Ohno's story:

The plan was simple, as in K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Find a new bike located somewhere far, far away. Fly, buy, and ride through some great country. Point A to B via the scenic route.

The short list of destinations was northwest, southwest and northeast.

Spring rolled around in Michigan and I got the bike itch, bad. I've put 45k on my current mount in the last three years. The BMW 1150GS has taken me to places I used to only dream about.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/oldbeemer.jpg[/IMG]

As a long touring mount, I don't think she can be beat.

But a year ago I rode a KTM 950 and it was really hard to get that bike out of my head. Plus, I had spent some quality time on Buell's Uly. So I started doing the flea market search. Back and forth I went Uly, KTM, Uly, KTM.

The more I read about the KTM in Orange Crush the more I wanted the 950. So when K7's 950 came up for sale I didn't hesitate.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/k7.jpg[/IMG]

It had all the right parts and pieces. One phone call later the deal was done. Phoenix here I come, or so I thought.

I couldn't get down there for a month and a half (the longest friggin month and a half of my life.)

Not a problem, K7 would store the bike for me till I got down there.

I started looking for tickets. Ride and fly baby! A simple plan.

The plan starts getting complicated right about now ....

I called some friends who live in Phoenix and told them the whole tale. Lo and behold they had a problem. They needed to get a bike from Minneapolis down to Phoenix. And since it's kind of on the way ...

You can see where this is going. Of course I said yes. Did I ask what kind of bike it was, nope. Did I realize how far Minneapolis was from Phoenix, nope.

The bike turned out to be a 1982 Honda Gold Wing standard. No fairing, no bags. It had been in a wreck, it was being rebuilt. This K.I.S.S. plan was turning into an "adventure."

And then there is the Sas factor ...

The plan was simple.

Ohno was itching for a new bike. Find one somewhere we could fly out to and ride it home. Point 'somwhere else' to Point 'home.' I knew it'd probably be two-up, but it'd be riding, so the farther away the better in my book.

A Florida Buell came into question. Florida? Wellll... all right. The deal fell through. Whew. The 950 KTM came up. Where? Arizona. Well now, that's more like it. Go West, young motorcyclists! Yee-ha!! The K.I.S.S. plan ... fly out and ride home two-up.

This is where it gets a little complicated...

Me: Hon, what if we rode out two-up and come home solo?
He: Humph. (The google maps come out and the obsession begins.)

He: We need better gear that's a long trip. (The internet shopping begins.)

He: Guess what? There's a '82 Goldwing that needs to be delivered to Phoenix.
Me: That'd be fun. Quite an adventure.
He: We need better tools, you never know about older bikes. (Killer tool roll in the making begins.)

Me: So, if we're riding the 1100R two-up to Minneapolis can't I ride it from there?
He: Well there is this little issue of cliff phobia that you have.
Me: There is that.
He: How about riding it home from Minneapolis.
Me: Ok! How far is that?

Later ...

Me: I really want to ride. (Running fingers through his hair.)
He: How about riding from Minneapolis to a friend's in Souix Falls on the way out and then riding home from there on the way back?
Me: That's a little better.

Later ...

Me: Could I rent a bike in Arizona from [URL="http://www.azride.com/"]AZride.com[/URL] and do a couple days in New Mexico?
He: Give them a call and plan New Mexico, I'll give you New Mexico.
Me: OK!

Later ...

Me: I wonder if I could handle those cliffs.
He: How about riding out to Sturgis then home again from there? You can still rent in AZ if you want.
Me: OK!

To be continued I'm sure ... :evil

So I did get a little, tiny, wee bit obsessive about the tool roll. Damn adventure rider [URL="http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=262998"]thread[/URL] got me started.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/toolroll1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/toolroll2.jpg[/IMG]

[B]So here is the short list from upper right:[/B]

• Metric allens
• Sawzall metal blade
• Crescent wrench
• Tin with electrical and bailing wire, foam pad sand paper and gloves
•*Tin with spare bolts and nuts and clamps
• Wipes
• Tow strap
• Bicycle pump
• Motion Pro tire irons (wrapped with electrical and duck tape)
• Motion Pro Chain Tool kit with spare links
• Radio Shack battery tester
• Flash light
• Shock adjuster
• Quick Steel and Quick Aluminum Epoxy
• Tie wraps
• Various sockets
• Various bits
• Leatherman Juice
• [URL="http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/VersaTool-p-16847.html"]Versa Tool [/URL]
• [URL="http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00930035000P?pid=00930035000&vertical=Sears&BV_UseBVCookie=Yes"]Microdriver[/URL]
• Open end wrenches
• MSR 6 in 1 Tool
• Needle nose vice grips
• Lighter
• Stick loctite
• [URL="http://hand-tools.hardwarestore.com/70-420-tool-bags/tool-roll-up-32-pocket-622833.aspx"]Tool roll[/URL] from Aubuchon Hardware

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/toolroll3.jpg[/IMG]

The whole package is about 9 lbs

Also on board the bike is:

• Tire repair kit (Tube and tubeless)
• Battery jumper cables
• Dupont Teflon lubricant
• Tire downs

So an email to Minneapolis to find out more info about the Wing.

Here is the story ...

Kevin who loves motorcycles had found the Wing for his brother-in-law, who lives in Phoenix. It had been in a crash so all of the fairing and bags had been removed. It was an 1982 GL. It has 81,000 miles on it. But it purrs like a kitten he said.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/wing.jpg[/IMG]

By the time we pick up the bike on June 22nd he promises to have new tires, battery, fluids and most importantly a windshield on the bike.

