Trip Report: 2200 miles on a 1981 GS 850

Longtime readers may recall that way back in the winter, I posted some questions asking what maintenance would be required before a long trip. Initially, I had been considering a summertime ride from my home in NJ to Nashville, or maybe Wisconsin, or maybe Nova Scotia, or maybe some combination of the above. Eventually, I decided to try for Newfoundland (although I didn't make it that far, as you'll see when you read further).

The bike: 1981 GS850 with 28,000 miles or so on the clock. I've owned it for ten years and 15,000 miles. It's behaved well, in general; the one exception was back in 1995, when something went wrong on Interstate 80 outside of DuBois, PA. All of a sudden the bike started bucking. I got over to the shoulder, slid in slow motion down a ravine, pushed it back uphill, and discovered that shifting just wasn't an option. After I got it home on a U-Haul truck, the local mechanic said something about the clutch plates seizing and, after charging me $500, sent me on my way. No trans or clutch trouble since.The most recent oops was about 500 miles ago, when my clutch cable snapped on the Garden State Parkway on the way home from Virginia. The bike (I call her Tookish) has a Vetter Windjammer with a stereo pod than can handle AM/FM/CD. It also has a lovely adjustable sissy bar/backrest, and Givi hard luggage. As a result, Tookish looks sort of like a UPS truck on two wheels: big and brown with lots of storage space. The saddle had been reupholstered by Sargent about 8 years ago.

The problems: the electrical system was original equipment; the petcock slowly dribbled gas when in the prime or reserve positions.

The prep: After going over my manuals and talking with the folks in this group, I got the bike ready for the big trip. The brake lines were already stainless steel, so I didn't need to replace those. The brake pads were in good shape.

• new tires (Metzler 33/88, same as I've been running all these years)

• tune-up in fall 2003

• new Electrex stator and RR. This upgrade left a very slow oil drip from the stator cover. I probably should have gotten a new gasket, but I didn't – if I was going to go on the trip, I had to go by a certain date, and I wouldn't have gotten the new gasket in time.

• oil change, of course

• new throttle cable – if the clutch cable broke, the throttle's probably about to go

• new air filter – there was a mouse nest, complete with peacock feathers, after winter storage

• new air intakes between the air filter and the carbs – the old ones were cracked and, in many places, disconnected.

• new fork seals

• new petcock – not a Pingel, just a regular one. I was afraid that I'd forget to turn a Pingel off.

The gear: I planned to spend as many nights as I could camping, rather than staying in motels, to keep the costs down. Some bike-camping gear I already had, including a Kelty Clip-3 tent (they call it 3-person, but it nicely fits me and whatever gear I want to keep under cover) and an old sleeping bag. New for this trip were a double-sized self-inflating air mattress (only $30 from EMS on sale!), a folding chair and table, and a large Kelty duffle bag to hold all of that. It all fit – barely. The huge bag was lashed to the bike with heavy-duty tiedowns (not bungees). From Aerostich, I got what they called "frame loops." They turned out to be sewn runners that you loop thru strategic places on the bike to give easier access to tie-down spots. They really helped.

The electronics: Neuros 20 gig mp3 player, with playlists for highway and backroads riding (don't play go-faster tunes in the twisties!); cell phone; Tungsten PDA with electronic books to read; Garmin GPS; and chargers that plug into the cigarette lighter.

The toolkit: I made sure that my repair kit had included sockets for every bolt I'd ever had to adjust on the bike; if, when doing repairs, I needed something from the home toolchest, I refused to put it back. The bike had priority until I could get replacements. Tie-wraps and a Vise-grip could cover a multitude of needs. I made sure I had electrical tape and duct tape (the duct tape came in little tiny rolls for easy packing – thanks again, Aerostitch!). Epoxy came along, too. A multimeter. I had a spare H4 headlamp, a tire repair kit, spare fuses, a spare throttle cable (the old one I'd replaced), jumper cables, and my Haynes manual. Everything except the manual and the cables fit neatly into a compartment in my fairing.

