AK2 Log

Attached is the log sheet for AK2 showing miles per day and other general info.

I also watched the series "Long Way Around" again this week and now I have the bug to do another trip!

Little Rock to Saint John's Newfoundland is looking like a possibility next year.

AK2 Cost Summary

This will be my last post (probably) about my motorcycle trip to Alaska. I completed my summary of the cost for this trip and the summary is provided below. I have a detailed spreadsheet for those that need some late night reading to put them to sleep. Send me a note and I will send it to you. There are clearly areas that the cost could be reduced but both Jim and I agreed we would enjoy this trip even if we spent a little more when required. I've also included a pic of my BLOG and I am amazed at how many views it has received. In the last month it has averaged a 1000 a day! Lastly I've included my favorite pic from the trip. Thanks everyone.

24 June 2014 – Things to consider

I’ve spent many hours thinking about this. Jim and I spent a lot time planning and executing this trip because AK2 (2014) was really an extension of our first attempt in 2012 (AK1). If you consider we started planning for AK1 in 2011 that is 4 years dedicated to this adventure. I’m writing this blog entry for two reasons:

·                     Closure for me since this has been an important part of my life for the last four years

·                     Provide some things to consider for anyone thinking of doing a similar trip

AK1 started for me when I was invited by Jim in 2011 to go on his trip to Alaska and back via motorcycle. He wanted to do this trip to celebrate his 50^th birthday. Jim and I were business acquaintances, in fact he was my customer, and we both had Harley Davidson motorcycles. We had traveled to many of the same meetings around the country and even taken a few short motorcycle trips together. I jumped at the chance because visiting Alaska had always been on my bucket list but not necessarily by motorcycle. Alaska would be the 49^th state I had been in leaving only Hawaii. I’m sure Liz will help me get to number 50.

So the first item is what were our goals for the trip? Jim’s was to celebrate his 50^th birthday and mine was to see Alaska. The reason this is important is the trip could have taken a number of different routes to reach these goals. We both agreed we did not want to camp every night because this means more gear to carry and takes longer to set up and break camp every day. We decided that we would share a hotel room every night to reduce cost and could always get separate rooms if this became an issue. Here are the approaches we considered:

1                     Ride motorcycles the complete route both up and back

2                     Using private vehicle, trailer the motorcycles to Denver or Cheyenne and ride up and back from there

3                     Put motorcycles in U-Haul Truck and ride to Denver or Cheyenne to start ride then return via different route and get another U-Haul in maybe Winnipeg, Canada for return

4                     Ride to Bellingham, WA to catch Ferry to Alaska and ride back via ALCAN to home (AK2 version)

 

Pros/Cons for each approach

 Approach 1 – Pros

This was the real biker approach. You see all the country from the seat of a motorcycle and no one can question your commitment to the adventure. Your schedule is fully flexible with only your end date a hard date if limited by available vacation. You can take different routes up and back to see more of the country.

Approach 1 - Cons

It includes the most road miles and would take the longest to complete. It would also be more expensive because every day on the road cost hotel, meals and gas. Available vacation time must be considered. You have to ride through thousands of miles of flat, boring and sometimes miserable conditions through the Great Plains in both the US and Canada. The tighter your schedule the more you will be forced to use Interstates to get across the flat country to the good riding areas. This is the most rider exhaustive approach. Most miles on the bike requiring more service along the route.

 

Approach 2 – Pros

This eliminates the Great Plains and even a few days off the total trip time since you can swap drivers while the other sleeps. This would reduce rider exhaustion to some degree since the real ride would only start once in the Rocky Mountains. It would also reduce some of the cost with less hotels and meals as long as you ride straight through to the start point. Reduces total miles on the bikes and the Interstate miles at high speeds are the hardest on the bikes.

Approach 2 - Cons

Some hard core bikers will consider this the wimpy approach. You have to return to same spot where vehicle/trailer is parked. Storage of the vehicle/trailer must be addressed and could incur cost. Private vehicle/trailer wear and tear must be considered.

 

Approach 3 – Pros

Similar to Approach 2 plus it eliminates the private vehicle/trailer storage issue and wear and tear. You don’t have to return to the same spot to get the return U-haul.

