Tim TomCross Country Adventure

[Tim Tom]

Ride Report: Day 1

Okay people. It's time for me to start putting our adventure into words before I forget too many of the good details and the days just run together into one looong ride . Hope you all enjoy the story, or at the very least some more pictures. With no further ado, here goes.

Day 0: The Preparation Story

The idea for this trip happened about a year ago. Kyle had come up to visit me at school and we went out to the pub. Of course we talked bikes. I brought up the crazy idea of riding to Alaska, he said he'd go with no hesitation... And the adventure bug bites... For the next year or so I saved up my money. Put aside 10 bucks here, 25 bucks there, skipped the little things, and over the course of a year had saved up about $1200 for our adventure. About 4 months before the trip, Kyle and I got down to looking at a map and realized just how far away Alaska is. 14,000 miles there and back, if we took the short way . Reality set in, and we revised the 'destination' to the west coast. Picked July 2nd as the day to leave, and went to work adventurizing our bikes. Kyle made his bags from some sheet steel and a welder, I made mine from Army Surplus Mermite cans. We bought a tent, dug out the camp cooking stuff from Dad's basement, and were ready to hit the road!

Before anyone asks I'll tell you what I carried. In the top tube was my sleeping pad and the Travel Ax guitar. In the right case I had my socket set, 10-in-1 screwdriver, tire plug kit, with very small compressor (thankfully didn't need it, but glad I had it all the same), my little netbook laptop, a freezer bag with misc electric chargers and things, the Fender Mini-Twin guitar amp, a drawstring bag of clothes, one towel, and a pair of flip flops.
In the left case I had a 7x12x5 plastic container with more tools, voltmeter, spare rear spline, some zip ties, box wrenches, pliers, wire cutters, spare wire, spare connectors and fuses, some JB weld, anti-seize, Loc-tite, and a few extra bolts. Also in the left case I had a spare RR and Stator, small hatchet, cooking gear, homemade stove using Heet and cat-food cans, peanut butter, honey, and bread.
The compression sack held my sleeping bag, long sleeve shirt, and rain gear.
The little tank bag carried the maps for the day, a bottle of water, cell phone, wallet, and swiss army knife, and some other odds and ends.

Kyle carried the tent, as well as his clothes, sleeping bag and rain gear. I was the pack mule for the trek .

My GS ready for adventure!!


Taken on the first day, at the first gas stop. It was so clean then...

Day 1: July 2, 2012

We hit the road around 8:30 am that day. Our destination for the day was our Aunt's house in Ebensburg PA, about 260 miles away. However one of our goals for the trip was to avoid major highways as much as possible, so after looking at the map we headed out towards Gettysburg. The traffic from our house until Gettysburg was pretty bad, lots of tourists there for 4th of July. We stopped in Gettysburg and had our lunch of PB&J, and couldn't wait to be on the other side of the town. It was really hot, and slow moving traffic in little towns was brutal. The little towns were actually very pretty, but growing up in the area I didn't appreciate the old Victorian houses and so didn't really take any good pictures of them. Too busy riding .

Kyle using the back of my bike as a table, it worked out really well as a table....




On the other side of Gettysburg was a different story. We had started climbing the mountains and were on some really fun roads. As the day wore on, the temperature dropped a bit into something more bearable, and he riding was very enjoyable. The little mountain roads of PA did us well and we rolled into Ebensburg around 4 pm.

Aunt and Cousins were excited to see us, and cooked up a fantastic dinner or grilled chicken and veggies.



Here is the rough route we took, I did not write down the exact road names for this day but this is the approximation.



We used paper maps to plan our trips, the google image is made after I got home as a documentation tool.

We rode a total of 265 miles on the first day, and it took us about 8 hours to do it. Not an impressive pace by any standards, but we made it there in one piece, ready to go the next day!


To be Continued....

[Tim Tom]

Ride Report Day 2

Day 2: July 3rd 2012

We left aunts house in the morning and headed west some more. Avoiding the local highways we stuck to little two lane roads and spend most of the day climbing mountains. If anyone is ever in PA, rt. 381 and rt. 21 are pretty awesome. They are little switchback roads that go up the mountain passes in the south-western part of the state. Of course they were just training for some real fun.





Our route dipped into West Virginia for about 30 miles along rt250. Holy crap that was a good road. Tight corners you could see through and a 55mph speed limit make for race-track esque fun. Trust me.

