Badlands

[killervtwin]

Well i decided to take the old girl on her longest trip to date. Going to ride to the badlands at the end of June and be there for the fourth of July . I was wondering if anyone has any tips, tricks, or generally good ideas for a long trip on the TLR. Im thinking it will be around 2500 miles round trip give or take a couple miles. So any advice on makin the old girl a little more pleasurable for a long ride it would be greatly appreciated.

[BikePilot]

I've ridden all over the badlands twice - pics and thoughts in my ride reports from the last two years. Check the dates for sturgis and don't go anywhere near that time - it'll be totally overrun with idiots in funny costumes riding at about .00002mph and causing traffic jambs. There are some nice twisties in the blackhills, but often a lot of tourists in the way. Its only a half a days ride from the blackhills to denver which is a great jumping off point for riding the rockies

For making the bike comfortable, a tank bag with soft stuff in it is great to be able to lean against on the long straight bits. Reshaping the seat can be useful too. I slightly dished the rear portion of the seat on my TLS (though much less extreme than a corbin) and found that it took a lot of weight off my wrists and was nicer on my butt. I actually liked this better than the corbin I also tried.

Taller/wider clipons wouldn't hurt, but certainly aren't necessary.

If you plan to camp, take care to avoid the huge RV parks full of noisy tourists. There's a great, legal remote camping spot in the badlands that's pretty sure not to be crowded or full of tourists.

[killervtwin]

Ive thought about shaving the seat but not quite sure on how im going to do that !! I was thinking about was putting gel in the backseat and recover the seat instead of just a pad that you put over it... I was also wondering if anyone has suggestions on luggage as in tank bags or some kind of tail bag because space is a premium. Thanks for the help.

[BikePilot]

I've never been a real fan of gell, but it works for some folks. For the seat I used sand paper and gradually sanded down the middle-rear portion of the seat so that it was just a bit concave rather than convex (dished rather than humped). That made a huge difference for me.

I've got a bags connection tank bag ($$$ german stuff), joe rocket and I think my other is a cortech (sp?). They all seem to work well enough. Twistedthrottle.com is a great place to get luggage in general. Magnetic ones are really convenient, but can blow around a bit if you have a really insane cross wind and will also move if you lean against them too hard. The strap-on bags can be mounted very securely and are probably better if you plan to put a lot of weight in the bag, but they are more of a hassle to remove and install so add a little bit of time to fuel stops.

I've never had a real tail bag, but usually end up strapping my bookbag (and tent and sleeping bag) to the tail section. I've also fitted hard top boxes and found them wonderful for keeping stuff clean and dry (particularly critical when a bike trip involves work that requires a suit and laptop).

I've also used a pair of nelson riggs soft saddle bags. Its a bit hit or miss whether they'll work on a given bike (they don't fit the TLS terribly well, but are workable, don't work at all on a bandit 1250S as the stock rear turn sigs are in the way and work great on a 919, great on a 'strom and probably would work well on the R given its large arse). They are very handy for carrying stuff if you have more than will fit in a tank and tail bag.