NorCal FJR
Well-known member
Great RR and love the photos. I agree the Canadian Rockies are amazing, saw them for the first time this year when we went to the Canadian Ramble. Thanks for posting this.
The 1911’s do Reuben Run 7
- Thread starter 1911
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1911
Well-known member
Rowena Crest-just another little tidbit picked up from a motorcycle forum
And thanks
1911
Well-known member
Reuben Run, the event. It’s been 13 days getting here.
Friday we ride up to Crater Lake. And let me emphasize up.
And we get blown away.
We’ve stumbled on a good way to plan a ride: Know little of the area upon arrival. Ask locals for recommendations. Be surprised when you get there.
Back at RR7 central we do a load of laundry and then hang out in the parking lot, or more specifically, we hang out close to the grill
Saturday we use our new ride planning method.
Passing through Sisters I get the feeling that this is a place that I must keep Mom away from.
Mom’s a pretty enthusiastic quilter.
When we mention that we went through Sisters her face lights up. Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Canada, California Redwoods……….meh, that’s nice. Sisters…..oh!.... OH!.... Sisters hosts the worlds’ biggest quilt show! I think 76 year old Mom would get on the bike if it was going to the quilt show in Sisters.
Once through Sisters it’s on to McKenzie Pass where we end up in some scenery like we never imagined, surreal and unexpected.
And then, for lunch, back to Harvest Depot for a….Reuben
The big and great dinner event, followed with the usual and great parking lot socializing, I’ve got not a single picture of. As overboard as I go taking pix out on the ride, I seldom remember to get out a camera during the social parts of these things. Maybe if this crowd was a little younger and sexier……..
Anyway, THANK YOU Ray and whoever else put the work into Reuben Run 7!
Friday we ride up to Crater Lake. And let me emphasize up.
And we get blown away.
We’ve stumbled on a good way to plan a ride: Know little of the area upon arrival. Ask locals for recommendations. Be surprised when you get there.
Back at RR7 central we do a load of laundry and then hang out in the parking lot, or more specifically, we hang out close to the grill
Saturday we use our new ride planning method.
Passing through Sisters I get the feeling that this is a place that I must keep Mom away from.
Mom’s a pretty enthusiastic quilter.
When we mention that we went through Sisters her face lights up. Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Canada, California Redwoods……….meh, that’s nice. Sisters…..oh!.... OH!.... Sisters hosts the worlds’ biggest quilt show! I think 76 year old Mom would get on the bike if it was going to the quilt show in Sisters.
Once through Sisters it’s on to McKenzie Pass where we end up in some scenery like we never imagined, surreal and unexpected.
And then, for lunch, back to Harvest Depot for a….Reuben
The big and great dinner event, followed with the usual and great parking lot socializing, I’ve got not a single picture of. As overboard as I go taking pix out on the ride, I seldom remember to get out a camera during the social parts of these things. Maybe if this crowd was a little younger and sexier……..
Anyway, THANK YOU Ray and whoever else put the work into Reuben Run 7!
Steel_Gin
Well-known member
Great write up!!
1911
Well-known member
Sunday morning
The plan is to motor south and east uneventfully for two days and then wander through southern Utah, Bryce Canyon and Moab, on the way home. Just south of LaPine we turn toward the Oregon Outback on Highway 31. Summer Lake, what appears to be a dry salt lake, is almost interesting enough to stop photograph.
Stopping to take a pic is what I think the FJR on the side of the road that we pass is doing, at first. A voice in my head, probably put there through the intercom, presents other possibilities and we backtrack, meeting up with fellow Reuben Runner JREW.
We’ve found bonus adventure, although not ours. JREW has a flat. There’s a slice in his tire that all the string plugs he has, plus half of mine, won’t seal. JREW has given away a bunch of his plugs earlier in the weekend, making a contribution to someone else’s adventure bonus. Having done JREW no good I get his phone number we roll on to the next town, Paisley, home of the Broncos.
