'twas the night before......

[Darkknight]

Kudos to all of you that enjoyed the rally back east, that wasn't an option for me with my work schedule. Now it's the night before my wife and I head out for 7 days of riding and adventure.

Leaving Phoenix bright and early before it gets stupid hot, heading to Zion National Park Utah. Then up to Bryce Canyon day two, Arches National park and Moab day three. Saturday morning we roll into Telluride Colodaro. Sunday ride past Durange to Bayfiled CO and lake Vallacito then back to Telluride. Chill in Telluride Monday then ride back to Phoenix via Farmingotn NM and Flagstaff. I'm guessing it will be about 2,000 or so miles of fun, adventure and incredible scenery.

I thought of all the fun you were having riding to and at the rally. As you head off to your next few days you can think of me and my wife tearing up the wild west! Will post a few select pics when we return.

JB

That is my dream ride. Bucket list if you will...
I'm trying to see if Sweetie can get 3 weeks off next year so we can ride out from here in CT. The time off for her doesn't look promising.
I figure from CT it would be about 2500 miles out 500-1000 miles enjoying the country out there and 2500 miles back, but I haven't looked it up exactly.
The only down side is if we can do that, we would definitely have no vacation time for the 2015 Rally.

[JBnAZ]

Darkknight - if you can swing it maybe you fly out, rent a 6B and spend more time riding? I know that's a big trade off and you would be cheating on your bike, but you would get more time off to enjoy. We passed several groups that appeared to be destination riders on rentals and they were all wearing very wide smiles.

I've been lucky to have ridden Vermont, CT, and New Hampshire in perfect fall weather which is also one of those bucket list rides. Nothing like the CT river valley during peak foliage season.

Pictures really don't do justice to the magnitude of the landscape in the southwest. Best of luck convincing your wife to go along with the plan. I was pleasantly surprised that my wife was so willing to go along with my suggestion.

JB

[DaWadd]

Great pics.

[2kewlgypsy]

Thanks for sharing, looks like a great trip.
Also seems like a lot of top heavy weight on that backrest? and far out? Any handling issues with that?

We did 10 days with another couple in June and he brought his oldest T-Shirts - threw one out each night, and that way had room to get souvenirs. Thought that was pretty smart on his part!
2~kewl

[JBnAZ]

2~Kewl,

Great question about the weight on the rack and up high, I had similar concerns when we loaded up. I was pleasantly surprised to find very little impact from the added weight. We had about 30 lbs maybe a bit less between the T bag and backpack. My wife and I made a good wind break from the front and the only time I noticed a little tug was in high mph cross winds while in a corner and low on fuel. With a full tank of gas I didn't notice it at all.

I'm a thick guy and weigh 227, my wife weighs...... Much, much less . I had one saddle bag filled with tools, my chaps, and a few water bottles. The other with my wife's chaps, purse, and our rain suits. I think the overall weight of the bike and load was very well managed by the suspension. I did take time to set my preload from the stock setting of no preload to 19 clicks for the trip. The preload change made a huge improvement from the stock setting and I believe helped manage the load on the back.

I was more concerned with bending the rack or scratching the paint with a rogue strap than I was handleing issues after the first few hours of riding. We each brought 3 days of clothes and a pair of sneakers. The saddle bags don't really hold all that much, as I discovered when we started test packing.

Yeah, we left enough room to buy a few shirts each. We also packed clothes in a large plastic trash bag which proved to be a good idea as we did encounter rain.

I would load up the same way again with no concerns.