Due to the large distances between gas stations on the James Dalton highway I knew I would need to carry additional fuel to extend my range. It was about 250 miles (400 km) from Fairbanks to the midway point; Coldfoot, Alaska. My Intruder got about 180 km per tank, at highway speeds and I knew my average speed would be way down and therefore also my fuel economy.

I had strapped 2 x 25L jerry cans on the back of my bike.which would give me about 4 fill-ups. I don't recall what math I used to arrive at that figure, nor do I know why I thought it necessary to fill them with gas right off the top either!



Heading Westbound out of Edmonton I found the cans, slung low off the back of the bike, to flutter and sway in the wind to a point where they shook the bike. I was tired of that after about 20 kms, with 7500 km left to go! I stopped to rethink my rigging strategy. I ended up putting them on top of the saddlebags instead of beside, and supporting each one with both a bungee net and a load strap. I was lucky I brought along a lot of options.



A couple of days in I got smart and started using the gas out of them, they were no trouble at all empty!




I didn't really understand the, then fledgling, idea of videography and the word 'blogging' was only a couple of years old. There certainly wasn't wireless internet available at every rinky dink mo'tel either. Simply put the infrastructure did not support sharing experiences on a trip in real time, as they do now. As this experience was brand new I went the first 4 days just shooting a little footage here and there and as such, the first video covers multiple days.



My memories are quite clear about this trip, despite being over 10 years ago. I recall the year of 2004 saw me ending a 9 year relationship that Spring and I was dating crazy Judy at the time. I was living downtown in Oliver Village and doing well at MEDIACO. I will try to fill in the blanks the best I can and fill out some of the stories.



My 1988 Suzuki Intruder 1400 was 16 years old and had just under 100 000 miles, it was getting a little long in the tooth, and had a lot of shakes and rattles. A 7500 km round trip to Prudhoe Bay was going to extract every last ounce of life out of her. I had already started to research a new bike and the Triumph Rocket 3 was on the radar, although the transaction didn't take place until about 18 months later. In the first 4 years of ownership I poured huge sums of money into her putting 8 carat gold industrial plate onto all of here chrome pieces, and gold anodizing on the brushed aluminum, she was a real jewel and attracted a lot of attention!

So lets take a trip together that happened long ago! Once again I will apologize in advance for both the video and production quality. It starts off pretty slow, but has a good middle and ending!

Lou