Alaska May 22-June 3

[blufjr]

This ride was suppose to be to Homer, Danali, Chicken and Skagway/Haines but ended up shorter. The FJR quit running and I had an aching back so I shorten the trip after the problems started. None the less, the trip was a total success and enjoyable for what it was. Here is a link to my blog for the full write up: :yahoo: Alaska2010

Trip Pictures

 

[beemerdons]

Great pictures, Ken; Thank You! You're a great endurance rider and a real trooper. By the way, maybe it's my home computer, I couldn't get your blog link to open up. Pleasure meeting you at SW-FOG!

 

[Barry 07 FJR1300AE]

Great pics and great ride Ken. I would love to do this someday.

 

[escapefjrtist]

What a great adventure Ken. Pictures and scenery look awesome, I've got to make it further north one of these days.

...echoing beemerdons, the Blog won't open for me either. Can't wait to read it though.

--G

 

[Bungie]

Great pictures, Ken; Thank You! You're a great endurance rider and a real trooper. By the way, maybe it's my home computer, I couldn't get your blog link to open up. Pleasure meeting you at SW-FOG!

Fixed URL

 

[blufjr]

Great pictures, Ken; Thank You! You're a great endurance rider and a real trooper. By the way, maybe it's my home computer, I couldn't get your blog link to open up. Pleasure meeting you at SW-FOG!

Fixed URL

That works too. Thanks

This link has other ride reports, where as the original only had the Alaska trip. Sometimes one works for some and the other works for others.

 

[fjr vfr]

Great report Ken! :clapping: Wish I had talent relating our experiences. :blink: Sent you an email with a few pictures. It got kicked back the first time for being too big. I re-sent it with only 3 pictures. Hope you get it. Hope the address is correct...comcast? Christa and I hope to see you and Sandy at another event in the future. We won't be making any FJR events this year as the FJR is currently in Europe waiting for us to meet up next month. We are doing a 2 1/2 month trip around Europe. Christa says I should take notes and create a report, but I'm so bad at that stuff. We did take 10,000 pictures on the Alaska trip, which included the WFO, but no report. I'm just not a writer. Anyway you do a great job. Hope to see more reports. Keep up the good work! Christa says hi.

 

[JimNtexas]

Very interesting and helpful report, thanks!

Who knew about this brake light failure mode? I sure didn't!

 

[dcarver]

When is the next attempt?

 

[Spud]

Wow--what an adventure! Having only started going distance riding a year ago, I did make it to Golden BC last fall on a long weekend trip. I would love to just keep going north. I can't imagine having bike problems that far from home--must have been stressful! Good thing it was an easy fix, but who would have thought of that?

 

[Jer]

Ken, I really enjoyed the pictures and can see why you consider the trip a success even without your intended destination. Great trip and pictures.

Jer

 

[JBad]

Ken,

Great ride report. Thank you. I'm planning a trip to through BC and Alberta and found this very helpful.

Congratulations on a fine ride and a safe return home. Hope your back has recovered.

 

[blufjr]

When is the next attempt?

Maybe next year. I will be trying to make one FJR a trike, one of those add on rigs that doesn't remove the rear wheel of the FJR, and then go to the h34r: Dark Side with that rig.

The other problem I experienced on my bike was the rear tire wear. I was very gentle, mostly only doing 90-120kph and no drag racing. The brand new pilot road (gen 1) has 5700 on it and is into the wear bars. It would not have made the orig. miles of 6600+ without showing steel. Those chip seal roads are treacherous on tires. With the wifes FJR on the dark side, I will run ME880's on mine or go to the Dark Side too, just for Alaska.

Very few twisty roads, meaning tire wears flat in the center. The ride to Alaska is a natural for going to the Dark Side.

 

[JDFlys]

Ken,

Great report and pics. Amazing scenery.....

That was a pretty interesting gemlin that you experienced. Glad it turned out to be such an easy fix.

I'll be looking for more reports from over here on the other side of the country.

 

[fjr vfr]

Ken the Pilot road I tires suck! You would have done a lot better with the pilot road II or the new Dunlop road smart. I've gone over to the dark side with the Goldwing during our Alaska trip . I don't think I'll be staying on the dark side after this tire...not sure yet? It's unnoticeable on the highway at speed. I'm not to thrilled with the low speed, (parking lot speed) handling. Especially on rough and rutted surfaces. On some of the rough and rutted roads and parking lots along the Alcan highway the handling was a bit of a handful as the ct is flat and wants to stay down in the ruts. You have to fight it some to pull through. I don't think I'd ever go over to the dark side with the FJR. The exception would be with the trike kit of course.

With the wing I was kind of forced over to the dark side. My tire was getting pretty thin, so I tried to get it replaced while in Whitehorse, YT. The local Honda dealer was out of stock. He called the other dealers in town and no one had a tire which would fit. So I went next door to the Canadian Tire store and bought a ct. I don't think you would have the same issue with the FJR as the rear tire is such a common size. In the past I've replaced the tires for the FJR while on a trip and always found a tire. It wasn't always the tire I would have liked, but the size is common.

One other thing I've done is to have a spare wheel. That way I never have to leave home with a half worn tire or make the decision to trash a tire that still has life in it because I know it won't make the trip. I can always rotate that tire back on and get the full use from it. In the mean time I have a new tire ready on the other wheel.

Good luck with whatever you decide. :drinks: