We didn’t let the foul weather stop us from making our test run this weekend. I’m actually glad that the weather was so crappy on Saturday it made it clear that I needed to rethink a few things.
I of course waited until the last minute to finish packing up the last of my gear onto the bike. I had the panniers packed, but I had planned on taking the bike down to Abq to work for the race club at the R&S Expo. I didn’t want to have to drive the truck unless it was pouring down rain or if it was snowing. I met up with Nicole who had just picked up a new street bike and didn’t want to go for a ride on it for the first time alone. So we rode down Hwy 14 to Abq together after coffee in Madrid. We spent about 4 hours at the expo with Scott and a few others, there wasn’t as much traffic as the year before I think the weather scared everyone off. It was still fun to sit around and BS with a few people.
Charlie and Scott teasing me about not being able to flat foot the grown up bikes, like they can. Wankers! LOL!
After a fair amount a ribbing that I can only flat foot an 85cc dirt bike… L I left to head home to finish getting ready for the test run. I loaded up the Tiger. I could tell right away it’s going to need a fair amount of preload in the shock when I load it up for the trip. I can’t imagine why. The Right pannier was 34lbs the left was 26lbs the top box was 26lbs the jerry can was 3lbs and the wolfman bag was 5lbs. Each of the cases empty is 11lbs. So in all I had ~ 95lbs more than normal on the bike (58lbs of gear) I had been trying to keep it under 50 lbs. I should be able to get it down. Here’s the bike loaded up.
The Tent and my sleeping bag are my heaviest and bulkiest items they are the two items on the top of the panniers in the dry bags. Which worked just fine in the rain and snow, yes, snow.
We rode up to the Valle Caldra to see what the bikes would feel like and how they would handle loaded.
Must remember to add preload! I don’t like bikes that feel like a copper. In all, the bike handled great, I was comfortable on it, the hard part was getting the comms to work. We found a camp spot we liked in the woods that we could all set up in we started to set up camp. Of course, we got rained on, but at least the tents were up by the time the rain started.
I think I need to look at a tarp to make a rain shelter to cook under. Heather had one that we used that night. The best part was para cord that was reflective so I didn’t walk into it and straggle myself on it.
I’m going to need to do some practicing with the camp stove so I don’t burn dinner…. That’s all I have to say about that.
We had some great neighbors for the evening.
Now I had checked the weather forecast, so knew that it was likely to snow on us, but I was really hoping we’d be lucky and it wouldn’t….
We weren’t lucky. Jaime wasn’t impressed. I heard a lot of swearing in the morning… I woke up about 1 or 2 a lil chilled, dug around for my hat and bag liner. Went back to sleep, I have to say I was really pleased with all of my gear. As long as I stayed on the sleeping pad I was plenty warm, the couple of times I woke up, chilled, never cold, I realized I had rolled off the pad. Once back on it I was plenty warm. Heather, wasn’t happy with her sleeping bag, and Jaime wasn’t happy with her tent. I thought my tent was a bit small but I’m actually okay with that… I still don’t get how they thing two people would fit in that tent.
We were going to make breakfast, but decided to just leave and go get a hot breakfast down the hill someplace…
Jaime, in one of the many… OMG I can’t feel my fingers moments!
Unpacking the poor over loaded bike… I think CJ is right I need to rethink all the stuff I’m taking with me. There is just too much stuff on the bike. I’m not going to need it all.
The poor Tiger covered in snow. This is a first, I’ve never had my bike covered with snow. I’m liking my pink Rok straps more and more too. They really stand out!
