I am now half way across Canada on my S10, Eastern destination St. John's, Newfoundland, from my home in North Vancouver, BC, Canada and i thought it was worthy of a trip report.
I'll be gone from July 26 to September 1. Will likely be in St. John's Newfoundland on August 10th to visit the most eastern point in North America. Will head West via the Northern USA. Would be happy to meet other S10 owners along the way!
My 2012 S10 had about 6100 km's only on departure and now, after 4,500 kms to Ontario, the bike has performed exceptionally well.
I'm ridding 2up. I have my exceptionally enthusiastic girlfriend with me who is a rider and loves the open road.
I will set out my equipment list below for those that care about such things. The only thing I agonized about was tires. Replace or not replace my stock Tourance EXP's after only 6000 kms or run them longer and replace en route? After much deliberation with Hiroshi, my japanese mechanic, it was decided to replace the Tourances and go with the newly ordered Conti Trail Attack 2's. The alternative was to ship them to the good folks at Atlantic Recreation in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, the local St. John's Yamaha dealer and have them install them when I get my mid trip service done in August. I decided to replace and save the tire shipping cost to NL. Maybe some day i will put the Tourances back on or give them to a distressed S10 owner in need of emergency tires in Vancouver.
The Conti's have been great on dry roads but the front has been a little jumpy on wet roads. I have not had a lot of experience with different tires but decided to go with more of a road tire given the highway nature of this trip. Was diverted down a gravel road yesterday and they were certainly squirrely.
The trip across Canada has been great. I really enjoyed the mountains of BC and Alberta and the open prairie of eastern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I think to really understand the size of this country you need cross it by land, preferably on a motorcycle!
A few other notes of interest:
Gas prices for premium: Range from a high of 1.60 per litre in BC to a low of 1.20 in Alberta. I find I am spending about $45 to $55 per day on gas and did about 700 to 800 kms per day when making time across the plains and Northern Ontario.
Worst Drivers:
Alberta: some dude with a horse trailer (of course) decided to cross three lanes of traffic in front of a semi and me to make a left off the divided highway! Ontario: they just don't understand passing lanes!
Our total weight with riders and luggage is about 380 lbs. The bike is heavy but performs very well on the open road. A bit of a challenge in traffic and I have to remain alert at all times to weight shifts.
Here is our luggage:
Twisted Throttle duffle bag (black)—38 litres
Bag Connection duffle bag (lime green)—36 litres
Two Storm custom-made crash bar bags (blue) – three litres each
Two OEM Yamaha panniers
One Yamaha pannier insert bag
One stuff bag (for the other pannier)
Deuter daypack, outfitted with a one-litre Platypus water bladder (not working so well and has been retired - might try it again on the return trip if i hit extreme heat)
mods and farkles to my S10:
Altrider Crash bars (never to be tested!)
Altrider Skid plate
Altrider Tail rack
OEM Heated grips
Altrider Exhaust guard
Altrider Kick stand expander
TouratechRear brake master cylinder guard
Altrider Side stand switch guard
Front fender extender
PIAA fog lights
Kaeko Throttle lock
Touratech Headlight guard
Touratech Heel guards (left and right sides)
Touratech ABS sensor guards (front and rear)
Trouratech Rear brake fluid reservoir guard
Rotopax auxillary fuel cell
Long distance riding pegs
Garmin csx60 GPS with Ram Mount hard wired
Sena SMH10 communicator
Of the above, the top three are:
1. Throttle Lock
2. Sena Communicator ( the blue tooth connection to my iPhone has worked really well and communicating with my partner is extremely helpful when we try to decide on motels, restaurants, etc. Sound quality is not very good at high speeds as mike picks up too much wind noise)
3. heated grips (when your hands are wet, they are essential)
Taking a few days off in Ontario and NB. Will try to post again in Newfoundland.
I'll be gone from July 26 to September 1. Will likely be in St. John's Newfoundland on August 10th to visit the most eastern point in North America. Will head West via the Northern USA. Would be happy to meet other S10 owners along the way!
My 2012 S10 had about 6100 km's only on departure and now, after 4,500 kms to Ontario, the bike has performed exceptionally well.
I'm ridding 2up. I have my exceptionally enthusiastic girlfriend with me who is a rider and loves the open road.
I will set out my equipment list below for those that care about such things. The only thing I agonized about was tires. Replace or not replace my stock Tourance EXP's after only 6000 kms or run them longer and replace en route? After much deliberation with Hiroshi, my japanese mechanic, it was decided to replace the Tourances and go with the newly ordered Conti Trail Attack 2's. The alternative was to ship them to the good folks at Atlantic Recreation in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, the local St. John's Yamaha dealer and have them install them when I get my mid trip service done in August. I decided to replace and save the tire shipping cost to NL. Maybe some day i will put the Tourances back on or give them to a distressed S10 owner in need of emergency tires in Vancouver.
The Conti's have been great on dry roads but the front has been a little jumpy on wet roads. I have not had a lot of experience with different tires but decided to go with more of a road tire given the highway nature of this trip. Was diverted down a gravel road yesterday and they were certainly squirrely.
The trip across Canada has been great. I really enjoyed the mountains of BC and Alberta and the open prairie of eastern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I think to really understand the size of this country you need cross it by land, preferably on a motorcycle!
A few other notes of interest:
Gas prices for premium: Range from a high of 1.60 per litre in BC to a low of 1.20 in Alberta. I find I am spending about $45 to $55 per day on gas and did about 700 to 800 kms per day when making time across the plains and Northern Ontario.
Worst Drivers:
Alberta: some dude with a horse trailer (of course) decided to cross three lanes of traffic in front of a semi and me to make a left off the divided highway! Ontario: they just don't understand passing lanes!
Our total weight with riders and luggage is about 380 lbs. The bike is heavy but performs very well on the open road. A bit of a challenge in traffic and I have to remain alert at all times to weight shifts.
Here is our luggage:
Twisted Throttle duffle bag (black)—38 litres
Bag Connection duffle bag (lime green)—36 litres
Two Storm custom-made crash bar bags (blue) – three litres each
Two OEM Yamaha panniers
One Yamaha pannier insert bag
One stuff bag (for the other pannier)
Deuter daypack, outfitted with a one-litre Platypus water bladder (not working so well and has been retired - might try it again on the return trip if i hit extreme heat)
mods and farkles to my S10:
Altrider Crash bars (never to be tested!)
Altrider Skid plate
Altrider Tail rack
OEM Heated grips
Altrider Exhaust guard
Altrider Kick stand expander
TouratechRear brake master cylinder guard
Altrider Side stand switch guard
Front fender extender
PIAA fog lights
Kaeko Throttle lock
Touratech Headlight guard
Touratech Heel guards (left and right sides)
Touratech ABS sensor guards (front and rear)
Trouratech Rear brake fluid reservoir guard
Rotopax auxillary fuel cell
Long distance riding pegs
Garmin csx60 GPS with Ram Mount hard wired
Sena SMH10 communicator
Of the above, the top three are:
1. Throttle Lock
2. Sena Communicator ( the blue tooth connection to my iPhone has worked really well and communicating with my partner is extremely helpful when we try to decide on motels, restaurants, etc. Sound quality is not very good at high speeds as mike picks up too much wind noise)
3. heated grips (when your hands are wet, they are essential)
Taking a few days off in Ontario and NB. Will try to post again in Newfoundland.
