Upon reaching Fairbanks we were looking forward to some extended downtime. The parts we would be picking up in Anchorage were not going to come in right away, so we spent a whole 4 days playing tourists in Fairbanks, and taking advantage of the full kitchen in the house where we rented a room.
You can do a number of things in Fairbanks. You can slide down an icy chute in the Ice Museum, learn about the region’s history in the Morris Thompson Cultural & Visitor Center, take an obligatory photo at the Moose Antler Arch, and have an epiphany while staring out the window into the golden light at midnight.
My epiphany happened while thinking about that annoying engine that consumes oil. And heats up much more than the other engine. We compared how hot the radiators of both bike got after riding, and the difference was always striking. Engine running hot probably means it’s running lean. Consumes less fuel for a given amount of air. Running lean is not a good thing for an engine, it can cause damage, and well, oil consumption is one way such damage manifests. Running lean also explains why all this time this bike had about 10% better fuel economy, despite having 10% larger cylinder.
It all fell into place. Soon after installing the larger cylinder we had it put on the dyno, and the map they gave us provided the smoothest power curve of any bike we had. The trouble was, they tuned it for peak performance, and in retrospect, that shouldn’t be the goal for an engine on a trip across the continent. The wound it seems, was self inflicted. There was one glimmer of hope: because the bike has a fuel commander with simple screws to adjust ±10% the amount of fuel, we wondered if richening the mixture would be enough to resolve the issue. Time will tell.
We took a day trip to the town called North Pole. Its main attraction was a huge Christmas themed store where one can roam for hours. From the numerous Alaska souvenirs I picked up a bottle of hot sauce, made with kelp in Juneau. Something to prevent the atrophy of tastebuds. On the way back we took a short section of a gravel road instead of the main highway, and found ourselves in the middle of a military reservation. You can ride everywhere in Alaska, just make sure to duck if you see the bullets flying your way.
Soon enough we bid farewell to Fairbanks and headed back south on Parks Highway. The troublesome bike was clearly running cooler. This time we dropped by the Denali National Park, hoping to catch a glimpse of the famed mountain. Although the scenery every which way was amazing, we didn’t get to see the mountain. The clouds obscured any trace of the peak, which otherwise could be seen even without entering the park.
To make it even more disappointing, the road into the park was closed at mile 43. This was due to a landslide that occurs back in August 2021. Current estimates for reopening – sometime in 2026, maybe. We enjoyed a healthy snack of bananas with Nutella at the picnic area next to that closure, and turned back.
To make this a little more interesting, we were going to take Petersville road to approach the mountain from the south side. Perhaps the weather would be better on the other side? Well, the weather was actually worse on the other side, as it started to drizzle. We stopped for dinner at a Thai place near the turn off for Talkeetna, hoping to wait it out. I took off my helmet and discovered that somewhere in Denali I got a mosquito bite on my forehead, which caused a lump so big, it looked like I crashed on my head and got a hematoma. Nature is vicious.
As we were heading out, we saw a strange sight on the road: a dead moose being winched up in preparation for loading onto the bed of a tow truck. As we found out later, one of the way Alaskans can obtain fresh meat is by signing up for a Roadkill Program. Add your name and number to a list, and when a moose is hit by a car in your area, you may get a call from police to come pick it up. In exchange for cleaning up the animal from the road you get to keep all the meat. Not a bad deal considering grocery prices here are some of the highest in the country.
The rain meanwhile got heavier and heavier. We still had an hour of riding to our B&B in Wasilla, and by the time we got there, we were absolutely and unapologetically drenched. To our hosts’ credit, they let us keep the bikes in the garage (not an advertised benefit), and even let us use their boot dryers on our soaked boots. We were actually using waterproof socks that day (they help not just against the water, but also against the cold), so our feet miraculously were the only body parts left dry.
Chatting with our host that evening we found out that one of the pastimes of Alaskans is gold prospecting. Over 100 years after the original gold rush in the region, he and many others keep trying their luck looking for nuggets. In fact, one of the notable things along Petersville road that we almost went to, is Petersville Recreational Mining Area. It is what it sounds like – you can try mining gold for fun! Yet I suspect just like during the original gold rush, providing food and accommodation remains a more reliable income source.
