Chris' Ultimate Coast to Coast Ride

Chapter 2

Preparations

            As Spring, 2002 approached, I began searching for a new bike.  I was currently riding a 1999 BMW R1100RT, that was set up for endurance riding.  I had quickly decided that the RT would not be suitable for this ride.  I believed the bike could make the ride, but I did not want to destroy it on the Dalton Highway.  I fully anticipated a mishap or two during the ride, so I decided on a bike that was more ‘mishap-friendly’.  I decided on a BMW 11xxGS for the ride.  The bike was fully capable of handling the rigors of the far north, yet also comfortable for long stretches on interstate.  I know there are lots of other bikes as capable, if not more so than the GS, but the GS had another advantage.  I had ridden them before and because I owned the RT, I was more than familiar with the BMW R-bike engines.  It may be a small advantage, but in the event of a breakdown, it could be very important.

             I further narrowed my choice of bikes down to either the GS Adventure or the standard GS with a Touratech Tank.  The Adventure cost more, but had many of the features I wanted and would be putting on the bike anyway.  Since I tend to put a lot of miles on bikes, I also was looking for one of these bikes used, but with low mileage. 

             I began searching for the bike.  I constantly searched E-Bay and even put bids in on some bikes.  I lost all the auctions.  I watched Cycle Trader daily.  I called dealerships and talked to the sales people I knew.  After a few weeks of searching, I came across a 2002 R1150GS Adventure with 3,000 miles in Oklahoma that looked like it would fit the bill.  A couple weeks later, I was flying to Oklahoma to pick the bike up and ride it back to Maryland.  This was the first expenditure of many that I would make.

             One of the things I had decided very early on, was that cost was not going to be a consideration for this trip.  I don’t mean to say that I spent money foolishly or wasted money, but if there was something I felt should be on the bike for the trip, it was going to be on the bike, no matter the cost.  I was not going to fail because there was something I needed that I didn’t purchase or because I purchased a lower quality item that failed to perform. 

             This was an expensive route, but I was going to be investing a considerable amount of time and effort into the ride and I wanted to give myself every chance to succeed.   Safety was also a paramount concern.  I intended to return to Maryland in the same condition as I left.  Besides, it almost seems un-American if you don’t have at least one or two credit cards maxed out!  Fortunately, I was able to transfer a lot of the items I needed from the RT to the new GS.  After several months, the bike was equipped as follows:

• Aeroflow Half-Fairing:  I replaced the standard windshield with the tall Aeroflow screen.

• Motolights:  The standard 35 watt lamps, were replaced with 50 watt lamps with a narrower beam. 

• PIAA 910 Driving Lights:  These were mounted on the Aeroflow Bracket.

• HID High Beam.  I used the kit a kit that BMW uses to retrofit their cars with HID lights.

• Metzler Tourance Tires

• Marsee Tank and Tail Bags, Scotchguarded

• Rev-Pack Expedition Bag, Scotchguarded

• Jesse Odyssey Luggage

• Garmin Street Pilot III GPS with the 125 MB memory cartridge.  The entire route could be loaded, eliminating the need to carry the laptop with me.  I also carried the 32 MB memory cartridge with other maps loaded.

• Valentine One Radar Detector with the audio adaptor

• Archos Jukebox MP3 Player with somewhere around 75 CD’s loaded and probably another 200 individual songs.

• Pre-Paid Cellular Phone with AT&T, with service in all of North America, including Alaska

• Autocom Pro-M1 to integrate all audio devices

• Custom Ear Plugs with monitors from EAR Inc.

• Bob’s Wrist Rest throttle friction lock

• Throttle Rocker

• Hyperlites

• Run-N-Lites (rear only)

• Ram Mounts for the GPS and the V-1

• Heat Troller Thermostat  for Gerbings Heated Clothing

• Camel Back Hydration system, filled with water only.

• 3-M Plastic Headlight Protectors on both the high and low beam lenses.

