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The big brown truck showed up this afternoon with a delivery for me.  Seems the new IMS tank has arrived – this tank will give me two additional gallons fuel capacity which should give me about 100 additional miles worth of range.

First I attached the new petcock to the tank.  This thread is a bunch of DR owners with IMS tanks talking about issues (hope I shouldn’t be worried) but I went head and just did the install as per the included instructions – I figure if something leaks, I can always go back and revisit this thread then.  We’ll see.

Second, I attached the bracket that holds the front of the seat down (sorry no photos of this part – i forgot to take them in my excitement).

Third, I dove into the bike, pulled the side plastics and the seat.

Then it was time to drain the fuel from the old tank – this proved to be the longest (and messiest) part of the whole deal – i smell of gas as i type this.  After draining the old tank, I pulled the fuel line from it and the vacuum hose.  The new IMS tank came with a plug to put over the vacuum nipple on the carb – the photo i took came out blurry.

The black fairing that you see in the photo above came off after the tank

Then i put the new tank on – it went pretty smoothly.  I reconnected the fuel line – put on the seat and side plastics and volla.

Now if i can just find a seat that doesn’t have the blue on it…

Pick up an IMS tank here

On the 17th I ordered a set of Great Basin Saddle bags from Giant Loop – when i check Google Checkout it still says that the item has not been shipped.  I called yesterday and today, left a message both times inquiring about the status, but have yet to hear anything back…

I hope they call back soon (or better yet the bags just show up as it’s been over a week).

UPDATE:

Just got an email confirming shipping – a week to ship, seriously?  I hope the quality etc of these bags really blows me away, because from a customer service standpoint, i am less than impressed.

A friend of mine was out here a few weekends ago and we did a pretty cool ride through Boulder, over the Switzerland Trail to Gold Hill, up through Ward, to Caribou, into Ned, down Magnolia, and back home.  Here is a photo he took of the bikes – it shows my DR in it’s “Naked” state – the customizations are getting ready to ramp up, hopefully this week.

Both of these bikes will be going on our Contenential Divide trip – Stay tuned.

Since getting a DR and the idea that taking some trips on it might be fun, I have, of course, read some of the obvious books.  Long Way Round and Long Way Down and watched both of the TV Series.  Recently, though I have started reading Jupiter’s Travels – it’s old school and what really started the whole ball in motion, i guess.  If you are at all interested in any of this stuff, you should pick up one (or all) of these books.  They are very inspirational and chock full of adventure.

I think The Longest Ride will be my next read – or perhaps Race to Dakar (Charley cracks me up).

In addition to planning, this upcoming trip is going to necessitate some modifications to my DR650.  As I mentioned in an eariler post I have already ordered bags for the DR (which I can’t wait to see in person) additionally I am going to need the capacity to carry more fuel.  The stock DR gas tank is 2.9 gallons – I get an average of about 52 MPG – giving the bike, with stock tank, a range of about 150 miles.  I feel that for off road adventures, a 200 mile range is about the safe minimum so I ordered an IMS tank which can carry 2 additional gallons of fuel.  This addition should put me well within the “safe” range.

Note: not my bike in the photo – you have to be a real man to ride a yellow bike – I am not sure that I’m that cool.

Well they came in today the Adventure Cycling Association’s maps for Colorado and Wyoming – now it looks like it’s time to start wrapping my head around this.

As with any good adventure, maps are often necessary – today I ordered maps from the Adventure Cycling Association. I ordered the Polaris, MT, to South Pass City, WY and South Pass City, WY, to Silverthorne, CO these are shipping from MT so hopefully they won’t take long to get here.

I have to do some more outfitting for the DR to get it into traveling shape – on the agenda are a back rack, a bigger IMS tank, bags to carry everything in (see below), and new tires right before we leave (i am sure that there’s more).

I ordered these Giant Loop Motorcycle bags today.  I went back and forth between them (they don’t require a hard rack for the bike) and a rack/bag combination.  The Wolfman Expedetion Saddle Bags were top on my list, but the Giant Loop bags won out because they don’t need a rack,  and they’re universal – I can put them on my SV 650 too.  I will report more when they get here – can’t wait to start seeing all of this come together.

So probably in no small part thanks to Ewan & Charlie’s two adventures and the fact that I picked up a DR650 last summer, I’ve been jonsing to see what a similar (albeit scaled back) ride would be like.  It looks like it’s finally going to happen – so I thought maybe a new blog category was in order.

Looks like my buddy Matt and I are going to try a section of the Contenential Divide Trail on our motorbikes this August.  The tentative plan is to ride from here to Kremling, CO through Rocky Mountain National Park – via the paved roads.  We’ll sync up with the trail in Kremling and ride it all the way to Jackson Hole, WY.

We’re still deciding how we’re going to get home, etc.  But I will update this as we make progress on planning, etc.