Sunday, June 8

Last week was a high dollar week.  First off, the excursion pack was a success.  I also liked the RevPack Map Pocket that attached to the tank.  I printed the maps from Streets and Trips as strip maps, but in the portrait orientation.  This way the map is on the top half and the directions on the bottom.  The map pocket window is about 9x9, So I just needed to trim a slight bit off to get the pages to fit.  I could even take out the top page and shove it into my pocket while flying down the freeway.

I needed new tires.  I got the Avon Azaro AV-45/46 combination.  There is a good chance that the rear will make it the whole 9,200 miles, as long as I am careful on the first day which is a 900 mile freeway blast to Vail, Colorado.  There went $275.

The socks that I bought in SLC were also great.  3 more pairs at REI blew another $45.  I had ordered the chain a week or so ago, $120.

Now it was time to address the jacket and pants.  I bought the jacket 4 years ago when I had just gotten back into riding.  It is a great 3 season jacket.  I did seal up some small tears recently.  I usually just wore it nearly unzipped on real hot days, but the 100+ degree of southern Utan and Las Vegas was a bit much.  I had been looking at getting the Joe Rocket Phoenix jacket for summer, but just the week before I had decided to wait until after the trip.  So what changed my mind?  It was the pants.  I had gotten these JR Ballistic pants 4 years ago, also.  At the time, it was one of the few that fit - XXXL.  But they didn't mate to the HG jacket.  I didn't ever wear them much, just when it was quite cold.  I usually wore jeans.  Since I did a few cold weather trips, I had gotten back into the habit of wearing the pants over jeans.  Even though I had lost 40+ pounds a year ago, they mostly fit.

Well on this trip I tried to wear the pants over shorts.  Bad move, they kept falling down whenever I was off of the bike.  So I decided to get a smaller pair (newer, too - the old ones were the original ballistics and now they are on the 4.0 version).  I found a place with a good discount and ordered the Ballistic 4.0 pants in XXL, a Phoenix Jacket in XXL (blue), a Dry-Tech waterproof liner for the jacket, and a JR Sahara vest.  You can wet the vest and the air passing through the perforated jacket will give you s9ome evaporative cooling.  Total cost was $350.  I will probably get a Ballistic 4.0 Jacket in the fall and retire the old HG Boost jacket.  The pants will zip onto any JR jacket, so I won't have to deal with pants falling off.

I also ordered several oils filters.  I will send one to NJ, along with the maps and stuff for the second half of my trip.

Now I need to finish putting the bike back together.  The tires are on the rims, I'.m waiting for the locktite on the rotor bolts to set up, I changed the oil and filter, and I feed the new chain in place (I need to mount the rear tire before I can rivet it together).  I'll do a bit each night.  Coolant level is fine, brakes still have 50% or more pad, chain sprockets look good.  I am almost ready to leave.  Just 3 weeks to go.