Day 3

They had the most spectacular sunrise this morning.  All kinds of vibrant colors with amazing cloud formations and everything!  Simply fantastic ! !

At least that's what the people working at the desk told me when I came down for breakfast.

Wind was still going strong from yesterday when I started out.  Yesterday I was going due North and the wind was coming from the NNW causing me to lean heavily over to the left.  Well, today I was traveling almost due West so the wind was causing me to lean heavily to the right.  Boy, is this exciting!

Everyone talks about it being a long way across Kansas.  Forget that!  It's even longer across South Dakota.  Today I almost ran out of gas again.  It is a long way between gas stations here and I wasn't paying quite as much attention to my gas gauge as I should when I look down and NO BARS.  I'm looking ahead and I can see for miles and miles and I see nothing!  Then down in one dip in the highway I see an exit and a hand painted sign say "GAS".  I didn't know if they meant they had fuel or just that everyone in the town eats beans a lot.  

They had gas.  The really old pumps with the sign on them that tells you the indicated price is only half what you will pay.  Remember the pumps that couldn't go over $1 a gallon?  When those old pumps were taken out of service, they were sent here.  They even had a ghost town of sorts and an old barn that was really neat.  I took pictures of everything.  

The only problem was they just had 87 octane.  I must have 91 minimum.  I only put in one gallon, hoping that the next station wasn't very far down the road.  It wasn't.  But, it only had 91 octane with 20% ethanol added!  I never saw gasoline with that much ethanol in it.  Since my bike is a 2001, I didn't want to chance it so I bypassed that station and went for the next exit.  

At the next exit there was a convenience store with three grades of gas.  87, 88 and 91.  The only problem was there was a sticker next to the 88 octane that read "10% Ethanol Added".  I didn't know if that meant the 88 was the only one that had the ethanol or if all of them had it.  So, I went in the store and asked my question.  Well, they had this young kid working there who looked like something out of Deliverance and also looked like he's been snorting something along the lines of WD-40.  He just looked at me like I was from outer space.   Another kid was in there and he looked like he had just come from South of the border, without a passport, and he said, "Just the 88 has 10% ethanol added but the other two have something less than 10% added.  That made a lot of sense to me so I just went back out and started pumping the 91 into my tank.  I took a good whiff of it and I couldn't smell any ethanol in it at all.  So, I'm thinking the 88 was the only one that had any added.  I filled up and headed West.  

Along the way I get all kinds of people who want to talk about motorcycles.  I read that somewhere that one person riding a motorcycle will get a lot of people who start up conversations with them where as if there are two or more riders, nobody talks to them.  I'm finding that to be true.  

When I stopped at McDonalds for lunch (do I eat there a lot?) a guy stopped while I was standing by the bike and told me how he had bought an R100 (older BMW like mine) not too long ago and he really liked it.  He also said he had been trying to talk his buddy into getting a bike so they could go to Alaska.  He talked quite a while about motorcycles until his family yelled at him that they wanted to eat and he better come on!

Then when I stopped at a rest stop I talked to a guy I had seen at the last gas station I stopped at.  He was riding a newer Harley.  He said he had started out to do a two day 400 mile trip and he now had 900 miles or so for the trip.  He was having a good time riding and couldn't quit.  

Then at the same rest stop another guy asked my how I liked the BMW.  He was riding a new Yamaha cruiser.  We talked about bikes for a while too.  

Then at the same rest stop, a couple rode in on a ST1100.  They didn't have anything good to say about Hondas at all.  They wished they had bought a BMW instead.  

Only kidding Ed!  They really like it.  He was a mechanic of sorts and had done a lot of modifications to it.  Mainly related to jets and mufflers.  He had a set of Two Brothers mufflers on it and he said they were at least 12 pounds lighter than the stock Honda muffle and boosted the HP a lot.  I don't know what STs normally have but he said he had dynoed it and it was getting 90hp at the rear wheel.  That sounded like a lot to me.  