Approach 3 – Cons

U-Haul truck cost and availability when you need them at both ends of the trip.

 

Approach 4 – Pros

This approach lets you ride both directions but eliminates riding the same road up and back on the ALCAN stretch. It also gives you a 5 day break to rest while on the ferry. It eliminates some of the road miles.

Approach 4 – Cons

Cost of ferry for passenger, cabin and vehicle is about $1200-$1600 each. You must make ferry reservations at least 6 months in advance. 5 days on ferry is extremely boring. This approach inserts a hard date in the schedule (ferry launch) that can’t be missed.

 

There are of course multiple variations of the 4 approaches but we considered all the options and selected Approach 4 (AK1 route counterclockwise; in other words, ride to Alaska and return on the ferry).

If you read my AK1 trip report you know that it went well until we got to the ALCAN and were stopped by wash-outs and mud slides through the Yukon section due to extremely heavy rain. When we knew we couldn’t make the hard ferry date we had to abandon Alaska as our destination and turned south to return through the Rocky Mountains. This cut our trip down to 15 days but we still rode +6,000 miles and had a great time. We did get full reimbursement from the Ferry since it was not our fault we missed the date.

Both Jim and I agreed at the end of AK1 that we would try again 2 years late in 2014. Since we had a bad experience with the AK1 trip we made a few alterations for AK2. We reversed the route so that we rode to Washington to catch the ferry and return to the US on the ALCAN route. This reduced the risk of missing the ferry significantly since the roads through the US in June are rarely if ever shut totally down. Once we made the ferry then our return schedule and route would be totally flexible. We also decided to spend an extra day in Washington with my friends so we could get the bikes serviced (including tire change) and provide a safety margin in case we got delayed enroute by weather or mechanical problems.

As we did on AK1 we decided that we would not make hotel reservations in advance except in the more remote locations in Alaska and Canada. We would only make those reservations once we got in the area and as our schedule got more defined.

You can read my day-by-day blog entries for AK2 to see how our plan progressed. The following are things that I would do differently or things that worked well:

Iron Butt – This is just something hard core bikers do for bragging rights (1,000 miles within a 24 hour period). Jim and I had talked about doing this during AK1 and tried for it but circumstances did not work out. Jim already has his Iron Butt so he was doing it for me. For AK2 we decided we would try again and the best shot was day 1 through the flat Great Plains (St Louis, MO to Rawlins, WY). As the blog states we actually made it; 1037 miles in 16 ½ hours. I will never do it again and looking back on AK2 it was not a good idea to do it on this trip. The problem is it wore us both out right at the start of a long exhausting trip. You have to pace yourself on a trip like this. You have lots of days and many miles to cover and it will get exhausting after a while.

St Louis to Washington in three days – This section is approximately 2400 miles and we scheduled 3 days to make it through the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. This is 800 miles a day and is entirely too short a time. We should have taken at least 4 days and maybe even 5 for this stretch. This was actually my driving force for the Iron Butt. I knew that if we didn’t knock off the 1000 miles while the driving was easy we would have a more difficult time making it up in the mountains. We did have a buffer day in the schedule to get the bikes serviced but it was still poor planning.

 Ferry to Alaska – I have mixed feelings about this. I still think it was the best approach but those were 5 long boring days. The ferry is not a cruise ship so they don’t try to entertain you. There is a small lounge and a cafeteria and we spent a lot of time in each. The scenery going up through the inner passage is extremely beautiful so there are some good points. We also rented only a small 2 bunk cabin with just a sink to reduce the cost. This was a big mistake. It is entirely too small except maybe for newlyweds which Jim and I were not. We tried to upgrade to a 4 bunk cabin with separate bathroom and shower on the first day and the Purser said we were 21 on the waiting list. Everyone seeing the 2 bunk cabin thought the same as us. We did finally upgrade on days 4 and 5 for $48 each and we were happy to pay it. Spend the extra money for the larger cabin. You will need 4 straps for each bike because they do go out to open water for the last 2 days and it can get rough. An alternate approach I would evaluate would be to put the bikes on the ferry and then fly up to Anchorage. You can do some sightseeing in Seattle and/or Anchorage then catch a bus or cab to the ferry to get the bikes when it arrives at Whittier, AK 5 days later. Not sure they will let you do this but is sure something to look at. BTW the ferry stopped at three locations on the 5 day trip to AK; Ketchikan, Juneau and Yucatec. We got off to walk around at all three stops since they spend 4-5 hours at each.

