wordsmith Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 No news from these guys for a little over a week (last post July 23). Do hope that all is well. PM sent today. Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmiller Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 Yes, all is well. We made it back Sunday evening at 10:15 PM. Didn't go into work on Monday - too tired and needed to rest. I plan on writing a detailed ride report and publishing sometime later this week or this weekend. Thanks for checking in on us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark&Stormy Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 Looks like a great trip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supporting Member betoney Posted August 2, 2018 Supporting Member Share Posted August 2, 2018 Yes, all is well. We made it back Sunday evening at 10:15 PM. Didn't go into work on Monday - too tired and needed to rest. I plan on writing a detailed ride report and publishing sometime later this week or this weekend. Thanks for checking in on us. Glad to hear that you made it back safe. Looking forward to the ride report. ***2015 Candy Red FJ-09*** Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2018 Share Posted August 7, 2018 Thanks for posting and taking us along. I was glad to see you heeded my warning of the piss poor stock chain, I replaced mine @ 11800 with a DID VMXZ 525, JT front, and up two teeth on the rear Supersprox... in gold of course. Scary last 500 miles into Florida not knowing if she'd hold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmiller Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Well I’m sitting here preparing to watch the first Chiefs preseason game, and I finally have a moment to write about our Alaskan trip. Day 0 (Pre-trip) This trip has been in my mind for 3 years. Before we get into the specifics of the trip, let’s first talk a little bit about the events that led up to it. I suppose the most logical place to start is when I first started riding motorcycles. Flashback to March of 2013. I’m a senior in college at Iowa State, and I mention to an acquaintance that I would like to get a motorcycle at some point. I know I need something cheap that I can fix up. He tells me he has a ‘79 Kawasaki KZ400 (doesn’t run, but ran last summer) he bought to turn into a cafe racer, but has lost time and interest. Says he will sell it to me for $550. I have $700 in my bank account, but I’m okay eating Ramen the rest of the month if it means getting a motorcycle. I talk him down to selling it to me for $450. A couple days later I have the keys, and its sitting outside my apartment complex. Its March in Iowa so it’s still like 40 degrees outside, but I’m too excited to not go start diagnosing what it needs to run. Within 48 hours, the bike is running, and I’m learning how to ride it. Audrey and I both rode the KZ back and forth from our apartments to campus that spring/summer. At the end of the summer, we graduated, moved the Kansas City to start jobs, and sold the KZ for more than we paid for it originally. The next February we go pick up a 1994 Kawasaki Vulcan 750. I choose it for its affordability, shaft drive, liquid cooling, and ability for both Audrey and myself to ride it. So we ride it around together all of 2014. This is when we start getting our first ‘good’ gear. We get our Shoei GT-Air helmets. I buy my Cortec 3-season mesh jacket. Audrey gets a couple jackets as well. Most of the riding of the Vulcan at this point is done by me. I frequently ride it to work. If we go somewhere together, I drive and Audrey rides pillion. Audrey gets occasional practice riding it around on weekends, often with me following in the car. Summer of 2015 I found out I was being sent back to school for a Master’s degree. This is around the same time the idea of wanting to ride motorcycle to Alaska first became a serious desire of mine. I was starting to outgrow the Vulcan, but I was wanting a BMW R1200RT at the time. They had just come out with the water boxer engines in 2014 so buying used was not really an option. And buying a liquid cooled bike was a must in my opinion. Once I got back into grad school, the Vulcan started having stator issues, and I was massively overwhelmed with school work. Having time to go out and tinker in the garage, a typical pastime of mine, was virtually non-existent with the amount of school work I had to do. Audrey gave me ‘permission’ to go buy the FJR after looking at it online, and I came home with it on October 10, 2015. The FJR was shortly thereafter named ‘Secretariat’ due being a thoroughbred race horse. Now that we had two bikes in the garage, the Vulcan was available for Audrey to start riding it while I rode the FJR. Around this time, we decided for sure that when I finished grad school we would ride our bikes to Alaska and back. July 2016, we take a weekend trip to Omaha on both bikes to visit the Yamaha demo truck so Audrey can test ride the FJ-09. She was nervous about riding it beforehand, but once she was on it she was immediately comfortable. The dealership made us a good deal on the leftover red FJ-09, and Audrey got to leave the Vulcan in Omaha and ride home ‘Vixen’ (named for being foxxy). At some point around this time we both got our high-vis Helite airbag vests. We planned an Iron Butt Association SaddleSore from Ames to Arkansas and back for ISU Motorcycle Club. Turned out to be a great success, both bikes became Iron Butt certified. We soon realized that going to Alaska in Summer of 2017 as we had originally planned was too much