Day -10: Liter by liter

May 12, 2019

Now that we're configuring the load-out for the 2019 Prefrontal Tour, it's time for a few fun facts about "conveyance capacity".

Fun fact #1: The Honda Goldwing GL1800 has a lot of liters.  More than 1.8 liters of displacement, a 7 liter air box, and a 25 liter fuel tank.

Fun fact #2: My first car, an early-80's Ford Escort, only had 1.6 liters of displacement, and half as many horsepower (65 vs. 120).

But the Escort by comparison had plenty of storage, while the Goldwing is split into a measly 61-liter trunk up top and two 40-liter saddlebags on the sides, for a total of 141 liters of factory-standard storage goodness.  Whatever else I need to carry will have to ride along strapped in dry bags, or be exposed to the elements.

Now, subtract one of those saddlebags for tools, supplies, and a half-cover to discourage dew and curious lookers-on, and we're down to 101 liters...

Subtract at least one more saddle bag for all of this camping equipment, and we're down to the 61-liter trunk to hold 3 weeks' worth of underwear.  And that's assuming the big blue Therm-A-Rest has to be strapped to the luggage rack, because at 25 inches long it's too big to fit anywhere else.  Hmmm.

On the plus side, we can do laundry on the Tour, and by turning my underwear inside out and front-to-back I can wear one pair for up to four weeks instead of just the usual one.  Or something like that.

Assuming a week's worth of wicking underlayer, and the riding suit for daily wear (they're surprisingly resilient and adjustable for a wide range of climate conditions), I should be good to go.

There are exactly three non-travel days left between now and launch, so I need to get packin'.  Onward and upward, dear readers.