Thursday, October 1st, 2026

Most days when I sit down to write in this journal, I have no idea what I am going to write about. Usually, just writing about what happened the day before helps me get going.

Yesterday, I had some time to work on our motorcycles. I needed to figure out whether the suspensions were set up correctly. I had made some minor adjustments when I first installed the Rally Raid suspensions on each of our motorcycles, but I had not really fine-tuned them. Mostly, it was a real pain to try to measure the suspension sag by myself. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a tool that makes it easy to measure. So getting around to testing things out was a good way to test this new tool. I still need to dial in the suspension when the bikes are fully loaded with all the gear we carry on longer trips. But now that I have the tool, that test will be pretty simple.

I used to be resistant to buying a tool if I was only going to use it a few times. But now I jump right in. Having tools I was not sure I would ever need has saved me more than once. And having the right tool cuts most jobs at least in half. Sure, I could do this suspension sag test with a tape measure, but it is awkward and frustrating. Now, it will only take me a few minutes to get this tool set up and see whether I want to dial in the suspension a little when I change the load I am carrying on the bike. And now I know that when I get additional motorcycles, suspension setup is not something I will shy away from.

Getting used to having the right tools does make it more difficult to figure out what tools to bring on the motorcycles. When we are gone for two years, there will inevitably be a need to fix something on the road. Getting a tool kit set up that is compact and lightweight, while still doing the required job to get us out of a jam, seems more like art than science. And the trade-off reality of possibly not having a tool to save space really puts pressure on my inner need to be prepared in all situations. Or at least think I am prepared. When traveling in one of our trucks, the need to pare down the tools I bring is not really there. Sure, I cannot bring all my tools. But I can put together a pretty sizable kit that will handle most situations I am able to fix.

I have needed to be okay with the reality that I cannot fix everything that could possibly go wrong on the road. I have to make trade-offs to try to balance the possible situation against the likelihood of needing that special tool. A few extra zip ties are a good hedge in most situations. Traveling by motorcycle really makes you think about what you need, not just tools, but also about paring down our clothing and other everyday items. You start to realize you do not need as much as you have. It is just important that the items you do bring with you are used a lot and, if at all possible, have more than one purpose. I am starting to review my packing list now for our mid-October ride to Florida. In some ways, this kit will not need to be as big, since we will not be doing any off-road sections. But in other ways, we need more stuff since we are spending a week in one location. So wearing riding gear around the beach in Florida is not really what we want to be doing. Between this upcoming trip and our ten-day off-road training trip back in August, I hope that we will have a better sense of what we will really need for the Pan American ride. I am sure we will make mistakes. But I guess that is part of the adventure.