Section for Tourning Tips-N-Tricks?PLEASE!

[ben2go]

It would be nice to have a section specificly for touring and comuting.So people could share their storage and baggage solutions.Dealing with weather.Addition of wind screens to help make the ride more comfy.That kinda stuff.Kerry has a nice detail write up on his site about luggage and windscreens.There's nothing here to refer to about long distance travel or heavy commuting.

[beRto]

It would be nice to have a section specificly for touring and comuting.So people could share their storage and baggage solutions.Dealing with weather.Addition of wind screens to help make the ride more comfy.That kinda stuff.Kerry has a nice detail write up on his site about luggage and windscreens.There's nothing here to refer to about long distance travel or heavy commuting.

Good idea! 

Sort of goes along with the request for a "Ride Report" section:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41341.0

[ajaxgs]

+1

[bucks1605]

I agree, we need to update the forum.

[ben2go]

It would be nice to have a section specificly for touring and comuting.So people could share their storage and baggage solutions.Dealing with weather.Addition of wind screens to help make the ride more comfy.That kinda stuff.Kerry has a nice detail write up on his site about luggage and windscreens.There's nothing here to refer to about long distance travel or heavy commuting.

Good idea! 

Sort of goes along with the request for a "Ride Report" section:
http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=41341.0

1 forum for tips n tricks.
1 forum for stories and pics.

[08GSSteve]

Touring

My history with long distance touring goes back to when I was 18 on my GSX ES550.  The bike was a little more powerful than the GS but the handling etc was so simular it is not funny.

The bike was fitted with a custom made rear rack to hold a 60L backpack held onto the rack with heavy duty cable ties.  The backpack was of aluminium design so no troubles with the cable ties.

Suspension was pumped up to max along with max tire pressure to allow for camping gear weight plus pillion.  Front forks had a 40mm fork spacer added to allow for extra weight.

The gap in front of the rack had the sleeping bags stacked 2 high to make a comfortable rest for the wife (then girlfriend).  Sleeping bags were wrapped extra tight and held with elastic straps (occy straps here in Australia).  Oh and the sleeping bags were wrapped in green garbage bags to keep the rain out.  This was the same for everything in the backpack as well to ensure that your gear arrives dry and not wet.

On the fuel tank sat an oversized touring tank bag for whatever we could not get into the back pack and trust me when you take your wife or girlfriend you need all the room you can provide for her odds and ends (I say this with all the love in the world)

Lighting:  Replaced standard 60/55 with a 55/100 globe for night riding.  The Suzuki voltage regulators are bad as we all know so after mine blew I changed mine over to a Honda 750 voltage regulator (sorry can't remember what make it came from).

Breaking:  Yes your bike is going to be heavy so make sure before you tour that you have good brakes that will be able to pull you up.  Give yourself more distance between vehicles and slowing for corners etc.

Most important if you plan on doing long distance tours and never done it before I suggest loading the bike up one fine day and going for a test ride to get use to the extra weight and how the bike feels, responds etc instead of finding out on the day.  You will have a huge amount of top end weight so get use to the corners and flicking the bike.

Enough for now
Have fun

[08GSSteve]

Bugger thought we were going to post here instead of starting other threads LOL.  Sorry me bad

[ben2go]

I am hoping to rally the mods and get a section for tips n tricks and stories and pics.Your post can be moved over. 

Thanks for the input.That's the kind of stuff I'm thinking of for the tips n tricks.