I tried to post this 1900 mile Utah/Arizona/New Mexico/Colorado ride awhile back, but had some issues (operator error), and due to the recent move I totally spaced it out until came across the “blank” space while I was browsing through Trip Reports. So, sometime when it's snowing and miserable outside, you can read this and think of sunny warm riding days!
I've always wanted to ride the famous “Tail of the Dragon” and will someday. But then I started hearing about the Arizona version, HWY 191 that runs along the Arizona/New Mexico border and figured that might have to do till I could get to the real deal, and it did not disappoint. HWY 191 actually runs pretty much north and south across the whole U.S., in fact it passes just a couple of miles from my house. The part we wanted to ride though was three hundred miles south, and although we'd planned on five days, it ended up being Nineteen hundred miles in six days, due a scary unforeseen incident I'll describe when we get there.
We started planning the trip a few weeks before it actually happened, and I'd expected there to be four bikes, sort of a guys trip, but got a little surprise when Tom showed up at my house with his wife perched on the back of his ST1300. Changes things a little bit when a gal comes along, I mean ya can't just pull over and go...if you know what I mean, you have to be a little more discreet, but Tom's riding buddy backed out at the last moment so he decided to take Tremaine along. I wasn't sure how that would work on a "guys trip", but it turned out that was ok, as we'd planned on two guys to a room when it came to motels. So with Tom's wife along, it put us back at four, and being the gentlemen that we were, we let Tom bunk with his wife.
So there were four of us on three bikes. I'd ridden Trials bikes some with Tom, back in the day, and had taken a fall leaf ride with Henry on his Kawasaki C14 Concours, but this was would be the first time we'd ever really “ridden” together, which can be a concern and I had no idea what to expect with Tremaine riding on the back of Tom's ST. Fortunately that turned out to not be a problem, as I think she could ride on the back of his ST for just as long as he could stand to herd it around. My other concern was my '94 ST1100. I'd originally planned on taking this trip on my '85 V65 Honda Sabre that I'd ridden for the past twenty years, but when I stumbled onto this low mileage ST, I decided to take the plunge for a "new" bike which I picked up just two weeks before our departure date!
So me on my ST1100, Tom on his ST1300 with his wife Tremaine and Henry on his C14 Concours headed out Monday morning from southern Utah, for Arizona's “Tail of the Lizard”. Had we left the week before, or the week after, the weather would have been cold and wet, but we lucked out and that first week of May was perfect.
Heading south we headed crossed the Arizona strip through Fredonia, Arizona, climbed up through Jacobs Lake (don't ever plan on boating or swimming there as there's no lake) and then down to Marble Canyon.
Can you imagine living in a place like this? These "ruins" have been there for as long as I can remember.
For those of you not familiar with Utah and Arizona, there an awful lot of nothin' out there, which is a good thing, cause there's ton's great roads that go through that “nothing” and also not a lot of traffic. The scenery however is everywhere and it's spectacular. One bad thing is that there is just no easy way to get from Utah to Arizona as somewhere out there you have to cross that big crack in the world, which we did at Lee's Ferry, named after my great great great Grand Dad, John D. Lee, who ran Lee's Ferry across the Colorado river there in the 1800's (there's a fascinating old west story about Grand Dad John D. Lee. and what is known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre. Google it sometime. It's a horribly fascinating story of the old west).
Once across the Grand Canyon at Grand Dad's Ferry it's southbound on roads that go on forever and ever disappearing far off into the distance as we rode across the Navajo reservation. Those are some seriously hardy folks that choose to stay and live on the rez out in literally "the middle of nowhere". I'm not sure I understand it, but to each their own.
Not wanting to ride any the “main roads”, unless we wanted to, we rode the “back roads” to Tuba City. Riding the back roads also means that out there, if things go bad, nobody's going to know it till the buzzards start circling and we saw lots of buzzards, hoping things went their way. Those back roads cross an awful lot of desolate, but beautiful country in getting from here to there.
Arriving safely in Tuba City, we stopped for gas and a snack break where met an super friendly Native American fellow named Leroy who took a real interest in our bikes. Leroy claimed to be a Navajo mechanic, of which he was quite proud and being an expert on motorcycles he informed us that my ST1100 was the fastest of the three bikes and would easily outrun both Tom's ST1300 and Henry's 1400cc C14. I decided it probably wouldn't be worth it to try to tell him the facts of life, as Leroy was pretty well lubricated and we liked him being friendly. It's unfortunate, but that's also something you see a lot on the Rez, and it was pretty early in the day yet!
Saying so long to Leroy, after a long and strung out series of “biker only handshakes” that he gave to each of us, we departed Tuba City for another "back way”, hoping to get to Winslow, AZ, so instead of continuing south to Flagstaff and then taking I-40, out of Tuba city we took, HWY 264 and then 87 which heads straight south, with the road often disappearing off in the distance as far as you can see.
Fortunately, avoiding lots of hungry buzzards, we finally managed to actually end up where we were planning on spending the first night and could be found "Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona, what a fine sight to see!" Made famous by that single line from the Eagles song "Take it Easy." They have quite a memorial to that song and the Eagles in down town Winslow on Route 66 where you can stand and “see the girl my lord, in a Flat bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me” reflected in the window.
