Clothing:
- Gloves that say waterproof may not be.
- Boots that don’t specifically say they are waterproof should be oiled or proofed before your ride (wet feet stink, literally and figuratively).
- Quality wet-weather gear is must for Canada and Alaska. It is worth the money!
Bike:
- Tires don’t last as long as you think, especially if you are loaded and don’t have tire pressure right (so you may want to bring extra tires or put new ones on just prior to departure).
- Pack smart and know where crap is so you can find it when you need it (i.e. rain gear or charging cables).
- If you charge from your bike be really careful charging when the bike is not running!
- Handwarmers on the bike are amazing and can raise your morale on a cold wet ride day.
Other things:
- Have alternate routes planned for unexpected road closures or bad weather (it was so cold and wet we didn’t dare do Banff for fear it would be snowing at altitude).
- Caffeine is your friend if you ride long distances, stay friggin aware so you don’t have adventures you don’t want to have.
- Stop to smell the flowers and appreciate some amazing scenery.
- Road noise increases with speed and that noise is fatiguing.
- We use Senas to communicate and they can charge and be used while riding, but we learned the Sena is not the perfect communication device. It is great to be able to talk and ride. We loved listening to music, podcasts or audio books to pass time and keep the mind sharp. Sena just doesn’t do it perfectly. We kept wishing Apple would make something sleek and effective that had improved simplicity and was more user friendly.
- Take breaks! Riding a motorcycle takes more focus than anything on four wheels. We found that stretching our legs every 100kms kept us feeling better.
