2015 Transam Trail – Prepped and Ready

A Special Thanks to My Support Team

A special thanks to my support team

• My awesome wife that helps me reach all of my dreams
• Jason Sager for training and body mechanics advice and planning to meet me in Portland to celebrate and hang out for a week
• Dave at Combustion Cycles for his advice and top notch bike work
• Advrider inmates for their advice
• The yogis for cheering me on and being excited and supportive

 

The Tear Down

Before going on an extended off-road trip of a few hundred miles, never mind 3,500 miles, you gotta make sure the bike is in tip top shape. You will wreck countless times (hopefully at low speed), ride down streams that are knee high, ride over miles of washboard and through many miles of sand and silt and of course thousands of miles of gravel roads. Any weak spots are going to fail. If you don’t think you have any weak spots, some will be hiding or will develop and then fail anyway. I planned a month of tearing down, ordering parts, and rebuilding the bike back up. I pushed darn hard and ended up ready to go just a few days before departure. The “War Room” task board nearing the end is below, the total investment was probably around $2,000:

I’m pretty handy when it comes to automotive and even some motorcycle stuff but there’s no substitute for having a pro go over your bike; he knows what each thing *should* be like and knows the weak spots to look out for. It cost me a few hundred dollars at a local private shop but it was absolutely money very well invested.

 

Gear, Gear, and More Gear

The range of conditions and situations that I need to be prepared for made packing light a challenge but I’m very pleased with the trade-offs I made. Weather will range from the 20’s to over 110F since I’ll be in elevations from sea level to 12,000 ft and everywhere from Crater Lake, OR to Moab, UT. I’ve got to be able to deal with a reasonable range of maintenance and on-the-trail breakdowns. I want some level of comfort too: it’s nice to have a decent chair to rest in after a long, hard day of trail riding. These bikes often have frame cracks and failures when loaded up like this. I fully expect I’ll have to get it welded at some point during the trip. Here’s what I ended up packing (a handful of additional items are on the bike that I missed in these pics, but this is almost everything):

1 – Vintage Tupperware container – passed down from my wife’s grandmother I think
2 – Single use grease packets from Advance Auto – great for sealing the air filter after cleaning it off
3 – Multitool that my father-in-law gave me  years ago
4 – Motion Pro X tool kit with almost everything you need to work on a Honda
5 – Latex gloves to keep the hands reasonably clean during repairs
6 – Shop towel
7 – Rope, passed on to me from an outfitter in Moab I visited earlier this year
8 – Fencing wire, used when we put up our electric fence in Texas
9 – Quick Steel for emergency tank or other repairs
10 – Zip ties (there are lots more tucked in my fender bag
11 – Extra spark plug for when I drown this pig in a river
12 – Spark plug socket
13 – Motion Pro tire levers
14 – 10mm ratchet wrench, another gift from my father-in-law. There are A LOT of 10mm bolts on this bike so I tossed this in for convenience
15 – Spoke wrench
16 – Tire pressure gauge
17 – Motion pro 24mm to 3/4 socket tool, to be used with the tire levers or by hand
18 – Tire patch kit
19 – Pen wrapped with duct tape
20 – Extra carb jets to lean the bike out if it starts running poorly at high elevation
21 – Pantyhose to use as a pre-filter or in case I need to rob a bank for gas money
22 – Spare batteries for my grande 800 lumen flashlight (it’s brighter than my headlight!)
23 – Chain lube
24 – Not shown, I have an air compressor and 13/17/19mm 3/4″ sockets

 

1 – Platypus water bags for stretches that need it
2 – Extra ziploc bags
3 – First aid kit, bring it so you don’t need it
4 – Sleeping back in a waterproof compression bag
5 – Cookset, titanium pot was a gift from my mom years ago
6 – Tupperware acrylic cup, my bike/backpack/motorcycle/paddling companion of many years
7 – Deet
8 – Wet wipes
9 – Trail stand, helpful for propping up the bike to work on a flat tire or other repair
10 – Spare heavy duty rear tube
11 – Spare heavy duty front tube
12 – Air filter oil
13 – Spare air filter. Lets me toss a new one on when the other gets too clogged up, or use it while the other one is drying after cleaning
14 – Oil filter
15 – Dawn detergent for cleaning the air filter
16 – Awesome Fenix flashlight
17 – Headlamp
18 – Stove fuel
19 – Bathroom kit
20 – Tent stakes
21 – Hammock
22 – Hammock straps
23 – Battery pack: I’ll recharge this while I ride, then I can charge anything at night
24 – Not shown, toilet paper!

 

1 – Heat reflector
2 – Can opener
3 – Lighter
4 – Flint
5 – Acrylic spoon
6 – Titanium pot
7 – Cookset bag
8 – Stove
9 – Fuel

 

1 – Deodorant, gotta smell good for the bears
2 – Brush, gotta look good for the snakes
3 – Floss, to clean teeth of said bear fur
4,5 – Toothbrush and toothpaste, to brush out tasty snake meat
6,7 – Razor to look less Unibomber when I go into town
8 – Shampoo and body wash for the creek
9 – Powder to help dry out the rash-prone areas every day
10 – Fancy pants Aveda case

 

1 – Nice waterproof case
2 – Sewing kit to stitch up like Rambo
3 – Bandaids
4 – Mupirocin, amped up Neosporin
5 – Tylenol and Advil

 

1 – Rain outfit stuff sack
2 – Marmot rain pants
3 – Mountain Hardwear rain top
4 – Belt
5 – Sunblock and carabiner
6 – Ear plugs
7 – Synthetic top
8 – Convertible pants
9 – Cycling shorts
10 – Undies
11 – Synthetic Long pants
12 – Waterproof compression stuff sack for clothing
13 – Fleece pants
14 – Capilene top/bottom
15 – Kindle
16 – Medications
17 – Name cards with contact info for people I meet
18 – hat
19 – Synthetic socks
20 – Fleece jacket, another gift from my in-laws
21 – Hat
22 – Heavy duty garbage bags to protect stuff from water
23 – Waterproof pannier covers
24 – BMW all weather gloves

 

1 – Synthetic shirt
2 – Cycling shorts
3 – Motocross jersey
4 – Synthetic socks
5 – Motocross pants
6 – Helmet
7 – Body armor
8 – Shin/knee guards – extra heavy duty since I’m riding solo, gift from my in-laws
9 – Goggles
10 – Ear plugs
11 – Motocross boots – extra heavy duty footwear since I’m riding solo

 

1 – Sunglasses
2 – Slim wallet
3 – DeLorme InReach satellite communicator with SOS to call for search and rescue and helicopters
4 – Phone
5 – 4 liter water bladder
6 – Camelback
7 – Camera
8 – Tripod
9 – Various charging cables
10 – USB wall charger
11 – USB port for motorcycle

 

Officially Ready to Roll

Zombie Apocalypse Prep

While I was at it, I equipped up for the coming zombie apocalypse, which only makes sense:

Schedule and How to Follow My Progress

I plan to do a shake-down ride to the Edenton, NC to reach the east coast, making this a true coast-to-coast trip. Hopefully all will go well and I will then keep going west, young man. I plan to arrive in Port Orford, OR by Sept 21 and meet Jason in Portland Sept 23.

 

I’m carrying a satellite tracking unit which will frequently update my position online. You can check in to see where I’m at here at any time:

https://share.delorme.com/RaymondCrampton

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates!