A Widow's Ride

The other day, I asked my friend, Ara Gureghian, who has traveled around the world on a motorcycle to give me one piece of an advice and he said “Always… always… have Plan B [and for that matter C and D…]”.    Even before my trip has even begun, this has been the case.

You may remember I posted awhile back, that the biggest challenge for my trip will be the added accessories such as the heated grip, heated vest or the GPS since I could not find anyone who will upgrade the TW’s stator.  I originally came up with the idea of having two batteries on the bike; one for the bike and the other one for the accessories.  The problem with that idea is how to charge the second battery while riding.  After the Horizon Unlimited event last September, another idea was presented to me with replacing the headlight which put out 55 watts to an LED light which can range from 10 to 20 watts and adding an auxiliary light for the high beams that is on a kill switch so it doesn’t draw so much power.  Then add a fuse box with kill switch to control all of the added electrical accessories and voltage meter to track it all. Well, that plan fell through as well, there a huge concern of frying the electrical system and draining the battery.  So we only were able to swap out the headlights with LED light which will allow me to run the GPS and charge one item such as a cell phone with a USB port.  However, I need to find another solution for the heated gears.

Sigh, I can deal with the 100 degree weather anytime but I’m a total wimp when it comes to cold weather.  After much brainstorming with the gentleman who worked on the electrical for me, we came up two alternative solutions.  One is that I will buy the lithium-ion battery operated heated base layer and glove liner from Venture Heat.  There are so many brands to choose from but I decided that base layer and glove liner might be the best way to go since is it smaller and lighter than the vest or jacket for storage wise.  In addition, I don’t have to carry a second set of winter gloves, I’ll just use the liner inside of my favorite winter glove.

Secondly, I will carry two Anti-Gravity Micro Start Personal Power Supply jump starter and battery booster. Supposedly, they will jump-start any vehicle and powers or charges any electronic devices such as iPad, cell phone, GPS and GoPro.  It will jump-start the car a couple of times on a single charge.  The reason he is suggesting two, is one for charging and the other one is for back up in case I can’t get to a place to charge the PPS units.

If the heated gears do not work as well as I hope then the worst I can do is go down into Baja for the winter and avoid the US entirely.  The beauty of not having a set itinerary is that I can adjust the sail anytime I need to.