We (me on Stanley, Gerry on his spanking new KTM 1190, and Ben on his spanking new GS1200) left home yesterday and headed north through Kamloops and Prince George. Did about 700 km trouble free. The stock seat on Stanley is fine for about 2 hours, then it's time to get off and stretch. Fully loaded with the side cases and top box the fuel mileage is hovering around 38mp(imperial)g.
The tube-to-tubeless conversion is holding up well.
We passed a posse (herd? gaggle? group?) of several hundred Harley types going the other way at Bridge Lake. Must have been a rally or toy run or something. Otherwise not too many bikes on the road.
It's interesting that the 'extras' Gerry has thrown at the KTM (cases, crash bars etc etc) cost more than Stanley did!
No pictures yet... nothing interesting to see. Will post when there is something worth sharing.
We're off to Mile '0' of the Alaska Highway and will then head on north through Fort Nelson, to end up hopefully in Liard hot springs this evening.
All fun and games!! :icon_lol:
Looking forward to the long report :new_popcornsmiley
Show them what the old girl can still do without a computer in sight :wheel
:XXsunsmile and ride safe :wave
We did 756km yesterday and 773km today, ending up this evening in Fort Nelson. It got decidedly soggy the last few hours of the ride so we have wimped out and crashed in a motel.
In the peeing rain I was leading and upped the pace just a little, so of course the mpg fell.. to 35 mp(imperial)g
An interesting day. The speedo cable on the Tiger gave up the ghost (a common problem??) so it's a good thing I have the GPS. Also the tickover is reluctant to come down to a 'normal' idle, so I think there is an air leak in there somewhere. But he sure likes to go around corners.
I have to say that although this is proving to be an interesting trip I don't think that I will do it again. The roads are mind numbingly boring in places!!
Anyhoo, here is a hotel in Quesnel built to resemble the paddle wheelers that used to go up and down the Fraser River, camping last night, and Mile '0' of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.
Day 3. An easy 328km through a bit of rain, but made up for by some really nice road ('scenic byway') once we got to Muncho Lake. We ended up staying at Liard Hot Springs to camp. The place was full but they kindly let us stay in the car park!
The fuel is indifferent and expensive. Usually only lower grade, so I'm glad I brought along some octane booster.
Quote from: nickjtc on June 16, 2014, 06:39:17 AM
I was leading and upped the pace just a little, ....................
The speedo cable on the Tiger gave up the ghost (a common problem??) .
Naughty :bad it's only common if you try to bend the needle :wheel
Quote from: Sin_Tiger on June 17, 2014, 11:00:25 PM
Naughty :bad it's only common if you try to bend the needle :wheel
I'm so wrapped up about the poor mileage that I have not revved the engine above 5,500rpm on this trip. Honest. I had forewarning that the cable was on the way out because it chirped at me for about 10km.
Yesterday. Entering the mountains and at Liard hot springs.
476km today. Another boring ride in on and off drizzle. But we finally crossed in to the Yukon. Wimped out, yet again, and stayed in the warm and dry.
More pics en route.
And, not wishing to start a fuel thread, the great thing about a long road trip is that you get to assess fuel mileage with good, bad and ugly fuel. With factory authorised 'mid' grade Stanley is getting a consistent 38 mp(imperial)g. With 'high' grade, yup, still 38 mpg. However with 'scrape-the-bottom-of-the-barrel' low grade (even with octane booster) the mileage sank to 35mpg.
So here we are in Dawson City, Yukon. 3038km from home. This place is quite interesting with its gravel streets and boardwalks, over priced accomodation, and general aura of being frayed around the edges. Last night was 'cheap' beer night at the Triple J hotal ($3.75 a pint) so we had to imbibe, of course. And the obligatory visit to the Downtown Hotel bar to do Captain Dick's 'Sour Toe Cocktail'.
http://www.canadacool.com/COOLFACTS/YUKON/DawsonSourToe.html
Another way of relieving the hapless tourist of more money! So far the most predominant make of bike in town is BMW. A few KLR 650s, and a Moto Guzzi Quota with sidecar attached.
Today the rest of the 200 or so hardy souls will start rolling in to town. It's cool and overcast and the Top of the World Highway is not looking good for our crossing in to the US on Saturday!!
Today is mooch around day until the fun and games start later. There is a poker run this afternoon then a steak dinner followed by riding games, which should be entertaining after the riders are all beered up. At midnight, when it should still be quite light, they hand out the coveted 'Dust to Dawson' decal for the bike.
This is rapidly turning in to a BMW/KTM benefit, with 1200GSs being the most predominant. More KLRs have shown up, including one gal from Hawaii who took her bike apart to get it shipped to Seattle as 'motorcycle parts' (and saved $1000 by doing so), put it all back together and is now heading for the east coast! Some V-Stroms.
The only 'odd' bikes here, apart from my Steamer, are a couple of Honda 'road' bikes and a Kawasaki Versys.
And the only other Triumph, so far!
