"Like Sardines in a Can..."

4 bikes. 1 trailer. A shitload of tie-downs. And we're off ... Mexico will never be the same.

"The Road Beckons..."

Seems the Beemer and I are always going through this ... What to take? What to leave behind? Is the bike ready? Am I? As usual, my pool table becomes a staging area.

The forecast calls for rain, both here in Oklahoma and in northwestern Arkansas. On a positive note, it appears we'll have much warmer weather than we usually have for the Hillbilly Dualsport Rally in Eureka Springs. Wasn't it just last year that I awoke to three or four inches of snow on the morning of departure? No snow in the forecast this year. In fact, the weathermen are predicting temps in the low seventies. Best to pack warm gear, though, even if I don't wind up needing it. Even without the threat of rain, there are a lot of water crossings in the Ozarks, and I get cold when I'm wet.

I'll be riding out with my friend Chris Marlow. He'll be on his DR-Z400, so our speeds won't be anything to brag about -- call it a nice, liesurely ride for my 650cc Dakar ... plenty of time to snap some pics and admire the scenery. Both of us are rehearsing for our Copper Canyon run just two weeks away. (We'll only have one weekend to turn around the bikes: oil changes, tires, air filters, any necessary repairs, etc.) Packing is especially critical for Chris because space is at a premium on the little DR-Z. I've got it much easier on the BMW. Even so, I'm carrying things I don't usually take, just to see how well I can pack the bike, things like spare clutch and throttle cables, spare levers, etc -- things that could leave me crippled on the side of the road in Mexico in the event of a failure, at the mercy of los banditos. I'd hoped to have a new battery installed by now, but the one I ordered is still on backorder, as are several trick components from Touratech (folding brake pedal, offroad chain guide, and an oil-type air filter to replace the BMW's paper cartridge). Maybe some of it will arrive before we leave for Mexico. At the very least, I'd like to get rid of the BMW's acid-type battery, which has already boiled over on me once.

Danny will meet us in Arkansas (after trailering up with his wife). He'll be going through the same sort of thing with his XR650L, making sure it's ready for Mexico. The final rider for our Copper Canyon adventure, Rich Desmond, won't be playing with us in Arkansas this time around. He's got something else going on down in Texas with his Concours-riding buddies.

The four of us have been planning this Mexico trip for a long time. I'm glad the departure date is nearly upon us.

But for now ... Arkansas, here we come. David Hemphill, the Kansas rider responsible for this rally, is predicting a record-breaking crowd. Last I heard, there were more than 50 rooms reserved at the primary hotel -- and some riders will undoubtedly choose different digs or camp out.

I look forward to meeting up with old dualsporting friends and making new ones.

"All My Bags are Packed and I'm Ready to Go..."

Despite Pratt's teasing about overpacking and overplanning, my bike is loaded with everything I'll need and plenty of room to spare, using nothing more than my Givi sidebags and a small tankbag.

Of course, the friggin' weatherman is predicting a low tonight of 25 degrees! No worries, by the time I hit the road about 8 a.m., the temp will have climbed to at least 28. Piece of cake! (Well, maybe. Last time I started a trip when it was this cold, I had trouble with my carbs icing up. It's not a show stopper, mind you; just means I'll need to stop occasionally and allow the heat of the idling bike to de-ice them. I can hug the headers and de-ice myself at the same time.) As you can tell from the parenthetical, my Kawasaki ZZR1200 won out over the BMW Dakar as to the weapon of choice for this trip. Something about having all that plastic to hide behind and a monstrous alternator (I think it puts out about 640 watts) to run my electric vest, grips, the portable space heater I'll be balancing on my lap, etc.


I'll post more when I have Internet access ... from some warmer clime.

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

"Everything But the Kitchen Sink..."

While most of you are enjoying leftovers from the Christmas goose, I'll be hitting the road.

