February 2002 ride from California to Idaho, brrrrrrrr.

It's a 2001 Suzuki Bandit 1200 "naked" (no windscreen),
that I've added both Corbin "beetle" bags (custom hard
saddle bags), and a Givi 40 liter tail bag. I had to do a lot of bending
and tweaking to get both mounted at
the same time, but it worked out pretty nicely in the end. I'll be a very sad person though if i ever lay the bike down on those saddle bags though.
 I didn't want to leave my motorcycle behind in CA for who knew how long, so I decided I would drive it to Idaho, since funds were short.
 Many people kept trying to talk me out of it, and luckily I survived it with out too much injury.
 I lucked out in the weather at least stayed mostly clear the whole of the two day trip, there was no way I could ride very long at night due to ice and cold.
 The trip would be approximately 1,000 miles in two days (mostly daytime only travel).
 I took the Interstate 80 route through Sacramento and over Donner's pass into Reno.
 Climbing the west side of the mountains went without incident, other than just eyeing any wet spots from melted snow on the road with suspicion.
Thankfully, none of it turned out to be icy in the mid afternoon sun.
 However the other side of the mountain was a  different story...

 ...Every patch where the evergreens or hillside kept the road in shadow, and enough water had dripped onto the road, was ice.
I was weaving in and out of lanes constantly to try to avoid the patches.
 There was one incident coming down the east side of the summit where I needed to pull over to stop to take a break.
I slowed down considerably before pulling into the rest area (about 45 mph or so) when I saw the whole lot was ice and snow!
 I did my best to stop but it took more than a 100 feet of skidding with both feet on the ground/ice to keep me from falling. Phew!
A lot of people in the rest area were blatantly staring in surprise and pointing fingers at me as I came in there.
The temperature was around 20 degrees F, Lake Tahoe was frozen solid from where I could see it.
I tooks ome pictures, I'll try posting them in a few weeks.

The rest of the trip up to Elko went without incident.
I had added some wind screens to the handle grips to keep my fingers from freezing off, but even with those and 5 layers of clothing and a full one piece bike suit I stopped about every hour for about 10 minutes to thaw out (as I had planned in advance).

 One thing i discovered, my bike does NOT like cold weather, it went from 47 MPG in 40+ degree weather to 28 MPG in < 20 degree weather. At first I thought it was the altitude (going from sea level to over 5,000+ feet), but later driving in warmer weather up here in Idaho at over 5,000 feet has shown it was the temperature.

 The bike comes with a 5.1 gallon tank. I was getting about 15 MPG less than expected and getting nervous between gas stops, so I picked up a 1 gallon gas can and without filling it and put it on the back, just in case.

As evening approached on the first day of the journey, after having a hearty warm meal at Sparks (just outside of Reno) I decided I would try to make it to Battle Mountain and spend the night there.
 As soon as I came around a pass and the shadow side of the mountains there, I REALLY regretted not staying in Sparks.

 I had picked up a thermometer for the trip, so I actually have fairly acurate ambient temperature readings.
The temperature plumeted from around 20 degree F down to minus 10 below zero F in about five minutes. From the charts I've consulted, my windchill at 65 MPH at 20 F was around the equivalent of -20 F, when the temperature dropped to -10 Farenheit I slowed down to 55 MPH because I was FREEZING and shivering so much the bike was wobbling. The wind chill would have been aruond -40 to -50 F at that point and speed.

 The next 75 minutes crawled by on shards of frozen broken glass and razrod blades as I counted every mile marker to Battle mountain, there are NO motels in between.

 Finally around 6: 30 pm (about 1 hour after sunset). I arrived,and almost dropped the bike on the slippery roads. The skies were clear, and the moisture in the air froze in such a thick frost that the roads off the Interstate were very slippery. I skidded my way into the Motel parking lot, followed closely by a local Sherrif who was eyeing me suspiciously as I swerved and skidded about.
By the time I arrived in the parking lot the ambient air temperature read -20 F. Brrrr.
 I came into the motel and had to wait about five minutes shivering and chattering before i could get a coherent word out to the motel clerk.
 When I checked myself, my fingers and toes were a very very dark purple with no feeling. Luckily they had a hot tob in there, so I warmed up in the room for a few minutes, then painfully soaked my aching frozen tired body in there for about any hour.
The normal color and feeling returned to my limbs and backside luckily.

 The next morning I was up early about 6:30 am hoping to hit the road at first light.
 No go, the roads looked like they had a frosting of snow, but it was just the morning frost so thick from the cold.
 I walked to a place to eat, and slipped and slid and actually fell once on the way there (boots weren't the best tread). I decided I'd obviously have to wait a few hours for the sun to thaw out the roads.

 Finally around 9:30 am the areas that weren't in shadow had defrosted enough to chance it, I figured the Interstate, with more traffic on it would be better defrosted. Luckily I was right.

 The rest of the morning and afternoon went without event.
I stopped in Elko without event, gassed up and continued on.

 Finally I arrived in Wells, a tiny little town, to eat and gas up.
 The ambient air was back around a relatively warm + 20 F.
 I gassed up, and realized to my dismay that this day was now Sunday, and I had forgotten that the stop I was planning to make between Wells and Snowville (between Oasis and Snowville really), wouldn't be open on a Sunday.
 So, I topped off the gas can and tank as full as I could.
 I now had to make a (according to the maps 180 mile, but actually turned out to be a) 156.8 mile trek with no stations in between. And my gas mileage being way below normal. Hopefully, as I did the math, if I could maintain at least 31 MPG I would make it on fumes without having to use the gas can. Or if I was off, the gas can would give me the extra 30 miles or so of buffer. Assuming the map was right about the distance.
 Something else I had discovered on this journey was how much wind resistance was affecting my mileage in the cold.
 I figured out that if I kept my MPH around 55-60 i was getting about 35 MPG (at best), but if I went above 60, i lost about 1 MPG per every 5 MPH higher.
 I was in a quandry though. If I went too slow night time would totally over take me and freeze me solid.
 If I went too fast, I wouldn't have enough gas to make it.
 Well, I went for it, gritting my teeth, and setting the cheap little "cruise control" clamp on the throttle and went about 65 MPH figuring that would be the right balance between time and mileage and freezing.

