There are a lot of things that go into planning a motorcycle trip. There’s the bikes, first of all. They must be running smoothly and hassle free — unlikely to be the source of too much stress and hardship on the road. They must be equipped to hold enough gear to sustain one’s self for two months on the road. And, perhaps most importantly, they must be comfortable. Really comfortable. There’s the gear, which for a trip of this magnitude includes both camping and camera gear alongside all the other essentials of daily life. There’s the actual day-to-day planning, which involves pouring over maps and the internet for places to stop, things to see, and people to meet up with. And finally, there’s all the tying up of loose ends at home, because one can’t just leave home for two months without closing up shop a bit. Needless to say, the three of us have all been quite busy the last few weeks taking care of all of the above.

This weekend Dylan and Brant had the fortune of traveling up to Grass Valley, where they did some custom fabrication to the bikes — welding stuff directly to the frame notwithstanding. It was incredibly hot, which probably a good preview of the latter parts of our trip to come, and the work was hard, but we got it done. The bikes are now almost fully prepared. There’s just a few last little mechanical annoyances to take care of and we are ready to go.

The rest has been largely finished… Camera equipment is compiled and ready to film, data backup hard discs are to be bought, and camping equipment is ready to be strapped to the bikes. Soon enough we will be on the bikes heading over the Golden Gate Bridge, and we won’t be turning around anytime during the next two months.