The plan materializes ...

Leave from Bay City on June 22nd and ride straight through to Minneapolis. We would do this two up aboard Sas's BMW 1100R. (More on this bike later.)

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/mi-mn.jpg[/IMG]

From Minnesota I would pilot the Wing and Sas would ride her 1100R to Sturgis. This would give Sas some quality riding time in the Badlands and the Black Hills. In Sturgis we would drop off the Beemer at the BMW dealer and continue onward aboard the Wing.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/mn-sd.jpg[/IMG]

From Sturgis we would head two-up to Yellowstone. Then turn south and head for Phoenix. In between we plan on hitting Arches National Park, the Grand Canyon to name a few.

There was one tiny problem with this whole adventure. Not much luggage space. Matter of fact we might not be taking underwear on this trip. You see the 1100R just has the standard factory bags. Who ever designed those should be shot. The Gold Wing had no hard bags. I found an some old Eclipse Sport saddle bags in the basement. That might work. And I had a Marsee tail bag that would fit on rack on the Wing. No rack on the 1100R. Hmmm ...

Sas thought it'd be fun to camp. So I ordered new Big Agnes sleeping bags and pads. The laptop would have to stay home for lack of space. That's ok, I have a little thingy called an iPhone.

The following weekend up at Sleeping Bear Dunes we tested out the sleeping bags on a 40° night. Sas wasn't very happy the next morning. She couldn't imagine pulling the miles that we needed to after the night's sleep she got. Hmmm!

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/camp.jpg[/IMG]

When I told RNR (the other half of Teamboxer) that I wasn't taking a laptop I thought he would cry. This was one of the few times he was speechless. :clap After he recovered from the shock and awe he let forth with a torrent of disbelief.

How are you going to post pictures? You are taking a camera? This is the ride of your life and I won't be able to follow along? After several minutes of this I started to realize he really wanted me to post along the way. Friggin web partners.

Well since we decided to ditch the camping idea. That did leave a little bit more room. Maybe the laptop could tag along.

About a week and a half ago we starting figuring out exactly how much gear we could take along. The problem was that everything had to fit on the Wing. Yeah the bike with no hard luggage.

So I spread everything out: Old Eclipse sport touring bags, 44 liter Marsee luggage rack bag and a 20 liter tank bag.

Everything had to fit inside all of this. Dang we are in trouble.

Thankfully Sas is a size 4. Her pile of cloths was half the size of mine and we were taking the same amount of clothing.

Plus we have the laptop and the camera gear (D300, 18-200mm, 11-16mm). Dang we are in trouble.

Sas mentioned that we could leave the tool roll home. :gun2 :sweeti Right.

That night I got up and search high and low on the World Wide Web. I had been thinking about getting some tank panniers. But I didn't want to put out the bucks for the Aerostich ones. Yeah, I'm a cheap bastard.

So a post pointed me to the ones sold by [URL="http://www.whitehorsegear.com"]whitehorsegear[/URL]. They looked to be the same thing. Sold.

Three days later they were on my doorstep. Nicely made and they hold a ton of stuff.

Time to test them out. Houston we have a problem.

My dang knees bump right into them. Not good.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/knees.jpg[/IMG]

I don't think this will be a problem on the Wing but the haul out to Minneapolis would be a pain.

A couple of minutes later and ...

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/pannier1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/pannier2.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/pannier3.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/pannier4.jpg[/IMG]

They are secure. Sas can get into them while riding. Yee ha!

Took the kids out to the grandparents in Michigan's flat farmland Thumb. I told my mom that I brought enough food for the kids for six weeks "just in case." :evil

We said our goodbyes, snapped a farewell pic or two, hopped on the bike, sent the dog back up to the house a couple of times, and rolled out. So this begins the trip, actually. Kids are gone, a 45-minute ride back home for one last night's sleep in the casa and we're off, bright and early tomorrow morn.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/itstarts.jpg[/IMG]

I'm playing with the D300 on the back of the bike. Ohno's new toy for the trip is a Tokina 11-16 mm lens. Well, it's one of them. There are many that I know of, and more I don't know about I'm sure. Found out about one while we were fueling up and making final bike checks when we rolled back into town. The tire pressure gauge he pulled from [I]The Killer Tool Roll[/I] started talking. :eek1

Anyway, Ohno wants me to practice shooting while we're riding to get that vista shot. I'm always game for something to occupy me when we ride two-up. The sun is starting to set and big clouds roll overhead.

We aren't 15 miles from my parents and we're clicking away, stopping and checking angles, clicking again. This is going to be a well documented trip.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/newlens1.jpg[/IMG]

A cadence taps on my helmet. Da dum da da dum, da dum dum dum. The dirty gray-yellow clouds above, backlit from the setting sun, have let a few raindrops slip down to earth. It is not raining hard enough to wet the road, just big heavy drops playing music on my head.

[IMG]http://www.teamboxer.com/advrider/phoenix/dirtycloud.jpg[/IMG]

I look at the setting sun peeking over the shoulder of a blue-violet cloud. The orb is starting to golden as it heads toward the horizon. I look back up at the clouds above. Big globules of water splash on my face shield. Da da dum. I smile.

It's a baptism. An open welcome to this new adventure.

We're on our way.