Coast to Coast (and back?) with an Italian Supermodel

[rico2072]

Originally Posted by GP1152

With AH's blessing (and to avoid any potential thread-jacking accusations), here are some pics of how I pack my gear into the same bag. This is the setup we used for our recent 15 day, 3,000 mile trip. I'll note that (aside from the clothes) this stuff is not jammed into there like canned sardines. Everything is accessible and there's nothing there that we really don't need. We learned our lesson a long time ago. People tend to overpack when on a trip like this (AH has the right idea obviously). You wear your riding gear during the day, so all you really need is whatever you'll wear when you get to your destination (dinner, etc.). We also take into account that we'll be able to wash whatever little clothes we have at some of our destinations.
Anyway, I use eagle-creek packing cubes, which aside from making it a lot easier to pack and unpack, they also make it a lot easier to get everything in and out of the bag. Pretty important when your packing and unpacking almost every day. It basically lets you compress the stuff down before you get it in the bag and allows me to get all of this in there:
- 2 pants (jeans and hiking pants)
- 2 dress shirts
- Fleece pullover sweater
- Cotton gym shorts
- underwear
- socks
- belt
- 4 t-shirts (2 white, 2 black)
- 2 long-sleeved t-shirts
- Small air compressor
- Tire repair kit

This is everything that is packed into 2 small Eagle creek packing cubes:


The bag on the bike:


Jacket taken out of it's compression sack (visible (packed) in back-pack picture below)



I like to keep the backpack as slim as possible, and even then I have all this in there and still have room to spare):
- Pair of shoes (black Nike running shoes, double duty for day/night...even with dress shirts)
- jacket (in black compressed pouch in middle between shoes)
- tool roll (some tools and a tire repair/plug kit)
- Small ratchet/socket kit (pictured below)
- cable lock to lock the 2 bikes to each other at night (in small black Buell pouch)
- Towel and small spray bottle with auto quick detailer to clean visor.
- iPad
- Spare gloves (rain/cold weather)
- Backup hard drive
- a small pouch with all my charger cables, lens pen, etc


Backpack (Kriega R-20)


Small tool kit (which has become a go-to kit even at home. If you ever had to work in the tight spaces around this bike, you'd know what I mean):


Small compressor and SAE lighter plug and USB adapter (plugs into battery tender lead):


Here you can see that the backpack is pretty compact:


Tank bag: serves as a camera bag and contains[/U]:
- Digital SLR camera and a not-so-small (way-too-big) lens
- sunglasses
- rain cover

Thanks for this info.
I will have way more space in my set up, but I will have to bring camping stuff. The pack-it half cube is pretty interesting, never seen it before.

[Adios Pantalones]

Outstanding RR on so many levels.

My Grandfathers first boyhood trips into Detroit were on a horsedrawn wagon with his Father. They would leave in the pre dawn darkness for the city on Saturday mornings. They sold produce from their farm, door to door. His father stayed on the reins, Grandpa hustled back and forth from wagon to house, food to the house, money to the wagon. The city eventually grew out to swallow the farm and the fields were sold to the school district. The original house still stands, flanked by two schools.
I was in Detroit last summer and saw the carnage you saw. What you don't see is the concentric circles of similar wreckage in the small towns around Detroit. For every job on the auto production line, there were 8 more jobs in support industries. For a hundred miles in any given direction, there are empty remnants of the small businesses that supported the Motherships of the Big 3. Tool and Die shops, metal works, textiles, plastics, etc. Thousands of family owned small businesses. Many of the medium sized names are gone as well. Fisher, Walker, Bendix, Aeroquip, Delco, etc. Detroit was once the jewel in the crown of American productivity. Businessmen came from around the world to see how it was done. I spent the first half of my life watching it all reduced to dust through greed, graft and corruption. They killed the goose that laid the golden egg, and a once beautiful city died a slow, ugly death.

I've been fortunate enough to spend weeks and months at a time on the road on a bike. You've done a superb job describing the altered state of conciousness that can come in a "moving meditation". Your essay on "Motorcycles function as limbic system regulators" set off bells in my head. As the product of sub-par parenting, there is much to explore there.