With two weeks of time off from "the dreaded day job" (that dispiriting slice of Hell I endure in order to pay for my motorcycles), I know I'll go apeshit if I stick around the house. Even without the wife's "So, where do you think you'll go while you're off work?" (note she says "where," not "if"), I know she's hoping I'm leaving (without committing the insult of actually saying so) and wondering if she could endure having me at home for that length of time any more than I could endure being here. If Horton hears a Who around my house on the day after Christmas, it'll be the neighbors asking "Who was that masked man who just blazed out of here at 120 miles an hour?" (Actually, scratch that last bit. The neighbors will know good and well who it was.) The wife will tell me how much she's going to miss me, give me a peck on the cheek, and make me promise to be careful, but I know when the garage door drops behind me it'll be masking a huge sigh of relief. Thank God, I won't have to put up with his sorry ass moping around the house! And me, I'm off on another motorcycle adventure, just about the only thing that stirs my tired old soul anymore.

So ... win-win situation all around, right? That's what I tell myself. Such is the state of things when you've been hanging out with the same person for 30 years. But I digress...

The packing for this trip will start several days in advance. I use my pool table as a staging area (my dreams of becoming satisfyingly good at billiards died long ago), slowly gathering all the items I'll need after carefully weighing gear options that vary on my decision about which bike to take, what the weather's going to be like, how long I'll be gone, etc. Over the years, I've built a pretty detailed checklist for my motorcycle traveling. If you haven't started one of your own, you should.

The most obvious place to start is the gear you'll be wearing while riding. Head to toe: helmet, jacket, gloves, riding pants, boots, etc. If I'm going to be out for more than a day or two, I'll wear a do-rag under my helmet, purely in the interest of keeping my helmet liner fresh. I also wear ear plugs when traveling to prevent that annoying ringing at the end of a long day. The type of helmet I take will vary on the type of riding I do: my Scorpion for street, my Arai XD for dualsport, my dirtbike helmet for pure offroad stuff. (Reading this article, you'll discover rather quickly that I'm something of a "gear whore.") If I'm taking my XD or dirtbike helmet, my checklist will remind me to pack my goggles. Since I generally travel with a tinted helmet visor, I'll pack a clear one for those times I'm caught out at night or in a storm.

My jacket and pants decision varies on the type of bike I'm taking, the length of the trip, type of riding I'll be doing, and so forth. Do I want leather or textile? For a spirited sportbike outing, I'm apt to go with leather -- because roadrash really, really sucks and the risk of me acquiring some is higher when chasing some of my crazy friends through the twisties -- but my textile gear is generally better for touring or dualsport rides. If I'm wearing leather, my checklist reminds me to take rain gear. Gloves: I generally take more than one pair. Which ones I choose, again, depends on the type of riding and the weather. Under the category Riding Gear, my checklist also includes a hydration pack and 'cycling shorts -- the padded type that bicyclists wear. These come in pretty handy when you spend the entire day on your rump. Monkeybutt is no laughing matter. (Well, it is, but only if you're talking about someone else's butt.)

Your checklist might start out something like this (as mine does):

• boots
• Camelbac
• clear helmet visor
• 'cycling shorts
• do-rag
• ear plugs
• gloves
• helmet
• jacket
• pants
• rain suit

Yes, it might seem a little silly to have things like riding pants on your checklist -- after all, you're certainly not going to ride off in your underwear, so it's not like you'll forget your pants -- but it helps me make the decisions about my trip when I see such things on my list. And, yeah, you're right, I have become a bit retentive in my old age (which, in case you didn't notice, is the reason the items above are listed in alphabetical order).


To this, we add the usual assortment of socks and underwear and toiletries and so forth. I don't think you need me to go into that stuff. It's more-or-less the same stuff you'd throw in a suitcase for any other type of trip. Don't forget your toothbrush! In the summer, you'll want to remember sunscreen, insect repellent, and your swimsuit. A ball cap will spare your vanity the dreaded condition known as "helmet hair," and if you have no hair, it'll keep you from burning your scalp.

If it's winter, the Winter Only category of my checklist kicks in with:

• balaclava
• electric gloves (never use them, but since I have a pair they haunt my checklist)
  
• electric vest (and the detachable sleeves, even though I rarely use them)
• jacket liner
• stocking cap (for when the helmet comes off and I want my head to stay warm)
  
• sweatshirt (a handy underlayer for when it gets really cold)
  
• thermal underwear
• wool socks (my feet get cold when riding)

If I'll be offroad, I'll augment my gear with the aforementioned goggles, as well as a chest protector (actually my Six Six One body armor), a Buff (you've seen these on the TV show Survivor) for keeping the dust out of my snoot, and my knee/shin guards (I've broken my lower extremities enough times, thank you very much).

