Intimate Entomology at 80 mph

[ReChUcK]

I have relocated to Dallas from Seattle, and took advantage of my temporary retirement to spend just over a month tooling around the southwest US. It was an interesting adventure, being homeless and spending as little money as possible. I thought it would be nice to post some of the best pics of the trip for some ocular enjoyment.

All dressed up with everywhere to go:



One of the first rest stops in Woodside, CA, I finally got some pussy as a direct result of motorbike ownership:



Made it to the top of Palomar alive, not easy with all the dead weight. Riding this road is a direct result of JonKerr's influence:



The Parker Dam was a lot smaller than I expected, but apparently it is the deepest in the world:



ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTALLION I am the Stallion, Man. Somewhere south of the Grand Canyon:



Somewhere north of Tuba City, AZ:



The RMS Displacement scoping out Monument Valley:



Camping in the desert outside of Mexican Hat:



Climbing the sheer face of a huge mesa, 5 mph switchbacks on a gravel road:



Somewhere in Colorado:



Somewhere in Utah:



This pack of about 20 Bandidos blew by me- one of them tried to swipe the camera out of my hand but he missed. I don't think they appreciated me getting pics of their antics:



Lake Powell in AZ:



In the Capitol Reef SP in Utah:

 

[DevlDog]

Damn you got some pretty pics man. I liked your comment about finally getting some kitty as a result of motorcycle ownership, and it wasn't until a few seconds later that I actually saw the cat perched on your bike xD

 

[ReChUcK]

Hitting 36363 miles at 63 mph:



Picked up a couple of blond beauties in Prescott, AZ (these are my 8 and 6 yr old cousins, so take it easy):



Camped for the night in the Gunnison NF in Colorado. My tent is a Kelty Gunnison, it was a bit of a Polyester Pilgrimage:



This dude kept shadowing me the whole trip, couldn't seem to shake him:



Took a bunch of 80 mph selfies:



I was not expecting to get hit by a nasty monsoon in the Sitgreaves NF outside of Show Low, AZ. I didn't even try to ride out of here, and instead hiked about 10 miles until I found a guy with a Polaris 500 who pulled me out of this mess.



All the clay locked up the front, and I dropped the poor girl 5 times on our way out of the soup:



You know all that space we have under the rear fender? it was filled with almost 2 cubic feet of clay:



Finally pulled into Dallas, time for another new chain, more Michelins, a K&N recharge, valve clearance, throttle sync, and a few days' rest before the employment hunt starts up:



I tell you what, I need to become wealthy so I can do this forever, just live on the road.

Nothing is better for repairing your psyche,
Like a month on the road on the back of a bike.

 

[ReChUcK]

Damn you got some pretty pics man.

Thanks! Yeah, I also got about a zillion crappy pics. It took a bunch of practice to figure out the correct digi settings for mobile photography. I had my camera velcro'd to the tank bag, ready for use at a moment's notice. Fun! (and hella dangerous)

 

[crobih]

That clay must of sucked, but an amazing trip I must say

 

[BKP]

Awesome pics... I envy you the full month to play...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

 

[xJoshuaDrakex]

That is amazing you got to do this. I hope someday to do the same. Awesome pictures and stories.

 

[Pinarello Rider]

Great pics - looks like a great time. How did you select your camping spots, and how did you select the route?

 

[ReChUcK]

Great pics - looks like a great time. How did you select your camping spots, and how did you select the route?

Well, I had a vague sense of where I wanted to go based upon the location of various family and friends, but visited them in no particular order. I just found a Starbucks every now and then, for tablet wifi, and would plan out the next day or two based upon which lines looked the squiggliest. Then I would write the general route down on a post-it note and put it inside the map pouch of my tank bag. No GPS nonsense here!

I met a traveling professional photographer who had been roaming the four corner states for decades in his Vanagon, and off the top of his head he planned out a 3-day route for me that was absolutely brilliant riding. I just sat there, furiously scribbling in my notebook as he rattled off the names of the towns I would pass through, and later reconstructed the route from my paper map.

Every camping night (about three for every night spent on a couch or in a motel) would be in a National Forest. Most NFs have a thing called Dispersed Camping where you can essentially camp anywhere you want within 100 feet of a service road- FOR FREE! The onus is upon you to pack in your booze and pack out your trash. Quite often I would find a previous campsite and have to haul some a-hole's old Natty Light cans out of the forest, oh well.