We’ve just started to get into some pretty open country and I don’t expect to find anything in the tiny town of Paisley, on a Sunday morning, that will do JREW any good. We are surprised to find a full service gas station open. Heck, it took me a half dozen tries back in LaPine to find a service station with air, pay air. The place doesn’t look like much. OK, it looked like the kind of place Clark Griswold would pull the Family Truckster into for emergency repair
I noted a flatbed, talked to the owner, and called JREW with the stations contact info. I didn’t know if I was helping or setting him up for a visit with the “sheriff”. It turned out well, according to text from the victim. AMA paid the tow. The station owner didn’t want to mess with the bike but let JREW use his tools to remove the wheel. The station the dismounted and patched the tire without scratching the wheel, for a reasonable fee.
Post Paisley, we spend the most desolate day of riding we’ve done, using Highway 140 to cross southern Oregon and northern Nevada.
It’s weird to hear Zumo say “in twenty-something miles turn right on…..” as we’re looking at that intersection on the horizon.
Winnemucca Nevada is the first town of any size we see since leaving LaPine. We clear Winnemucca traffic and construction cones on I-80 eastbound and set the cruise, 80ish. Shortly after, we find our little bit of bonus adventure.
The plan is to motor south and east uneventfully for two days and then wander through southern Utah, Bryce Canyon and Moab, on the way home. Just south of LaPine we turn toward the Oregon Outback on Highway 31. Summer Lake, what appears to be a dry salt lake, is almost interesting enough to stop photograph.
Stopping to take a pic is what I think the FJR on the side of the road that we pass is doing, at first. A voice in my head, probably put there through the intercom, presents other possibilities and we backtrack, meeting up with fellow Reuben Runner JREW.
We’ve found bonus adventure, although not ours. JREW has a flat. There’s a slice in his tire that all the string plugs he has, plus half of mine, won’t seal. JREW has given away a bunch of his plugs earlier in the weekend, making a contribution to someone else’s adventure bonus. Having done JREW no good I get his phone number we roll on to the next town, Paisley, home of the Broncos.
We’ve just started to get into some pretty open country and I don’t expect to find anything in the tiny town of Paisley, on a Sunday morning, that will do JREW any good. We are surprised to find a full service gas station open. Heck, it took me a half dozen tries back in LaPine to find a service station with air, pay air. The place doesn’t look like much. OK, it looked like the kind of place Clark Griswold would pull the Family Truckster into for emergency repair
I noted a flatbed, talked to the owner, and called JREW with the stations contact info. I didn’t know if I was helping or setting him up for a visit with the “sheriff”. It turned out well, according to text from the victim. AMA paid the tow. The station owner didn’t want to mess with the bike but let JREW use his tools to remove the wheel. The station the dismounted and patched the tire without scratching the wheel, for a reasonable fee.
Post Paisley, we spend the most desolate day of riding we’ve done, using Highway 140 to cross southern Oregon and northern Nevada.
It’s weird to hear Zumo say “in twenty-something miles turn right on…..” as we’re looking at that intersection on the horizon.
Winnemucca Nevada is the first town of any size we see since leaving LaPine. We clear Winnemucca traffic and construction cones on I-80 eastbound and set the cruise, 80ish. Shortly after, we find our little bit of bonus adventure.
Niehart
Pie Smuggler
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dcarver
Well-known member
And only a few patch strings left? RuhRohRollie!
FJRay
Well-known member
I assume it worked out because they made it home and I'm glad I carry a spare wheel and tire in the bottom of the Bushtec along with extra bearings. I haven't needed the tire but have changed bearings on the road.
1911
Well-known member
Flat tires suck. Flat tires as a symptom of a bigger issue suck worse.
Traffic between LaPine and Winnemucca was nonexistent. Interstate traffic after Winnemucca is sparse. Weather, perfect. The campground that we’re headed to is reputed to be a little short on trees but long on stargazing. We’re on schedule to get camp set up and dinner on the stove before sundown. We’ve got a pretty decent day going.
