trip possible for a guy my age. Haha.
So to address those issues, I've done the following:
1- After much research, I sent my stock seat out to Fisher Upholstery, who made the seat 4" wider and replace and re-contoured the foam in it. I can tell you that this seat upgrade completely transformed the manners of the bike. It's SO much more comfortable. I took a 220 mile ride a few weeks ago and never even noticed the seat....meaning to say it was never a comfort issue. Here's a picture of the new seat:
2 - I bought my 15 year old bike last year on the cheap (as in REALLY cheap). The bike was in great shape, with only 2,678 miles on it. Low miles, seems to have been well maintained, but man, those 15 year old tires were really dry rotted and not looking great. I rocked them for a while, just around the local area, but a long road trip called for some new, safer tires. Since all of my riding is on paved roads, I opted for Shinko 705 tires. Cheap, decent reviews, long wearing. This point was supposed to address the gearing, not the tires.....so in addition to having the new tires mounted and balanced, the shop installed a 41 tooth rear sprocket for me, down from the 44 tooth stock sprocket. This essentially gives me 5 mph more top end at the same RPM level as the stock gearing. In practice, it makes a noticeable difference. I can cruise at 65 now without feeling like I'm going to kill the engine. You can see the new tires in the photo above. They may look a little "off roady", but they are essentially street tires.
3 - Although the bike came with a generic windshield, with hokey mounting brackets, my "shake down" trip revealed just how poorly engineered it was. The mounts were loose, and at 65mph on my way home, the whole windshield shifted abruptly, breaking a piece off the bottom of it, and (more concerningly) shifting the entire windshield sideways. Literally sideways....so the left half of my body was getting blasted with wind. Very uncool. So back to researching - I found the best option for a long road trip in a Parabellum windshield. Super high quality, substantial mounting brackets, and designed FOR my model of bike. In my testing, it's been awesome. Very pleased with this purchase. I was fairly certain that my crappy "universal" windshield would not have survived the first 2 days of our trip, so I'm not too unhappy that it broke during my shake out trip. Here's how the new windshield looks. Again, not everyone's cup of tea on a "dirtbike", but then again, not everyone sets out for a 2,000 mile road trip on a "dirtbike".
4 - Other stuff that I did to prepare:
STORAGE: I had to have storage on the bike to carry 8 days worth of clothes and stuff that I might need on the trip. I had previously bought a custom made rear rack from a member of one of the forums that I belong to. It's all stainless and very high quality. He even powder coated it white for me, which is pretty rare. On top of that, I had heard about some of the adventure touring guys using Rubbermaid "action packers" on their rear racks. Only about $20, pretty sizeable, and they just work. This is NOT waterproof by any stretch, so anything that's going in there that has to stay dry is going into a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag. This will not let water pour in....most like "leak" in at highway speeds, but the ziplock bags solve that issue altogether.
I also bought a Wolfman Expedtion dry duffel bag (the yellow bag in the photo). This thing holds a LOT! All of my clothes and such for 7 days (I'll always be wearing 1 day's worth) with plenty of room for expansion if I pick up some souvenirs (t shirts, etc) from the trip. This will also double as a makeshift backrest for me. If it doesn't work out in that capacity, or bothers me where it is when I'm riding, there are different mounting options. This thing is DEFINITELY waterproof...no questions about it.
I also added two "agri tubes" bolted to the sides of the action packer (top box), which are designed to hold instruction books for tractors, but work perfectly to hold other stuff, too. In my case, each one has a 30 ounce MSR Fuel bottle in it. This will give me almost a half gallon of extra fuel, should I run out. On my bike, this is good for about 25 miles. Hopefully I'll never need to open them.
Being a big fan of the Wolfman brand now, I bought a Blackhawk tank bag, which holds quite a bit for being a small as it is. I also bought the rain cover for it.
And the final couple of "storage" items that I bought are a Wolfman (seeing a trend here?) bottle holder, which I have mounted on to the side of my rack and put a "The coldest water" water bottle into it. The water bottle is awesome.....keeps liquids cold or hot for HOURS. Literally. Definitely not an overrated item. We'll be stopping at least every 100 miles for gas, but it's still nice to have a little extra something on the bike with water or fluids.
Here's a picture of everything except the bottle holder: (also note the old, crappy windshield and mounts)
Here's where the water bottle holder is mounted:
One more upgrade that was worthwhile and noteworthy was replacing the stock 50 candlepower (seemed like it anyway!) headlight with something brighter. Again, after much research it seemed that the best option for me was a LED bulb from Cyclops. They are well engineered bulbs, and don't require a lot of hacking things up to work, like some of the other options. It was a direct H4 replacement bulb, and required very little in the way of tweaks to make it work on the DRZ. While we are going to try to avoid night riding as much as possible, especially on unfamiliar mountain roads, it may happen and I'd rather be able to see where I'm going. I don't have any before pictures, but trust me when I tell you this light ROCKS. It's a nice, white daylight color, and has the cutoff shields so it won't blind oncoming traffic with light bleed. The other nice thing is that it only draws 20 watts of power. Again, this picture may not tell the whole story, but here is the low beam on a dark road that goes slightly uphill. On level ground, the beam projects even further:
RIDING GEAR:
The first things that I bought when I got the bike were good protective boots, good summer gloves, and a decent textile jacket. For this trip I added a few things.
A proper rain jacket (the pants I had already should be fine....just going to sew some elastic strips on the bottom of them to keep them down on my boots).
I also bought waterproof cold weather gloves. Wet or cold hands are NOT cool. Especially if it rains all day.
Since my boots aren't truly waterproof, I bought "Sealskinz" socks. These are knee length, and completely waterproof. NOT the type of sock you want to be wearing all day or while walking around necessarily, but they'll keep my feet dry in the case of a downpour.
Other socks I bought were some smartwool compression socks. Long distance riders swear by these things to keep your blood circulation going and keep your legs from getting tired. Not cheap, but if they help, they'll be worth it.
OTHER GOODIES:
1 - I bought and installed a handlebar mounted RAM mount for my phone. Since I'm using my phone for GPS instructions, it would be nice to see it. And since the Samsung Galaxy S5 is extremely water resistant, I'm not too worried about it if it rains. (assuming it's not on charge at the time - that charging port must be closed to maintain water resistance).
2 - I bought and installed a cigarette lighter socket to plug a charger into. For charging my phone, and also the item I'll mention next. This was simple since my bike came with the wiring for a battery minder. This guy can plug right into the battery minder socket. Pretty slick. I bought a 3 port lighter adapter charger as well. Proper USB cable lengths were bought as well.
3 - I bought and installed a Sena Bluetooth headset into my helmet. This is really slick. It allows me to stream music, get GPS directions, and also make and answer cell phone calls. I'm still learning the inns and outs of the whole phone calling issue, but I'll have it down by the time we leave. A great addition!
So besides all the stuff, I put plenty of prep work into routes, hotel reservations, and things to do each day. Hopefully we'll stick to the schedule and see the things that we want to. Most of what we have planned are rides on some of the best motorcycle roads in the world. More to follow......
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