Now, I'm off to research Dr.Spitz and limbic function!

Ride on...

[CavDoc]

I like to roll my daily "necessities" into a gallon ziplock bag - socks, underwear, t-shirt. You can then squeeze all the extra air out and keeps things watertight (because even if you have a waterproof bag you'll have to open it eventually!) and easy to pack/unpack (and see what you're grabbing!).

Especially handy because I usually just strap a regular old army dry bag on the back of my bike when I go - and there's absolutely no organization inside those things - or pack an assault pack (whose straps conveniently cinch down on my passenger grab bars) which isn't waterproof in the least. Either one can be packed for long trips as long as you aren't sleeping outside - and then I just toss my waterproof sleeping back on there too (once again, issued gear, stuff sack is easy to attach to bike or pack).

[lucati]

Originally Posted by Adios Pantalones

My Grandfathers first boyhood trips into Detroit were on a horsedrawn wagon with his Father. They would leave in the pre dawn darkness for the city on Saturday mornings. They sold produce from their farm, door to door. His father stayed on the reins, Grandpa hustled back and forth from wagon to house, food to the house, money to the wagon. The city eventually grew out to swallow the farm and the fields were sold to the school district. The original house still stands, flanked by two schools.
I was in Detroit last summer and saw the carnage you saw. What you don't see is the concentric circles of similar wreckage in the small towns around Detroit. For every job on the auto production line, there were 8 more jobs in support industries. For a hundred miles in any given direction, there are empty remnants of the small businesses that supported the Motherships of the Big 3. Tool and Die shops, metal works, textiles, plastics, etc. Thousands of family owned small businesses. Many of the medium sized names are gone as well. Fisher, Walker, Bendix, Aeroquip, Delco, etc. Detroit was once the jewel in the crown of American productivity. Businessmen came from around the world to see how it was done. I spent the first half of my life watching it all reduced to dust through greed, graft and corruption. They killed the goose that laid the golden egg, and a once beautiful city died a slow, ugly death.

Ride on...

well put.

[lucati]

lay out the clothes and money for your road trip. halve the clothes and double the money.

[Adios Pantalones]

Originally Posted by lucati

lay out the clothes and money for your road trip. halve the clothes and double the money.

+1


I always favored taking old clothes and throwing them away as I went. Send a box with freshies to general delivery some where ahead. Since I've become a Jack Reacher fan, I may modify to just buying every few days and tossing.

AH, your attitude and writing style actually reminded me Lee Child/ Jack Reacher. That's what drew me into the RR initially.
You have definitely established your own voice.

[rico2072]

No post in 2 days??????
I'm Jonesing!

[Sweetzombiejesus]

Happy Holidays Anti where ever you may be. Thanks for giving us all the gift of your adventure!

[Dooga]

Originally Posted by lucati

lay out the clothes and money for your road trip. halve the clothes and double the money.

Best quote ever.

[AntiHero]

Been on the road for three days, plus a couple. It's good that I'm behind, as it's going to take me a while to figure out where I'm at. :)

On to Vegas!


Vegas (and this R/R) all starts with a project I had called Six Six Twelve. When I originally got divorced, my plan was: Live in 6 states in 6 months, then go to Europe and live in 6 countries in 6 months. As I neared just as I was about to put my house up for sale, the economic meltdown hit. So I kept the house, went to Death Valley and came up with a new plan: train for and run my first marathon there--and if I didn't die--train for Ironman. (Lesson being: if one door slams in your face, go kick open another.)

We know what happens next: compete, tumor, breakup. But in between those last two I put a deposit down on the Panigale. My house was in escrow and I figured, fuck it--I'm going to Europe. Booked a flight to London a month after the house was supposed to close and then I met this guy online who just ordered a Panigale, but was now last in line for one. Seeing as though it would be a while before I needed mine, he and I swapped spots. Right around the time he picked up his (my) bike, I the house sale started to fall through (fraud or something or other on the buyers part). Fucking nothing just goes right for me. Ended up finally closing on the house, which happened literally 2 hours before my flight to Europe.

