SMC
Well-known member
:blink: Well, back from a eleven day solo odyssey on the FJR.
Drove through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, back through New Mexico and Texas.
The distances driven ranged from just a little over 750 miles a day to some places such as the Grand Canyon, I didn't drive at all, but took the free shuttle about the whole park from one overlook to another.
Visited the Grand Canyon, San Simeon, Hearst Castle, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey, San Francisco, Sausilito, Yosemite, Gateway,
Ridgway, Ouray, Sliverton, Durango, Pagosa Springs, Chama, Taos.
There's just no getting around it, but the drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Amarillo via 287 is less then thrilling. From Amarillo to Albuquerque is another section that can put one asleep on I-40...in fact that's just what happened to me as it was hot, which made me drowsy and the next thing I know the little bumps they use in addition to the painted white strips woke me back up as I strayed from the right line to the left.
Still thanking God for saving my bacon on that one. Glad I didn't go off in the weeds or take anyone out in the left lane as I drifted over into it. With the resultant adrenaline dump, I was wide awake for the rest of the day and made it fine to Gallup.
The next days drive was on a more motorcycle friendly and not boring drive on an interstate to the Grand Canyon.
The only thing I didn't plan for was the driving winds and the resultant sand/dust storm for about 170 miles. It got so bad that high profile vehicles were actually turned over on their sides and saw some 18 wheelers on their sides. The gusts got up to 60 mph and there were numerous times where I had the FJR leaned over at about 45 degrees even though I was trying to go straight. With it being a desert area and no real vegitation to hold the soil or sand down, the sand blowing about was right out of a middle eastern movie. Visibility in certain sections was down to about eighty feet. When I finally made it to the eastern entrance of the Grand Canyon, I and the bike looked like we were veterans of the desert campaigns in WWII chasing Rommel about Northern Africa.
The second day I was at the Grand Canyon, and in between my photographic forays. I ended up giving in to my obsessive need to make sure the FJR wasn't compromised in anyway due to the driving dust storms I had driven through that I bought several containers of bottled water (no one has a hose on the South Rim of the Canyon!) and lovingly gave my baby a much needed bath.
Lo and behold the two coats of Rejex I had applied before the trip came through like gangbusters the the dirt and grime just washed off. Then I spent some time making sure all the mechanical linkages, axels where free from grime. Took apart the side panels and the air filter and lo and behold that baby was clean...still ended up borrowing a vacuum cleaner from the maids and made sure there wasn't any kind of dust or dirt where it shouldn't be. OK, I admit it, I'm type A +.
If you haven't been to the Grand Canyon yet, you will have to make it a point to make it there as it really is breath taking and of such a scale to make you realize how insignificant you are.
Once there, there is no real need for a vehicle as the shuttle system can take you all about the park.
The drive from the Grand Canyon to San Simeon, CA. was great and the scenery changed from high country plateau to southwestern arid buttes, to arid deserts, the Mojave, to agricultural areas in central California to the rolling golden hills of coastal California with some really wonderful motorcycle roads and beautiful wineries all about.
Got onto highway one just north of SLO, Morrow Bay and Pismo Beach and the sights and sounds of the waves crashing onto the shore as the sun was setting into the Pacific was picturesque.
Spent a restful night in San Simeon and woke up early the next day as I had tickets to a tour at the Hearst Castle. Just blows my mind to think someone had that much money to import all the stuff from Spain, England, Italy and reassemble it. Saw how the "other" side lived in that fabelled era. Nice digs, but, I'm quite content and blessed with my humble abode.
After the tour, I went up the California coast on the well known and traveled highway one. Didn't realize that there were so many sections that the speed limit was down to 20mph and the everpresent RV's clogging the roadways and causing all kinds of traffic slow downs. Took a number of photos from some scenic overlooks near Big Sur and going into Carmel/Monterrey, and of course the much photographed Bixby bridge.
After having lunch in Carmel, checking into my hotel in Monterey, I got back on the bike to take some much anticipated photos along 17 mile drive.
At this point I digress as I got a rude awakening at one of the front gates.
Apparently the town of Pebble Beach does not let motorcycles of outsiders come past the gates and have outlawed all motorcycle traffic on scenic 17 mile drive. After some inquiries, I was told it was mainly due to the loud pipe on bikes such as Harley's that disturbed the quiet peace of the Pebble Beach inhabitants. At first I was incensed, but on the other hand I had to admit that if I lived in a idyllic community as that, the last thing I want to be woken up by are those booming pipes on Harleys' reverberating throughout those rolling hills at six in the morning.
After trying to find a rental car so I could take the photos on 17 mile drive, I gave up and will just have to fly into San Jose one day, rent a car and go back. Thank you Harley riders for in this case ruining it for others in the motorcycle community.
Needless to say I retired to the Carmel and Monterey area, the Monterey aquarium, more acutely aware of the booming, blipping and frapping Harley riders as they cruised up and down the boulevards, blipping their bikes as they coasted up and down the streets and at the stop lights. Much to my chagrin, yes you can hear those Harleys from five or six blocks away.
The next days journey took me from Monterey up to San Francisco through some really thick fog. Didn't plan on that and boy can that stuff make you slow down as you can't see where your going or for that matter the amount of moisture that accumulates on your helmet visor in just a half a minutes' time.
Got up to San Francisco and the fog was giving way to wonderful sunshine and the drive across the Golden Gate Bridge was mainly made in the wonderful warmth of the sun.
Got a couple of nice photos of the fog obscurring some of the bridge and most of San Francisco.
Went back across the Golden Gate, then the Oakland Bay Bridge and south to Dubln, then east to Yosemite.
Stayed in Yosemite for another couple of days and just took in the natural beauty of the area, Half Dome, El Capitan, Merced river, Bridalveil falls, Glacier Point and again was able to catch a couple of nice photos. The roads are twisting and great for motorcyclists, but be careful as there are numerous sections where there is lose gravel or sand in the roadway and since winter conditions are there for so long during the year, some of the roadway can be quite rough.
Left Yosemite Valley and traversed across the whole Yosemite Park to the east side and on towards Utah taking in all the wonderful scenery of high mountain lakes, bubbling streams, high mountain valleys, pine trees, giving way to arid high mountain areas (didn't know that Mono Lake was 8,000 feet up...always thought it was in a low desert area.
The area east of Mono Lake was different as the road was a whole bunch of quick rises and drops so that if your going anywhere north of 60-65, you definitely get a roller coaster ride and some of them you feel as though the FJR has caught a little air or compressed the suspension a good amount as you get to the troughs.
Just an FYI, Nevada is a deslolate and lonely area up here and there are sections of highway six that have no sevices or humanity for 73 or so miles or greater between Tonopah and Ely. Get gas at both places and don't take any chances.
From Delta, Utah I continued east through some nice hills and eventually connected up to I-70 into Colorado. There are some really neat rock formations near and around Green River, UT. on I-70.
Then I turned off I-70 and headed south on Colorado 141.
This is a little secret that Tony O. of Sportscenter Yamaha in Texarkana clued me in on. This is a without a doubt one of the best motorcycle and scenic routes you could ride on. Sometimes you feel as though you are in the Grand Canyon as those walls rise up on either side of you...the road doesn't have straight section in it and just winds for mile after mile following a stream. In other sections you feel as though you are getting towards the top of the world.
In the middle of nowhere you come upon a town by the name of Gateway that has a wonderful little 50's type diner that is motorcycle friendly. In fact the owner of the the diner also has an auto and motorcycle museum adjacent to the diner. The burgers are great and the pies are fantastic.
I eventually reached Ridgeway, CO and headed south towards Ouray and Silverton, Red Mountain Pass, Million Dollar Highway and Molas Pass that so many of us motorcyclists have enjoyed over the years and added to our much visited list of roads.
Stayed in Durango, which is another motorcycle friendly town. Had a wonderful meal at Randy's where you can get a wonderful "uptown" meal from duck to steak to seafood. I even had the same waitress wait upon me that served me last year and she is definitely one of the best, friendly and efficent food service persons to work in the restaurant business. What's really scary is she remembered me from last year!
From Durango it was south and east through Pagosa Springs, Chama, and Taos, New Mexico. Talk about some neat motorcycle roads!
The final leg home from Tucumcari to DFW was kind of ho hum again, but what made it thrilling was dodging all the rain storms and with a constant prayer I was able to get home without once having to don the hot stuffy rainsuit.
The FJR just soldiered on throughout everything. The only bad things or minor hiccups that happened was I lost a couple of small wheel weights on a rough road and the oil light came on unexpectedly in Nevada for a half a second and then turned itself off. I stopped and checked my oil sight window and I had a full compliment of oil, no leaks or loose drain plug, so I'll chalk that up to Gremlins.
Having a six and a half gallon tank is wonderful thing on the FJR, I found out I only have a two to two and one half hour bladder though. Reinforcing the stop ever two to two and a half hours is the fact that your face sheild becomes so darkened with bugs committing suicide on it that you can't see through all the dead bodies in two hours and you have to get to a gas station and wash all the junk off your face shield.
Throttlemeister is a wrist saver and can be fine tuned for hills! GPS more then once was a life saver but be careful if you put in towns as waypoints along the way as it will will try and get you to go to the town center before getting back on the intended road or interstate.
All in all, a wonderful trip, great sights, good photos, great meals, wonderful weather, no mechanical problems and no injuries even with my dozing off for a second in N.M.
Drove through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, back through New Mexico and Texas.
The distances driven ranged from just a little over 750 miles a day to some places such as the Grand Canyon, I didn't drive at all, but took the free shuttle about the whole park from one overlook to another.
Visited the Grand Canyon, San Simeon, Hearst Castle, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey, San Francisco, Sausilito, Yosemite, Gateway,
Ridgway, Ouray, Sliverton, Durango, Pagosa Springs, Chama, Taos.
There's just no getting around it, but the drive from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Amarillo via 287 is less then thrilling. From Amarillo to Albuquerque is another section that can put one asleep on I-40...in fact that's just what happened to me as it was hot, which made me drowsy and the next thing I know the little bumps they use in addition to the painted white strips woke me back up as I strayed from the right line to the left.
Still thanking God for saving my bacon on that one. Glad I didn't go off in the weeds or take anyone out in the left lane as I drifted over into it. With the resultant adrenaline dump, I was wide awake for the rest of the day and made it fine to Gallup.
The next days drive was on a more motorcycle friendly and not boring drive on an interstate to the Grand Canyon.
The only thing I didn't plan for was the driving winds and the resultant sand/dust storm for about 170 miles. It got so bad that high profile vehicles were actually turned over on their sides and saw some 18 wheelers on their sides. The gusts got up to 60 mph and there were numerous times where I had the FJR leaned over at about 45 degrees even though I was trying to go straight. With it being a desert area and no real vegitation to hold the soil or sand down, the sand blowing about was right out of a middle eastern movie. Visibility in certain sections was down to about eighty feet. When I finally made it to the eastern entrance of the Grand Canyon, I and the bike looked like we were veterans of the desert campaigns in WWII chasing Rommel about Northern Africa.
The second day I was at the Grand Canyon, and in between my photographic forays. I ended up giving in to my obsessive need to make sure the FJR wasn't compromised in anyway due to the driving dust storms I had driven through that I bought several containers of bottled water (no one has a hose on the South Rim of the Canyon!) and lovingly gave my baby a much needed bath.
Lo and behold the two coats of Rejex I had applied before the trip came through like gangbusters the the dirt and grime just washed off. Then I spent some time making sure all the mechanical linkages, axels where free from grime. Took apart the side panels and the air filter and lo and behold that baby was clean...still ended up borrowing a vacuum cleaner from the maids and made sure there wasn't any kind of dust or dirt where it shouldn't be. OK, I admit it, I'm type A +.
If you haven't been to the Grand Canyon yet, you will have to make it a point to make it there as it really is breath taking and of such a scale to make you realize how insignificant you are.
Once there, there is no real need for a vehicle as the shuttle system can take you all about the park.
The drive from the Grand Canyon to San Simeon, CA. was great and the scenery changed from high country plateau to southwestern arid buttes, to arid deserts, the Mojave, to agricultural areas in central California to the rolling golden hills of coastal California with some really wonderful motorcycle roads and beautiful wineries all about.
Got onto highway one just north of SLO, Morrow Bay and Pismo Beach and the sights and sounds of the waves crashing onto the shore as the sun was setting into the Pacific was picturesque.
Spent a restful night in San Simeon and woke up early the next day as I had tickets to a tour at the Hearst Castle. Just blows my mind to think someone had that much money to import all the stuff from Spain, England, Italy and reassemble it. Saw how the "other" side lived in that fabelled era. Nice digs, but, I'm quite content and blessed with my humble abode.
After the tour, I went up the California coast on the well known and traveled highway one. Didn't realize that there were so many sections that the speed limit was down to 20mph and the everpresent RV's clogging the roadways and causing all kinds of traffic slow downs. Took a number of photos from some scenic overlooks near Big Sur and going into Carmel/Monterrey, and of course the much photographed Bixby bridge.
After having lunch in Carmel, checking into my hotel in Monterey, I got back on the bike to take some much anticipated photos along 17 mile drive.
At this point I digress as I got a rude awakening at one of the front gates.
Apparently the town of Pebble Beach does not let motorcycles of outsiders come past the gates and have outlawed all motorcycle traffic on scenic 17 mile drive. After some inquiries, I was told it was mainly due to the loud pipe on bikes such as Harley's that disturbed the quiet peace of the Pebble Beach inhabitants. At first I was incensed, but on the other hand I had to admit that if I lived in a idyllic community as that, the last thing I want to be woken up by are those booming pipes on Harleys' reverberating throughout those rolling hills at six in the morning.
After trying to find a rental car so I could take the photos on 17 mile drive, I gave up and will just have to fly into San Jose one day, rent a car and go back. Thank you Harley riders for in this case ruining it for others in the motorcycle community.
