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Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:49 am
by pizza-ghost
Hello all!
So my room mate and I have been planning a road trip across America this summer. We'll be setting out from San Francisco where we go to school now and will end up in up state New York, where he has family (will probably spend the summer out there working for his uncle :miner: ) We will head down through the southern states on the way there and plan on heading back to the west coast via the northern states. I'm super pumped and think it should be a good time. The thing is that I am a little worried about wear on my bike, I have a 95 fzr and she is in great shape mechanically right now (new tires, oil, tune up, ect). I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on what sort of spare parts/tools I should bring along with me on the trip. What sort of thing might go bad/break if I am riding for about 6-8 hours a day for a week or two. We are limited to what we can carry on each of our bikes (also if anyone knows how to mount saddle bags to a fzr I'd be interested to know

), I am definitely going to take my service manual with me. I have a spare air filter right now, but that is about it, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Also, like I said we'll probably going to be riding through the boarder states so if anyone lives in those and wants to do a few miles with us and catch a beer or something let me know

I'll be on my fzr and my room mate will probably be on a cruiser or something.
thanks, any input is helpful!
-Pizza Ghost
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:37 am
by reelrazor
Tools?
Good 3/8" drive ratchet, coupleof extensions....8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19mm sockets, plus plug socket.
Set of metric allen keys(or allen sockets)
Good straight blade, good #2 phillips.
10,12,14mm combo wrenches
Two good 8 inch crescent wrenches.
Needle nose pliers with wire cutter
test light.
6-8 foot section of 14gauge wire, and a handful of butt connectors.
Spare fuses.
Set of new spark plugs.
Slip joint pliers
needle nose and standard vise grips
Zip ties.
Wrap ten feet of duct tape around one of the crescent wrenches.
Spare tail and headlight bulbs.
Small can of chain lube.
Couple rags/towels.
Air gauge.
I prolly forgot something there.
This is how I packed from my last trip-that's a $24 wal mart backpack, plus I have a Chase Harper 1150 tankbag:
http://204.14.92.238/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6154
http://204.14.92.238/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6157
http://204.14.92.238/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6160
Take a camera, post pictures!
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 2:17 pm
by megaloxana
a spare VR
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:17 pm
by pizza-ghost
reelrazor wrote:Tools?
Good 3/8" drive ratchet, coupleof extensions....8, 10, 12, 14, 17, 19mm sockets, plus plug socket.
Set of metric allen keys(or allen sockets)
Good straight blade, good #2 phillips.
10,12,14mm combo wrenches
Two good 8 inch crescent wrenches.
Needle nose pliers with wire cutter
test light.
6-8 foot section of 14gauge wire, and a handful of butt connectors.
Spare fuses.
Set of new spark plugs.
Slip joint pliers
needle nose and standard vise grips
Zip ties.
Wrap ten feet of duct tape around one of the crescent wrenches.
Spare tail and headlight bulbs.
Small can of chain lube.
Couple rags/towels.
Air gauge.
I prolly forgot something there.
This is how I packed from my last trip-that's a $24 wal mart backpack, plus I have a Chase Harper 1150 tankbag:
http://204.14.92.238/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6154
http://204.14.92.238/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6157
http://204.14.92.238/forum/gallery2.php?g2_itemId=6160
Take a camera, post pictures!
man you think I can fit all that into a pack?
man where did you go on your trip?
I am definitely going to take my camera and my laptop to post pictures =)
so far our route looks like this:
San Francisco to LA
La to Sedona AZ
Sedona to Albuquerque NM
from Albuquerque our rout is pretty open, we'll probably make our way to Virgina (where my room mate is from)
from Virgina we'll head to DC
then from DC a sprint up to up state New York.
For the ride back the plan is:
NY to either Cleavland or Detroit
then to Chicago
Chicago to either North or South Dakota (hang out with the German cousins

