I took my '06 Bullet Deluxe out camping for a few days about a week and a half ago. I put a bunch of photos from the trip in the "Interesting Rides" gallery, but will post a few here as well.
I started by riding from Seattle to the ferry at Mukilteo, which takes you to the South end of Whidbey Island. I was hoping to make it to the Deception Pass campground before the start of the rain that was forecast for that day. The bike was loving it once I got onto the island. There was very little traffic and the road was in good shape, so we hummed along at 45-60 mph most of the way. About 5 or ten minutes before the campground it started raining heavy enough that I needed to put on my raingear. That meant picking out a campsite and setting up the tent in the rain, but it wasn't particularly cold, so it wasn't miserable in the slightest. Here is my campsite after the rain stopped...
The next day, I rode up through Anacortes and out onto the Skagit flats. I was going about 55-60 coming out onto the flats and man, oh man the side winds were tossing me around! I just crouched behind my windshield and plowed through. I decided to take the road along the bay heading North, which took me through the small towns of Bow and Edison. It's really a nice area, but I didn't take any pictures (didn't take enough in general). That took me to one of the nicest rides in Washington - Chuckanut drive. It snakes for 21 miles along a rocky and wooded coast until it drops you out in the town of Bellingham. Here's my bike as I stopped to stretch my legs for a minute...
My Mom lives in Bellingham, so I decided to stop in for a visit, but she wasn't home. My nieces, however, were there and made me a nice hot cup of tea. That was just the ticket after riding in more drizzle (yes, the rain returned about halfway up Chuckanut Drive). I left town by heading east, where I eventually found Hwy. 9. I took that into the town of Sedro Wooley. From there, I crossed to the South side of the Skagit River to find the South Skagit Hwy. I think I only encountered one or two other cars for the next 25 beautiful miles. It was still raining lightly on and off, but not bad.
I crossed back over the river to the North Cascades Hwy. and into the town of Concrete. I started to scan my map for my next campground. I already found my first choice closed and was anxious to find a spot to camp before it got too late (or I got too far into the mountains). The next campground was closed as well, which made me start to think about going back to Concrete and looking for a motel, but then I hit the town of Rockport, which had a county run campground right on the riverbank. It was mostly an RV campground, but they had a nice tent camping area right by the bank. It was normally walk-in only, but the manager told me to just ride my bike in (right past the "no motorized vehicles" sign). I quickly took advantage of a break in the rain to set up camp, make some dinner, and crack open a giant can of beer!
In the morning it was dry (if not necessarily sunny), so I made breakfast and coffee, packed up, and hit the road. From Rockport, I rode down to Darrington, which is a great little town at the base of the Cascade mountains. Darrington is the place to intersect the Mountain Loop Hwy, which travels 55 miles or so through the mountains, up an over Barlow Pass, until the town of Granite Falls. There are about 15 miles or so that are unpaved, but still in generally good condition. My Avon Roadriders made me take that part very slowly, but it's not like I would have gone very fast anyway. It's really beautiful and I wish I had taken more pictures, but here's a sample...
Once I got to Granite Falls, I made my way to Hwy. 9 and headed back to Seattle. It wasn't a giant trip, but I covered just shy of 340 miles and only used 4.6 gallons of gas. 74mpg ain't shabby! I was going 50-60mph most of the time and the bike is more or less mechanically stock with just a few exceptions. The main jet is a 115 on the carb. I have also removed the PAV and breather system, going to a duckbill routed at the chain. My airbox is still the tea caddy style, but the one without the opening for the breather system. It uses the same filter as the stock box, but I think is a better design (and easier to put a K&N or similar filter into). I did have to add some oil, but I have a weeping cylinder head to attend to (composite gasket at the ready) and I blew a little out the breather when a little mayo build up in the hose caused the pressure to build up.
All in all, quite enjoyable!
Eamon
Topic: Camping on my Bullet (Read 6457 times)