You can a road side insurance added to your policy for 50-75 bucks a year depending on coverage.  It would be worth looking into for a trip like that.  They can even include a nights stay at a hotel while it's getting fixed.

If you've never fixed a flat, don't plan on doing it on the road...  Front tire maybe, rear tire never.

Having stuff is much better than not.  I've gone into a couple of shops and whoops, no tubes.

Ive tried putting a rear tire on, in the shop. Youre NOT gonna handle that on the side of the road, YOu mite be able to break one down enough to get a tube out & swapped or patched, but, Im doubtin it,,A fresh rear tire will do highway speeds at almost zero pressure. They get squirelly down around 40 or so,Just hafta get help.. You can TRY Fix-A-Flat, but, it just doesnt work on tubes often, I used3 or4 cans getting home from Tyler to Longview, Id stop & fill up when I got into places I had to go slow enough it was handling badly,, I got home, stopped & the thing just barfed green slime & fix-a-flat out & the tire sagged down,,


Now,, heres what I did on a cheapo tube.. The tires on the generator take a $7.00 tube, & they dont last,I got a little unhappy that it let go right where the brass valve stem joins the rubber tube. I put Green Slime in, it just puked it out,, & Im really tired of buying those crappy tubes, so, I took a can of expanding foam, construction stuff, crack filler, tapered the tube to fit, threaded it in where the valve core goes & Pumped it UP.,.I jammed the valve core in & aired it u[ the rest of the way,, OHH,, Its still up,.,.Would I do that in a roadside event? Depends,, depends on how far it is to someone who can help,

The ride-on would be good insurance.

What tires do you have... or will have?

How many miles on them?

If I get a flat, it's either the 1st couple of months, or the last couple of months of tire life.  And usually a nail in the rear.

If you hear a tick tick tick that corresponds to tire rotation, pull over quick you gotta nail.  By the time the tire went flat at 70 that I noticed and I pulled into a gas station, the tire was toast.  Dunlap D401's  heavy sidewall Harley tire.

I was never able to unscrew the oil fill w/o a tool. Pliers scratched it up, so I took a piece of wood ( 3/4 wide, 1/2" thick, about 3" long) & cut a groove in it that would slip down on top of the fill plug. I didnt just cut it straight across,, look at how the top of the plug is & decide where the slot needs to be. That took up less room than pliers, didnt scratch up paint. A tip off of a 90 wt. oil jug threads onto oil bottles. YOu dont need a funnel that way, just point & squeeze. Keep it in a baggie, no dirt. Thats how I top off the power steering on the back hoe,., For short trips, I used a 2stroke bottle, you know, the little dudes, like 3 oz's or so, That was enough to top it off if I rose hard 50 miles or so,.

Thanks to all of you for your input! The following are the answers to your questions, my ideas based on the input and a few questions:

1) My insurance covers towing, but I was not aware it will reimburse me for lodging ($100/day) and meals ($50/day) up to a max. of $500 while the repair is being done! $12 for 6mo. at Progressive.

2) I have stock tires with 1600 miles. I'm good there, but I'm going to get the spare tubes(for a mc shop to install, not me). Should I buy stock or ....?

3) I already planned to carry spare oil. Twisted Throttle sells several styles of brackets/storage tubes for MRS fuel bottles, which I already own.

4) I'll pass on the Fix-a-Flat, but I'm going to check out the Run-on as there's a dealer listed about 20 miles from me.

5) I've no set route/agenda or destination at this time, so Thumperclone and others, I'll post when I've fine-tuned. It would be nice to connect with some of the people from the forum. Oh, btw- I'm camping-I've done so for years (non-mc) and have traveled in many areas of the western U.S. I mentioned S.D. as imho it is the closest area to Indiana that has the feel of the west and much to see in a very concentrated area. I've been to Colo. many times and it is a serious contender.

Rick in Indiana

In order to avoid flats.....keep your tires in the driving lanes as much as possible and hopefully the tires of other vehicles have cleaned out the debris.  Avoid driving in the middle of the lane or on the berms where the debris gets thrown.  Just about every flat causing bit of crap I have picked up in my car was when I got off the beaten path.  On the Dragon trip last year I picked up some broken glass when we pulled under an abandoned store porch to get out of the rain.