Cost to Coast ... to Coast on 1977 GS750 and GS550

[sam000lee]

Day 21:


In the parking lot there were no trees to set up the hammocks so we just strung up a tarp inbetween our bikes and slept on the gravel under that. I got woken up once or twice from the wind flapping the tarp around but besides that it was a pretty comfortable and refreshing night. This was my view when I woke up





While we were packing up we heard two enourmous BANGS. We were about 10 miles from area 51 and I think they were sonic booms or some other kind of government/alien equiptment. We got coffee back inside the Aleinn (breakfast was kind of pricey) before taking off and chatted with a man in the parking lot for a little who was nice enough to take a couple pictures:













After getting on the bikes, we were still a little nervous about running out of gas which wasn't helped by discovering that Bobby had his choke on for the first 70 miles or so. When we hit Tonopah, my odometer read 160 and it felt good to fill the tank all the way back up as well as know our travel limits a little better.


Over the next couple hours we transitioned from desert to mountains, and had to stop every now and then to add a layer.







One of my favorite pictures from the trip outside Yosemite:





Behind the camera is Mono Lake





Yosemite park was really incredible. By the time we had climbed to the entrance at the summit it was both wet and cold and there was snow scattered around the mountain. I thought we would have more time to enjoy some of the views but from the entrance it was another 40 miles to the campground we had made a reservation at which we were told would take around 3 hours to get to due to traffic. The roads were windy and around pretty much every corner were breathtaking views.


Pulling over to adjust Bobby's chain:

[sam000lee]

The roads in Yosemite were awesome but it there was a lot of traffic, plus it was cold and we had been on the bikes for at least 8 hours that day. Our campground was packed and our site wasn't really that great and I had nowhere to set up my hammock. Bobby used the tent that night and I just slung a tarp from my motorcycle and slept under that. We were both damp from the day and after setting up went to the 'general store' to get some food. Everything was really expensive and I ended up just getting a beer to have with a cliff bar for dinner. BUT when we got back, our camp neighbors had made an enormous batch of tacos (they were there with a couple families so had 15+ people) and generously offered us to have share with them before we turned in for the night.

[Buffalo Bill]

I like your story! All the references to money spent, pics of your meals, camp grounds and fk-ups make it a mo betta read too.

[B.C.G.S.]

You should post this up on ADVrider, they would love reading this.

[storm 64]

Which one are you again, the tall one or the short one? Haha just kidding. As others said, I also enjoy reading your adventure story. Any motorcycle trip plans for next summer?

[B.C.G.S.]

The short one looks like Roland Sands.

[Casey]

This story isn't over yet! I want to know how it ends! Haha

[chuck hahn]

Little tech tip. I get a 1 litre soda bottle and fill it with gas. Then I wrap the cap heavily with electrical tape and throw in at the top of a bag. That way should I miscalculate or otherwise get caught off guard I have a little extra fuel for that "OH CRAP" moment.

[Chuck78]

Addendum to that Tech tip -
i bought an MSR Whisperlite camp stove because it runs on gasoline, which you can get anywhere, and has a nice refillable bottle with a hand pump to pressurize it. They also sell a larger version fuel bottle, which is nice for extended periods backpacking, but also can serve as a reserve fuel canister for the bike! These stoves are also incredibly light and compact, which was the original major appealing factor for them aside from not needing a heavy disposable propane canister every so often.

[sam000lee]

Day 22 - 27


We woke up and packed up. Bobby had slept in the tent for I think the first time that night instead of his hammock, and I had strung my hammock up on my motorcycle underneath a tarp so that I could use the bug net.


Leaving Yosemite took a long time. We got rained on and there was a fair amount of traffic but the views there are great pretty much wherever you are. There are miles and miles of roads and we got gas in the park for clost to $5/gallon.


We left Yosemite via Rt 120 and the roads coming out were super twisty. I mentioned this at the time, but we saw a sign that said DIPS and had a pretty awesome time flying up and down over the hills.


We took I-580 towards San Francisco. It was really the first time we had been near a big city on a major highway for several thousand miles and I can remember feeling like we had been thrown back into the modern world. Staying with some friends' in Oakland for 4 days, there was a music event going on that some other people we knew from the East coast were playing and so we went to a couple of the gigs there. We spent this time staying up late and then resting during the day and I got a chance to give myself a haircut and wash our clothes which was refreshing.





On Tuesday August 8th, on the 26th day of our trip, we set out again heading north.


Golden Gate:





On the north side of the Golden Gate:





We took Rt. 1 up to 20W and then to Rt 101 to get to Oregon. We had both been really excited about this leg of the journey, but it was MUCH colder than we had expected and was damp and misting the whole time. The roads and ocean were grey and beautiful. The campgrounds along this stretch were expensive and not particularly nice and the nights were cold. It's been too long for me to remember clearly exactly where we were each day but the 3 nights heading up to Portland were all cold and, at least for me, were fairly sleepless.


