You never know what tomorrow will bring, but usually change is high on that list. Up to this time Wayne and I were trail riders, who started to ride a little bit of roads. Well, that's not exactly true, when we were first married, we took our vacations two-up on our road bike. And we had a few different ones along the way. A Honda Gold Wing, a couple of BMW's. But when we had our daughter Becca, all that changed. Three up is not ok, ya know? So we began camping and riding dirt bikes.
And we rode only dirt bikes for many years, until we bought our DRZ 400's with the idea of bike camping again. And we did, last summer. This year the plan was to go to Alaska, on the Alaska Ferry, through the inside passage in June. Imagine our surprise when we tried to make our reservations and found out that instead of $900 each, it was going to be $4000 a piece! Yikes! The 6 of us that were planning on going on this trip sat down and decided that we could ride our bikes up, and stick to pavement for the most part. That was great, all of them already have street bikes! We hadn't planned to get ours until after the Alaska trip!
Meet Wayne's new Adventure bike. This is a 2013 BMW F800GS. It has too many bells and whistles... He figures he can take it any where that I would ride my DRZ, and if he couldn't then he can ride his KTM instead. Now we are trying to sell the DRZ. We already sold my KTM, a part of our effort to stick to just 4 bikes in the trailer.
This is a 2012 Kawasaki Versys. Mine was bought new in July of 2014 in Anchorage AK. After it was equipped with everything I would need, he and a buddy rode them around in Alaska, and then home to Bend Oregon.
The original owner added crash bars, bash plate, bags and racks, tank bag and tall wind screen. We added the lowering kit that makes it possible for me to touch ground, darn short legs!!
Both bikes came with worn out tires. Good thing I know a good mechanic. My bike also came with the original unused set of street tires which Wayne installed. I'll use them until just before we head north in June.
Finally the weather cooperated and it's time for our first big ride on the new bikes. Malin was kind enough to lead us through the coast range on some really cool back roads. 147 miles of big grins!
Rick's hip may be bothering him, but he was a trooper and hung in there all day. Things will get better, once he get's his new aftermarket hip this summer.
Wayne and I with the new bikes
It was a small single lane paved road we came in on. A little moss growing down the center of the road didn't cause any troubles...
All lined up at the lunch stop.
