Retrospective

July 26, 2015

We woke up this morning to a steady rain...can't cut the grass today

Looking back

Just thinking about the trip and would we do anything different...

First of all, my riding partner was amazing. It wouldn't have been such an incredible trip without her.

Surprises, Pleasant ones and not so much
The weather, we were incredibly lucky, although the heat was tough at times, it was better than cold rain. Just a few hours of rain in 28 days was amazing.
No speeding tickets, a lot of luck there too
No mechanical breakdowns, just a leaky fork seal
We never really got lost
We stayed healthy
We always managed to find a decent place to stay
The best roads were the ones we weren't expecting
Not too many close calls
I think we saw more hay bales and hay fields than corn or wheat
The KTM drew lots of attention, from riders wanting to know how we liked it, to non riders trying to figure out what it was

Not happy with the Sena Headsets
KTM Oil heat sensor, gave false readings and would have to wait 3-4 minutes to start the bike
I guess not a surprise, but there are a lot of bad drivers out there

The Itinerary
Not having any deadlines or schedule or even a timeline was a really good thing. We could make any day longer or shorter, we could change any days plan mid-stream. Having that much flexibility was really important.

The Route
Since there was no real route plan, the only really smart thing we did was go north into Canada. This kept us in nice cool air and above the really nasty weather happening in the mid west. I have to think that it was a bit more scenic than Kansas! Going through the big National Parks in the summer was a mistake. We'd like to see more of them, but next time in September or May.

Navigation
Maps, GPS, Google Earth, and Google Maps were all important tools in planning each day's ride. The Butler Motorcycle maps were awesome, highlighting the best roads and categorizing them as to scenery, curves, road quality etc. The only problem is they only print them for a few states. My $40 refurbished Garmin Nuvi GPS worked fine once I figured out exactly how to set the way points so it would take us the way we wanted to go on the maps. I'm not sure a more expensive motorcycle specific GPS would have been any better, except the Nuvi is not waterproof.

The Bike
The KTM was a really good choice, of course the only other bikes I have to compare it to, were my 2 previous BMW's. The KTM's suspension and handling were excellent, the power was unbelievable, we were fully loaded, 2 up, and we could accelerate to pass at any speed in any gear. The wind screeen, although pretty small, worked well. In the 'up' position, it deflected the wind just over my helmet. In the 'low' position, you got wind in your face, nice on the hot days. The transmission was so much smoother than the beemer, and the gearing was way better. One problem with the bike is heat coming up from the motor, I added heat shields from Black Dog and had Sargent add insulation to the seat bottom and that helped considerably.
Tires. I choose the Metzler Karoo III, thinking we would do more dirt roads than we did. The tire was surprisingly good and pretty quiet on the pavement,  worked well on dirt roads, but not so good in mud. We got about 8000 miles out of the front although it starting cupping pretty good at about 6k. We only got about 4k out of the rear. If I knew how much pavement we would end up doing, a street tire probably would have been the better choice. All in all, the Metzler worked well.
The only real complaint with the bike was the seat. The stock KTM seat is not very comfortable. At the time, there were no real better after market choices available. I had a Sargent seat on my BMW that was the most comfortable seat ever. So I contacted them and they were working on a seat for the KTM. I sent them my seat and they designed and built a new seat. It was better than the stock, but not nearly as comfortable as the seat on the BMW. We'll be looking for a better option.

Communication
I bought the latest, greatest, state-of-the-art headset system for the trip. A Sena SM 10. Having communication was really good, except this system failed repeatedly, and no real way to get it fixed on the road.

Cameras, Computers etc
I brought my Go-Pro and my big SLR. Besides the Go-Pro case self-destructing, the camera wasn't very practical. It does action video well, but scenery and stills, not very good. My big camera takes great photos, but a pain to use every day on the bike. Next time, a good quality small camera with some type of mount on the handlebars. My laptop was just too big, I'll need to break down and get a tablet kind of thing. DeeDee's little Samsung Galaxy worked perfectly.

Luggage
Our luggage system worked great. I went with the 8" Jesse Odyssey bags, they are strong and narrow, only 33 " total width on the bike. and hold an amazing 80 litres. On the tail I mounted a Jesse quick release double plate with a 14x19x7 Pelican Box. This held my laptop, extra maps, charging cords, DeeDee's hair stuff, 2 pair of hiking shoes and 2 pair of sandals. On top of the box we mounted a Cortech tail bag which popped on and off easily with 4 Fastek buckles. This was great for carrying extra gloves and anything we may need to get at during the day. We carried our rain gear and extra riding layers in 2 Wolfman dry bags mounted on top of the Jesse side boxes. These mounted easily with 4 straps that connect to the D loops on the Jeese boxes. The only problem was the neat little swivel carabiners that came with the Wolfman bags would't quite fit through the D loops, so we had to use a small piece of cord to connect the 2 which worked fine. I could never find a tank bag that I really liked that would fit the bike, so I settled for a Givi Enduro model. It worked ok, but I'll be looking for something better. I don't know why so many tank bag designers feel that something has to come off the bag to form a waist belt to walk around with. I've never seen anyone use it and I never have.

Clothing
Every trip I've ever taken, there are always clothing items that I never used. We brought hiking shoes and socks and shorts hoping to do some short hikes. That turned out to be just not possible. My riding jacket was too heavy, it was fine the last week up in Canada and ok mostly except for the really hot days. DeeDee had her Joe Rocket jacket with 2 removable liners that worked really well. We both had riding pants for cold or bad weather, DeeDee wore hers quite a bit, I never wore mine, but they still needed to be there. We wore our rain suits just once for a few hours, but that was due to just good luck with the weather.

Bottom Line
I think we did pretty well, next time we'll change a few things. We are definite happy to be home and to see friends and family, although everyone seems to think we are happy to be off the bike, not really.  It becomes your way of life, part of you. All the cliches about 'freedom of the open road', the wind in your hair etc are pretty much true. Riding a motorcycle, you become part of the scenery, part of the road. You feel the weather, you smell everything and there's just nothing like leaning into a corner to see another corner and another. Not knowing what the next day will bring is exciting.