Preparing For a Long Ride with your KZ200

Before all of merzymania going to Bali ride to attending the Bali Merzy Rendezvous in December I will give you suggestion how to Preparing For a Long Ride

Word of warning: This ride is an endurance trip, not a race. You get no prize for taking less than the allotted time.

Let's do a little math. 1500 miles divided by 24 hours equals 62.5 miles per hour. Now that's not an unreasonable speed, and maybe once you could average that if you got a good night's sleep beforehand, and arranged to end the 24 hours before it got dark. Pretty hard to do, and out of the question if you want to do more than one in a row. (Yes, some very healthy, tough, insane folks attempt the three of these rides on three consecutive days.)

So let's give ourselves a little sleep, shall we? 1500 divided by a long day in the saddle, 18 hours, gives 83.3 mph. That's your average, not counting gas and potty breaks. That means you want to pick your highways pretty carefully, lest you receive any performance awards (bikerspeak for speeding ticket) and their attendant delays. What if we compromise and do a really long day, say 20 hours on the road? The average becomes more reasonable at 75 mph. You should be able to get away with that on a lot of open interstates Not too many empty roads.

That leads me to the Three Phases of the Long Ride.

Permission, Preparation, and Production.

Phase One-Permission. (nb-if you're a woman rider, please change all the gender references that follow.) You will not complete this ride without some kind of support group. Unless you're leaving your wife for good, I suggest that you need her support. Moral support, and maybe logistical. Presumably she's your most loyal fan, and more willing to help out than others would be, especially if it calls for weird hours. My motorcycle was a birthday gift from my dear sweet wife, so I have a pretty good start on the permission angle.

You should take her needs into account. Get yourself some really good insurance for the trip, but don't make too big a deal about it. This is to help her over the hump if you mangle yourself; it is not a way to persuade her to let you do it. Unless you're having the problems I alluded to above. Have a serious talk, and find out her actual worries. Your wife is the best person in the world for knowing your weaknesses, and if she has any worries, those are your most important preparation tasks. If she's worried about you being eaten by rattlesnakes if you sleep on the ground next to your bike, arrange to crash (metaphorically) with someone in a motorcycle club. Promise to observe your body's tiredness signals, and describe them to her, so she'll know you're not bluffing. Show her the route. Promise to call. Do some practice trips; get her used to the idea-whatever she needs. They will turn out to be things you also need. Do them, and you, the ride, and she will all be happier. I'll get into some of these things in more detail later, because they fall into the preparation category. A ride is more likely to succeed with a cheering squad at home.

Phase two-Preparation Preparation has three parts-you, your bike, and your logistics, not necessarily in that order.

Logistics: If you want proof that you really rode 1500 miles in 24 hours, If you are is called an extreme ride, You need to have someone (not you), say that you actually started on the ride, and actually finished. Doesn't have to be the same person on both ends of the ride, and doesn't have to be an member of KZ200 clubs, but your witnesses do have to sign the form and be willing to answer a phone call from the Clubs about the ride.

Bike: You're riding a Kawasaki KZ200 or similar touring bike with . Do not attempt this ride on a crotch rocket. Have someone who knows your type of bike give the bike a thorough going-over. And have him do the repairs he suggests. Motorcycles, good as they are, are not as dependable as cars. Sorry, but them's the facts. You can pretty well count on most cars nowadays going 100K miles with nothing but an occasional oil change. Not so motorcycles, even KZ200's. You're about to put a lot of stress on that bike, and nothing ruins a good ride like an unexpected breakdown. Except an accident, but that's different. If you put on new tires, put a couple hundred miles on them before the ride. Gets the manufacturing oil off. If your mechanic's checkup involves any new parts, ride a while to be sure everything's okay, and you're comfortable with the changes. Same thing with new accessories. You want to be sure that new tank bag doesn't have a tendency to slide left all the time. the issue of carrying extra gasoline. An auxiliary tank can reduce the number of stops. Plan out the ride, and include alternatives to your route. Print out maps. Memorize the route. Calculate where you might stop for gas. Program the GPS. Print maps even if you have a GPS. Do not depend on the GPS. Figure out the timing so you're not going through major metro areas during rush hour. If something happens that ends the ride prematurely, you might still have a Saddlesore in there. That's a decent consolation prize. Plan alternative start dates, If you get unexpected bad weather, it's okay to start a day later.