let the planning commence!

well,

it's been a busy week or so in terms of trip planning. now that i'm officially going, i can start officially planning. there were certain aspects of planning (ie spending money) that i didn't want to start with until i was sure i was going. mostly because i'm broke. luckily, i've been saving my tip money for about 9 months, and i think it might actually cover all of my gear. awesome.

so the past week or so has involved trips to just about every motorcycle dealer in the area, plus or minus one or two, to see what i can find in terms of gear. luckily, all of my scouring has paid off, and i acquired two major pieces of equipment today: a windshield and a tank bag.

i'm really beginning to like aurora suzuki more and more. they are extremely friendly, knowledgable, and actually ride and know about suzukis (unlike certain eastside dealers that claim to be suzuki friendly. i won't name names, but you can guess). i've been in there before to inquire about windshields before today, and so far i have yet to be disappointed. after talking with joe in the parts department (a great guy. should get a raise), i ordered a givi A240 windshield. not the biggest, but definitely better than my current bikini fairing (basically for looks). it should be in sometime next week, and i'll have pics as soon as i get it mounted.

so far, the most frustrating piece of equipment i've had to seek out has been a tank bag. you'd think that this relatively common piece of luggage would be somewhat abundant among the plethora of dealers in the greater seattle area, but you'd be sadly mistaken. mostly i've found the same two cortech bags again and again, both of which are tiny, overpriced and not that impressive in terms of quality. unless you want to drop over $200 for something from BMW or harley with their name plastered all over it, options are somewhat limited. so, i was delighted when i found a terrific tank bag from firstgear floating around aurora suzuki, which i quickly snatched up. firstgear is a good company with which i've had no complaints (my textile jacket is firstgear), and this tank bag really has everything i could possibly need. it has a map pocket on top, several accessory pockets and a large, expandable compartment. it even came with bungee cords. on top of that, the bag itself zips off from the mounting to be used as a backpack, and the mounting itself has another map pocket. awesome. all of this for $50 less than the cortechs i've been seeing everywhere. i consider this a big tally in the win column.

so, that's a big chunk of the list taken care of, for a good price on top of that. this is actually a big relief anyway, since i've been having some slight concerns about luggage space. i recently discovered (again to my delight) that i can easily fit my tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad on the back of my bike with zero problems, and with space under the cargo net for another small duffel if i need it. that's awesome, but it means i wouldn't be using my tailbag, which holds quite a bit. the fact that i got such a big tank bag for such a reasonable price greatly eases my mind on that subject. luggage is now taken care of.

i've also been planning out my route a little bit, as well as contacting friends in various parts of the country for places to crash (and people to visit which, let's face it, is half the fun of the trip). so far i've heard back from a few important people, but am still waiting on many contacts. no worries yet, though. i've put up the all-important map, and started marking out destinations. so far, this is what it looks like:


it's probably a little hard to see this size, but the orange labels are definite destinations, and the pink are the probables. so far i've created quite a nice little loop around the country, and shouldn't have many problems finding people to stay with. the midwest may be a little scarce coming home, but that's why i have the tent, right? i'll update the map as things progress as well, hopefully with a lot more orange.

from here on out, it'll be a lot more map studying and route planning, with some more gear buying thrown in. i still need textile pants and winter-weight gloves, plus a few other random pieces of gear for the bike and general travel stuff. i'll try to get a complete list of everything i'm planning on taking at some point, just for the sake of it (and so i can have one somewhere so i don't forget). overall, things are going very well, and i'm only getting more excited. it doesn't hurt that i'm rewatching the long way round series (for the third time), and getting ramped up about riding. if anyone has any good suggestions for travel books to get me in the mood (motorcycling being the preferred method, but anything that's good), i'd love some suggestions.

until next time,

rftc,

scott