I used to be registered here - but I can't remember my old name or password... so I re-registered.

Anyway - I did a LONG ride report about the 10,000 miles I rode my GS500 this Summer.

On two separate trips I covered:  Tennesse, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and NewFoundLand.

Here is the link:

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=109220

During this trip, I covered lots of dirt/gravel roads... cross washouts.. even a stream or two...  I cruised plains loaded with tools and camping gear at 95-100mph for an hour at a time.... later in the summer I dropped the camping gear and when down to drag the pegs around the EPIC roads of the Smokey Mountain... like 19W and Tail of the Dragon...

The GS500 did right by me.

It is a 1992 GS500E that had 9000 miles when I started.

It has a small windscreen, an add-on gel pad seat, an oversized 130/90/17 tire (pulls highway speed MUCH better), a 12V DC outlet, Satellite Radio, NelsonGriggs SaddleBags and TopBags, and a european brand TankBag I've never seen before...

It was ORIGINALLY purple... but that didn't cut it - so the previous own painted it primer black and I painted it satin black with red "buell" style tank stripes.

It made the trip without a hitch.  I'm going crosscountry next summer...and I SERIOUSLY considered using the GS500... but setting out to go crosscountry on an overloaded GS500 with 20,000+ miles seemed like a bit much.

The GS500 is being tuned and getting a bunch of new maintenance parts... then it will be sold off come spring.  

The crosscountry trip will be on a VTR1000F/Superhawk996...  I'm sure it will be fun - but it won't be quite the adventure on a bigger bike!

Very inspiring

Inspiring?  Understatement!  

Hurry up and finish it!  

Thank you so much for the write up!

*whistle*    

awesome, me and my dad are going from dallas tx all the way to prudo bay (sp?) alaska and and if everything goes good then down to the florido keys and back to texas.  we will be taking a hayabusa and vstrom 1000.  iron butt here we come.  congrats on taking the gs, i will probably have the gs sold by then, so thats why we are taking the other bikes.

I love this quote...

Quote from: TurbonotchI bought the GS500 for $1000 with 10k miles - gave it a once over - threw on a bunch of affordable Nelson Griggs soft luggage. Most of my friends in the motorcycle business thought I was nuts... but honestly - why drive a $12k bike when you can drive old, reliable aircooled technology that you can sell for a bus ticket if it breaks without shedding a tear .

sounds like a real adventure. cant wait till you get the photos scanned and up. btw-great deal on the vtr (you sold the gs already?) but its a little too thirsty for touring duty, dont ya think? 100-110 miles to a tankful. do tell how you scored that bike for so little...

Good read!!
Wicked trip,truly inspiring!
thanx for sharing!

Thanks for taking the time to scan all those pictures and do the write up!  What an amazing trip.. I enjoyed reading every bit of it.

...and everyone corner-eyes me when I mention riding to Missouri on a GS500.  Amazing story.

Cool write up. That was an aweome trip.  Good thing you took the GS. The VTR wouldn't have survived some of those incidents...

Awesome write-up! Hmm out of curiosity, how long did it take you to do the entire trip from NJ to Newfoundland and back?

Thanks for the great read.

THANKS FOR THE KIND WORDS EVERYONE!

94Suzuki500 I REALLY wanted to get a V-strom 1000 for this last trip... but it was a rough financial year so it was out of the question.

That hayabusa is going to be interesting on those canadian and alaskan roads...    i'd make some contacts to find out where shops are up there that would have spare tires.  most people i've talked to that did Prudho Bay went through somewhere in the neighborhood of 1-3 tires or more.   Don't let it put you off... just be prepared.  The roads up there BURN through tires... and the further north you get the harder it is to find sport bike tires (trust me    )

During the trip, I met a guy from Vancouver that rode, basically, for living... he was independently wealthy or retired or something.  Anyway, he kept getting left stranded on Canadian and Alaskan roadsides.  One time he was WAY north and there wasn't a motorcycle shop in 100+ miles.  He was stuck at a gas station and the mechanic said... "is that a 15" rim?"... 'sure is he replied'... the mechanic said "we got a volkswagen tire that will probably fit on that just to get you home".

so they mounted a P165/15 tire on the back of the BMW... it worked so well he got 30k miles out of it and then replaced it with another one and another one and another one!  looks funky as hell... but he swears it corners well (for a cruiser/touring bike) if you air it down to 20psi - only costs $50 a tire.  the bike was nearing 200k miles when i met him... it was a 2001 model year  :lol:


Pantablo: I got a great deal on the VTR1000 because it was set up to be a track bike (even though it only ran a few events)... it changed hands for cash down south 3 or 4 times without having the title transferred...   the guy I bought it for track days - did a bunch of brake and suspension upgrades then ran 2 events, scared the Shyte out of himself, and went back to small bore bikes  

I picked it up for $1500 with no title and chased the paperwork trail to get it titled... it wasn't hard, just time consuming, nobody wanted to do it.  I threw on turn signals and lights and such... along with some other parts and it totaled up to less than $2000 dollars.

