Riding for one more this August

Finishing up some last minute touches on the bike this weekend and took a break to grab a quick snack and check Facebook. It's now 7:30pm Saturday, and the top news item on my Facebook is that a friend and fellow rider, Andre, passed away in the hospital at 6:21pm (4:21 local time).

Andre will be sorely missed. While I didn't get to see him as much since he moved out to the PNW, we did stay in touch virtually through various online forums and the like. I did get to see Andre the last time he was in town when the old group threw a crawfish boil. Andre and I talked quite a bit about the upcoming IBR, ideas on how to set up the bike, and Andre had offered to help me find a place to store the bike once in Washington State if I decided to fly home immediately after the IBR and return weeks later to pick up the bike.

Andre, you'll be with me in my thoughts during this upcoming ride.

Getting closer...

At work, the end of this week closes off our month of July and also ends our FY09. Similarly, as July comes to a close and August is fast approaching, prep work for next month's IBR is also finishing up.

Over the past two weeks I've managed to wrap up most of the smaller loose ends... my MedJet medical evac insurance has been picked up, AAA roadside assistance plan joined (since I no longer have the BMW plan being that the bike is out of warranty), and even the digital camera for the rally taken care of. This is the first rally I'll be running that has made the switch from Polaroid to digital, so my trusty construction grade Polaroid instants won't be joining me for this ride. I probably could have made do with my Sony point and shoot that has gone with me on so many rides, but I wanted something waterproof since I won't have as much say in when/where I'll be stopping for pics. The Sony will tag along, but used solely for keepsake pictures at higher res than the required 640x480 rally pics.

The bike is mostly set. The only remaining item is lights, which should be resolved next week. Tires have been stocked, major service items taken care of, and the bike could go as-is if needed. Financially, money for the fuel budget and lodging budgets has been secured, plus enough extra to pay for that tow home if need be. The anxiety attacks are starting to let up, replaced more with the anticipation for getting this thing started. Even doing the gym a few days each week to try and improve my shape before the ride. The diet restrictions (caffine/alcohol) will start up on August 2nd.

So far so good. Looking forward to catching up with friends and family before, during, and immediately after the ride. I'll get pictures of the bike and gear posted soon, as well as links to all the rally info sites.

More to come!

Getting Close

As the IBR start gets closer on the calendar, things are coming together. Not entirely as I had originally planned, but enough so that I'll at least be able to get out and ride.

Tires are ordered and on the way. 2 sets ... one to mount up before I head out, and the other will be waiting in Anaheim for the 2nd checkpoint. I went back and forth on which tires to use for the IBR but in the end decided to go with my previous Metzler long life tires ... an ME880 on the rear for long life, and a Z6 up front for grip. I haven't run this combo on the RT yet, but had great results with them on the ST1300. There have been enough reports on the various LD discussion outlets that these work well enough for the BMW chassis, so I'll go with that. Along the same lines, I've not found another set of tires that would get me comfortable distance otherwise, so this puts my mind at ease. I suspect that one set of tires could get me through the entire IBR, but since we're finishing 2000 miles from home that's where I started getting iffy. I'll change in Anaheim just to make sure I can get all the way home without another service stop.

MedJet insurance has been secured, so I have the required medical evac insurance taken care of. Even if it wasn't required, I'd still have it based simply on the "what if" that something could happen while I'm on the road ... and being flown back home is much more appealing than trying to sort out medical issues potentially hundreds if not thousands of miles from home. Hey, the even transport the bike home as well, so if the final drive takes a dump maybe I can break another toe by kicking the thing and then have my insurance pay to fly us both home. :) (j/k)

Late last week I got my travel funds sorted out, so I'm comfortable that I'll be able to put fuel in the tank and pay for the hotel rooms I've already pre-booked at the checkpoints.

The bike is mostly ready to go, save for possibly one more gas tank removal to wire up some additional lighting. I keep going back and forth on this ... I can get by without the lights, but I'd really prefer to have them on there. The lights will be on their own circuit, so if that install doesn't go well, they shouldn't be able to take out anything else on the bike. If they fail, I ride like I've ridden all the other rallies so far with the RT, but if they work, it's one more comfort.

GPS arrangement has been done ... replaced my older 2730 with a 2820 in order to consolidate cell phone, xm radio, and navigation prompts into a single Autocom input. The 2820 basically combines my old 2730 and BMW Navigator 3 into a single unit. I've also added a GPSMap 378 to the dash along with a secondary XM receiver in order to provide primarily data collection and XM detailed weather info. The 378 can also be used as a backup routing platform should the 2820 fail, and will keep me with XM radio either way. While both the 2820 and the 378 are mounted to the dash, I kept the original BMW Nav 3 mount located between the handlebars powered and ready to go. If I lost everything else on the bike, I can use the Nav 3 to get me through.

The last things to get wrapped up will be making sure I have all my insurance paperwork for riding through US and CA with me, and making sure the Mac is ready to go with mapping software and able to talk to the GPSs. The Passport is still current, SPOT service is good through September ... looks like it's coming together.