In addition to the original “Standing on the corner statue” which I'm assuming is an early Glen Fry as it can't be Don Henley (no drums). There's a new (more recent?) statue of Glen Fry, added after his death a few months ago. It was a sad moment for me. That corner in Winslow, Arizona on Route 66 is probably one of the few places on earth where you can hear the Eagles playing, 24/7.
After a night at the Winslow Motel 6 (hey we just wanted a bed and a shower) we loaded up and continued south. Still trying to find the "cool back roads”, we should have taken HWY 87 south, but thinking that we had found an even "cooler back road”, we took HWY 99 which was a beautiful road through the majestic ponderosa pines... for twenty-five miles, then suddenly the pavement turned to dirt. Now what? These ST's and that big C14 are not “adventure” bikes, but being as how we were the adventurous types, and not wanting to backtrack some seventy plus miles, we pushed on, figuring (and hoping) that we only had fifteen or so miles of dirt. "Just give the bike it's head," I advised Henry who was holding on the the bars of his C14 with a death grip.
Henry wasn't excited about riding the C14 "adventure bike", but he was way excited when after about 22 miles of rocky dirt road, we finally hit the pavement again. I think we all were!
Man were those bikes dusty! First order of business...find a car wash!
After spending what felt like two weeks on that dirt road during those two hours, we hit the pavement again on HWY 260 and headed for Springerville where we would finally arrive on the north end of HWY 191 and the Tail of the Lizard. Riding through Showlow we spotted a nice herd of Elk in the meadow by the road. Elk are one thing you really want to watch out for in northern Arizona as they have a lot of them there, big as horses, and not something that you don't want to meet up close and personal at 65 mph!
Finally we hit HWY 191 where it runs north/south along the Arizona/New Mexico border. What a road! 117 miles of twists and hairpin turns. Looking back now, I wish we'd taken time to really enjoy the ride past Winslow and I did really enjoy it, but was probably riding a little faster than I should. I wish I'd taken the time to soak in the scenery, but in the immortal words of Chris Ledoux, "That little long haired out law was in control," as at times we were feeling the "Need for Speed".
Now the Tail of the Lizard is not a road where you should decide to test your cornering skills, although you will be sorely tempted to as that 100+ miles of twists and hairpin turns beg for it. But...if something goes wrong, it can get ugly in a hurry out there in the middle of nowhere. Remember the buzzards?
We had stopped for a break and I had been discussing the art of counter steering, keeping your head perpendicular to the road to avoid vertigo and such with Henry, who had never really taken a trip like this before. Compared to me and Tom, Henry was relatively new at this cross country ride thing. So we took off again with Tom and Tremaine riding point, Henry in the middle and me bringing up our six.
We'd just swung through a left hand switchback and Henry was just starting to lean into the next right hand hair pin, when suddenly he wasn't leaning anymore. We still don't know why, but in the middle of that turn, he suddenly stood that Concours straight up... and rode it straight across the opposite lane and into the rocky left side wall. BANG! I was riding about fifteen yards behind him and saw and even HEARD it hit that bank! I couldn't believe it! I myself was leaning into the turn and had to slice by as I was committed and there are little to no shoulders on much of HWY 191. Not wanting to become a second victim should a car come around that blind turn, I had to ride about forty yards to the next corner before I could get the bike off the road, then ran back to find Henry just standing up behind the bike. That was a good sign...I hoped.
Henry has a few years experience, but wasn't real comfortable on the hairpin curves, plus that C14 is a big beast. He found out in a hurry how quickly things can go wrong when the rear tire on the C14 lost traction, spinning out (we think) when it hit the thick double yellow painted lines on the road. Instantly he panicked and stood the bike up, which means it was no longer leaned over and turning. Across the other lane and into the side hill he went. I have to tell you that riding close behind him and watching it up close was terrifying! The sound of the impact was worse! The good news was that he'd clamped on the binders and was only doing less than ten miles per hour or so when it hit the bank.
The bad news was that there was a stinking eighteen inch boulder sticking out of that bank he smacked that bank that really did a number on the left side of his fairing. After finding a place to get off the road, I parked my ST on the shoulder and ran back to where Henry was just standing up. I expected the worst, but was more than thankful when we determined that he didn't have a scratch on him, just lots of dirt and dust. Thank heavens for a helmet, good jacket and padded nylon riding pants.
After we figured out that Henry was ok, we stood the bike up and took stock of his wounded horse, hoping no traffic would come around that blind corner. In the fall, the left saddle bag and trunk were cleaned off the bike and were laying in the dirt behind the bike. Amazingly both were still intact, though scuffed up. Amazingly the reattached right up to his bike, then we pushed the bike over to where my ST was parked to get it out of the road (fortunately no cars came by, just two Harleys who didn't even wave as they rode past what was obviously a bike accident. I'm starting to see a pattern here.)
It looked worse than it was as the fairing lower on the left side was pretty much gone, but other than the scuffs and scratches on the engine cases, the bike seemed to be undamaged. The C14 has this funky key fob ignition thing that will go into lock down if it's layed over so the EFI doesn't continue to pump fuel into a fire situation, so it took a few seconds to get it to reset, and both of us finally breathed again when it finally fired up.