Anchorage to Fairbanks – This is about a 400 mile ride and roads are good but not a lot of facilities along the route after leaving Anchorage. The problem is it’s not easy to determine the availability of gas in Alaska and Canada. ALWAYS expect the worse and you won’t be disappointed. We filled our reserve tanks in Anchorage since they won’t let you on the ferry with gas in them.

Dalton Highway to Arctic Circle (AC) – If you watch Ice Road Truckers on TV you get an idea what this is like except there is no ice. This section of the Dalton is hard packed gravel (lots of dust) when dry, loose gravel at road construction (many of these), mud when wet and a few stretchs of terrible pavement. We originally were going to go past the AC to Cold Foot to refuel then return (an additional 120 miles round trip). After 3 hard days getting to the ferry then 5 days on the ferry we were both tired and cut Cold Foot  out of the plan. We agreed the goal would be the AC then return to Fairbanks. This is still a 400 mile round trip. You ride about 90 miles on pavement out of Fairbanks to get to the start of the Dalton. Once you enter the Dalton you are immediately on gravel and your speed drops to 35 to 45 mph. We rode at this speed for most of the 220 miles to the AC and back to the start of the Dalton. Summary of miles – Fairbanks to Dalton 90 miles, Dalton to AC and back to start 220 miles, then 90 miles from Dalton to Fairbanks. There is only one fuel stop on this stretch and it’s at the Yukon River about 60 miles after you get on the Dalton (I saw a 2^nd one close to the Yukon River but not sure if it was open). You have to get fuel here both directions or you can’t make it back. I called the Yukon River store before we left Fairbanks to make sure they were open and had fuel. I highly recommend doing this. We saw several other bikes making this AC turn around and others making the full run up to Deadhorse at the end of the Dalton on the Arctic Sea. We knew we could make the AC run in a single day but would have to spend at least one night on the Dalton if we wanted the full Dalton experience; which we didn’t. It took us over 10 hours to do that 400 miles and we were both exhausted when we got back to Fairbanks. We made sure the weather was good and it remained sunny and dry the complete route until 17 miles at the end of the Dalton stretch. It started to rain and the road started getting wet but we got back to the pavement before it got too nasty. The 90 mile ride back to Fairbanks on pavement was rain showers but no big deal except we were both so tired from being on the Dalton. One thing both Jim and I said after the run was that when we got to the AC all we could think about was we had to ride the whole thing back to get off of it.

Dalton Tips – Mosquitoes are terrible, carry a head net in case you break down and bug spray where you can get to it. Both of mine were in my side boxes and I suffered at the AC sign while taking pics. Drive slow until you get comfortable then speed up 5-10 mph. This road is full of surprises and you have to be ready to react so don’t speed. Read all the trip reports you can about the Dalton written by other bikers. Some have terrible experiences and then others have a good ride like ours. Weather is critical. If you ride the Dalton in the rain you will have a much different experience from ours. The truckers own that road so give them all the right-away. They were very good to us and slowed down as they passed and we would slow down and pull over as far as we could so they could go around. DO NOT get in the soft stuff on the side of the road. Stay on the packed lanes. We both had CB radios and could talk to the truckers and I recommend this for sure (at least one in your group). You are a long way from help even though the road gets lots of traffic. There is no cell service and the CB radios are short range. Even to start the help cycle would require someone to get to the next site where a telephone call can be made. Carry a SPOT, at least this will get the rescue moving a lot faster. I did this on my Yamaha Adventure bike with 50/50 knobby tires and had a great ride. Jim did it on a full dresser Harley Davidson with street tires and had a lot more difficult ride but he still made it. Don’t rush to make the AC run, wait for a good weather window.

