Small Group Ride out West?

gunsmoker

gunsmoker

Joined
Oct 16, 2024
Messages
425
Location
Cumming, Georgia USA
Bike
ST-1300, VT-1100c
2026 Miles
003500
I may have had my ST 1300 totaled in a wreck last month, but now I’ve got a 2006 Honda Shadow 1100 as it’s replacement, and I used to put a lot of hours and a lot of miles on my other Honda shadow (1996) so I know it’s a good platform.

I’m thinking about trailering my bike out West or maybe flying out West (I live near Atlanta, Georgia ) and renting a motorcycle, and then doing a 2 to 3 day ride that goes into several Western states.

Mostly US and state highways —no gravel roads pavement only but small roads are fine. I’m not opposed to getting on the super slab if that makes sense for a few hours at a time to cross a mountain range or river where there are no smaller roads that cut through that area.


The date would be flexible, but sometime in the summer of 2026.

Is anybody interested?
 
About 15 years ago, my wife and I did this three times- we flew out to Las Vegas, rented a Gold WIng, and did week-long rides to ( respectively) California, to see the redwoods, and ride down the PCH, all over Utah and Arizona to see various canyons, and on the last ride, out to Santa Fe ( got caught in a blizzard), and all the way down to Phoenix.

It was wonderful!

I would suggest that you make the trip a bit longer, and give yourself time at either end of the ride to acclimate ( before you ride) and to relax ( after you ride). We did not plan a lot or make reservations at motels , to keep our trip fluid and flexible, but with modern cell phones , it would be much easier to make sure you had a room for the night- that did present problems a few times in certain areas. We made a lot of time to just stop and enjoy places, not just speed by them.
Packing gear for a ride was challenging, and I ended up wearing some of it on the plane out there, to make my luggage weight acceptable. My helmet ( and my wife's) went in our carry-on luggage.
Hope you have a great time!
 
Personally...I'd skip Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Instead, if time is short, I'd head straight to Utah and take in the five national parks there. Allow for a full day for each, or more. And make your reservations ahead of time. You want to go there...and so do a lot of other people.

Heat will be your biggest issue to plan for. It will drive how you plan your day.

And I'd recommend using a different map. ;) Your map makes them all look the same. There's a reason the map below shows the middle section of the map...what you call "west" as being beige and with no ripples or green on it. :D

1769026204556.png

Chris
 
I'll second NM; spent a summer near Taos and there were some roads there that I made a mental note to someday return and ride on a bike. Haven't yet, but also haven't forgotten!
The TX hill country is nice, Sedona AZ as well, which also puts you in Grand Canyon territory between Crater National and western destinations.
And yes, CO into UT, Rocky Mt National and all the mentioned UT national parks are a must at some point.

Enjoy! Sounds like a nice trip(s)!
 
Well, as luck would have it, WeSTOC 30, is in Cedar City Utah this year (September 14-17th) and we have several National & State Parks close by. I have setup a number of rides that would include them, or You could just map your own way to them. As far as a motorcycle goes, if you don't want to ride out here, I could rent you one of my ST1300s.

The WeSTOC 30 rides.

We would love to have you!
 
I keep hearing about STOC related events on this website, but I know nothing about them.
The search feature on this website is useless for any word that is not longer than five letters.

A quick Google search tells me that STOC is a Facebook / social media phenomenon. I don’t actually do social media, although I use websites like this for a similar role in my life. 😁

I am not on Facebook. (I’ve had my Facebook account hacked and duplicated by scammers at least twice . that I know of and who knows how many other times I don’t know about).

IMG_0537.jpeg


Here at ST-owners website, is there an introductory/newbie FAQ page related to STOC and those gatherings that happen several times a year all across the country (even the world)?
 
SupraSabre said:
Well, as luck would have it, WeSTOC 30, is in Cedar City Utah this year (September 14-17th) and we have several National & State Parks close by. I have setup a number of rides that would include them, or You could just map your own way to them. As far as a motorcycle goes, if you don't want to ride out here, I could rent you one of my ST1300s.

The WeSTOC 30 rides.

We would love to have you!
Click to expand...


This sounds promising. I will look at those rides that you have already mapped out meticulously and for which you’ve Included photographs of the scenery along the way.

I see that this location in southwest Utah could allow for a one day side trip to the east to visit the FOUR CORNERS Nat’l monument,

and maybe on another day I could ride to the southwest could go down into the Las Vegas area and maybe part of California north of Needles.

IMG_0538.jpeg


****** EDITED TO ADD ******** California looks like it’s a little bit too far and out of the way to incorporate if we’re based in Cedar City, Utah. I’ll have to catch California on a different ride, some other time, to check off that state from my map of places visited.
 
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But a trip to the Four Corners ares and back looks like one full day of riding.
Or, it could be a two day trip with an overnight stay at the nearby UTE MOUNTAIN casino/hotel on that Indian reservation, about halfway between Shiprock, New Mexico, and Cortez, Colorado

The next day coming back using the southern route could include a stop to look over the rim of the Grand Canyon. ( I’ve never been there.)

