2021 Pacific Northwest trip preps

Among my least favorite planning and packing chores is riding gear cleaning. Motorcycle riding gear has armored padding that must be removed before the rest of the garment can be cleaned (and made more water resistant). 

Removing this armored padding is a time-consuming nuisance, wrangling the padding and lots of hook-and-loop fasteners, all while having your arms in the legs and arms of the riding gear. 

I'm happy to report that I've completed that tedious chore in advance of this next ride!

County Chasing

 As of today, 23 May 2021, I've found and logged a geocache in each of 775 counties (parishes, boroughs, census areas) in the United States. All the way from Washington County in Maine (GC943D, For Whom the Bell Tolls) to the Aleutians West borough in Alaska (GCJ5C4, Shemya Island - The Rock at the Edge of the Earth).

There are 3143 counties (parishes, boroughs) in the U.S., so I have a few more to work on. The Cape Girardeau trip in April and May 2021 got us quite a few new counties, filling in along the Ohio River (except in a few places where we got "rained out") -- we'll go back to fill those in later.

One of the goals of the 2021 Pacific Northwest trip is to fill in a few missing counties; I'd like to have a contiguous path from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by the end of summer.

Ride preparations

Ride preparations are usually tedious -- there are a lot of small chores and maintenance items that have to be completed. Tire replacement is coming up this Tuesday. That's the last major item on the bike (that I know of) that needs work before departure. The sketchy rear tire pressure sensor hadn't completely failed  during the last long ride, so it will likely wait until our return to be replaced. Not ideal.

Our helmet visors and Pinlocks took a lot of abuse over the last couple of years; mine, especially. The gravel and dust in 2020 put the whammy on my visor, and blew a lot of dust up under the Pinlock that I'm sure I could get completely removed. Both visors and Pinlocks were replaced today, along with a little cleaning and lubrication of the hinges. That parts replacement should get us through a few more years.

I bought a new air compressor to replace the last one I'd purchased years ago. I've gone with the Dynaplug Micro Pro, which is getting good reviews these days. I don't plan on using it, but if I need a compressor, I'll have one with me (along with the plugging kit).

The Google Pixel 5 that I had to buy on the Cape Girardeau trip has turned out to be fantastic. I've been able to catch up with six years of technology development -- the extra processing power, more storage, and 5G (where it's available) have combined to give me so much more capability than I had on the last ride. I've put a new SlipGrip mount on the bike, along with wiring up a charging capability for when I need it.

Alaska 2022

Under the theory that it's never (really) too early to plan complex trips, I restarted the planning for the Alaska 2022 trip this past weekend. This trip has some tricky reservations, and I'm assuming that the demand for Alaska trips will be very heavy in 2022 (given the scarcity of supply in 2020 and 2021). High demand places like Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Denali National Park all require reservations a year in advance. Some other remote locations also demand early attention.

So, to get working on the trip details early, I sketched out the route out and back, and are more-or-less ready to go with reservations when June rolls around. I'll be executing one trip while planning the next. Nothing like a little concurrency!

20200112 Big Money Rally

The weather forecast was for really good weather (meaning: temperatures in the 60's, and at least partial sun) on Sunday, 12 January 2020, so we headed out to Prince Georges, Anne Arundel, Calvert, and St. Mary's counties for bonus hunting and geocaching. The day turned out to be gorgeous -- up to 70 degrees F and full sun. If only every riding day could be that nice! We got a whole lot of creeks and churches, one airport, and a few geocaches to help Donna's totals (adding three new counties and two virtual geocaches).

Ride maintenance

I took the bike in for service on Saturday, 11 January 2020 -- it was time for an oil change, and I'd gone a little past the recommended 36,000 biannual service mileage. Showing up for Saturday service in January is certainly different than showing up in June! I was first in line at about 0708, and was back on the road before noon. Pretty good. Very expensive, but pretty good. That'll get the bike to the pre-ride check in May or June.

2021 Summer Adventure planning update

I've begun to frame up the 2021 Summer adventure candidate. As usual, the original plan was far too ambitious (yes, 300 miles / day is trivial compared to any decent long distance rider's plan, but I'm reminded often that these are vacations, not endurance rallies). and would have required more riding that the vacation merits. So, the candidate now has far fewer miles / day, and many more hours for scouting locales. 

