Our Journey to the

[BigPaz]

I'm really not sure what up with these people, but apparently they feel like they found their own little slice of paradise. The hills were filled with these dwellings built into the ground.

they build them that way for energy effeciency. the run off natural gas heat, so blocking the north side of the house keeps it from getting cold.

After the underground houses, we found ourselves back at serious elevation, this mountain pass was just over 10,000 feet.

HRZ is correct. that's Hopewell pass on 64. really pretty place to ride...

P.

 

[RadioHowie]

I couldn't figure out why so many guys were talking about their FJRs doing wheelies, while I really have to work to get my front wheel off the ground.

It's called being a Phat Phuck! And owning a POS Gen II.......

:jester:

Not so harsh, Skooter....

I'd be willing to bet it's ALL POS Gen II and NOT Phat Phuck.

You see, I AM a Phat Phuck.....well not so much PHAT, but phat.

I weigh in at a not-so-svelte 280, but the ol' Gen I can loft the front wheel faster than a New Mexico cop can loft a bag of Krispy Kremes. And that's with MY lard-ass in the seat, so the blame MUST be laid at the feet of the highly-regarded, oh-so-more-refined Gen II.

 

[Khunajawdge]

Not the more recently infamous Ground Zero in downtown Manhattan, but the original Ground Zero made famous by a little bomb blast that resulted from the Manhattan Project.

{Some snippage} Jornada del Muerto, {more snippage}

It is a rather appropriate name for the place where the World’s first atomic bomb was exploded in the remotest of the remote parts of central New Mexico. Come the first Saturday of April and the first Saturday of October, the White Sands Missile Range holds an Open House for those of us that want to travel to the place that was chosen primarily due to it’s vast remoteness. What else are you suppose to do with an FJR?

Not exactly the end of the earth, but you can see it from there?

Good, well written report! :clapping: keep it going.

 

[BigPaz]

BTW, next time your in Cimarron, check out the old hotel. That place has some big-time history!

that's the St. James. it's haunted. it also has bullet holes in the roof of the bar. very cool place...

P.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Cool report! This stuff is great! :clapping:

 

[beemerdons]

I couldn't figure out why so many guys were talking about their FJRs doing wheelies, while I really have to work to get my front wheel off the ground.

It's called being a Phat Phuck! And owning a POS Gen II.......

:jester:

Not so harsh, Skooter....

I'd be willing to bet it's ALL POS Gen II and NOT Phat Phuck.

You see, I AM a Phat Phuck.....well not so much PHAT, but phat.

I weigh in at a not-so-svelte 280, but the ol' Gen I can loft the front wheel faster than a New Mexico cop can loft a bag of Krispy Kremes. And that's with MY lard-ass in the seat, so the blame MUST be laid at the feet of the highly-regarded, oh-so-more-refined Gen II.

Or faster than jacking off in a Santa Fe squad car! jes' sayin' and nuff' said! https://rt.com/usa/news/caught-masturbating-car-eiskant-847/ https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/mike-eiskant-santa-fe-police-officer-masturbating-squad-car-on-duty_n_1415740.html https://www.kob.com/article/stories/S2572046.shtml?cat=0

 

[gixxerjasen]

Mike Eiskant, Former Santa Fe Cop, Accused Of Masturbating In Squad Car While On Duty (VIDEO)

OMG, there's video! Run away!

 

[wheatonFJR]

Nice ride report...let's try not to trash it too much okay guys?

Jeez...

 

[BikerGeek99]

Great RR, Turk! Keep 'er coming, bud!!!

... but the ol' Gen I can loft the front wheel faster than a New Mexico cop can loft a bag of Krispy Kremes.

:haha:

:lol2:

 

[beemerdons]

Nice ride report...let's try not to trash it too much okay guys?

Jeez...

We got it, Mark!

 

[FJRBandit]

One thing of importance thatI failed to mention in my recap of the tornado alley run was that we even experienced riding in hail. Albeit pea size, it didn't take long for me to scream through the headset to get the (radio edit) off the road and seek shelter. Unfortuantely, there were no pics of this hailacious event Afterwards, we tested the speedometers in the open plains of Western Oklahoma with a strong crosswind coming out of the north. Made for a chilly ride into Amarillo.

Anyway, back in Durango, we stayed the night in the Historic Strater Hotel (see picture in the recap above). We spent the evening in the Strater Saloon and never made it out on the town. Nice accomodations and very friendly staff at the Strater. I will definitely be back in Durango at some point in my life, hopefully on the Feej... but for now, it's to strike out on US 550 North "The Million Dollar Highway".

DAMN!!!! I don't recommend pulling over here for a gratuitous photo op, let's go on up a bit....

Much better...

We don't have these type of mountains where I come from.

Ouray, CO

I'm the King of the World!

We have more horses between our legs than they have.... but they're still pretty!

We finally made it to Montrose and I was getitng thirsty! So what'll you have...

And our new friend Tiffany at The Suds and Grub was kind enough to oblige us.

There were some others that were in open wheeled transport at the Suds and Grub too...

After the kind hospitality Tiffany showed to us it was tough to leave, but there were miles ahead that had to be traversed on this gorgeous day in the heart of the Rockies... so one more shot of amaretto and off to our steeds we go.

