Styx In The Mud - Adventure Rider

Due to COVID-19 my entire daily/weekly/monthly routine is in turmoil and I haven't been able to keep up with all the shenanigans of the prep so I need to back-date a few articles - including the saga about my new gear. In late March I finally found a company that made custom gear for adventure riders: Rubber Side Down . Their pricing seemed reasonable and the style and features matched my style preferences so I banged out their online request form and submitted my details with a list of questions about the measurements and garment options. The company's owner was quick to respond and before you knew it I had most of my questions answered. The next step was to finalize my measurements - which turned out to be an adventure all its own! With the company's owner on speakerphone from Canada, me standing in my office in little more than my skivvies and with my wonderful wife wielding a garment tape-measure we were guided through about two-dozen measurements, each being called...

It's been a few months but I finally have the majority of the camping gear ( part 2 ) and mods ( part 3 ) finished. As the date of our first ride is quickly approaching it's time to move on to the next part of the planning step: riding gear . Now, make no mistake: this is likely the most important step of trip planning and also one of the most tedious so, before beginning, a question that every rider should consider is what the most dangerous part of a trip will be. The answer, while not so obvious to most, is (in my opinion)  the squishy bit atop the bike . Yes, you, the rider are the biggest wild-card of the trip. In my years I've seen bikes flip end over end, skid down the highway sideways, bounce in and out of roadside ditches and then, with little or no effort, a handful of tip-ties and an occasional roll of duct-tape, be propped back up again and ridden home. Of course it can get much, MUCH worse but ask yourself which is stronger: the steel, aluminum and plastic t...