Day one: The guys have been on the trail for 3.5 hrs according to texts from JB last night. I’m home in Key West Florida, thinking about the trip to come and thought I’d put a few things here on this blog. I leave next Saturday for Denver where I have kept the bike since I bought it 7 years ago. It is a street plated XR600R Honda and I know it very well. Strengths and weaknesses alike. Luckily it’s got way more strengths that are important for this type of travel. Reliability, power, speed, torque, toughness. The biggest weakness is the tubular steel frame and the lack of hard mounting points for a good rack to carry saddle bags. I fixed that issue recently by having an expert welder install some steel mounting tabs to the frame. I put this off for a long time as it’s hard to commit to a weld on a beautiful stock bike. Now that we did it I’m very happy we did. My welder friend Teague also fabricated a really neat mount for a rotopax mount I have for a 1 gal water jug I have for long trips. I’ve done a ton of prep already and have about another day of work to do when I get out to Denver.
Below are a few shots of my camping gear. I’m carrying a hell of a lot more stuff than this and I’ll take pics of it all right before I load the bike next week. The rope and hooks are for the orange “bear bag”. With this I can put food and toiletries that may attract a bear high up in a tree and away from camp. I also have a huge can of bear spray just in case.
Trans Am Trail -2017 
JB and all:
Nice work with many GREAT pix. I love the scenics AND the many impressive mechanical fixes! Wow. As you’ll read later, we did have a burnt clutch issue but that was our fault when we got into some trouble in Nevada. We also did JB Weld on a crankcase that day which held up fine. We had the advantage of 3 new Hondas that were almost as reliable as a Utah rock. You did a great job capturing the odd moments which is what makes retelling a story so great.
DB
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DB , Thanks for you Comments. We were watching some of your coverage as well while we were still on the road ourselves. Good job on making it thru all the hardships you guys had. What an adventure the TAT is !
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