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Arctic Circle Journey (USA Southeast / Midwestern states)

41K views 75 replies 37 participants last post by  JMS 
#1 · (Edited)
First off apologies about taking so long to come out with this trip report. At first I started off trying to write one big long trip report but my writing skills are below average on a good day. So I figured it would be best to write it out in chunks and answer questions along the way :).

Day 4: I start out on Day 4 because I didnt take any photos on my ride through Alabama so the trip report will be starting in Nashville Tn



So there she is my mighty steed, all two hundred and fifty cubic centimeters of thunderous fury. Just fueling up for the day in Nashville ready for the challenges of the great white north.
Before I get too far into this I'd like to give you guys my packing of list of what I took along with me

Gear:
Scorpion helmet
alpinestars artic gloves
alpinestars messenger jacket
alpinestars boots
dragon jeans

Clothes:
wind breaker
three long sleeve micro fabric running shirts
One pair of sweat pants
One pair of regular shorts
One pair of running shorts
Three pairs of socks
Three pairs of underwear

Tools
24mm wrench
12mm wrench
14mm wrench
10mm allen wrench
duct tape (a must have)
jb weld

Motorcycle gear
Tea bag with tool pouch top
two cheaply made walmart saddle bags for holding my fuel cans.
(report continued in next post)
 
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Discussion starter · #2 ·
(..continued)

So after a few hundred miles or so of riding I am now in.....

Kentucky!





I really enjoyed land between the lakes. I've been through here before on other motorcycle road trips but this is always a fun peaceful ride in the early fall after a lot of the tourist have gone home. It was a good warm up for the mark twain national forest on highway 19 in Missouri.

and speaking of missouri......




 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
(...continued)
The southern side of Missouri (winona and hwy 19 in paticular) was very enjoyable lots of high speed sweepers with a nice facade of green all around me. However soon the state of Missouri turned into a state of misery and the rest of my ride through was a boxing match with a rain system.
I ended up getting soaked to the bone (should've brought rain gear with me) but whatever i'm a florida boy riding in the rain is what I do 6 months out of the year anyways.

After spending a night just outside columbia using an Iron to dry off my soaked clothes it was on ward to Iowa/Nebraska







Now I have to explain I decided to cheat a little and take I-29 (interstates yuck!) north to south dekota or so that was the plan. However flooding as you can see in that second picture had me frequently detouring into and out of both Iowa and Nebraska.
Eventually I become a little annoyed by it (although the adventure was welcomed) and went straight into the middle of Nebraska and made my way north to Murdo South Dekota





Then I spent the next morning riding the badlands which are really cool.I also rode by this HUGE field of sunflowers; its stuff like that I enjoy running into on my road trips. Its like all the rock formations were just laid on top of the land. Its interesting that in such a huge flat state this little corner just suddenly pops out of nowhere.
I have to wonder what the first settlers thought of this when they first found it.






Racing through the black hills.....


and its onward to Wyoming....
 
Discussion starter · #7 ·
(...continued)

Okay so I've got time for one more small chapter of photos then its off to bed with me (work at 8am tomorrow)

Wyoming is a state where everybody immediately thinks "yellow stone" well I learned that about 50% of the state is as flat as South Dekota (although there was still some good views). Funny enough I met a guy from a town not far from mine who was moving to Gillete Wyoming. For now I'll spare everybody pics of the flat stuff (we already got plenty of that from south dekota) so here's all the yellow stone pics.










I ended up not getting out of yellow stone until nearly 8 o clock at night. With a dead camera battery I sadly didnt capture any pics as I raced down Washburn mountain with the sunset behind me. The experience of riding up down and around those twisty mountains with the animals and scenery was almost a religious one.
As a result of getting out of yellow stone so late and with the bear tooth highway under construction I had to ride the chief joseph highway at night back to cody wyoming. Look up the road and you will realize how dangerous of a ride that is lol.

.....and a teaser for tomorrows report........
 
Discussion starter · #19 ·
(continued..)

Right so we did the sight seeing thing in yellow stone and learned a new respect of riding mountain highways at night (read:chief joseph hwy) At this point in the adventure I'm getting road weary but Montana/glacier national park breathed some new energy into me. Alright now for the cool part...PICS!





Now for glacier national park (probably one of my favorite parks on the entire trip)

Zooming along.....



^^
The guy in this pic probably didn't realize how useful he was to be there. I think his presence gives the photo a better size perspective of just how epic the scenery is.

Everything was going smooth and fast until......

Construction......No big deal I'm patient it just gave me more time to take photos and the gravel riding was good practice.







and then canada shows up.....
 
