You want the truth?!? Of course you want the truth! You can handle the truth! You’re not whiny little bitches on Facebook, you’re actual goddamn adults!
So was it true? Was my fuel situation as bad as I thought? In a word “nope”. The embarrassing truth is that I had incorrect assumptions. They led me to be more uneasy than reality merited.
(What analogies can one make between my self inflicted motorcycle fuel worries and events of 2020? Yikes! Then again I didn’t just stand there and shit myself. I took action, adapted, learned, and am right now “upping my game”. Quite the opposite of modern society. A fully media-influenced human vote farm unit would be found on the same forest trail, 15 months from now, weeping at the horror of possible/theoretical/statistically modeled impending problems. “There’s only a 99.95% chance I can drive out of this mess… rather than risk it, I’ll quit living and hope for someone else to order me around for my own good.”)
I’m drifting off topic… back to motorcycle stories: I’m happy to report I hadn’t skated very far at all on the thin ice of bad choices.
The proof is in the math. I topped off my motorcycle after that ride. From that, I calculated my consumption at 76 MPG. (Clearly the earlier 68 MPG experience comes from flogging the bike at road speeds.) Also the internet told me that my TW has a 1.8 gallon tank (not the 1.4 I thought). That means a real world experienced range of 122 miles when wound up on pavement and 136 miles when sauntering through the forest. (I much prefer sauntering!)
I’m not going to bother with the gunk in my MSR bottle. Life is too short to deliberately experience bad gas. I’ll use that for cleaning auto parts and chainsaw chains.
Finally, y’all gave me a hand, even if you don’t know it yet! I appreciate every donation on Patreon or PayPal (or the kickback I get if you buy stuff from my Amazon links). It’s a trickle of income that mostly goes to boring crap like internet hosting fees… but a sliver is left over. I carefully hoard it for when I need to “encourage adventures”. By my logic, doing stupid shit is where fun stories come from, so it’s good to keep the “stupid shit” machine properly serviced. (Ugh, what a terrible metaphor! Oh well, I’m in a rush and it’ll have to do.)
I decided to tap that saved money. I ordered up parts for an excellent off-road fuel solution. I have a sexy new RotoPax arrangement coming in the mail. The next time I’m out there I should be have a full gallon of spare gas AND a full gallon of potable water. I’ll post photos when it’s installed; ideally very soon.
There are drawbacks to carrying that much weight but it’ll extend my range by 70+ miles and (if things go very bad) make me pretty dehydration resistant for up to 2 days. (Walking sucks and I doubt I’ll ever have to do it, but if you “play” far beyond pavement, you’d better have the resources to manage a “self rescue”.)
I doubt I’ll be worrying about fuel range again unless I start doing multi-day outings… which is not in my plans right now. (I love sleeping in the cot and you can’t carry something like that on a motorcycle. There are tempting new developments in the camping hammock arena. A hammock would fit on the bike too. But I have doubts that a hammock would work for me. Until I know more, I’m too cheap to buy a hammock-tent.)
Thanks to all of you who’ve tossed me a copper. You kindly keep the Curmudgeon’s motorcycle fueled!
Update: There’s a delay because of course there is. It’s 2021 and I forget we’re far beyond the “before times” of say… 2019. Supply chains strain and decay inhabits commerce. Components were shipped from multiple suppliers via UPS and USPS. (Guess which of the two is still in transit.) No photos until I get the materials. Sorry.