I avoid organized campgrounds, like in state parks, as much as possible. It costs money to get in, money for a campsite, and 99% of the time you aren't allowed to collect firewood so there's another 5 bucks per bundle. It costs the same to stay in a cheapo motel, which has much better amenities. All you get in a State Park is a picnic bench- and usually a burn ban.

 

[JT]

WOW you put the 6R thru hell! lol some sweet pics that's awesome man I hope one day can take a trip like that

 

[ReChUcK]

I envy you the full month to play...

The timing really worked out well. I have been saving money by living extremely frugally since my divorce a year ago, and have no bills or kids. Once my job in Seattle dried up I decided:

"Screw it, I'm going homeless for a while, see what I can see"

So, I sold everything I own except for my KLR 650 (I shipped her to Dallas) and headed out.

I'm going to try to do that again- find a decent job here in Dallas, save up a bunch of cash, and then go homeless again. Like the late great Mitch Hedberg once said, "If you ever find yourself lost in the woods, f___ it, build a house. I was lost, but now I live here. I have severely improved my predicament."

 

[MaximumHP]

Wow man, that is awesome. I’d love to do something like that, but I’d probably become single, my wife would be so pissed if she had to work and take care of the kids while I explored around. Props to you for doing this while you could, wish I would have.

 

[JT]

The timing really worked out well. I have been saving money by living extremely frugally since my divorce a year ago, and have no bills or kids. Once my job in Seattle dried up I decided:

"Screw it, I'm going homeless for a while, see what I can see"

So, I sold everything I own except for my KLR 650 (I shipped her to Dallas) and headed out.

I'm going to try to do that again- find a decent job here in Dallas, save up a bunch of cash, and then go homeless again. Like the late great Mitch Hedberg once said, "If you ever find yourself lost in the woods, f___ it, build a house. I was lost, but now I live here. I have severely improved my predicament."

that's awesome! people have to do stuff like this at least once in your lifetime if not more

 

[tobymax]

Great trip. How did you prep the bike, or did you prep the bike? Did you have any issues? Did you carry any spare parts? What would you take next time and what would you leave?
I would love to do a trip like that but i would first have to get me some good bags. Right now i dont have space to carry a mechanic, a cop, a doctor, and my dog.

 

[ReChUcK]

Great trip. How did you prep the bike, or did you prep the bike?

Prior to the trip I changed the oil and placed a new kn-204 on it, new chain, lubed all control cables, replaced the coolant, synched the throttles, perfected tire pressure/chain slack, recharged the K&N air filter, and that's about it. Short-cycled periodic maintenance, really. I changed the tires 3K miles beforehand- Michelin PR2s, I love those.

Did you have any issues?

Only those thrown at me by Mother Nature. She was really a beeyotch at times, like when crossing the Mojave (too hot for ATGATT) and dumping rain on me in New Mexico and in Show Low, AZ. I narrowly avoided the disaster that is currently screwing Colorado. My tent (a Kelty Gunnison 2.1) performed like a champ, keeping me dry. It has done so many times in the Olympics and the Cascades on board my KLR 650- what a great 1.5-person tent.

Bike issues, not at all. If you maintain like you're supposed to, our fz6r bikes are bulletproof IMHO. I changed the oil in Tempe at my Grandpa Tony's place halfway through the trip, no sweat.

The clay I encountered destroyed my chain, but it survived as I trekked across Texas. You had better believe that I'm installing a new one once I get out of this comfy bed.

Did you carry any spare parts?

Nope, but I did carry a tire patch kit and a Topeak bicycle frame pump. I learned the hard way that a patch kit alone is not enough when I got a flat on the Crowsnest Highway in B.C. Luckily a nice Canadian farmer had an air compressor, only had to limp a mile or so down the road to his farm. That was a different trip at a different time, though. Oh, and I beefed up the factory toolkit with some sockets and a ratchet, plus some zip ties and gaffer tape.

What would you take next time and what would you leave?

For the last few years I have kept a running Trip Pack List on an Excel spreadsheet, for both off-road trips on my KLR and asphalt trips on the Displacement. After each trip I color-code all the items depending upon the frequency of use, like Purchased Mid-Trip, Not Used Once, Used Once Or Twice, Used A Few Times, and Used The Hell Out Of. This technique has helped me pare down non-essentials and identify necessities. For the last few trips I have not updated it at all, as I seem to have perfected my own motocamp needs. I won't even try to make recommendations, because we are all unique snowflakes with individual desires and needs.

