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Wow!! Manly man ride yes it was!
I wanted to thank Todd, Todd, Mike, Mike, Jim, Dave and Chuck for a very
challenging, rewarding and manly man ride Saturday. Everybody has pretty
much captured the feel in the previous post. I just wanted to chime and
say I had a great time. 635 miles total door to door, average speed of
65 mph for the day and a top speed of 144 mph.
There were so many times throughout the day I was just amazed at what a
dream come true ride that was! Life is good! Seeing all those bikes lean
over into a turn and roll over into the next like a graceful
snake...incredible site!
Glad Chuck is ok..I bet a little more sore then the rest of us!
So glad the bank was on the correct side for that slide! That's a heavy
bike to pull back up a mountain seeing how there is no guard rails on
that road!
I love the amount of toys (gadgets) on some of the bikes.. when we were
going across 191 and all of a sudden the three bikes in front of me stop
and Todd had gotten a cell call
 telling
him Chuck had gone down...great gadget! Two radios! Radar detectors!
Music!
I had installed the SportVue heads up display system integrated with an
Escort 8500. I couldn't wait to see how it worked on the open road. I
lost the pick up magnet on the rear disc so no speed or gear
indication.. and couldn't get the radar detector to set off in the HUD.
I was ready to throw that thing away!
When I got home I read the Escort manual again, then the SportVue again
and then in the SportVue box under the Styrofoam I found a little
package that said: "Radar detector signal enhancer cable for the Escort
8500".
Well at least it's not going to cost me any more money to get it
working!
Dave and I started at 5am at the house
First stop was the Pilot Station at 99th and I-10 to gather the west
siders...we saw X Txn just fly by and thought he must not be with us! We
left at 5:35am to head to the second meet spot in Apache Jct.
On the way we caught up with Tyler on his new 1098 Ducati and proceeded
in formation to Goldfield..
Rolled into the parking lot to this!
We all headed out from here... Casey (Triumph Daytona 675) and Tyler
(Ducati 1098) took off and did the Tortilla Flats run. He needed to get
back to Hooters by noon for this!
Well the rest of us stopped in Globe and picked up Jim who misunderstood
the original meet and got ahead of us! Jim did a fantastic job at tail
gunner all day! It was great to see another Triumph along for the ride!
What a beautiful lightly chilly ride to Safford...it was at this point I
knew I better start bundling up for the rest of the ride. Chaps, thermal
liner, heavier gloves were in order! Off to Safford!
We gassed up in Safford, grabbed a bit to eat...
Mike, Todd, Jim, Dave and Chuck... left to right!
Todd getting his on board camera ready to roll!
We maintained a fun pace into Clifton AZ. Interesting note: Lt. John G.
Bourke related that when he was with the army c. 1869 on a scouting
expedition, he was in a group which was among the first to note the rich
copper deposits in the vicinity of what later became Clifton. The men
took pieces of nearly pure copper ore back to Tucson. However, it was
not until c. 1872 that a group of prospectors and miners from Silver
City, New Mexico, explored the area and established copper mines. Now
Clifton has the 3rd largest strip mine in the USA.
Here's a panoramic shot of a portion of the mine...this is 4 images
stitched together...
Click
here for a full
resolution of this picture (big)
When we got to this overlook spot the wind was blowing a sustained 30mph
and gusting way higher! Here's another pano of the bikes at the overlook
Click
here for the full
res pic
As your leaving Clifton it's a maze of 10 mph corners. Just as we were
leaving northern Clifton we ran into a bunch of cattle on the edges of
the roads.. they were being herded up 191...hmmm! We even had one cow
run along side of us for a bit!
We started into the turns on 191 strong! Plowing hard into the corners,
just really enjoying finally being in the good stuff...then a few rocks
on the road, then kinda dusty, the sand and gravel lined edges, then
gravel all over the turns... it was hard to see because of the
consistency of the road...I got unnerved after a rear tire slide....Mike
on the Vstrom was behind me and I let him pass... watching the Todds and
Mike hit those corners I couldn't believe the bikes weren't going
down... then Todd got the call none of us want to hear.... CHUCK IS
DOWN!
You can see the skid mark in this pic!
Impact spot on the far left...see the fresh soil! Chuck so glad you are
ok man!!!
Applying the high speed tape...
Here's a pic of Jim's Speed Triple and the 191 in the back ground! Love
this pic!
Another shot of the ejection line!
We continued on hanging onto the handle bars was too tight! The road got
better in places and then would surprise you again with debris, gravel,
rocks, etc in the road... once we passed the summit the road was framed
in beautiful pines, snow on the edge of the road and much cooler
temperatures.... we all regrouped in Haanegan Meadows...
We were taking restroom breaks, warming up and telling stories of near
misses across the famed 666 road! Next stop was Alpine for lunch and
fuel. The remaining 15 miles or so consisted of high speed sweepers on
clean black tops!! Woohoo! Here we are staged for lunch!
After lunch we met at the gas station in town. Did anyone notice we were
stalked by local law enforcement at the cafe and then the gas station?
hehe! I wish this picture would have showed it more clearly....SNOW..it
started snowing as we left Alpine.
Leaving Alpine the winds picked up, the snow picked up and the temps
went DOWN! I have never ridden in snow before. When it started sticking
to my visor I was concerned the roads were starting to freeze and felt
the wind was going to just push us off road!
We made a stop in Eager to check warmth status on everyone. Dave put on
another layer, I played with my radar detector one last time trying to
get it to work...to no avail!
The temperatures varied from cold to colder to cold all the way to
Showlow... we stopped again for fuel and was met with flurries in the
parking lot!
It was all down hill from here..... warmer weather, the sun, and faster
road. Wish we weren't caught up in so much traffic on SRC... always love
to nail it on that road! The rest of the ride was smooth and
long....that long hot shower at home never felt better!
To everyone again! Thank you! I hope to continue these new friendships
in the future and would ride anywhere with you guys again! Nice lead job
Todd'sssss.... please put me down for a copy of the DVD... would love to
show my kids what we do! And I will be bugging the Todd's for more
information about their gadgets.... need a list guys!
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