PIC

New Tent & Sleeping Bag

Just purchased the Expedition Tenere Tent which is oversized for most adventure riders but I liked the parking garage feature for the bike....the 1st opening is the garage which opens from bothsides so you can drive straight through. The great feature with this tent is that you have a choice of erecting the fly 1st........then bringing in the bike & unloading the tent under the fly and attaching it with a simple hook system......in rain how nice is that. The tent stays dry, sleeping bag etc....you hang your wet suit in the garage with the bike.....slip into the tent portion and hopefully find yourself as snug as a bug in a dry rug. Setup time 5 to 10 minutes. Packs into a compression bag....again on a wet morning you can pack the bike dry with only a wet fly to worry about.

The sleeping bag is synthetic....no down which packs smaller but difficult to dry.........this one is mummy style and rated for -7 C.

The weather here is becoming spring like; with June 1st approaching I am getting anxious to head out for Deadhorse.

Farkles

Adding the necessary additions for long distance travel weaned from the blogs of current and past travelers......is an on going lesson. Bike improvements....oil pan and skid plate, forward foot bar and pegs ( home made ),crash bars ( hopefully never needed ), GPS mount ( home made ) and GPS, extra running lights, taller wind screen, brush handle protectors, auxiliary electric socket, saddlebag mount, panniers and top case and tool holder ( home made ).......

The January bike show yield more necessities; namely, new full face helmet, gears tank bag, seal line waterproof bag for tent and sleeping bag, riding boots and a froggs toggs rain suit.

POSTED ARE PICS OF SOME OF THESE ITEMS....a few things yet to purchase....will post them in the coming weeks.        

Hic's getting ready

The bike is in the house, yes the house.......would my wife have approved...NO. I didn't want it sitting in the cold garage......we had work to do, farkles to add in prep for our 1st adventure the end of May.

Choosing the Suzuki 650 VSTROM was not difficult. It boiled down to 3 requirements. Reliability,Comfort & Cost......I had been to Americade in June and test road KTM and the Triump Tiger 800xc both great bikes. I had reviewed blogs with riders on the BMW gs models, KLR's and DR650's before settling on the wee strom, as some call it. The Tiger was a great ride but after following 2 gals who did Alaska in June with this bike, I felt that Triump had some issues to take care of......and could it be serviced in CA or South America. The KTM and KLR were uncomfortable......the BMW too costly. A sale on the DL650 with tubless tires convinced me that this was the right choice for me. The bike though not a true off roader is likely 20/80 and at my age can I really afford to try to be like Evil Kenevil....so none spoke wheels and less up and down travel shouldn't be that important. The large fuel tank and 45 to 50 miles per gallon are a plus, the comfort tolerable,the power adequate 1 up and the looks with the burnt orange pleasing to my eyes.