Fairbanks to Dawson Creek (ALCAN) – The ALCAN doesn’t really start at Fairbanks it starts at TOK about 200 miles SE of Fairbanks. The ride to TOK is easy 2 lane pavement. The ALCAN is 1400 miles long with only a few towns and few gas stops in between. You have to plan this section carefully for where you will stop and when to refuel. The answer is refuel at EVERY pump you reach. We would on a number of occasions stop to only put a gallon of gas in our tanks. You cannot appreciate the distances you will travel and not see any sings of civilization except for the 2-lane pavement stretching to the horizon. There was not a lot of traffic on the ALCAN and at times it would feel like an hour or more before passing someone going the opposite direction. The main towns from TOK are; Whitehorse, Watson Lake, Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek. We went through Watson Lake and only stayed at Whitehorse and Fort Nelson. This made for some long mileage days but we ran the ALCAN in three days. It rained a good part of the time from TOK to Whitehorse and this is also the worse section of the ALCAN. We had been talking to folks coming up the ALCAN about road conditions around the Destruction Bay area (150 mile stretch from AK border to Whitehorse). They all had nothing good to say. Take my advice, use info from other bikers more than RVs and private vehicles. One RV driver had us really worried telling us how bad the roads were and all the road construction and wet gravel. Even one biker had a similar report but we’re not sure of his riding experience. What Jim and I experienced was not nearly as bad as we expected. Yes the road was very bad pavement with pot holes and huge waves (frost heaves) but they were manageable if you kept your speed down. The worse was the road construction areas. They would basically just tear up miles of the asphalt then lay down gravel then wet it down. My bike did well on this stuff but Jim really had a few nervous moments. It works best to ride behind a semi-truck who will make a path for the bike though this mess. Even a car track is better than going alone with the bike. When we made Whitehorse we both breathed a lot easier because we knew we had passed the worse of the ALCAN. The rest of the ALCAN is just long miles with occasional road construction but nothing like the Destruction Bay section. Lots of animals so keep alert. I think I saw 20+ black bears, a dozen moose and a dozen Buffalo plus many smaller animals. The best scenery for the whole AK2 was between Watson Lake and Fort Nelson; just beautiful.

Dawson Creek to Home – After getting off the ALCAN you are basically back in civilization. You still have long distances between fuel so don’t get too relaxed but it is a lot easier to find and there are more towns and people plus cell service.

Conclusion – The approach we used is not the right approach for everyone. Our approach was an endurance ride and NOT a scenic excursion. We did see some fantastic sites but they were few and far between. All we had on our mind after reaching the AC was getting home and we both rode hard to get there. We split after getting off the ALCAN to go different directions; me to my folks in Tulsa and Jim straight to St Louis. We both had bad weather on that last stretch and had long exhausting rides. We did meet our trip goals though which were:

1                     Iron Butt

2                     Reaching Alaska on a motorcycle

3                     Reaching the Arctic Circle

4                     Riding the full ALCAN

 

The ride from St Louis all the way to Tumwater, WA (Seattle area) is extremely boring, flat and not fun. The only scenery worth seeing on this stretch was along the Columbia River (very windy here). All the rest was flat even going through the Rocky Mountains. Yes you are climbing in altitude but it still looked flat.

The wind in the flat rides was terrible at times. Add in some cold rain and you have a long miserable ride; i.e. ride to WA from St Louis and the return ride through MT, WY, CO, KA, OK back to AR.

You better get along with your riding partner. Jim and I were able to do both AK1 and AK2 and still remain friends but you just want some alone time occasionally. We were together almost 24/7 for close to three weeks.

Agree before the trip on how the day-to-day ride will work; route, hotels, food stops, miles per day average, etc.

Use the right bike. After AK1 I realized the HD was not right for me. I wanted a bike made for the roads up north to make it more enjoyable. Jim wanted to use his HD but I bet he would use a different bike if we did this trip again.

I will probably never do another long endurance ride like this again. I would much rather trailer my bike to good riding spots then spend time riding the local area on the bike. You are just too tired to ride around site seeing after riding 600 miles to get there. With this approach I would be able to take my wife and camp different spots on the way.

