Advertisement
Published: August 15th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Get Together Dinner
This maybe the last time we are all together? Here I am in New Mexico, the 'Abandoned One' hiding from a thunder storm in a $40 motel. So here is an update of how I got here and where the others are....
When I arrived at Los Angeles, after a week in Sturgis, all the lads were there, chaffing at the bit to get their bikes. We had a great Chinese dinner in a restaurant attached to our hotel and sorted out our strategy for the next day.
We all got to breakfast pretty early, so at 8.30 am we jumped in a couple of taxi vans and off to get our bikes.
Dave and I went to the office, meet the people looking after our shipment and then the long walk around to the other side of the facility. It was not long before the first of the bikes arrived and then it was all go to get the wheels on, load them up, check tyre pressures and in Strings case put some fuel in.
We were in fact all ready to go by 11.00am.
I must thank Greg, from Mondiale, as he did a superb job with the shipping, and at the point of
Getting bikes ready
Bugsy and Dave assembling their bikes... pick, they must have realised that we had signed so many papers, there were no blank spaces left, so we just got on our way. Great job, well done Greg.
Bryan, Keith, Robin Hood and his merry man (TT) headed off directly from the warehouse, while String, Bugsy, Dave and I headed back to our hotel, hoping to catch up with Tony, who was flying in from Rapid City.
Today I gained a bit of respect for a GPS, as if Dave had not bought his along, I am sure we would still be riding around the maze of LA’s, freeway system and would never find our hotel.
We were all packed and ready to go by 1.45pm, but there was no sign of Tony, he had checked in, but gone out again, so we waited until 2.00pm, left him a note and headed out towards Riverside, as we had to go to Ezup as they were kind enough to send our tyres onto Friendsville for us.
Darbi are NZ agents for Ezup in NZ, and String is pretty much the Ezup man about town. So after some cold water, and the photo shoot, a quick farewell
More action
Rosco getting ready cuddle and we were on our way outa town.
We made it through the rush/normal traffic as far as Barstow where we got ourselves a cheep room for the night and a repack of our stuff.
We carried our spare Continental TKC 80 tyres on our bikes to the Ezup Factory, well most of us did, as String had a small problem when his spare front tyre slipped down over the exhaust and burn a hole right through the side wall, not a very good strategy I thought as it would not now hold any air, he is a bit of a worry sometimes, that lad....
The next day (night) we made it to Sedona around 8.30pm, to late and too dark for camping, so again took a motel room.
The next morning, String, Bugsy and Dave rode off north towards Flagstaff and Route 40 towards Tennessee and I took the roads lest traveled eastwards across Arizona, towards New Mexico.
Now here I am sitting at a BBQ table at Lake Greer in Arizona, my tent is up and there is distant thunder and darkening skies.
Lucky I stopped at a road side stall that was
A helping hand
Bryan and Keith working together selling beef jerky earlier in the day, so now I have had that for my diner along with a bar of chocolate for desert, all washed down with cold water from my thermos.
When it got dark I went to bed and around 5.30 am daylight filtered through the trees, so I got up, packed up and hit the road by 6.30, looking for something for breakfast. I found that in Springerville, just outside Egar.
After a leisurely ride into New Mexico and threatening sky's, by 11.00 I had found this room........
Cheers for now,
Rosco
Below is an update from the XR Boys, Robin Hood and his merry man TT......
Howdi ya all,
Just wondering how everyone is travelling... sore butts all round, Interstate that just keeps rolling out in front of you?
TT and I have just completed our first day on the TAT, which was fab.
The XRs having been popping along okay.
Southern Colorado is very picturesque.
We made a detour off the trail today from Westcliffe to do the Cripple Creek circurt.
We are at a Super 8 in Canon City tonight.
After saying adios amigos at the
Dave's 800 GS
All loaded and ready to go. Warehouse in Cal. we rode through to Kingman on Route 66 that night.
The next day onto Trinidad, Southern Colorado, the starting point of the trail for us.
No major mishaps to speak of to date... only TT having his $500 video camera rattle off his helmet on the I40 (did anyone by chance pick it up, somewhere between Barstow and Kingman?).
My rear tire shred quite a few knobs off itself and was totally munted by the time we rocked into Trinidad last night. ( I hear that Keith also needed a new tyre by the time he got to New Mexico!!- Rosco)
I guess all in all... just par for course ‘on the road’.
For you information, Valcom Motorcycles in Trinidad is a great place to stop.
We put new tires on our rears there this morning (Dunlop 606, apparently what most people are using on the trail), plus changed our engine oil (the guys at Valcom, Michael and Edgar, allowed us to use their workshop to do this).
Michael even allowed me to borrow his Ducati to ride into town to do a coffee run (don’t count on that happening again).
If anyone wishes to use their services, they are only a mile out of Trinidad, on the right on the TAT route.
Closed Sunday and Monday, Tel. 719 846 9446.
Trust everyone is having fun and enjoying the US!
Hasta la vista lads!
The XR boys.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.212s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 22; qc: 91; dbt: 0.1368s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Gerardo Otzen
non-member comment
Now I am not the only one with trouble with the exhaust, you must remember last time in Patagonia with my bag, un abrazo