The latest focus is Washington and Oregon, with the other western states left for later trips. I'd like to snag Vancouver and Vancouver Island on this trip; I'll see if I can fit that in.

2021 Summer Adventure Planning

Yes, I know. I'm still hip-deep in planning the Summer 2020 adventure to Alaska, but it doesn't hurt to think a little past the next one, to what's beyond.

I've been thinking about a Pacific Northwest trip for several years, and it might just be time to do that in 2021.

There are a lot of National Park Service units to visit, and a lot of other sights to see....

Summer 2020 planning

I spent the weekend puttering around with details for next summer's trip. I realized, yesterday, that some of our stops are very popular, and that reservations are going to be difficult / impossible to obtain.

I started by researching what may be the worst: one of the lodges at Glacier National Park. Our trip has two complicating factors; the first is that because Glacier National Park is on the return end of the trip (the Going to the Sun Road will most probably be closed when we come through Montana heading north), and the second is that our itinerary headed south is driven by the Alaska Marine Highway System schedule (which won't be published for several more months). So, finding a decent place around Glacier National Park will be a trick.

Since I spent a lot of time fussing with that, I thought about other tough locations, such as McCarthy, Alaska, and the area around Denali National Park. McCarthy has very limited lodging options, and Denali has a lot of tourists. The cruise ships provide their own hotels, but everyone else is staying somewhere between Healy and Cantwell. The combination of prices and reviews isn't good. I'll start to fuss with this again when the ferry schedule is published, and I can commit to specific dates.

2019 Summer Adventure

Many of my friends are headed to the 2019 Iron Butt Rally in less that two weeks; Donna and I are off to our big summer adventure ride on the same day as the IBR start. I've fussed around with our route, adding and dropping locations to get each day's ride to close (we have a large number of time-limited [bonus] locations, all of which are associated with the National Park Service in one way or another.

Because we're doing the Tour of Honor National Parks Tour (and, by extension, the Iron Butt Associated National Parks Tour), we have a lot of passport cancellation stamps and photographs to collect. Because the stamps must be collected during the business hours of whatever location we're visiting, we have a set of time constraints within which we must fit. It's a little like the IBR, but without the miles / day required by that rally.

We're also doing the Team Strange grand tour again this year, so there are a few of those stops thrown in for good measure.

The bike is nearly ready to go; it'll get tires and oil before we leave, but otherwise we're all set. We have a good packing routine built up from lots of practice, so that'll go smoothly.

2019 Summer Adventure

The 2019 Tour of Honor announced that they're offering a modified IBA National Parks Tour, so I took to building a few routes to knock out another NPT in 2019. There were a couple of long rides needed to overcome a lack of relevant NPS units in ME, VT, CT, and RI. One of those rides was to cover AR, MO, KS, and NE -- pretty long for even an extended weekend ride.

Donna thought about those long rides, and suggested that we cut back on the New England trip a bit so we could get the long ToH NPT ride in, and that discussion led to a complete re-plan of the 2019 Summer Adventure. So, as it stands today, we're going to do a National Parks Tour in 2019!

I did a little planning to frame up the ride, and it looks like we're going to have a lot of fun, even considering the flat and heat of the midwest!

More to follow....

Emporia, Virginia Weekend Ride

I didn't get out to ride at all during February; the weather was somewhat uncooperative on each weekend, and it's tough to get motivated for a ride when it's cold and rainy. It looked like this weekend was going to be nice enough, though, so I planned a nice weekend ride to Point Pleasant, WV.

On Friday, Donna and I reassessed the Point Pleasant route in light of the distance, number of planned stops, and hours of daylight available for bonus hunting. The planned route was tight time-wise--that route should be a 2 1/2 day trip, not a jammed two day trip, so I offered a trip south instead.

We headed west to the Shenandoah Valley, then south through Charlottesville and Scottsville to Emporia. We stayed overnight at the Hampton Inn in Emporia, then headed east to Virginia Beach. From there, we headed north to home.

