Touratech Archives - Iron Roamer

Rain

Today’s ride from Fort St. John to Whitecourt can be characterized by one word – rain.

After leaving southern British Columbia, rain has been my constant companion. I can only remember 2 days where it didn’t rain. Fortunately, those were the two days it took to go from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Prudhoe Bay. Those were two great days!

I left Fort St. John and it was just cloudy. It didn’t take long before the rain came. With the exception of two short periods, it rained all day. To put it bluntly, it was miserable.

I had planned on tenting in Whitecourt to save some money. I suppose I still could have, but setting up in the rain and having it rain all night after a day of riding in the rain was not something I wanted to do. This time comfort won out over saving money.

I looked around Whitecourt and picked the Ritz. No, not that chain of Ritzs. This was the Ritz Motor Inn. It looked like it would be the cheapest of the bunch of hotels I saw. Again cheap is relative. It cost $91 for the night. The bonus part was that this included a full breakfast. The room was actually quite nice.

I set out unloading all my stuff. Both my panniers leak water 🙁 I need to pack things in waterproof dry bags so they don’t get wet at the bottom. After I unpacked I soaked up the water in the panniers. There was about a cup in one and a half cup in the other. I am not sure what the problem is exactly. I inspected the one pannier and there is a bend in it that may collect water. And the silicone lining is wearing and broken in parts. When I stop for an extended period of time I will see if I can fix it. The other potential reason is that I am packing the panniers to full thereby leaving a small gap at the lid that the water leaks through. I need to see if there are other things to get rid of.

Anyways …. after a day of rain I deserved some warm comfort food. That meant lasagna in the Ritz lounge. Felt good. And it felt good to crawl into a warm bed.

Route for July 31, 2016

The Troubles

Today was a day to try and fix the troubles with my motorcycle. The first task was to go to Lowes or Home Depot to get a strap for my fuel canister. Of course it was raining. And of course Lowes and Home Depot did not have what I needed.

Next stop was to get gas. On the way I noticed that my turn signals weren’t working. In fact nothing on my left side switch was working! Crap! After getting gas, which I paid for using my Visa card, I went to Starbucks before the BMW Motorcycle Shop opened. I went to pay for my purchase and my Visa credit card was declined! Crap again. Using Skype I phone Visa and they said nothing was wrong with my card but that Starbucks was using a Mastercard system. What???? I did eventually pay with my Mastercard and it worked. They assured me nothing was wrong with my card.

I got to the Motorcycle Shop and they were quite helpful, despite having a no walk ins policy.

The mechanic attempted to get the switch to work but couldn’t. He told me I would need to order a new switch. I asked if they could also order the other damaged parts. The part are suppose to arrive tomorrow by FedEx. My fingers are crossed! I did end up purchasing the Touratech strap and bracket for my fuel canister. An expensive waste to get the bracket too. Oh well.

Also While waiting at the Motorcycle Shop a couple of interesting things happened.

First, this is where Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman from Long Way Round stopped to have their motorcycles repaired. Apparently, a spoke was missing from the back tire and they simply had the whole tire replaced. The old tire was on display.

Second, I met Dr. Samuel Becker who was also getting his motorcycle repaired. He is on a trek from Florida to Alaska and crashed outside of Canmore. You can read his blog here – http://www.olympusrejuvenationcenter.com/blog. We got to talking about my medical conditions and he had a few suggestions that may help. Interesting. One thing about going to a motorcycle repair shop is that you meet the most interesting people. It is a great place for people to meet and share stories and advice.

The funny thing is, as I left The Motorcycle Shop, all of a sudden one thing after another started to work on my switch. First the turn signals, then my light, then the horn and the GPS switch. Go figure. I thought it may be moisture but the mechanic said there was no moisture in the switch. Probably should get it replaced anyways.

After a day of troubles I was able to spend the rest of it writing my daily journals and communicating with people. That part is nice. Thank you to everyone who sends me comments etc. They are much appreciated.

And then it was back to the Blue Fox Pub for dinner to top off the day.

Route for July 21, 2016

In and around this area in Anchorage trying to solve problems 🙂

Denali

The weather cleared enough that Brent and I left Fairbanks for Anchorage.

It felt amazing to be riding on asphalt where your mid didn’t have to be continually focused on the condition of the road. The day was overcast as we cruised down the highway. We reached Denali National Park.

As a kid I remember being enthralled with large mountains. Mt. McKinley stood as as being the highest mountain in North America. It was on my bucket list to see. However, it was cloudy out and it didn’t look likely I would be able to.

Mt. McKinley, as I knew it, is 20,310 feet (6,190 meters) above sea level making it third highest of the Seven Summits — the highest mountains on each of the seven continents — following Mount Everest in Nepal and Aconcagua in Argentina. The base to peak rise of Mt. McKinley is the largest of any mountain that lies entirely above sea level, some 18,000 feet. By one measure, it could be considered the third tallest mountain in the world.

I was interested to know that it is no longer called Mt. McKinley! It was named Mt. McKinley in 1917 after the former President of the United States. Since 1975 Alaskans attempted to change the name of the mountain to Mt. Denali. It wasn’t until 2015 when President Obama changed the name back to Mt. Denali.

In any case, as we passed through the park I couldn’t see anything. As we were about to leave the park, Brent pulled into a viewpoint. As I parked I looked up to my right and there it was. Amazing. What a view of the mountain. Seeing Mt. Denali made my day and fulfilled a bucket list item.

After a long ride we arrived in Anchorage. The University dorms had turned out to be a cheap alternative to hotels which are sooooo expensive. We had attempted to make reservations in the dorms at University of Alaska Anchorage but hadn’t heard back. We showed up anyways I got a pretty cool dorm room suite. They didn’t have dorms like this when I was going to University. We got 2 bedrooms attached to a common area that included the main entrance, shower, sink and storage.

After arriving I immediately went to the BMW dealership. On the ride from Fairbanks, I noticed that my ignition switch was sticky. A year ago I had the experience where the switch died on me and I couldn’t even start the bike. I didn’t want that to happen again. Also, I realized that one of the Touratech straps the held my fuel bottle in place was severed in two due to the sharp edge on the bracket. I needed to get a new one. The only strap they had that worked was the Touratech strap. But in the package was also the mount which I didn’t need. I figured I could find something at Lowes. As for the switch, they told me to come back tomorrow. That is when the saga started.

Route for July 31, 2016

Route for July 21, 2016

Route for July 20, 2016