And then, something feels a little off, like hitting a headwind and patch of rough road at the same time. If the pilot of a Jap Zero looked in his rear view mirror after a run-in with Pappy Boyington, it would look a lot like the scene in my rear view mirror. Instincts pull the clutch and chop the throttle, resulting in way more deceleration than expected, and a Peterbuilt grill getting clearer through the smoke. I reapply throttle and power over to the shoulder. I wish I could say these few seconds went by as smoothly as the last couple sentences.
What we find on the side of I-80 isn’t just a flat, it’s a seized wheel bearing that has stopped the wheel from rolling. Now the wheel won’t budge and neither will the nut that holds it on. When the bearing seized it turned the inner race against the nut, running it down about a half dozen threads tighter. The wrench in the uh-oh kit won’t back off the nut, even with me standing on it. And even if I get the nut off, I fear a bearing race welded to the axle.
We contemplate the pickle we are in for a while. Then we contemplate the pickle we’d be in if this had happened earlier in the day, like back on that ridge leading up to Doherty hang glider launch, where there was no shoulder, no margin for less than full control of direction, and no cell service. I call Progressive and ask if I have tow coverage and if it covers this situation. We do, it does. I ask Flow to get a flat bed to take us to the nearest KOA. The flatbed shows up in about 30 minutes. We load the trailer on the truck and we follow it back to the KOA in Winnemucca. The driver waits for me to check in and then drops the trailer at our campsite.
Just a few notes or things to be thankful for here:
No doctors, cops or lawyers involved-all the way to the end of this adventure. This is the primary indicator of a good ride for me. I haven’t been disappointed with the staff or facility at a KOA yet (though I have avoided a few do to online reviews). The real estate that they put KOAs on, however, often leaves a little to be desired. Most of them are close to the interstate, designed more for RVers to spend a night along their way, rather than as a place for a tenter to enjoy nature. I’d call the location of this one interstate/industrial. But the staff is nice and accommodating. At some, probably most, private campgrounds, the owners would balk at letting a wrecker drop a crippled rig off in the park. Here, they let us in and give us the number to a local mechanic. It’s also the first KOA that we’ve seen with an on-site liquor store.
Monday morning I leave Mrs1911 at camp and trek 10 minutes to an auto parts store. OK, now I’m kind of liking the location of this KOA. I get the longest ½ inch drive breaker bar that they have and a socket, along with a punch and chisel set and a ball peen hammer. With the new leverage I get the damaged wheel assembly off. No damage to the axle shaft-sigh of relief, GRANDE’! The spare wheel goes right on
Then I check the bearings on the other side and conclude that there is no way these will make it home. IMHO the bearing set up on the Bustecs is under designed. They are small and, especially the inner, are too exposed to the elements. This particular trip has seen our beloved Bushtec cover some rough ground, like the Forest Service roads to Mount Saint Helens, and the pumice sand and dust of Oregon.
No worry though, there is a set of spare bearings in the bottom of the trailer. Because a forward looking rider with some planning sense carries a set
Or
Because a chronic procrastinator never got around to putting them in before the trip.
Bushtec got me on the oddball sized tires that you can only get from Bushtec $$$ I outsmarted them on the bearings though. I used my power and influence with connections in the auto repair business to cross-reference the number on old bearings and get a set gratis. Or so I thought. All the bearing makers’ cross-reference charts convert the Bushtecs version of a 6203 to their version of readily available bearing. None of them are right. Bushtec’s 6203 has an inside diameter about a 1/16 inch smaller than the rest of the world. And nobody in Winnemucca has a 6203 with the unique I.D. of the 6203 that Bushtec uses.
So I fire up the cell phone and start calling Bushtec dealers, starting with the closest. At the first few all I get is a cog in the parts department of a large dealer that finds it amusing that I might think that they would actually stock a part for a trailer. Then I get hold of Frank at Nunzio’s Custom Trikes. This is the kind of guy you want to talk to when you are in a jam. He doesn’t have all of what I need in stock, and the folks at Bushtec aren’t returning his call. But he does agree to sell me the spare from his demo trailer, so it’s off to Helper, Utah we go. BUT, I’m not feeling real good about getting even that far on the inner bearing in the old wheel.
