With 5 days before I head out, I headed down to Blackfoot Motosports to pickup my bike. I had taken it in for its 1000km initial servicing and wanted everything ready before I left.
A large component of my trip is up the Dempster Highway . The Dempster is 736km (457mi) of tire popping crushed shale gravel. Tire punctures are very common and I really wanted to prepare my bike to mitigate having to replace a punctured inner tube on the side of a cold muddy road on a rain soaked day. A good way to prevent such situations is to purchase good tires and to use thick inner tubes.
I purchased a set of Heidenau K60 tires, one the highest rated dual sport tires available. When replacing the tires I had asked Blackfoot to replace the tubes. Nope, they forgot, but they did offer to sell me new tubes (after paying $450 in servicing). I’m not a mechanic, but I assume you need the thick tubes in the tire for them to work.
New Heidenaus compared to the stock Metzlers
In the end I settled on buying a set of regular tubes to carry with me as replacements. Blackfoot was kind enough to knock $2 off the sale price to compensate me for the inconvenience of having left the factory tubes in the tires.
Part of any adventure is the excitement of uncertainty. Planning for the unknown is the first step to overcoming adversity on the road, but sometimes sh*ts going to happen regardless. Maybe I’m making this a bigger deal than it is, either way I’m dedicating my first road side tube repair to the fine folks at Blackfoot Motosports.