New Bike

For a while now Rosi and I have thought about a GoldWing as a second bike for longer-distance cruising. Not for adventure travel - my VStrom will be perfect for that - but for week-end trips here in BC and maybe a cruise down the Oregon Coast etc.

A second bike is expensive though, especially to insure, so we had to come up with a viable game plan. What we settled on was finding a well maintained but at least 25 year old GL1100. This would serve three different but closely related purposes; allow us to try a Wing without breaking the bank, keep insurance low because of collector status and finally, expose me to riding a larger cruiser without stepping immediately up to a GL 1800.

After two months of searching the Internet and web-based research we found a bike as close to perfect for our needs as one could hope. In Sidney I found a 1981 GL1100 that's been owned by the second owner for 12 years. In that time he maintained the bike meticulously, has all the service records and kept the bike in showroom condition.

With Brad's help I bought it two weeks ago and the owner agreed to store it for me until I can get down in Oct to pick it up. I've already submitted for the collectors plates so I'll be able to insure it year round and once I get it here I'm going to arrange for heated storage until Spring. Wrapped or not, there's no way I'll leave it in the carport over the winter.

Say hello to Flurry II !

May she run straight and true and live up to the very high bar set by her namesake.

Cheers

Update and trip report

Hi Everyone

First, an apology for not keeping things current.

As friends and family will all know, Rosi was diagnosed with an inter cranial but non-cancerous and non-malignant tumour this spring and it gave us quite a scare. The good news is we paid for a private MRI, which really speeded up the diagnosis process and we've now been able to consult with a fantastic neurosurgeon at St. Paul's. The very good news is the preferred option at this point is to wait and see. It's small enough - and slow growing enough - that the risk of surgery outweighs the benefits. Why good news? Because he told us not to worry and to get out and live, and to NOT let this stop us from doing things.

So........Mexico this winter is now definitely on!

We're tentatively planning for four weeks on the bike from mid-January to mid-February with no real firm itinerary at this point other than hoping to get to Veracruz. Now comes the planning and preparation, something that takes a lot more work that just hopping on a plane and flying to a resort. We'll keep things current on this blog as we progress.

Now the trip report. Last week-end I did my first major high-mileage trip on the V-Strom. I left Penticton right after work and went as far as Omak. From there I continued on to Wenatchee, over the Stevens Pass and up I5 to Birch Bay. On Sunday I went back down I5 to highway 20, over the North Cascade Hwty to Winthrop and Omak and then up Hwy 97 to home. All in all I covered 1,190 klm over two days. The weather was perfect, the roads were perfect and the traffic was light.

Muy Bueno!

Rosi's New Gear

We just arrived home from a great week-end down in Spokane. We were able to find a dealer that carried a fairly good assortment of women's sizes ( something that's harder than it should be - don't they know more and more women are riding?!) in Firstgear riding apparel. Why Firstgear? Why not? Actually, it's fairly simple. Just by co-incidence most of my gear is Firstgear and I really like it. It gets great reviews, is reasonably priced but not low-end entry level stuff, and looks and feels good. So, going with what we know, we decided to get Rosi gear made by the same company.

We were really successful. We got her a complete set of Meshtex hot weather gear and a Kilimanjaro touring jacket and matching HT Overpants.

All she needs now is a good set of boots and she'll be all set.

The first pictures are obviously Rosi.

The second set is the Kilamanjaro jacket from their website. The jacket and pants are on order and won't be here for another week .

The bike - 2005 Suzuki DL650 "VStrom"

When I returned from my last trip I was Sans motorcycle for the first time in a year and I didn’t like it one bit. Even though it was WAY too early to think about riding there was just no way my obsessive-compulsive personality would allow me to take my time to find a replacement. Lucky for me though, we now have the internet.
Through the modern marvel of Ebay and Kijiji I was able to find the perfect (for me anyhow) motorcycle. In Vancouver I found a 2005 Suzuki DL650 “VStrom.” It’s an Adventure Sport-Touring bike and is the perfect combination of street-bike as well as having excellent dirt road capability. It’s only a 650 but it has plenty of power for two-up adventure touring but is still small and light enough for Mexican back roads and for exploring off of the beaten track. And better yet, it was in almost new condition. It only had 9,000 klm when I bought it and it has a veritable cornucopia of adventure add-on’s already installed: touring windshield, engine guards, skid-plate, hand guards, centre stand, ignition advancer, stainless-steel exhaust, a full set of Givi panniers, Progressive Springs in front and a heavy duty spring in the rear. Since buying the bike I’ve installed a 12 volt power outlet and I’m now just waiting for bar risers from the US. When they arrive I’ll have them professionally installed in the shop and I’ll install driving lights and a 16-tooth counter sprocket at the same time. I’ve also added soft bag-liners for the Givi’s and I’m just waiting for tank pannier’s from the US for added storage on long trips.

The Trip (s)

Our next trip is going to be a trial run for an even longer trip in two years. Our long-term goal is a three-month (or longer) trip from Columbia to Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America and back up to Buenos Aires. This won't be until 2010/2011 at the earliest though. In the mean time we'll need to get at least one good month-long trip under our belts to iron out the bugs and make sure we're up to the challenge a long two-up journey.

When I got back from the last trip Rosi was VERY impressed with how well Sheri did two-up on the back of Steve's KLR and pleasantly surprised to hear how much Sheri enjoyed riding. With this in mind she was willing to give it her best try. This was very brave on her part and I was really appreciative that she'd at least give it a try, because prior to this her only experience on the back of a bike was as a teenager and the only memories she has are bad ones. Back then she took a very nasty spill and she still has the scars to remind her that it's a potentially dangerous sport.

This time around though, there's no way I will even consider riding without proper protective gear. My new motto is ATGATT - All The Gear All The Time. So...long story short, she gave it a try and it turns out she loves it! We started with a couple of short rides around town so we could both get used to two on a bike and since then we've done two long day-trips. The last was 7 hours/350 klm, which is a very good indicator that we'll be fine on a long trip.

So far Rosi has been borrowing my second set of gear but now that we know she likes it we'll be making a trip to Spokane to get her all of her own gear.

For now we'll keep doing day trips while we both gain experience but our goal is to ship the bike to Phoenix sometime this fall for a month-long trip in Mexico; either this winter or late spring, early next year. We'll either head back into the Copper Canyon or make our way down the Gulf Coast to Veracruz.

Here we go again!

Well, here we go again. We invite friends an family to follow along as we prepare for our next great adventure.

I completed my first "trip of a lifetime" in February and learned two important lessons: First, it wasn't the trip of a lifetime. Instead, it was an eye-opening experience that confirmed for me that there's a big beautiful world out there and the best way to explore it is from the seat of a motorcycle. Rather than a one time trip it's turned out to be the first of many more to come. The second lesson, and by far the most valuable, is that the ONLY way I'll truly appreciate the journey is if Rosi is along to share it with me.

So, with that in mind I'm once again using this blog to keep a running diary of where we are in the planning stages and as a venue to record my thoughts as we make progress with Dale & Rosi's Motorcycle Adventures, part deux.

Final Pictures - 2 (thx to Brad)

One of our border handlers

New friends along the way

Typical mountain road

Panama City skyline