It was a bit chilly--the temperatures stayed within a 40 deg F to 55 deg F band all weekend, but we had a lot of sun both days. The direct sunlight really makes a difference--that, and the heated gear, made for a reasonably comfortable ride.

Farklefest: November 2017

With a living room full of parts, and a [nearly] stock R1200GSA in the driveway, it was time to take the new bike apart to find out why it worked. Midway through last week, the weather forecast was promising for Friday and Sunday, with showers predicted for Saturday. Temperatures were promised in the mid-50's...not too bad for November in Northern Virginia.

I got started mid-morning on Friday, as soon as it got warm enough to stand next to the bike for hours on end. I removed the body work and fuel tank. I watched ADVCityGuy's videos on the Denali SoundBomb and Clearwater Ericas to get an idea of how to best do those two installations, then watched Jim Von Baden's video on R1200GSA(W) body work and fuel tank removal.

I got all of the body work off, along with the fuel tank on Friday. I was prepared for Saturday to be rainy, and to finish up on Sunday. Saturday turned out to be pretty nice until about 1500; I was able to get the SoundBomb and Ericas wiring in and the body work and fuel tank re-installed before the rain started. I installed the Clearwater Billie Junior rear light, and its remote light (which I think I'm going to like quite a bit), as well.

Sunday turned out to be nice, as well, so I got everything wrapped up -- this kind of work always takes longer than it probably should, because I work very slowly. Haste can make expensive waste when doing these tasks for the first time. The fit is pretty tight on the R1200GSA to begin with, and to route that number of power and signal cables from the front to the back requires some careful thought and execution.

I'm thankful for all of those years of amateur radio "farkling" -- it ensured that I had every tool and spare part that I needed for the entire job.

Right before sundown today, I wrapped this job up and fired the bike up to do a little op-test. It's always such a relief to verify that everything works as expected. The Clearwater Ericas look great, and that Denali SoundBomb is deafening.

First farkles

I rode with the new Sargent saddle yesterday, and installed the pillion saddle today.

I have a pile of farkles stacked up in the living room, waiting for time and weather to install.

In addition to installing the pillion saddle, I installed guards for the two stock fog lights. The Touratech guards were very easy to install, and look great.

I started the installation on the Altrider headlight guard, but ran out of weather. I'll get that finished as soon as weather permits.

First [real] ride

The run-in period for BMW motorcycles is about 600 miles (100 km). It's +/- 50 miles to Bob's BMW, so I need to get about 500 miles under the saddle before the initial check. The weather for the weekend is predicted to be spotty, so it was important to get some riding in today, to get ready for the 10 November run-in check.

I laid out a quick 250 mile run, then added a few spots for geocaches (to sweeten the pot). The run-in needs to be done at varying speeds and loads, so I headed west. I ran out to Sperryville, VA to ride U.S. 211 over Shenandoah National Park, then headed to Harrisonburg, VA, with a brief lunch stop at Luray, VA.

From Harrisonburg, I headed east to Orange, VA then north on U.S. 29 to pick up I-66.

The ride was very good. Because I still don't have the side cases (BMW Motorrad stop-sale on the side cases for a reflector-positioning issue), I removed the top case as well. The GSA is remarkably nimble (at least at this weight), and the increased low-end torque is a noticeable difference from the 2010 R1200RT.

I have another short ride this weekend to finish off the run-in period.

R1200GS Adventure "Triple Black"

With great sadness, I traded in my well-loved, and oft-ridden 2010 R1200RT today. I returned home with a 2017 R1200GS Adventure "Triple Black". I'll be farkling this new bike over the next few weeks, as I get ready for next year's rally and grand tour season.

New bike

I have mixed feelings about getting a new motorcycle. The 2010 R1200RT has gotten me to some amazing places over the ~7.5 years I've had it. It's out of the extended warranty period, though, and has nearly 160,000 miles on it. 

The features on the newer bikes, such as water-cooling, tire pressure sensors, and better integration with the GPS receiver, make a compelling case for an upgrade.

So, I put a deposit on a 2017 R1200GS Adventure today. I'll have a new bike to farkle shortly.

I have one more longish ride on the RT this coming weekend, then it'll be time to retire that bike.