Backblocks America blog

These offshore motorcycle expeditions are big undertakings and there are a lot of people involved apart from the riders. Our group has got through this 29,000 km traverse of Canada, Mexico and 26 States of the US without significant mishaps to machines or people. That is a commendation to all those who helped put this project together.

We would like to firstly thank our sponsoring partners, led by BMW, John Baker Insurance, Icebreaker and Fairydown. These firms all once again backed us to the hilt, and each continue to be wonderful to deal with. These expeditions require good gear and service arrangements if they are to succeed and each of these suppliers have proved to us the quality of their products time and again. We will use them all again during next year’s traverse of the African Continent.

As well as our commercial partners we’d like to thank the folks at Gareth Morgan Investments Ltd who unflinchingly keep the website going and we know from the traffic count that the visitor numbers have soared above those for last year’s Silkrider tour.

Next, many thanks to Paul Holmes and the ZB Breakfast team for putting up with our somewhat erratic satellite phone communications – the email feedback from new Zealanders who heard those conversations tells us they were followed widely. And also thanks to Jeremy Rees and his team at the NZ Herald for the great coverage they provided of the trip – again feedback tells us the pieces were widely read.

Finally to the many New Zealanders and Americans who contacted us along the way and really helped make our visit so enjoyable, educational and fulfilling. Many of the approaches from these folk were quite unsolicited and we were embarrassed by the generosity of them all. Once again a significant finding from travelling is that people the world over are overwhelmingly good and go out of their way to help you.

This tour we’ve experienced some weather extremes – such as the heat in the deserts of Chihuahua and Death Valley where temperatures got up into the fifties and adjusting for ground radiation, the eighties. But also we’ve been in some severe cold such as on the shores of the Arctic Ocean and in the sea of the Bering Strait, as well as one morning riding up in the Yukon between Whitehorse and Dawson City where heavy rain pelted us as well.

Yet through all this stuff, just as was the case last year on the Silkroad, we have worn the same base gear. Our Icebreaker stuff continues to be the best for all extremes and none us would be without it. Once the air temperature is above your body temperature having a layer of merino helps with moisture wicking and hence cooling. Jo has worn her Icebreaker merino ski socks the whole trip and I can vouch that her feet still smell sweet and are fungus free Last time I checked!)

And ironically we haven’t seen them drinking our beer over here but there sure has been Icebreaker in the top sports stores with the Canadians in particular pretty keen on it.

Yes we were guilty on the Silkroad tour of blaming the affliction of diarrhoea after lunch on the unsanitary conditions encountered in the eating establishments along that route. But this explanation looks suspect now that we have encountered a similar fluidity soon after digesting at highway food outlets here in the US. The last couple of days have been a case in point. It began with Joanne crawling across the floor of Yosemite Canyon soon after imbibing a chocolate milk drink. A vicious attack of tummy trouble was only brought to an end by her throwing said refreshment up for the bears to enjoy. The next episode was a café brunch that caught both Dave and Gareth out within an hour. Gareth was lucky enough to make it to a gas station bathroom, but Dave, as occurred last year, had no such luck and didn’t even manage to get off the bike before being compromised. And these are not isolated incidents. We conclude that the constant change of diet on these roadtrips is a source of intestinal instability that can drop even the most hardy of souls to the floor in an instant. The good news is that recovery – once you’ve vacated your chambers – is equally rapid.

You know how I told you how wonderful it was in the bike shop a couple of days ago.

The bike felt strange and heavy and I decided the new fork seals had really changed things.

About 50  miles down the road I did the routine chain kick to see how it was holding up after being charged $25 for a chain lube (Yes that is US $$ about NZ $45) The chain was so tight that there wasn’t a bit of movement, BMW even put a sign in English right by the chain to remind you to leave some slack. If it had broken which it was primed to do I’d have never realised it was anything but bad luck. Tyres were inflated to 46 rear and 39 front. Makes you wonder about who was awake in the BMW work-shop. Still I broke the rule of “Never trust a job” always check it.. Dave the manager is coming down to NZ soon so I’ll make him buy me a big beer. I did get a T-shirt but have decided I’ve really paid.

Today it has been 115 degrees as we have come south from just above San Fransisco. My face is burnt red from the wind after a few minutes with the visor up. Motorway travel is really hard in these conditions especially as I got a screw in the new rear tyre about 20 km before the golden gate bridge. “Bang” and being in the 4th lane of 5 wasn’t looking so smart so a very wobbly movement across the lanes at 120 km/hr got me into the triangle by an off ramp. Dave as always was n’t far behind to deal with the problem, thanks Dave.

There were several near misses on the off ramp as we worked in fear of our lives and two actual crashes including a four car pile up. Maybe we were a distraction. Cop arrived and offered to help but went to help sort the carnage up the ramp when he saw the full picture. Roger and Gareth missed us after a few miles, and then a long circuit for Gareth trying to find us while Roger was posted along the motorway to stop us if we appeared.

Riding the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge and the roller-coaster streets was a buzz, and just missed the “flowers in your hair” thing.

One of the features of this ride has been the amazing network of New Zealanders across America that have heard about our journey, have made contact and we have enjoyed catching up with. There are too many to mention here and our programme has not enabled us to meet them all but a huge vote of thanks from the four of us for the generosity and warmth all these folks have shown.

