TransAmerica Trail – 02 – Shakedown #2

This shakedown was extremely valuable in the second phase (2nd for me) of gear testing. Particularly for Greg and I who are still gear testing. Tim is basically 100% set up exactly how he wants to be for the TAT. But Greg and I are still doing gear testing.

Greg and I both had brand new tents to test, and we both were EXTREMELY happy with our choice.
I found out the limits of the fuel capacity of my motorcycle (the 2017 Kawasaki KLR 650). From completely full to completely empty. 190 Miles + 24.8 on reserve.

We found that Wolfman gear was significantly lower quality than Mosko.
We found the best method of setting up a community tarp for sun protection & rain protection.

Fuel

Let’s start with the fuel in my bike, because I thought that I would have the greatest range in the group. While we haven’t specifically tested the other bikes, I have the greatest fuel capacity. The range of my bike is from primarily pavement travel with about 20 miles on dirt/sand. Speeds averaged 50-65 mph. Luckily Greg had an additional 1 liter bottle of fuel, because I ran out of fuel about 10 miles from the gas station. So it’s safe to assume you will get (minimally) an additional 10 miles of range on 1 liter of fuel.

Tent Testing

M

Kelty Acadia 4

M

Banshee 200

N

Marmot Limelight 2P

Marmot Limelight 2P:
Basically of the 3 tents that I own currently, and taking into consideration the tents that I’ve owned in the past, the Marmot Limelight 2p is the best tent I’ve ever owned. It deploys extremely fast and can be set up in the rain with just the footprint and the rainfly, then you can deploy the tent under the deployed fly.

Banshee 200:
It’s small. It’s lightweight. And I hate it. There are so many straps all over it took me about 20 minutes to deploy it the first time because I couldn’t figure out where things were supposed to go. Then if you’re not 5’6″, the tent is too small for you. Next is that there is no mosquito netting. So if you want ventilation and you’re not in the mountains… good luck.

Kelty Acadia 4:
I never even considered this tent for the TAT because it’s much too large. So I’m not going to bother telling you about it.

Community Shelter

One of the things that we wanted to figure out on this trip was the best method of creating a community shelter. We’ve still got some figuring out to do, but we determined that by using some hiking poles off of the bikes that we could prop up a tarp with enough space to comfortably sit 3 people underneath.

One of the things that Greg and I were working on is figuring out the best method to deploy a tarp between 2 motorcycles. With a mixture of paracord and two carbon fiber hiking poles (compliments of GoBack Trail), we managed to make a pretty tall and roomy community shelter.