Henry was ok (which was 99.9% of the equation) and the bike was whole, pretty much, and running, so we were thankful to the riding Gods who must have been keeping watch over us. It could have been a whole lot worse. With Henry ok, and the bike running, we limped off again on the Lizard, meeting Tom and Tremaine a few turns later, who had turned around when they realized we weren't still coming. Quickly we retold the tale to them, then a lot more slowly, we pressed on. Remember when I said that HWY 191 was a long ways from nowhere? We were all thinking about that real hard now.
So with one bird in our squadron a little shot up, we continued on towards Lordsburg, NM which was the destination for the night. A lot of the day was gone, and it was already late afternoon, with quite a few miles left to go before we would get "to somewhere".
Just before you get to Morencia, AZ, which is at the end of HWY191, you get to ride right through the middle of a gigantic open pit copper mine. The road seriously goes right down through the middle of this thing. At times you may have to even stop as half a dozen of the biggest trucks you've ever seen lumber across the road at specific crossings. There is a great look out/rest area where you can stop and really get an idea of how massive that mine is. One of the ore hauling truck tires mounted there make the tires on the ST look like toys.
It was in this overlook that we realized the radiator on the C14 was leaking. Something, maybe a piece of plastic from the fairing had poked a pin sized hole in the center bottom of the radiator as there was a tiny geyser of antifreeze spewing from that pin hole. Now what to do? We were still 75 miles from Lordsburg and it was starting to get late. The shadows were getting long and we had no choice but to continue on, hoping to find some help in Morencia just a few miles down the road.
We stopped for half a moment in Morencia before determining there was nothing there that could help us. There's not much there at all with everything closed up with everyone working at the mine, so we we assessed the situation and determined that Tom and his wife should press on and secure our rooms, while Henry and I nursed the C14 along, stopping occasionally to ensure it had water in the reservoir and didn't go dry. Quickly it grew dark and I discovered a couple of the bulbs on my dash were out on the tach side. No big deal as the head light worked great. Especially after I discovered it was shining up into the sky and used that handy adjusting knob to bring it back down to the road. Even with the wounded bird we flew right along and wound up arriving at the Super 8 in Lordsburg only about three minutes after Tom and Tremaine.
If you've ever been to Lordsburg recently you'll understand the meaning of "not much there". Oh they do have the mine in Morencia, where everyone works, and even the Kawasaki shop owner had closed up shop to go work in the mine, so we called it a night and ate dinner at Denny's where I discovered they make a pretty good steak.
When Wednesday morning came, we were able to go over the C14 trying to determine what was damaged and if we could repair it as Henry really wanted to finish the trip and we wanted him to also. None of us wanted to have to truck the bike home.
Other than plastic damage and the radiator leak, it actually looked pretty good, considering it had just been ridden into a mountain side. The fan was rubbing on the radiator, so we had to take off all the plastic (unfun) and unbolt the radiator to free it up to get some clearance and were able to do so, and it quit screeching.
Now Henry and I are about as shade tree as mechanics you can get. He's been working on cars his whole life and I have been doing the same on motorcycles ever since I disassembled that brand new 1970 Hodaka to paint the frame black. After all, none of my buddies had bright red frames on their bikes! Even though my folks were not happy about it, that episode put me on the path of being able to fix about anything, so after locating a stick of JB weld that would harden under water at the local NAPA (thank heavens for NAPA and for someone not working at the mine!), I cut off a wad, kneaded it together and worked it into the radiator fins making about silver dollar sized plug. We let it harden for couple of hours then filled it up with antifreeze and fired it up for a test run. No leaks! Man, that stuff is great! Held just fine for the next twelve hundred miles!
Just after noon we were able to once again head out, riding up through the Mogollon range made famous by Zane Grey and Louis L'amour in dozens of great western tales and headed towards Grants where we planned to stay the night. Again, you have to ride this part of the county to appreciate the meaning of "there's a lot of nothing out there" cause there is, or isn't depending on how you look at it!
One high spot of this days ride, other than the Concours motoring along just fine, was the ride though the El Malpais National Concervation Area. Beautiful rock walls line that road and I was pretty sure those were falcons winging up there in the tops of those lofty spires.
The next morning we departed Grants, continued north, which was another thing I was looking forward to on this trip as I grew up in northern New Mexico. Pulling into Cuba, we discovered that we weren't quite through working on the C14. In the parking lot of the convenience store where we stopped for snacks and gas, we realized the lower radiator hose on the left side had a small cut and it's own small geyser was erupting onto the pavement. It hadn't leaked till then, go figure! But luck was with us again. Literally, across the street, was another NAPA auto parts! How convenient is that? Three bucks later we had a length of heater hose that bolted up nicely, but again we had to remove most of the fairing to get at the radiator cap so we could refill the radiator with antifreeze. I've decided this is something that needs to be addressed on all these tupperware bikes. There needs to be access to stuff without having to disassemble the entire bike!
Northern New Mexico, my old stomping grounds, has some spectacular rides and HWY 64 from Tierra Amarilla to Tres Piedres is one of them, although in the first week of May and at over 10,000 feet, there is still five feet of snow in the meadows. But the pavement was dry even though the leaves on the aspens were still weeks away from appearing. Still it's a great ride. Just don't do any cattle rustling, for as the sign say, "We still do it the old way!"