We crossed into Ohio around 1 pm, and picked up rt 78. Another fun road for you Ohio guys. Open corners, no nasty surprises, elevation changes, it was an absolute blast. Our skies started to grow pretty dark though, and we found an interesting place to pull over and put on the rain gear.



That is a GIANT steamshovel bucket. It is huge.



Really huge.





We got the rain gear on, and hit the road again. Rode for about 20 miles. It sprinkled a little bit then stopped. So we pulled off and removed the rain gear... 10 miles later we were caught in a serious down pour. Luckily we found an old gas station to take cover in, but we still got wet. Put the rain gear back on, and tried to ride through it. It was too much water. I couldn't see anything, and there were places with almost 6 inches of water on the ground . Pulled into a car dealership and waited it out.

Finally the rain let up and we continues west. Found a campsite for 9 bucks a night in the middle of the state in the flat boring part . Hit up the local grocer for some dinner supplies and cooked up a nice BBQ chicken and rice dinner. Went great with out 24 oz. Fosters.








Our route on day 2. Rode just over 300 miles. Getting better.

[Tim Tom]

Ok.... More Pictures for you all

So I have been less than stellar at writing up a ride report. As it turns out they are much more work that one may think. To remedy this problem, I will be sharing the abbreviated story with you, very much picture heavy. I hope you all find this satisfactory. Also I am quite sad to be back at work, and reliving my trip through pictures will have to tide me over till I can do another long ride. So without further ado here goes. I will be keeping the pictures in chronological order, and with some captioning should be able to illustrate my travels for you all.

Where we last left off we were camping out in Ohio...

We had the left the twisty part of Ohio yesterday (the south-east btw) and spent the day riding past flat farm after small town after more flat farms. That day was also was the start of both of my two mechanical issues.

About 90 miles from the campsite my R/R gave up the ghost. Luckily I was prepared for this, carrying a spare RR and stator, and it decided to break in a nice shady spot (it was at least 110 that day). An hour later and we were back on the road.





The second mechanical failure came about 90 miles after fixing the RR. I noticed a plethora of smoke coming from my engine! It was so hot, that the oil had been run incredibly thin, and was ****ing out of lots of places. Stopped in a Walmart parking lot and put in new oil which seemed to help. But the leak had sprung, and it would continue to leak for the next 2000 miles!

We made it out of Ohio, through Indiana, and found a campsite in Illinois near the border.



Not a bad view to fall asleep to. That day was by far the toughest of the trip though. Everything got easier after it, as we found our riding rhythm. Although we had not heard the last of that leak yet...


The next day was riding through more flat and boring stuff. We made it across Illinois by lunch time, and were pleasantly surprised by Misourri. The northern part of the state is fairly hilly, and has some very good sweeping turn roads. We were on Rt 50 for most of Missouri doing 75 mph on good fast sweepers. Heavenly compared to the flatness we endured through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois... I was having so much fun in fact that the only pictures I took of Missouri was near the border into Kansas. Opps.



This is Kyle's face about 10 miles from Kansas. He'd driven across it a few times, and was NOT looking forward to riding through it. I apologize to anyone here who is in Kansas, I do not mean to be rude, and your state did surprise us actually...

THIS was our campsite in Kansas!



Friggen A! A huge lake, with boats and wave runners, and incredibly nice people.

We took full advantage of this and went for a swim which after riding in the heat for 3 days was an unearthly sensation.



Our little mobile home at one of the best campsites of the trip. Who'd a thunk it would be in Kansas?? Not me for one.





To be continued.

[Tim Tom]

Continued

We woke up pretty early the next day, and were greeted with another gorgeous gift from our Kansas camp. The sunrise.








After this last beautiful image we spent the next day crossing the flats of Kansas. It was flat. And straight. And boring to ride. To make matters worse there was a 30 mph crosswind, that affected my much more because of the taller profile of the GS, an I often found myself thrown around on the road. Combined with the enormous turbulence from huge trucks going the other way, it did NOT make for a particularly fun day.

However at around 3 pm we had reached the CO border. With much celebrating.



We turned north and headed towards a friend of ours who lives in Denver. Luckily this put that annoying crosswind at out backs, and we were FLYING. Good thing too, because the sky had turned very dark, and there were active thunderstorms on both sides of the road. By some miracle the road stayed dry until we were about 20 miles from our destination. It is an unnerving feeling seeing two huge storms on both sides of you, and expecting them to converge on you, but somehow they never do. It was brilliant.