I think that about covers it. I will probably think of things I missed and will add them later if important enough. Thanks for following our adventure to Alaska.

 

24 June 2014 – Gear Review 10 – SPOT & GPS

I forgot about two of the most important pieces of gear I carried on this trip; my SPOT and GPS.

SPOT – This is my 2^nd SPOT and I would never leave home on a trip like this without it. I replaced my original version 1 SPOT a year ago with the newer and smaller Generation 3 (Gen 3). It is half the size and has better reception. If you followed my route on-line you saw what this thing can do. I used the same 2 AAA batteries for the whole 23 day trip and had it on usually 10-12 hours each day. In addition to the tracking and safe location signals I also purchased the road service and rescue services. Because I use this on the wilderness rafting trips that Liz and I do, I also purchased extra rescue coverage for Liz. All at a very reasonable price but you have to buy these services with initialization of the SPOT to get the best price. If you wait you pay much more. BTW the SPOT is waterproof. If we had an emergency on the Dalton Highway or ALCAN this is what would have gotten us help in the least amount of time. I highly recommend having a SPOT even on local rides. There is a yearly cost for the different features.

GPS – This is a motorcycle GPS from GARMIN; Zumo 665. It has all the normal GPS features plus it is waterproof and has XM radio, traffic alert and more importantly weather radar. It is a very expensive GPS. I don’t use the XM radio because of the wind noise but the traffic alert and especially the radar I use anytime I’m on a trip. There aren’t many GPS that are specifically made for motorcycles and are waterproof so you can look around but may not have many to choice from. I’ve had many GPS units since they became available and I prefer Garmin only because I’m familiar with their operation. Highway routing is good but once you get on state roads and especially dirt roads don’t rely solely on this GPS. It’s put me in a plowed field more than once. The XM antenna is the Black Magnetic item on my fuel tank. On AK1 and again on AK2 I found that the XM function (radar anyway) doesn’t work at all in Canada and I don’t think I ever saw it work in Alaska. As I was leaving Canada entering the US at the Montana border I’m in the rain on both sides of the border but it only showed coverage in the US. I used it the whole trip and it is what I used for mileage tracking; my Yamaha speed-o is 5 mph fast. I recommend any Garmin unit and if you want to pay the price for a waterproof big screen GPS, this is a good option.

 

 

23 June 2014 – Gear Review 9 – Misc Gear

I’m not going to discuss all the items in the attached pics. They just show what I carried for emergencies and such. The Bilt bag is a bike cover and did a good job of concealing the bike from prying eyes but it isn’t waterproof. I also carried a siphon in case we needed to transfer fuel between bikes (don’t ask why, it was on a list I got off of Adventure Bike Forum). Mosquito head nets and bug spray are a MUST for up north. This is no joke. If you break down up there and have to set for hours waiting for help they may keep you from going insane. The bugs will eat you alive. Lots of straps to tie gear on plus we had to tie the bikes down on the ferry with four straps each. I use the long cable lock to lock my helmet and any other items to the bike when I have to leave it. Always have a bike front brake lock. The black bag was to be used to carry water if I needed to clean mud off the bike while on the Dalton. Tire pump and plug kits are a must. First aid kit is important. You are a Loooooooong way from help on the Dalton Highway and most of the ALCAN. It will take hours to get emergency help so you better be ready to do first response first aid. As we rode up and saw the motorcycle in the ditch on the Dalton that was my big concern. I’ve taken several wilderness first aid courses as part of our white water kayaking and rafting so I feel like I could be of some help but if you have no training you will be sorry.

This is the last gear review blog.

