KE100 - Slow ride Chicago to Pacific Northwest

Herbie

Rendezvous Conspirator
Holy heck Aaron. Subscribing to this thread, if only so I can eventually get into the "How far did he get" pool.

If it were me, I'd see if you could add backpack straps to one of the small rotopax fuel containers! ;-)
 

digitaldelay

Explorer
I just read this whole thread plus the trip report on ADVRider before looking up what a KE100 was. I kept imagining one of those pedal bikes with the fuel bottle in the water bottle cage, haha.

You might want to at least carry a large MSR bottle of gas for emergencies. Even better would be a 1gal Rotopax if you can find somewhere to mount it.

This will be a cool trip, take (and post) lots of pics!

Jason

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk
 

cdthiker

Meandering Idaho
x2 for the MSR bottle carry two of them and call it good since you just added 2 liters of fuel small light and fit just about anywhere. Why pay for a spare tank when these are way cheap?
 

ihatemybike

Explorer
It's been suggested that I use Gatorade for hydration before the longer stretches and the then empty bottles for temporary fuel bottles.

I need to practice stopping and grabbing pics. I only took two on Sunday's ride.
 

MTSN

Explorer
A KE100 was my first bike! I'm amazed you'd trust it for such a long drive, but more power to ya!
 

JCMatthews

Tour Guide
I agree with you, the fact that this bike is not your typical long distance trip bike, the possibility of running out of gas, some kind of failure, and planning the appropriate route is the adventure as much as the destination. I just got myself a '79 Honda XL 185 last week from my brother in law. I believe that I am the third owner. The speedometer is working, and it only has 1200 miles on it. It runs like a top, needs blinkers replaced as well as a few switches, (thanks to my nephew) but it won't need much. I'd love to do something similar to what you are doing. I am going to start with trips closer to home, possibly the White Rim Trail in Canyonlands. We'll see where this little bike takes me.
 
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ihatemybike

Explorer
Hey all,
I rode the bike from Chicago to The Tail of the Dragon last week. Got rear ended by a Saab 9-5 in Southern Indiana. Aside from a couple scratches I'm fine. The KE's rear fender, tail light assembly, wheel adjusters, shocks and bars were all damaged, but I was able to adjust it enough to continue. I get to talk to the driver's insurance company more today. Hopefully I can get the bike repaired in time for the trip West.
 

ihatemybike

Explorer
Guess I should update.

Insurance company gave me $420 towards the repairs to the KE. So far I've repaired the metal inner fender with a big hammer, the plastic outer fender with a heat gun and have a utility trailer light housing as a temporary tail light. I need to true my rear wheel and replace the shocks. Yesterday was the first day riding the bike in a couple weeks and it felt good to be back on it.

This trip has been put on hold as my wife returned early from her WWOOF volunteer opportunities in the Pacific Northwest.

I was going to look at a couple Astros while I was out there and with her back early was using them as an excuse to still complete this ride, but both vans I was talking to the owners of have sold them. I'm checking the ads almost daily, but I'm not finding much due to me being so specific in what I'm looking for and my current budget. Right now it looks like I'll be putting this ride off till sometime next year so I can afford more van, but I'm determined this ride is going to happen.
 

User440

New member
I'll give you an A for spirit but I can't imagine being on a KE100 for anything other than short trips. I had one as my first bike in HS and 55mph was generous and without much of a hill or headwind. Best of luck, that's gonna be a sloooooooow ride.
 

wuntenn

Adventurer
Some years ago I did a US tour on a Honda XL175. Carried all my camping gear and food, water and a small fuel can for emergencies (and for my stove). I bought it secondhand in LA and by the time I got to SF I'd done more than 4000 miles (I went via the desert - Mojave, Death Valley etc). I headed on up into Canada via Vancouver Island, across to Calgary and ended up down in Texas over six months later having done 14,000 miles in total. My longest one-day ride was 520 miles from Montrose Co. to Hereford Tx (SW of Amarillo) which I would not recommend - I was well exhausted. The bike ran faultlessly, I had one puncture on a freeway in Ca and a pickup stopped within 10 minutes and took me to a Honda dealer. People I met were overwhelmingly friendly, from Hells Angels to farmers, all loved the fact I was goging solo and slow on this tiny bke. The Honda would sitt happily at 40mph all day long and leaning back on my sleeping bag roll was comfy and I loved it!
 

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