Well, friday afternoon I planned a ride up into the mountains for saturday for some friends and myself. We met up at Denny's for breakfast 6am, and rolled out from Sierra Vista, AZ at 7. Our route was to take us up H90 N to Benson, then E on I-10 to N191 which we would follow up to Alpine, AZ. I selected the route for our weekly ride, and it covered over 100miles of switchbacks, a few hairpins, etc going up the mountain and through a state forest. Well, we rolled out on time, hit Benson for gas where I filled up and went to park by the airpumps while waiting....thats when the front tire caught the crack in the pavement I didnt see, front tire slipped out on the pebbles and sand covering up the crack and smack....down we went almost at a dead stop. She laid down hard enough to scratch up some more of the left plastics. As I laid there thinking WTF just happened, I got to my feet picked her up and then seen the real damage. Coolant was dripping out...great radiators smacked, and then worse...OIL was dripping. After a minute of consolation the ribbing from my buddies started as I continued to look over the Busa. Coolant was from the overflow = good. Oil was from cracked Stator Cover = BAD. John and Aubrey, GSXR1k and 600, rode back and grabbed his trailer while 2 other stayed with me to poke fun and laugh. We took the fairing off in hopes the stealership would have a cover, nope. Got it on the trailer, found out none of the dealers in a 200 mile range had one, thought that was weird. So, I did the next best thing, stopped by a local fabrication and race shop and inquired about getting it welded. Just happened to be the welder was there on his day off, so we agreed to remove the cover, clean it, and I would dremel a groove where it needed to be repaired. Got that done while everyone waited at my house. Got the cover back and on and we rode.
The trip was supposed to be 258miles each way....well Mapquest let me down, it turned out to be 334.xx miles each way! Ouch. But, as the guys we are, we had a goal, Alpine, and we were going to make it. We hd quite a few wrist stretching stops, and the ride was the absolute best I've ever been on, despite the running out of time, freezing our tails off once the sun went down etc...
On highway 191N from Guthrie to Alpine, it reminded me of the Bluegrass mountains area, riding around TN, KY, NC, VA etc...absolute unexpected scenary. While in the lead, after the major amount of super tight twisties, myself and co-pilot (Nick on his CBR1kRR) came around a blind left and had to clamp binders to avoid a gorgeous Bull Elk, who really wasn't impressed by the fact 5 crotch rockets were moving his way. Nick and I both trimmed a LOT of our chicken strips down....mine started a little over 1.25" and now they are less than .5", barely but less. I ws so pumped up hitting these corners, and pins, and trying different approaches, leans, seat slides etc..great fun, and better yet an experience.
Other bad part was coming home, other than the wife being worries (no cell phone coverage) and pissed, it was dark by the time we made it to Alpine. We had discovered on the way up, a friend of ours was still very careful with cornering after dumping his bike a few months ago, so we'd have to pull off, stretch our wrists and wait periodically. After grabbing coffee we hopped on a different highway to return which we had only skimmed the route during planning. Ended up being a high speed (as fast as the headlights glow would allow that is) run back down a much smootherer road and got us home this morning around 2:30am. All in all, I ahd a blast, learned how to strip the fairings, replace the stator cover (or in my case R&W&R) and ride better....
Note, on the return, I asked Nick to ride co-pilot, just off to the side and slightly to the rear of me so we could double our light output, which worked quite well.
Cliffnotes: Went for a ride, dumped the bike at almost a walk, repaired leaking stator cover, continued the ride 334miles each way up a mountain, learned how to handle my bike better, froze my arse off and had a bast...got home 2:30am this morning (wife is not that happy...sorry babe!).
A view overlooking the 4,000ft elevation change we were carving up...
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Me after picking up Big Body with the cracked stator covers oil leak....ugh, delay in the roadtrip!
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Butt break before heading thru the tunnel and up the mountain...some mining town on N191
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Another butt break as we head into Apache Nat'l Forest (odd seeing so much vegetation).
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The trip was supposed to be 258miles each way....well Mapquest let me down, it turned out to be 334.xx miles each way! Ouch. But, as the guys we are, we had a goal, Alpine, and we were going to make it. We hd quite a few wrist stretching stops, and the ride was the absolute best I've ever been on, despite the running out of time, freezing our tails off once the sun went down etc...
On highway 191N from Guthrie to Alpine, it reminded me of the Bluegrass mountains area, riding around TN, KY, NC, VA etc...absolute unexpected scenary. While in the lead, after the major amount of super tight twisties, myself and co-pilot (Nick on his CBR1kRR) came around a blind left and had to clamp binders to avoid a gorgeous Bull Elk, who really wasn't impressed by the fact 5 crotch rockets were moving his way. Nick and I both trimmed a LOT of our chicken strips down....mine started a little over 1.25" and now they are less than .5", barely but less. I ws so pumped up hitting these corners, and pins, and trying different approaches, leans, seat slides etc..great fun, and better yet an experience.
Other bad part was coming home, other than the wife being worries (no cell phone coverage) and pissed, it was dark by the time we made it to Alpine. We had discovered on the way up, a friend of ours was still very careful with cornering after dumping his bike a few months ago, so we'd have to pull off, stretch our wrists and wait periodically. After grabbing coffee we hopped on a different highway to return which we had only skimmed the route during planning. Ended up being a high speed (as fast as the headlights glow would allow that is) run back down a much smootherer road and got us home this morning around 2:30am. All in all, I ahd a blast, learned how to strip the fairings, replace the stator cover (or in my case R&W&R) and ride better....
Note, on the return, I asked Nick to ride co-pilot, just off to the side and slightly to the rear of me so we could double our light output, which worked quite well.
Cliffnotes: Went for a ride, dumped the bike at almost a walk, repaired leaking stator cover, continued the ride 334miles each way up a mountain, learned how to handle my bike better, froze my arse off and had a bast...got home 2:30am this morning (wife is not that happy...sorry babe!).
A view overlooking the 4,000ft elevation change we were carving up...
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Me after picking up Big Body with the cracked stator covers oil leak....ugh, delay in the roadtrip!
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Butt break before heading thru the tunnel and up the mountain...some mining town on N191
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Another butt break as we head into Apache Nat'l Forest (odd seeing so much vegetation).
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