2007 Alaska In-State SS1000 Gold Ride Report June 1-2, 2007 By Alan Leduc and Kevin Lechner

Alan Leduc had planned on doing the Motorcycle Tourer's Forum Border to Border to Border from Hell ride on his way to Hyder and a Far North Insanity ride (All of the Canadian Providences and Territories) after Hyder. Kevin Lechner was planning a UCC which included Hyder. At the IBA Party in Jacksonville, Kevin suggested to Alan, that he should abandon the Far North Insanity and ride up to Alaska and do an Alaska SS1000 Gold (The Hard Way). He said Jack Gustafson and Brian Roberts were planning the ride from Homer to Prudhoe Bay. It didn't take long for Alan to say no. Alan had been to Prudhoe Bay and had no interest in doing the ride up the Haul Road at the end of a long day. Alan said if it was OK with Jack, he would do the ride from Prudhoe Bay to Homer. Kevin worked out the details with Jack and the plan was a go. Jack and Brian had planned on doing the ride on May 31, 2007 arriving in Prudhoe Bay on June 1. Kevin, Alan and Randy Freyer would then leave Prudhoe Bay on June 1 arriving in Homer on June 2. This would allow Jack and Brian to be the first riders to complete this ride, which Mike Kneebone had suggested when he introduced the In-state SS1000's. It ended up that Jack and Brian had decided that they would also do the ride from top to bottom beginning on May 31 and circumstances were such that Randy decided not to do the ride.

On the way to Prudhoe Bay, Alan's quick disconnect (standard Harley quick disconnect) shook loose from his fuel cell causing the auxiliary tank not to drain. He ran out of gas and was sitting along side the road siphoning gas from the auxiliary tank into a water bottle when Jack rode up. Alan ask about Brian. Jack advised Brian's bike had a broken sub-frame and he was having to fly out. Alan asked Jack if he was still going to do the ride and he said he was unsure. He decided not to do the ride but there is no doubt he could have and would have been the first rider to complete the ride.

When Alan ran out of gas, he was riding with Kevin Lechner, Randy Freyer, and Larry Buck. Kevin had been leading and then Alan, but Randy and Larry could smell the stable and had passed Alan. Alan was now in the rear of the foursome. Alan blew his  horn but nobody stopped. Alan began siphoning fuel except but the siphon hose was small for packing purposes and didn’t want to push past the foam in the auxiliary tank. Alan's hands were so cold that when he poured the gas from a water bottle into the main tank, he evidently poured half in and half down the overflow and onto the ground. Vance Benedetti stopped and helped Alan by using his siphon pump but it didn’t work either. Vance finally sucked some gas and Alan was able to get what he thought was a gallon of gas in the tank which should have been plenty for the 20 miles remaining. Larry Meeker stopped and gave Alan a jump as he had left his lights on while trying to siphon gas and now his battery was dead. What a circus. Larry gave Alan a bit of kidding as Alan had left his lights on at Coldfoot and claimed he was doing a battery check. This time the battery check failed the battery.

Kevin, Randy, and Larry ask a truck if they had seen a rider back a ways, who responded that there were two riders talking one going each way talking. They figured Alan was BS’ing with Jack so didn’t bother to come back to help. Alan made it within about a mile from Deadhorse and ran out of gas again. Remember Alan said he must have dumped some of the one gallon into the overflow? Alan siphoned some more gas and flagged down a truck to give him another jump start as the battery had not charged.

The Haul Road (Dalton Highway) was in very good shape going up. There was a large construction zone with a pilot car, some soft stuff on each side of Atigun Pass, and some loose base stone and gravel the last 50 miles into Prudhoe Bay. However, there was no grading and no fresh calcium chloride. We had done the trip up in two days, stopping overnight in Wiseman, so we were relatively fresh. For those planning to go up the Haul Road and wanting to do it in two Wiseman is a good choice. We stayed at Borel Lodge which was about 1/3 the cost of Coldfoot camp.

Kevin and Alan had originally planned a 6 a.m. departure, although Jack suggested maybe 8 a.m. would be better. Alan suggested to Kevin that he would prefer to leave about 3 a.m. and Kevin agreed stating that this would allow hitting the road early enough to miss most of the construction crews. We set the alarm for 2:30 a.m. and were up and rolling. Kevin's starting receipt was 3:03 a.m. and Alan's was 3:07 a.m. June 1, 2007. It was a cold 22 degrees so we were plugged in. Neither of us wanted to wear electric socks so we inserted some toe warmers Kevin had purchased. They worked very well. Kevin was riding a Suzuki DL1000 V-strom and Alan was on a DL650 V-strom.

Kevin had a leaking clutch and had to bleed it the night before. We didn't know how the clutch would hold up. He had refilled it right before we left but would have to repeat this task several times throughout the trip.

