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I didn't do this myself, but I thought it was worth posting. Received this in an e-mail from a friend of mine. And I always thought motorcyclcing was supposed to be fun
I just returned from 15,000 mile, 3 week, trip to Alaska with 2 other
club members. Another '04 GS and a '02 1150 RT. I'm still sore. The trip was originally planned to attend the Ron Ayers Hyderseek Rally in Hyder, AK. That turned into doing a Iron Butt Ride called a UCCC. The Ultimate Coast to Coast to Coast ride is Key West to Deadhorse to Key West in less than 30 days.
The ride from Fairbanks to Coldfoot wasn't too bad. The ride from Coldfoot to Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay) was brutal. The Dempster Hwy (Haul Road) is a mixture of road surfaces like no where else on earth. You have to use the term "road" very loosely as this road is a bone jarring, bike breaking 500 miles of hell. We were very lucky to hit good weather and no rain. It was in the 70's in Fairbanks and 27' when we arrived into Deadhorse.
Same temps the next day when we rode all the way back to Fairbanks in one day. We had some snow and freezing rain going through the Brooks Range on both legs.
About 70 miles south of Deadhorse is where the temps changed, for better or worse, depending on your direction of travel. There are washboard sections that will shake out your fillings and gravel the size of baseballs to flick you around out of control. The edges of the roads are lined with large granite like rocks and there is a near constant 20'+ drop-off beyond the marbles that line both sides of this "road". Mix in water
trucks which create a mud that is more slick than ice and you've had interesting conditions.
We hit all this and these were described by locals as the "best condition the road has been infor a long time". There were a couple Suzuki Vstroms in the groups going up with us. They left many parts on the road. One newVstrom had a cracked frame that had to be trucked back to Fairbanks for a hopeful warranty claim. Our BMW's did far better becausewe stripped down our loads and lowered air pressures in advance.
Still we lost some nuts and bolts and 2 of us noticed we had impact
sidewalk breaks in our front tires upon our return to Fairbanks. Guy on RT was leading one night and missed a big black bear by a couple feet. In remote areas, it was so black when the sun finally went down about 11pm, that we probably only saw 10% of the animals near the roadside at night. Rode through snow on I-90 in MT coming and going through Bozeman and Butte passes. Terrible winds last week in WY, SD and Iowa.
I'm doing the final leg of the ride tomorrow by going back to Key West.
Many have done a UCC, very few have done a UCCC. Iron Butt Association only gives 30 days for either ride. More to follow. My
'04 GS will have 57,500 miles on it after this trip.
"And I always thought motorcyclcing was supposed to be fun"
That didn't sound so much like fun as it did an adventure! Sidewall impact hits, loose parts, washboard roads, no roads...I'm not sure I'd like that kind of ride on a pavement bike. Weather is one thing but for me the roads have to be passable and non-injurious to my bike. On the Motorcycle Tourer's Forum there is a post entitled Broke down in Coldfoot (NE of Anchorage). What a place to be broke down!
While the RT is definitley a pavement bike, the two GSes involved are dual-sports and designed for trips like that. That's why these guys do this, I guess. It is sort of a justification for buying that particular bike.
It's like buying a Cadillac Escalade and taking it off-road 4-wheeling just to show that you didn't buy a 4-wheel drive for nothing....
A trip to Alaska on my KLR is in the plans for some time in the future. Thanks for that post Mike.
nick
"It's a friggen motorcycle, it's not supposed to be comfortable, quiet or safe. The wind noise is supposed to hurt your ears, the seat should be hard and riding it should make you shit your pants every now and then. "
cbx4evr wrote:A trip to Alaska on my KLR is in the plans for some time in the future. Thanks for that post Mike.
nick
I've had that thought as well, a good 650/800 or maybe even a liter sized on/off road full on adventure bike with a huge fuel range, GPS and lots of ground clearance. That, would be an adventure!
Terry wrote:or maybe even a liter sized on/off road full on adventure bike with a huge fuel range, GPS and lots of ground clearance. That, would be an adventure!
That, would be an adventure!