About the girls

For those of you curious about our bikes, I think it is about time to write a bit about them.
To start, my bike (the red one) is named Irmtraube and is a 2001 BMW F650GS with about 9000 miles on it. I bought her back in 2008 with only 700 miles on her from a friend.
Megan's bike, Gigi Cavaliero, is a black 2009 BMW G650GS with about 5000 miles on her. We bought her new back in June from Ride West BMW in Seattle. The G is essentially the same as my F. Almost all the parts are the same.
Both bikes have ABS (antilock brakes), heated hand grips, and grip protectors.

Single Cylinder

In the motorcycle world they are what is referred to as a thumper. A thumper is a single cylinder motorcycle that because of having only one piston makes a thumping sound. Being german motorcycles, the sound is not a loud thump but rather a muffled diggida-diggida-diggida sound with a bit of low end bass.

The main advantage of a thumper, as I see it (and very well could be wrong), is that there is only one cylinder which translates to less maintenance. There are less parts to break and only one set of shims to adjust. People also say that it is lighter and has more low end torque (power when going slow) than bikes with more pistons. The lighter thing doesn't matter too much since we are loading it down with all our gear, but I suppose it could be nice if get the ladies stuck somewhere. The low end power will be nice on steep hills (they were great in San Francisco) and gunk.
The disadvantages of a thumper is that it can't go as fast (I don't care about that) and it is a much more vibraty which translates to shorter days of riding.

Why we got BMWs
BMW bikes are known the world over as some of the most technical bikes you can buy. They are generally owned by engineers and techie types. They cost about 30% more than other comparable bikes on the market, but the engine reliability more than makes up for it (in my opinion). Of course, parts cost more too, but hopefully we won't have to deal with that too much. From what I can tell, the main things that fail on our bikes are suspension, steering column bearings and possible a water pump. Beyond that we just have to do regular maintenance like changing the oil, keeping the chain very lubed, and just keeping an eye on nuts and bolts (literally).
Beyond the mechanical reasons to get a BMW, there is also the community reason. BMW riders are fanatical about their bikes. Anyone who has (or who ever has had) a BMW moto falls in love with them and wants to bond with other people who have them. We have experienced countless interactions with people who just want to chat because we have BMW motorcycles. Just the other day, we were on the street flushing the brake fluid through our bikes and a guy from Brazil and his kid were in the park playing with a fancy radio controlled car. They came up to us and asked us about our bike and the kid kept saying "I love BMWs." We shared our small allen wrenches with them and chatted about bikes for a while.  This happens a lot.

Modifications
I am not a big on customizing a bike. I just don't know what to do and don't particularly love doing major customization (I'm not a typical BMW rider in that sense). I trust that the bike was built well enough for the trip we are taking so I don't really feel like there is much to modify. In an ideal world, I would have sucked up the $1200/ bike for aftermarket Ohlins rear suspension, but I will wait for the current suspension to fail before I do that.

• Front fork protectors from Touratech. To protect the exposed suspension from rock chips
• Engine guards from Touratech (although we can only put the right one on megan's G650GS)
• Aluminum Paniers- one set from Happy Trails, one set from Touratech
• Metzeler Tourance Tires. High mileage (10,000 miles) 85% on tarmac, 15% off road tires.
• AGM Maintenance free battery for my bike. I needed a new battery and I might as well get a maintenance free one.

And that is it. Maybe I will come to regret this, maybe not. I'll keep you posted.

Spare Parts
There is a balance one must take between being prepared and adventure (that is what we are calling it when things go wrong). I did a lot of research on f650.com and other sites about what to bring down and decided in the end to bring to bring good tools and some maintenance items, but beyond that rely on good old Fedex.

• spare rear spocket and two front sprockets. (I left the chain at home since our chain is readily available worldwide.
• 2 oil filters per bike with sump plug crush washers (these are hard to find).
• 3 spark plugs (megan's bike has two, mine has one) and one cap for my bike
• 1 air filter
• spare crucial nuts and bolts (especially the subframe bolt).
• Two sets of front and back brake pads. We need to be able to stop efficiently, now don't we.