 

23 June 2014 – Gear Review 8 – Clothes

This will discuss the outer riding gear I used on this trip:

Gerbing heated jacket and gloves – There are multiple brands of heated riding gear but I have used this Gerbing gear for several years including AK1 and at least 3 years of winter riding. They have never let me down and they certainly can make the difference between a nice warm ride or a miserable cold ride. My gear is comprised of a light jacket, heavy gloves and a thermostat controller that has two controls; one for jacket and one for gloves. I have added a power outlet on the bike where I plug in the thermostat which I currently have attached to my tank bag using Velcro. When I get on the bike I plug in the two pigtails on my jacket to the two pigtails off of the thermostat. The wiring for the gloves goes through the jacket harness. When I put on the gloves I plug in their pigtails to the plugs running out my jacket sleeves. The two knobs on the thermostat can be operated independently. The jacket even has a heated collar to keep wind out and to warm up your neck area. On real cold days I will wear a fleece vest or shirt next to my body with the jacket over the fleece then my heavy riding jacket over the Gerbing. I’ve ridden an extended time in low 30’s with this arrangement very comfortably.

Heavy riding jacket – I used on both AK1 and AK2 the First Gear Kilimanjaro jacket. It has lots of armor and zippered pockets. This jacket is my primary rain and foul weather protection. It is a little bigger than I would normally wear because I usually have the Gerbing and even a fleece shirt under the jacket. During my miserable ride through Montana in driving cold rain (46 degrees) that was how I was dressed plus my rain pants (discussed next). The jacket was soaked by the time I got to Great Falls, MT but I was mostly dry inside. Only leaks were caused by me not zipping up all the pockets. I will say that the material could probably use some water proofing again just because it is not beading up the water as it used to do but seems to be absorbing it. I’ll check with First Gear on that. Quality is excellent and I highly recommend this jacket. BTW it comes with a fleece liner that zips inside.

Heavy riding pants – First Gear with zip in liner and armor in the knees. These pants are also my primary rain and foul weather protection. The pants are several years newer than the jacket and are perfectly waterproof except when I didn’t have the two pockets zipped close. I’m riding in that cold driving rain and all of a sudden feel cold water in my crouch area. What a bummer. Could not understand how water could have gotten in until I found the pockets unzipped. Full zippers down the side of both legs that seal tight against the weather. Highly recommend.

Riding Boots – I used a pair of Bilt high top water proof boots for the whole trip. They were actually very comfortable. Let’s face it, Bilt gear is cheap equipment but it is available and works most of the time. This time it DIDN’T! These boots were advertised as $187 boots for about half price. Of course everything Cycle Gear sells (Bilt) is sold half price which is probably the real price anyway. I digress. I was skeptical that these boots would stand the test but was willing to give them a try. They actually did ok in lite to moderate rain but when they were needed most, the driving cold Montana rain, one boot filled with water and soaked my foot. I have no idea where the water got in because my pants were dry under my First Gear rain pants. I spent a long time with a hair dryer and toilet paper soaking up the water so I could wear them the next day. I plan on sticking this boot in a bucket of water to ID the leak area before I take them back to Cycle Gear. In this case, Buyer beware. You get what you pay for and don’t fall for the half price scam; you are buying an $80 boot not a $180 boot for half price.

Heavy Riding Gloves – For cold weather I use my Gerbing gloves but they aren’t waterproof so I used a pair of (you guessed it) Bilt waterproof gloves when it rained. They were waterproof until they got wet then they were two cold rags wrapped around my hands. Same plan, these are going back to Cycle Gear to hear their logic for putting waterproof logos on gloves that soak up water like a sponge. I never got them to dry out while on the trip. Buyer Beware.

Orange vest – Must have on the Dalton Highway.

Lite Rain Suit – The two blue items in the Pics are a cheap rain pants and jacket. I never used them and they would probably not work anyway. I should have left them at home.

Lite Riding Jacket - The Yellow Riding Jacket is of course a Bilt product. It worked OK because it was only used in good weather when it was too hot to wear the First Gear. No issues and it was cheap so any brand would work as well.

Lite Riding Gloves – I actually bought some cheap riding gloves from Wal-Mart. They had pads on the palms that helped isolate vibration and they kept the sun off my hands. Any brand would work as well.

