My Goldilocks Shopping Experience

Time to go shopping!  What woman doesn’t love, love, LOVE to shop?  I needed a new riding jacket and if I could squeeze it into the budget a good set of warm gloves.  My current jacket is not all that good.  It’s a bit big, and not real warm.   So off we went to the bike apparel store.  I had my shopping shoes, credit card in hand and most importantly Ed’s blessing to spend, spend, and spend!

Now just to start off here I am not a size 2, I’m not a size 30, but not a 2 either.  I land somewhere in the middle and I am average height and weight for a female.  That being said I figured I could find a good jacket with no problems.  Oh how the shopping Gods were laughing at my naiveté. 

I stupidly grabbed a jacket in my size.  Couldn’t even hardly get it on let alone zip it up.  OK so I seemed to remember that motorcycle gear runs a tad small in womens clothing.  Note to the designers here:  NOT COOL!  Yeah us woman already have issues with our clothing size making us buy a bigger size than what we usually wear does not help with our self esteem.

Trying on jackets became quite the work out.   This one was too small, this one was too big, this one was too tight around the waist, and the next was too tight around the chest.  Then I found one that was too long in the arms, and then one was too tight around my arm pits.  It seemed I simply could not find one that fit just right.  My frustration level was rising, while my ego was deflating.  My size was too small and the bigger sizes were too small and then the even bigger sizes didn’t fit right in certain spots.  This was not a fun shopping experience.  In fact I was ready to be done.  So we left.  No new jacket.  No new gloves. 

I wondered as we were driving home if other women had the same problems I was having.  Not all of us are a size 2 with perfect bodies.  There are others in my size range and others who are bigger.  Where did they buy their gear?  How did they find stuff that fit?  I did turn to the internet but wasn’t having any luck with that either.  I felt like I needed to try it on to make certain it was going to work for me and my body type.

So we waited a week.  Saturday rolled around and again we were headed out.  Only this time I wasn’t excited or happy to go shopping.  This was not going to be a shopping experience I was looking forward to.   

 I’m sad to say it started out just like the previous experience.  Things were too small, too tight, too long and wouldn’t zip up.  As I tried on jacket after jacket I began to think “maybe I’ll just get one that zips up, but is long in the arms. “  It would be annoying, but at least it would fit in all the other spots.

And then I put on a Street and Steel Femme Fatale.  It zipped up.  The arms were the perfect length.  It wasn’t too tight.  I was in a size that made sense and didn’t make me feel like a fat cow.  It was warm.  It even fit with a heated liner.  It was stylish.    I LOVED IT!  But I still hadn’t looked at the price tag.  So I took a deep breath and looked and saw $178.00, not bad and I was willing to pay it all because it fit.  Ladies I’m sure you will understand when I say how nice it was to find gear that fit just right. 

But my friends here is the best part and I mean super cool awesome….at the counter I found out that it was 44% off!  So my uber cool jacket that fit was now only $100.00.  OMG a steal!  I was doing the happy dance.  Since I saved so much on the jacket I went ahead and got my gloves which were also on sale.  Normally $49.99 I was able to grab for $39.99 also Street and Steel brand.   

Here we are a week closer to our trip with two more things crossed off our list.  I haven’t felt this excited for an event to hurry up and get here since I was 8 and had to wait for Christmas day.  How many more days till June?

My awesome new gloves.  These should be nice and toasty warm.  If you look closely you can see the skulls.  Bears will fear me.  RWAR!

I like the skull theme that matches my gloves.

                                   

THE jacket!

                                                    

Oh no, broken throttle cable

Ed here:

My intention this weekend was to put an auxiliary power outlet in the right saddle bag so we can charge the computer, cell phones, etc.  However, on Wednesday as I was leaving to go to work, the pull throttle cable snapped at the handlebar.  Thank goodness I had not left the garage when this happened.  This would have been a tremendous pain had it happened in route to the office or worse in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness.

On the KLR, I could have changed the cables in about 30 minutes, by the way the KLR sold last weekend, but the Wing is a much more complex machine.  I ordered the cables (I'll replace both push and pull cables) and started to do some research.  I was not able to find much about this procedure in the service manual or on line.  All I knew was that this was going to be a very involved process.  I did stumble across one website that was quite helpful, here is the link.  This is Jim's web page.  I wound up emailing Jim back and forth several times.  He is a great fellow who was very willing to help, I was lucky to find him.  I also reached out to a friend of mine that I found a few years ago on one of the GoldWing message boards named Dave.  Dave has helped me in the past and is a wonderful guy.  I am very thankful for both Jim and Dave's help and support with this project.  I suspect the project would be ten times more difficult without their help.