The next category on my checklist is for tools, maintenance items, emergency repairs ... that sort of thing.

• air pump (mine plugs into an electrical outlet on my bike, but you can use a hand-pump if you prefer or enough CO2 cartridges to limp to a gas station)
• chain lube
• duct tape (Ask any Bubba: "Don't leave home without it!")
  
• electrical tape
• electrical wire
• first aid kit (in case it's you that needs repaired)
• flashlight
• JB Weld
  
• multi-tool (for those quick jobs when I don't feel like digging out the proper tool -- mine's made by Gerber, but there are a zillion on the market these days)
• rags
• owner's/repair manual (you probably have this stashed under your seat anyway)
• safety wire
• Slime tire sealant (I only carry it for tube-type tires, even though they also make it for tubeless tires)
• spare key (nothing worse than misplacing the key to your bike when you're a thousand miles from home -- if you're traveling with a buddy, trade keys with him; if not, stash yours someplace accessible, separate from the key you're using in the ignition)
  
• spare tire tubes (many folks get by with carrying just one, but I like to carry a spare for both the front and rear of my bike -- naturally, you can leave this off if you're riding on tubeless tires)
• spares (an assortment of things you think you might need for your bike: throttle and/or clutch cables/levers, a quart of oil for your leaky Harley-Davidson, bulbs, spark plugs, etc)
  
• tie-down straps (Even when I have no plans to strap the bike to something, I like to carry a couple of these. First of all, my dualsport bike doesn't have a center stand and there have been times when I've used the straps to winch the bike in the air under a tree while I repaired a flat tire. Second, when your buddy runs out of gas, a couple tie-down straps make a handy tow rope.)
  
• tire gauge
• tire irons (I carry three)
  
• tire repair kit (patches for tubed, plugs for tubeless)
• tool kit (varies with the bike I choose -- most of the time you can get away with the cheapo tools supplied with the bike, but for serious traveling you'd better build your own kit)
• WD-40
• zip ties (you can fix anything with a zip tie)

Of course, navigation is critical (although getting lost can be fun). You might want to carry:

• GPS receiver
• guidebooks
  
• maps
  

Paperwork (the job's not finished until it's done, doncha know):

• calling card (the wife does require me to check in occasionally and I often find myself without a cell phone signal)
  
• cash (money talks!)
• credit card(s)
• id/driver's license/passport
• proof of insurance, title, registration, and other documentation for the bike
  

Electronics, how did we ever survive without them? Just don't forget spare batteries (or the chargers) for these items:

• camera
• cell phone
  
• laptop computer
  
• MP3 player and headphones
  

If I'm camping:

• folding chair
• hatchet (for pounding in stakes and addressing that recalcitrant root poking your back in the middle of the night)
• pillow (I never carry one, not even the inflatable kind, but it's on my checklist just so I can feel macho when I scratch through it with a gruff "Real men don't need a pillow!")
• sleeping bag
• sleeping pad
• tent and footprint (that thing you put under your tent to protect the bottom)

If you're not only camping, but cooking, you'll have a whole list of other things you'll need to carry. I don't cook. Ever. I'd rather do a Euell Gibbons on a pine tree than cook (link provided for the youngsters who don't even know who he was).

Miscellaneous stuff you might also want on your list:

• binoculars
  
• (a good) book*
• bottled water
  
• bungee cords/net
• cable lock (for locking your helmet, jacket, etc to the bike while hiking around in a National Park)
• notepad and pen
  
• rain cover for your tank/tail bag
• reading glasses (unless you're a young whippersnapper and don't need them)
• snacks
  
• sunglasses

And that ought to at least get you started. Naturally, you'll want to tailor my list to make it entirely your own. You might want to organize things in different categories. You might be afraid you'll forget clean underwear if they're not on the list (you know your mother told you to always make sure you're wearing them). And so on.

Stick around and as I pull my gear together for this trip, we'll talk about actually getting it all on the bike. Then, what the heck, I'll see if I can take you along with me via the miracle of the internet. Or, hey, here's an idea. Go load up your own bike and head somewhere fun. South is always good this time of year. That'll be my direction ... soon as I figure out where I put my winter gloves.

Cheers.



* Here's a good one. :)