Now & Then?s Shake down Cruise

Started to pack up the NT700 for my Trip on Thursday. As I stated earlier I am going to stop in Dodge City, Kansas and site see for an afternoon. Then on to Harra Oklahoma to partake in my friends (Fred D from the ST-Owners Forum) Maint. Clinic for the ST1300. I will spend a couple of days there and then head south to my previous place of residence, Wichita Falls Texas. After that I am going to wander around Texas at hit Dallas/Fort Worth area( Will try and make a breakfast at the Blue Hanger), and then work my way down south and do some Hill Country riding and visit Fort Sam Houston and San Antonio. I will go bother some friends that I have in the area and try to kill enough time riding around the Hill Country, to be able to attend CheapSTOC, being held at Campwood Texas this year on the 6th of May. Then on home. Just in time to do my wash, change motorcycles , kiss my wife and head out to Moab, Utah. I figure this trip will be about 2500 to 3000 miles and take three weeks. I will try to update my post of this ride to this Thread as time passes. Also I will try and upload pictures of my travels.
I like to pack a few days early and then let it sit as I then have time to think of what I forgot to pack. Here are a couple of shots of the bike all packed up, To include min. amount of camping gear. I found that with the large pannier lids I can fit more in /on the NT700 than I can with the ST1300. It has to do with the shape of the panniers. If I am in your area and you happen to have a floor for me to sleep on, sure would appreciate it. Hope to see you on the road.

Chuck,

What do you have in the yellow pack? What do you take for "minimal camping?"

Have a great trip! I'd love to be able to ride the Hill Country this time of year. Maybe in '14, I'll go to Cheaps SToc, too.

Phil Tarman said:

Chuck,

What do you have in the yellow pack? What do you take for "minimal camping?"

Have a great trip! I'd love to be able to ride the Hill Country this time of year. Maybe in '14, I'll go to Cheaps SToc, too.

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Tent, Sleeping bag and sleeping pad. "minimal camping in the yellow pack. Camping only if I cant find a cheap motel or to set up in somebodys yard.

What kind of tent, sleeping bag and pad?

Phil Tarman said:

What kind of tent, sleeping bag and pad?

Click to expand...

A 16 year old Eurika two person tent, a 16 year old sleeping bag good to 20 degrees, and a REI sleeping pad.

I will be looking for new STuff next season, as mine is 16 years old and the new STuff is alot better now days.

Chucksklrst said:

Started to pack up the NT700 for my Trip on Thursday. As I stated earlier I am going to stop in Dodge City, Kansas and site see for an afternoon. Then on to Harra Oklahoma to partake in my friends (Fred D from the ST-Owners Forum) Maint. Clinic for the ST1300. I will spend a couple of days there and then head south to my previous place of residence, Wichita Falls Texas. After that I am going to wander around Texas at hit Dallas/Fort Worth area( Will try and make a breakfast at the Blue Hanger), and then work my way down south and do some Hill Country riding and visit Fort Sam Houston and San Antonio. I will go bother some friends that I have in the area and try to kill enough time riding around the Hill Country, to be able to attend CheapSTOC, being held at Campwood Texas this year on the 6th of May. Then on home. Just in time to do my wash, change motorcycles , kiss my wife and head out to Moab, Utah. I figure this trip will be about 2500 to 3000 miles and take three weeks. I will try to update my post of this ride to this Thread as time passes. Also I will try and upload pictures of my travels.
I like to pack a few days early and then let it sit as I then have time to think of what I forgot to pack. Here are a couple of shots of the bike all packed up, To include min. amount of camping gear. I found that with the large pannier lids I can fit more in /on the NT700 than I can with the ST1300. It has to do with the shape of the panniers. If I am in your area and you happen to have a floor for me to sleep on, sure would appreciate it. Hope to see you on the road.

Click to expand...

What's the Iten out of Moab?

Igo said:

What's the Iten out of Moab?

