Alaska 2016

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Those pictures are spectacular and I bet they aren't even as close to as awesome as it really is there!!

Family adventure is simply priceless. Good on you. Forget that GREAT ON ALL OF YOU!!

 
What an adventure! Look forward to hearing and seeing more.Also, kudos to the ladies!
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Wives that are willing to suit up and go with you on a trip like that. Gotta love it! You lucky bastards!
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yes we are, thank you!

 
Today was a trip to Homer for fish and chips for lunch Got about 15 miles from Soldotna on the way back and BeamerReamer had a back tire going down. A quick check of pressure, still at 20 lbs, a scan of the tire produces a rock puncture right in the middle of the tread. Out comes the sticky string kit, plugged and aired up to 42 psi in 10 minutes.

A quick call to the Yamaha, Honda, and Harley dealers in Soldotna - none have tires, Yamaha is closing in 10 minutes (2 PM closing). We had left the trailers at our home base in Seward, so the spare tires we had were over 100 miles away).

Off we go, 15 miles later tire goes down again, Insert another string, refill - 20 miles later, repeat, on the 5th try, we had cell service in ther middle of nowhere, called escapeFJRtist to see if we should try a different technique. We waited a little longer after inserting the string and cut the string off so less than 1/4 inch was showing. Made it the last 70 miles to Seward. Thanks G!

tire when we got back.

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Now came the fun, spooning on a rear tire with only the tools we had with us.

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Bead breaking. Motionpro makes very good hand tools to do this

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Done, balanced, torqued, and back together - took about an hour

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And the adventure continues....

 
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Praying for a safe, joyful and remember-able trip :)

Thank you for sharing your adventurous trip, it looks like an amazing time :)

 
So...changing a tire with a trailer hitch adds to the challenge, but I remembered Panman describing how he did his. The old put it on a center stand while the tire hangs over a cliff trick. It works.

Today also required the liberal use of spray lubricants for all the things that are supposed to move but were not any longer. The ire of the gravel still lingers. Side bag latches and locks, ignition cylinder, kickstand even got difficult.

 
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Most excellent y'all...glad to hear the plug held and got everyone back [sort of] to civilization!
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Hoping the rest of the adventure doesn't include more plugs and 'tar irons. Looking forward to more stalking this week while the rest of us are stuck at work!!

Be safe.

--G aka MP

 
Been off line for couple of days, what and adventure. Waiting for the rest of the story on the big screen,

 
So...changing a tire with a trailer hitch adds to the challenge, but I remembered Panman describing how he did his. The old put it on a center stand while the tire hangs over a cliff trick. It works.
Today also required the liberal use of spray lubricants for all the things that are supposed to move but were not any longer. The ire of the gravel still lingers. Side bag latches and locks, ignition cylinder, kickstand even got difficult.
Changing a FJR rear tire with hand tools. This is just awesome. Please demo this at the next NW Tech event or at least go through the steps. Great ride report. Have fun.

 
To echo a few above comments: Big Time Adventure, and you are indeed lucky men to have ladies that will join you.

 
It looks like they'll be going through Chicken, Alaska, on the Top of the World highway. It's a neat little place in the middle of nowhere.

Last time I was there (quite a few years ago) part of the village was a string of false store fronts (old west style) and you would go into one, say the post office,

mail your post card and then walk over a few places on the boardwalk and buy some liquor, walk over a few more places and buy some groceries and so on.

At first I thought I was being served by triplets.....but then I realized that the stores are all connected in the back and your server just watches where you go

along the boardwalk in front and pops into the back of whatever place you walk into.

A clever adaptation to living in the north.

 
Road to Valdez...beyond awesome. Pics to follow someday. Auburn FJR almost got a moose...or maybe the moose almost got him. All OK in the end, but it was amazing to see the moose fall completely on its ass trying to turn around so quick. It was a close one...he also nearly shortened a fox tail a bit earlier.

Road to chicken was nasty. Top of the world tomorrow.

 
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