• BeadRider Custom Seat, of course!

• Bike Cover

• Xena Disc Lock

• Digital Thermometer

• Extensive First Aid Kit.  This included narcotic painkillers and other medications I got from my doctor as a precaution when discussing the trip with him.  I also carried an assortment of cold/flu/illness medications with me.  Though I had never been to Prudhoe Bay, I was pretty sure they would not have a CVS pharmacy there.

• Streamlight Stinger Rechargeable Flashlight with Charger wired into the bike.  I also carried three other light sources

            Another item on the bike was added by the previous owner, Ty Wood.  Ty had removed the tank and had a layer of Line-X (bed liner) sprayed on the front of the tank, serving as a permanent tank protector of sorts.  Great idea.  Looks great and really protects the tank.

            I carried an extensive tool kit, including adding a small air compressor to repair flats.  I tried to carry anything I thought I would need to make an emergency repair.  The tool kit included just about everything I would need, should I decide to take the bike apart during the trip.  This included full roll of duct tape, the universal repair tool.   I also carried quite a few straps and bungees.  I also carried a set of ratcheting straps in case I had to extricate the bike from a difficult position by myself.  These straps would become very important during the trip.

            Among the documents I carried were the standard license, registration, passport, Canadian and US Insurance cards and road side assistance card (Good only in the continental US).  I also carried maps for every state/province that I intended to cross.  I also carried a current service manual for the bike and a copy of the Milepost.  I had intended to carry a copy of the BMW MOA Anonymous book, but I forgot to pack it and so it stayed at home.  This book contains a directory of good Samaritans that will lend different levels of assistance to riders in trouble across North America.

            I carried one extra gallon of fuel as a precaution.  This gallon was kept in four separate 1-quart fuel containers.  I tried to pad and protect them as much as possible, realizing that in the event of a high speed ‘uh-oh’, I did not want to be anywhere near them should they rupture.  The 8-gallon tank on the bike gave me a reasonable range of about 300 miles.  I knew there would be areas up north where fuel was scarce, especially at night.

            Most of my riding gear stayed the same, but I added/upgraded a few items.   I also decided to keep the clothes to a minimum.  This lightened the bike and made it easier to find things.  I also kept like things in the same place.  Cold weather gear together, rain gear together, gloves together, etc.  This would save me a lot of time on the road and make things easier to find.  Here is a list of the riding gear I used:

• Nolan X-Lite Helmet with Clear and Tinted Visors.  I do not use sunglasses.

• Small Flashlight, Velcroed to the side of the helmet

• Both Visors were equipped with a Sunblocker tint strip.

• BMW Savannah 2 Jacket with Gore Tex Liner

• BMW Savannah (1) Pants with armor added

• BMW Gore Tex Boots with those liquid insole thingees…

• One pr. Gore Tex pants, from a golfing supply store.

• One pr. Windproof/waterproof lined pants from sporting goods store.

• One set (top and bottom) Polypropylene underwear.

• One pr. Deerskin gloves

• One pr. Neoprene gloves, similar to scuba diving gloves; for riding in the rain.

• One pr. of heavy waterproof ski gloves.

• Gerbing electric jacket and socks.  No pants.

• One heavy sweatshirt and one sweater

• One lined neck wrap

• One long sleeve mock turtleneck shirt

• Three Under Armor T-shirts

• Seven pairs of socks

• Five Pairs of Silk Underwear

• One pair of padded Bicycle Riding Shorts

• Survival Kit.  Enough to make a crude shelter, start a fire, emergency food and water.

            The only things I planned to change every day while riding were socks and underwear.  I planned on changing T-Shirts every other day.  I simply was going to add layers of clothes the further north I got, until I would be wearing most everything I was carrying.  Seemed like a good plan.