given we were also moving back to Kansas City, starting back to work, buying our first home, etc. So we committed to going in Summer of 2018. Leading up to Alaska we purchased some new camping gear to take such as new sleeping bags, inflatable sleep pads/pillows, Terralite camp chairs, and Wolfman Dry Bags. The Wolfman bags are awesome. Yes, I know they cost a lot, but they work so well with a pair of Rok straps it's unbelievably simple to secure the bike and ride off. We rode from KC to Atlanta for a weekend for the first MotoAmerica race of 2018 as a little warm up to our AK trip. The camp gear worked well and we learned what things we still needed to make AK a success. The final weeks leading up to Alaska, I purchased a copy of the milepost, paper maps, a Garmin inReach SE, McCruise Control for the Vixen, 2WDW ECU flash for Vixen, new Michelin PR4’s for Vixen, and new Pirelli Angel GT A-Specs for Secretariat. The week before we left I had to go to California for work. Fly out of KC to CA on Monday, work in CA on Tuesday, fly home Wednesday. Thursday and Friday night was final packing of the bikes. I installed front fender extenders on both bikes last minute. Bought a spare chain and sprockets for the FJ-09 last minute at the advice of @fz1rider . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted August 10, 2018 Share Posted August 10, 2018 Great and very interesting lead-in to your trip, ns. Cannot wait for the next episodes! Isn't it strange how one can become introduced to motorcycling. In my wife's case, she was watching me do some training that was necessary to regain a licence after many years. I was pottering around the training ground on a 250cc, and when we got home she said to me "I'd like to have a go at that". Talk about knocked down with a feather - she'd never expressed any interest before, although being very supportive of my intention to rejoin the fray. I should add that I doubt at the time that my wife knew the difference between the front wheel and the foot-pegs, and she was then no chicken at 55 yo! Long story: she took the course, passed first time (I didn't!) and thereafter loved every minute of our joint two-wheeled experiences, including many epic long trips together. Happy, happy days! Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmiller Posted August 10, 2018 Author Share Posted August 10, 2018 Great and very interesting lead-in to your trip, ns. Cannot wait for the next episodes! Isn't it strange how one can become introduced to motorcycling. In my wife's case, she was watching me do some training that was necessary to regain a licence after many years. I was pottering around the training ground on a 250cc, and when we got home she said to me "I'd like to have a go at that". Talk about knocked down with a feather - she'd never expressed any interest before, although being very supportive of my intention to rejoin the fray. I should add that I doubt at the time that my wife knew the difference between the front wheel and the foot-pegs, and she was then no chicken at 55 yo! Long story: she took the course, passed first time (I didn't!) and thereafter loved every minute of our joint two-wheeled experiences, including many epic long trips together. Happy, happy days! I forgot to mention, that before buying the KZ, Audrey never wanted to even sit on the back of a motorcycle. She grew up hearing too many horror tales from her folks. I bought the KZ anyway, and invited her to take the MSF course with me so she felt better about me riding it. After the MSF course, she was hooked herself! We decided she needs to write a book and call it "Denial to Denali: A woman's journey into motorcycling" or something along those lines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amrmiller Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 Day 1 (Peculiar, MO to Lander, Wyoming) Well here we are, day 1. Finally. We’re leaving on a trip that we’ve been dreaming of for three years. This was going to be one of the longest days of the trip. Google maps said the distance is about 934 miles and a total ride time of 14 hours. Our goal for heading to bed right after we got off work Friday night did not happen. As always before you leave for a trip, you end up having way more last minute packing to do than you thought. We didn’t get to bed until almost 11:30 pm that night. Our goal was to have wheels turning at 4:00 am. That means getting up at 3:30 in the morning, eating breakfast, gearing up, and going. Well we knew we weren’t going to be up at 3:30 or leaving by 4 so we set our alarms for 4:30 in hopes to be out by 5.However, Nate’s mom called us around 3:50 or so, waking us both up. This was probably a good thing in hindsight since we both had time to sort of, “wake up,” before actually getting out of bed. We got up, finished loading the bikes, and were ready to get out of Peculiar around 5:30. Unfortunately, we didn’t get out then. Hannah (Nate’s sister), Nate, and I kept hearing a chirping noise coming from somewhere in our basement. We spent 20 minutes looking for it and couldn’t find where it was coming from. So we tasked Hannah with finding the noise and headed out to our bikes. Hannah took a picture of us by our bikes, our first official photo of the trip, and then we headed out. Nate nearly dropped his bike while backing out of the driveway, but managed to save it. The bikes were pretty heavy with all the luggage we had on them. Our first stop was to Casey’s in town so we could get something to eat before we left. After our Casey’s stop, we were officially off to the races. Our route to