We were waking up, riding, stopping for coffee, riding, stopping for some food and then riding until it was near dark before starting to look for somewhere to sleep. Without smart phones or any knowledge of local camping, this turned out to not be the most reliable method of getting a good nights sleep. At one point we stopped in a grocery store and picked up a $5 pound of perciutto, a loaf of wonderbread and some mustard which ended up being our dinner and lunch for the next couple of days. While we had planned our finances in advance and the trip was overall quite frugal, we were also starting to become especially mindful of our budgets.



A snack/lunch by in the Redwoods. While we were sitting there, some kid pulled in and then couldn't get his car to start. We lent him some tools and helped get a good connection to his battery's negative in order to get it to crank and start up again. We ended up seeing him periodically for the rest of the afternoon playing tag up the PCH.







One of my favorites from the trip:






Coming up the coast, we were pretty miserable half way up Oregon's coast. We opted to take 18 instead of 6, a little further north, because a man at the gas station told us that Portland was having a heat wave. Within half an hour of getting off 101, the temperature had risen by 10 degrees and continued to do so until we were soon riding in 90 degree weather wearing all of the clothes we had.

It was around this time that I started noticing some scary noises coming from the drive chain. We had both replaced our chains and sprockets before leaving and were now 5,000 miles into the trip. We regularly checked the chain tension and sprockets and they were both starting to show signs of definite wear.

[Burque73]

What a great thread.

Are you writing this from memory at this point or did you log the trip somehow?

[sam000lee]

At the time I wrote down where we ended up at the end of each day and pretty regularly have my odometer readings, too, as well as some random notes, postcards, trinkets, etc. I have quite a lot of pictures documenting things pretty well but there are a few gaps in the timeline from just looking at those.

[GabrielGoes]

nice thread. Can you list what work you had to do on your bike on the trip and what exactly "broke down" along the way? would be cool to know!

p.s. i assume you have electronic ignition?

[sam000lee]

Thanks!

On my GS750 I had to replace:

- Rear tire when we got to Oregon (~5-6,000 miles)
- Several oil changes
- Chain in Washington state (~6,000 miles) along with front and rear sprockets. The chain and rear sprocket were both toast.
- A few sets of spark plugs. We were riding through the mountains a fair amount and were subsequently running rich.

I think I might be forgetting something but honestly that's about it which is pretty amazing

The GS550 we had to replace:

- The Condensers in CO. Our bikes both had the same points system and we subbed in my condensers into the GS550 to troubleshoot it.
- Oil changes
- Rear tire also in Oregon
- Got a flat in Wyoming and had to replace a tube in a parking lot
- Chain was replaced in South Dakota after it became completely un-rideable on

I'll post the picture later tonight but we changed both rear tubes/tires at a gas station in Portland, OR to use the air. I also managed to fit in an oil/filter change, spark plug change and points adjustment. A pretty good tune up at a busy intersection haha. We "broke down" quite a few times in varying severity. The busted condenser stranded us for a couple of days as did looking for a new 530 chain in South Dakota. I had a slime pump so we were able to nurse the leaking tube for a day until we could find a shop with a tube (not easy when you don't have smartphones/internet access). Other reasons were running out of gas, bolts falling out of our luggage racks, things being loose/falling off, my luggage rack mounting points both snapped - stuff like that.

We both were running the original points for the trip. I've since installed a Dyna ignition and coils and we have the same for the GS550 we'll be putting in soon.

[GabrielGoes]

haha NICE! thats it? goes to show you how reliable these bikes are... and i bet you are running on stock motor that is over 40 years old with no refresh at all? I think that says a lot

I that dyna ignition is probably like a dream come true! now the spark plugs were totally fouled out? sometimes you can just hit em on a wire wheel with some brake clean after and they come right back to life. iridium's (cant do the wire wheel trick) should last you a lifetime.

6k miles for a chain and sprockets seems kind of short honestly, are you leaving enough slack?

Thanks!

On my GS750 I had to replace:

- Rear tire when we got to Oregon (~5-6,000 miles)
- Several oil changes
- Chain in Washington state (~6,000 miles) along with front and rear sprockets. The chain and rear sprocket were both toast.
- A few sets of spark plugs. We were riding through the mountains a fair amount and were subsequently running rich.

I think I might be forgetting something but honestly that's about it which is pretty amazing

The GS550 we had to replace:

- The Condensers in CO. Our bikes both had the same points system and we subbed in my condensers into the GS550 to troubleshoot it.
- Oil changes
- Rear tire also in Oregon
- Got a flat in Wyoming and had to replace a tube in a parking lot
- Chain was replaced in South Dakota after it became completely un-rideable on

I'll post the picture later tonight but we changed both rear tubes/tires at a gas station in Portland, OR to use the air. I also managed to fit in an oil/filter change, spark plug change and points adjustment. A pretty good tune up at a busy intersection haha. We "broke down" quite a few times in varying severity. The busted condenser stranded us for a couple of days as did looking for a new 530 chain in South Dakota. I had a slime pump so we were able to nurse the leaking tube for a day until we could find a shop with a tube (not easy when you don't have smartphones/internet access). Other reasons were running out of gas, bolts falling out of our luggage racks, things being loose/falling off, my luggage rack mounting points both snapped - stuff like that.

We both were running the original points for the trip. I've since installed a Dyna ignition and coils and we have the same for the GS550 we'll be putting in soon.