Henceforward this blog will etch into history my adventures on the BMW K 1600 GT - people, places, calamities, happenstance and all joyous occasions. Read on about my journeys, maintenance, equipment reviews and more.
Let's just start with the map this time around. This unique motorcycle art is a team effort. I can't really take any of the credit, except that it was my GPS that recorded this one of a kind motorcycle art. I have named it "The Failla #2 - Angry kid peeing on floor." The sunglasses part was us looking for the nose part. We were clearly off by a bit; but, we rejoined the route and had an excellent ride.
There are plenty of twisties on this route. We found ourselves pretty far south. I kept telling Paul that we should just go to Mexico while we were this far south. Paul needed to get home to take the wife to dinner and a movie, so we took the super slab back home. This little trip was over 400 miles and it took us about 10 hours.
This is what the southern California desert looks like at an average speed of 400 miles per hour.
Below is the map of the trips I've done since coming back to California for this contract.
This is my 6th week here in southern California and I just got back from my second motorcycle trip. A horrible, debilitating, near death experience overcame me last weekend; precluding me from doing this trip then. The whole affair involved a box of tissues and me sitting on my couch catching up on movies. My head was so big, I couldn't have stuffed it in my helmet if I tried; not to mention that sneezing in your helmet is simply gross.
As usual, I started making noises to my friend Paul about a weekend trip by about Tuesday. One can never dream about riding too long or too far in advance. My dreams about riding to Alaska have been going on for a couple years now. The plan was to go to Mexico. Understanding that the tip of the Baha peninsula might be a bridge too far, I picked out a destination that was only a few miles past the border...like 560 miles. That seems doable if we got to the border the night before and left at first light. Paul is much wiser than I am. I have no trouble admitting this. My spirit is unrestrained and to the untrained eye, nearly reckless. I will abandon caution and just go, carrying nothing but a credit card and a pile of cash. Pretty much everything else can be had with a generous allowance of time and the expert services of UPS, DHL and FedEx. Paul on the other hand brought up things like the chance of amoebic dissentary from drinking the water and how we should bring our own and how gas may not be available. Paul also has a wife that is concerned for his well being and she would like us to go in a bigger group for safety. I'm thinking that that isn't likely to happen and since being surrounded by men with AK-47's that speak nothing but Farsi, I'm not so afraid of the Federali's or banditos. Perhaps Paul and his wife have not had similar experiences. Strange indeed. That being said, God probably put Paul and his wife's wisdom in my path for a reason and because of that, we were off to the Mexican Consulate to get papers and Chaparell's to spend money. If these requirements could be satisfied, my spirit would be unleashed. God help Mexico.
So, it's late afternoon on Thursday and Paul sends word that he's ready to leave for the Consulate. I lock up the computer, bolt down the stairs and jump on my bike like a cowboy running for his life. So, off to the consulate we go, only to find out that we need to make an appointment during the week. They have limited hours. So, we get back on the bikes and head over to Chaparell's. There, we manage to put together the fuel and water cells I described in a previous post. During all this, we decide that we're going to do the trip I was planning for the weekend before.
Fast forward to Saturday morning. I'm getting pretty lazy about getting ready for motorcycle trips. I generally keep the tools and whatnot on the bike at all times and since I'm wearing riding clothes for a trip, the only thing I generally need to get together is electronics. On this trip though, I will take my tent because last trip, it almost became a necessity. All this stuff needs to be packed and I make it out right on time and meet Paul at Denny's right off the 10/215 interchange. I am wearing my banana suit. I wasn't sure I was going to like this setup. I really like the high vis color. The only thing they could do to make it brighter is make it out of uranium so I glowed. If I ever get hit by a car, there's no doubt the cop will not believe the "I didn't see him" excuse.
The ride up the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) is gorgeous. We rode from Santa Monica all the way up to Monterrey before cutting inland. On the way, we stopped at Anderson's Spit Pea Soup in Buellton California. It's hard to believe that a restaurant could make a business out of split pea soup; but, there it is. I had the split pea soup in a bread bowl. It was fantastic. I never imagined such a thing.