Helmet – I could write a whole blog on this alone. The Shoei modular full coverage helmet is of excellent quality, air vents actually work, everything works smoothly, optics is great and the anti-fog feature is fantastic. That’s the good now here is the bad. It’s heavy, it’s larger than other full coverage helmets, has mega wind leaks and it was noisy as hell. That said I should also say that I bought the XL because it felt more comfortable when the L felt too tight. The young lady said the inside lining would tighten up after I wore it but I didn’t want to take a chance it would be too tight for 7,000+ miles. I should have paid attention to her. The XL did get loose and that is probably why it had so much wind inside and all the noise. I bought this helmet only a week or so before I left. Lesson learned: buy a helmet and wear it 6 months before heading out on this kind of trip. I would recommend Shoei but I will probably only wear this one in the winter on short trips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 June 2014 – Gear Review 7 – cameras/laptop

Video – GoPro Hero 2. This is the original version and the newer ones have more bells and whistles but this does a good job. Makes very nice video but here are my complaints (on this version anyway):

1                     Two button system is difficult to use while riding motorcycle and missed shots happen as a result. Is it on? Is it recording? Even the little red lights that are there to answer these questions can’t be seen in bright light and you have to look at front of camera to see what mode it is in while riding down the highway!

2                     Does not have remote control (newer versions do I know but not sure how well it works).

3                     Wide angle lens distorts real world (makes difficult ride seem like riding river-walk bike path). I know the wide angle is good in other situations.

Jim used a different camera on his helmet with remote control so there are alternative solutions out there. I just didn’t want to buy another camera at the time.

Pictures – I wanted a camera with good resolution but used AA batteries as power source. I found the answer to these requirements for $87; Nikon CoolPix 20.1 Megapixels. It has a physical zoom lens and a digital zoom and took great pics. My big complaint was it was not a grab and shoot camera. It took several seconds to get the lens extended and ready to shoot plus the follow-on pics took almost as long. Not good when you are 30 feet from a bear and you want to get a couple of pics before he starts chewing on your leg. The name on front of the camera says “easy auto mode” but not FAST easy auto mode. For the money I would buy it again. BTW I used the same batteries in this thing for almost the whole trip and I took lots of Pics. I really got mad at this camera the day I got home. No one was around to take an arrival pic so I was going to use the self-timer and take one. I could not figure out how to do it or it doesn’t have the capability. I finally gave up. The good point is that I downloaded every night my pics from the camera SD card into my laptop.

Laptop – On AK1 I carried an iPad 1 to download my pics and post on Facebook. It was a pain in the %^&*. For AK2 I bought a cheap ASUS laptop/netbook from Best Buy for $300 and I love it. Everything works, it has a keyboard plus wifi and I’m using it to write this and make all my post rafter than use my desktop PC. BTW Jim used some type of pad (not iPad) without a keyboard and cussed it out every night. He swore he was getting something like mine as soon as he got home.

 

 

23 June 2014 – Gear Review 6 – Misc Bike Add-ons

This is a list of items I added to the bike and my opinion of their performance:

Rear rack – I replaced the plastic and smaller OEM rack with the AltRider rack. It was fantastic. Provided good secure tie down point for my large red bag plus rain gear and it was the mounting point for my RotoPak reserve fuel tank. I also stored extra oil, lifting strap and brush under the rack in a storage shelf. Good quality and extremely strong.

Crash Bars – I used AltRider crash bars and they proved their strength when the bike dropped due to my incompetence. Didn’t even scratch the bars and they are mounted solidly to the frame at multiple points. They protect the radiator on the left and all the electrics on the right.

Skid Plate – I used AltRider (see a trend) skid plate. Again top quality and strong.

Head Light Grill – I believe this is a Hepco & Becker unit but anyone of a number of ones will work. Some are clear and use just Velcro to attach. I didn’t like that approach so went with the bolt-on type.

Windshield – I used a CalSci (California Scientific I think) and it was excellent. Great optics and did great job keeping wind blast down. Be sure to use their directions on determining height from the web page. I wanted to be able to ride looking over the windshield since it will get most of the bugs while deflecting them over your helmet keeping helmet shield cleaner. If you elect to ride looking through your windshield, carry lots of rags and cleaner. As a side note, I also had installed the OEM lower wind deflectors. I thought this combination would keep most of the wind off of me and it did fairly well. The only issue I had was the top of both arms got lots of wind and it generated turbulence around my helmet causing lots of wind noise. If I lowered my arms the noise and turbulence went away.

