Big Bend/New Mexico/Arizona Trip 5/26-6/1/2010

[FantasticJohnR]

Created a Flickr site complete with pics and links to GPS tracks of a trip I took from Austin, Texas (home) to Big bend/ Fort Davis/ New Mexico, Gila National Forest and Apache national forest in NM and AZ; the famed "Coronado loop."

All together was over 2,500 miles and I was amazed the BT-021s held up and had tread left when I got home with 4,500 miles on the tires. For those of you who know these twisty roads in NM (152/35/15/491) you know how they can tear the tires up.

Hope you enjoy the pics.

My Flickr site

 

[escapefjrtist]

Nice report and pics, thanks for taking us along.

What's the story (if you can tell it) with the Beemers front wheel / tire?

--G

 

[RenoJohn]

John,

Oh my!!

You really took some wonderful pictures. A few familiar sites and many that are not ...but now on my list.

Ya, how about those twisty chip-seal roads eating up tires!!

West of Guadalupe Mtns .......I'm jealous

wish I could have been with ya ....so rare to see a Gen2 having so much fun. Must be that silver color.

thanks again for sharing.

 

[UHOH]

nice report & photos.

and did you do anything special to make the clouds stand out so well?

 

[FantasticJohnR]

Nice report and pics, thanks for taking us along.
What's the story (if you can tell it) with the Beemers front wheel / tire?

--G

My friend drives a BMW Adventure. Less than 100 miles into the trip he hit a rock in the road that bent the rim and tore a hole in the sidewall of the tire. He was probably following one of the other guys a bit too closely. When the rider in front of him pointed to the rock- he looked- but didn't have time to react. Because he looked at it- he hit it! You know the rule in motorcycling, where you look is where you go! The key here is he was probably following too close so did not have appropriate time to see the rock and then take action to move away. My friend is a very experienced rider and was lucky not to have gone down as this was a sizable rock. Just a reminder to everyone not to let their practiced skills off guard!

My friend eventually got back to Austin- lucky to find a used rim at the dealer for cheap and back on the road the next day. He took all highway and met us at our 2nd nights stop in Fort Davis. Unfortunately he was having a bit of clutch trouble and had to keep pumping the clutch to get actuation. This eventually worked itself out- likely due to the dealer doing something as he had some sort of recall service done when getting the new rim put on.

My friends "adventure" didn't end there. He got a nail in his rear tire on NM 152- a very curvy road. We quickly plugged it and went on. But the plug never took well and he kept removing and adding additional plugs for the remainder of the trip. Therefore you see him on his arse with an air pump over and over in the pics! I guess that's why they call these "BMW adventures."

John

 

[FantasticJohnR]

nice report & photos.
and did you do anything special to make the clouds stand out so well?

Just standard photography- most images were really hard to capture well as I was shooting in the middle of the day with lots of bright light!

Glad you like them.

John