Northward bound

[nickjtc]

Got home yesterday afternoon.

When we were ready to leave Dawson City on Saturday after the Dust 2 Dawson (don't call it a rally) Rally (aka the BMW GS benefit) we were going to head west on the Top of the World Highway to Chicken. (It's called that because they couldn't spell ptarmigan, apparently.)

Anyhoo it was pissing with rain so we decided to err on the side of caution and not risk it. The US side of the road gets slicker than snot on a door knob and neither of us has 'off road' tyres. So we decided to head back to Whitehorse (another drone down the road) and then south to Skagway, where we spent a very pleasant day and night looking at more jewelry stores than I have ever seen in one place; catering to the cruise ship crowd I s'pose. We then caught the ferry over to Haines and headed back north to camp at the Million Dollar Falls rec site, back in Yukon.

On Monday am Gerry decided that he wanted to see more of Alaska (he had more $$ than me and a lot more time to kill) so at Haines Junction we said our goodbyes and he headed west and I headed east.

Now I had the bit between my teeth and just wanted to get home, so I did 900km on Monday, to Dease Lake on the Cassiar Highway, 1086km on Tuesday to Quesnel, and 524km yesterday to get home. Knackered but happy.

Apart from a snapped speedo cable going north and a voracious appetite for fuel (It's a sad state of affairs when your bike gets poorer mileage than your four wheel people mover  :icon_wink:) the bike performed flawlessly.... apart from when I foolishly adjusted the chain on the centrestand and did not think to check it off the stand. Then rode 400km wondering what the funny noise was from down below. Hopefully I haven't buggered up the drive bearing. This faux pas has, of course, accelerated the need for new chain and sprockets, which is probably a good thing because I want to change the gearing. 4500rpm at 105kph is a tad high.

I figure the trip was a total of 6500km-ish. The rear tyre is squarer than any I have seen in a long while.

Here are some more pics. The cruise ship is one of the ones used in the TV show 'The Love Boat', fyi.

[nickjtc]

PS. Here is something you do not see every day. When we were in Dawson, in most of the washrooms there were buckets of free condoms, supplied by Yukon Health.

Ostensibly to promote safe habits, but I cannot help but wonder if we missed something, and the morals in town are akin to the days of the gold rush when there was a plethora of brothels in town 

[Sin_Tiger]

Hope you nabbed a few, really handy for keeping your fags (cigarettes) dry, if you see that in the UK then it usually means the washroom is a gay hang out 

[nickjtc]

The place we stayed in at Dawson was the kind of place that maybe rooms were available by the hour...... Might explain the condom thing 

[nickjtc]

Hope you nabbed a few, really handy for keeping your fags (cigarettes) dry, if you see that in the UK then it usually means the washroom is a gay hang out 

Over here they are used for the same purpose. Except a fag is a descriptive for a person who likes their bread buttered on the other side.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  :icon_wink:

[Sin_Tiger]

Yup, that's why I made that distinction clear, if I hadn't Mustang would be pulling my other leg by now 

Each to their own 

Epic trip if a bit of a drudge on the highways, so glad to read how well the Steamer performed, they really are amazing beasts if they get even just basic care. Are you running the stock gearing? That rpm/speed doesn't look right and might explain your consumption.

[threepot]

Those condoms would be handy for carrying extra fuel on a trip like that. Impressive Milages covered,and with the 'steamer'

[nickjtc]

Are you running the stock gearing? That rpm/speed doesn't look right and might explain your consumption.

When I get the front sprocket cover off to check whether I have done any damage to the front sprocket bearing by over tightening the chain I will see how many teeth are on the sprocket.

Interestingly enough the gearing on a new KTM1190 is quite close to mine. He is turning about 4200rpm at 105kph.

I'm thinking 4,000rpm to do 105kph would be nice; I think the engine has enough torque to handle it.