Yeah - the VTR is a little thirsty... but the smallish tank makes it more problematic (120 miles to reserve if you're just cruising).  For how cheap I picked it up - I can deal with the increased fuel cost.  It is watercooled with 9:1 compression so it runs happily on 87 octane cat pee - making it a little easier to swallow.  The short range is really the bummer - but I'm working on a luggage rack over the winter that incorporates a small 1 gallon fuel tank or two to get total range closer to 200miles.   That should be good the continental US... but I won't be riding this thing into Canada or Mexico though

Other than the poor range - the VTR is GREAT for touring.  Flexible power band... add a set of dirt track handle bars (to replace the clip ons), a higher shield, and a corbin seat... all of the sudden the Ergonomics are the same as a Suzuki Bandit 1200S - which is what I was originally shopping for.  And that is a GREAT sport touring bike.


Luksi:  yeah - bigger bikes are always nice... but Americans are brainwashed by the EGO trip of a bigger bike.  You go to other countries, especially Asia, South America, Africa and 500cc is about as big as the bikes get.  And those people drive ALL over the place on'em.

The real life character from ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE - is said to have done ALL of his cross country trips on a 60's 300cc CB77 Superhawk twin cylinder.  Of course the book is about him losing his sanity on some level...  :lol:  but fact of the matter is that 250-500cc motorcycles for long trips were the NORM back in the 60's and 70's.  

For the past couple decades Americans seen bikes as STARTING at 600cc for a beginner... and if you are SERIOUS you get a BMW, liter sport bike, H-D, or Goldwing... etc.etc.  all of which START at 1000cc  :dunno:

James G:  that is one of the reason I've been reluctant to get rid of the GS500 in favor of the VTR - it was kind of like the swiss army knife of travel - cheap, simple, light, 70+mpg, sturdy... unloaded I could drag the pegs around corners and never get in over my head.   If it falls over in a camp site... nothing breaks.  If you see a washout and gravel road... it doesn't intimidate you.  And like I said before - if it TRULY went FUBAR on the side of the road... I wouldn't even bother to find a dealer... I'd just leave it.  If I were on a $12k bike - I'd be committed to waiting for it to get repaired... even if that met waiting 4 days for parts.  

During the trip I told BMW, KTM, Triumph, and V-strom riders about some of the stuff I traversed in Vermont and Newfoundland... they were pretty honest... most of them said... "WOW - I know my bike could handle that - but I don't think *I* could handle the bike with a full load... it's just too top heavy and intimidating off-road"

Toole2go:    I planned on doing the trip in roughly 2 weeks... but the 'excursion' in St. John's stretched it to 15 days total.  It was a pretty grueling pace at times.

Arg, you've got the travel bug growing in me now and it happens every year around this time (Ya, Winter). I plan on conquering Cape Breton this Sept. to see the TT races  -- if it would just come sooner!

A very entertaining read.  Thanks for sharing, Turbonotch!1

Turbo Turbo Turbo you stinker!!
You rode all over my home province BEFORE I could.  You have no idea how I envy you. Arrgggg. I'm dying while reading your post. I'm a Newf that chose to displace himself to Alberta 11 years ago. I only started riding two years ago - see the problem   . I moved to flat land leaving behind fantastic riding roads.
I've stood by that Cape Spear sign while looking out over the ocean feeling the salt spray against my face. The smell, the wind.... thank-you for bringing back those feelings and images!! Geeze I was sitting in my office reading your post a couple of hours ago and got all home sick and teary eyed. Crap! but thanks. I do get back about once a year to see family but never with the bike.
And the 'party street' you wrote about has to be George Street!! Arggh more fantastic memories and some fuzzy ones   If anyone is wondering - here's a link to a webcam on the best Bar strip anywhere. http://www.ntv.ca/cams/pubcams.php
Lotsa live music much of it Irish (go figure) and like you found out, a lotta great people.
Just wanted to thank you again for a very good and entertaining write up but man you rode 'da Rock' before me!! But its all good  
For George Street...

Dandy D,
Ride Safe

Turbonotch,

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this - I read every word.  The pics and your descriptions made me feel like I was actually there.  To say it was enlightening and inspiring would be an understatement.

Glad you enjoyed us Canucks (as ‘different’ as we can be sometimes )

Godspeed…

Honest to God, and I'm not ashamed to admit this, I got a little emotional reading that stuff.  Especially I like the parts where he would hang out in bars and the locals would take car of him.  It's all got a Hemmingway type texture to it.

Turbo way to go! I've been thinking about riding my bike somewhere, anywhere. I don't aspire to take a trip as long as your, but I'm definitely going to do it. Thanks for taking the time to write it up so that we could all come along for the ride.

P.S. I also liked hearing about all the people that you met. Thanks again.