While we were going through Big Sur National Park and right in front of the Lucia Lodge, the spring from my center departed my bike in with an interesting clank and a show of sparks. How? Well, we were hitting some twisties and while doing so it some uneven pavement. My suspension compressed and when it released, momentum throws the center stand toward the ground. This has happened before. Usually, the spring pulls the center stand back up and there's no issue. This time, the suspension compressed again and much faster than the spring could pull the center stand back up. The result was no tension on the spring and pop, off the bike it went. When that happened, the center stand was not held in place by anything and dropped to the ground with a show of sparks and a disconcerting sound of metal dragging on the ground. Paul was able to hear all this over the intercom. I pulled over and used some wire ties to hold the center stand up. Unfortunately, I wouldn't do the job quite right and the wire ties would break. I would have to redo the job.
Continuing on, we discussed the rest of the route. I really wanted to do a loop around Lake Tahoe; but, we also considered going over the Golden Gate Bridge. We opted to cut inland around Monterrey and leave the bridge for another time. When we got to Monterrey, we decided to pull off the road and consult a map. It so happens that we pulled off right at a Starbucks. Neither of us were hungry yet, so we decided to press on after deciding on our routing, and of course, a beverage.
Around 10:30, we were about done with riding and decided to find a room. This would prove to be another crazy situation where we can't find a room. Conventions and such seem to follow Paul and I wherever we go. So far, we've done 4 trips together and in 3 out of the 4, we did not find a room on the first try. Last trip, we ended up riding another 115 miles before finding a room. This time, we finally found a room on the 10th try. Yes, the first 9 hotels we tried were booked. We pulled in at 12:45am. This was not our personal worst, having arrived before 1:30 am. We said last time that around lunch time, we should start making calls for a room. This would confirm that is what we need to do. Chances are, we won't, and chances are, we'll go through this again.
Day 2 - we're an hour away from Lake Tahoe on Rt. 50. Even though we weren't able to crash before 1, I was up at 7. I really wanted to repack my bike since I did such a miserable job of it the morning before. So, when Paul made it out to the bikes, I was already packed up. The plan was for breakfast in Lake Tahoe. Little did we know that the ride to Lake Tahoe was going to be gorgeous with plenty of twisties. From here on, I have to let the videos tell the story.
This is the whole trip around Lake Tahoe, condensed into 26 minutes. Nobody will watch the whole thing; but, one day, I might be laying in a nursing home and these videos are what I'll have to remember my adventures by. Feel free to forward through. It's all about the scenery. I promise, there's no wicked motorcycle action scenes that you'll miss.
Of course, I can't leave this post without the maps. The first one - this weekend's travels.
This map shows the travels I've done since I've been back in California.
This one shows all the trips I've made in the US to date on my BMW K1600GT. I only count trips of 250 miles or more. So far, I have 57,650 miles on this bike.
I have a need to carry extra fuel and water with me when I ride sometimes. I've had more than one occasion where I was very close to being stranded for lack of fuel. With plans to ride the Dalton Highway in Alaska and be more adventuresome in Mexico and Canada, extra fuel is really not a luxury. It's a necessity. I hope I never need to pour fuel into my tank from my reserves; but, I'm ready if I do.
This solution is nice if A) You don't want to or really can't fabricate a metal backing plate to mount your fuel cells; or, B) you want a system that is easy on/off and can be used on different bikes. In my case, I'll probably ride my K1600GT to the Dalton, rent a dual sport, do the ride to Prudhoe and back and get back on my K16 for everything else. This fuel solution will work with any bike as long as you can tie things down.
The cooler is an AO 48 pack off road cooler. I bought it at Chaparells and payed less than $100 for it. The fuel cells are Roto-Pax 2 gallon cells and the water cell is a 2 gallon Roto-Pax water cell. There is just enough room to squeeze a couple ice packs in there, if you wanted to keep the water (and fuel) cool.
The plan is purchase some webbing plastic side release buckles that are the same size as the ones on the bag, as well as nylon webbing and anchor the webbing under the seat for quick on and off. We can also put another webbing/ buckle on the back of the seat to keep the bag from moving forward. Since there is a trunk on my bike, the bag moving backward isn't an issue. Even without the webbing attached to the bike, tie down straps will easily do the job.
