Anything is a touring bike if you want it to be (over 1000 km in 3 days across BC's Duffey Loop/Coast Mountain Circle on a GSXR 600)
Decided to take my daily commuter (GSXR 600) across the Lower Mainland of BC Canada through Duffey Lake, thought it deserved something other than highways and bumper to bumper traffic. My friend and his GF joined me on his CFMOTO Ibex 800
No throttle lock, no saddle bags, just a heavy ass backpack and pure vibes.
Location of photos
Pic 1: Lillooet
Pic 2: Cache Creek
Pic 3: Cache Creek at the motel solo (Expedia screwed me over, didn't send my hotel reservation to the Lillooet motel so I had to come here solo)
Pic 4: Cache Creek - Historic Hat Creek Ranch
Pic 5: Clinton BC - Six Mile Lake
Pic 6: Clinton in the town
Pic 7: Logan Lake
Pic 8: Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park - near Merritt BC
Pic 9: Tulameen
Pic 10: Manning Park
Pic 11: Approximate route (does not include 80 km or so I did between Clinton and Cache Creek)
The route was really nice, a lot of scenic views, twisty roads, and sweepers on rural highways with little to no traffic past Pemberton. I recommend everyone in the Pacific Northwest ride this route at some point in their life. I've done the Duffey Loop (a shorter version of this) on a Yamaha R7 solo in 1 day as well.
Thinking back I probably should have gotten at least saddle bags because I was lugging around a 20 lb backpack while we were walking around. Strangely, even after all of this, I did not feel any back pain (guess those back exercises at the gym helped). Most of my pain was in my legs being cramped up. My friend complained about his seat and apparently had a lot of lower back pain, not sure how he would have done in my bike lol.