The suit: I fell down early in my biking career, and discovered that the right gear really can make a difference. (I went down at 40 mph into a slide. When I got up, I was bruised but otherwise fine – no road rash – and I could see my socks through the hole in my boot.) Full-face Shoei helmet; cordura riding suit from MotoWear (I don't think they make them any more, but they used to make them custom to your measurements); Alpinestar boots; Tingley rubber overboots; and the ever-popular PVC two-piece rainsuit. I borrowed a Widder electric vest from my husband – something I had never dared to use before I upgraded the stator.

The ride: You knew I would get to this eventually, right? Three days of mist interrupted by outright rain from central New Jersey to Bar Harbor, Maine, where I took the ferry to Nova Scotia. Although I had planned to do Route 100 through Vermont to Barre and cut across on Rt 2, I wound up staying on the interstates to Barre – the rain was making it impossible to enjoy the twisties, and I had to stay on schedule to get to Antigonish, Nova Scotia in time for their Highland Games.

Things could have been better on that leg of the trip. The rain was making me very irritable; I was concerned about encountering moose in the twilight; and a sign on US Highway 2 in Maine that simply said "Pavement Stops" did not help my mood. My bike was not at all kitted out to do off-roading; yet all of a sudden I had to deal with a dirt (well, mud) road in between two cars that did not understand why I couldn't just drive through it the way they did. I aimed for the tire ruts left by the 18-wheelers, thinking the dirt would be as packed as possible there. That section only lasted a mile or two, but it felt much longer. The next morning, I discovered that my headlight was burnt out – and my spare didn't work, either. And the fuses were good. Wrenching in the rain outside the NAPA auto parts store, I eventually tracked the problem to somewhere inside the fairing. Unable to diagnose it any further, I disconnected the power for the headlamp before it went into the fairing, and lashed together new wiring and a new connector for the headlamp.

The rain got better once I got to Nova Scotia, but the electrical problems spread. The stereo pod and the cigarette charger failed – and their wiring, like that for the headlamp, passed through the left compartment of the fairing. In retrospect, I think I overstuffed that bin to the point where some of the connections came loose. I could do without the stereo – instead of having the Neuros broadcast FM, I just used earphones under my helmet – but I needed the cigarette lighter to recharge all my electrical gear. So, time to stop at another NAPA store. The new lighter/charger got tucked into the "trunk," under the seat. I couldn't easily use it while riding, but I could leave stuff attached to charge while the bike sat overnight.

Had 2 gloriously sunny days in Antigonish for their Highland Games. Great music, great food, big guys in short skirts tossing around telephone poles – wonderful. There is a campground right in the middle of town, so that I could walk to everything from where I pitched my tent. My neighbors in the campground were amazed that I had travelled that far solo.

But the sun was not to last. More rain was forecast, getting worse and lasting longer eastward into Newfoundland. I had originally planned to take the ferry to the east side of the island, ride to St. John and then across to Gros Morne National Park before heading to the ferry on the west side of the island and back to the mainland. Just before I left, I got word that the main highway in Newfoundland 1) doesn't have services on the road, you need to exit to get gas; 2) doesn't go near the towns; and 3) is two lanes all the way. By the time I was ready to leave Antigonish, I had had enough of two lane highways in the rain. So, no Newfoundland – at least on this trip.

I did want to get to the Cabot Trail, though. So on Monday after the Games I headed eastward to Cape Breton Island in the pouring rain. It stayed pouring rain, and the forecast was that it would keep pouring. After about ten miles on Cape Breton I realized that I would have the same problems on the Cabot Trail that I had on Rt 100 through Vermont: too rainy to enjoy the twisties, too foggy to see anything. So I turned around.

Got as far westward as Pugwash, NS that night. By then, the rain was easing up. The next day I continued on to the Fundy National Park in New Brunswick and had a great time looking at the ocean, admiring the pebble beach, and marvelling at a high-tide line that was 40 feet over my head. The next day I went to Deer Island and went for a whale watch; one came close enough to our boat that if I had fallen out, I would have landed on its back.

