Lake Superior Loop

I can't really call this an "Adventure Report," but it's a bit of trip data for my first long WRX ride. My brother and I (he rode my V-Strom 650) made the loop around Lake Superior, starting from the Minnesota Twin Cities, last week. 1600+ miles in 4 1/2 days. No long days, 350 max, and we motel'd it rather than camping because of the high temperature weather reports and we're old and lazy. The trip was almost all asphalt, except for the warm-up section at the beginning and some stretches of Canadian road repair. The WR set the speed pace, although my brother is the slowest moving guy I know of at every stop. Eventually, we settled on meeting places (which didn't always work) rather than riding together. He's slow and I'm impatient, so something had to change.

Oddly, both bikes repeatedly got exactly the same mileage (55mpg) tank after tank regardless of moderate variations in speed or terrain. If you've ridden a V-Strom you know he was one hell of a lot more comfortable than me. The V-Strom is more than capable on dirt roads and mangled construction, too. So, it was a dumb choice for a WRX tour. Like taking a stiletto to a world war. Other than a chain adjustment, the WR needed no maintenance and ran flawlessly for hour after hour on long, boring, straight sections. The Seat Concepts step-seat worked fine, too. Not incredibly comfortable, but not awful either.

I'll toss some pictures in when i download them from my camera.

Nice! I did that loop last year on my GT. Great trip, although it rained alomost every day. Did you guys see the Big Goose in Wawa?

Right now, as I am typing this, I am in Alaska doing a tour on a rented V-Strom. Quite the capable bike. I'm impressed!

Yep, we saw the goose. It was so foggy and wet I didn't even try to get a picture. We were rained on, cooked (100F+ for three afternoons), and blessed with almost perfect mornings the whole trip.

Did Alaska on my V-Strom in 2007. I need to go back. You can't see it all in less than a year.

I read part of your blog. Funny stuff! We have a lot in common, my friend.

Now, it's time to go over both bikes and get them ready for the next trip. This time, I'm going long with the V-Strom and short and dirty with the WR.