Hi,
I`m planning to ride from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay this June. Can anyone give me an idea of likely weather and road conditions?

Cheers

Was up there last year from mid May and it was magic, usually between 20-30C, no bugs or RVs and lots of wildlife. I would imagine that by mid June the place will be infested by RV convoys and bugs with both hotels and campsites getting full. Earlier rather than later would be my advice. Ride safe.

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Mike
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Mike is riding the twisty road in the sky

Was up there last year from mid May and it was magic, usually between 20-30C, no bugs or RVs and lots of wildlife. I would imagine that by mid June the place will be infested by RV convoys and bugs with both hotels and campsites getting full. Earlier rather than later would be my advice. Ride safe.

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Mike
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Mike is riding the twisty road in the sky

Great ride a group of us from New Zealand rode up june 2008 worth putting good tyres so road and senery can really be enjoyed. We ran TKC-80s on Vstroms and had no problems. Enjoy eand ride safe.Wizza

I expect it'll be lovely - I rode up there in Sep 06, did Fairbanks to Prudhoe no worries in a day - but it was dry. They told me Sep was too late, but it was beautiful. Might be difficult in wet tho (like when I did the Dempster to Inuvik)

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Thanks for the feedback! Wizza mentioned TCK 80`s. Regardless of the conditions would these be the best bet for the trip?

Without a shadow of a doubt, dry or wet! They are very tough (though nothing's indestructible - as I found out at the first HUMM in 2007 see "2007 report"!! But I got all the way from Prudhoe to Ruta 40 in S Argentina on them without a single puncture - but then I seemed to get a few!! And for some reason, my punctures have always been rear, I'm not sure if this is a coincidence.

On a tubeless tyre, you want to run LOW pressures on the dirt - I'd say no more than 20psi rear and 15psi front. You won't feel every little stone you ride over, the bike will grip a lot better, and you're far less likely to get puncture or damage your tyre. The problem with low pressures on a tubed tyre is pinching, but I think with tubeless, its almost the lower the better, providing you don't damage the rim, knock the tyre off the rim, or overheat the tyre (realisticallty that would be on road unless you're an incredible rider!). It may even be better to go lower than I've said, but I've not tried lower than above figures.

Good luck - it is amazing! As is the Dempster also - but in the words of Bon Jovi, "Slippery When Wet"!

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Lots of variables being ignored here. You don't say what bike, so it's hard to know whether you'll be riding tubes or tubeless. If the former, you need rimlocks to run pressures that low. And many people find TKC to offer good all-round service but grievously short lifespans at elevated prices. This is worth considering, since it might require advance planning or you'll wind up without usable tread somewhere awkward. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Hope that helps.

Mark

Thanks! I`m riding a BMW 650 Dakar and was planning on using Metzler Tourances, but now I`m not too sure!!??

I wouldn't worry too much about it ,people ride Gold Wings and full dress Harleys up the Dalton .
You can buy tyres in Alaska if you think you need to change due to weather .

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if you want a cheap $35.00 a night dorm room in fairbanks during the summer school break check with University of Alaska in Fairbanks tell them you belong to Adv-rider and if there's room it includes free wi-fi, laundry, shower, clean room and beds.

Fairbanks to Atigan pass no problem, lot's of blacktop and hardpack if it's raining you just have to watch the dirt sections and trucks. It's almost 100% dirt/gravel from Coldfoot to deadhorse so be prepared for everything, freezing temps, deep/slick mud, deep gravel berms, pot holes, then parts will be un-rideable if the road crews are grading and watering the road. I've been there 3 times. Here's what the roads and weather was like.

Trip 1. 2005 1st of june flew into deadhorse and started riding south to fairbanks in the rain, sleet and powdery snow until the temps dropped below 10f then it was all wind. The roads and atigan pass were mostly good since the road crews weren't grading the roads. Once I got over atigan pass the rain would come and go all day with the temps above 32f and it got warmer and more sunshine as I got closer to fairbanks. Didn't see any riders that trip.

Trip 2. 2006 1st of june started in Deadhorse and had to turn back to deadhorse after 50 miles due to the wind and snow. waited 2 days for the snow and wind to stop then made it to the base of atigan pass and camped 1 day/night waiting for the snow plows to clear the pass. The pass was all hard packed snow. Then all was good except the occasional rain again the weather got warmer and more sunshine as you get closer to fairbanks.

Trip 3. 2009 Last week June going up took 2 days and back in 1 day. Going up was wet, muddy, cold, windy, huge sections of fresh deep gravel. Stayed 1st night in Coldfoot, 2nd night in Deadhorse and made it back to fairbanks in 1 day because the road was drying, the gravel was beat down by the trucks and the wind was behind me. I considered my ride a success after talking to a group of riders that were a day ahead of me, they said they suffered and just wanted to die going up and back between coldfoot and deadhorse it was all wind, rain and mud for them, they looked drained and very tense when I talked to them in coldfoot.