            While I was busy equipping the bike, I started doing as much planning on the actual ride as possible including looking at the route to ride.  I had already decided to ride south to north.  I thought this might keep me fresher near the end of the trip when I was sure to be very tired.  The direct route covers just over 5500 miles.  The route goes Florida-Georgia-Tennessee-Kentucky-Illinois-Wisconsin-Minnesota-NorthDakota-Manitoba-Saskatchewan-Alberta-BritishColumbia-Yukon Territory-Alaska.  

            A lot of people ask me what style of riding I use.  The best thing I can say to describe it would be stubbornly-consistent.  I am not a very fast rider.  In fact, when I drive in a car, I often frustrate my passengers with my slow pace.  Since I was not willing to increase my speed to unacceptable levels to reach my 6 day goal, I had to save time in other areas.  I am fortunate enough to be able to function well on very little sleep.  I usually eat only once a day, so I am able to save time on meals.

            I initially planned on staying in a hotel every other night and sleeping in the  “Iron Butt Motel” (picnic table, ground, etc.) every other night.  I had done this with some success during the Butt Lite III.  I discussed this strategy with other, more experienced, long distance riders.  Two riders favored another approach, namely Leonard Roy and Paul Taylor.  Paul told me that he had stayed in a hotel every night during the 2001 Iron Butt Rally.  Leonard stated that he would get a room, even if only for a half an hour when on a ride.  Both thought the quality of a short rest in a hotel, vastly outweighed a longer rest on a picnic table.

            I also looked at the rides of other successful riders.   Rick Miller had gotten progressively stronger during the BLIII by getting plenty of rest during the early days of the rally.  While a lot of riders in the rally were deteriorating in condition as the rally went on, Rick had saved his best ride for the last leg to finish strongly.  I decided that if this approach worked well for better and more experienced riders than myself, why try to reinvent the wheel?

            I started working with Microsoft’s Streets and Trips to plan a route and stop locations.  I planned on leaving Key West at 6:00 AM.  I would ride every day from 6:00 AM to 2:00 AM.  I planned to stay in a hotel every night and start riding at 6:00 AM the next day.  I thought I could get at least 3 hours sleep every night, allowing for a half hour on each end to check-in, unload the bike, check-out, load the bike.  I also planned on staying on east coast time for the entire ride.  This would get somewhat confusing the further west I went, creating some problems for me.

            The only food I planned on eating were power bars, with possibly the occasional beef jerky snack.  I knew from experience that I could keep fuel stops to between 10 and 15 minutes.  I also carried Red Bull energy drinks with me as a stop-gap measure, if I needed it.  As it turned out, I drank one Red Bull with a power bar every morning.  This seemed to work very well.  I also knew from other rides that I would probably lose between 10 and 15 pounds during the ride. 

            If I was able to stick to this schedule, I would arrive in Prudhoe Bay in about 5 and 1/2 days.  Of course this would be riding in a perfect world.  No traffic, no bad weather, no fuel problems, no bike problems, no problems at the border…no problems period.  As anyone who has done any distance riding will tell you, this is not realistic.  I was pretty sure that I would encounter many setbacks during the ride that would slow my progress, but, what the heck….at least I had a plan.

            Based upon this riding pattern, I anticipated stops in the following areas:

            Night 1:          Paducah, Kentucky

            Night 2:          East of Winnipeg, Manitoba

            Night 3:          Near Dawson Creek, British Columbia; start of Alaska Highway

            Night 4:          Whitehorse, Yukon Territory

            Night 5:          Fairbanks or Coldfoot, Alaska

            I looked further at the timing of the ride, specifically what day and date would be best to start.  I was worried about traffic back-ups around major cities.  I was also concerned about construction zones along the Alaska Highway that could cost valuable time.   Another consideration was the availability of fuel when riding at night in desolate areas.

            I bought a copy of the Milepost and studied it whenever I had time.  I received much needed advice from the Long Distance Riding List on the internet.  Of the people that offered advice, Jack Gustafson deserves great thanks.  Jack lives in Alaska and provided first hand information on road conditions, fuel stops etc.  Other folks also helped without even knowing.  Joe Zulaski, a frequent contributor to the LD list provided help by posting his experience on the Dalton Highway during the 2001 Iron Butt Rally.  I read everything I could that I thought would help me.

            I was worried about oil and tire changes.  The first was easy.  I decided to use synthetic oil and make no oil changes.  The bike would go 12,000 miles on one oil change.  The overwhelming amount of miles would be highway miles, so I reasoned this would be okay.  The tires would be more problematic.  I first thought about a tire change in Fairbanks.  Logistically this was going to be tough, because I did not know for sure when I would be there.  I was also concerned about shredding a tire on the Dalton Highway.  After much debate and getting advice from anyone who offered it, I decided to put a new set of tires on the bike right before leaving Maryland and trying to make the entire trip on one set.   A tire change on the way home would be no big deal.  A tire change on the way north would be a serious time issue.  I took a chance.

            After I thought I had gotten all the information I could gather, I set a departure date of July 26, 2003 to leave Maryland.  I would allow three days to reach Key West, more than enough.  Nancy, my girlfriend, would fly down to Key West to see me off.  We would spend a few days relaxing.  I planned to leave Key West Thursday morning, July 31, 2003 at 6:00 AM.  This would allow me to take advantage of riding on the weekend when traffic should be lighter and hopefully, construction would not be occurring on the Alaska Highway.  Nancy would fly back to Maryland after seeing me off.

            Nancy would be my pit crew.  She also would monitor my trip, keeping friends apprised of my progress.  Though she is never thrilled with me riding alone, I think she is getting used to it.  She knows that I am very aware of my limits and have no desire to push those limits into a danger zone.  I don’t think she would ever say that endurance riding is a “safe” activity, but I think she knows how far I go to achieve a safe ride.  She is a rider too and a very proud member of the Iron Butt Association.  She displays her SS1000 certificate on her office wall for all to see.   During my trip, she would be available 24 hours a day for whatever help I needed.  She also endured months of me blabbering on about every possible minute detail. 

            I provided Nancy with a detailed itinerary of my route.  She would know exactly where I should be at any point in time.  I would also keep her updated on where I was and how many hours ahead of or behind schedule I was.  She would also watch for weather that would be in front of me.  I couldn’t do anything about the weather.  I wouldn’t be changing my route, but I would be ready for how miserable I was going to be.  I actually quit looking at the weather in Alaska about two weeks before I left because there was never any good news.  Rain was in every forecast, except when there was the possibility of snow in the far north. 

            I also had the help and support of Rob and Tina Hollaender of Motolight and I want to thank them for that support.  Not only do they foolishly sponsor my insane activities, they are both avid riders.  Rob knows quite a bit more about bikes than I do.  He was available 24 hours a day during the ride.  I felt confident that if something went wrong with the bike, I could reach out to Rob if I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  I also knew if Rob couldn’t figure out what was wrong, he would damn well find someone who did, no matter what time it was.  Support like this is hard to find. 

            With this type of safety net in place, I felt pretty confident, that should something unfortunate happen, someone would come looking for me.  And that someone would have at least an idea of where I might be.  I felt with the number of power bars that I carried, I could last until either help found me or some hungry member of the Ursine family found me, whichever came first.

            The last thing I did was create a flip chart of maps.  Sort of a poor man’s Trip Ticket.  This was not to be used for navigation.  I would do all my navigating via the GPS.  This flip chart would be used by me to know if I was ahead or behind schedule.  I highlighted points along the route, usually at border crossings with the date and time that I should be hitting that spot, based upon the Thursday morning starting time.  This method had worked well in the past.  I found that calculating where I was and comparing it to where I should be kept me on schedule.   Doing the time/distance calculations also keeps me fresh on an otherwise numbing section of interstate.

            With all that done, it was time to ride.

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