US MotoGP Day 15-16

Northern Utah

Starbucks coffee shops are great when you really need Internet. Very pricey but cheaper than a hotel room. Usually we could update the blog from our hotel, but sometimes I had to find alternatives like Starbucks. Of course, most of the places we rode didn’t have those overpriced coffee houses around.

The trip across northern Utah was not nearly as scenic as Southern Utah. In fact, it wasn’t a lot better than Nevada. A bit cooler in spots but straight flat roads and still plenty of heat and boring highway.

That night we finally made it way after dark to Grand Junction CO. The last 150 miles was at dusk or later, riding through open rangeland and over mountain passes teeming with deer, cows, and antelope. There were plenty around, and even a few that met an untimely fate on the front of a Ford truck bumper.

Colorado

Our hotel in Grand Junction was right on the highway. Luckily we were able to pull the bikes into the hotel room for protection. CBR’s are much more popular with the thieves than Harley’s or Goldwings. The next morning we had to sneek out with cleaning ladies all around. I don’t think they spoke English so couldn’t complain to us too much.

Our last day’s good ride was all through Colorado, including Lake City and Creed, Wolf Creek Pass and then down to Taos for the night. I used to think Colorado had great roads, but compared to California they were just OK. The quick handling CBR straightens out any twisty road with aplomb.

Once again we were arriving after dark at our destination after 500 miles of hard riding. As we approached the pass near Las Piedras, NM the rain we had been avoiding most of our trip finally arrived. Donning rain gear, we pointed the CBR’s east into the downpour. The summit was at 10,500 feet and it got very cold and wet there. Crawling along at 50 mph in the drenching rain, Adam and I both thought “déjà vu” in that we had done this same pass in the same rain 2 years ago. It took nearly two hours of riding in the cold wet rain to finally arrive in Taos well after dark, our face shields fogging an dripping from the rain, headlights glaring from passing cars, our bodies tense and tired from the long wet cold ride. Luckily we found a room at a nice hotel with a hot tub. A cold beer in the hot tub soaked our pain away. Ahhh.

HOME

Next morning we launched out of Taos for home. I used to really love the road between Toas, over to Angel Fire and to Cimarron, but some knuckleheaded road maintenance supervisor had decided to put chip seal in all the twisty corners. Man, that stuff sucks for sport bikes or motorcycles of any kind. Composed of an oily tar-like substance mixed with loose gravel, the presence of this stuff makes any rider grimace. Forced to slow down, the roads were not nearly as fun as in past trips to the area.

Dropping out of the mountains we were faced with the long hot boring ride home. Speed and a good radar detector helps, but rolling into Amarillo after a 100 mile high speed run down the Interstate, our tires looked like they were on their last legs. Rubber was bubbling up and peeling off the rear, blisters down the middle, I was really worried about making it home. Since it was 4:00 pm on Saturday we couldn’t get a bike shop to put tires on before the weekend. Faced with three days in Amarillo or a slow ride home, we decided lower the speed to a pedestrian 70 mph and stop every 50 miles to baby our tires with cool wet water. This seemed to do the trick as we finally arrived home around 10:00 pm Saturday night, tired and glad to be home.

Final result – 16 days of hard fast riding, 5,600 miles, two sets of sticky tires, and lots of fun.