Florida Loop 2026 was successfully completed at around 9PM EDT – April 11th, 2026. Total miles = 2,261, so less than the estimated 2,495 miles…..I have failed LOL Just kidding.
I am stil in a bit of travel haze right now. Once that clears, I wil start making blog entries and videos about the trip, Bruce, and my gear.
This trip felt much more like a rat race compared to some of my previous trips. I often found myself pressed for time, exhausted and sometimes pretty frusturated. There are many factors at play but weather, traffic density, and speed limits were the driving factors thowing off planned parts of the trip. Certainly some some things to consider in regards to future trips.
All of that being said, I consider Florida Loop 2026 a success even with some dinge on it LOL.
Full Touring / Alaska 2028 Loadout – What Does This Mean?
My Full Touring / Alaska 2028 Loadout is my touring packing load for extended long distance motorcycle touring / camping trips. For example, I am looking at my Alaska 2028 trip to be 43 days in total with 7 days in Anchorage with my son and wife for a family vacation. This setup is for spending weeks traveling on the motorcycle with significant camping involved.
To be clear, this is way overkill for my Florida Loop 2026 trip. But I am using that trip as my test flight per say for my motorcyle configuation and full touring loadout. Less extensive trips will have reduced loadout accordingly, especially trips that does not involve camping. I would say more than half of the items packed are related to camping.
Let’s look at luggage weight
Right Panier (including weight of panier itself) = 50 Pounds
Left Panier (including weight of panier itself) = 50 Pounds
Top Case (including weight of top case itself) = 28 Pounds
Medic Bag / First Aid Kit (strapped on top of top case) = 9 Pounds
Reax Poseidon Dy Bag (including dry bag weight itself) = 36 Pounds
Tomorrow April 4th, 2026, I roll out on Day One on my Florida Loop 2026 Motorcycle Camping / Touring trip of Florida. Checking another state off my bucket list to have ridden a motorcycle in all 50 states of the United States.
I will be riding Bruce with my full Alaska 2028 loadout from Douglasville, Georgia to Pensacola, Florida and Camping on Gulf for the night. Planned Miles for Day 1 = 441 Miles.
Florida Loop 2026 Trip Plan
Day One – Pensacola, Florida = 441 Miles – Camp Day Two – Lake City, Florida = 376 Miles – Camp Day Three – Chokoloskee Island, Florida = 392 Miles – Motel Day Four – Everglades National Park, Florida = 140 Miles – Camp Day Five – Key West, Florida = 175 Miles – Hotel Day 6 – Lake Okeechobee / Indiantown, Florida = 280 Miles – Camp Day 7 – Lake City, Florida = 354 Miles – Camp Day 8 – Douglasville, Georgia = 328 Miles – Home
Total Planned Miles = 2,486 Miles
Alaska 2028 – Bike Configuration & Loadout Test
The primary objective of Florida Loop 2026 other than exploring Florida and checking another state off my bucket list goal is to test Bruce’s configuration and loadout for my planned upcoming Alaska 2028 Motorcycle Tour.
Here is a short(ish) video updating the current status of Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special. Bruce was brought back to Atlanta Harley-Davidson on March 26, 2026. I am hoping to pickup Bruce by Wednesday April 1st, 2026. I am scheduled to roll out on Saturday April 4th, 2026 to begin Florida Loop 2026.
Florida Loop 2026 is the not so clever name for my upcoming motorcycle touring trip, riding a loop of the state of Florida…. hence the name of the trip .
The trip as planned will be 8 days starting from Douglasville, Georgia to Pensacola, Florida and follow along the gulf and Florida’s west coast to the Everglades and Key West, Florida. Then turn around and roll north following Florida’s east coast (more or less) and some interior back to Douglasville, Georgia.
Planned Miles = 2,495
Camping Nights = 5
Hotel stays = 2
Kickstand up: April 04, 2026
This will be my first touring trip with Bruce, my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special.
Today I rode 250 miles for another burger 🙂 Rode 250 miles round trip from Douglasville, GA to Burger Heaven in Birmingham, AL again but this time I had their 1-pound burger…hmmm beef.
Primary mission was to rack up some more miles to get to the 1000 miles mark on Bruce (my 2025 Harley-Davidson Pan America 1250 Special). Soon I will be taking Bruce into Atlanta Harley-Davidson for its 1000 mile service and will also have them install my aux lights and run some power leads under the fuel tank for me, at this point, I don’t want to monkey around with removing the fuel tank, that sounds like future fun but not now LOL.
