Another Beautiful Day in AZ

[Backmarker]

Well, since y'all are washing away right now, I rode for you. Just a quick ride up the Beeline Hwy near Payson and back down. There was a lot of traffic with everyone coming back into PHX and tons of trucks pulling trailers with quads and dirt bikes. I rode with my friends Paul and Mush. Paul has the Triumph Sprint ST and Mush has the SV1000. It started out cold, y'know, about 50 degrees, then it finally warmed up to a scorching 75. Whew. Sorry I had that extra layer on later! We didn't stop much for photos. Only got a couple, but you can still see the sunshine. Feel free to hate me.

[the mad otter]

Envy??? perhaps. Jealousy??? for sure. Hatred??? Nah, not a chance. Just Love baby...just love!!!

[gidget]

You are right about washing away , ( in a lot of places ) > thanks for the dry look in some pictures. I aborted an attempt to go to Eldorado National Forest Sunday, but decided to abort and let the rain and wind chase me home over HWY 26 and 4. It won't rain forever, and for now I just can dream about dry roads like the ones in your pictures. Another issue, I hear Southern Calif is really in for it with rain comming, that will not affect you where you live in AZ will it? The news is saying Southern California will get it worse than Northern Calif. ?? Hope that is not the case!! Max

[Papa-Ken]

Hi Renee, glad you are able to get out and ride. Looks great viewing the sunshine. Thanks for the posts.........Ken

[VFR2X]

Dang makes me long for the good weather Hey nice ride, Tell me more about how you like it? I'm thinking about one of those.

[Loki]

Benchmarker:I might be wrong, but in the photo your Aprilia looks like it was lowered.

[Stretch]

Yeah it's a bit wet here in Los Angeles. Was thinking about a ride out to AZ. A bud has friends in Phx area. Any thoughts on where to hang and ride in the area? We do the usual SoCal rides of Ortega, Hwy 2, Santa Monica Mtns so am looking for roads like that. Plus, other than taking 10 all the way from LA, what might be an interesting way to go? Riding VFR and BMW GS.

--Jim

[pashnit]

That's great Renee - thanks for posting these- 75 in Dec/Jan? Not bad

[Backmarker]

Max- It was supposed to rain here last night. 10% chance. Which equals fat chance. I wish we would get a little rain and wash the crap out of the air. It's nasty right now. Not as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago, but we still have the brown cloud. Even a little rain would help that out a bunch.

Ken- I know it's not anything like your rides and reports but... I do what I can.

Jay- I love my Mille. I could've got a better deal on an '03 but I didn't dig the styling so much. This one however, it really float my boat! The riding position doesn't bother me but some don't like it leaned over so much. I can ride pretty much all day. The seat to me is comfortable and firm/supportive, unlike my old ZX-6R. It was too squishy. Got uncomfy after a couple of hours. It handles excellent and the brakes are amazing. This is the first V-Twin I've ever had and I love the power band. Just roll on and it GOES. Very linear in its delivery. My only complaints and I've worked with my dealer to fix them are the clutch and rear master cylinder. The rear brake would go away after just a couple hundred miles and it would have to be bled. Which of course requires fairing removal, etc. They just did a new fix (Brembo finally admitted to an issue on the Aprilias and Ducatis) and it's been a while and no more problem. The new cylinder is sitting at about a 45 deg angle and it seems to keep air from getting in and causing the brake to go away. The front has never had a problem. The clutch has a little issue that the seal under the reservior gets a bit of air and then has to be bled every few thousand miles. It's not a big deal to do, just a bummer when you're on vacation. Other than that, I love this bike and plan on hanging on to it for a long time. I got it new in March of '04 and I have almost 11k miles on it now. Not a lot compared to most on this site but considering I had my 6R for almost 10 years and had just over 10k on it when I sold it...

Loki/Jim- Yep. It's been lowered. We've cranked it down as far as it will go since I'm short sh*t and have trouble touching. I'm still tippy toed on it and I HATE stopping in the dirt because of that. Also on any sort of hill that I have to back up. Not gonna happen. The garage is tough enough. I've even had trouble hoisting it up and over on a side hill! It's embarassing but I've got over it.

Stretch/Jim- An interesting way to get from LA to PHX? Hmmm, good question. For me, I'd just slab it and hurry. The speed limit is 75 so doing 85 isn't an issue. If you don't you get run over! Once here, if the weather is like this past weekend (Sweet!) there's the standard stuff. Yarnell Hill up to Prescott. Then out thru Mingus Mtn to Jerome. Down to Sedona and thru Oak Creek Cyn to Flag. From Flag you can do Lake Mary Rd to Clints Well and then down to Payson. From Payson if it's not too cold, you can go up to Salt River Canyon and down to Globe. In Globe you can do the Winkleman Loop. Locally in PHX there's the road out to Tortilla Flat but don't stop at the restaurant. Keep going until the pavement ends. Then you can turn around and go back to the restaurant but I think the one at Saguaro Lake is better. That's a nice little run too. And the run out to Bartlett Lake. Nothing too spectacular but nice. Most of the local stuff isn't tight twisty (Canyon Lake/Tortilla Flat is) but nice mild twists and turns that are just enough to keep you interested. I'm not sure what's down in Tucson. Maybe SlowandEasy can help out there. If you do come out this way, let me know, I'd be glad to tag-a-long. As sweep of course.

[z_bassman]

Originally Posted by Backmarker

...I wish we would get a little rain and wash the crap out of the air. It's nasty right now. Not as bad as it was a couple of weeks ago, but we still have the brown cloud. Even a little rain would help that out a bunch...

And there is the good news. It's finally stopped raining here and the air is cleaner than I've seen it in years! *dances*