In four weeks, the bikes ship

That's right...prep time is dwindling and the bikes and the gear that will ship with them need to be ready in four weeks. We've got a shipper coming by KC between 20 and 30 April, which is now less than a month away.

Thinking over the bike:

• straighten panniers: both panniers (saddlebags) have taken a beating over the past couple of years. They're functional as-is; however, the one on the right still doesn't sit in the mounts right and requires an extra ratchet strap to be secure. I want to spend some time seeing if I can beat the mounts back into the right shape. The locks, too, need replaced.

• finalize aux light mount: I mounted the auxiliary lights using the bolt hole for the front fender. Seems to work really well, but I just used the bolt that came with the lights, which is a little short. I'd like to replace it with something longer. Also, the light mount is designed with a couple bumps to prevent them to twist around the bolt head. For my purposes, this only seems to get in the way of making fine adjustments to their angle. I'm thinking I'll remove that bump and add a locking washer.
• fuel cans: The last stretch of the Dalton Highway in AK runs 240 miles with no fuel stops. I get about 175 miles/tank. Going to need a few extra gallons of fuel. The Peg Packer seems like a decent solution, but pricey. I'd like to rig up my own solution.

Thinking over the gear:

• I've started piling things for the trip in the guest bedroom. I need to figure out how I want to organize it all and do a trial run of packing it into the containers I intend to mount on the bike. Most of it will ship with the bike to AK, but some will need to wait and ride with me on the plane.

Thinking over other stuff:

• bears/wildlife: I enjoyed camping south of Anchorage a few years ago. Met a few bears. We'll be in the remote North this time. I'd like to refresh my reading on bears a bit. While it would be awesome to see a grizzly, I'm not real keen on sharing my tent with one.
• music playlists: my playlists are rather limited presently. We'll have many miles on the road, so variety would be nice. With the new phone (replacement should be here tomorrow), I've got a lot more space than my old phone, so I'd like to update my playlists on the computer, re-share them with Google, and download them for offline usage on my phone.