July 23 - 28, 2013
My mom and I decided on a repeat of last year's Oregon trip which was rained out. This time we left in late July in the hope it would be less rainy. The plan was 6 days of 250 - 300 miles each, starting on Highway 1 North, heading East on Highway 299 at Arcata to Klamath Falls via Route 66, then west to Bandon. From Bandon back down the coast to Arcata, with one additional day of riding in the Trinity National Forest area before heading back to the Bay Area.
We'd be riding the same bikes as last year, my 10-year-old FZ1 with 61k miles and her '02 SV650 with 37k miles. While neither bike's mileage is a record by any means, after the first 20 or 30k miles of a bike's life the way it is maintained becomes increasingly important as far as whether or not it might break down on a 1,600 mile trip. A well-maintained bike might look and run like new after 100k or more miles, while a poorly-maintained bike might be unreliable or even dangerous with a fraction of that mileage. I knew I had a few deferred maintenance issues on the Yamaha. The chain was worn, the front brake reservior was low, and I had my suspicions that the ExUP wasn't working at all. I had no idea about the condition of Mom's bike. Last year it died in the rain after all. I had about 30lbs of tools packed just in case.
No comments:
Post a Comment