Yesterday, I started to tear the Wing down to get to the cables.  The cables should be here on Wednesday of this week, so I will complete this project next weekend.  This is turning out to be a very involved process, I have a little over three hours into the job thus far.  It is not hard, just time consuming.  Here is a summary of what I have done thus far.

This poor quality picture is showing the broken cable in the twist grip.  You can see the frayed ends on the right.  The cable separated right at the ball end where it hooks to the twist throttle.

 I removed the seat, top shelter, radio, both fairing pockets, and side covers.  This exposes the air filter box, which will need to be removed.  I wound up removing all of the plastic body pieces on both the right and left sides.  This allows for access to the air filter box.

Here is the left side of the bike with all the body plastic removed.

Here is what the air box looks like with the air cleaner removed.  The carburetors are right under this box.  To remove the box, there are three screw around each of the tops of the carburetors (a total of six screws).  I put paper towels in the tops of the carburetors to keep anything from falling in and loosened the screws.  There are also two screws near the left side closest to the seat which I loosened.

At the base of the air box on the right and left sides, there are two bolts which have to be removed.  This picture shows my socket wrench on the right side bolt.

There are two vacuum lines on the left side of the air box that need to be removed.  One has a green stripe on it and the other has a pink stripe.  The green on is on the left rear and the pink one is on the left front.  At this point you can slightly lift the air box up.  There is one last line, it is a large line on the front right on the underside of the air box. There is a photo a little further below which shows this line.

Here is our first glimpse of the cables with the air box removed.  You will also note there is a small plastic piece in the photo above, it is the piece that unscrewed from the bottom of the air box on the left side closest to the seat.  It is piece number 5 shown on this link.  There are two lines on the bottom of it that have to be removed sot this piece can be taken out in order to get to the cables.

The line from the bottom right of the air box mentioned above can be seen in this photo.  It is in the upper right of the photo.  This hose is going to be a real bugger when it is time to put this all back together.  By the way the two wires sitting above the carburetor in this photo are wires that go to a 12 volt power outlet built into my top shelter.  This is where I charge my ipod or cell phone on long road trips.  The red wires are for LED lights.

 Well, here is the Wing all torn down.  Next weekend, I will install the new cables and get her back together.  I sure hope I can remember where everything goes.

Lists!

I forget things easily.  I swear I don’t do it on purpose.  I just forget.  Even last week I had a meeting for my teens on Sat. night.  All week it was in my head to go to this meeting, don’t forget it and be there.  Guess what?  I forgot all about it.  Wanna know why?  Well I failed to write it down, failed to make it a part of my ‘to do’ list.

Going to Alaska we simply can’t forget anything.  Not only for the inconvenience factor, but most importantly for the safety factor we must, must, MUST remember to pack this and do that.

Therefore we have lists.  And brother I’m here to tell ya we have lots of lists.  We have the ‘need to buy before the trip’ list.’  We have the ‘need to get done to the Wing,’ list.  A very important list is the ‘pack list.’  I also have my own personal list of ‘things I need to make sure gets done to the house’ list and the ‘buy for the house’ list.  This is important because the kids will be staying home with family and friends, I want to make sure that everything is as convenient and easy for them as I can possibly make it. 

I need to do all this AND my regular ‘to do’ list from now till June of next year.  I am a Mom to three wonderful, super busy kids.  They have activities and require taxi service and needs.  I work part time, my employer has things he wants me to do.  I volunteer at my kids two schools and go to church.  I have commitments to them that I must fulfill.

You can see why this takes so much planning and time. 

I have a love/hate relationship with lists.  But with our Alaska trip I am going to have to be extra diligent in making a list, and yes, checking it twice to make sure we have done all that we need to do, all that we need packed, and all that needs to be done in preparation for leaving the house for three weeks.  I cannot forget this time.  I have to pay attention and not forget this time.  This is not a trip to let my head float into the clouds.

Just so you know, these lists keep getting longer and longer.  Our 1^st time sitting down it took us three hours of brain storming.  Since then we have added tons more to these lists. 

I’ll look into posting the lists.  Well maybe not my personal ‘to do’ list.  After all I doubt you are all that interested in when I have to pick up and drop off one of the kids.  But maybe the pack list would be helpful for any of you are hoping to one day do this trip.  Or maybe you can look at it, offer up a suggestion or maybe it will just give you a really great laugh.  

Getting ready

Yesterday Devon and I went to the local motorcycle apparel store to check out some heated gear, gloves, and riding pants.  Though we are going in June, temperatures can still get very cold up there and we are guaranteed to have rain.  We tried on several pairs of pants but were unable to find any that we liked so we will keep looking.  Devon did find a pair of gloves she liked, but we did not buy them as I would like to see if I can find them for a better price on line.  We also purchased some more camping gear from Walmart and some cups from the Dollar Store.