He said that he had totaled it a year ago and he bought it back from the insurance company and fixed it back up himself.  He said it was just plastic damage and the insurance company totaled it rather than get it fixed.  He said it didn't take him much work at all.  Not knowing a whole lot about STs, it looked pretty sharp to me.  I couldn't see anything out of the ordinary at all.  It looked brand new to me.  

He said he had one problem with it.  It would stop running and then wouldn't start again until some time went by.  He said he got a fix for it on the ST Owners List.  At least 7 different people told him to just bypass the automatic fuel shutoff valve.  He took it apart and sure enough, he said there was a hairline crack in the diaphram so he just plugged the hoses directly into the fuel filter and hasn't had a problem since.  

If I didn't know better, I'd say Sturgis week just ended.  I have seen so many bikes heading East it isn't funny.  I don't know where they've all been unless it's Alaska.  I'll know better once I get into Canada.  If I still see this many then it almost has to be riders coming back from Alaska.  I've probably seen at least 300 bikes heading East on I-90 in South Dakota alone.  

The Beemer has been running like gangbusters.  Mileage is still over 40 mpg even with all this wind.  

I have passed so many ST1100s and 1300s I couldn't even count them.  I could see their eyes bug out of their heads as I went zooming by, creating such a draft that half of them lost their cups right out of the drink holders.  Or were those Goldwings??  I was never really good with the Honda models.  

Went to Wall Drug (most famous or almost the most famous tourist stop in SD) for supper and had a cheeseburger and fries.  Nothing super good about it.  Expensive and the service was really slow.  There were five people in front of me ordering and it took about 15 minutes for their orders to be taken.  SLLLLOOOOOOWWWWW.  

Stopping by Little Big Horn and Sturgis tomorrow so I have to get up early.  I'm going to try and get going before noon at least.  

Day 2

Well, this day started out nice. Just a little cool but not bad with the mesh jacket on. As the day wore on though, it began to get even cooler. To the point where I had to stop and put the liner on too. The main problem was the wind again. This was hurricane winds. In fact, I remember hurricanes in Florida that didn't have winds this bad.  

I had one scare and re-learned something I already knew about the Beemer but had forgotten.

I was cruising along and happened to look down at my gas gauge and it showed ZERO bars. Now the way the BMW gas gauge works is it shows you the quantity of gas you have left in the tank with a number of horizonal bars on a display. When the tank is full there are 9 bars and as you use gas, the number of bars decreases. What I normally do is keep checking the mileage and when it gets up around 175 miles, I start thinking about getting gas. The problem was, I was only about 150 miles down the road and I now had NO gas, or almost no gas. I expected the bike to stop at any moment. I took the next exit for some small town and what looked like a gas station. Turns out the town used to have a gas station but it went out of business. I had Garmin tell me where I could find gas and it took me around in a circle in the town and brought me back to the same closed station. Thanks a lot, Garmin.

So I got back on the highway and headed for the next exit. I happened to look at my gauge again and now it showed 2 bars. So how in the world did I go from no gas to maybe 30 miles worth of gas? Then it hit me. The BMW tank is like a saddle sitting on top of the frame. It holds some gas in the right side where the pickup is, and some gas in the left side. What happens is if you are going down the highway in a straight line and never make any half way decent turns, the gas that is in the left side just stays there and you'll technically run out of gas earlier than you expect to. Plus, I had been going down the highway with the wind causing me to lean way to the left, keeping the gas I did have, away from the pickup on the right side.  

But, if you make a turn to the right, like when Garmin had me looking for the gas station, then the gas on the left side flows over to the right side and stays there. I then remembered that someone had said if you run out of gas on a BMW, you just tilt the bike over to the right as far as you can and you'll have enough gas, hopefully, to get to a station. Anyway, I was fine getting to the next gas exit.

But the weather was still not cooperating. The farther North I got the worse the weather looked and the more the wind blew. There were times when I could just reach over to the left and touch the road, I was leaning into the wind so much.

Maybe I'm exaggerating a little but I was way over. Then the wind started really picking up. I mean I felt like the wind was going to yank my helmet off my head, it was so strong. Then the bike started feeling kind of light when the wind would gust so I decided it was time to think about getting off the highway. Plus, the clouds were coming in again with what looked like serious rain included.

