Hmm interesting. I wasn't expecting to see a large jerry can like that. I have been looking at one which sit inside the saddlebag, but I am sure it's smaller then that. I guess better safe then sorry.
That's a 10L can, not particularly large. On that particular trip I was carrying the emergency reserve for both bikes as my buddy's Indian has even less storage space/options than I had. We came back across Highway 11 and for anyone who's been on that road there's about a 250KM stretch at long point where it's pretty remote and without any gas stations between Geraldon to Hearst.
If the Hearst station had been closed we would not have had enough to make it to the next gas 100KM further down the road in Kapuskasing. 5L extra per bike however would have got us there, still on fumes (or close to it), but it would have got us there.
My bike runs about 250KM (+/- 10KM) before hitting reserve..and I've pushed it to about 35KM and don't figure there's much more than that to be had. At about 5.5L/100KM, that means I will need (for my bike alone) about 7-8L of gas to make the James Bay stretch to the mid point gas station, so 10L adds a little comfort reserve, especially considering (as mentioned) I know speeds will be brisk and the bike will use more gas than perhaps anticipated.
Anyhow, a 10L jerry can isn't a biggie to carry. Compared to the rest of the luggage I carried on that trip it was one of the smallest things, actually.
My main luggage bag was on my pax seat, had my clothing, some emergency gear, and my sleeping bag in there..hence why it looks like the stay-puft marshmallow man LOL. Tent and air mattress (a frill, sure, but I'd be crippled in the mornings without it) as well as a smaller bag with all my camping toiletries and such was on top of that. Jerry can is underneath that as you can see in the photos - never took it off for the entire trip. My only normal on-bike storage is the saddlebags which had my rain gear in one side (where it always stays), and my extra gloves, some road-food, etc in the other side. Also had my full face helmet on there as well which turned out to be a great decision as on that particular trip we spent pretty much an entire day riding in torrential rain, but that was another story.
Isn't your HD a full decker, beer box, et all? Cargo rack on top of your beer box? If so (A lot of the ex OPP HD's had beer boxes IIRC)...90% of what I had strapped to my bike will fit in your built in cargo space alone. If not (saddlebags only?) you just need to get a little more creative so far as securing luggage..but a 10L jerry can really isn't that much.
Are some of the roads on your route gravel? I thought one was a hydro access road.
Asphalt all the way from the GTA to both Chisasibi as well as Radisson. Only the short stretch from Chisasibi to the actual shores of James Bay is gravel. Not a biggie, I'm not too scared of gravel...have been over some wild crap in the last few years LOL, this was one "road" we traversed east of Kirkland Lake on this same trip.