Discussion starter · #21 ·
That was an awesome trip report Owl. Please give us some more info on how you did on the bike and how the bike did.( mileage, vibration, wind protection, comfort, seat time, speed, etc...) My wife and I are contemplating some trips and I'm wondering how the 250 would do on such a long ride. She's so comfortable on her's I'd hate for her to change just for a bigger motor

The bike did EXCELLENT. In terms of overall cost it was much cheaper then my old yzf600r especially gas. I ended up only changing out a chain and front tire on the entire 12,000 mile ride (the trip ended up being 11,998 miles i believe)

Gas mileage wise it was still giving me a good solid 70mpg even loaded down with 20lbs of gear (i pack really light and I'm also only 138lbs)
I kept the bike stock for the most part no modifications at all but if I had to do it again I would get a cramp buster or some kind of throttle lock.
Climbing mountains.....well that was kind of an adventure lol. Lets just say the only things I could out climb were the semi trucks and bicyclist haha.

If your wife is small like me; comfort even on a long day shouldn't be too bad but I would deff get a better seat (a corbin perhaps?)
My longest day on the bike was a 670 mile day so you can deff knock out some miles but I would say anything over 300miles and you will start feeling a little tired (fighting wind turbulence mainly)
As far as speed goes I mostly stayed on secondary roads I dont think the little 250 motor likes to go over 65mph for extremely long periods of time.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
how much was your avg. spending money per day ? basic stuff like food , gas & sleep.
& has any one else driving this bike in the rain because that downshift to first is slippery !
My average spending per day varied depending on what state/country I was in. In some places food and gas were really cheap and so my daily budget was as low as 40 bucks and as high as 130 dollars per day.
The trip cost me a total of 3800 dollars so my cost per mile was 31 cents. I deff should have budgeted better but I like my creature comforts at the end of a long day (AC, shower, buying a few friends dinner, ect)

if you are still reading this-what is your personal best in one day ?
My personal best day is the one where I arrived to my destination safely. Keeping track of mileage is fun but keeping track of sleep is more important :)
 
Discussion starter · #24 ·
(continued..)

Alright its my day off so that means I have time to bring out some more pics/thoughts.

Anyways canada was really awesome the speed limit was 100 and gas was only 1.25 ;)

The first thing to greet me after an hour or two of riding was lake columbia





and then after a night in Radium I rode through banff/jasper national park.




I ended up getting turned around in prince george and instead of taking the cassier I ended up at mile 0 of the alaska highway so I followed that from dawson creek to fairbanks




*sigh* more construction.....


After a good day of battling dust, construction and gravel I'm finally in the yukon...








(coming up alaska and the artic circle....)
 
Discussion starter · #33 ·
How often did you end up using your auxiliary fuel cans? Lots of bugs on your face shield? The guys at ADVrider will appreciate your accomplishment if you wanted to post a link over there.
I actually ended up never needing the extra fuel. The little cbr just has an excellent fuel range. I did almost run out of gas on the cassier highway on the way back to the united states but otherwise no problems.
I think if you use a little common sense and fuel up when you know the next fuel stop could be another 150 miles the cbr250 can handle an expedition level tour.

I am planning a more permanent side case hard luggage for use on my next big road trip. I would like to go to the southern tip of south america next and I really think the little cbr is the ideal bike for it.
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
[Owl, how are those tires looking, last another 12K?/QUOTE]

Before the trip I switched out the stock tires for michelin pilot actives. The only reason i had to replace the front was because a rock lodged its way into the tire. The rear still had rubber even at 12k but it was looking really squared off.

I just had the tires replaced with IRC road winners again but I went with a larger 150 rear and it really smooths out some of the chatter I would get on the 140.
 
Discussion starter · #38 · (Edited)
How long did the trip take? Did you use a gps or simply maps? And how often were you on dirt /gravel roads?
The trip took me 43 days but my total riding days were shorter. I spent a week in san diego (after fairbanks I rode the cassier highway to prince george then went south into washington/oregon/california) I've still got a few pics to post of that actually. My daily average works out to be about 500 (edit i was wrong its about 375miles) a day I believe but some days I did 150miles others i did 600+.

I used my intuition and occasionally checking my phone if I was going in the right direction lol. I dont like to plan out routes precisely I just pick a few places and highways then wing it in between.

As far as dirt/gravel goes I ran into a decent bit of construction in the midwest and in canada. I would actually see signs saying "motorcylist should consider alternative route" because of how rough and bad the roads were but i've got 7yrs riding exp and 2 of those were spent on a dualsport zipping down forest trails. I rode on roads i'm honestly surprised didn't shake the cbr to pieces.

The cbr has a nice weight advantage when it comes to tackling dirt/gravel however (i'm looking for off-road tires that will fit its rim lol). I enjoyed riding the dalton highway as difficult as it was. The alaska highway will occasionally have random bits of gravel road that sort of just come out of nowhere so you gotta have your wits about you.
There were also potholes big enough to swallow the front tire and kill me. I caught air and bottomed out the suspension going into and out of a 2ft deep dip I didnt see in time (I hit the thing going about 60mph)

My cbr is all over the place when i ride on those, most likely due to my riding incompetence.
Being a street bike with street tires it is a little slippery off road. I dont normally like giving out riding advice because I dont elaborate well in writing but staying loose on the handle bars ,steering from your legs ,and being progressive on the throttle help a lot.

