Co-workers Alaska Adventure

[Bob_Roller]

A co-worker left Phoenix on June 15th for Alaska on his 2005 Gold Wing pulling a trailer, we got an email with a picture of him and his bike at the Arctic Circle this morning .

He is trying to make it to Prudhoe Bay on the northern coast of Alaska .

He has already shredded a rear tire on the bike, he put a run flat auto tire on the rear, and even it wasn't up for the road conditions .

[Justin B.]

When I made the trip in '79 I remember running out of tubes and almost using all of my patches on the last pair of tubes before I got to Fairbanks!   I started out with 4 spare tubes (2 front, 2 rear) and a patch kit.  I think I wound up with 2 patches on the front tube and 3 on the rear.  I really got sick and tired of patching tires in the mud, on the side of the road, in the rain...  [smiley=puke2.gif]

[nhmaf]

Holy Cow !

I still think that he has done great to get up to the Arctic circle in such relatively short time!   Maybe I impress easily, but that's still a worthy accomplishment in less than 2 weeks, methinks.

[Bob_Roller]

He's an 'animal', when it comes to riding, it's nothing for him to ride 2,000 miles, just stopping for fuel and to eat .

He did a "Four Corners' ride, that's the four corners of the US, in I believe 12 days .

He's doing the trip solo, he's a native Texan, and he doesn't have any common sense, to know when to stop !!!!!

[Bengt_Phorqs]

So what causes all of the flats?  Is it rocks & gravel?

[Bob_Roller]

At best in a lot of places, it's a dirt and rock road, there has been a lot of rain in the area in the last 2 weeks .

So the road surface gets 'washed out', the dirt washes away, and whats left is a bunch of rocks, until they get the road graders out there to smooth things out .

[Bob_Roller]

Got word today that the Alaskan adventurer got back to Phoenix on July 8th, right around 10,000 miles (16,000 km.) round trip .

He went through two sets of tires on the Gold Wing, and his trailer as well .

I'll get the details of the trip on Wednesday of next week .

[acruhl]

Are you guys saying that you end up hitting rocks hard enough to mash a hole in the tube?

Holy cow, not fun if that's the case...

That's where it makes sense to have a lightweight dirt bike. BMW makes some pretty good ones now... Maybe he could tow it on that trailer attached to the Gold Wing

[Bob_Roller]

From what little information I got yesterday, the front rim on his 'Wing, is not repairable, it was damaged so badly, that even the companies that claim to be able to save bent alloy rims won't even touch it, after seeing pictures of it .

These tires, were all tubeless .