Cheryl & Leslie's Triumph Tiger 800XC ADV to Alaska

[soph9]

DAY 1 ON the road POST 131 (ALL PICS CAN BE CLICKED ON FOR BIGGA VERSIONS)
Our AMATEUR TIGER review Post 304
FINAL TIGER REVIEW AND GEAR REVIEWS CAN BE FOUND HERE POST 776
BMW pick up DAY found here BMW PICK UP, post 867
If you don't feel like reading the RR go to PICTURES ONLY CLICK HERE

This will be our thread for our first attempt at a LIVE report from the road when we leave from the Vancouver area of BC, Canada and head up to the Yukon, NWT, Alaska and back home. Around 42-45 days, hitting destinations like Inuvik, NWT and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Lot's in between! June 29th, 2011 departure date!



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My partner is Cheryl aka cags...I, Leslie will be typing in ORANGE and Cheryl/aka cags will be BLUE

We are honored and privileged to be able to ride two of the brand newly released 2012 Triumph Tiger 800 XC w/ABS bikes on this adventure. Triumph Canada is loaning us the bikes loaded with Triumph farkles and Western Powersports in Langley, BC is the dealer sponsor for this trip and put this all together! But we are responsible for all consumable expenses. Just wanted to make that clear in the beginning and the bikes will be given back to Triumph Canada at the end of this adventure.

TRIUMPH CANADA

WESTERN POWERSPORTS


We leave June 29th, 2011 so stay tuned to this thread and we will be adding more info such as our intros to who were are etc. Just wanted to get this out there while we are still in the prep stages.

If interested we have a Facebook page too!

CHERYL & LESLIE'S TRIUMPH TIGER 800 XC ADV

One more thing, PLEASE take a look at our BLOG for other causes and another reason for this ride. Some things are just not allowed in this ride report. Thank you!

OUR ADVGRRLS BLOG

Hope many of you will come along for the ride with us....2 women who just love to ADV ride!

[soph9]

The 2 White Crystal Tiger's arrived Western Powersports on Friday, June 10th, 2011 and are awaiting their build but we got to see them....



Looking good aren't they? We have owned many bikes and even though these are on loan we have never been able to get to see them in their box. Kinda exciting in a way.



Hopefully Desi the manager at Western will be able to take some shots of the build either Tuesday or Wednesday because we are still piling on the work load to ensure we get all this time off from work. So, Cheryl and I are thinking maybe we need to really start taking inventory of all our gear, get it down from the loft and make sure everything works and smells nice. We will be camping as much as we can on this trip to save money and we also like to camp in general.

We are so ready to just get on the road and go. We believe the official "launch" will actually be at the dealer but we will have our own little send off from our home too.

While we are going to do our best to keep this live and post pics etc...if there are any questions about the bikes or what we are up to please post and we will try to answer as best as we can. This is new to us the whole LIVE thing but we have seen it work with other reports and both of us will do our everything we can to keep this up to date.

[kildala2000]

Hey soph9,
Can't wait to follow this story. You'll be on a amazing Adventure for a Great cause. I'll be out of the country from June 17th till July 21st but if your up my way before or after those dates please let me know.
Ride Safe and stay in touch,
Rick

[soph9]

Inventory done, checked out gear and all looks like it is in working order! We don’t have many weekends off together before we leave so today was a productive day.

BEER

Getting camping stuff down from the loft

Mutha Hubba Tent

Most of the camping gear we are taking

[MamaKathy]

What brand are the sleeping bags, what are their temp ratings, and how easy do the stuff back into the bag?

Pack more beer

[soph9]

Cheryl has a Sierra Design bag and I have a Caribou. Both are 3 seasons and pack really small....

Beer gets packed in each night

[Makalu]

[Gregarious]

Looking forward to the live reports.

My only feedback: link your videos in the post so they don't start automatically. I'm not sure how to do this for Vimeo, but I'm guessing there is some parameter in the URL to dictate whether the video starts playing automatically or waits for user input to start. Otherwise every time someone refreshes the page (or submits a response, or goes back a page, etc.), the video kicks off again. If you happen to have 2 videos that show up on a single page, they'd be stepping over each other.

Best of luck!

-Greg

[AlanI]

especially looking forward to seeing this little lot stowed on the bikes.

[DetoX68]

Have a nice trip

[soph9]

Originally Posted by Gregarious

Looking forward to the live reports.

My only feedback: link your videos in the post so they don't start automatically. I'm not sure how to do this for Vimeo, but I'm guessing there is some parameter in the URL to dictate whether the video starts playing automatically or waits for user input to start. Otherwise every time someone refreshes the page (or submits a response, or goes back a page, etc.), the video kicks off again. If you happen to have 2 videos that show up on a single page, they'd be stepping over each other.

Best of luck!

-Greg

Not sure what happened there...with the video. I nuked it for now but if anyone has insight why my link to the Vimeo video would start itself every time you reload the page can you PM me? I have used Vimeo in here before the same way but something is not right.

FIXED the video issue...was in my Vimeo settings!

[soph9]

Originally Posted by AlanI

especially looking forward to seeing this little lot stowed on the bikes.

Cheryl is amazing at organizing all of our gear. For this trip the Jesse panniers are larger than our own...we have the 8 inch Safari bags on our Beemers. For the Tigers the luggage will be the 10 inch Odyssey bags. I think we might have more room that we know what to do with plus we are getting we think Triumph dry bags.

If the packing were left to me...now that would be another story...we would need way more space. I seem to be spatially challenged so I have been told.

[AlanI]

Originally Posted by soph9

If the packing were left to me...now that would be another story...we would need way more space. I seem to be spatially challenged so I have been told.

Your not alone in this Leslie although I have to say that I'm somewhat envious of the 'smallness' and 'lightness' of women's clothing LOL. My wife can get 3 pairs of her underwear into the space of a cigarette box whereas mine appear to take up half the available space of the cases. Well not literally you understand, but you get my drift. Any chance of Cheryl hopping onto a plane and getting my stuff packed.......I've been having a real battle with it over the past few hours? The tail bag is full of camera equipment, cables for this that and the other along with other bits and pieces. Oakley sun glasses are nice but boy oh boy, the case for them is almost the size of a house LOL. The rear luggage rack bag is full with tools, chain lube and other bike gear orientated stuff leaving only my side case for clothing, washing gear and shoes etc. With the odd shape of the BMW Vario cases the available volume is not as great as the outward appearance would suggest and even though I have them set at maximum extension I'm still struggling. It's alright for the likes of you and your wide open spaces and roads but believe you me, riding with wide cases on high mountain roads the width of which are often one and a half cars wide with jagged rock formations on one side and a few hundred feet drop off the other side can be somewhat nerve-racking to say the least. Anyway, enough of my chatter.........this is after all your RR thread.

[Aussie Trev]

Well, you've got me in guys. I'll be watching from Oz.

I'll be following you daily and might post a "G'day" every now and then.

cheers

[TAMPAJIM]

Subscribed. Really enjoyed your NY trip, this one looks even more adventuresome.