This evening I installed the Touratech Works Foot pegs (low version). The low version is 20mm (0.8″) lower the Harley-Davidson’s stock foot pegs without rubber insert installed (I still had the rubber installed in mine). This will give me a little more leg room (about 1″ or so) which every little bit helps.
These also have a nice claw profile that is grippy on the boots without tearing them up like sharp teeth type grips. There are much wider than the OEM pegs and are easy to stand on (not that the OEM pegs were bad for standing). I do like that these Touratech pegs have wide openings that will allow dirt and mud to fall through and will not as easily allow mud buildup on the pegs.
Installation was pretty straight forward. Hardest part is pushing in the retention tab on the OEM foot peg pin. I used a small pick to depress the tab and then wiggled the pin out. Other than that, pretty easy to swap foot pegs.
I did have to adjust my shift lever and brake lever height afterwards as these foot pegs do sit a bit lower than the OEM foot pegs.
Here is a video by Camel ADV that shows how to remove the OEM pin for the foot pegs. This video is for a differnt brand of aftermarket foot pegs but the procedure is the same with exception that these Touratech foot pegs use their own spring and a cylinder.
Today, February 14th, 2026, I rode 250 miles from Douglasville, Georgia to Brimingham, Alabama to grab a burger.
Well actually, the real purpose of today’s ride was to load up some miles on Bruce, my 2025 HD Pan America 1250 Special. I want to load up the miles to ensure that I have the 1000-mile servicing done in time before my Florida Loop 2026 touring trip that begins April 4th, 2026.
I have a few more accessories to install on Bruce prior to the Florida Loop 2026 trip. Also, Atlanta Harley-Davidson service department has been quite busy lately, so I want to get Bruce into servicing by early March (have some things to install prior to servicing as well, namely Quadlock headless charger and Garmin Zumo XT2 mounting system. I am going to have Harley-Davidson do the wiring for these devices as I am too lazy to remove the fuel tank at this time. Plus, as part of the 1000-mile servicing, they must remove the fuel tank anyways to service the air filter.
By the way, the Jumbo Cheeseburger at Hamburger Heaven was FANTASTIC!!
As I have mentioned in other posts and videos, Alaska 2028 will be my motorcycle touring trip planned to start on June 23, 2028 and end on August 01, 2028 consisting of 11,781 planned miles.
The entire trip is planned to last 40 days including 7 days in Anchorage, AK family vacation where my wife (DeAndra) and son (Tristan) will fly up from Atlanta, GA and meet me in Anchorage.
I will camp for 13 nights, stay in hotels 18 nights, and 7 nights in an Airbnb in Anchorage, AK as part of the family vacation. There will be 4 two night stays during the trip. – 2 nights in Coon Rapids, Minnesota – Short visit with my daughters and grandkids. – 2 nights in Essex, Montana – Ride Glacier National Park / Train Nerd stuff & Laundry – 2 nights in Fairbanks, Alaska – Motorcycle servicing and tires – 2 nights in Kamloops, BC Canada – Motorcycle servicing and tires.
Full Loadout for Alaska (and other long distance tours)
I have been testing my Alaska loadout on Bruce (my ’25 Pan America 1250 Special) and have it complete. The bike is significantly heavier (about 120 pounds of stuff) but is the complete loadout to include clothing, tools, electronics, 6 Mountain house meals, riding gear, and camping gear). When hauling 2 gallons of water and emergency gasoline, this will add an additional 28.7 pounds to the load. I will create an updated packing list and video covering the “final” Alaska Loadout. I will be testing this configuration further during my Florida Loop 2026 – Motorcycle Touring Trip this coming April (4/04/2026 – 4/11/2026).
While this is still a heavy (Bike + packed gear) = about 787 pounds less water and extra gasoline, this is still 61 pounds less than Dexter (’05 HD Ultra Classic) wet not including the huge load I would pack onto Dexter (at least 1100 pounds). So, my total packed weight now is at least 300 pounds less than when I toured with Dexter (likely even more).
Test rides on Bruce with the full load were great with no issue in handling or ride, with the exception of stalling the bike when the engine was cold, resulting in a slow motion drop to the left side as I was engaged in a left turn. I have learned that this engine really needs to be warmed up properly before heading out. I have stalled it other times as well (no load) on a cold engine.
And of course, when testing mounting and dismounting techniques I dropped the bike on the right side while dismounting from the right side and my boot caught the seat. The good news is I was able to pick up the bike without too much effort with the full load on the bike. Of course, I would prefer not to drop the bike at all LOL. Also, I now mount and dismount from the left again doing a bunny hop to get my right leg through the seat (required when the bike has the full load).
