Part II "Planning, Packing and Preparedness"

In this second post I want to take a few moments and discuss the 3-Ps as mentioned in the post title. If you read the first post, which you probably did as it led you here to the second post, you couldn't help but notice the trip plan was wide open, loosey-goosey, up in the air, limitless in it's boundaries. This is fun to a certain extent, however; the reality is there are certain places I have to be on certain dates; well a certain place I have to be on a certain date.... perhaps....give or take a day or two.

I do know that along the way I want to check out Cypress Hills, Run south through Yellowstone, do a night ride across Nebraska. All doable wishes and well within the first 4 days. Maybe. Another activity on my list is in Knoxville Tennessee where my pal Trey is a pastor, guitarist and vocalist in the church band. This is a must-do and it embedded in "The Plan". To accomplish this I have to be in Knoxville one week from my departure date of August 20th. Will I make it? We'll know come August 27th! Readers stay tuned. The only other date I have in my calendar is to be in Brewster MA on or about Saturday September 3rd. That gives me a week to ride from Tennessee to about 75 miles south of Boston. No sweat!

I'm of the mind that a good plan has activities and items that one wants to see or accomplish. The other aspect of a good plan is that it has enough flexibility that you can alter, twist and reconfigure it at will without the entire "Plan" unraveling and coming apart. Originally I was trying to lay the entire five weeks out and found it just too overwhelming and frankly too much like work. This trip is supposed to be a mind cleanse, a pilgrimage or a hejira if you will. Therefore I plan to plan, bad grammar I know, only one week in advance maybe even three to four days in advance. I feel my plan is as good as it's going to get and I am relieved to say the least!

So much for planning. Preparedness for this trip has covered a couple of areas worth mentioning. My motorcycle, A 2009 Suzuki, DL-1000, V-Strom has been inspected end-to-end. Adam, the tech at Holeshot Motorsports in Langley, (free plug) went over Buddy with a long shopping list of maintenance items. The only thing he pointed out was the primary and secondary sprockets and the chain were showing some signs of early wear. As they say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure so I had Holeshot order up the parts and Adam replaced them last Saturday. I'm good to go on the bike. My next oil change will be somewhere out East maybe Tennessee, although more likely in the Boston area. At that time I'll be purchasing new tires for the trip home. This is my third Suzuki V-Strom and they have proven to be a top-notch machine. If you're in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, stop by Holeshot and check the V-Strom out. Great dealer. Great service. I'll post a motorcycle page to this blog somewhere along the way and we can discuss the V-Strom in more detail.

So the plan is in place. The bike is prepared. Now it's time to pack. From experience I find I tend to travel like the army...I take it all with me. Not so this time as I've given up my hoarding ways and will be travelling lean and mean. At least my duffel bag is. What to take is always a mind crunch at the best of times. When going for a typical two week tour I usually pack for one week. This enables you to be fairly light in your load but will necessitate a visit to the laundromat in the middle of the trip. This is easy. You throw all your clothes in the washer and hang around for about half an hour while it goes through it's cycle. Next load the dryer, set the time and go for lunch. Easy huh? I take this half trip packing one step further. A few years ago I figured out a way to travel light. At the beginning of the trip I would pack my oldest T-Shirts, socks and skivvies. About a week's worth. Each time I changed I would toss the dirty item(s) in the trash. When I got to my last set of T-Shirts, socks and skivvies I'd head over to a Walmart, they're everywhere, load up on new unmentionables and be good to go for the last week. This kept my load light, my laundry bill down and more importantly ensure my wardrobe is up-to-date!

This trip is a bit different in that I will be camping and keeping the hotels to an absolute minimum. So for this tour add to the list, tent, sleeping bag, cooking stove, utensils, propane, oh and food. I will get into the discussion of food and camp cooking later in the trip for it is an interesting topic, worth examining and certainly deserves it's own place in the blog.

The gear stacks up as follows.

                                                        Nice and neat on a cart.

                                                      
                                           Let's spread it out and see how it looks.

                                        

                                          Looking good! Somehow it all fit on the bike.

                           
To make sure it was balanced I took the loaded bike for a shake-out ride last Sunday, the 14th. I thought a brisk run from my home in Steveston down to White Rock would give me a good feel for the highway performance. Now 110lbs is less than your average passenger so I really didn't feel any difference on the freeway at 100 - 130 kph. Stopping distance was increased a tad but not much. Next I took a couple of twisty back roads over to Langley to sense the centre of gravity and handling performance. Again there is not much to report other than the odd cross wind seemed a little more apparent. It appears we are good- to go. For you techie types, air pressure is 36 in the front and 42 in the rear. I also jacked up the suspension a twist or two to absorb the shock more readily.

In summary the best advice I can give you is threefold. First do not scrimp on maintenance. This machine is you lifeline, your best friend and deserves the finest fuel, oil and care you can give it. Secondly, try and travel as light as possible. Your ride will perform better and you'll feel much better with a lesser load.Pack less clothes than you originally plan for. Look at you initial pile of clothing and ruthlessly cut it in half. Hit the laundromats as they are cheap and fast. Lastly, while you trip plan is loose at least plan on having fun. If something catches your attention stop and check it out. If a point of interest is only a hundred klicks away it's worth taking the time to divert and visit for you will unlikely be there again in the immediate future.

This pretty much concludes Part II. I'm hoping to add a third, "Last Minute Frenzy" post before Saturday morning. Wish me luck!