Lander took us up I-29 in Missouri to I-80 across Nebraska into Wyoming. Our first stop was at a gast station just before the Nebraska border. I was fading pretty fast and needed a break off the bike and a cup of coffee ASAP. After a quick gas up and cup of coffee, we hit the road again. The name of the game was efficiency. I had made us sandwiches the night before in hopes of keeping our stops as short and efficient as possible. We left Missouri, clipped Iowa, and made our way into Nebraska onto the dreaded straight and boring I-80. We continued to make our gas stops efficient and as needed only. Eventually, I started to fade, and fade hard. Nate had to constantly talk to me in order for me to stay awake. I could hardly keep my eyes open. The lack of sleep had built up all week and culminated in me struggling to keep my eyes open on the bike, a not so safe situation to be in. Nate immediately found a spot to pull over at an unscheduled gas stop and got me off the bike and into a creepy Conoco gas station in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. Luckily for me, this station had a small table in the back of the store. I sat down, laid my head in my hands, and fell asleep. I must have scared the clerk some because when I semi-woke up she asked if I was feeling OK. I assured her that I was fine, just extremely tired, and went back to sleep. After what I thought wasn’t too long, Nate came into the store and checked to see how I was doing. I was awake at this point. We had an ice cream treat, a RedBull, and off we went. I was feeling much better after my nap at the Iron Butt Motel and a RedBull. However, our ETA on Google Maps had us arriving about 45 minutes later than it had before the stop. I guess my nap was a lot longer than I thought! The town we stopped at wasn’t too far from the Nebraska/Wyoming border. We ran into some construction, but were able to pull over and take a picture in front of the, “Welcome to Wyoming,” state sign. The speed limits picked up to 75-80 mph, which was a huge bonus for us. I got a HUGE surge of energy when we crossed into Wyoming. I was so excited that we had come this far and only had a few hours of riding left to go. We rode through some more populated areas of Wyoming, then hit a few two lane highways (with speed limits of 70mph). We didn’t see a whole lot of traffic on these roads and enjoyed seeing some of Wyoming’s wildlife. We saw lots of wild antelope in the area. The raw, natural beauty of Wyoming reminded me of a desert planet. Seeing wild antelope cross the road, feeling the change in temperature, and smelling the sweet, fresh air was one of the best feelings in the world. Finally, we reached Lander, Wyoming. We stopped at a gas station that had a Thai food place attached to it. Nate and I filled our bikes, and got some Thai food and beer. A guy came up and started talking to Nate about where we were heading. Of course, people are always a bit surprised when you say you’re going all the way to Alaska. The guy in Lander said he had a KLR who’s previous owner had taken it to Alaska. We also saw a rainbow while we were parked! We got our Thai food and headed off to our AirB&B hosts for the night. We rode through Lander and there was a surprisingly large amount of activity for what I thought was a small town in Wyoming. I enjoyed seeing everything the town hard to offer. We arrived in Lander just before sunset and watched the sun go down as we rode up the side of a mountain to get to our host’s house. [/a] We woke up the next day (day 2) around 7 and started wheels turning about 8:00 or so, so these next few pictures are from day two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wordsmith Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 Beware excessive fatigue. Even a ten-minute 'power-nap' can restore concentration and attention when a rider/ driver is tired to the degree noted here... Riding a fully-farkled 2019 MT-09 Tracer 900 GT from my bayside home in South East Queensland, Australia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowlin01 Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 Wow! talk about hitting it hard from the off! A baptism of fire. Great write-up, can't wait for more. Cheers Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmiller Posted August 13, 2018 Author Share Posted August 13, 2018 Beware excessive fatigue. Even a ten-minute 'power-nap' can restore concentration and attention when a rider/ driver is tired to the degree noted here...This is exactly why we stopped at the times we did by getting gas early, and allowing Audrey to take a power nap or grab a cup of coffee or whatever was necessary at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skipperT Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 Nice looking place and pics! My family took a trip to WY for totality during last years eclipse. It never ceases to amaze me me how wide open and beautiful both WY and MT still are in our modern, populated age. -Skip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amrmiller Posted August 13, 2018 Share Posted August 13, 2018 Oh for sure! I felt so small when we rode through Montana! It was amazing to me to see how big the sky was while we were there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nsmiller Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 I know you guys want the next day's ride report, and I'll try to post that later today. But here is the oil analysis for the FJR. FJ-09 still to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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