Tools:

• The standard BMW tool kit that came with my bike. 
• Proxxon Engineers Socket set. This thing is sweet!
• 13mm spanner, adjustable spanner (0-30mm)
• 5mm and 8mm allen wrenches
• Wire cutters, needle nose pliers, small vice-grips
• Bolt for locking the engine when doing a valve shim check (could also act as a secret lock when leaving the bikes in sketchy places. Feelers for shims, Valve shims for both of the bikes.
• pocket volt meter from radioshack
• Spare fuses for both our bikes
• gorilla tape, various gauges of wire for holding things together, jb weld, liquid steel, silicone, super glue
• Lots of loc-tite both red and blue
• micro air compressor from Aerostitch, valve stem tool with extra plugs.
• CO2 canisters (and adapter for tire) for inflating the tires quickly. I think this is redundant but oh well.
• I "site sucked" the entire F650.com FAQ website onto my computer. This is probably the most important tool. We also bought the Helge Pederson F650 instructional DVD which was really useful for great beta on how to change the tires. It made it much easier to know his tricks.

In a future post I will write about our camping and personal gear that we are bringing down.
Thanks for reading.

Humanity is still alive and well

For those of you who are having a tough day with humanity (road rage has hit you hard, people tend to ignore each other, you've had something stolen, ...) let me tell you that there are some truly great people out there. From our experience that ancient custom of treating travelers with compassion and respect still holds very true in the world (or at least along the pacific coast).
Our latest episode of Xenia came at the hands of two fellow BMW owners in Ventura, CA.
With the storm of the decade rolling our way we decided we just couldn't work on our bikes on the side of the street anymore and that we needed a garage to get the girls a royal spa treatment.
The BMW motorcycle owners association puts out a book called BMW Anonymous. It lists all the members who have volunteered their place for any number of services, from Coffee and Conversation to a pick-up on the side of the road during a breakdown. It is just a list of phone numbers sorted by city with a series of codes stating what this particular phone number offers up. So down the list I go starting with the phone number with the most codes after it. "This number has been disconnected," "Thanks for calling such and such store," "Please leave a message." I started to get a little disheartened. Perhaps this book wasn't going to be great resource.
Finally, an actual human answered. A woman with a soft european accent (later learned that it was Moroccan) instantly made me feel comfortable as not only invited us but encouraged us to come over to her and her husbands house to use the garage.
We packed up our stuff, rode the 2 miles to their place and within minutes Megan and I felt right at home with this great couple. Rick and Eliane (pronounce el-ii-ana) made us a cup of coffee, showed us around the garage, introduced us to their dogs, Buddy and Nekita, and gave us a great space work. But not only that we enjoyed fantastic conversation as Megan learned that both of their kids (now in college) went to Montessori schools and that they are the Solar Kings of California as founders of California Solar.

The day went on we were fed an amazing lunch with their own "Woodie Wine" -as in the station wagon- and gourmet cheeses.
To prevent this post from rambling too much, I will cut to the chase. By 6 o'clock, we were invited to stay at their house indefinitely to wait out this storm (which could last into next weekend). They will out of town on business so we will be house-sitting. We can use their garage to finish up the bike maintenance and it all starts tonight when we go over to their house for dinner (which I'm sure will be fantastic).

As we were driving back to Jenny's house (who has also taken care of us beyond belief) last night in the rain I kept shaking my head in disbelief and feeling warmth in my heart from how lucky we are to be able to take a trip like this and interact with such great people. This is the greatest thing about traveling. You put yourself out there to meet new people and experience new things and sure enough, the world returns the favor.
So for those of you feeling like the world might not be so good. Let me re-assure you that it is. You just have to go out and find it.

--Rick's gorgeous Ducati Corse (I don't know enough about Ducati's to say which one it is, but boy is it a work of art)

Megan got a new look

She went to a Salon in Ventura to get her hair colored and came home with a hairstyle very unique to her. It will be back to normal tomorrow.








