I’m planning to do an equipment shakedown camping trip the weekend of September 6th – 7th. Look for pics of me trying to get the tent setup this weekend .

I’ve added a links page on the right side of this site. I’ll warn you, you will waste hours and hours of your life and probably feel like take an extended trip on the back of a motorcycle .

If you have any good links leave a comment.

Due to some unforseen and unpreventable issues my shakedown trip, scheduled for this past weekend had to be cancelled.  I’m bummed but not overly concerned since I have a few more weekends I can head out on before the big trip. Right now I’m looking at the weekend of Sep 6th-7th. I will probably take a day this week or next weekend to setup the tent in the back yard to get familiar with it.

Test post from my Nokia N810

So this weekend will be the first run with what I have on hand. So far that includes:

• SissyBar Luggage
• Tent (freaking *huge* tent)
• Rain Gear (hopefully it gets here in time. I ordered it yesterday with 2nd day shipping, fingers crossed)

I still so very uncertain that this tent was the best purchase for a solo trip. I didn’t get a chance to set it up over the weekend since I was sick (read back one post to get the details). I’m hoping to find time this week to set it up a few times.

This tropical storm could prove interesting. If it comes in and gives us some rain this will be a really good test of equipment and rider. I’m a bit nervous since the place I’m going camping has nothing but *very* dusty gravel roads. I’ve only ridden on a few gravel roads and from what I remember it wasn’t fun. But taking it slow and at my own pace is what I’ll be doing..

More later…

Sorry for the lack of posts folks…I got to experience a trip to the Emergency Room on Friday. Head over to Year26 to get all the gory details..I’m fine now..Took yesterday off work just to make sure everything was as it should be.

My stomach is still a bit messed up with all the antibiotics I’m on and I still have 6 days of those left

Getting used to not having a fuel guage has been interesting to say the least. The previous owner said he never ran it to reserve and would fill up every 120 mi. Well, I did that the first time I rode it but noticed I wasn’t putting much gas in. So I gradually increased the distance I would travel, 120, 130, 140 and today I decided I was going to run it until I had to hit reserve.

(more…)

So I got the tent I ordered from BikerTent.com and it’s *huge*. The pics online make it look smaller than it is…It also has a separate bag for the stakes,poles,ropes, etc…I’m hoping I can pack it down a bit tighter than how it came. Look for some new pics to the gallery of me fumbling around trying to get it setup

Last week I signed up for the the Motorcycle Safety Foundation’s Basic Rider Course. I’ll be taking it locally at Ray Price Harley Dealership in Raleigh in late September. The cost of the class is $295 USD which I think is more than reasonable since I will get some insurance discounts as well as a waiver to get my motorcycle endorsement (currently I have my motorcycle learner’s permit).

So I’m slowly gathering all the gear that I *think* I’m going to need. So far I’ve picked up (all links open in new window):

Biker Tent

Luggage

I still need to get raingear, sleeping bag, cook ware, cool weather gloves, and probably several more things I’m forgetting…Ugh..so much to do in so little time…October 5th is fast approaching. If anyone reading this has done any motorcycle camping I’d be very interested in hearing about your experiences. Leave a comment or head over to http://www.year26.org and use the contact page.