The guys at the very cool Ace Hardware store in Winnemucca are sure that they have seen an assortment of shimstock in the store, but they can’t find it now. I find some chimney flashing that feels about .030” thick and a cheap pair of shears and head back to camp. This campground improvised spacer will have to get us to Helper.
You can’t ride from Winnemucca to Provo without checking Bonneville, can you?
Provo to Helper should be a pleasant 60 mile ride. The roads closed due to the Spanish Fork fire add a couple hundred miles. The mountains just yards on the other side of the interstate just barely visible.
The hotel in Springville smelled like a campfire and the people on the news were discussing the possibility of evacuating some large cities.
Nunzio’s Custom Trikes is a home based business in Helper, Utah. At first glance I see an air-cooled v-twin trike conversion…..yawn….a something-glide three wheeler. When I noticed the Honda badge I got a little curious and peeked around the corner, looked around the shop. Interesting. Vmax’s from both generations. Frank says the newer one is an eight second bike. It sounds like it could be. Nuzio’s has had some show winning trikes and some calander bikes. Forgive me for not getting better pics of some of the paint work.
We leave Nunzio’s with two good wheel/tire/bearing assemblies on the ground, a spare with a mismatch bearing in the trailer, and Frank’s lunch recommendation, Marcia’s Sammich Shop. I kept my chimney flashing shim as a souvenir. Frank’s lunch recommendation was right on the money.
Helper is a very interesting little town. Check it out. Give the waitress at Marcia’s a little attitude and see what you get
191 north out of Helper DOES NOT suck.
The skies were clear and the shadows were long as we rolled into Craig, Colorado,
and another KOA, with a nice facility and great staff but sandwiched right between a railroad track and the road. Didn’t keep us from getting a good night’s sleep though.
Traffic between LaPine and Winnemucca was nonexistent. Interstate traffic after Winnemucca is sparse. Weather, perfect. The campground that we’re headed to is reputed to be a little short on trees but long on stargazing. We’re on schedule to get camp set up and dinner on the stove before sundown. We’ve got a pretty decent day going.
And then, something feels a little off, like hitting a headwind and patch of rough road at the same time. If the pilot of a Jap Zero looked in his rear view mirror after a run-in with Pappy Boyington, it would look a lot like the scene in my rear view mirror. Instincts pull the clutch and chop the throttle, resulting in way more deceleration than expected, and a Peterbuilt grill getting clearer through the smoke. I reapply throttle and power over to the shoulder. I wish I could say these few seconds went by as smoothly as the last couple sentences.
What we find on the side of I-80 isn’t just a flat, it’s a seized wheel bearing that has stopped the wheel from rolling. Now the wheel won’t budge and neither will the nut that holds it on. When the bearing seized it turned the inner race against the nut, running it down about a half dozen threads tighter. The wrench in the uh-oh kit won’t back off the nut, even with me standing on it. And even if I get the nut off, I fear a bearing race welded to the axle.
We contemplate the pickle we are in for a while. Then we contemplate the pickle we’d be in if this had happened earlier in the day, like back on that ridge leading up to Doherty hang glider launch, where there was no shoulder, no margin for less than full control of direction, and no cell service. I call Progressive and ask if I have tow coverage and if it covers this situation. We do, it does. I ask Flow to get a flat bed to take us to the nearest KOA. The flatbed shows up in about 30 minutes. We load the trailer on the truck and we follow it back to the KOA in Winnemucca. The driver waits for me to check in and then drops the trailer at our campsite.
Just a few notes or things to be thankful for here:
No doctors, cops or lawyers involved-all the way to the end of this adventure. This is the primary indicator of a good ride for me. I haven’t been disappointed with the staff or facility at a KOA yet (though I have avoided a few do to online reviews). The real estate that they put KOAs on, however, often leaves a little to be desired. Most of them are close to the interstate, designed more for RVers to spend a night along their way, rather than as a place for a tenter to enjoy nature. I’d call the location of this one interstate/industrial. But the staff is nice and accommodating. At some, probably most, private campgrounds, the owners would balk at letting a wrecker drop a crippled rig off in the park. Here, they let us in and give us the number to a local mechanic. It’s also the first KOA that we’ve seen with an on-site liquor store.