But before that we were trying real hard to find a crush washer and instead added another photo to our collection of photos of real big tools.

the rain in california stays mainly in the north...

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On the last exciting episode of the indulgent adventures I was still OCD about the weather. I still am but more on that later.

The short version:
3 days of great riding along the California coast. The hospitality of friends as well as total strangers is mind boggling. Giant winter storm (the biggest since 1995) is expected to pound southern california for the next week.

The long version (I'm doing this more as a journal for myself, but if you want to, read on):
We woke up in Garberville after a long night of rain and more rain. Our bikes were tucked safely under the awning of the motel, all locked up and covered but despite this relative security we kept waking up all night and peeking out the window to make sure they were safe. I know, I know, compared to Mexico the stonerville of Garberville is a very benign place, but none-the-less we were concerned for the safety of our ladies.
We hit the road and within minute were wheeling through driving rain on the 101. It actually wasn't that bad because we were tucked beneath our GORE-TEX® outerwear (I have to write it that way since i now work with W.L. GORE) which really does work surprisingly well. However, when it really starts to pick up I become concerned about other drivers on the road loosing control and hitting us. We made it to the junction of the 1 and the 101. Fate was in our hands. Turn left and drive the freeway to San Francisco in less than three hours. Turn right and go over a windy pass towards the coast and Mendocino California where we might encounter high winds, heavy rain, and whole lot more adventure. We hemmed and hawed for a while but then realized that are in this trip for the adventure and adventure rarely comes when one chooses the expected way.
We chose wisely. The road over the pass had exactly 2 cars on it as it wound through the redwoods towards the coast for 25 miles and then dropped south along empty miles of fantastic coastline on a perfect road. Eventually we ended up in Mendocino. A sort of Aspen meets artist town with great coffee and pizza. We really wanted to go satisfy my inner hippies and watch waves smashing the coast so we found a route out of Mendocino to a bluff with massive breakers. They were big and loud and cool.

Then it was back towards San Francisco. Once we regained the 101, it was an hour of freeway driving in pouring rain. I spend a lot of my life looking for moments of focus. Those moments where one can only pay attention the task right in front oneself and the rest of world disappears. Riding on a california freeway in the rain puts one into that state of mind. I would have liked to seen a movie of myself with eyes wide open cruising down the left lane (because the left lane is the safest) paying full attention to everything that is going on around me in all directions. This is exhausting but cool. We finally hit the Golden Gate bridge with big smiles and no toll (motorcycles are free). Yippee California.
Megan's friend Jess has a most amazing flat on top of the highest hill in San Francisco. Jess graciously let us stay in her place for a night. Her kindness was most appreciated and it was great to have a something besides a motel room for an occasion. The view really is something to remember. We also were able to spend a little time with Megan's relatives Alexandra, Kurt and their three great boys (and soon to be daughter). All great people.

Jan 13


The Big Sur Coast. We headed out of town to a finally glorious day of sunshine. We road south to Castroville, artichoke capital of the world where we indulged in a half pound of deep fried artichoke hearts. I remember going to this place as a kid and it is good to know that it is still there. and yummy.
the afternoon took us down the 1 on the Big Sur Coast. Fantastic curvies amongst sea cliffs and remote rocky beaches. We found a campsite to settle down for the evening. We set up our new tent from Hilleberg, one of the world's best tentmakers. This thing really is quite an engineering feat. If you are a gearhead, do yourself a favor and check one of these things out.
As we were setting up our tent a guy camping next to us, Chuck, came over and struck up a conversation. I won't go into too much detail but we ended up drinking some Makers Mark with him later in the night and having one hell of a great conversation. In fact, we made friends with all the people surrounding us at the campground. One thing about motorcycle touring, it is so damn easy to talk to people. People are usually quite curious about what we are up to and generally friendly beyond belief.




















