It's been a while since the last update, and many things have happened since September. Let me see if I can get y'all back up to speed.

Back in October, I purchased a larger tank for the DR 350 ES(Meredith's bike). I'm not sure if I've said before, but I've gotten conflicting reports on the longest distance that must be traveled without a gas stop during the trip. Sam Carrero(Trans-Am creator) says the longest distance is 180 miles. Kevin Basso(another man who has traveled the entire length of the trail) says 120 miles. It seemed, to me, a big discrepancy. After much searching, and debate with myself(I figured I must go with the longer of the two distances), I purchased the largest tank I could find, a Clarke Mfg. 4.2 gallon tank.

From the very beginning I was impressed by the quality of the tank. To be honest, installing the new tank was simply a matter of taking the old tank off and putting the new tank where the old one had been.

After it was installed though, was where the fun began. The old tank was metal, and the gas cap, when installed, would seal the tank. Most tanks have a vent hose coming out of the gas cap, therefore allowing the gas to feed to the carburetor by gravity. Since the old tank didn't have a vent hose, and was sealed, it relied on something else to let the gas come to the carburetor.

With the old tank, a hose ran the distance from the carburetor to the petcock(the gas valve). When the bike was cranked, there was a vacuum pulled along this hose from the carburetor to the petcock, thus opening the petcock and pulling the gas to the carburetor, except here a vacuum was pulling it instead of gravity.

The new tank did not have a gas cap that was sealed. It had a vent hose. This changed the dynamics of the whole mechanism for moving gas to the carburetor. The vacuum hose from the carburetor was no longer needed. With the vent hose, the gas was going to be pulled by gravity.

Before I realized any of this I cranked the bike. Well, cranked is the wrong verb. I tried to crank it. As I would hammer on the starter, the bike would do nothing except spit and sputter, never coming to life.

I knew what the problem was immediately. I had guessed that would happen. I pulled the vacuum hose loose from the petcock and held my thumb over the end, thus eliminating the vacuum. The bike fired off immediately and ran as it always had.

One more problem presented itself. In pulling the vacuum hose away from the petcock, there was an open port on the petcock. Clearly the old petcock wouldn't do. A petcock designed for a tank with a vent hose was in order. So, $30 later, I was set. The bike now runs great.

Over the past few months I've been testing the range of the tank. I've been to 185 miles without going to reserve. I figure reserve has at least 10 miles more. So we should be in good shape.

Along the way I've also been purchasing small items that will be needed. Extral fuel line, a chain breaker, a chain master link press, an air pump, 3 tire irons, etc. A full list of all the items purchased up to the present is here or a link in the left column.

If you've already looked at the list, you probably noticed I purchased the full set of maps. At the beginning of December I realized we had enough money from our November paycheck to purchase the maps. I was beginning to realize it was important to get the maps here as early as possible for a number of reasons.

One, I expect following roll-charts might take some practice. I really wanted to get an idea of how Sam's directions are layed out on the paper, and maybe make some sample charts in his style for a few short trips this spring. The first direction on the first roll-chart is "right out of parking lot Days Inn Jellico, TN". When I turn right out of the Days Inn parking lot, I would like to be comfortable with riding and "rolling", if you get my drift.

Second, Sam has done a ton of work on these maps. Understandably, he hasn't had time to go through and correlate his route to any of the surrounding sights. His maps are just directions from one place to another. I want time to scour his maps and correlate them to maps that show what there is to see. For instance, after the maps arrived, I purchased the Tennessee Atlas & Gazetteer. I took this atlas and traced Sam's route onto it. From this new map I can easily see places we must find along the way. I immediately saw that the Shiloh National Battlefield will be within 20 miles of our motel several days into the trip. I would've never known this with only Sam's maps. Excellent!

Third, I wanted to make a list of distances traveled each day, along with phone numbers of possible motels we might stay in each night. In some instances, Sam has given the phone number of a motel where the day will end. But many times it's left to us to find a motel. So, I have been searching each town we will stay in for a motel and the phone number.

To say all of this takes time is an understatement. It's still a work in progress, but I've loved every minute of it.

I wired Sam the money in early December and they arrived a few weeks later in a very non-descript cardboard box. Within the box, each state has its own ziplock bag containing roll-charts and fold-out maps. The roll-chart directions are not rolled yet. They are 3 columns per 8.5in. x 11in. page

at the moment. It's up to me to cut each page and tape them into a roll.

You may think that is stinky, but it's done for a reason. If they were already in a roll, I couldn't look at them without unrolling them, very troublesome during my planning!

I've had the maps for a while now, and, I have to say that the amount of effort and work that must have gone into developing them is amazing. It truly takes a passionate person to keep working on something that difficult and time consuming.

To get an idea of what I mean, click here or the link to the left titled Trans-Am map info. This is a list of each state and the number of fold out maps corresponding to that state. Now, realize that each fold out map has five to six full rolls of directions, depending on the terrain. You now get an idea about the work that goes into this. Notice that I say "goes into" instead of "went into". The maps are still being created. Since we've found out about the trail, it has been extended from central Tennessee to the eastern edge of Tennessee. The plan is to go the Atlantic. So, eventually there will be a route from coast to coast!

 

The last big purchase was helmet communicators purchased from Collette Communications. They arrived a few days before Christmas.

These communicators are really nothing more than very fancy walkie-talkies made to attach on the side of our helmets. The microphone is on a very flexible tube, allowing the michrophone bend up under the face of our helmets, right in front of our mouths. Small speakers, the company calls Micro Blasters, are attached inside the helmet next to our ears.

Unlike conventional walkie-talkies, the microphone is activated when words are spoken, allowing the person to talk hands free, which is very nice when riding a motorcycle.

I've said in the past, the biggest problem we've had while riding is Meredith not knowing where I'm headed. With the little time we've had with these microphones, it's obvious this problem will be fixed.

There are a few kinks we have yet to work out.

At full speed on the highway, the wind noise will sometimes make the microphone think somebody is speaking, thus activating it. If one person is speaking, another cannot. So, if the wind is activating a microphone, nobody else can say anything. There are settings allowing you to compensate for this, but when you slow down, therefore decreasing wind noise, the settings need to be changed again.

That situation may be the norm, and won't be a big deal. Speeds will be fairly constant. So, settings should last awhile before needing to be changed.

 

So that's what we've been up to for the last few months. We're lucky enough to get riding gear for Christmas, although the majority of it hasn't arrived yet. We'll save those for our next update. We're also looking to purchase our saddlebags for each bike and a larger tank for my bike(those are the last big purchases hopefully), along with a myriad of other products. Now that Christmas is over, we can devote our full attention to what needs to be purchased, monetarily and otherwise!!

Until next time.........

January