I will say this, though- I'm no eagle scout, and I definitely didn't bring enough fire starting packs. I roll newspaper tightly, cut it into donuts, and soak each donut in paraffin wax. Starts a fire in any weather condition. I ran out of those halfway through and had to purchase supplies to build more. The environment was wet enough that starting fires proved to be impossible for my city-slicking skills. Oh, and I forgot a spare Bic, so one morning was a nicotine-withdrawal bummer. I recommend not smoking in the first place. That reminds me, I should have brought more "safety gear" because Colorado's new legalities aren't a reality yet, much to my sober dismay. Washington state green cards don't hold any water in CO, apparently.

I would love to do a trip like that but i would first have to get me some good bags.

If I had an infinite cash flow I would have Givi hard cases on the sides. I have some crappy Nelson-Rigg "hard/soft" bags whose zippers constantly fail. Plus, they are as waterproof as a Kleenex. I keep my clothes in waterproof bags inside the panniers, but I agree, good bags would make a world of difference.

I have used a JC Whitney case on the tail now for 3 years, and it refuses to quit despite numerous crashes and tons of abuse. I wholeheartedly do NOT recommend it- a buddy has bought two of them and both were defective foreign garbage. i got lucky with mine, I guess. I even fill it with ice sometimes for a beer cooler.

Right now i dont have space to carry a mechanic, a cop, a doctor, and my dog.

Meh, you're never that far from either civilization or cell signal, so that stuff is no sweat if you have a sufficient cash flow. As far as the dog goes, I let my ex "win" the corgi-custody battle knowing I would want to take long motocamp trips. Know a reputable kennel or have trustworthy friends?

 

[ReChUcK]

people have to do stuff like this at least once in your lifetime if not more

Dude I totally agree. On a related note, I think EVERYBODY should be required to ride a motorbike for one year prior to being granted a car driver's license.


Imagine all the people
Driving like they could die,

You-oo-oooh
You may say that I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
Someday, you will join us.
And the world would Ride as One.

(Crappy parody of Imagine by Lennon)

 

[Bert-Aus]

That looked to be a VERY fulfilling trip!

The only thing I would suggest different (now having learned from your posts) would be to set up some Trail Max's prior to the trip, that way those gravel tracks would be more fun

I am looking forward to my cross country jaunt (2500km+ round trip over 5 days) in 5 weeks to Phillip Island for the Australian MotoGP and this post is just made me more impatient for it to roll around!

Welcome back to the forum too Chuck:iconbeer:

 

[latony007]

great trip

Great trip, id love to do something like that one day. Really love to go all the way across but you need a few grand and a few months. I love how you hiked away from the bike and got it in every picture. You should send that crap to Yamaha for their next commercial. And the pictures of the mud almost made me cry. Mine is only a few months old so im not prepared for that kind of dirt on it yet

 

[abyss1406]

mitch hedberg qoute, love it. and remember, ducks eat for free at subway

 

[ReChUcK]

Really love to go all the way across but you need a few grand and a few months.

Well, we all have different monetary needs, but I managed to spend less than $1500 over the course of the 32 days I was out. I would splurge on a greasy spoon for breakfast each morning, skip lunch, and spend about 6 bucks putting together a foil pack of meat and veggies for the campfire each night. Luckily all the friends/fam I visited cooked me dinner or took me out for a steak- super hospitable folk. Honestly, I think booze and cigarettes were my biggest cost. If you don't have those vices then you're way ahead of the fiscal game.

As for miles and time, I really puttered around, never made very many miles any given day, and was still able to put in nearly 5,500 miles (x-country is about 3K) in that amount of time.

I love how you hiked away from the bike and got it in every picture.

Yeah baby, yeah! I could easily find much better pics (taken by much better photographers) of all the places I visited. The presence of the Displacement in the photos is what makes them awesome and unique. There's a billion shots out there of all these vistas, but only my shots contain my motorbike in the frame!

And the pictures of the mud almost made me cry. Mine is only a few months old so im not prepared for that kind of dirt on it yet

I wasn't prepared for that either, even at 38K miles on the odo. That stuff happens when you least expect/desire it, just gotta roll with the punches thrown at you.