RAM Mounts – Love Ram-Mounts. They have every type you will ever need and are good quality products.

Foot Pegs – My crash bars are higher than the OEM bars so don’t work real well for foot pegs, at least that’s what I thought at first. After the 2400 mile ride to Washington I determined I needed something so I could stretch my legs while riding. I bought cheap ($19) pegs at the Yamaha dealer and they worked perfectly to extend my butt tolerance range.

Side Stand Foot – Several different brands available but a must have item on this bike. You will park a lot on soft dirt up north including even at the gas pump. Jim had to use a round plastic item under his kick stand while all I did was use my normal stand with added foot.

Throttle Lock – MUST HAVE. I would not have been able to make this ride without a throttle lock. Several different types but I used the Excel Throttle Control and it was a fantastic product. Top quality construction and easy to use while riding. Small operation but very customer focused. He actually sent it to me before receiving payment because I ordered close to departure time.

Fender Extender – The OEM fender is a little short and puts road spray/mud right on the front of the engine and header pipes. I added a good quality extender (carbon fiber) and it kept the engine almost mud free. My only concern would be riding real heavy mud and it jamming up the front wheel. Bike fender is easy to get off for cleaning if this became an issue.

Tank Bag – Must Have. This is where I stored everything for which I needed ready access; bill fold, sunglasses, cell phone, extra gloves, windshield cleaner, etc. Get one that is water proof or has a tight fitting cover. I used just a generic waterproof bag cover and it was a pain because it would keep flapping in my face.

Spare fuel – RotoPak is the only way to go. Great locking mount. I wish I had carried two instead of just a single 1 gallon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

23 June 2014 – Gear Review 5 – CB Radio

During AK1 both Jim and I were on Harley Davidson Ultra Classics which meant we both had OEM CB radios. They worked flawlessly and made the trip more enjoyable and helped reduce the boredom. When I decided to change bikes, the lack of an OEM CB on the S10 was a problem I had to resolve.

There are not that many solutions for putting a CB on a motorcycle, in fact I only found 2. The best solution was a J&M radio system that mounted above the left handlebar grip, was waterproof and pretty self-contained. It also cost around $450-$500.

The 2^nd solution and the one I used was a handheld CB; MidLand 75-822. It is not waterproof but they did have a harness that provided a push to talk button on the handlebar and head-set for the helmet. It was around $150-$200 with all the components. I figured I would find a cover for the radio in case of rain and I would use a RAM-mount to put it on my handlebar and the short antenna on the radio itself.

I had never even tested this installation until I arrived in St Louis two days before we started AK2. It actually worked OK so that is what we started with.

It worked well enough for the 2400 mile run to Washington and even the ride from Anchorage up to the Arctic Circle and back. Sometimes there would be a lot of static and hard to understand but not sure if that was my receiver or Jim’s transmitter causing the static. Other times it was clear.

The day we were heading back home on the ALCAN was the first rain we had encountered. The radio never got wet but it did get some spray around the windshield. The radio was working when we stopped for gas and when I started back up it wouldn’t even turn on. I suspected a fuse but had to wait until the end of the day to test my power outlet on the bike (it checked OK) and put a back-up battery pack on the radio (still wouldn’t turn on).

It failed at a critical point as we hit the worse road conditions on the ALCAN. Jim and I worked around it and we never had radio communication the rest of the trip.

I would NOT recommend this radio for motorcycle use. It isn’t waterproof and you will ride in the rain. The push to talk button used Velcro around the left handle but it was in the way of the clutch operation so I moved it to the base of my left mirror. This meant I had to take my hand off the grip to transmit; not good in times when both hands are required to control the bike. In addition, the radio did not have feedback in the ear phones when I transmitted. I never knew if I was actually transmitting or not as a result.

CB radio was good while on the Dalton Highway because you could communicate with the truckers and could hear when they were approaching dangerous sections. Other than that a Bluetooth inter-bike system would have been better. They are voice activated and a lot better sound quality.

I’m sending this thing back to Midland and will be interested in hearing what they say caused it to fail.