Adventure West 2009 Preparations

Just about finished purchasing gear for the trip. New 4 season gear for Kim and me (Kim now also has an electric heated vest).

Just got it back from Chicago BMW Motorcycles for its 24/30 Service. The big one. V-belt,rear unit fluid change, brake fluid flush, plugs and of course valve adjustment. Bikes been OK'd for the journey! Swapped the tires with new Continental Conti-Trail Attack at Empire Tire(Snuffy) and Joe Walano balanced them at his shop Four-Season Automotive. Thanks to both!

Had vacation this week and weather was unusually nice, so I was able to gear up and put it all to the test.

I also received communicator this week. So I installed under seat and tried it out. It will allow Kim and I to communicate on the road (speakers and mic in helmet also installed) to each other and with an attached FRS radio, to another bike. We have separate MP3 and cellphone jacks. So we can listen to our own music and receive our own calls. When either of us speak or recieve a call the music cuts out. It also senses ambient(wind and road) noise and raises music volume.

Well its a week away from departure. Kim passed her state motorcycle driving test today and only has to go to DMV to get her motorcycle endorsement. She drove the BMW last weekend for the first time and did very well for being such a large bike and only the 2nd motorcycle shes driven. She shouldn't have any trouble driving should an emergency arise. We have everything we need for the trip - food, riding gear, maps, camera equipment, laptop, communication, navigation, first couple nights hotel info, and most importantly our health. I took a trial road trip to southern illinois to get an idea of how many miles I am capable of in a day, and it went good. We shouldn't have any problem doing the trip out to Colorado in the amount of days we've planned (weather permitting). We will hopefully be posting every night our progress and pictures of the journey! You can keep track under the Travels link Adventure West 2009.