Kevin was out in front. Alan was riding with his face shield down because of the cold and couldn't close it all the way or it would fog. The loose gravel near Prudhoe seemed to be an easier ride on the way out as the road was frozen. Not long we came upon Vance Benedetti who was on a BMW R1200CLC. Vance had finished the first leg of the MTF sponsored UCCC and had gotten an early start. Vance was being cautious and we both passed him.

Not long after passing Vance, Alan noticed that his shield was fogging. He opened it a bit more but it didn't clear. He finally opened it all the way. There was some serious fog and not long after opening his shield his glasses began to fog. Alan couldn't see (not a good thing when you are trying to pick tire tracks out of gravel). Alan stopped to learn that his glasses and shield were not fogged; but, literally iced over from the fog and cold. He cleaned his glasses and started again. In seconds they were iced again and Alan found hisself in the soft gravel on the shoulder. Oh Sh&$. This is not the place you want to be. He finally found his way back onto the main track but it wasn't fun. Alan stopped again to clean his glasses.

Vance pulled up along beside Alan and said, "you about lost it there." No S&#$. I can't keep my glasses clean, Alan said.. Vance then said, “how did you get behind me.? Alan is thinking Vance saw us pass him and said, "I was ahead of you, Kevin and I just passed you." Vance said, "I thought you guys were in front of me." I said, “We were, we just passed you.” Alan is thinking Vance is hallucinating. From Vance's perspective, he was loading his bike when we left. But we had to get a starting receipt and Vance was already filled up. Vance thought we were way out in front of him from the beginning. Vance said, "What happened to Randy Freyer?" He was following me for a long time and I don't see his headlight. Randy was originally going to do the ride with Kevin and I but had decided not to do the ride. However, he was packing his bike as we left. Alan told Vance, we did not pass Randy. The headlight Vance saw had been Kevin's. I'm sure Vance was really confused now.

Soon we were out of the heavy fog and Alan was able to see again. We saw Caribou and a pure white Arctic Fox. It seemed the decision to leave early was a good one. We were making good time. Kevin was pulled to the side of the road and Alan thought he was stopping for a pee break, but he was actually refilling his clutch fluid which was about empty. Alan continued and took the lead. Alan soon found that what he thought was hard clay was actually very soft. He was having a difficult time finding a proper track. Alan got a bit squirrelly and decided to cross to the other side. Bad decision. The middle was very soft and loose. Now was not the time to force the handlebars. Kevin thought Alan was out of control and going off the road. Alan was out of control but was letting the bike have it's head. After another squiggle, Alan finally found a good track. It was time to slow things down. Kevin said later that he was glad Alan was in the lead as he had been going a a good pace to catch up with Alan and could have been in trouble in this stuff had he hit it at speed. It was soft for several miles on each side of Atigun Pass and Alan was sure he was slowing Kevin down. After we were through the soft stuff, it was time for a pee break. Kevin informed Alan he was having trouble with his clutch still and they chatted about the ice, cold temperatures and squiggly road. We arrived in Coldfoot at about 9:00 a.m.. We had made good time – a little under 6 hours for the most difficult ¼ of the ride. We had decided that if we did not make Fairbanks in 13 hours, we would abandon the ride.

We stopped at the Yukon River Camp. We were good on gas but another pee break was in order. Alan's centerstand was jammed and he couldn’t lower it. This meant that from this point forward Alan would be about 1.5 gallons under capacity on fuel as the tank was designed to be at capacity on the center stand. This meant that we would have to make 3 intermediate gas stops instead of 2. Kevin was going to check his clutch reservoir again and stripped a thread. With a socket as a hammer. Kevin finally got the screw out and we took a screw out of the brake reservoir and and exchanged it for the stripped screw. When Kevin took off soon realized he had a problem. A bolt fell out of his chain guard and it was rubbing the chain and tire. We tried a tire wrap and finally dug out a replacement bolt to make the repair. This cost us about 15 minutes.

There was a construction zone at Beaver Slide and we had to wait a short bit on the pilot car. A motorhome traveler at the Yukon River told us that Beaver Slide was far worse than anything up north. Obviously he hadn’t been to Deadhorse. The construction zone was in good shape.

We welcomed the open pavement and good hardpack leading us in to Fairbanks and used this open road to make up time. We figured this was the only place we could open up a bit. We still had to be cautious due the many dips and loose gravel areas. We were glad we both had bash plates as they were getting a workout.

After making the turn out of Fairbanks we hit another construction zone with a pilot car. Again, this one was only about 10-15 minutes but this is a lot of time when you are doing a timed ride.