)
the make our way to Oregon
and from Oregon down to San Francisco
If anyone lives in those areas and wants to come out and get a beer let me know. I'll keep you all posted on our rout, departure date, and ETA for certain states
-Pizza Ghost
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:18 pm
by pizza-ghost
megaloxana wrote:a spare VR
what's a VR?
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 3:51 pm
by reelrazor
pizza-ghost wrote:man you think I can fit all that into a pack?
man where did you go on your trip?
I am definitely going to take my camera and my laptop to post pictures =)
All that fit in the LOWER pocket of my tankbag.
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 5:35 pm
by WNY ROGO
Stop in BUFFALO! Well ride a little bit and you can rest your bones a bit and get some eats. Theres a few other fzr riders from my area too (convert bobee etc) that would probally love to meet up with other fzr members.
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 6:07 pm
by reelrazor
My trip was Northern Michigan to Kentucky and back-with some riding in down there.
Not kidding about keeping those tools in the lower pocket of my tankbag-hell I ride with harley guys quite often and I usually have SAE allens and a few sae combo wrenches to boot!
My friend's say...."see if Jim has it on the toolbike...."
I rewired most of my buddy's chopper in a parking lot last summer
But, I did forget a very importatnt item, one that I found to be VERY helpful....
A pair of gel padded (bi)cycling shorts! They make a huuuuge difference
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:48 pm
by megaloxana
pizza-ghost wrote:megaloxana wrote:a spare VR
what's a VR?
voltage regulator..definatly upgrade yours to the R6 one if you haven't already.
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:51 pm
by old_school
pizza-ghost wrote:
so far our route looks like this:
San Francisco to LA
La to Sedona AZ
Sedona to Albuquerque NM
from Albuquerque our rout is pretty open, we'll probably make our way to Virgina (where my room mate is from)
from Virgina we'll head to DC
then from DC a sprint up to up state New York.
For the ride back the plan is:
NY to either Cleavland or Detroit
then to Chicago
Chicago to either North or South Dakota (hang out with the German cousins

)
the make our way to Oregon
and from Oregon down to San Francisco
A road trip across the country and you aren't going to Vegas??? Dude that's just not right! These are actually heavily customized FZR's, airtech makes a fatboy kit.. (honest)

Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:39 pm
by 95FZR600
Couple sets of spark plugs for sure.
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:19 pm
by pizza-ghost
old_school wrote:pizza-ghost wrote:
so far our route looks like this:
San Francisco to LA
La to Sedona AZ
Sedona to Albuquerque NM
from Albuquerque our rout is pretty open, we'll probably make our way to Virgina (where my room mate is from)
from Virgina we'll head to DC
then from DC a sprint up to up state New York.
For the ride back the plan is:
NY to either Cleavland or Detroit
then to Chicago
Chicago to either North or South Dakota (hang out with the German cousins

)
the make our way to Oregon
and from Oregon down to San Francisco
A road trip across the country and you aren't going to Vegas??? Dude that's just not right! These are actually heavily customized FZR's, airtech makes a fatboy kit.. (honest)

haha the rout isn't totally set yet, I'd like to go to Las Vegas, but I have a feeling it will be way too expensive. Most of the time I think we are just going to be camping as we go along, we're doing this on a college student budget

Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 11:22 pm
by pizza-ghost
WNY ROGO wrote:Stop in BUFFALO! Well ride a little bit and you can rest your bones a bit and get some eats. Theres a few other fzr riders from my area too (convert bobee etc) that would probally love to meet up with other fzr members.
Yeah man, we could probably ride through, I'd love to meet some other FZr members, do a few miles, and get a cold beer and shoot shit with the other fiz riders.

Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 7:44 am
by abs929cbrrr
your gonna need a spare ass to go that far...your ass will hurt 3 hours into the trip for sure.
Re: Road trip across America suggestions
Posted: Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:15 am
by old_school
Pizza-Ghost,
This is a badass trip on a FZR.. You definately need to keep us posted on your progress and map of stops.. You can get lots of tips from the board on safe/clean stops along the way..