The good stuff...
The Bike:
My bike is stock with the exception of the fender eliminator and the after market turn signals. I did install the Nautilus air horn as per Boneman's instructions. Truly a great site!
Luggage: I purchased my saddle bags off of Amazon. Just typed in "motorcycle saddle bags". They are Motogear. The saddle bags were about $60 and the matching tail bag was like $25. Def. the most affordable bags out there. The saddle bags include a neon yellow rain cover. They were big enough to pack 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair jean shorts, basketball shorts, about 10 pairs of socks and briefs, 7 shirts and just as many tank tops. I had toiletries, camera and phone chargers, a can of fix-a-flat and an extra headlight bulb. In the tail bag I had the rain gear for easy access, chain lube, and the extra visor for the helmet. It was a perfect fit. The really long nylon straps allow you to strap the bags on in a number of ways. I also had a Nelson Rigg small tank bag for my wallet, cell phone, keys, etc.. A pic of the bike fully loaded is below
Tires: I went with the Pirelli Diablo Strada. I researched tires for a good 2 months before making up my mind. What truly drove me to choose those tires was the fact that my bike is a daily rider. I live 27 miles away from work, all highway, so a softer compound will develop a flat patch in no time at all. Not to mention doing a looong trip on softies is asking for a flat. I got both tires from kneedraggers. They were by far the cheapest. (~$280 for both tires including shipping) This tires truly are as versatile as the FZ! Riding through about an inch to two of standing water on the highway was NO PROBLEM. (Not recommended, we had a schedule to keep) There was no wobbling or scary moments. In fact, I was actually cut off and was forced to grab the brakes pretty hard. I was expecting to skid or slide but the tires held. On The Dragon I was dragging my boots and foot pegs on the ground and the tires still held strong. Granted, I didn't start out that aggressive but after turn 83 you start to build your confidence and get the hang of it. Below are some pics of the tires afterwards. The ONLY complaint of the tires is a little bit of road noise. You could only hear it if you're really looking for it. I only had the tires on the bike a couple days before the trip so they have about 4,000 highway miles on them and really no sign of a flat spot.
Accessories: I bought the Vista Cruise cruise control (about $30). Super fast and easy install. A pic is below. It is a little testy to get it JUST RIGHT. You have to mess around with it by tightening the rubber ring that goes on the throttle and the tension spring on the locking lever. I also took my radar detector with me. Although outlawed in most north eastern states, Florida highway patrol have NOTHING ELSE to do but sit on the side of the road shooting radar. The wiring for the radar detector was very fast and simple. It was really a last second decision so the install was not the most professional (and I'm an electrical engineer) but it was safe and got the job done. If you need a quick and dirty way to install a radar detector just let me know.
The one thing I was really happy about doing to the bike is putting in a piece of memory foam in my seat. I looked into the diymotorcycleseat website. Unfortunately time was not a luxury I had. I already had the piece of foam. It was only as big and wide as the front part of the seat. I didn't cushion up the back seat. I bought an electric staple gun from home depot and staples, nothing else. My plan was to remove as few original staples as possible. I started removing staples from the corner of the seat that wraps around the tank and went only as far back as the beginning part of the back seat. I did that to both sides. Did not touch the front OR the back staples simply because they looked like a PAIN to try and get them back in correctly. I smoothed out the edges of the foam with a scissor and stuffed the foam in the "vinyl tunnel" I created. I pulled the foam flat and pulled the vinyl tight and started stapling. I went with the second cheapest staple gun at home depot because I knew I needed to pack a little punch to get the staples in the thick plastic. I stapled in an alternating pattern from side to side to ensure that there were no wrinkles in the vinyl. I don't have a really good pic of the final product. I'll shoot one sometime this week and upload it. But it really looks good if I do say so myself...
I think that's all the technical stuff as far as my setup is concerned. We have some good stories from the trip so if you guys really want to hear about it I'll continue posting. But it's good night for now.
