August 2006
Sport touring is a serious business.
It’s also loads of fun and extremely satisfying - but like any activity involving motorcycle
riding it has to be approached with a realistic attitude. I have personally
done five trips in as many years, all approximately 4 - 5000 miles each and
covering much of the west coast of the US and
It’s not the sales guys
responsibility - he or she is just trying to sell bikes and make a living,
after all, car sales people don’t have to worry about such things and in
the final analysis - it’s the customers’ responsibility. Nonsense. A sales person, working with a client, looking to buy a bike has plenty of
opportunity to find out how much experience a customer has during the chat time
about models, colors, cost, etc...If some 40 year old guy - and deaths are up
among riders in their mid-30s to mid-50s who frequently get back on bikes after
years away to raise their families - who hasn’t been on a bike for ten or
twenty years comes in and wants to buy a Suzuki GSX-1000 or Yamaha FZ1 or worse
a Kawasaki ZX-14 - the sales person should do everything within their
power to convince the customer that a smaller displacement bike or another
style of bike would be a better way to get back in the game. If the customer
insists on the Ninja after hearing the risks then at least the sales person has
tried but if the customer takes the warning to heart and buys something more
manageable, then maybe, just maybe, a life will have been saved. At dinner, one
night in a restaurant just outside Jasper, a young waiter, from Vancouver, a
guy probably 20 or so came up to our table and started asking us about
motorcycles. He seemed to really welcome our experienced comments about
suitability and learning - but even after our serious talk about the taking it
easy and buying something manageable to start with he began telling us about
his friend with a crotch rocket and how fast it was and what a thrill it was to
be on the back going a 120 miles an hour! He lit up. Speed. Excitement. Girls. Testosterone. I just had this feeling that when the kid got home to Vancouver he would be buying a crotch rocket -
like his friend - for his first and maybe his only bike, ever. Don’t get
me wrong, I love sport bikes and I’ve been as guilty as the next guy for
tearing up some serious road at extreme high speeds
but I’ve also been riding for years and built up to where I am today.
Okay - so back to sport touring: A couple of things I
have learned along the way are the following: Make certain your bike is
in top shape mechanically and most important, make sure you have good rubber. A
few thousand miles on hot pavement at highway speeds with side ventures on
unpaved roads covered in sharp stones will test even the best tires. DO NOT
travel with tires that are at all suspect. And if you’re not sure, talk
to an experienced friend or your mechanic. I can not stress this enough. A
flat, or worse a blow out, at the very least will cause you a lot of
inconvenience and at the worst - could kill you. Pack your stuff sensibly and
make sure it is mounted in a balanced, secure fashion on your bike. I had one
large duffle type bag that took all my stuff: Tent; Air Mattress; pillow,
towel, small collapsible chair and my clothes. Other stuff, like camera
equipment, ground sheet, flip flops, bike cleaner, tools, I put in my hard
bags. My duffle bag was place across the seat, behind me and positioned evenly
over the hard bags. Take your time and enjoy the ride. Only do as many miles a
day as you feel comfortable. Sport touring bikes have large tanks and can get a
lot miles before needing a re-fill - that can translate into a couple of
hours between stops - so if you’re tried or sore stop for a few
minutes, even if you don’t need gas and recharge your system. Two hours
of steady riding without a stop is a long time in the saddle - I don’t care what kind
of bike you are riding and unless you’re into setting some sort of iron
butt record of your own - hop off at a safe spot and take time to smell
the roses. It’s worth it. You butt will thank you. Plan your day with a
realistic goal in mind, including a camp ground if your are camping. There’s nothing worse than a
long day in the saddle, and getting towards nightfall looking for a place to
stop. This applies to the motel crowd as well. One early evening we ran into a
group of guys from Edmonton that had nowhere to stay because they
forgot to make sure that they would be near a town with a motel by the end of
the day. Last I saw of them, as we turned into a camp ground, they were heading
off towards a darkening sky with few options except to keep riding to the next
big town. Not great, especially when riding on back roads that cut through
forests where animals lurk. This danger can not be over stated. You know the
old saying - deer in
the headlights - well it is true. They can jump out of nowhere, 
and land right in front of you, stop and stare at you as
you head straight for them. They don’t move and when you hit them, which
happens all to often, it can
have tragic consequences for both parties. This is especially true in the
evening, when normal visibility is cut down. So avoid riding at night as much
as possible by having a well thought out plan of travel. Know where and when
you are going to stop - it makes the day less stressful and a lot safer. Sport touring is not just a
vacation, its an adventure
and its definitely not for everyone although, this trip I was amazed at the
number of people on bikes. I have never seen so many riders. It almost
guarantees other riders for company and conversation at your campground at
night and that can be a good thing, especially if they are coming from the
direction you are going and visa versa. Sharing a common experience, no matter
what it is, always has a tendency to break down barriers and open up
communication. I have always found my fellow motorcycle travelers to be some of
the most interesting people I have ever met and that makes the trip as
memorable as seeing a Glacier, or a waterfall or any other natural beauty. Oh - and for those of you who
know - we did get Hyderized in Hyder and it was worth
the trip. ( Check out the video of the trip on our Broadband Channel under Sport Touring.)
