Touring on a GSX1400
So you fancy touring on a GSX1400? I often get asked what a naked bike is like for touring on, having done a few tours on both my 1400's I've owned, To put it plain and simple... I love it. Having been travelled right through France into Spain a couple of times, Trips to France several times, and also into Holland I hope that I can class myself as a bit of long distance tourer! My self and my wife go one one bike, always on our own, main reason we have no biker friends willing to travel the miles we do, secondly, we go at our own pace, no worrying about others getting lost, lagging behind or wanting to race off ahead in all sorts of directions. I think the GSX1400 is a good all-round tourer, ok, it lacks the big screens and fairings of the likes of Honda's Pan European or Yamaha's FJR1300, but remembering the 1400 is a budget bike, with its naked looks and is also almost £5000 cheaper into the bargain, Naked bikes are what motorcycling is all about, and the GSX1400 is ready and raring to go!
 
My Advice on touring is: Preparation is everything!
    
Fuel Economy? Don't worry about being loaded to the hilt, the GSX1400 will tour quite economically, I can achieve over 50mpg on flat motorways, even through the mountains it never went below 46mpg, the best I got was 53mpg. The GSX1400 fully loaded still doesn't have to work, taking the steepest mountain pass all in its stride.
Comfort? The GSX1400 is a naked bike and to make it better for motorways my advice is fit a fly screen, without a doubt it makes a lot of difference to touring, Plenty of rest stops also very advisable, you are a lot better stopping more often it makes riding comfortable, ok the GSX1400 is a comfortable bike, but sat on motorways for hours and hours not being able to move around will eventually gets to you, stop have a walk around 5 minutes to get the blood flowing and to exercise the muscles. it is easier to stay comfortable with having rests than not having rests and not being able to get comfortable for the rest of the day. Also I find your right hand goes numb with gripping the throttle after a couple of hours, Don't do too much riding without a break .
How many miles in a Day? Don't try and do too many miles in one day if you are travelling for several days. Touring is tiring especially in hot temperature, it really does take it out of you. Have plenty of rest stops, and plenty of drinks of isotonic drinks like lucazade sport for re-hydration, Red Bull and Dark Dog are excellent for helping keep you awake, I stop every 70 - 80 or so miles travelling on motorways to stretch the old legs and fill with petrol. The GSX1400 is in its elements touring on the open road, it was made for it! The 14 purrs away on the motorway eating the miles like a knife through butter.
Throughout a days travelling my average speed for the day on the motorway works out at 40mph (normal roads down to 20mph) this includes all stops, rest breaks, meal breaks and fuel stops etc. This average means to put it simply, 10 hours riding in a day you would cover 400 miles in the day including all stops, this makes it comfortable days riding, although I think personally 250-300 miles a day is enough, it is more leisurely as you can have a look around and at the end of the day take a walk in the town you are staying to look at the local sights. Most importantly make sure you have a good nights sleep, wake up naturally and not at god knows what hour in the morning with an alarm clock, I find that if you wake up naturally in a morning, you are far more alert, if you get up too early then you feel tired all day, its not good and lowers moral.  The heat can be a real killer touring in south of France and Spain in your biking gear and can be overpowering at times, it's easy to get heat exhaustion which is the toughest bit of touring, on a long hot day it really is hard work and the fun element goes and becomes a drag to reach your destination, that's why I suggest shorter days of 250-300miles a day.

Maps. Touring on a bike in is fun but also hard work. Preparation is everything, the better and longer you plan your tour makes all the difference of enjoying your trip more. A lot of planning goes into a long distance tours, I really recommend maps that are the biggest scale you can get, 3 miles to 1inch is ideal, I don't really recommend anything less than 4 miles to 1inch as the mapping is less detailed. Computer programs such as Microsoft Autoroute are also a great way to plan your route, it show a number of points of interest such as Hotels, Petrol stations,  rest areas, trip time, all sorts of stuff which is very useful when planning a route. You then know you have a idea where and when you can fill up, have a rest, and stop overnight on your days route each day. I also like to memorise the route the best I can looking for major place names along the route, yes we all know its impossible to memorise it all, but it is amazing how much you subconsciously learn, even if like me you normally think you can't remember bugger all from one day to the next on a daily basis!  Keep looking at the route weeks in advance and it will come to you quite often along the route, you will think, well I never, I did remember this place name after all as your riding through somewhere. On my last tour, a few days before I was due to go I bought a sat nav, a great piece of kit, no more stopping to keep looking at directions! Too many people just do not prepare themselves enough on the planning.
Bike Preparation. Bike preparation is probably the most essential aspect of any tour preparation, Touring requires your bike to be in absolute A1 condition mechanically, especially touring 100's or 1000's of miles. My advice is check everything a few weeks before you go, checking all the things listed in a major service, checking parts for general wear and tear (Brakes etc), check the tightness (as per torque settings in the manual) of all nuts and bolts on wheels, Frame, engine mountings and exhaust, and even the registration plate (licence plate) the week before you go fit new tyres (for long trips) and do a service with oil and filters & plugs. The best advice is NEVER leave the service until the last minute, so many people do leave it until the day before they go to have a service done, it is bad practice and you usually find that you need a part and guess what, it will be out of stock and you can't get the part in time, yes believe me it does happen, and it happens very often. I have been in the motor trade many years as a mechanic and people never learn to have services done a couple of weeks in advance. The a few days before you go give the bike a quick check over.
Luggage. When touring you obviously need some sort of luggage, basically the are two main types, hard and soft, both of which come in different sizes, Personally I use soft luggage (Oxford humpback range) in the form of magnetic Tank bag, throw over panniers and a tail pack on a rentec sports rack and the wife also wears a rucksack which rest on the tail pack and takes the weight. we have a pannier each for clothes, tail pack for trainers, waterproofs, a few bike accessories like tin of chain grease spare pair of gloves, under the seat a good idea to carry spare brake pads and plugs etc and basic tool kit and some engine oil in a pop bottle. In the magnetic tank bag, maps and passports and documents, money and valuables camera, phone & camera chargers etc, and gloves. The tank bag is quick release to carry with you so good idea to keep valuables in it that you can't fit in your pockets. As much as you say I'm not taking much, you do usually to too much, I always take more than I need, not intentionally, the best advice is, if you can manage without then it don't take it. My GSX1400 has carried some heavy luggage bursting at the seams on our travels, and has managed it no problem at all, two things you have to remember, a) allow for longer stopping distances with the extra weight, and b) the centre of gravity is considerably higher, making the bike top heavy!
Make sure that your luggage is securely on the bike, if you are in any doubt then secure it further.

and finally. Most importantly of all.... ride safe!!



Email Dave@GSX1400FE.co.uk