Take last night in Seattle for example. John Maclean and Leyette and Paul Callister opened their home on the shores of Union Lake to us for a fine Kiwi style BBQ having first organised a great kayak trip around the lake to see the sites - including the house boat that featured in the Tom Hanks movie Sleepless in Seattle. It wasn’t as placid an outing as you’d imagine - float planes coming and going kept our concentration levels up. Thanks guys - a wonderful sojourn.

I’m sitting in the showroom of “Ride West BMW” they provide coffee and snacks and a computer to live your life while you wait. I think I’ve sold a bike for them so I might get a t-shirt for free.

Today we are doing rear tyres and an oil change and I am doing my front fork seals. The forks should have been protected but I didn’t get my act together and the calcium carbide on the roads sets like concrete on the sliders and then you have a litle leak that gets bigger and today I was getting a bit of front-end instability. The NZ dollar means we cringe at the prices here in the USA, everything will be double on my VISA bill.

Ok back a day to Vancouver, where I found a first cousin Steve Elder and we caught up after 30+ years. We had talked in between but I rekon you need a night to empty a cousin’s beer fridge and a feed off the BBQ before you figure them out.

He’s OK and has done well for an Invercargill boy, hope to see more of him and Christine and kids. The photo of his daughter, Princess Stephanie shows another biker girl in the making.
Vancouver is like Wellington, very vibrant and an international feel, loved it and the weather was soooo good.

I’ve missed Dave Penny’s birthday sorry Dave.

Must go and check out the workshop and see if my baby is fixed.

Jo

Frankly Alaska’s Inner Passage got a bit boring after 4 days - maybe we were just missing our bikes. But sitting on ferries staring at pine & spruce trees-covered islands ad nauseum is for old folks. The whales were great but it’s such a long way and so much motorcycling is sacrificed that we agreed that one or two days in passive tourist mode is more than enough.

Then to the top of Vancouver Island and the 500 kms run down there. great to be back on the bikes and how I’d best describe the main drag down the island is to think of it like the road from Tokoroa to Atiamuri and then multiply the length by 10. So forest-covered rock outcrops and some nice rivers. But then you can also look at the coast road of the island and it is very like the country around Nelson with its Tahuna hill, Tasman Bay with Takakaka hill in the distance. In this second week of July the crowds are here as the island is the summer playground for Canadians who live inland.

All in all very pretty but no substitute for being on the road and in the wilderness.

The show must go on, but our riding companion for the last 4 weeks has departed now to rejoin his family who graciously have sacrificed some of ther US holiday while their dad indulges his passion for motorcycling expeditioning and joined us from Utah to the top of the world at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. MOD (Mike O’Donell) was far more than a riding companion - he organised the section of our ride that he was with us and sorted our schedule, made sure we got to arranged critical points - like the bus trip through the oil installation at Prudhoe, and the ferries we’re about to board down through the Inner Passage to Vancouver Island.

We last rode offshore with MOD in the Aussie desert shakedown for our Silkroad trip and before that in the Himalayas in 2001.

So thanks MOD from all of us, always a pleasure.

If you’re riding a motorcycle in the Northwest, you’re never lonely or wanting for conversation. Up here bikerdom is a fraternal order. All the bikers wave (even most of the Harley riders) and at gas stations fellow riders are quick to wander across and compare notes on roads, campgrounds and stories. Its a truly liberating feeling of comaraderie’.

Along the way we have met a plethora of fine people and as we headed further north we found ourselves running into the same people again and again. Geoff from Vancouver on his LC8, Al from Seattle on his 1150 Adventure, Dave from Oregon on what is quite possibly the world’s lightest 1200 GS and of course Klaus (ze German) on his big orange beast.

Klaus first entered the teams’ life in Mexico, then ended up camping with us in Vernal, Yellowstonea nd Jasper. Then we ended up drinking heavily with him in Dawson and Fairbanks and the bond was further strengthened. A truly fine fellow - and one we hope to see down under later this year.

Then there are the people that make you feel truly humble - ones who are taking a path that makes you feel like a wussie as you ride your flash bike and sit in your flash gears.

Two days ago in Fairbanks we were just leaving Fairbanks Honda and a chap in oilskins rides up on a 1980 Yamaha AG200 with a duffel bungied to the back - a bike commonly known in NZ as the Grasshopper. This is a bike designed for farmers doing their lambing - and not sold in the US at all. And its a 2 stroke - so you have to stop and mix oil with the petrol along the way.

A sprightly fellow gets off and Roger commences the normal exchange of where are you from, where are you headed? The rider was Arthur from Adelaide. On a whim he had shipped his farm bike to Terra Del Fuego at the Southern tip of South America 4 months ago and commenced to head for Prudhoe with nothing more specialised than a big piece of perspex wired to the from of the Ag bike and a pup tent. Now he was within striking distance of his goal - the Arctic Sea.

And what did he plan to do afterwards - ship the bike home of course - after all he’d paid $500 Australian for it. He planned to have it mounted in his lounge.

One last thing - Arthur is 80. “I reckoned I’d better get on and do this ride before I get too old” he said in a restrained Australian drawl.

Arthur - you rock.