Dave’s summary

This was definitely a cool trip. Ron, thanks for taking me with you. The only thing I would change would be the weather. It should only rain at night.

As far as costs go, the BMW got an average of 39.25 miles per gallon over the 7920 miles I rode on the trip for fuel cost of $750. I filled the tank 35 times and put in 203.25 gallons. My tires were about twice as costly as Ron’s so my tire and oil expenses were $250. My trip total was about $1900. While I did check the head bolt torque and valve clearances because of the head gasket leakage, later in the trip the oil pan gasket began to leak also which I attribute to the use of synthetic oil on this trip. I usually use semi-synthetic oil. I changed back to regular oil in Seeley Lake and the oil leak slowed down considerably or stopped. I had to change a tail light bulb when we got back in Delta Junction and reinstall a turn signal bulb early on in the trip.

The BMW was designed for this kind of riding and performed well. I only wanted for power when returning on I-80 and needed to pass a truck. When we were North of Fairbanks 90% of the bikes we saw were BMW’s and KLR’s, mostly newer. There were a couple of V-Stroms and one older DR350. No other airhead BMW’s or Harley’s.

We usually ate oatmeal and granola bars for breakfast. I got some of the Starbucks instant coffee and it was actually pretty good though expensive. I also got some Tasters Choice instant coffee because it was about a third of the price and it was about a third as good. Lunches were typically in a Café on the road and dinner was a can of Chunky soup and a loaf of French bread. This put our food costs to about $17 per day each.

I took a few things I did not use, mostly cooking gear. I got a frying pan with a foldable handle, spatula, large spoon and took cooking oil thinking we might use them. Never did. Other items that I did not use were can opener, tin foil, sandals, binoculars, 110 volt inverter (to charge camera battery), CB radio, reading material, chair, cable lock for the bike and small tripod. I took a gallon water bottle and a half gallon would have worked fine and taken up less space.

Staying in RV parks worked out pretty well. They usually have a grassy area for tents and most have free WiFi now. The costs ran from $10 to $30 for the night with most being about $20. The Canadian parks charge a loony or two for a shower of 2 ½ to 8 ½ minutes but most of the US parks include a shower. We did run into a couple of parks that did not allow tenting. The RV parks are where we got to talk to a lot of the motorcycle and bicycling travelers.

I got a new sleeping bag and pad for the trip. The bag is a Marmot Trestles +15 degree polyester which worked well and the pad is an Exped SynMat 9 which worked very well and folded up much smaller than a Thermarest yet had similar R-value.

The next trip is going to have to include the Dempster Highway to Inuvik and the Taylor Highway to Dawson City in the Yukon Territory.