So here I am in a hotel again working on emails while the bike gets rained on again. My original plan was to camp out almost all the time but my plan isn't working. If this keeps up, I'll set a record for the most days in a row without camping. 

It was funny at the rest stops when all the people would get out of their cars to go to the rest rooms and most of them were wearing shorts and tee shirts. They must have thought since it was almost July that the weather would be hot. NOT ! It was cold. There was a period there where I could have been comfortable in my big winter parka coat and winter gloves.

I'll make another try tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be nice for the next couple of days. Maybe I can get far enough North and West so I'll be out of the constant bad weather in the afternoons.  

I saw a lot of motorcycles heading South. I wonder how many of them are coming back from Alaska?  Tomorrow I'll be on I-90 west and I'll probably see even more bikes heading home. 

Day 1 of the actual trip

Well, there I am cruising along, not a care in the world (except for the pain in my wrist, and the itchy scratching on the surface of my butt, and the bad quality of the Bach music coming from my headset, but other than that, things were fine) and what do I see ahead of me but big black rain clouds.

I also see a sign for camping at the next exit so I wheel off thinking I have three choices. I can put my rain gear on and continue on into the "Perfect Storm", I can see about finding that camping place and set up my tent and wait for the "Perfect Storm", or lastly I can check out the Rock Port Motel to see if they have a cheap room for me.

So being the beast I am, I suited up for the rain and just rode on through it (LIKE HELL! ) I'm now setting in my room drinking a chocolate shake from Mikie Dees and writing up my emails.

I no sooner got my room, got the bike parked and unloaded all my stuff from the bike and this storm of the century came down on Rock Port like it was the birth place of Noah. I never saw so much rain come down at one time. Funny thing though, it only lasted for twenty minutes or so and then the sun came out again. So I headed for McDonald's to get something to eat. While waiting for my food, a guy started talking to me telling me he just came through Columbia, Missouri and he was following four Harley riders and a truck was in front of them and threw a tire (Damn those retreads anyway ! !). He said the tire went through the windshield of one of the Harleys and knocked the guy completely off the bike. He said he didn't think the guy was too badly hurt as he started moving around pretty shortly. That was one lucky Harley rider. 

Then when I got back to the motel, a guy on a Goldwing was just arriving back from eating also and he happened to have the room right next to mine. I asked him where he was from and he said "Fairbanks". Now I ask you, is that weird or what? Here I am on my motorcycle on my way to Fairbanks and the guy right next door to me is on his motorcycle and is on the way to Virginia from Fairbanks. Too strange. Like something from a Stephen King novel. I swear I heard the little dolls singing "It's a small small world".

ANNNNDDD, it turns out that he is a truck driver on the Dalton Highway. He's spent the last twelve years or so running from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay and back. Just too coincidental for real life. 

OK, here's what I learned today. Wind is bad! Especially when it is a very strong wind. It's really hard to go in a straight line when the wind is blowing you all over the place. From home to around Clinton, the wind was really bad on the highway. After that things were better.

I also learned I don't like this tank bag. The bag is great but I have to practically dismount it to refuel. That is a pain for sure. There is just no easy way to get fuel in the bike with that particular bag on it. It's a PacSafe Tank Safe bag. The problem is really with my "barbacks". Without them on the bike, I think the bag would work fine. But the barbacks stay!! They give me a more "upright" riding position. I got the tank safe because it has the ability to lock the bag and also lock the bag to the bike. Most bags won't lock to the bike. Oh yeah, when I make a sharp turn to the left, like in a parking lot, the bag causes the horn to blow. How embarrassing.

I also learned that I really, really, really, really want a cruise control for my bike. I will have one before the trip with Lyle next year too. My wrist gets kind of tired after twisting that throttle for hours at a time. 

