It's Rapter to you my friend!
I was thinking about putting the extra gas in the top case? I know, I know, it might not be a safe place to put it? Good to see you in here Jerry. :yahoo:
Also, when you cross a state line, stop at the first visitor's center. You can usually find a little booklet that has discount coupons for motels/hotels in most of that state's cities.
Check out LD Comfort. This was worth every penny for our trip that we just returned on. We did one day that was 689 miles of I-90 due to the same reason as you...we needed to get to Deadwood, SD so we could keep the rest of the days down to 480-500 mile days. I tried to mix in an even mix of twisties and rural 2 lane highways the rest of the week. But remember you are going up I-5 in Oregon, the speed limit is 65 and they enforce it! Montana is 75, hence higher speeds.Couple suggestions for long days:
1. get up in the morning and get going right away. ride a tankful and THEN have breakfast. At the end of the day it'll feel like your day started after breakfast ans the days ride will seem shorter. This is especially good advice in hot weather as you get some riding done in the cool of the morning.
This is exactly the way we are going to do it. We are both morning people and love to ride in the early morning.
2. if its hot keep squirt top water bottles handy for both rider and passenger.
We will both have a Camelbak handle so we can drink for the whole trip if we wanted.
3. for 2 up in my experience 600 - 650 miles is the longest day you can do and still enjoy the whole day.
We are considering leaving a day early so we can cut this day in half. We are talking about staying in San Francisco to break up this first leg of the trip.
4. IMHO music (an Ipod or whatever) makes a long day in the saddle much more enjoyable. I'm going to try XM radio on upcoming visit which might be even better based on comments from riding buddy.
We will both have ipods and a way to communicate. We are going to use a Motocomm. Very basic but should do the trick.
5. get road service on your bike insurance. a motorcycle tow in the boonies can go $300+ real easy.
I have AAA Roadside with RV/Motorcycle coverage so it should be able get me to a local dealer in the event of a problem. For a bad emergency in a remote area we will have the SPOT GPS and I will also be carring a laptop with internal Verizon high speed WANN card thta works on their cellular network.
6. (should've been 1st) wear protective gear both of you.
We both have full gear and will have top rate gear I just hope we don't need it. Thanks for you helpful comments and it sounds like you have done this a few times.
We have done some mods to our bike that should help the miles pass. We have the bill Mayer seat, Audiovox cruise, freeway pegs, peg lowering for front and rear, 2-xenon front light, smart tire, and 2 new tires. We have done longer miles without the seats and that was not fun. With the seats it was pretty easy and I was not tired at all. I have looked into new suspension but I still need a new GPS first. We do have all of the right gear and this alone set us back. I am looking ofrward to next year when I do nto need to really do anything to the bike. I fucking love this bike.Check out LD Comfort. This was worth every penny for our trip that we just returned on. We did one day that was 689 miles of I-90 due to the same reason as you...we needed to get to Deadwood, SD so we could keep the rest of the days down to 480-500 mile days. I tried to mix in an even mix of twisties and rural 2 lane highways the rest of the week. But remember you are going up I-5 in Oregon, the speed limit is 65 and they enforce it! Montana is 75, hence higher speeds.Couple suggestions for long days:
1. get up in the morning and get going right away. ride a tankful and THEN have breakfast. At the end of the day it'll feel like your day started after breakfast ans the days ride will seem shorter. This is especially good advice in hot weather as you get some riding done in the cool of the morning.
This is exactly the way we are going to do it. We are both morning people and love to ride in the early morning.
2. if its hot keep squirt top water bottles handy for both rider and passenger.
We will both have a Camelbak handle so we can drink for the whole trip if we wanted.
3. for 2 up in my experience 600 - 650 miles is the longest day you can do and still enjoy the whole day.
We are considering leaving a day early so we can cut this day in half. We are talking about staying in San Francisco to break up this first leg of the trip.
4. IMHO music (an Ipod or whatever) makes a long day in the saddle much more enjoyable. I'm going to try XM radio on upcoming visit which might be even better based on comments from riding buddy.
We will both have ipods and a way to communicate. We are going to use a Motocomm. Very basic but should do the trick.
5. get road service on your bike insurance. a motorcycle tow in the boonies can go $300+ real easy.
I have AAA Roadside with RV/Motorcycle coverage so it should be able get me to a local dealer in the event of a problem. For a bad emergency in a remote area we will have the SPOT GPS and I will also be carring a laptop with internal Verizon high speed WANN card thta works on their cellular network.
6. (should've been 1st) wear protective gear both of you.
We both have full gear and will have top rate gear I just hope we don't need it. Thanks for you helpful comments and it sounds like you have done this a few times.
DO you have stock suspension yet? We did the GP suspension fork rebuild and oput the penske shock ont he rear...also worth every penny. The shocks and the Russell day long seats were fantastic. Neither of us complained at all about sore butts. The suspension was up to the ask of sustained 80-100 MPH run through Montana and South Dakota (and we were being passed)
Do you have a radar detector...it will help comfirm if you see a LEO or think you see one on the horizon.
I am lucky to get more than fifty miles of road time with my spouse.I usually fly her near to where the ride is and hope and pray it will go ok.