Click to expand...

http://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?94564-Meet-at-Moki

Rick and I will be passing through Mexican Hat Memorial Day weekend. We are riding the Grand Circle tour. I've been to Moab many times. Wonderful country.

Don't know if you will make it all the way to Houston but I have a spare room if you do.

Keep the shiny side up,

Chuck

Chuck 500 said:

Don't know if you will make it all the way to Houston but I have a spare room if you do.

Keep the shiny side up,

Chuck

Click to expand...

Thanks Chuck, If I get that far south I will look you up.

For my upcoming NT 700 shakedown cruise this is the rough route that I am going to follow. of course I will take a bunch of side trips and will ride the Three Sisters while I am in the Hill Country. I also reserve the right to change this plan at any time. Hope the weather cooperates.

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Looks like a good route, Chuck! Have fun and post here a bit with pictures and commentary.

I like that little piece in NM. Riding from Dallas to Vegas, it is the first hint of what's to come.
I've got some really great pictures of the wildflower spring bloom in the hill country someplace. Motorcycles everywhere.

Here is my first day write up.

Trip Report 14 April.

Woke up this morning ready to roll. Bike has been packed for three days now and I have been counting the days. This trip is suppose to be a shakedown cruise for my new NT700. I have had this bike for three months now and have done close to 2000 miles on it, but all the miles have been local miles, with no over night rides as of yet. I added the larger pannier lids to the bike. The wind deflectors that go around the mirrors and a couple of electric circuits for my Garmin 550, and a Chatterbox FRS radio with a power amp for my music (mp3 player)

First thing I did this morning was to get on the computer and take a look at the weather along my route for today. My goal for today was to ride the 370 miles to Dodge City, Kansas and spend the night there. I wanted to do some site seeing some of the historical sites in the area. My gas stop between Aurora and Dodge City was to be at Lamar CO. The NT?s range is about 200 miles at tank. Maybe a bit more.

Looking at the weather, it said scattered showers all the way to Dodge City. Did not seem to be a big problem as my riding gear is water proof. Looked out the window and saw snow flakes landing on the sidewalk. Said to my self ?Self, today is going to be interesting?. Little did I know.

Finished my breakfast and coffee, got geared up and around 7am kissed the wife good by and went to start the bike. No start. Battery was low. *** this is a new bike. Found out I must have left the GPS on with out the bike being plugged into the battery tender for the last three days. Unpacked my camping gear off the back seat and checked the battery 11.6 volts. Plugged in the tender took off my gear and went back inside to have more coffee. After about an hour I checked the bike. It started with out a problem and check to see if the charging ckt was working. All seemed to be OK. Repacked and re geared up and said goodbye and headed out.

Got on I-70 east. Road was dry sky was gray but no precipitation all seemed to be OK. Uneventful ride to Limon were I stop to deposit some coffee. Just as I was mounting up more snow flakes appeared. No problem I am headed south east on 287, should get out of this shortly. Snow changed to a light rain, Electric gear doing it?s job. Came to a five mile construction site and had to wait for a bout 30 min. for the pilot car to lead us through. I was able to get to the head of the line in front of all the trucks. Now it decides to rain harder as I sit on the bike and wait.