Our luck did run out though. A block from our friends house, there was a train crossing. We just missed making it across. It was one of those super long ones. Then it started to rain. Then the train stopped moving, still blocking the road!



It was a looooong train.



We found a way around the stopped train, and we happy for a nice hot shower.

The next day was a maintenance day. My rear tire was down to the wear bars, but I had acounted for this, and sent a tire ahead of me.







We got the tire on, did another oil change, and the next day were ready to cross the Rockies!

[Baatfam]

You brought a bowling ball on your trip?

[7981GS]

The next day was riding through more flat and boring stuff. We made it across Illinois by lunch time, and were pleasantly surprised by Misourri. The northern part of the state is fairly hilly, and has some very good sweeping turn roads. We were on Rt 50 for most of Missouri doing 75 mph on good fast sweepers. Heavenly compared to the flatness we endured through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois... I was having so much fun in fact that the only pictures I took of Missouri was near the border into Kansas. Opps.

This is Kyle's face about 10 miles from Kansas. He'd driven across it a few times, and was NOT looking forward to riding through it. I apologize to anyone here who is in Kansas, I do not mean to be rude, and your state did surprise us actually...

There are definitely states where most of the population should be on a suicide watch list for certain.
Especially if you know how to ride motorcycles.
Pure living hell. Fantastic that you found a diamond in Kansas! Who would have thought it possible?


Eric

[Tim Tom]

You brought a bowling ball on your trip?

Well you never know right?! Actually no, that was borrowed from friend's garage to serve as a ballast to weigh down the front end. This of course was not needed due to the full tank of gas, and the downward angle of the bike, but it made me feel a bit better about leaving a bike with no wheel sitting in the street while I ran to the local dealer.

Fantastic that you found a diamond in Kansas! Who would have thought it possible?
Eric

I was just as surprised as anyone! It was a wonderful campsite. Especially considering it cost a whopping $9 for BOTH of us. So for a cheeky $4.50 each we had paradise for a night. Plus the breeze off the lake kept us cool in the tent, and we slept great .

More pictures to some soon from the western half of the country!

[pete]

Thanks for getting this going again Tim, looks like a great trip so far! I'd love to get out for that long some day...

[Tim Tom]

Thanks for getting this going again Tim, looks like a great trip so far! I'd love to get out for that long some day...

Cheers Pete! Glad people are watching at least. It doesn't take much to go. You already have a bike. That's requirement one. The next thing you need is a few days off work. Even a 4-5 day 'long weekend' type trip is a better than none. It doesn't have to be expensive either. I think I spent a total of $900 on my trip. For a three week vacation I challenge ANYONE to get a better deal . Granted we skimped on things like fancy dinners and such, but that all helped create the adventure.

Now back to the pictures and a bit of story.

We left from Denver that morning and it was cold and wet. We were wearing every thing we could. Long johns, underarmor, 2 tshirts, flannel shift, leathers, rain gear. And it was still cold. We took hwy 40 out of the city and quickly found ourselves climbing some mountains. Rt 40 was a blast of a road, lots of switchbacks and hairpins. Even in the wet with a new rear tire I had some fun on it!

Finally we reached the summit of this particular place. Which is also along the Continental Divide.



Cold and wet, but happy adventurers!




Darkening skies but high spirits still!




Three guess as to why my right pant leg is shiny? Hint, I still have not gotten all the residual oil off of my boot .


Proof of elevation!



The GS ran fine on the climb up. I noticed a bit of lack of low end oomph trying to get drive out of the tight uphill corners, but made it work. Of course Kyle with his giant 1700cc trumpy had power to spare and suffered no troubles.


A bit of view from the top as the clouds lifted a bit.



As the afternoon continued we stayed on Hwy 40, which is a fantastic road all around. Up and down mountain passes, through river canyons, and generally fantastic riding. After the flat country in the previous days this was a very happy change.

We made it into Utah just before sun-set and found a campsite in Starvation.



Wow.

If anyone has never been to Utah, it looks like mars. Steep plateaus with flat tops, red soil, salt lake beds, it's otherworldly.



To be continued soon!

[Tim Tom]

Whooo more pictures!

We also discovered in Utah that our bikes made for decent dual sports! The 5 mile road to our site was sand. Very loose in some spots! We kept the rpms low, and somehow managed to get our overloaded street bikes down it okay.

Luckily there must have been bikes there before us, as there were some scrap 2x12's laying around that made for perfect side stand pucks!



Fantastic place to camp!







The light from the setting sun was strikingly beautiful.