I also learned I have to be careful about where I put the big waterproof bag on the back. When I first started out from home, I hadn't gone very far at all and my butt was hurting. I couldn't figure out why because I've been riding that bike for a while now and haven't had any problems at all. I finally figured out that the problem was the big bag on the back was encroaching on my "butt space". It wasn't causing any of the pain but it was causing me to sit on the bike seat just a little differently than I would if it wasn't there. So I stopped, took everything off and moved it all a little further to the rear of the bike and jumped on and headed back on the road. Now everything was fine. Live and learn.

I also learned that a small package of jerky (Lyle made some spicy hamburger jerky) doesn't last very long. It's almost gone and I've only been gone one day. Must have him make bigger lots from now on. Maybe he should build a plant down by the pond!

Oh, the guy from Fairbanks said he must have seen a hundred of the BMW GSes  like mine on the way down here from Fairbanks. He said he saw more of those then anything else. 

My hotel is so "upscale" it doesn't come with wi-fi so I'm going to try to send this from McDees tomorrow. If not, it will have to wait until I can find a hot spot.

Harry

What do I need to do to the GS to get ready?

I'm the third owner of the bike and since I don't have any history on it, I came up with just a few things to do.  

Change Engine Oil and Filter, Transmisson Oil and Final Drive Oil

Replace Air Filter

Add Blue Sea fuse box for accessories (Gerbing, GPS, Laptop, PDA, Cell Phone, MP3 Player etc.) 

Add two more Driving Lights to front  (You can never have too many lights on a bike)

Add a set of "bar-backs" (came with the bike but not mounted when I bought it)

Relocate and Replace Fuel Filter from inside the fuel tank to outside.  A pain in the butt to do this mod, but it sure will make future fuel filter changes a no-brainer.  And if I ever do have filter problems out on the road, it will be an easy fix, versus having to take the tank off while setting on the side of I-90 in the middle of Nowhere, Montana.  

Add Quick Disconnects to the fuel lines.  While I shouldn't have to take my tank off in the future, these will make it simpler to drain some gas from the tank if needed for emergencies.  

Tires (Metz Tourances) are in fair shape so the plan is to replace them somewhere South of the Canadian border. That way, I'll have almost new tires starting on the Alaska Highway.  

Since I'm riding solo, I've decided to leave the passenger seat at home.  This gives me a little more space for the duffle bags.  

The bike came with an Aeroflow windshield (or as they like to call it, a "mini fairing") but it was the low one so I had to change out the main shield for a tall one.  Boy, is that ever nice.  Maybe too much wind is being blocked for July and August weather but it sure cuts down on the wind noise in my helmet.  

I'm ready to go!

 

What do I need to go to Alaska?

This is a subject that could go on forever!  In fact, I'm leaving tomorrow and I'm still not 100% on what to take.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  

I started researching again on advrider.com and a host of other sites about "Adventure Biking" trying to see what other people thought was needed.  I came across riders who thought you needed nothing more than a rolled up blanket, all the way to riders who thought you needed a trailer to tow along behind the bike to carry all the things you need going there and then the souvenirs on the way back.  Needless to say, I ended up some where in the middle.  At least I think it's the middle.  My wife thinks I'll never be able to get all that stuff on one bike.  I'll post later what I'm taking and a little of my logic.  

I'm going to try and camp as much as possible.  I'd like to be able to camp all the way there and back but I'm not sure I'm up to the Grizzly Adams life style.  Or as Willie Nelson sings about living on the road, with your "breath as hard as kerosene".  My wife doesn't think I can live that life style for long either.  We'll see.  

I would have loved to get a set of the metal panniers to add more space down low on the bike, but the cost was a little excessive, so I stuck with the stock BMW hard bags.  Added a PacSafe Tank Safe bag, a Cabela's 100% waterproof duffle bag (much larger than I anticipated) and a smaller, non-waterproof duffle bag.  We'll see how everything packs up.  

One thing is for sure.  I won't be taking any handguns.  The only bad(?) part of going to Alaska is that one must go through Canada to get there.  And I would suppose that just about everyone reading this  is aware that self defense is absolutely against the law in Canada.  Even unarmed self defense can be a felony charge in some circumstances.  There is a legal way to take handguns to Alaska but with Canadian law the way it is, if you found it necessary to shoot anything with it while in Canada (bear, mountain lion, rabid animal of any kind, or slime ball escaped serial killer, etc., etc.) you'd be off to prison for a long spell.  It's just not worth it.   As another song goes, "leave your guns at home, son".  End Rant.  

