Last Week’s Moto Trip

August 26, 2015

With orders, emails, and messages finally back under control, last week seemed like a good time to sneak out of the office for a ride.  All of us here at Mosko are trying to squeeze in a little time-off before summer ends: Andrew’s in British Columbia canoeing and camping, Nicole is camping & crabbing at the coast, and Lee’s prepping for a BDR trip in a few weeks.  In the meantime, Tiffany has been holding down the fort (thank you Tiffany!!).

For my ride, I followed the Cascade Discovery Route and connected it to the Oregon Backcountry Discovery Route #3 down to California.  There’s a quick & dirty trip report here on advrider.com, and some pics below.  I took a Reckless 80, but rigged a Scout 30 duffle instead of the included drybag, which basically doubles the capacity of the rear bag.  I didn’t need all that capacity, but wanted to experiment to see if it worked (it did), because people have been asking.

I took the Hubba NX (one person) tent.  I have a Gear Shed that goes with this, but with it being summer, and no rain in the forecast, I left that at home.  That’s one of the really cool things about using the Hubba Nx and Gear Shed instead of a two or three-person tent.  When the weather’s good, you can leave your Gear Shed at home and just take the tent, which packs tiny.

Lately I’ve been rigging my Whisperlite Universal stove to run on canisters instead of unleaded gas.  I did this because a) I got tired of my hands getting all sooty from the burnt unleaded gas and b) the jets rarely clog on canisters, and c) canisters don’t require priming.  But I still really dig how the Whisperlite Universal can go either way – canister or liquid – based on what kind of trip I’m on.  Like for example, when I’m traveling internationally I run it off unleaded because that’s all I can find.  But here in the US for local trips, canisters are pretty damn convenient.

I also used my Autoflow gravity fed water filter every day.  This is so much better than pumping an old-school filter.  And because I have the filter with me I can run with a lot less water on the bike which saves a lot of space and weight.  I was carrying 2-4 liters less than I would have without the filter.

I took the protoype of our new tool roll.  We’re making some tweaks to this, adding additional pockets and improving the closure system, but overall it worked great and it fit all my tools, which were in a Kriega roll before.  I love that it’s sized perfectly to slide in the rear pockets on our Reckless 80 and Backcountry 35 Pannier.

Tire iron pockets on the outside are really handy.

This has been a busy summer, with a lot of time spent in the “business of” motorcycles, but not enough time actually riding.  Glad to finally catch up on some riding time and reconnect with my bike last week.  I’m stoked for another trip in a few weeks in Colorado with Kurt from Black Dog Cycleworks & Dusty after the KTM rally in Crested Butte.

Summer’s on!  Hope everyone’s out enjoying it!!