Its not incompetent to be willing to learn. :)
 
Discussion starter · #42 ·
What happened with the chain? Not enough lube or what, did you find a Honda dealer, did you do oil changes?
A little bit to much offroading and I ran out of chain lube at one point so the chain ran dry for a little while. I just bought a 520 RK chain from a shop in napa valley CA and changed it in a friends garage to get me home.
Yes I changed the oil two times total on the trip. At first I didnt trust the 8000 mile change interval but on the second change I had put 7000 miles on the oil and it didnt look to bad.
I also had to clean the air filter because of how much dust was in the air riding through construction zones/dalton highway

Is it all dirt and gravel?
A few stretches of it are paved but most of it is dirt. I wouldnt exactly call the paved sections smooth highway either however lol. Sometimes the paved sections would be pothole covered gravel nightmares.
 
Discussion starter · #46 ·
haha ^^ thanks for the compliment and yes I still have many un-posted photos I just thought the ones i put up were the best. I have done a few other road trips on different bikes. I'll have to post those up some day.:)
 
Discussion starter · #50 · (Edited)
On those long stretches of roads thru the Yukon territory and Alaksa, what was your average speed and how did you handle the vibrations? How did the bike handle the wind?
Vibrations were pretty bad and I would use my palm to hold the throttle on long straight stretches of road. I would say i probably averaged about 50mph in those areas. It was very scenic so I generally just took it easy. The wind was pretty rough but I stayed loose and let the wind blow me around instead of the bike.

[quoteThe bike is quite roomy but after an hour or 2, my legs and hands do get a little stiff. how do you manage that?][/quote]

My arms never had too many issues but my legs cramped up a little (i'm about 5'11) I would hang one butt cheek off the bike then let the opposite lower leg just hang rather then sit on the peg. I would do that switching off ever few minutes until my legs got better.
Another technique is to just stand up for a little bit and do a few quarter squats to get the blood flowing in my legs.
If things got really bad I would just stop and take a break after all nothing wrong with an excuse to take pictures :)

how it would handle climbing the mountain passes and comfort in a long ride
As far as steep uphill climbing goes the CBR doesnt have much to work with for sure. The only thing I could realistically pass were the semi's going 20mph. Don't expect to have any passing power but the bike can make it up some really steep mountains (you might have to ride in lower gears as well)
 
Discussion starter · #52 ·
The_Lucky_Owl - was this similar to your experience? It's hard to imagine the CBR250R really needing to go any faster up these hills. Am I missing something? Does one really need to go faster up through the mountains?
I don't see the need for anymore power no. I was just simply stating you shouldn't expect to see the same passing power you might have on a vfr800. I didn't have issue going up steep mountains but there was certainly a difference in acceleration.
I did hypothesize that since my bike was coming from sea level the first few high altitude passes I had to ride over were hard because the ECU had to learn the altitude so to speak.

Overall I had no complaints however. The bike did ascend beaver slide (12% grade hill on the dalton highway) with no hiccups.
 
Discussion starter · #61 ·
Somewhere in your thread you mentioned you changed out the back tyre for 150 which made for a smoother ride - how did it handle the gravel?
When I changed to the pilot actives I kept the same stock sizes but after the road trip I went up to 150 on the rear tire. The 150 seems to smooth out some chatter I would get sometimes (of course that could be a riding form issue that hasn't become apparent yet).
The 150 does not seem to adversely effect the turn in speed and handling of the bike and for me smooths it out a little. A lot of that has to do with the tire individually as well I believe. The stock size pilot actives were great and if i had the money would've bought another set but I have to settle for another set of IRC road winners until my next set.

On gravel like any street bike it still skates a little at higher speeds but the pilot actives handled the dalton really well considering they are street tires.
They are not a performance tire but stick very well for all your street riding needs and definitely have some serious endurance (my rear still had a little rubber after nearly 12,000 miles)
 
Discussion starter · #69 ·
I certainly am alive and well streetsniper :). I atempted to ride a bicycle across the united states. I made it to near Houston and had to give up:(. My heart just wasn't in it. Then I caught a 12hr flight to Tokyo (first time on a plane haha) and spent the rest of my trip hiking around Tokyo. After visiting a friend in san diego I'm finally home.

I learned a lot about myself. Quite honestly I believe my place in life will always be on that little 250. Exploring new lands , pushing my own limits physically and mentally, both in spirit and in life. To ride a motorcycle is to have a love affair with adventure. It's a big world out there guys but there's always gonna be a little Honda riding across it :).
 
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