The time to depart is fast approaching and I can feel the butterflies rolling around in my gut just waiting to get out. It’s times like these when I sit and actively think through the items I’m taking, what I have to do to be ready to leave, where I’m going and when, that I start to get nervous. My fear based emotions attempt to have their say: “Do I have everything taken care of?”, “Is there something I’m forgetting?” But then my calmer philosophical side pipes in that no matter what happens, I’ll be OK and if everything went 100% smoothly it would be a boring trip. I need some excitement and unsure moments out there to let me know I’m alive… so bring them on!!

Maintenance

Since my motorcycle is going to be the beast of burden carting me through 34 states and thousands of miles, it had better be in great shape or I could be stranded out in the middle of some desert with the sun boiling my blood and the vultures circling overhead. Well that’s kind of a stretch, but you get my drift. I don’t want to break down if it can be avoided.

In an attempt to fend off any possible issues I made sure to do a few maintenance items that probably weren’t due but would be at some point during the trip if not taken care of now.

First was the chain and sprockets. I had a few thousand miles still on my old chain, but by replacing my stock chain with a highly rated and stronger chain, I hopefully will avoid any chain breaks and have to re-tighten it less.

Second was new tires. The only thing between you and skin scraping, helmet busting pavement when you’re doing 70 mph through corners is your tires. Cheap tires are not on the menu for a bike that can do what the Hayabusa can do. They’ve got to be able to go fast and they’ve got to be able to lean hard. Again I wanted to avoid changing tires too many times while traveling, so a fresh set should get me half way through my journey, and with a new set somewhere in the middle… all the way back home.

Packing

Today I began to pack. What, why are you looking at me like that?   That’s a day in advance, which is quite good for me. Usually I wait until a few hours before. But to be honest I already knew what most of my items were so there is really not much to do but see what will fit and what I will have to leave behind.

You see, I have to put everything I need for 45 days or more in my teeny tiny little saddlebags, tank bag, and possibly a backpack (although I’m trying to see if I can do without the backpack). And really the tank bag will be holding my electronics and hydration bag for drinking fluids while driving. So that leave three small bags to hold all my clothes, all the camping gear I need, and my colder weather riding gear items.

The key to packing light is to decide what your packing space is and stick to it. Paring down the items you take can be hard but trust me, you’ll survive without half the stuff you’d like to take. Step two is to gather up everything you want to take and sort by necessity. Then start packing the most essential items first and when you run out of room, then the rest can’t come. I know, easier said than done and I end up trying to shove “just a few more things” in after it’s probably full enough. Hey, I’m not a master, just an apprentice!

Below are a few pictures of my packing progress, and the last is exactly how she will look for the next 2 months – loaded and ready to ride.

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