Winding up in Antonito for the night, I was anticipating eating at one of my favorite restaurants, on the corner near the Cumbres Toltec Scenic Railroad station. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I could no longer get the sopapillias I had been so craving, but I could buy marijuana there as one of my favorite restaurants was now a pot dispensary! In fact, in that little tiny town of Antonito, Colorado, there are six of them. Six places where you can buy pot in Antonito, but there is no place where you can buy gas! All of the gas stations have closed. My, how things have changed!
Riding over LaManga and Cumbres passes between Antonito and Chama, NM is another of my favorite rides. Fabulous scenery with lots to see as again, you climb to over 10,000 feet on the road that winds along much of the path that the old narrow gauge Cumbres Toltec Scenic Railroad takes. As with HWY 64 there was still lots of snow up there up on Cumbres Pass.
They have used that train in lots of movies, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, Bite the Bullet and one of the Indiana Jones movies. Lots of the sets are still there on top of the pass.
Back in the old days, that train would haul lumber and cattle to Antonito. As kids we would hop one of the flat cars as it crept out of the station in Chama, ride it up to the top of the pass where we'd jump off and spend the day, then hop it again as it crept back over the top headed back to Chama. Another one of those things you don't tell your folks you're doing. Great fun, but really dangerous! Used to ride it for free back then. Now it costs about a hundred bucks to make the scenic ride!
Breakfast in Chama at Fosters Hotel and Cafe across from the train station in Chama, NM finally quenched my craving for sopapillas. I've eaten them there for almost fifty years. Best in town, or just about anywhere for that matter! Great for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
We were about three weeks early of when the train would start running again around Memorial day. After a quick ride around the small town where I spent my boyhood, we headed west on another spectacular ride towards Pagosa Springs, CO, then on to Durango, and Cortez where we plan to spend our last night. The temperature during the day is perfect for riding, mid 70s, and the roads are terrific as the summer tourist season has not really started yet, so traffic is light. A quick stop in Durango for ice cream where it is always tourist season, and we press on to Cortez.
Once past Chama, the trip became a ride towards home. We had one more great day of riding to Cortez where we again had motel reservations for the night. I guess I should mention here, that usually I don't do the motel thing. I like to camp and have spent hundreds of nights camped with my tent in some of the most beautiful places you'll ever find. I almost never have a destination in mind, just a direction. For me, it's all about the “in-betweens”. However...Tom, Tremaine and Henry are NOT campers. So every night we'd break out my iPad at the motel where we were staying, thank heavens for WIFI and hit the internet figuring where and how far we'd ride the next day, then we'd make "motel" reservations.
Wasn't as good as camping, but at least we didn't have the whole trip planned out for us, with places we “had” to be because of reservations that were made weeks before. I hate my bike being parked down in that parking lot!
We spent our last night together in Cortez. From there, Henry and I would head home, back across the gigantic Indian Reservations that cover this part of the county and Tom and Tremaine would head north towards their home in northern Utah.
Morning found us droning across the Navajo reservation back towards Tuba City, with a different plan to get across that big crack in the world than we did six days ago. But now the winds have begun to pick up, and we often find ourselves leaning hard into a cross wind. We stopped briefly at Page so Henry could see Lake Powell, still down seventy feet or so, as we crossed the bridge at the Glen Canyon dam.
Then we buck the wind towards Kanab where we turn north on HWY 89, another great ride, turning on HWY 14 at Long Valley Junction which will take us back to Cedar City where we started
North of Kanab, the wind really started howling, blowing the bikes all over the road, and often it's hard to stay in the lane when the wind gusts out of the draws. There's lots of snow on top of HWY 14 too and the road to Cedar Breaks National Monument is still closed and it won't be open till Memorial Day at the end of the month before they'll try to cut through the deep drifts to open the road.
At just after 3:00 pm we pull into Cedar City. We stop for a quick, “thanks for a great trip,” then head towards our homes. As I pulled into the driveway, my GPS turned 1900 miles (which is another thing I wish the ST had, two tripometers!)
A few days after we got home, Henry called to let me know he'd gotten the C14 to the dealer and the insurance adjuster had just gone over it. $6800 damage! Unreal! There was a lot more damage than we'd ever imagined! But Geico was taking good care of him, so he was happy. Needed a complete new fairing, new front wheel and rotors, front tire, radiator with mounts and hoses, fans, new fuel tank (had a small dent and they don't repair them, just replace), left side engine cover, and they were going to replace his Shoei helmet since it had a slight scar in it where it must have hit the bank. Amazingly, even though it was on the down side, the left side mirror didn't have a scratch! The front tire was wearing a little weird, but other than that, he said it rode just fine. He rode it damaged after the crash for over 1200 miles.
The front Michelin Pilot Road 3 on my ST still looks great. It's wearing even, and doesn't show much wear. The rear Continental is about shot. Maybe a few hundred miles left, but I have a new Metezler Z6 on order to replace it at which time I'll pull the swing arm and replace the stator o ring, hopefully fixing that oil leak.
It was a great trip though, one I've wanted to do for awhile. In the words of Henry,” Except for ten feet, it was the best bike trip I've ever taken in my life!”
I guess I should talk a little about the ST here. When I bought it, I was looking for a replacement a replacement for the 2003 C10 Concours I'd sold the fall before. Had a love/hate relation ship with that C10. Loved the fairing and the 7 gallon gas tank. Hated the buzzy motor that always put my fingers to sleep on my right hand no matter what I tried to do to correct the problem. Also hated the seat that always had me sliding forward against the gas tank, making me feel like I was riding on the nads. Plus compared to my '85 V65 Sabre, the C10 motor just didn't hack the program. I'd looked at FJRs, and C14's, but man are they big and expensive! My buddy Tom has an ST1300, and I almost pulled the trigger on a '06 model, but hesitated too long and it sold.
Then I found the '94 ST1100 with just over 15,000 miles on the clock. It had not been ridden much, mostly just moved around the garage a lot as they guy who owned it was a little vertically challenged, so it had some hanger rash on the bags and fairing, but nothing serious and most of it buffed out. I took it for a spin and everything worked and it ran like a top, so I gave him $2800, loaded it on the trailer and hauled it home.
The next two weeks, anticipating this ride, I went through it front to rear, changing every fluid on the bike. The rear Continental tire was almost new, but the front Dunlop was not, so I shoe horned a new Michelin Pilot Road 3 onto the front rim and took it out for it's first real test ride of 150 miles. Man the thing rode like a rock! What the Hell! There was no travel in the front end at all. I could feel every road snake! After maybe 3/4 inch the forks felt like they would hit bottom. So I nursed it home, and buried myself into the ST forums, learning about forks.
Now I've replaced the fork seals on dozens of Trials and dirt bikes, even my Sabre, and the ST's seals weren't leaking at all. Just no travel. So I drained the forks, yes, I just pulled the plugs on the bottom of the forks and didn't pull the forks off themselves. But I did tape some big gallon size baggies to each fork leg to catch the oil as I pumped out what I could, then let it drain for two days. Measuring it, I discovered the PO (or someone) had put 450cc into both legs! No wonder it hydro locked at less than an inch of travel. I have to wonder if this is maybe why he hadn't ridden it much as it rode like a rock!
After the drain and flushing with ATF, which I let drain again, I refilled the forks with 435cc 10wt in the left and 385cc 7wt in the right, built a new 1/2 inch longer PVC fork spacer for the left side and put them back together. Vilola! Complete travel! Plush and controlled. Maybe I'll put some progressive springs in it later, but now it rides great.
The ST motor is the same size as the 1100cc V4 on my Sabre, just turned 90 degrees and although it doesn't have the "Holy Sh&^" power that the V65 does, it is respectable. One time during the trip we came up on a gaggle of a dozen Harleys and their chase Camaro, all formed up, blocking the road for a quarter of a mile at 60 mph, so no one could pass. There was a line of cars boxed in behind them. You'd think those guys would have had enough sense to loosen up the formation if they weren't going to ride the speed limit, 65 mph, so cars could pass a few of them at a time when they got a chance, but they never do. So with Henry riding my six, I waited till I had a pretty long stretch of road with no on coming traffic, then we uncorked them. Now I know that ST will not even begin to run with that big C14 Kawasaki, but I did get it up to 120 mph in short order and how fast it did accelerate must have caught Henry by surprise, cause it took a few seconds for him to catch up after I turned it loose. But he did, as I knew he would and we left the gaggle of Harleys behind. Riding behind me, Henry said the ST sounded like a 327 Chevy Rat motor when I got on it.
The riding postion on the ST is great. Nice wide flat seat. The fairing, although not as wide as the one on the C10 Concours does a decent job of cutting the wind. It's quiet enough behind it that listening to my tunes through my ear buds is never a problem. Gotta say I love that 7 gallon gas tank and it being beneath the seat helps keep the weight low. It's good for 300 miles as I averaged 40-45 mpg during the trip. I was a little bummed about discovering the fake fuel tank was plastic and not steel. My magnetic tank bag won't stay on the ST. Going to have to order a strap on model.
Bike loves to run. 80 mph is loafing along for it. We kept trying to trade bikes, so Tom and I could compare the ST1100 to his ST1300, but it just never worked out, especially after the C14 misadventure.
The one thing that did bother me the whole trip was a slight oil leak coming from the back of the motor near the alternator leaving a few drops puddle every morning. After researching the ST forums I've determined it is the stator o ring. Seems that most of them do that, but in 1900 miles it never leaked enough to be noticable as I checked the Shell Rotella 5/40 oil level every morning. I could smell the oil on the exhaust when I first started the bike up in the morning though. Something I'll have to remedy. But the bike never even burped. Just hummed along. I had hoped maybe they had fixed the clunky transmission that also plagues my V65, but the ST has the same clunk, especially when downshifting from second to first. I just have to make sure I shift it with authority into first and there's no problem.
Since this was written, I replaced the stator o ring which fixed the oil leak and I did run into one electrical problem that turned out to be a bad connector in a plug hidden in the fairing that never caused a single problem during the trip, but became a constant annoyance after. Weird! Since that was replaced, other than a stinking flat tire outside of Rock Springs, WY (which wasn't the bikes fault) the bike has been flawless. Hope it stays that way. Heading towards Alaska next year. Should make for a great story!
One last PS. The stator o-ring fixed the alternator oil leak for about two weeks, then I noticed it was leaking again. Bummer. More research informed me I had the dreaded 28 amp alternator oil leak problem. Once again I had to pull the rear end and the swing arm to do the 40 amp alternator upgrade, but that's a whole new story that you can find in the 40 amp alternator section here in the form. PSS. Trip next year to Prince George BC was fabulous.
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Riding the “Tail of the Dragon” or in this case... Arizona's “Tail of the Lizard”
I've always wanted to ride the famous “Tail of the Dragon” and will someday. But then I started hearing about the Arizona version, HWY 191 that runs along the Arizona/New Mexico border and figured that might have to do till I could get to the real deal, and it did not disappoint. HWY 191 actually runs pretty much north and south across the whole U.S., in fact it passes just a couple of miles from my house. The part we wanted to ride though was three hundred miles south, and although we'd planned on five days, it ended up being Nineteen hundred miles in six days, due a scary unforeseen incident I'll describe when we get there.
So me on my ST1100, Tom on his ST1300 with his wife Tremaine and Henry on his C14 Concours headed out Monday morning from southern Utah, for Arizona's “Tail of the Lizard”. Had we left the week before, or the week after, the weather would have been cold and wet, but we lucked out and that first week of May was perfect.
Heading south we headed crossed the Arizona strip through Fredonia, Arizona, climbed up through Jacobs Lake (don't ever plan on boating or swimming there as there's no lake) and then down to Marble Canyon.
Once across the Grand Canyon at Grand Dad's Ferry it's southbound on roads that go on forever and ever disappearing far off into the distance as we rode across the Navajo reservation. Those are some seriously hardy folks that choose to stay and live on the rez out in literally "the middle of nowhere". I'm not sure I understand it, but to each their own.
Saying so long to Leroy, after a long and strung out series of “biker only handshakes” that he gave to each of us, we departed Tuba City for another "back way”, hoping to get to Winslow, AZ, so instead of continuing south to Flagstaff and then taking I-40, out of Tuba city we took, HWY 264 and then 87 which heads straight south, with the road often disappearing off in the distance as far as you can see.
Fortunately, avoiding lots of hungry buzzards, we finally managed to actually end up where we were planning on spending the first night and could be found "Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona, what a fine sight to see!" Made famous by that single line from the Eagles song "Take it Easy." They have quite a memorial to that song and the Eagles in down town Winslow on Route 66 where you can stand and “see the girl my lord, in a Flat bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me” reflected in the window.
After spending what felt like two weeks on that dirt road during those two hours, we hit the pavement again on HWY 260 and headed for Springerville where we would finally arrive on the north end of HWY 191 and the Tail of the Lizard. Riding through Showlow we spotted a nice herd of Elk in the meadow by the road. Elk are one thing you really want to watch out for in northern Arizona as they have a lot of them there, big as horses, and not something that you don't want to meet up close and personal at 65 mph!
We had stopped for a break and I had been discussing the art of counter steering, keeping your head perpendicular to the road to avoid vertigo and such with Henry, who had never really taken a trip like this before. Compared to me and Tom, Henry was relatively new at this cross country ride thing. So we took off again with Tom and Tremaine riding point, Henry in the middle and me bringing up our six.
We'd just swung through a left hand switchback and Henry was just starting to lean into the next right hand hair pin, when suddenly he wasn't leaning anymore. We still don't know why, but in the middle of that turn, he suddenly stood that Concours straight up... and rode it straight across the opposite lane and into the rocky left side wall. BANG! I was riding about fifteen yards behind him and saw and even HEARD it hit that bank! I couldn't believe it! I myself was leaning into the turn and had to slice by as I was committed and there are little to no shoulders on much of HWY 191. Not wanting to become a second victim should a car come around that blind turn, I had to ride about forty yards to the next corner before I could get the bike off the road, then ran back to find Henry just standing up behind the bike. That was a good sign...I hoped.
Henry has a few years experience, but wasn't real comfortable on the hairpin curves, plus that C14 is a big beast. He found out in a hurry how quickly things can go wrong when the rear tire on the C14 lost traction, spinning out (we think) when it hit the thick double yellow painted lines on the road. Instantly he panicked and stood the bike up, which means it was no longer leaned over and turning. Across the other lane and into the side hill he went. I have to tell you that riding close behind him and watching it up close was terrifying! The sound of the impact was worse! The good news was that he'd clamped on the binders and was only doing less than ten miles per hour or so when it hit the bank.
The bad news was that there was a stinking eighteen inch boulder sticking out of that bank he smacked that bank that really did a number on the left side of his fairing. After finding a place to get off the road, I parked my ST on the shoulder and ran back to where Henry was just standing up. I expected the worst, but was more than thankful when we determined that he didn't have a scratch on him, just lots of dirt and dust. Thank heavens for a helmet, good jacket and padded nylon riding pants.
After we figured out that Henry was ok, we stood the bike up and took stock of his wounded horse, hoping no traffic would come around that blind corner. In the fall, the left saddle bag and trunk were cleaned off the bike and were laying in the dirt behind the bike. Amazingly both were still intact, though scuffed up. Amazingly the reattached right up to his bike, then we pushed the bike over to where my ST was parked to get it out of the road (fortunately no cars came by, just two Harleys who didn't even wave as they rode past what was obviously a bike accident. I'm starting to see a pattern here.)
It looked worse than it was as the fairing lower on the left side was pretty much gone, but other than the scuffs and scratches on the engine cases, the bike seemed to be undamaged. The C14 has this funky key fob ignition thing that will go into lock down if it's layed over so the EFI doesn't continue to pump fuel into a fire situation, so it took a few seconds to get it to reset, and both of us finally breathed again when it finally fired up.
Henry was ok (which was 99.9% of the equation) and the bike was whole, pretty much, and running, so we were thankful to the riding Gods who must have been keeping watch over us. It could have been a whole lot worse. With Henry ok, and the bike running, we limped off again on the Lizard, meeting Tom and Tremaine a few turns later, who had turned around when they realized we weren't still coming. Quickly we retold the tale to them, then a lot more slowly, we pressed on. Remember when I said that HWY 191 was a long ways from nowhere? We were all thinking about that real hard now.
Just before you get to Morencia, AZ, which is at the end of HWY191, you get to ride right through the middle of a gigantic open pit copper mine. The road seriously goes right down through the middle of this thing. At times you may have to even stop as half a dozen of the biggest trucks you've ever seen lumber across the road at specific crossings. There is a great look out/rest area where you can stop and really get an idea of how massive that mine is. One of the ore hauling truck tires mounted there make the tires on the ST look like toys.
If you've ever been to Lordsburg recently you'll understand the meaning of "not much there". Oh they do have the mine in Morencia, where everyone works, and even the Kawasaki shop owner had closed up shop to go work in the mine, so we called it a night and ate dinner at Denny's where I discovered they make a pretty good steak.
When Wednesday morning came, we were able to go over the C14 trying to determine what was damaged and if we could repair it as Henry really wanted to finish the trip and we wanted him to also. None of us wanted to have to truck the bike home.
Now Henry and I are about as shade tree as mechanics you can get. He's been working on cars his whole life and I have been doing the same on motorcycles ever since I disassembled that brand new 1970 Hodaka to paint the frame black. After all, none of my buddies had bright red frames on their bikes! Even though my folks were not happy about it, that episode put me on the path of being able to fix about anything, so after locating a stick of JB weld that would harden under water at the local NAPA (thank heavens for NAPA and for someone not working at the mine!), I cut off a wad, kneaded it together and worked it into the radiator fins making about silver dollar sized plug. We let it harden for couple of hours then filled it up with antifreeze and fired it up for a test run. No leaks! Man, that stuff is great! Held just fine for the next twelve hundred miles!
Just after noon we were able to once again head out, riding up through the Mogollon range made famous by Zane Grey and Louis L'amour in dozens of great western tales and headed towards Grants where we planned to stay the night. Again, you have to ride this part of the county to appreciate the meaning of "there's a lot of nothing out there" cause there is, or isn't depending on how you look at it!
One high spot of this days ride, other than the Concours motoring along just fine, was the ride though the El Malpais National Concervation Area. Beautiful rock walls line that road and I was pretty sure those were falcons winging up there in the tops of those lofty spires.
They have used that train in lots of movies, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, Bite the Bullet and one of the Indiana Jones movies. Lots of the sets are still there on top of the pass.
Breakfast in Chama at Fosters Hotel and Cafe across from the train station in Chama, NM finally quenched my craving for sopapillas. I've eaten them there for almost fifty years. Best in town, or just about anywhere for that matter! Great for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
We were about three weeks early of when the train would start running again around Memorial day. After a quick ride around the small town where I spent my boyhood, we headed west on another spectacular ride towards Pagosa Springs, CO, then on to Durango, and Cortez where we plan to spend our last night. The temperature during the day is perfect for riding, mid 70s, and the roads are terrific as the summer tourist season has not really started yet, so traffic is light. A quick stop in Durango for ice cream where it is always tourist season, and we press on to Cortez.
Once past Chama, the trip became a ride towards home. We had one more great day of riding to Cortez where we again had motel reservations for the night. I guess I should mention here, that usually I don't do the motel thing. I like to camp and have spent hundreds of nights camped with my tent in some of the most beautiful places you'll ever find. I almost never have a destination in mind, just a direction. For me, it's all about the “in-betweens”. However...Tom, Tremaine and Henry are NOT campers. So every night we'd break out my iPad at the motel where we were staying, thank heavens for WIFI and hit the internet figuring where and how far we'd ride the next day, then we'd make "motel" reservations.
Wasn't as good as camping, but at least we didn't have the whole trip planned out for us, with places we “had” to be because of reservations that were made weeks before. I hate my bike being parked down in that parking lot!
Morning found us droning across the Navajo reservation back towards Tuba City, with a different plan to get across that big crack in the world than we did six days ago. But now the winds have begun to pick up, and we often find ourselves leaning hard into a cross wind. We stopped briefly at Page so Henry could see Lake Powell, still down seventy feet or so, as we crossed the bridge at the Glen Canyon dam.
North of Kanab, the wind really started howling, blowing the bikes all over the road, and often it's hard to stay in the lane when the wind gusts out of the draws. There's lots of snow on top of HWY 14 too and the road to Cedar Breaks National Monument is still closed and it won't be open till Memorial Day at the end of the month before they'll try to cut through the deep drifts to open the road.