 As I hopped off the Interstate at a ghost town called Oasis, and headed northeast on a higheway that would later turn into State Route 30, I was dismayed to start seeing dead cattle frozen solid on the sides of the road.

Later I came across an entire heard loitering on the highway (I guess for warmth?), unattended. I kept honking my horn to get them to (slowly) move out of the way.

I have pictures, I'll post them later.

 As I came into the Utah side of the highway, I was further dismayed to see that the state was having it's wonderful inversion again.

 An inversion is when the low pressure cold temperatures get trapped in the mountain valleys, and the higher pressure, warmer temperature floats over the top and keeps the mountains warm, but the valleys frozen cold.

 I've been in Northern Utah where it's been 0 degrees F in the Salt lake City valley, and 45 degrees F in the mountains at Park City at the same time. Thus, inverted temperatures.

Worse yet, it was REALLY thick icy fog.

The highway dipped down into this salt flats valley, and I watched the thermostat visibly move from +20 down to 0, and visibility dropped to about 5 car lengths or so.

Other than nearly being hit by a few semis (the only rare traffic on this highway, I saw a vehicle only once about every 30 minutes or so), I was doing ok other than being quite cold again, Ihad to slow to only 55 MPH because of the windchill though.

 I switched to reserve when the engine started to sputter.

 I calculated that Snowville had to be coming up soon.

 I found out that the mileage markers, and mileage signs were drastically diferent between Nevada and Utah as far as the distance to Snowville.

According to the maps it was a 180 mile trip.

Then I was relieved when the mileage signs said it was only 130 miles.

However, the mileage was inconsistent between the two states, the actual mileage according to my odometer turned out to be over 150 miles.

 I came to a junction, and smelled something oily burning.

With no other vehicles around, it had to be my bike.

 I pulled over and inspected my bike and found a bunch of oil on the bottom of the exhaust, but could not for the life of me determine WHERE it was leaking from. I looked at the oil level, and it seemed ok. This bike was new, I had just bought it in May 2001. It had about 6000 miles on it now.

 This was definitely upsetting.

 I drove about another 20 miles, and the bike started to sputter, i figured i was going to have to use the gas can after all, when a sign indicating Snowville appeared through the fog, and a few minutes later I was happily (though frozen) at the gas station.

 I consulted the attendants on whether the passes were open or not for the back way into Malad, which would shave off quite a bit of time (1-2 hours), and they said they were open.

 I started to get ready to go when a tow truck driver came up to me who had overheard the conversation and said, that yes, the passes were open FOR FOUR WHEEL DRIVES WITH CHAINS!

 The roads were completely snow packed.

 Thankfully he warned me, so I changed my plans to take the shortcut on state 30 into Idaho, and instead took I-84 and I-15 down to Tremonton and up north on I-15.

 The only problem now was that it was past 6 pm, an hour past sunset.

If all went well I would make it to my destination around 8 pm.

 This was not a good prosepect as far as how cold and dark it was going to be.

 I went for it anyway.

 The temperature dropped to minus -25 Fbelow zero in some places, and never came above -10 F!

 At a speed of around 50-60 MPH I was being exposed to around -60 to -80 F!

 Worse yet, the roads were not only icy, they had packed ice and snow (on the Interstate) frozen, and I was driving in the ruts between the snow and packed ice, but wobbling on the occasional black ice in those patches, the ruts were made from other vehciles tires driving on the road, and were about 2-4 inches deep in places. Occasionally I saw actual pavement.

 Finally after a very scary and freezing 2 hours, I arrived at the small town near where I'd moved to, only to find that this town hadn't plowed any of the roads, and that they don't salt the roads.

 These roads were all packed snow and ice!

I ambled along the last 5 miles at around 10 to 20 MPH skating my boots on the snow and ice as I went.

It was a steady -20 F ambient.

 Some passing cars with young punk drivers, honked rudely as they passed me as I slipped in and out of the ruts, snow and ice.

 I finally arrived shortly after 8 pm.

 Ambient temperature was "only" about -10 here at the house.

My hands, feet, and tail were dark purple like nasty bruises and had no feeling, I was worried I might have pushed it too far as far as frostbite.

 It took several days to get feeling back in my hands, feet, nose, and my backside too.

 I then picked up a nasty flu, and then one illness after another, basically my family and I have been sick non-stop for about 8 weeks now.

 And yet, I'm still VERY glad I made it in one piece, and relatively unscathed.

 I still have no idea where the burning oil came from, there's no sign of leakage, but there was a LOT of oil on there before.

 So, for all those who kept telling me I was crazy to ride this bike this time of year, even in "perfect" weather for this time of year, you were right. it was was stupid and crazy, and I don't recommend it for anyone.

 I was sooo geared up with cloting (poor man style, no electric heaters or anything), I thought, enough for the cold, with so many layers, and precautions, but that just didn't cut it.

 I guess if I could have afforded electric warmers, and grips, etc., It might not have been as cold, but the road hazards were bad enough.

 My bike will probably be sitting in the garage now until May!

 Phew, at least I'm alive.

 -Hawke