I listed the mighty KLR and all the KLR accessories/part I had originally purchased for the solo trip on craigslist and the advrider.com forum.  It is amazing how many responses we have received to the ads.  We have already sold the rear rack, panniers, Corbin seat, and multiple small parts.  I have someone who would like to look at the KLR today, so hopefully it sells.  A majority the money from the KLR sales will be recycled into gear for this trip.

Here is a picture of the KLR:

All Devon and I talk about is this trip and how exciting it is.  She told me yesterday that she dreamed about it all night long.  We have been conversing on line with several other riders who have completed this ride in the past.  This gives us a good idea of what to expect and gives us ideas for stops and pack items.

Next weekend, I am planning to do some work to the Wing so watch for my post next weekend.  By the way, if you have not seen our Wing and trailer, here is a picture of us with it from a ride we completed last year at the Peel Ferry crossing in Arkansas:

I can't wait, a post from Ed

I have been actually thinking about this ride for quite some time.  I asked Devon if I could go on it about 6 months ago, she said yes without hesitation.  I am so lucky to have her as my wife.  I am so excited about this ride and think about it often.  I am constantly doing research and learning from other adventurers who have done the ride in the past.

Originally this was going to be a solo adventure ride from Oklahoma City to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska and possibly Inuvik, Canada on my KLR 650.  Over the past 5 months, I have been planning like crazy.  Then about two weeks ago my thoughts turned to Devon and I realized that I really wanted to share this adventure with her.  I could not imagine being without her for the three weeks this ride would take, so I simply asked her to go.  She, to my delight, said yes.  I can't wait and am already counting down the days.

This ride will be a challenging ride for both Devon and I.  At times it will test our limits and abilities to work together as a couple, but I am confident we can make it.

We will take my SPOT GPS tracker.  For those of you who do not know what this is, it is a device tracked by satellites which allows you to track our progress on an online map in near real time.

Our route will be as follows:

• Prince George, British Columbia
• Cassair Highway
• Whitehorse
• Klondike Highway
• Top of the World Highway
• Chicken, AK
• Tok, AK
• Fairbanks, AK
• Coldfoot, AK
• Dead Horse, AK
• Prudhoe Bay, AK

Our goal is to make it all the way to Prudhoe Bay, but if we don't it will be OK because we will be together having a great time.

We still have a ton of planning to do, and lots of equipment to purchase.  Check in with us frequently to see what we are up to

Ed Throws Devon A Curveball

Our Goal, the Arctic Ocean

"As you know, I am very excited about the AK trip; however, I am having a hard time envisioning it without you.  What's the sense in having an adventure if you don't have someone to share it with, and I really would like to share it with you?  We would have to take the Wing and there would be some challenges and roads we would not be able to cover, but then we could be gnarly adventurers together."

This was part of an email Ed sent to me about a week ago.  He had been planning this trip for 6 months.  I was staying home to keep the home fires burning, watch our children and shake my head and agree with the world that 'he is nuts.'  I admit a part of me wanted to go.  I was jealous that he was getting to have this adventure, go and see things I would not get to see or participate in.  But he was taking his KLR, a bike that really only one of us could ride on.  The wing, a bike we could both ride comfortably, was one he didn't want to take.  So I put it out of my mind and told my jealous side to quit and be the supporting loving wife.  After all, I really did want him to go and have the adventure of a lifetime.

I must say there have been very few times in our 18 years of marriage Ed has been able to 110% surprise me and this would definitely be one of them.  When I got the email I was shocked. My first thought was 'no, no way.  Not possible’.  But then the more I went on with my work day the more I thought ‘maybe, just maybe I could do this with him’. In the email he mentioned all of the arguments I would have come up with as an excuse for not going.  Money, kids, the long drive, camping, cold, and getting time off of work, but Ed had made a counter argument for me in writing and making this trip a real possibility for me. The question is could I do it.  Could I get over the cold?  Yes. Could I suck it up and camp even though I am not a fan of camping? Yes.  Could I leave the kids for that long?  Yes.  Could I survive the long drive?  The long hours on the bike? Yes and yes.  Could I get the time off of work?  Yes.  Seems I'll be going to Alaska with Ed.

We plan to at least make it to the Arctic Circle.  We hope to make it to Prudhoe Bay Alaska. We really hope to make it to the Arctic Ocean and dip our feet in the water.  We have a good shot of getting to the Arctic Circle.  We will have to have some luck with the weather to make Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean. 

So follow along in our blog.  Yes I know that June of 2012 is 8 months away.  But after making our lists its going to take all of those months to get this trip put together and plan all that we need to plan.  And as Ed said it should be the adventure of a lifetime.