Jan 14



Another glorious day of weather. More curvies on the road to start the day. By mid-morning we saw an upcoming rest area with 50 cars parked in it. What the _____? Since we are are pack animals at heart, we too stopped at the rest area. As it luck would have it, this is a viewing area for Elephant Seals. And boy howdy were we lucky. It is the one week of the year when momma elephant seals swim up to the beach to give birth to their young. I missed it, but Megan saw a little critter pop right out of the back of one of the mommas. The sounds that 200 hundred elephant seals can make is... well... quite tribal. A mixture of a bronx cheer, a whooping wine, and guttural yelp that goes on and on. This video only slightly does it justice.

More miles on the road and we ended up in lovely Ventura to the graciousness of our friend Jenny. We have been sending motorcycle gear to her for the past few weeks and our plan is to spend a few days in Ventura tuning up the bikes and getting them ready for the next leg of the trip.

To end this endless post on a weather note, take a look at the screen shot from the weather service. This is our next week.
Crazy!

no wind and then wind, but not wet

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It seems that I am living my life by obsessing about the forecast and the weather conditions. Well... a huge pacific storm was headed for the coast and we are going to be caught up in it. When we checked the forecast on Saturday night (right now it is monday night) there was a high wind advisory for the southern oregon coast (30-60 mph) for the day we were going to ride on the southern oregon coast. Yikes. If you haven't had the pleasure of riding a motorcycle in wind, let me describe the sensation. First... let me describe the regular sensation of riding a motorcycle with no wind. Imagine the coolest roller coaster you can think of (minus the loop-d-loops). Basically we are riding that roller coaster only we can choose our speed. Now to add wind, pitch the track over 10-20 degrees depending on the wind speed. [adjusting the chain tension] Now add gusts... pitch it back and forth only you can't tell when the wild swings are going to happen. For those of you who have been to disneyland and ridden space mountain, it is something like that. It is fun... but also kind of scary. For instance, we were on the 101 today going over the Eel river on a fairly high bridge and boy did the wind start blowing. I looked over the edge of the bridge and thought... I wonder if I could survive the fall off this bridge into the water? Now, it really isn't that bad. I won't ever fall off the bike and as long as I keep it mellow and am prepared for anything, I feel like I am in control. Which is fun. But too much fun can be tiring.



[mama mia, that's a big'a tree] So here we are in Garberville, CA- probably the epicenter of marijuana growing in the USA. An interesting town for sure. It is just south of Humbolt State Park which is home to the 25 mile Avenue of the Giants. A small winding road through the largest trees in the world. I think we saw one other car on the road (which happens to be in the video). Absolutely fantastic riding. And the cool thing about giant redwoods? They block the wind.

What else have we done? We have ridden countless miles of spectacular coastline with giant waves (25 foot breakers are predicted for tomorrow). We have ridden past uber green fields with spots of fog dotting the skyline. We bought groceries at a COOP in Eureka and the cashier (who owns a motorcycle very similar to ours) invited us to stay with his daughter in Santa Barbara. In the same coop we talked with a bunch of different folks including a little girl who was so fascinated with bikes that she made her parents wait around for us to start up our bikes and ride off. She started off by saying "it is going to be loud." Thinking that she doesn't like loud noises, I reassured her that our bikes actually aren't that loud but as it turns out, she was waiting for us to start our bikes so she could here loud noises. I regretted disappointing her with the sweet german purrr of a single cyclinder BMW. (you can barely see here behind the pole in this photo)

[check out the sweet swell in the background] Tomorrow we head to San Francisco. Our plan was to head slightly south of here and then at Leggett start the 1 all the way into San Francisco. The 1 is the classic winding coastal road with very little as far as civilization. However, with 30 mph winds predicted and pouring rain (it is now raining hard outside our hotel room) we may take it easy and cruise the 101 instead. We'll see what the morning brings.

[running in the forest]








[a perfect snack, salami-thanks ian- cheese from the tillamook factory and coffee]








[sunrise at the sunset hotel]











[watching the radar image-this isn't good]