5000 miles, 14 days, on two wheels

Starting during the pandemic, I and one of my best friends of almost 30 years began venturing out on our triumph motorcycles for yearly trips to explore new places, challenge ourselves, and reconnect with each other and ourselves. This was our longest trip and perhaps most challenging to date. We road roughly 5000 miles starting in Oakland, California and looping up through Oregon, Washington, Vancouver BC, Okanagan, Jasper BC, Banff AB, Calgary AB, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, then back down the coast of California to home.
We had heat, lots of rain, lots of cold, some snow, and fog. Paved roads, dirt roads, muddy roads. One break down, a few drops, and lots of smiles and laughter.

[@ilmarinen79]

The scenery alone is mind-blowing...wow. What a trip!

[@SecondHalfofLife]

Thanks for the comment. Yes it was so incredible. Reading about the huge fires around Jasper now is heart breaking and makes me grateful we were able to do that whole trip without encountering forest fires or smoke. Just incredibly beautiful trip.

[@johnauvin]

Very nice !!!

[@SecondHalfofLife]

Thanks. I appreciate you watching it.

[@russell1414]

Beautiful scenery and what a wonderful trip, thank you for sharing

[@SecondHalfofLife]

Thanks! Glad I got to document this one a bit.

[@davidwright873]

me and a buddy did a trip from SF to Belize!! EPIC! that's the word i think you're looking for...Now your life will be divided by this trip...before and after...And 20 years later, i still think of the many Mexican folk that helped us/me on our/my journey...Pretty cool....

[@SecondHalfofLife]

Thanks David, Your trip sounds epic as well. And yes agree this was a defining point for sure. That said we try to do bike trips every year or two. Not always this long but we've done maybe 5 others so far and hope to keep going. Your trip sounds epic for sure. Hope to get to south America in the next decade. Done lots of travel in Mexico and absolutely love the people there.

[@falcuspluscamera]

Great video.

[@dukegraham9412]

What was wrong with the bike??…might be a help to others along the way…I once had a negative battery cable come loose at the starter…OCB

[@SecondHalfofLife]

Yeah good call. I was gonna add in more of the problem and problem solving to the video but it added to much extra time. But I'll add it to the description to help others. Basically we think he got a tank of dirty gas. Initially I thought it was water in the gas or that he maybe accidentally put diesel in because the bike was sputtering and eventually started smoking but white, not blue smoke and these are air cooled bikes. We had ridden a long day in rain and snow going through Jasper/Banff and it started acting up on him at the end of that day. He could still do fast highway speeds but said the throttle was jerking a lot and it happened pretty fast after our last gas stop in Banff. We used the same station but different pumps for each of our bikes. It completely died the next day. I was able to pull and drain his tank and add clean gas but we couldn't get it to restart. I started to doubt my hypothesis. So we had it towed to a shop the next morning and they had more tools and were able to pull the in tank pump off and saw a bunch of plasticy looking junk clogging the pickup filter. So they cleaned the filter, put new spark plugs in because those look pretty bad, and we ran a tank of fuel injector cleaner through, cycled the gas again and then we were off. It ran brilliant the rest of the way so really was bad gas. In hindsight I probably could have done this all road side, so I'll definitely bring the right tools and spare plugs next time.

[@allenantonio4389]

[@singhbhai]

I don't know why but i feel like this video will get decent views someday

[@relaxingnature2617]

Cool video but a depressing name for a channel. ..it makes me feel old

[@SecondHalfofLife]

Thanks. RE channel name I guess I'm a glass half full kind of person. I see it as encouraging and optimistic. I have so much in front of me still and am documenting this for all those people who think that life closes down in the second half. That said I also am good with the idea life is finite and I think that is what makes it so great. I'm not a bury my head in the sand type either. I appreciate the feedback and you watching the video. Thanks!