We were very lucky with stumbling upon gorgeous campsite after gorgeous campsite. The secret is to ask the locals in the little towns. They always know the best spots.

[7981GS]

It appears that you were able to find ALL of the very best places to make camp.

Eric

[Tim Tom]

It appears that you were able to find ALL of the very best places to make camp.

Eric

Yeah we did pretty well. The trick is to avoid the KOA's and other types of RV parks. These tend to be next to major highways, loud, and not very scenic. Although if you need more amenities than a wilderness site, KOA's can be very good. State parks tended to be the best wilderness sites, and the cheapest by far. Some didn't even charge!

Picking up the pictures now; crossing the flats of Utah and into the flats of Nevada...

I was still having issues with the oil leak, it would get hot and pee out of the valve cover and tachometer cable. Falling onto my hot engine, and smoking. As long as we kept moving the bike was fine, when we got into towns, and had to ride slower it looked like it was on fire a bit! Sorry guys no pictures of this, but it is a credit to the GS's that even when abused like this it did not miss a beat.



A word of advice, when it is 110 degree's outside. DO NOT drain the oil out of the bike to replace with heavier stuff, after riding it 100 miles. That oil was SCALDING!

Eagle eyed viewers will notice the sheen that covers the right side of the bike... Yup. That's engine oil. Very eagle eyed viewers will notice a similar sheen on the rear tire! Oil had found its way back there too. Made right hand turns more than a little scary! Eeek!

I knew I shoulda turned left at Albuquerque...



We used Highway 50 to cross Utah and Nevada. It is known as the loneliest road in America. This is why.

The view behind us...



And the view in front of us...




Yup. Not much out there. I had picked up two 1 gallon gas cans in Denver, and it's a good thing too. My 850 started to sputter and ran out of gas with 5 miles till the next town! A quick pull over and another gallon in and we were moving again.



Hwy 50 is a strange road. As the above pictures show it's flat as can be for 40-50 miles, than you cross a mountain range. On the other side it's flat as all hell again until the next mountain range. Very odd. However all of this flatness was good in that we were able to make great mileage and covered the 650 miles from where we were to Eric's place in Reno.

His wife had made this sign for us so we would know where to go!




The next day we moved some bikes around at his place and put the 850 into the workshop! A good degreasing revealed the source of the leaks to be the realgasket, which had been completely destroyed; cracked in many places, and the crimp connection on the tach cable. While Eric and I adjusted the valves and did some other tune up stuff, we sent Kyle off to pick up the valve cover gasket that the local dealer HAPPENED to have IN STOCK! Wow. Talk about luck! We ended up changing 5 shims, and I learned how to use that pesky valve adjust tool!



Kyle left Eric's place around 3 pm to see some friends in nearby Lake Tahoe. I didn't get the 850 buttoned back up until later and left Eric's house after nightfall with a suburb running bike, a shower and yet another tasty meal!

Thanks again Eric!!

It was well after dark by the time I landed in Lake Tahoe, but I did make it. Incidentally this was the only time during the whole trip that Kyle and I split up.

[Allie]

Is that Barry Newman waaaaaaaaaaaaay up ahead there?

[marvinsc]

Is that Barry Newman waaaaaaaaaaaaay up ahead there?

Vanishing Point reference, yeah, I'm that old! BTW, that movie gave me the fever and my first car was a 1970 Challenger!

[Tim Tom]

Thankfully the scenery changed after leaving Eric's house. We decided to spend the next day enjoying Lake Tahoe. Kyle and I had both been there in the winter for the skiing, but experiencing it in the summer season was just as awesome.

Trees, mountains, lakes, and friendly people. A much welcomed change from Vanishing point!



We hiked up to little mountain lake there. The water was gorgeous, and deep enough that the cliffs on the far side served as jumping platforms!



Our little slice of paradise for the day!





You can see the gaggle of people relaxing on the smallest of the three jumping rocks. This one is about 20 feet above the water. The tallest being almost 60 feet high! We did the 20 footer, skipped the big ones.



Truly a world away from the dusty desert



The burned out trees are left from a brutal forest fire about 5 years ago.


We thoroughly enjoyed our day off the bikes, but all the same the next day we were glad to hit the road again and carve the legendary California canyons.

The last view we had of Lake Tahoe as we headed north on 89.



Unfortunately today must have been national road work day, as every 50 miles or so we found ourselves stopped for construction.



Often for 20-30 minutes at a time

His face says it all I think...




To be Continued soon...