My first rest day is quite welcome after 11 days on the road. Despite not sleeping in too long, it was nice to start the day with a few cups of coffee and a little bit of socializing with the AirBNB host and other guests (all motorcyclists), talking about the trip and sharing war stories. As the whole crew set off to ride the local roads on their Harleys, the host was kind enough to let me use his hose and a few rags to clean the Idaho dirt and bugs from the Norden. I also took advantage of their washer & drier to get all my clothes cleaned before the next couple days of camping in the Canadian Rockies.
It’s looking like the next few nights are going to bring some rain (and potentially even snow) to my planned campsites in Radium Hot Springs and Mount Robson, so I might play camping by ear at least the second night. The forecast has been getting slightly more optimistic, so hopefully it becomes a non-issue.
So far the bike has been great, and honestly I think it’s a much better bike for this trip than either the DRZ or Tiger would have been. The DRZ might have let me push a little bit harder off-road and the Tiger would have been slightly more comfortable on the long paved stretches, but the Norden has done extraordinarily well at both. My only real mechanical concern has been tire life. I have a prearranged tire change in Whitehorse (about 2,300 miles from here) and my napkin math on remaining tire life puts my at about 2,500 miles of tread remaining.
I decided to play it safe and booked a tire appointment for Prince George, which is about 1,000 miles from here. Because motorcycle shops are never open on Mondays and next weekend is the Canada Day long weekend, I had to book it for next Tuesday. That meant re-arranging a few parts of the trip to give myself an extra rest day so I’d be in Prince George on Tuesday (I was planning on departing on Monday). I also decided to add in an extra 500 miles to hit the Canol Roads before the tire change in Whitehorse so I at least have 2,000 miles on the tires before changing them out. The dealership in Whitehorse mentioned they often run out of tires by the end of the summer and riders are left scrounging for used tires with remaining tread to make it home, so hopefully someone gets use out of them later on this summer.