Day 16

Our original plan for today was to depart San Francisco and make it to the Lee Vining area.  After giving it some thought we decided to alter the plan as I didn't want to have to hurry through Yosemite National Park to make it to a hotel in Mammoth Lakes at a reasonable hour.

New plan was to add a day to our plans and stay somewhere close to Yosemite so we had more time to explore the park on Sunday.  After spending the better part of 5 hours searching every possibility of accommodations and coming up empty we had to hatch yet another plan.  We opted for a very short day today staying further back of Yosemite in the town of Merced, CA.  From here we will tour Yosemite and then stay in Mammoth Lakes, CA for the night before pushing on to Vegas on Monday Morning.

So as far as today goes there is really not much to share.  Pretty bland riding after what we've covered recently and mainly super slab riding for the entire day.  Interstate 580 could be renamed the Dublin-Tracy dragstrip with the way traffic flies along.  At one point I was cruising with the flow of traffic, looked down at my GPS to realize traffic was flowing three lanes wide at 140 KPH.

Figured this might be a good day to share some thoughts on the bike and the setup changes I made prior to the trip for those following along from the Kawanow Nomad forum.

Of all the mods we made prior to the trip (fairing, trunk, stereo, highway pegs, engine guard chaps, throttle lock) I can say without question the best money I spent was $95 on a Grasshopper Driver's backrest.

I do notice some handling traits I'm not thrilled about since adding the trunk but only riding 2 up at low speeds with both bags (one in and one on top) loaded.  The bike almost feels a tad front end light in those circumstances.  When we return home I'll look at moving the trunk forward slightly as I have it mounted as far back as possible on the Scootworks rack as that is where Char liked it setup prior to departure.

The Reckless fairing gave me exactly what I was after (better wind/weather protection) and the added bonus of having somewhere to add a stereo and speakers.

I've been pleasantly surprised with fuel economy so far this trip as I expected the added weight of the trunk and fairing as well as all the extra weight we are carrying in gear and luggage would kill the already less than spectacular mileage. 

Mileage covered today was 258.8 km bring the trip total to 4937.9.