Ready or not, here we come

I'm packed. Pfew.

I don't know at what point the dream of spend-a-week-on-the-trail-without-a-care-in-the-world turns into replace-every-loose-part-on-my-motorcycle and try-to-squeeze-everything-a-man-needs-to-live-into-three-bags. But for the last couple days I've been leaving right at that crossroad.

While Joey continues to encourage me, assuring me that I'll find a way to make it all fit and it won't be too heavy, I'll have everything I need... Danny ever-so-sweetly texts me things like "I'm trying as hard as I can to fill my bags. Impossible!!!" Thanks, bro.

And while my bike feels like it can barely move under it's own power, Danny said on his test ride he "didn't even know there was added weight." Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I know I've done this before... And I know cut out about 30 pounds of gear since last time... Maybe I don't need to bring the 30 lb. dumbbell? I mean, I can probably get a good workout on the trail with just the 25 and 15 pounders, yeah?

The TAT. Part 3

We're going to the TAT. Again. Just for a refresher, the Trans-America Trail (TAT) is a collection of backroads and trails that run from Tennessee, all the way to Oregon. We've seen a joy-to-ride section of it in Arkansas. But apparently, not enough of it to get our fill.

It was on the drive home last year that we started planning our trip back. We spent the drive researching bikes, picking our perfect machines, and discussing how to trick our wives into letting us take a week off in 2015 so we could do it all again. And so... here we are (thanks, wives)!

Danny grabbed a Suzuki DR 650 as soon as he found one he could afford. Joey bought a Honda XR 650 in Colorado and waited months to find a way to get it delivered to KC. And I came up with a different bike I intended to buy about every single day, but in the end I couldn't abandon my Kawasaki KLR 650. It didn't take long at all for the three of us to find a good "proving ground" in KC to practice getting stuck in the mud (over, and over...). Then the gear started to arrive (thanks Amazon.com and ebay). Then there was a mad rush of motorcycle maintenance and modifications and unnecessary upgrades (you'll see pics of my auxiliary lights). Now we're a couple days away and nearly all packed up. Ok, so Danny and Joey have been packed up. I've barely started... but averaging that out makes us nearly there.

Dear Lord, give us great weather. And also no broken legs. Amen.

Packed and ready... I think

I packed as much as I could tonight. Thanks to Danny for the organization help. Well, more than that, he basically reorganized all my gear while I was visiting with my sister and brother who stopped in.

As you can see: way too bulky and much too heavy... But hey, he's a good friend so I don't mind.

Just kidding Jennifer! I meant the bike.

Posted with Blogsy

I'm 100 lbs heavier than I thought

The biggest "take-away" from my trip was the weight I added to my bike. After getting home I actually put everything on a scale and discovered I had put 110-120 lbs on the back. And the weight was pretty far back on the bike, which didn't help. Besides the expected decreased performance (accelerating, braking...), this caused two things:

Note the polished spot on my exhaust and the
shine on the rightmost knobs of the tire.

1. My suspension was close to fully compressed through most of the ride (despite being adjusted for maximum stiffness). And "full compression" for me is when the right side of my tire meets the pipe from my exhaust. So the rightmost knobs of my tire were baking most of the trip, and on bumps would actually polish the inside of my exhaust pipe. And, this got worse each day. The first two days I never felt the "bottoming out" of the tire meeting the exhaust. Once I felt it, it noticed it happening more often until the last few miles from home it took only a crack in the road to cause it.
   
   
2. All the weight on the back wanted to control where the front wheel would go. The increased mass increased the inertia so much that trying to turn at low speeds (as opposed to leaning, at higher speeds) became a battle between where I aimed the front wheel and where the weight of the bike wanted it to go (straight). This caused a serious feeling of instability as the front wheel wobbled between the two forces. I assume the wobble was allowed by the flexing of the long front forks. At speed, when direction change is controlled by leaning the bike, there wasn't a problem.

After researching a little, I ended up on a lot of forum threads from heavier riders talking about the instability of the KLR and my very same problems. And that made sense. The KLR seemed to be designed around me. A 160 lb rider carrying up to 25 lbs of gear. But touring means more gear. In my case... 110 lbs. So in reality I have to set up my bike to handle a 250 lb rider, with up to 25 lbs of gear. So finally I ordered a fork brace for the wobble, the benefits of which are praised by so many riders. And a stiffer rear spring designed to accommodate riders of the total weight I expect to carry when I go to Alaska next month. Riding without gear might become a bone-jarring affair, bet I think it will be worth it.