More later - Ride safe.
Sid
Bailey
September 05
Our trip to Glacier National Park in Sept.'05 was an incredible
experience. It took seven days in the saddle to get there: We rode through -
Yosemite; Lake Tahoe; Burney Falls; Lassen; Crater Lake; Missoula. Until finally - the Park. We entered through the West
Glacier gate, on the Going-to-the-Sun Road that bisects the heart of Glacier. The road is 50 miles
long and follows the shores of the park's two largest lakes and hugs the cliffs
below the Continental Divide as it traverses Logan Pass. Our destination was The MacDonald
Lodge on MacDonald Lake. A truly exquisite
piece of earthly real estate.
We were looking forward
to a nice room. Hot
shower. Dinner. A bed. Oh, maybe I
forgot to mention, it was raining outside and cold. We were wet and tired. They
had reports of snow at high altitudes and the idea of setting up camp, in those
conditions seemed the very definition of masochism. 
Unfortunately the Lodge
was full. We later found out that Lake MacDonald Lodge is the most requested
accommodation in the Park. The Lodge has a fleet of red buses. They have
original bodies - I’m guessing probably from the 40’s - on modern
drive trains and chassis. We saw lots of them cruising around, packed with
tourists, gazing out the square windows with wide eyed wonderment. It was
timeless.
Glacier is an extremely
popular destination and it’s easy to see why. Every descriptive accolade
you can think of applies here: Soaring peeks; racing streams; emerald lakes;
vistas that suck the breath from your lungs. We were told by a sympathetic
hotel clerk that it was best to make reservations a year in advance! And we
thought riding around after Labor Day would get rid of all the tourists. How
naive. Lucky for us we got the last room at the Glacier Village Inn on the same
lake. It doesn’t have the character or charm of The MacDonald Lodge but
it 
was dry and warm. That evening we went back to The MacDonald
Lodge and treated ourselves to a dinner of pan fried fresh trout. It
wasn’t all bad. The next day it was our intention to ride over Logan Pass to the other side and
continue down through Montana on the homeward leg of
our journey. So we wake up, have breakfast and are about to begin our ascent
when we are advised by park officials that it had snowed 16 inches - above five
thousand feet - the night before causing an avalanche that sent a wall of snow
and over three hundred trees across the road, right before the summit of Logan
Pass, which we were also told would now be closed for the season. The only way to
get to Logan Pass was by going around to
the East Glacier entrance and entering the Park via the town of St. Mary. We were back on the Going-to-the-Sun Road, going up, instead of
down. It was a ride I’ll never forget. The sky was heavily overcast, with
those monstrous roiling grey clouds, but there were the flashes of sunlight
that lit up the landscape and added an extra dose of drama to everything we
were seeing. Let me quote from my diary entry made that day. What and incredible ride. Got
colder and colder as we climbed. Overcast. Rain again. Snow. Put the camera 
in my tank bag and shot off the left side of the bike. Watching for ice. Needless-to-say it was a very careful ride and
when we got to the top we were greeted by a foot and a half of the white stuff. This was not what we had expected. We thought
early Sept. would still be relatively mild, even up to the Canadian border but
we caught an easterly moving storm early in the trip and we could never quite
get out from under its influence. In fact we got so cold at one point in Oregon that we had to buy heavy
jackets to wear over our skimpy leather jackets.
But that’s what
Sports Touring is all about – expecting the unexpected and for those of
us who do this thing; it's the unexpected that really resonates in our memories
long after the physical trip is over. I think it must be in the nature of the
unexpected, the sense of adventure, surprise, the tingling waves of fear, the
feeling of accomplishment at making it. And we did, to the top of Logan Pass. We should have been on
snow mobiles not sport touring bikes - but hey. That's the unexpected. They had
opened the pavilion at the top of the Pass at noon that day. 
It was a good place to
get warm before beginning the ascent and the return trip home that took us
through: Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole, Bryce Canyon and Zion.
It doesn't get any better. Total mileage from Santa Barbara to Glacier and back was
approximately 4000 miles and that was traveling everyday for thirteen days
-- total.
It was an amazing trip.
More later - Ride safe.
Sid Bailey
July 02
The first long ride that I took on a
motorcycle - that could qualify as a serious sport touring trip - was during
the summer of 2002, when my riding buddy Gary convinced me to travel up to British Columbia,
Columbia a number of times before but never on a
motorcycle. At the time I was riding a
Honda Shadow 1100cc twin - the one you see in the pictures. I loved that bike.
It was so incredibly comfortable and moved along with a nice easy gait; I could
ride thing all day and never get a sore butt. Of course a major reason for that
was the fact that it didn’t travel very far on a tank of gas, so there was
always the stopping to refuel every hundred miles or so. There is a reason that
sport touring bikes have big tanks, not the least of which is that you can ride
long distances and not always be worried about your gas situation - which can really vary depending on speed and
wind. I will say this however; my old Honda Shadow was more comfortable to ride
than my new Honda ST1300. I’ve always found it odd that cruisers are actually
more comfortable to ride long distances that sport touring bikes. The seats are
softer; the leg positions are more varied and comfortable. The body position, is more relaxed - 
like sitting in a chair instead of on top of a
padded bench. I would not however trade my ST for a Shadow. There is no
comparison when considering all the variables. And let me illustrate one
significant reason - power. You can never have too much power. How you use it is
what’s important. One of the most vital areas when this becomes a factor is in
passing and when you travel 5000 miles on every imaginable type of road, you do
a lot of passing under a lot of different circumstances. Having those extra
ponies under you - ready to go - when you need them is a very reassuring thing.