The front Michelin Pilot Road 3 on my ST still looks great. It's wearing even, and doesn't show much wear. The rear Continental is about shot. Maybe a few hundred miles left, but I have a new Metezler Z6 on order to replace it at which time I'll pull the swing arm and replace the stator o ring, hopefully fixing that oil leak.
It was a great trip though, one I've wanted to do for awhile. In the words of Henry,” Except for ten feet, it was the best bike trip I've ever taken in my life!”
Then I found the '94 ST1100 with just over 15,000 miles on the clock. It had not been ridden much, mostly just moved around the garage a lot as they guy who owned it was a little vertically challenged, so it had some hanger rash on the bags and fairing, but nothing serious and most of it buffed out. I took it for a spin and everything worked and it ran like a top, so I gave him $2800, loaded it on the trailer and hauled it home.
The next two weeks, anticipating this ride, I went through it front to rear, changing every fluid on the bike. The rear Continental tire was almost new, but the front Dunlop was not, so I shoe horned a new Michelin Pilot Road 3 onto the front rim and took it out for it's first real test ride of 150 miles. Man the thing rode like a rock! What the Hell! There was no travel in the front end at all. I could feel every road snake! After maybe 3/4 inch the forks felt like they would hit bottom. So I nursed it home, and buried myself into the ST forums, learning about forks.
Now I've replaced the fork seals on dozens of Trials and dirt bikes, even my Sabre, and the ST's seals weren't leaking at all. Just no travel. So I drained the forks, yes, I just pulled the plugs on the bottom of the forks and didn't pull the forks off themselves. But I did tape some big gallon size baggies to each fork leg to catch the oil as I pumped out what I could, then let it drain for two days. Measuring it, I discovered the PO (or someone) had put 450cc into both legs! No wonder it hydro locked at less than an inch of travel. I have to wonder if this is maybe why he hadn't ridden it much as it rode like a rock!
After the drain and flushing with ATF, which I let drain again, I refilled the forks with 435cc 10wt in the left and 385cc 7wt in the right, built a new 1/2 inch longer PVC fork spacer for the left side and put them back together. Vilola! Complete travel! Plush and controlled. Maybe I'll put some progressive springs in it later, but now it rides great.
The ST motor is the same size as the 1100cc V4 on my Sabre, just turned 90 degrees and although it doesn't have the "Holy Sh&^" power that the V65 does, it is respectable. One time during the trip we came up on a gaggle of a dozen Harleys and their chase Camaro, all formed up, blocking the road for a quarter of a mile at 60 mph, so no one could pass. There was a line of cars boxed in behind them. You'd think those guys would have had enough sense to loosen up the formation if they weren't going to ride the speed limit, 65 mph, so cars could pass a few of them at a time when they got a chance, but they never do. So with Henry riding my six, I waited till I had a pretty long stretch of road with no on coming traffic, then we uncorked them. Now I know that ST will not even begin to run with that big C14 Kawasaki, but I did get it up to 120 mph in short order and how fast it did accelerate must have caught Henry by surprise, cause it took a few seconds for him to catch up after I turned it loose. But he did, as I knew he would and we left the gaggle of Harleys behind. Riding behind me, Henry said the ST sounded like a 327 Chevy Rat motor when I got on it.
The riding postion on the ST is great. Nice wide flat seat. The fairing, although not as wide as the one on the C10 Concours does a decent job of cutting the wind. It's quiet enough behind it that listening to my tunes through my ear buds is never a problem. Gotta say I love that 7 gallon gas tank and it being beneath the seat helps keep the weight low. It's good for 300 miles as I averaged 40-45 mpg during the trip. I was a little bummed about discovering the fake fuel tank was plastic and not steel. My magnetic tank bag won't stay on the ST. Going to have to order a strap on model.
Bike loves to run. 80 mph is loafing along for it. We kept trying to trade bikes, so Tom and I could compare the ST1100 to his ST1300, but it just never worked out, especially after the C14 misadventure.
The one thing that did bother me the whole trip was a slight oil leak coming from the back of the motor near the alternator leaving a few drops puddle every morning. After researching the ST forums I've determined it is the stator o ring. Seems that most of them do that, but in 1900 miles it never leaked enough to be noticable as I checked the Shell Rotella 5/40 oil level every morning. I could smell the oil on the exhaust when I first started the bike up in the morning though. Something I'll have to remedy. But the bike never even burped. Just hummed along. I had hoped maybe they had fixed the clunky transmission that also plagues my V65, but the ST has the same clunk, especially when downshifting from second to first. I just have to make sure I shift it with authority into first and there's no problem.
Since this was written, I replaced the stator o ring which fixed the oil leak and I did run into one electrical problem that turned out to be a bad connector in a plug hidden in the fairing that never caused a single problem during the trip, but became a constant annoyance after. Weird! Since that was replaced, other than a stinking flat tire outside of Rock Springs, WY (which wasn't the bikes fault) the bike has been flawless. Hope it stays that way. Heading towards Alaska next year. Should make for a great story!
One last PS. The stator o-ring fixed the alternator oil leak for about two weeks, then I noticed it was leaking again. Bummer. More research informed me I had the dreaded 28 amp alternator oil leak problem. Once again I had to pull the rear end and the swing arm to do the 40 amp alternator upgrade, but that's a whole new story that you can find in the 40 amp alternator section here in the form. PSS. Trip next year to Prince George BC was fabulous.
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