Needless to say I retired to the Carmel and Monterey area, the Monterey aquarium, more acutely aware of the booming, blipping and frapping Harley riders as they cruised up and down the boulevards, blipping their bikes as they coasted up and down the streets and at the stop lights. Much to my chagrin, yes you can hear those Harleys from five or six blocks away.
The next days journey took me from Monterey up to San Francisco through some really thick fog. Didn't plan on that and boy can that stuff make you slow down as you can't see where your going or for that matter the amount of moisture that accumulates on your helmet visor in just a half a minutes' time.
Got up to San Francisco and the fog was giving way to wonderful sunshine and the drive across the Golden Gate Bridge was mainly made in the wonderful warmth of the sun.
Got a couple of nice photos of the fog obscurring some of the bridge and most of San Francisco.
Went back across the Golden Gate, then the Oakland Bay Bridge and south to Dubln, then east to Yosemite.
Stayed in Yosemite for another couple of days and just took in the natural beauty of the area, Half Dome, El Capitan, Merced river, Bridalveil falls, Glacier Point and again was able to catch a couple of nice photos. The roads are twisting and great for motorcyclists, but be careful as there are numerous sections where there is lose gravel or sand in the roadway and since winter conditions are there for so long during the year, some of the roadway can be quite rough.
Left Yosemite Valley and traversed across the whole Yosemite Park to the east side and on towards Utah taking in all the wonderful scenery of high mountain lakes, bubbling streams, high mountain valleys, pine trees, giving way to arid high mountain areas (didn't know that Mono Lake was 8,000 feet up...always thought it was in a low desert area.
The area east of Mono Lake was different as the road was a whole bunch of quick rises and drops so that if your going anywhere north of 60-65, you definitely get a roller coaster ride and some of them you feel as though the FJR has caught a little air or compressed the suspension a good amount as you get to the troughs.
Just an FYI, Nevada is a deslolate and lonely area up here and there are sections of highway six that have no sevices or humanity for 73 or so miles or greater between Tonopah and Ely. Get gas at both places and don't take any chances.
From Delta, Utah I continued east through some nice hills and eventually connected up to I-70 into Colorado. There are some really neat rock formations near and around Green River, UT. on I-70.
Then I turned off I-70 and headed south on Colorado 141.
This is a little secret that Tony O. of Sportscenter Yamaha in Texarkana clued me in on. This is a without a doubt one of the best motorcycle and scenic routes you could ride on. Sometimes you feel as though you are in the Grand Canyon as those walls rise up on either side of you...the road doesn't have straight section in it and just winds for mile after mile following a stream. In other sections you feel as though you are getting towards the top of the world.
In the middle of nowhere you come upon a town by the name of Gateway that has a wonderful little 50's type diner that is motorcycle friendly. In fact the owner of the the diner also has an auto and motorcycle museum adjacent to the diner. The burgers are great and the pies are fantastic.
I eventually reached Ridgeway, CO and headed south towards Ouray and Silverton, Red Mountain Pass, Million Dollar Highway and Molas Pass that so many of us motorcyclists have enjoyed over the years and added to our much visited list of roads.
Stayed in Durango, which is another motorcycle friendly town. Had a wonderful meal at Randy's where you can get a wonderful "uptown" meal from duck to steak to seafood. I even had the same waitress wait upon me that served me last year and she is definitely one of the best, friendly and efficent food service persons to work in the restaurant business. What's really scary is she remembered me from last year!
From Durango it was south and east through Pagosa Springs, Chama, and Taos, New Mexico. Talk about some neat motorcycle roads!
The final leg home from Tucumcari to DFW was kind of ho hum again, but what made it thrilling was dodging all the rain storms and with a constant prayer I was able to get home without once having to don the hot stuffy rainsuit.
The FJR just soldiered on throughout everything. The only bad things or minor hiccups that happened was I lost a couple of small wheel weights on a rough road and the oil light came on unexpectedly in Nevada for a half a second and then turned itself off. I stopped and checked my oil sight window and I had a full compliment of oil, no leaks or loose drain plug, so I'll chalk that up to Gremlins.
Having a six and a half gallon tank is wonderful thing on the FJR, I found out I only have a two to two and one half hour bladder though. Reinforcing the stop ever two to two and a half hours is the fact that your face sheild becomes so darkened with bugs committing suicide on it that you can't see through all the dead bodies in two hours and you have to get to a gas station and wash all the junk off your face shield.
Throttlemeister is a wrist saver and can be fine tuned for hills! GPS more then once was a life saver but be careful if you put in towns as waypoints along the way as it will will try and get you to go to the town center before getting back on the intended road or interstate.
All in all, a wonderful trip, great sights, good photos, great meals, wonderful weather, no mechanical problems and no injuries even with my dozing off for a second in N.M.