IMG_0539.jpeg


It looks like mid September in southern Utah features about 13 hours of daylight, including that twilight for 30 minutes before sunrise and good for 30 minutes after official sunset.

Basically, 7 AM to 8 PM. That’s good !
 
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gunsmoker said:
A quick Google search tells me that STOC is a Facebook / social media phenomenon.
Click to expand...
STOC stands for ST Owners Club, which is this site.
STOC events are ST Owners Club events held by members of this site in various locations. I have no idea how it displays on a portable device but if you are using an internet browser on a computer and you go to the homepage of this website you will see an events calendar on the right-hand side about half-way down the page. If you go to the top of any page on this site and select the Riding tab in the blue bar at the top of the page you will see an Events section where you can select several different formats that will display a list of all of the events that are currently scheduled on this website.
 
Andrew Shadow said:
STOC stands for ST Owners Club, which is this site.
STOC events are ST Owners Club events held by members of this site in various locations. I have no idea how it displays on a portable device but if you are using an internet browser on a computer and you go to the homepage of this website you will see an events calendar on the right-hand side about half-way down the page. If you go to the top of any page on this site and select the Riding tab in the blue bar at the top of the page you will see an Events section where you can select several different formats that will display a list of all of the events that are currently scheduled on this website.
Click to expand...
Actually STOC is historically the ST Owners Club - correct - however predates this site, started out as an email list and transitions to a couple other platforms until now which is ST-Riders.net and focused on the ST1100 and ST1300.

This site is simply ST-Owners... that's it.. and while initially also focused, and still is for the most part, but also accepting of any motorcycle.

There's a lot of history and I'm sure more than I remember.
 
gunsmoker said:
Here at ST-owners website, is there an introductory/newbie FAQ page related to STOC and those gatherings that happen several times a year all across the country (even the world)?
Click to expand...
No, you just have to look at the event threads to see what info is there and what's planned.. most of them are just 'Here's the when and where' and that's it. You show up and hang out and you ride on your own.

Some have planned rides if you're into that.
 
gunsmoker said:
But a trip to the Four Corners ares and back looks like one full day of riding.
Or, it could be a two day trip with an overnight stay at the nearby UTE MOUNTAIN casino/hotel on that Indian reservation, about halfway between Shiprock, New Mexico, and Cortez, Colorado

The next day coming back using the southern route could include a stop to look over the rim of the Grand Canyon. ( I’ve never been there.)

....


It looks like mid September in southern Utah features about 13 hours of daylight, including that twilight for 30 minutes before sunrise and good for 30 minutes after official sunset.

Basically, 7 AM to 8 PM. That’s good !
Click to expand...

Depending how long you would want to stay out here, Attend WeSTOC, then take a couple of three days and go ride to the other destinantions.
 
Mellow said:
Actually STOC is historically the ST Owners Club - correct - however predates this site, started out as an email list and transitions to a couple other platforms until now which is ST-Riders.net and focused on the ST1100 and ST1300.

This site is simply ST-Owners... that's it.. and while initially also focused, and still is for the most part, but also accepting of any motorcycle.

There's a lot of history and I'm sure more than I remember.
Click to expand...
I mistakenly thought that it had morphed over time to this site however. I was aware that it was started as an email list years ago by Geroge's son Derek, but its lineage leads directly to ST-Riders.

Late in 1993 when Derek Catt and Charlie Woods dreamed up the idea of having an Electronic ST Owners Club, we were attempting to work around the then leading edge of electronic communications, UNIX servers and PINE/ELM mail programs. There were no WEB browsers like Netscape or Mosaic, there were no email programs like Free Agent or WinVN.

Our mail list was just that, a simple email with everyones email address appended to the recipient header. Derek mailed out the STUFF newsletter electronically. Most of the newsletters were excerpts from the months collection of emails Derek received concerning products members of the list had bought or tried that were used or related to the ST1100.
 
2-3 days??? you will miss so much. Stick to southern Utah. Lots of desert riding in 90 and above to get to 4 corners at time of year. More scenery through Utah 12, 24 and 95. Then off to Moab. You need at least a week to cover what your saying unless you not stopping to see National parks. Early September most all of the Fantastic Five are still crowded. 2 years ago I tried to get through Zion in early June 10 am and the line was at least a mile long moving at a snail's pace . So you need to take that into consideration.
 
Al st1100 said:
Early September most all of the Fantastic Five are still crowded. 2 years ago I tried to get through Zion in early June 10 am and the line was at least a mile long moving at a snail's pace . So you need to take that into consideration.
Click to expand...
And watch the heat in your planning. Earlier, the temps can be in triple digits still.

There's a reason I travel out of Washington state each summer and travel into the Southwest. The scenery is phenomenal. Each of those national parks in Utah is totally different. And while the Grand Canyon is pretty cool...some people think Canyonlands National Park is better.

Chris
 
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