One thing that would be nice to take but I didn't find a way to arrange it, is a serious first aid kit.  After all, bike riders are prone to more serious injury when the rubber quits staying on the road, for whatever reason.   Plus, in the case of an Alaskan bike trip, we could be miles from any professinal help.  I guess one would have to have a good relationship with an M.D. in order to take the things that could possibly be needed.  Like Epipens, blood clotting agent and opiate pain killers for instance.  Technically speaking, I guess it would only be important to other riders I might come across because if I'm the one prone in the dirt, I'm not going to be able to patch myself up if I suffered a major injury, am I?  

I do have the Mile Post, of course.  Anyone that goes to Alaska without taking the Mile Post is probably not in the triple digits in the IQ world.   Some might say the Mile Post has too much information.  Not me.  The more the merrier I say.  I want to know EXACTLY how many miles it might be to the next gas station.  I want to know those gas stations that also might NOT be open any given day of the week.  And every single minor not-well-used dirt road that turns off the main road between any two points.  And I want to know the GPS coordinates of EVERYTHING.

In case you're still living in the 20th century and don't know about GPS.  GARMIN RULES!  I know there are other brands and some might even have a couple of neat features.  But, all things considered,  Garmin is it!  Some of you might say I'm biased in some way just because my daughter-in-law works at Garmin in Kansas City, or because when they had their IPO, I bought a lot of their stock.  I say "what conflict of interest"?  It's just a good product.  

I'm sure, no matter what I take, there will be things I find I need and things I brought that have no use.  That's ok because my brother-in-law retires next year and he wants to take a bike ride to Alaska.  So, by the time next year rolls around I can do it all over again, but with a lot more "savoir-faire".     

Harley Davidson

I guess if we need to partition out blame for this expedition, the large majority of it would go on Harley Davidson.  If their bikes were a little more "dirt road friendly" this probably would have never developed into what it has become.  

While working/living in Canada, I got the urge to buy a Harley.  It was overpowering.  Especially since my wife thought we needed a Harley too and my company had just given me a bonus check that would cover the total cost and my first bike way back when just happened to have been a Harley.  A 125cc battery powered ignition bike (versus, the Hummer which came out later and didn't have a battery, using a magneto only).  But, that's a "whole 'nother story" as they say.  

Then, after purchasing the Fat Boy in March of 2000, in May, my company decided they needed me back in the U.S. so off we went to Florida for a while and then back to Missouri where I retired and built a house on 80 acres on the Gasconade river.  The problem?  The house was on two miles of VERY bad gravel road.  Up and down hills with turns in the middle of hills and turns at the bottom of hills.  Well, you get the idea.  I never did dump the bike but I sure came close several times.  

We got tired of that house after a couple of years (a person can get really tired of deer, bobcats, turkeys, etc. walking through your yard all the time) and bought some land closer to town and built another house on more gravel road.  Two miles again, but much tamer navigating.  Still, not a pleasant ride on a Fat Boy.  

Wanting to ride more, I then decided I needed a bike that was more "dirt road friendly" and went off researching.  I wasn't ready to buy at that time but wanted to do research to decide what I should look for.  

The "best laid plans", etc.  Not one week into my research I found a guy who had a 2001 BMW 1150GS with 36,000 miles on it for $6,200 and he was thinking about selling  it but hadn't actively started trying to sell (a friend of his was on a motorcycle list I subscribed to and told me about him).  

Off I go in my truck 200 miles, to look it over.  Took one ride and whipped out the old checkbook and headed home with my new (to me) bike.  

Now I have it home and riding around not believing how well that bike takes to gravel roads and doing research on what maintenance I should plan on, when I find the forum www.advrider.com.  I start reading about all the trips riders had made and especially trips to Alaska.  Well, that was the start.  All of a sudden, I just HAD to go to Alaska.  

So the adventure begins.