Hi Dave, Matt, Graham and Javier, Thanks for your ideas. I did look at the ADV Rider site Javier and got some ideas for 16” tires. Looks like I need to add tubes.
Matt you are right and funny. It is a long lonely road but that’s the appeal for me. I did it before in the summer of 1995 in a van but as you know there is nothing like a road trip on a bike. Of course the road stopped at Inuvik then and the last 150km to Tuk was just opened last November as you have described. Being the most northern road in Canada (likely all of N.America?) I have to go there. I should do it on an proper ADV bike and may actually consider that, but a Nighthawk is what I have and has proved incredibly reliable over 140,000kms so why not? On that 95 trip we met very few other travellers but the roadside fishing and camping was fantastic. The bugs were yes horrific, but manageable. The biggest problem then was shredding tires on the shale road bed. As for gas, yes my Nighthawk gets about 230km per tank. It is 400km from Dawson City to the only gas station at Eagle Plains. I usually travel with a RotoPax gas can but It is cumbersome and on this trip figure I might need 2. Anyway, again thanks guys. Colin > On May 23, 2018, at 11:26 AM, Dave duChêne <[email protected]> wrote: > > Even if you did actually get there nothing would be left of the bike. Then > you have to get back home....................... > >> On 23 May 2018 at 15:24, Matt Awesome <[email protected]> wrote: >> Neat. That's the same year and color as mine. >> >> ... why... why would you want to bike to Tuktoyatuk? >> >> I'm... not even sure there are enough gas stations for you to limp from one >> to the next. Motorcycles have made the trip, but I don't know that they've >> made it without spare tanks or a chase vehicle. >> >> I'm wondering if you have any idea just how desolate the northern half >> (heck, the northern 90%) of Canada is. >> >> After Fort MacMurray, which is only like, 1/4 of the way there from the >> border (you wouldn't actually go there though)... there are 80,000 people >> total... total... TOTAL, in the entire northern 50% of all of Canada. In an >> area half the size of the United states. Imagine if you left New York headed >> for the west coast, after you passed Philly there are no more cities bigger >> than 50,000. When you hit half way, in Kansas, it's thinned out so much that >> there were only 65,000 total people living in the entire western half of the >> USA ahead of you and literally only a single road built for political >> reasons. There are a few government weather stations that have grass landing >> strips, but none of them are within 1000 miles of a dirt path, some of them >> not withing 3000 miles of a dirt path. And imagine it was frozen swampland, >> and when you got to the ocean you'd arrive at the biggest settlement for >> 1000 miles in any direction... a village of 900 people. >> >> The biggest city is like, 25,000 people, you'll pass through. The second >> biggest city is 15,000 and your route will be 1000+ miles from it. The third >> biggest town is 1,400 people. It goes down from there. You'll be traveling >> 2000 miles on the only road, and run into scattered hamlets and shacks. >> Mostly, fly-in mining camps and float-in fishing villages. >> >> Where will you sleep? You may say "I'll travel in the summer, during the few >> weeks when the swamp melts, and camp along the road", and I say, you will be >> kept warm with the two inch thick blanket of biter flies and mosquitos that >> will attempt to abduct you a piece at a time, the wolves and the bears will >> make snacks of you, at least until you're half way there, after which you >> won't see any predators other than polar bears ("If it's black, fight back, >> if it's brown lie down, if it's white, goodnight") because there are >> nothing, because there is nothing, because it's thousands of miles of frozen >> mossy swamp without so much as a tree. >> >> The only reason there's even a road to Tuk, is because the federal >> government wanted to do some saber-rattling to assert Artic sovereignty >> since the Russians are making similar plays. The last 80 miles of highway >> cost a staggering $300 million dollars to build, out of gravel. That's as >> much as an entire multi-lane concrete highway ring road system around a city >> of a half million people, complete with a dozen overpasses... for a town of >> 900 people. That's $350,000 per person for each of their 500 foot section. >> Just mindblowingly colossal waste of money. Not that you care about >> politics, but just to emphasize, this place is so meaningless and deserted, >> that it didn't deserve a road to get there, the road only got built for >> political reasons. >> >> If you think you're going to experience some amazing local culture, well, >> for one, there's just not many people so there's not much culture to >> experience, and two, you're generally looking at run down shacks and >> near-slum-like existence. There's a some mines along the way that people >> never leave, and the rest is a few government employees to help everyone >> else, who's on government assistance. There's probably an interpretive >> center to learn about the end of the road, and that's about it. It's not >> like going east-west coast and seeing totally different things every stop. >> You're not going to tell one hamlet from next, for 2000 miles. >> >> Is this because Jesse James did it, before they built the road? (He did it >> in winter, used studded tires, not much help). >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-7g7bMvXuw >> >> Here's 3 guys who made the trip on bike, before the actual road to Tuk was >> built (stops at Inuvik, close enough, the last leg isn't going to be any >> better or worse). Looks like pretty much straight dirt-bike tires and 2 >> spares each, nothing street-like about them. >> >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK-IMzG2hZ4 >> >> I've done all I can to inform you, if it wasn't convincing, you at least >> know what you're in for, good luck on the trip :) >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > > -- > If you forward this e-mail please remove my address. > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. 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