Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84Winter 2014 | IRON BUTT MAGAZINE  ‘‘ ’’ date for May . Unfortunately, due to some family issues, I would have to delay the trip to May .The plan was fairly simple.Ship the bike to Florida,fly down to Ft. Lauderdale, pick it up and ride to Key West,where I would start the journey. I recruited a few friends along the way to put me up and ship some gear and oil to, so all was set. As a recent IBA convert, I educated myself on the equipment I’d need for this trip and it proved to be invaluable. I engaged Dan Armstrong at Adventure CycleWorks in Fairbanks,Alaska,and he gave me some great advice that led me to purchase a set of Heidenau K Scout tires. These are the toughest tires I have ever seen! Mounting them is equally as tough.Dan is also about the closest thing to an expert on the Dalton Highway that I could find. His advice was priceless and really helped me succeed. Six months before shipping the Suzuki, I started modifying it and gath- ering supplies in earnest. At this point the bike had been completely overhauled. I rebuilt the top end of the motor and replaced the crank. I then installed new tires and reinstalled a set of Clearwater on the alternator and replaced a Tru-Gel battery with a Shorai Li-Ion battery. I also replaced the stock plugs with a set of NGK Iridium IX plugs, which are sup- posed to last for , miles. My next order of business was work- ing on the oil injection system.Adjusting the oiling system on a two stroke can be a little tricky.Too much oil and the crank seals will fail prematurely. Not enough oil and the piston rings wear prema- turely or, at worst, the engine will seize. Given these parameters I chose to err on the side of too much oil, hoping the new crank seals would get me home. I set the oil pump to the factory setting, which is rich. Given the engine is still running and the compression is at least as good, if not slightly better than right after I rebuilt the engine, I made the right deci- sion. Lessons learned from previous adven- tures left me looking for a better chain lube. After reading the article in the IBA LED driving lights which I purchased for my  CCC ride. I also removed all the “good stuff,” knowing it wouldn’t be in great shape when I got back. I replaced the bodywork and front fender, which was functional but not pretty. I also fabricated some brackets to keep the Ortlieb saddlebags clear of the rear tire and off of the exhaust pipes. Next, I purchased a set of Aerostich Tank Panniers, which helped move the center of gravity forward. The panniers worked well, but they contacted the cyl- inder head so I installed some metallic heat shield material on the panniers to keep them from melting. This worked quite well but on the return trip, a spark plug wire started shorting to the head through the heat shield.It didn’t take too long to diagnose and correct the prob- lem. The electrical system was standard for ,complete with a mechanical voltage regulator. I did solder some new brushes I struggled about which of my bikes to take: the (1974 Suzuki GT750L) Water Buffalo, the 2009 GX-R1000, or my 1972 Suzuki GT380. After giving it some additional thought relative to carry- ing capacity…I decided on the Water Buffalo.