Goodman4
Pressing on
I planned this trip exactly a year after our wreck in May of 2022 where I totalled the Goldwing. My wife's right arm is over 90% recovered and her left wrist is in good shape again. She still can't move her ring and pinky fingers and they don't think she'll get those back. She's still not been back on the bike with me. I think it's < 50% that she will ride at all and almost nil that we'll do long trips together like we did for so many years. We put well over 60,000 miles together and it's hard to move past that season of my life.
My nephew rides a Super Tenere 1200 and we have ridden Arkansas and North Carolina together. He's never been west of Denver except flying to the west coast, so when he said he was up for a trip for a full week, I started scheming how to get him to Moab and 550 at a minimum. I rode the FJR to his home in Springfield, MO and to save time, we trailered the bikes from Springfield to Durango CO where the trip really began.
On the way to Springfield I had a problem from 3 years ago come back where after an hour of riding it stutters at about 70 mph. I've got a thread going on that problem which I think is TPS related, so comment there if you have opinions, but I mention it here because having it occasionally try to buck me off the bike was one of four fun challenges I had on the FJR this trip.
All the other problems occurred in Durango before we got started. First, I noticed some fork oil at the TOP of the forks so I thought I had screwed up the forks with the tie down being too far over on the dial of the front shock adjustment. Thankfully the suspension still felt great and after wiping it off, it didn't leak anymore. I was much more careful on the return trip. The second issue was when I went to put the topcase on, I saw the plastic was busted. I went to autozone and got some good glue and patched it up. It seems to have held really well but I plan on taking it all apart next week and brace it better. The last issue just about did me in. When we got ready to leave, I couldn't get the key to unlock the bike from the locked position. I had brought a spare key and that didn't help. I fought it for a long time and even had some BMW guys in the motel that were packing up help to no avail. They had some lithium grease which also didn't help. We had all given up when my nephew magically got it to turn. We drove straight back to autozone and got some silicone spray but never had to use it. I didn't lock it the whole trip and haven't even tried yet.
Fortunately the trip got better from that point.
From Durango we rode through a little of NM and saw Shiprock from a distance. Made it to Page for the first stop and went down to Horseshoe Bend, the dam, and the Wahweap overlook of Lake Powell. The lake is depressingly low. I read in the news that they might keep it drained.
I didn't remember enjoying 89 and 89A as much as we did this trip. It was very early in the morning and no traffic in sight, so I might have had a little extra fun with the FJR. My nephew kept up pretty well, but he said it was as fast as he's ever been.
Navaho Bridge on 89A
This was my 2nd time to the North Rim and it is so much more relaxed than the South Rim. There's more to do at the South Rim, but on a bike the North Rim is by far the better choice. I saw it this time early in the trip so I enjoyed it more this time.
We drove back to Page and stopped for the night. My nephew was tired but I went out for more views of the dam. I like Page quite a bit. We left for Moab via Monument Valley and Moki Dugway.
We didn't know what Lees Ferry was so we drove back and investigated. It was a nice road back to the only decent access point to the Colorado River before the Grand Canyon. My nephew had to get his tires in the Colorado River.
Agathla peak was very impressive and I have no memories or pictures of it from our previous trip. I'm guessing they didn't build it since we were there in 2015, though.
I saw Monument Valley in 2015 going SW and I think that's much better because going NE the view behind is better. But there was not much traffic so we stopped and got some pics.
To be continued...
My nephew rides a Super Tenere 1200 and we have ridden Arkansas and North Carolina together. He's never been west of Denver except flying to the west coast, so when he said he was up for a trip for a full week, I started scheming how to get him to Moab and 550 at a minimum. I rode the FJR to his home in Springfield, MO and to save time, we trailered the bikes from Springfield to Durango CO where the trip really began.
On the way to Springfield I had a problem from 3 years ago come back where after an hour of riding it stutters at about 70 mph. I've got a thread going on that problem which I think is TPS related, so comment there if you have opinions, but I mention it here because having it occasionally try to buck me off the bike was one of four fun challenges I had on the FJR this trip.
All the other problems occurred in Durango before we got started. First, I noticed some fork oil at the TOP of the forks so I thought I had screwed up the forks with the tie down being too far over on the dial of the front shock adjustment. Thankfully the suspension still felt great and after wiping it off, it didn't leak anymore. I was much more careful on the return trip. The second issue was when I went to put the topcase on, I saw the plastic was busted. I went to autozone and got some good glue and patched it up. It seems to have held really well but I plan on taking it all apart next week and brace it better. The last issue just about did me in. When we got ready to leave, I couldn't get the key to unlock the bike from the locked position. I had brought a spare key and that didn't help. I fought it for a long time and even had some BMW guys in the motel that were packing up help to no avail. They had some lithium grease which also didn't help. We had all given up when my nephew magically got it to turn. We drove straight back to autozone and got some silicone spray but never had to use it. I didn't lock it the whole trip and haven't even tried yet.
Fortunately the trip got better from that point.
From Durango we rode through a little of NM and saw Shiprock from a distance. Made it to Page for the first stop and went down to Horseshoe Bend, the dam, and the Wahweap overlook of Lake Powell. The lake is depressingly low. I read in the news that they might keep it drained.
I didn't remember enjoying 89 and 89A as much as we did this trip. It was very early in the morning and no traffic in sight, so I might have had a little extra fun with the FJR. My nephew kept up pretty well, but he said it was as fast as he's ever been.
Navaho Bridge on 89A
This was my 2nd time to the North Rim and it is so much more relaxed than the South Rim. There's more to do at the South Rim, but on a bike the North Rim is by far the better choice. I saw it this time early in the trip so I enjoyed it more this time.
We drove back to Page and stopped for the night. My nephew was tired but I went out for more views of the dam. I like Page quite a bit. We left for Moab via Monument Valley and Moki Dugway.
We didn't know what Lees Ferry was so we drove back and investigated. It was a nice road back to the only decent access point to the Colorado River before the Grand Canyon. My nephew had to get his tires in the Colorado River.
Agathla peak was very impressive and I have no memories or pictures of it from our previous trip. I'm guessing they didn't build it since we were there in 2015, though.
I saw Monument Valley in 2015 going SW and I think that's much better because going NE the view behind is better. But there was not much traffic so we stopped and got some pics.
To be continued...
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