Maycyn
Junior Member
On May 16th my boyfriend and I each took a month away from work, loaded our bikes up, and rode out to California. Our destination was the Grand Canyon but we wanted to travel around it rather than cover the same ground twice. We arrived home on May 16th, having spent 15 days riding and 17 days relaxing or visiting family.
An average day for us was somewhere around 500-600 miles. There were a few days where we did maybe 300, and a few where we got closer to 800. I'm thrilled to report that there were NO major problems at all with the FZ6. I rode on the stock seat
the entire time and, considering that my previous bike was a Suzuki Boulevard, I found it to be quite comfortable. I've never fully understood the joy of having a windscreen until I spent all day riding and realized my neck and shoulders weren't killing me from the wind. No speeding tickets, no flat tires, no crashes or drops. We lubed our chains each night since we were covering so many miles each day and facing such different climates (in a day and a half we went from snow, to hail, to 106 degrees F in the desert). I had a small issue for two days where each night my chain kept coming up tight but we resolved that. I changed my oil before we left for the trip, and again when we reached Maryland on the return trip. I had bought the bike with brand new tires on it and chose to ride them through the trip to Tennessee where I had a new rear put on two days before riding to and down the Dragon.
As far as words of wisdom go I would first like to say that anyone who wants to do a trip like this just needs to go for it. If you're like we are and you don't mind camping, and you can live without your computers and your televisions and your daily showers and clean clothes it's pretty inexpensive. We made this trip on our tax returns. You never know when you'll get the chance again. We traveled with the three piece cortech soft luggage and a bungee net to strap the sleeping bags and tent on top of them. This luggage has traveled several years over several bikes with me and has performed fantastically. I kept one set of long johns, one set of warm and one set of cold weather gloves and a full body rainsuit and found myself perfectly suited to all of the elements we encountered. Everything was stored inside cheap garbage bags, or ziploc storage bags in the case of the camera and cell phone (my cell was stolen in Arizona) without any problem.
A few last observations before I throw a selection of pictures in.
~If you observed rain clouds down the road, go ahead and stop to put on your rain gear, that will clear the storm up immediately and make you nice and toasty warm.
~95% of the people who didn't wave back to me were on cruisers.
~Of those people on cruisers, 80% of them were women. It makes me wonder if they're scared to take a hand off of the bike, unobservant to the point of not noticing a huge girl on a big blue bike waving at her, or just that plain bitchy.
~If you ever plan to get anywhere, you're never going to be able to stop to take all the pictures you want. Therefore you must channel Ewan McGregor and hire a film crew to follow you around. Or be able to take pictures with your eyes and print them out of your ass.....just sayin.
~Missouri was the most mind numbingly boring state I have ever had the dubious pleasure to ride though. My apologies to anyone who lives there, next time I come through you'll have to prove me wrong.
~The states of Colorado and Utah do not believe in guard rails. If anyone is thinking about riding the Dragon and are nervous, take a ride out to Utah first and ride the road to Escalante. For several miles it is a 10mph road with a steep downhill grade, twisting curves, no shoulders and 3000ft vertical drops on BOTH sides and completely lacking in guard rails. It was thrilling and beautiful out there. In comparison I felt like fluffy bunnies and kittens and bluebirds were trailing behind me on the Dragon.
~You will never need as much clothing as you take. I existed on two pairs of jeans and three shirts although I brought much more. Socks on the other hand, you can never have enough of. Plan accordingly.
~And finally at the risk of sounding like Nike, just do it guys. If you have to put in for time off two years in advance and start a separate account where you hide the money for it, just get on your bike and ride for days. I logically knew, but never understood how vast and different and incredibly gorgeous our country is. Everyone should know the pleasure of standing speechless and in awe of the world in which we live.
All geared up at 3:30am to head out!
Can you spot the orange ninja doll hiding in some of the pictures?
Our typical campsite, this was in Ohio.
A few shots from the American Motorcycle Association Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
They let you on Will Smiths MV Agusta
An average day for us was somewhere around 500-600 miles. There were a few days where we did maybe 300, and a few where we got closer to 800. I'm thrilled to report that there were NO major problems at all with the FZ6. I rode on the stock seat
the entire time and, considering that my previous bike was a Suzuki Boulevard, I found it to be quite comfortable. I've never fully understood the joy of having a windscreen until I spent all day riding and realized my neck and shoulders weren't killing me from the wind. No speeding tickets, no flat tires, no crashes or drops. We lubed our chains each night since we were covering so many miles each day and facing such different climates (in a day and a half we went from snow, to hail, to 106 degrees F in the desert). I had a small issue for two days where each night my chain kept coming up tight but we resolved that. I changed my oil before we left for the trip, and again when we reached Maryland on the return trip. I had bought the bike with brand new tires on it and chose to ride them through the trip to Tennessee where I had a new rear put on two days before riding to and down the Dragon. As far as words of wisdom go I would first like to say that anyone who wants to do a trip like this just needs to go for it. If you're like we are and you don't mind camping, and you can live without your computers and your televisions and your daily showers and clean clothes
it's pretty inexpensive. We made this trip on our tax returns. You never know when you'll get the chance again. We traveled with the three piece cortech soft luggage and a bungee net to strap the sleeping bags and tent on top of them. This luggage has traveled several years over several bikes with me and has performed fantastically. I kept one set of long johns, one set of warm and one set of cold weather gloves and a full body rainsuit and found myself perfectly suited to all of the elements we encountered. Everything was stored inside cheap garbage bags, or ziploc storage bags in the case of the camera and cell phone (my cell was stolen in Arizona) without any problem. A few last observations before I throw a selection of pictures in.
~If you observed rain clouds down the road, go ahead and stop to put on your rain gear, that will clear the storm up immediately and make you nice and toasty warm.
~95% of the people who didn't wave back to me were on cruisers.
~Of those people on cruisers, 80% of them were women. It makes me wonder if they're scared to take a hand off of the bike, unobservant to the point of not noticing a huge girl on a big blue bike waving at her, or just that plain bitchy.
~If you ever plan to get anywhere, you're never going to be able to stop to take all the pictures you want. Therefore you must channel Ewan McGregor and hire a film crew to follow you around. Or be able to take pictures with your eyes and print them out of your ass.....just sayin.
~Missouri was the most mind numbingly boring state I have ever had the dubious pleasure to ride though. My apologies to anyone who lives there, next time I come through you'll have to prove me wrong.
~The states of Colorado and Utah do not believe in guard rails. If anyone is thinking about riding the Dragon and are nervous, take a ride out to Utah first and ride the road to Escalante. For several miles it is a 10mph road with a steep downhill grade, twisting curves, no shoulders and 3000ft vertical drops on BOTH sides and completely lacking in guard rails. It was thrilling and beautiful out there. In comparison I felt like fluffy bunnies and kittens and bluebirds were trailing behind me on the Dragon.
~You will never need as much clothing as you take. I existed on two pairs of jeans and three shirts although I brought much more. Socks on the other hand, you can never have enough of. Plan accordingly.
~And finally at the risk of sounding like Nike, just do it guys. If you have to put in for time off two years in advance and start a separate account where you hide the money for it, just get on your bike and ride for days. I logically knew, but never understood how vast and different and incredibly gorgeous our country is. Everyone should know the pleasure of standing speechless and in awe of the world in which we live.
All geared up at 3:30am to head out!
Can you spot the orange ninja doll hiding in some of the pictures?
Our typical campsite, this was in Ohio.
A few shots from the American Motorcycle Association Motorcycle Hall of Fame.
They let you on Will Smiths MV Agusta