End result: now I had no bike and was not in Europe. Fast forward a few weeks and Newport Beach Ducati got in a huge shipment of Panigales and off I went. The dude I originally swapped bikes with seemed like a pretty awesome guy, though--and was not afraid of putting long miles on the Duc. We tried to meet up several times, but we never managed to make it work. So on my way back to CA I had to stop in Vegas. I had no idea what kind of ride awaited me, though. Holy SHIT! (*Legal disclaimer: everything I'm about to say is fictitious.)

We met up outside of Vegas and (I'll call him Ghost Rider for now) brought some friends with some very fast bikes (ZX-14s, an R1 (R6?) and an S1000RR). As I parked/got off my bike I spun around, caught my leg on the back of his 200 rear tire and fell right there in the parking lot in front of all him and all his buddies. If I had been standing there I'd have thought--fuck this guy! I'm not riding with a total klutz--if he can't even walk how the hell is he supposed to ride in a group?





"My" actual bike. I kind of feel sorry for her--she didn't get to see the US and got to star in only a chapter of this R/R instead of the whole thing. Consolation, though, is the pristine condition she's still in:






We get onto the road and it must have been a minute or two before we were out in the middle of nowhere closer to the rev limiter in sixth than the posted speed limit. Now, when I've put my license (and life) in jeopardy, it's typically been in very remote places on deserted roads and I've only stayed there long enough to get up to a certain point before backing the fuck off. But these guys didn't know that limit. We were on relatively deserted roads in the middle of nowhere, but it was as if we were all being chased by the apocalypse and propelled by desmo demons from hell. Full throttle for what seemed like an hour. It was fucking nuts. Legal disclaimer and all, I'm not even going to discuss the actual speeds or the location. Nuts.

Get back to Ghost Rider's house and I'll say someone has been paying attention to my vices:



Around this time of the trip I occasionally try to imagine settling down in a house. And I just can't. The 'state' of being a nomad is too much a part of me at this point...or so I thought. Yet another gorgeous and beautiful house to stay at for a couple nights:

[Serbchaser]

You...just...can't...make...this...shit...UP!!!:fr eaky

[AntiHero]

I've seen a lot of very impressive things over the past six months, but have to say this one might just be the most impressive:



122 countries I believe? A lot of them more than once. Insane!!!!!

The next night we went out to dinner. Ghost Rider also has a V-10 M6 and drives it like he stole it from a guy who's still chasing him. Endless fun. We ended up at one of the best sushi restaurants I've been to. Yummy Sushi. (No, I didn't make that up.) I'm guessing the chef let his 10 year old daughter name the place after vetoing her first choice (Herro Kitty Sushi!). Silly name or not, we both loved it. I only wished I'd brought my camera so I could have done what they served justice:



Oh yeah--I'm not a big Uni (sea urchin) fan. And there's a reason--most of the time it isn't good. But these guys had live urchins (we couldn't eat that much), and swore by its quality.





This is the look of questioning what's going on.



A squishy, flavorful and cold moment later the look of satisfaction washed over my face. MMMM. Was like fresh fois gras with a little more texture, flavored by the ocean.

And this is one of the unholiest of sushi concoctions that would give Jiro nightmares:



(Spicy tuna over crispy rice, drizzled with unagi sauce and other deliciousness.)

After going over some maps of epic roads in/around Death Valley, we called it a night.



Yet another supremely awesome guy who has worked extremely hard to live the life only a few ever dream of. Don't let his friendly, dignified, patient and seemingly reserved demeanor fool you, though. I'm not sure I've ever met such a calculated and calm TOTAL FUCKING ADRENALINE FIEND. (If my Hendrick's memory serves me, he has over 1000 jumps out of a plane and isn't a commando (that I know of)).

[RhinoVonHawkrider]

Epic as usual

Feliz Navidad y Feliz Ano Nuevo a usted y todo

[Sgt93]

What point-and-shoot camera are you using? My guess would be a Canon S95 or S100? Stellar photos for a pointer camera.

[DRSapp]

AnitHero - Been following your R/R for awhile and decided to join to drop you a line. Fantastic adventures and views on life itself - Thanks for taking the time.

Happy Holidays!