At least your not in the Ewan Mcgregor 'wannabe' category. The crowd who think unless your on a GS,you can't have an 'adventure' on a bike :icon_rolleyes:
Hope the rest of the trip goes ok for you :thumbsup
Interestingly enough not one person on this trip has wanted to engage in conversation about my bike or Steamers in general. Where I stayed last night in Dease Lake (the back of beyond) there was a Girly with sidecar attached. And on the road yesterday I passed what might have been a Girly too. Apart from those and the ones in Dawson City I have seen 0 Triumph adventure bikes.
On my way home now. My riding buddy has more time/money so decided to head back in to Alaska, and I decided to head home. Yesterday was a 900km day. Today, from Dease Lake to Quesnel was 1086km. So this proves that a Steamer can function as a long distance machine.
I'll fill in the gaps and post some pics when I get home tomorrow.... an 'easy' day of 500km or so.
Thanks for the memories, your photos have reminded me of my trip there in 08, swam at Liard, stayed in Dawson, thanks for posting.
Got home yesterday afternoon.
When we were ready to leave Dawson City on Saturday after the Dust 2 Dawson (don't call it a rally) Rally (aka the BMW GS benefit) we were going to head west on the Top of the World Highway to Chicken. (It's called that because they couldn't spell ptarmigan, apparently.)
Anyhoo it was pissing with rain so we decided to err on the side of caution and not risk it. The US side of the road gets slicker than snot on a door knob and neither of us has 'off road' tyres. So we decided to head back to Whitehorse (another drone down the road) and then south to Skagway, where we spent a very pleasant day and night looking at more jewelry stores than I have ever seen in one place; catering to the cruise ship crowd I s'pose. We then caught the ferry over to Haines and headed back north to camp at the Million Dollar Falls rec site, back in Yukon.
On Monday am Gerry decided that he wanted to see more of Alaska (he had more $$ than me and a lot more time to kill) so at Haines Junction we said our goodbyes and he headed west and I headed east.
Now I had the bit between my teeth and just wanted to get home, so I did 900km on Monday, to Dease Lake on the Cassiar Highway, 1086km on Tuesday to Quesnel, and 524km yesterday to get home. Knackered but happy.
Apart from a snapped speedo cable going north and a voracious appetite for fuel (It's a sad state of affairs when your bike gets poorer mileage than your four wheel people mover :icon_wink:) the bike performed flawlessly.... apart from when I foolishly adjusted the chain on the centrestand and did not think to check it off the stand. Then rode 400km wondering what the funny noise was from down below. Hopefully I haven't buggered up the drive bearing. This faux pas has, of course, accelerated the need for new chain and sprockets, which is probably a good thing because I want to change the gearing. 4500rpm at 105kph is a tad high.
I figure the trip was a total of 6500km-ish. The rear tyre is squarer than any I have seen in a long while.
Here are some more pics. The cruise ship is one of the ones used in the TV show 'The Love Boat', fyi.
PS. Here is something you do not see every day. When we were in Dawson, in most of the washrooms there were buckets of free condoms, supplied by Yukon Health.
Ostensibly to promote safe habits, but I cannot help but wonder if we missed something, and the morals in town are akin to the days of the gold rush when there was a plethora of brothels in town :augie :augie
Hope you nabbed a few, really handy for keeping your fags (cigarettes) dry, if you see that in the UK then it usually means the washroom is a gay hang out :pimp
The place we stayed in at Dawson was the kind of place that maybe rooms were available by the hour...... :icon_scratch: Might explain the condom thing :icon_scratch:
Quote from: Sin_Tiger on June 26, 2014, 10:57:52 PM
Hope you nabbed a few, really handy for keeping your fags (cigarettes) dry, if you see that in the UK then it usually means the washroom is a gay hang out :pimp
Over here they are used for the same purpose. Except a fag is a descriptive for a person who likes their bread buttered on the other side. :icon_lol: Not that there is anything wrong with that. :icon_wink:
Yup, that's why I made that distinction clear, if I hadn't Mustang would be pulling my other leg by now :nod
Each to their own :hat10
Epic trip if a bit of a drudge on the highways, so glad to read how well the Steamer performed, they really are amazing beasts if they get even just basic care. Are you running the stock gearing? That rpm/speed doesn't look right and might explain your consumption.
Those condoms would be handy for carrying extra fuel on a trip like that. Impressive Milages covered,and with the 'steamer' :thumbsup
Quote from: Sin_Tiger on June 27, 2014, 11:48:07 AM
Are you running the stock gearing? That rpm/speed doesn't look right and might explain your consumption.
When I get the front sprocket cover off to check whether I have done any damage to the front sprocket bearing by over tightening the chain I will see how many teeth are on the sprocket.
Interestingly enough the gearing on a new KTM1190 is quite close to mine. He is turning about 4200rpm at 105kph.
I'm thinking 4,000rpm to do 105kph would be nice; I think the engine has enough torque to handle it.