6000 km Trip

My friend (Super Tenere) and I are planning a 6,000 km trip to the Dawson City and beyond. For the past several weeks I have been busy getting the GRiSO into shape. Mostly sealed roads but about 600 km of gravel.
I wrapped a layer of rubber matting around the sump as extra protection, added 10 Liters of fuel capacity
We plan on getting a set of more suitable tires before leaving, any thoughts on what works well?

It turns out by coincidence we will arrive in Dawson City at the same time as The Dust to Dawson rally so that should be interesting. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Any suggestions about preparing the bike will be gratefully received.

At the end of the trip it turned into 8060 km

Ta
Roy

You added 10 litres of fuel capacity? Do tell!

My guess would be Rotopax containers?

Send pictures of her when finished and loaded please.

A 5 Liter container sitting on each passenger peg sandwiched between rubber foam covered aluminium and the soft bags, empty for the most part but will fill them with gas when it becomes scarce.
I did look at the Rotopax but decided on regular approved containers from crappy tire.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
I still have to attach a strap
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Each of the aluminium brackets is fixed to the footpeg by a pair of worm drive clips




.

Have a great trip, Roy. Esther and I were up that way four years ago, she on her Cali 1400 and I on my GRiSO Rosso. Fun times, right up until it wasn't. Went down in some deep gravel in an unmarked (no warning) construction zone about thirty kilometers south of Pelly Crossing. Fucked myself up good so be careful! GRiSO Rosso was wearing Pilot Road 4's at the time FWIW. Tires were not the issue, too much speed and sudden appearance of eight inches of loose gravel in lieu of chip seal, that's what bit me.

Pete (Street)

Street wrote:

Have a great trip, Roy. Esther and I were up that way four years ago, she on her Cali 1400 and I on my GRiSO Rosso. Fun times, right up until it wasn't. Went down in some deep gravel in an unmarked (no warning) construction zone about thirty kilometers south of Pelly Crossing. Fucked myself up good so be careful! GRiSO Rosso was wearing Pilot Road 4's at the time FWIW. Tires were not the issue, too much speed and sudden appearance of eight inches of loose gravel in lieu of chip seal, that's what bit me.

Pete (Street)

Thanks for the warning I'll try to be careful, I got dumped off in a mud rut a few years back on a gravel road near John Day.

Had a pair of Heidenau K73s fitted over the weekend.

I decided to swap out the front wheel bearings.
Even with a blind puller the bearings wouldn't budge at all, it took enough heat to burn off the paint before the first would budge, once that was out of the way a brass drift and a decent hammer quickly removed the other side.
The bearing on the left hand side is retained by a circlip it fixes the wheel position reference the shoulder on the axel

As a point of reference these bearings have done 35,000 km (21,000 miles), they still seemed ok but having had to abort a trip when a bearing spat out it's balls I tend to be a little paranoid.

The bearings are protected by a dedicated seal on the outside but the inside is open to atmosphere through the 3 large holes between spokes.

[quote="Kiwi_Roy"]
I did look at the Rotopax but decided on regular approved containers from crappy tire

I'm actually laughing out loud for real, reading your post! I don't think the Non Canadian's, will understand your crappy tire reference. But you made you day.
Norm.

That,s interesting Kiwi, I’m planning a long trip this summer, did you fabricate the brackets for the gas cans? I could only find the 10L red ones at Crappy Tire, looks like you have two 5L ones?
I am experimenting with fixing the Primus 1.5L bottle on each side bag, but that’s barely enough for an additional 50kms.

I'm trying to figure out how to organize the pictures, please bear with me

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The bike was once clean

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Get your bloody finger out of the way. The first time I travelled this highway it was all gravel, now it's nice seal.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Bear Glacier

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Entering Alaska, there is no US border guard but a Canadian checks you out on the way back, at one time the US guard was in the small concrete building, the Canadian customs lady told me they keep an eye on Hyder and alert the US authorities if they see anything suspicious.
Because it was Monday the hotel was closed so we couldn't get Hyderised

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Salmon Glacier - this is back in BC North of Hyder. I did some work at the old Premier Gold Mine many years ago. There's an unmanned border crossing just North of town.
At the end of this road is the Granduc site, an abandoned underground Copper mine, I read later, 26 men perished when an avalanche swooped down and buried the camp. The Stewart area is known for it's heavy snowfalls, even the horses wore snowshoes.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Mehan Lake next day, further up 37

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A couple of pictures of the Signpost Park at Watson Lake - this was started by US servicemen working on the Alaska Highway, it's grown a lot since I was last here.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We attended the Dust to Dawson dinner, a great steak meal put on by the local firefighters and wives.
The profits went to a local charity.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Waiting to celebrate the Summer Solstice
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Back at the campsite at 1:00AM, the ferry seems to run all night.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The next day the weather seemed to be picking up so we decided to make a run for the Arctic
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Waiting to greet us at the Arctic Circle
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
This guy and his Daughter turned up, they were on the way back from the Ocean
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
A couple of pictures on the road back to Dawson

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
The following day we travelled the Top of the World Highway from Dawson to Chicken and Tok AK, this according to the signpost was the first land link between Canada and Alaska, the highway is decent gravel to the US border, turns to nice smooth blacktop for quite a way then just as you start to relax switches to the worst kind of gravel, large lose rocks.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Haines Junction
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
These metal deck bridges would throw the bike around in an alarming fashion, just hit it at 50k and hope for the best
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
While I was waiting at Liard Hot Springs this guy wandered by, completely ignored me, I was ok with that

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Turns out he owns the place
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Obligatory photo of mile zero

0ur 6000 km trip turned into 8,060. the rear heidenau K73 is worn out in the centre but of course it still has chicken strips
The road from Dawson to the Arctic circle is 400 km of the roughest gravel i have ridden, unexpected potholes throw you from the seat.
The rear suspension has lost all the oil from the pounding, bad seal i guess so it's like riding a pogo stick, luckily that didn't show until we were back on pavement

Good stuff Roy.

Yep the secret to gravel/dirt riding is to get into it, so you can't be put off by irregularities in/on the surface. Heavy bikes keep ploughing forward, giving the rider more control and "ability". Alternatively you travel at less than 40 km/h...

Wider handlebars also help.

Wow, that's an amazing trip! Sounds challenging on the GRiSO. Good to here that you made it home safe. Thanks for sharing. Happy Canada Day!!

Airdrie! Looking at the map we were only about an hour away last night. We stayed in Wayne just outside Drumheller.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Pete

Hey Pete, welcome to Alberta. Hope you saw the rocks to the west of us, we usually head West on the weekends for our GRiSO riding. Kinda rainy start to July. Usually it's hot by  this time of the year. Best of luck. Norm.

Great ride report Roy I love the extra fuel idea. Any photos of the trip ? Did anything else suffer damage on the trip other than the shock ?
If the GRiSO is a keeper for you, stretch the budget to putting an aftermarket shock on as opposed to repairing the original. The difference in ride comfort will impress you

Some good photos in there. Well done. That trike (?) didn't look too happy.

MalG wrote:

Some good photos in there. Well done. That trike (?) didn't look too happy.

I'm still struggling with IMG, it scrambles the picture order
No the Ural had an Alberta plate, we figured he must have pushed himself too hard and gone to sleep, those Urals are pretty tough though.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Awesome Roy. Thanks for the tour. I don’t know why I didn’t see the links to the photos you posted above earlier, our internet speed here is pitiful atm, so may have scrolled past before they loaded
I hope the Ural driver is ok. Looks like you had a great time