Finely we get to go. It is great as I am in front of all the truck traffic because of the wait. Continue on to Kit Carson. About 150 miles from my house. The snow flakes appear again , but I feel that it is not too bad and they will end soon. I press on through Kit Carson and head south. The snow is getting worse. I make a prudent decision to turn around and head back to Kit Carson. Now the snow is getting heavy, the pavement is wet with some slush starting to accumulate. Stopped at a small restaurant in Kit Carson to wait it out. Time is now about 12 noon. Still time to make Dodge City, however the site seeing is going to have to be curtailed. About 40 min later the snow seems to be letting up and I head out again. 5 miles south of Kit Carson I hit the blizzard. I better get turned around and get back to kit Carson. Visibility is very bad as the snow is sticking to my visor faster than I can wipe it away. Not to mention the big rigs coming up on me very fast. I am regulated to the shoulder at about 30 miles an hour hoping I get back to Kit Carson with out dumping the bike. This is were I really appreciated the light weight and less power of the NT vs. MY ST1300. Got back to town with out incident and took up residence in the only mom & pop motel in town. Nice little place, but expensive. Will make a good harbor in the storm for me for the rest of Thursday. Looking out the window, the snow is blowing sideways .Will try to Make Harrah Oklahoma tomorrow on Friday in one run. 500 more miles. No Dodge City this time. Need to be at Fred D?s place in Harrah Friday night to par take in his maint, clinic this weekend.

I wish you luck.

Scary business, ain't it? Did that on the Connie a few years ago for the last 50 miles into Laramie, WY. I was lucky enough to get behind a big rig making ruts in the slush and only going about 40mph. It was a loooooong 1 and 15 minutes.

Hope this is the last weather related trouble you have. The mighty winds have finally stopped (at least for a while) here in Colorado.

Help I got a bit of a problem right now. My pannier latch levers do not unlatch the panniers I have to manually move the latching bar that is under the seat to be able to open the panniers. Meaning I have disabled the seat latch to be able to remove the seat. Any ideas on what is going on. Nothing seems to be broken. Just cant get the levers to unlatch the pannier latch. Both sides. Thanks

Chuck, when I had that problem, I happened to be in Denver and went by Sun and their guy fixed it in about 15 minutes. He said that something was bent. But I don't know what.

Jim Moore up in Nebraska has a rod with a knob on the exposed end sticking out through the upper "vent/styling" hole at the front of the panniers. He pushes that and it opens the pannier. He says he'll go back to stock when Honda changes the mechanism.

I know none of that helps you now. Good luck! Where are you tonight? Harrah? Better weather today?

Trip Report 15 April.

This is going to be short as I am exhausted from today’s ride. I left Kit Carson at about 6am and head for Fred D’s place. I rerouted my route and decided that Kansas was not going to be for me today. Headed to Boise Oklahoma. What a miserable day. Wind was blowing about 40 to 45 mph with up to 60mph of wind gust. As long as I was headed south or south east I had the wind to my back. However at Boise I made a left tune and head due east . The wind is now a cross wind. I am so tired today of trying to keep the bike on the road and not getting blown off. I have been riding for almost 30 years and I can honestly say that yesterday and today has been the worst whether I have ever ridden in. So I fought the wind for 500 miles and 10 hours in the saddle. So far this trip is not been a lot of fun. There were times that I turned around and headed back to the town I just left. Only to fight the wind in the opposite direction. No since in quitting, just keep moving forward. The Dust Storms in the pan handle of Oklahoma were unbelievable. I have never seen so much dirt flying around. Not as bad as some of the Sand storms in Iraq, that I have read about , but up there pretty close. Also rode through the smoke and ash of a couple of grass fires today. Miserable. The NT handled the wind and stayed on it tires and did not crash. As long as we were moving it was better than stopped as the wind was so strong it almost blew me and the bike over at a couple of stop lights. I finally made it to Fred’s place and an looking forward to see some of my Oklahoma friend tomorrow. O by the way, to top off the day, the latch levers on the NT’s panniers quit working today. Fred and I had to jimmy the panniers open. We were able to come up with a make shift access method to open the pannier , but it required removing the seat to do it. When I get back home I will get them repaired under Honda‘s warranty. These latches seem to be a week spot on the NT700.
A fitting end to a very lousy day. Hope my mood is better in the morning for the Maint Clinic. I am beginning to wonder if I was meant to do this trip. Well off to bed I am beat.

Yeap. Looks like other days could be better. I now you have serious plans but I toss in the towell when the forecast looks like this. We know we can do it but....
Hope today is better.