Eventually I made it back to Vermont, where friends have a home outside of Brattleboro. The directions to their farm included phrases like "turn right off the paved road" and "take the left fork in the driveway." Well, I took a wrong turn, and wound up trying to go up a very un-packed dirt road with what feeled like a 20% incline and a right-angle turn. I made the turn, the road got steeper, and the bike couldn't make it. Sure, the engine made noise, but I didn't move. The dirt path was so steep and so loose that I was afraid to get off the bike for fear it would topple even with the kickstand. Eventually, with the help of two strong passers-by, I got turned around and off the hill – but the damage had been done. My clutch kept slipping, even on pavement.

There's a wonderful repair shop in Brattleboro, Lynde Motorsports, that was open the Monday I figured things out. When I explained that I was riding from Nova Scotia back to NJ, they looked at my bike right away, agreed with me that I would need new clutch plates, and ordered them for next day delivery. I was on the road again Tuesday night, for less than $250 for parts and labor. Once we had the old clutch plates out, we discovered that the folks who worked on my clutch 10 years ago hadn't put in enough plates – so it's sort of amazing things lasted as long as they did.

From there, the ride home was uneventful.

What didn't get used:

• most of the camping gear that had anything to do with food stayed in the hard bags. It was just easier to buy food in restaurants. If I had been travelling with someone, so that we bought food for two, it might have been more economical to eat around the campfire. I couldn't buy small enough portions to make it worth it for one person.

• The GPS. The roads were marked well enough. I think I would have used it more if I had actually made it to Gros Morne.

• The big stuff in the repair kit – the jumper cables, the tire repair kit, and so forth – didn't get used, but I'll bring it along next time anyway!

What worked:

• The Kelty duffel bag that held all the camping gear – sleeping bag, tent, double self-inflating air mattress, camp chair, and camp table was the last minute whim that really made a big difference. It retrospect, I can't imagine lashing all that stuff – or any subset of that stuff – to the bike independently. It was also big enough that it helped push the sissy bar towards me, so that I could lean back into the backrest.

• The AAA camping guide never got used to help me find a place to stay the night, but it nonetheless saved the trip. When I was stuck on a muddy hillside in Vermont, afraid that the bike would fall over if I tried to get off, it was the camping guide that got tossed down to the ground to support the sidestand. Better than a crumpled soda can.

• Tie wraps are a gift from the motorcycling gods. Need to hold some wiring underneath the headlamp? Tie wraps. Need to hold a cigarette lighter in the trunk? Tie wraps. Need to make field wiring look neat? Well, you get the idea.

• The folding chair didn't get used too much at the campgrounds – picnic tables seem to come standard – but was great for carrying off the bike. It made watching parades and the Highland Games much more comfortable.

• The electric vest did a better job of keeping me comfortable in that thick mist that isn't quite rain yet than the rain suit did. The rainsuit let me melt in my own sweat; the vest just suffused me with a sense of warmth that drove the damp away.

What didn't work:

• My windshield is much too high. This hasn't been an issue for rides at home, because I don't normally like riding in the rain. But it got wet enough that even with Rain-X I couldn't see the road without lifting myself a few inches off the saddle or craning my neck.

• My no-name magnetic tank bag, that I've had for 10 years, doesn't have enough Velcro to hold the top flap down when the bag is full. I'd get something out of the bag and get back on the road only to have that flap, well, flap in the breeze. Then things started getting sucked out by the wind.

• Don't trust cell phones. Most of the interesting roads had no cell coverage.

What I got away with:

• I needed to put about 4 ounces of oil in every day I was riding to replace what dripped out from the stator cover. I needed more oil daily early in the trip, and less later. Yes, it would have been better to fix it right – but I got to enjoy the trip anyway.

What I wish I'd had:

• Highway pegs.

Other Items of Note: Irving gas stations are great! They don't have them in NJ – but the convenience stores with them always had clean bathrooms.