Our second gas stop was at Nenana at around 15:31, about 12 hours and 24 minutes from the start. Microsoft Streets and Trips indicates the entire route is 1076 miles and 25 hours 9 minutes. Nenana is 551 miles from Deadhorse and according to S&T we should have been there at 17:45. We are doing better than S&T time but that time will put us in an hour and 9 minutes too late. We have gone slightly over half the distance but have also used up slightly more than half of the time. We know that our gravel riding is over, but neither of us know anything about the ride from Anchorage to Homer. We have heard we should expect slower speeds and lots of traffic. We really need to create some reserve time on the leg from Nenana to Wasilla. We’re under our 13 hour throw out time but this is going to be close, if we make it on time. We took another pee break and grabbed a hot dog which is about all we are going to have time to eat  this day.

Soon after leaving Nenana, we hit yet another construction zone with a pilot car. This time we were told it would be about a 30 minutes. Alan took some time to take some pictures of his bike. It is a bit dirty and as stated earlier, the Haul Road was actually in pretty good shape. A half hour is a lot of time. If we had only known we could have packed our hotdog away and saved it for now. Heck we could have had a five course dinner. When we were finally released, the construction area was only a few hundred yards long. Makes you wonder what they heck they were doing.

The ride across the Parks Highway is absolutely beautiful. This had definitely been an outstanding ride. Denali was cloud covered so we didn’t get any real get views of it in its majesty. The roads are generally good and most of the towns are only minor nuisances. One of the towns, maybe Healey is an absolute tourist trap. There are Princess buses everywhere. You can tell if we hit this at the peak tourist season that it would be a big time loser.

Our goal was to make it to Wasilla. This would ensure us that we could do the final leg without any additional stops. However, since Alan had to fill up on the side stand and the head winds were taking their toll on his mileage, he had to scoot up and point to his tank indicating, if I don’t get gas soon, I’m going to be on the side of the road. We stop at Mile 49 Parks Highway. The receipt says Wasilla, but we are about 20 miles short of where we wanted to be.. We might be able to do the final leg without a stop but it will be cutting it close. It is 19:59 and we are about ¾ of the way. We have used up 16 hours and 52 minutes. We are have about an hour and 8 minutes reserve, if we can do the last leg in 6 hours. Streets and Trips says we have 266 miles with a time of 5 hours and 19 minutes. But our GPS’s are telling us that we are going to be pushing to make it. Pressure is on.

Our decision to leave at 3 a.m. was making us feel good as the traffic from Wasilla to Anchorage was not bad and we were making good time. When we got to Anchorage we found that Anchorage adopted the Canadian philosophy of forcing you right through the middle of town. We had several stop lights to deal with but were moved through town pretty good.

Bam! Leaving Anchorage, it looked like it would be impossible for us to finish on time. We had heard there was a fishing tournament in Homer. It seemed everybody in Anchorage was heading south. motorhomes, fifth wheels, vehicles with boats, every recreational vehicle you can imagine. This is two and three lane road and passing is extremely difficult. We were limited to the speed of the slowest vehicle. It was like this all the way along the Cook Inlet. Things were not looking very good.

Just as quickly as the traffic build up occurred, it dissipated. There were still some issues but we could handle a recreational vehicle here and there. We were starting to pick up some time.

Kevin pulls to the side of the road. Alan thought he was going to take a picture of the river we were traveling along. It was a beautiful aqua color. Instead he ask why Alan was flashing his lights. "I’m not" Alan replied. We later found That Alan's bike was missing one bolt that was holding his fairing in place and the other one was backed out about half way. His entire front fairing was bouncing and it looked like he was flashing his lights. This explains why cars were turning their brights on Alan every time he passed them.

Open gas stations were getting sparse. If we run out of gas we would likely kill any chances of making it on time. We stopped at Sterling to fill up. To save time we only filled our main tanks. We have about 166 miles to go and it is now 11:19 p.m. We have a little under four hours. If we don’t have any problem we should be able to finish on time. But with only a little over an hour to spare the anxiety is still running high. The temperatures are dropping and it has been a long day. It has been a beautiful ride but still a long day and we are so close. Kevin is in the lead and focused. Alan is just trying to keep up. We pull into Homer cold and tired but quickly find an ATM. Kevin’s receipt says 00:42 6/2/2007 and Alan's says 00:43 6/2/2007.

We are not aware of any other riders that have completed this ride. It appears as though Kevin is the first with a time of 21 hours and 39 minutes and Alan is the second with a time of 21 hours and 36 minutes.

We hadn't eaten much all day but were  both ready to find a room. We found a Best Western close by and had no arguments about the price. The beds had a mattress topping and it felt so good. Neither of us were ready to sleep.

The next morning we went into town and found the local police department which served as our final witness.

What a ride!