5,500 mile ride

[wookie]

Just got back from a ride around the western part of the country. I did mostly back roads and went through western tx, arizona, new mexico, utah, nevada, and california (lots of northern CA). It was a trip of a life time!

I'll post up some pictures and stories in a little while.

[wookie]

Here is a photobucket album with some of the pictures.

wookie875/Trip - Page 1 - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[butcher bergs]

Hell yeah Kevin!

Good to see you're alive and doing well!

Can't wait to see this....!

[Wrynne]

Those are some amazing pictures. My favorite is #630 - but they all make it look like you had a good time. I can't wait to hear the stories.

What are you using for luggage?

[The Crashing Tomato]

WOOKIEeeeee


Friggn awesome !!!!


pics of the gas station sperm bank or the redneck with the rag?

p 632 looks a lot like rt 17 in VT as you come down from the outlook on the nh side just with less trees

[ahtune69]

Hey wook now your in heaven out there.Good luck man.

[mycirus]

Awesome. Now do a real trip report and tell stories!!!

[brady]

nice! how about a map of the route?

[catamount]

Thank you for confirmation that its possible to log LOTS of miles on a Speed Triple!

[catamount]

What are you using for luggage?

He's using the Ventura rack system!

Ventura : Soft Motorcycle Touring Luggage, Hard Motorcycle Touring Luggage

[scottieducati]

Wookie, you are a legend.

[Pittenger5]

Wook, you sir are certifiably insane. Thats why you fit in the Alley so well, and its nice to see youre respresenting Zip Tie Alley South so well already.

[LaRNZ]

shoulda stole that twisty sign

[Jaynnus]

Nice pictures, looks like a great adventure.

If there is no fuel for 150 miles and your bike only gets about 120 miles to a gallon......

I always wonder that on Long Way Down...where the hell are they getting fuel in Kenya??

[schleppy]

I always wonder that on Long Way Down...where the hell are they getting fuel in Kenya??

From the support vehicles I believe. Those BMWs can hold a good amount of gas, but not that much.

[pangerang]

Next 140 miles...damn that's awesome. Sounds like and looks like you had a lot of fun!!!

[KillBill]

Excellent Photos....what a journey

[kamikaze]

Those are some amazing pictures. My favorite is #630 - but they all make it look like you had a good time. I can't wait to hear the stories.

What are you using for luggage?

+1 on that! I miss bike touring...

I think I will post my Adirondacks ride....

[wookie]

from:TX-1604 W tolacemark 2 @33.128351,-107.265015 to:NM-180 to:Coronado Trail/US-191 to:chambers, az to:UT-261 to:UT-95 to:UT-24 to:escalante, ut to:NV-375 to:tonopah, nv to:CA-120 to:CA-108 to:reno, nv - Google Maps

Here is a map of the first 5 days...if it works.

(my computer keeps crashing....so I'll save this as I go along)

Day 1: San Antonio, Tx to Truth and Consequences, NM.
This was an interstate burn to get me away from San Antonio. Interstate 10 is actually interesting the first time you drive. West Texas is open, and EMPTY. The speed limit is 80 mph and I kept the speed up. Unfortunately, I was only getting 32 mpg at 90-100 mph. As a result I almost ran out of gas. This was an important lesson becuase the gas stations are widely spaced in some areas of the west. I found the only way to safely travel was to ask the locals about the gas situation for the next 100-200 miles. In fact, some of the dots on the map that look like towns are nothing more than a post office or can even be modern day ghost towns.

Here is a random gas station off of I-10.




I reached Truth or Consequences, NM the first evening. It is a cool little town right on the Rio Grand. I stayed in a youth hostel located on the banks of the Rio Grand that has hot spring fed hot tubs....very cool. A couple of hot east german girls were staying at the hostel...sorry no pics of them in the hot tubs.

[wookie]

Day 2 Truth or Consequences, NM to the middle of nowhere AZ.

This was my stepping off point...no more interstates. New Mexico is beautiful...wide open plains spaced between mountains.



The first hour was flat and straight



Followed by mountainous curves.








Another important lesson I learned. There roads are as wild as the west. Before breakfast I saw deer and some sort of wild pig, as well as, some unfortunately placed gravel. These caused a few puckers...nothing more. However, traveling by myself in the middle of nowhere I realized I needed to be a little cautious on these mountain roads.

I finally reached Arizona. This is the boarder crossing from NM into AZ. Before this trip I always thought of AZ as flat and hot, but these roads were great.




I came out of the mountains and dropped in altitude into a hot, dusty mining town. The road went through the strip mines with mining equipment and strip mines on either side of the road. In one of the pictures below you can see the road go under a huge piece of equipment.





The scale of these pits is unbelievable. At one point the traffic was stopped for some mining equipment. We had a little wait and the lady with the stop/slow sign told me the mine operates 24/7 365 days of the year. We joked that one day the pits will be as large as the grand canyon and tourists will come just to see the pits. She said (only half joking) that she wants to open a suvonier shop...hell, I would by a t-shirt!

[Jayspeed]

You crazy SOB! Looking forward to reading this post more later but just had to say that.

[The Crashing Tomato]

Wook your a motorboatin sum-ma-ma-bitch ain't chya. next long trip might only be 878 miles to Barber in the spring, if you can handle it? Pffft IF

Was the road white with balls of ice or just different aggregate in the pavement

[wookie]

Continuation of above
From the mining town I started on rt. 191. Part of the reason I chose this route was to ride rt. 191 in AZ...a.k.a. "the devil's highway." It is 100 miles of twisties...no driveways, no towns, little traffic, and no cops.

Google Maps

It is impossible to capture the road with photographs.

However, here are a couple of videos I found on youtube if you are interested. This road has everything, the first part is dry desert with lots switch backs (check out the cliffs on the side of the road - no guard rails here). Then it is woodys twisties. Also, one of the cools things about this trip was traveling in September...no traffic. Plus, midweek made the road all but deserted. I saw less than 8 vehicles the whole way.
YouTube - Hwy 191 (Devils Highway) on a SV650
YouTube - Devils Highway

Now, the weather....as the road gained altitude (something like 9,000 ft) some dark clouds started rolling in. At first I thought it was cool looking....then they skys opened up. However, it wasn't rain....it was HAIL!!!. I had no place to pull over (there was a wall on one side of the road and a cliff on the other). It felt like baseball size hail and it hurt. When I stopped I realized it was more like large pea size hail, but it still hurt. The road was covered in it. I came close to dumping the bike when I reached a safe pull off and tried to slow and stop the bike.




I waited, wet and cold, for a long time on the side of the road. The damn stuff just wouldn't melt. I finally decided I needed to keep going...this really is the Devil's Highway. After a very slippery mile (down hill BTW) I finally made it through and the road cleared up. That was just a fucked up situation. (BTW - this was less than 60-70 +/- miles from the 100 degree, dry and dusty mining town...there are crazy extremes out west. I really thought this stuff would just melt, but it was fucking cold up there).

[SVRACER01]

I FUCKING LOOOVE 191!!! used to be RT666. i did it going south on an SV with a passenger. you crash out there you will be veeerrry lonely. im sooo jealous you got to do that. i wanna do it again. hands down the HARDEST road ive ever ridden. with a 100 miles of SERIOUS switchbacks and twists and turnes and hairpins at a an average speed of probably 40mph...you are on that road WORKING for well over an hour.nice choice

[SVRACER01]

its hard to get a pic of the road but there was one spot where there was a "scenic view" where you could see a pretty far down the road. IIRC it was "newer" pavement through there. that about the only spot.