Sooooo my advice for doing the trip in June would be prepared for the worst conditions and allow a couple extra days in case the weather slows you down. Use offroad tires with low air pressure, don't try to beat someone's speed record going up and back. Take your time and spend the night in Deadhorse. Don't argue with the restaurant and kitchen help in coldfoot or deadhorse, they are doing us a favor by being there and they probably hate being there . If they have time to talk to you each one will have a wierd ass reason for working up there Ha.

Oh yeah, I met a couple riders that did not finish on the Dalton they were turning around on their road tires and a fellow who failed to make it last year with road tires but came back this year with offroad tires. The pot holes sent one rider with broken alum wheels home. Another just ordered two new alum wheels to so he could finish the ride. By the way there's at least two riders that ended their trip with a crash one going up and one coming down.

I'll ride the Dalton again someday on a dirt bike and leave my F650GS in Fairbanks for the ride home.


The Harley dealer in Fairbanks had reasonable tire prices but the labor and new tubes, oil change was expensive. I got my TKC 80's in Fairbanks and the rear tire was worn out after 6,000 miles.

Thanks Kestrel! Very helpful stuff!

Don't know where you're starting from, but if Anchorage I would equip youself with TKC80's. You're prepared for the worst, and they're about as tough a dual-purpose tyre as you'll get.

Regarding life, the knobs do wear quickly inititally, but I've got as many as 6000 miles from a rear, twice that from the front! This pic was taken in Santiago, and I had the tyre fitted in Los Angeles - about 12000 miles!!


Admittedly the knobs weren't much use at this point, but it was lovely and smooth on the blacktop!

And at UK prices I don't think they're bad on £ per mile - maybe 2/3 the price of road tyres and 2/3 the life?

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The Dalton is tackled every year by a ton of riders, with a broad range of bikes (cruisers to dual sports) and experience levels (ex dirt racers to never been off tarmac). This leads to varying levels of success and varying bits of advice based on each individuals perspective.

Couple this with far north weather variability where it can be sunny and dry to wet and cold to snow in almost any month. Deadhorse is almost 70 degrees latitude.

In general, if it is dry-ish, almost any 90-10 tire like a Tourance will be perfectly fine. If the conditions are mixed, you could toss a knobby front tire like a TKC on the front, which makes a big difference. If it is full on wet, then you would be happier with both a front and rear knobby.

In past years there has been occasional shortages of knobby tires or high prices so people have been pre ordering or pre shipping or carrying them along. There is more than one place carrying tires these days. Me, I'd buy a TKC front tire online in the US and then just strap it on for the ride up and throw it on in Fairbanks and then leave it on as you can get ~10,000 km on a front as the previous poster mentioned.

To put it in perspective though, the Dalton is probably one of the best maintained gravel roads in the world. There is a multi billion dollar oil field operation at the end of the road and this is the only road link so as you can imagine they are interested in keeping it pretty well looked after. But the northern climate still makes it a challenge.

What you do depends a lot on your experience and how comfortable you feel riding on gravel roads. The ultimate factor is the weather conditions, when they are good you will wonder what all the fuss was about. When they are bad you will appreciate your preparation and practice.

I was up last year, mid July on a '75 BMW R60. It was very good weather (only a little rain over Atigun) but met others who had an entirely miserable experience just a week earlier. You can check historical weather at Deadhorse and elsewhere at History : Weather Underground The only truly ugly parts were road construction and where they had just dumped carbonate slime to cut down on the dust. Also, the last 60 miles or so into Deadhorse were not too enjoyable as the road seems to have a much larger diameter gravel (more like cobbles in places) which made it a way more unstable for me. Probably just a matter of local source. Deadhorse was cold... 34F with a 35 MPH wind but other than that the rest of the way was quite comfortable. I lucked out with the mosquitoes (there virtually were none) but talking to a ranger at the Visitors Center, discovered that he had experienced the worst in his 26 years up there just two weeks earlier. If I remember, he said they ran a (brief) experiment and were counting up to 96 mosquito landings per square inch. Ugh.

I carried some cheap narrow knobbies (a King and a Cheng Shen) up with me and switched into them just south of the start of the Dalton. I was very glad I did. They worked great. Huge difference. I just donated them to a roadside charity flea market in Fairbanks but they showed almost no wear.

Anyway... enjoy your trip. I'd go back in a heartbeat, but heading off in another direction this coming year.

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