First 400 mile day

[Brian_M]

I drove 400 miles yesterday through Oregon from the coast to Salem and then to Portland and back. I packed up the bike with a tankbag and my saddlebags and headed out with my girlfriend on the back. The bike help up great and ran strong all day long without a hitch. I averaged 55mpg on the trip. I only took one good picture at a rest stop along the way so here it is. There was only 2 things that I need to address for the next trip, one being I need a more comfortable seat so I don't have to stop as often to readjust and two I need some grip heaters or warmer gloves for night riding. Other than that though it was a fun trip and I was very surprised at the power I had on the interstate riding 2 up with full gear and luggage, I had no problems rolling on the throttle in 6th gear at 75mph to pass someone, it had plenty of get up and go.

[tdrcomm]

NICE!!

Heated grips are the best but if you don't have them then a good pair of lined winter gloves will do (and don't forget gloves for her, too). What kind of side bags are those?

[Brian_M]

Right now I'm using a set of joe rocket gloves with a pair on thermal gloves underneath those and my hands got cold enough to where it was difficult to move my fingers driving in 40 degree night the other day. And the saddlebags are Nelson Rigg Silver Streak bags, they work great and I can get one of the straps under the seat so they're fixed to the bike pretty good. They worked perfectly.

[chinto]

sounds like a fun trip. I will give you one more thing to address though....stop parking your bike with your front tire sitting in a puddle of oil!!!

[KatanaSoldier]

Good stuff. Those bags look nice on the Kat.

[squiggy]

Heated grips are are a priority mod for cold weather riding. I have Hot Grips, but there are some others.

[joeveto]

Awesome. I didn't doubt the bike handled it just fine. But how did your girlfriend hold up? 400 miles on the back is a lot!

[Brian_M]

She did fine, I stopped a few times on the trip for the both of us, that seat had me sore the next day. She had about 5 layers on and still was cold at the end of the day but other than we both had a lot of fun on the trip

[md86]

Her layers must not've been right , then .....
Long johns
Sweatshirt
leathers
windbreaker outer layer
Something for the neck (scarf , balaclava)
I'm good like that down to about 35 for longer trips . Oh yeah , and heated grips are NOICE , but don't help a ton when you're out in sub-35* weather on the highway for a couple hours . They HELP quite a bit , but the backs of your hands still get cold as do your fingertips . And putting on thicker gloves means less heat gets through them from the grips . Now to rig up some of them motoX-type guards for the Kat .....

[tmac6767]

Nice Ride. Is that a mini saddlebag or a normal size saddlebag? I was thinking about getting one but I was afraid that my girlfriend would not be confortable riding with it. Yours seem like a perfect size.

Thanks,

[Brian_M]

Those are the mini ones, they have more than enough room inside of them though to fit whatever I need. They have handy pockets too on the front of them that the passenger can easily access and Katie never had any problems with them getting in the way of anything and she's about 5'9".

[Brian_M]

Those are the mini ones, they have more than enough room inside of them though to fit whatever I need. They have handy pockets too on the front of them that the passenger can easily access and Katie never had any problems with them getting in the way of anything and she's about 5'9".

[tmac6767]

Those are the mini ones, they have more than enough room inside of them though to fit whatever I need. They have handy pockets too on the front of them that the passenger can easily access and Katie never had any problems with them getting in the way of anything and she's about 5'9".

Awsome thanks for the info. Time to look for a deal for saddlebags

[mx916]

You may want to look into a Corbin seat. much more comfort and they accept a backrest. A little oricey but I swear by them.

[susheelover]

Yeah..the Corbin Gunfighter and Lady seat cannot be beat....