We passed this guy (at a farily high rate of speed I might add)

Discharged some Pabsts and amaretto here...

Then made our way here. WOW! This was pretty cool for us little ole' Southerners

From that to this! all in the span of about 30 minutes :huh:

This CHICK wanted to ride, but I had to tell her I'm a married man...

She was bitching in my ear as we left... made me feel like I was right at home

Then it was all downhill from here to Santa Fe for the night...

We stopped for one more fill up before the final push to Santa Fe.

Where I had this for dinner...

And then a nice clean, comfy bed at the Silver Saddle Motel on Route 66 in Santa Fe.

This is from our departure from the Silver Saddle the next morning. Stay there with confidence.

Tomorrow, we're off to Bandelier, Valley Grande and ultimately the Valley of the Fires down near the Trinity Site for our first night of motocamping!

 

[beemerdons]

FJRBandit this is an Outstanding Ride Report, Many Thanks Once Again!

 

[Aasland]

My Fellow FJR Forum Generation One Brethren: Please kindly refrain from explaining the GEN1 superiority over the pathetic GEN2's and their woeful inadequacies until Dog Pile Friday tomorrow.

You've got it all wrong! Lofting the front wheel when trying to put the power down is a FLAW which was fixed by lengthening the swingarm on the Gen II's. The point is to go FORWARDS, not UPWARDS. Duh.

 

[FJRBandit]

Many thanks for the nice compliments. I get a lot of pleasure reading other people's ride reports and hoped others might enjoy sharing our ride with us.

This ride, unfortunately, is beginning to wind down. On Friday, we began our day departing from the Silver Saddle about 9 am. This was to be our "short day" at only around 350 miles. To this point, in the previous four days we had not had a day under 500. Needless to say, we needed a little bit of a break. Especially considering I had to be back at work in Alabama in four days and we still had our visit to the Trinity Site tomorrow, leaving almost 1500 miles left with 2 1/2 days to go, that's if we made it out of the Jornada del Muerto alive! So, with our final destination of the day being roughly due South, we headed due North to Los Alamos. We planned to loop through Bandelier and then see Valley Grande, ride NM Hwy 4 down through the canyons and the Red Rock country of the Jemez Peublos. Then, traverse Albuquerque on our way to Carrizozo and the Valley of Fires campground. The red rocks were beautiful and the whole canyon area reminded me of Zion NP that the wife and I visited a little over a year ago, just not on the grand scale of Zion.

We headed out of Santa Fe on US 285 towards Los Alamos.

arrived at Bandelier, but decided not to spend the time roaming around in the park, we just rolled through, checking out the canyons and the forrest land that was burned last summer in one of New Mexico's largest wildfires ever.

We arrived at Valley Grande. This place is cool, and I mean it was COLD -- but the place is cool too!

Then we headed towards canyon country to do a little canyon carving...

This is where it started to resemble Zion to me.

Then we headed towards the Jemez Peublo area.

The horsey's still had on their winter coats... I told you it was cold!

Finally in Jemez

Traditional / typical housing in the area

After Albuquerque we attempted to set land speed records on the way to Carrizozo.

Then this happened!

We got Mfletch's bike running again. Apparently, he has some stator issue that is not charging the battery enough and we drained the battery with our power runs... I don't know, I'm not the mechanic, but I did sleep at the Silver Saddle last night, and I do carry jumper cables that connect to the battery tender lead since I'm on an AE... Once we got her going, we broke out the Amarreto we had bought for our chilly campsite that evening and had a toast (from our gatorade bottles)

The delay caused us to arrive in Carrizozo too late to set up camp so we got a room at some "hotel" there. The next day, it's on to the Trinity Site.

 

[gixxerjasen]

Many thanks for the nice compliments. I get a lot of pleasure reading other people's ride reports and hoped others might enjoy sharing our ride with us.

I assure you, we are all enjoying this ride report. Some of us are rather jealous too.

I do carry jumper cables that connect to the battery tender lead since I'm on an AE...

Please explain to the new AE owner???

 

[HotRodZilla]

You guys shoulda eaten at the Willard Cantina. One of my best friends from highschool cooks there. The food is frigging outstanding! Between there and Corona, land speed records get broken all the time. Not that I would know though!

 

[FJRBandit]

Gixxer - Being that the AE doesn't give you the option to roll start the bike, this is a nice accessory to have on board, just in case... (obviously not just for AE's) Jumper Cables

Hotrod - The Willard Cantina had a closed sign in the window and there weren't any cars there. Maybe next time I'm in the neighborhood I just luved the sign with the green and red chile's with their dukes up and the sign read at the bottom, "Chile with Attitude".

 

[FarWestFastEddie]

I for one am certainly enjoying the ride report, this seems to be the first major ride report of the season and is pretty damn good! Cheers!

FWFE

 

[gixxerjasen]

Gotcha, I thought you were saying there's no way to get to the battery for a jump start...and I was just looking at the battery yesterday. Certainly that's more convenient than needing to drag out two tools to remove one piece of plastic though (why two different fastners? Something for another thread I suppose...)

 

[HotRodZilla]

Hey Bandit, that doesn't surprise me. Willard is a little town, so the Catina's hours go with the flow. Hell, they don't even have gas anymore. The closest is Estancia or Mountainair.

Cool ride report so far...Keep it going.