The old 1100, for all its comfort was slow and had very little pick-up when you
needed it especially bucking a head wind or going up a steep hill. That’s what
happened to me one afternoon while riding in BC. Gary was on a Magna - a four cylinder Honda that
could really move - it was much faster than my 1100, despite the fact it was
only 800cc. We were riding up a long hill, heading towards a tunnel. There was
plenty of visibility and we both pulled out to pass a semi. He scooted past it
in a heart beat, with me breathing heavily behind him like a two pack a day
smoker in a marathon. Anyway, with the semi roaring beside me, and the hill
taking its toll on my speed, I found myself literally running out of road just
before the entrance to the tunnel. And where there had been no oncoming
traffic, suddenly it was there, traveling straight towards me. I geared down,
cranked the 1100 over, heard the old v-twin suck it up but I got almost no help
from the engine and barely made it in front of the truck before the on-coming
traffic raced past. It was such a feeling of helplessness and vulnerability
that I promised myself my next bike would have speed under any conditions. The
ST more than satisfies, and stock, can do the quarter mile in about 11.5
seconds. But I digress.
We left Santa Barbara on a warm July morning and traveled up the
coast of California via the incomparable Pacific Coast Highway, commonly referred to as the PCH or just
plain 1. No matter how many times I have ridden this road - and it has been
many - I never tire of its breath taking beauty and the challenging ride it
provides. The only part of the trip that I have never enjoyed is San Francisco. Don’t get me wrong, I love San Fran but not
when I’m touring and trying to avoid big cities. Unfortunately, you have to
pass through part of SF if you’re going up the coast. Mind you, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a motorcycle is a cool experience and the
view from the headlands on the other side is pretty spectacular.
Once on the other side of SF, the 1
returns to its former appeal as it hugs the coast line and passes through some
quaint little towns. My favorite is Bodega Bay, the site of Hitchcock’s famous movie The
Birds. North of Ft. Bragg, the 1curves
inland to Legget where it meets up with that other
famous highway, the 101. It is the 101, 
that now follows the coast through Oregon and Washington. One of our over night stops was in a tiny
town called Trinidad, between Eureka and Crescent City. We found a great campsite under some huge
red woods and that evening we had dinner in a gourmet restaurant.
In the morning, before leaving, we grabbed breakfast at a restaurant on the
pier in Trinidad. That part of California can be cold and wet. They get some major rain
along the coast and in the Redwood National Park, that sits just under the border between California and Oregon. I mention this because every time I have
ridden through the Park along 199 to Grants Pass I have encountered heavy rain. So be
prepared.
The next stop for us after leaving Trinidad was Corvallis an hour or so south of Portland. We like this place, it’s well situated in terms of miles if you’re loping along doing maybe 300 -
400 miles a day. It also has a KOA campground and while not occupying the same
choice real estate as many of the State parks, KOA can always be counted on for
hot showers and clean facilities. The next day we continued north to Port Angeles where we intended to catch a ferry across to Victoria on Vancouver Island. We got into Victoria in the early evening and found a campground not far from the city. It
had no charm but it was convenient, so we pitched or tents and then headed out
on our bikes to find a place to eat. 
It was that kind of trip. We didn’t carry food, just tents and
clothes. Next day - bright and early - we started on the ride that would take
us the whole length of Vancouver
Island, ending at
Port Hardy where we planned to catch a ferry to Prince Rupert. This trip was not without its problems and
the first one involved the chain on Gary’s Magna. Fortunately, we found a dealer in Nanaimo that fixed the problem. These guys - busy on
other customer’s bikes - literally dropped what they were doing and got to work
on his bike. I have found this to be the rule rather than the exception. There
is definitely a fraternity in the motorcycle community. People help one
another. This is especially true when you are on the road - far away from home.
Bike mechanics in dealerships and garages treat your problems seriously and do
whatever they can, whatever it takes to get you back on the road. It’s as if
they have a stake in your trip - as if a part of them has joined your journey.
This unexpected delay set us back, so by the time we got to Port Hardy it was
too late to catch the ferry. We spent a wet night in our tents and caught the
ferry early next day.
The ferry ride from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert was awesome.
The ferry traveled between the islands and part of the mainland revealing the
raw, natural beauty of the BC coastline.
spacer spacer spacer spacer spacer
It was a long boat ride but never boring. We arrived in Prince Rupert at 11 o’clock at night with the sky still lit from the
setting sun. We were in the land of twilight, far enough north that it never actually got dark. I think pictures from this voyage express this
experience better than any words - so I’ve included a few for your enjoyment.
FYI: the whole trip was two weeks and we covered 4692 miles.