Monday morning I leave Mrs1911 at camp and trek 10 minutes to an auto parts store. OK, now I’m kind of liking the location of this KOA. I get the longest ½ inch drive breaker bar that they have and a socket, along with a punch and chisel set and a ball peen hammer. With the new leverage I get the damaged wheel assembly off. No damage to the axle shaft-sigh of relief, GRANDE’! The spare wheel goes right on
No worry though, there is a set of spare bearings in the bottom of the trailer. Because a forward looking rider with some planning sense carries a set
Or
Because a chronic procrastinator never got around to putting them in before the trip.
Bushtec got me on the oddball sized tires that you can only get from Bushtec $$$ I outsmarted them on the bearings though. I used my power and influence with connections in the auto repair business to cross-reference the number on old bearings and get a set gratis. Or so I thought. All the bearing makers’ cross-reference charts convert the Bushtecs version of a 6203 to their version of readily available bearing. None of them are right. Bushtec’s 6203 has an inside diameter about a 1/16 inch smaller than the rest of the world. And nobody in Winnemucca has a 6203 with the unique I.D. of the 6203 that Bushtec uses.
So I fire up the cell phone and start calling Bushtec dealers, starting with the closest. At the first few all I get is a cog in the parts department of a large dealer that finds it amusing that I might think that they would actually stock a part for a trailer. Then I get hold of Frank at Nunzio’s Custom Trikes. This is the kind of guy you want to talk to when you are in a jam. He doesn’t have all of what I need in stock, and the folks at Bushtec aren’t returning his call. But he does agree to sell me the spare from his demo trailer, so it’s off to Helper, Utah we go. BUT, I’m not feeling real good about getting even that far on the inner bearing in the old wheel.
The guys at the very cool Ace Hardware store in Winnemucca are sure that they have seen an assortment of shimstock in the store, but they can’t find it now. I find some chimney flashing that feels about .030” thick and a cheap pair of shears and head back to camp. This campground improvised spacer will have to get us to Helper.
You can’t ride from Winnemucca to Provo without checking Bonneville, can you?
Provo to Helper should be a pleasant 60 mile ride. The roads closed due to the Spanish Fork fire add a couple hundred miles. The mountains just yards on the other side of the interstate just barely visible.
The hotel in Springville smelled like a campfire and the people on the news were discussing the possibility of evacuating some large cities.
Nunzio’s Custom Trikes is a home based business in Helper, Utah. At first glance I see an air-cooled v-twin trike conversion…..yawn….a something-glide three wheeler. When I noticed the Honda badge I got a little curious and peeked around the corner, looked around the shop. Interesting. Vmax’s from both generations. Frank says the newer one is an eight second bike. It sounds like it could be. Nuzio’s has had some show winning trikes and some calander bikes. Forgive me for not getting better pics of some of the paint work.
We leave Nunzio’s with two good wheel/tire/bearing assemblies on the ground, a spare with a mismatch bearing in the trailer, and Frank’s lunch recommendation, Marcia’s Sammich Shop. I kept my chimney flashing shim as a souvenir. Frank’s lunch recommendation was right on the money.
Helper is a very interesting little town. Check it out. Give the waitress at Marcia’s a little attitude and see what you get
191 north out of Helper DOES NOT suck.
The skies were clear and the shadows were long as we rolled into Craig, Colorado,
and another KOA, with a nice facility and great staff but sandwiched right between a railroad track and the road. Didn’t keep us from getting a good night’s sleep though.
Last edited by a moderator:
FJRay
Well-known member
Great stuff and an amazing ride.good job on getting the trailer sorted out.The 6203 bearing can be ordered in a 5/8 bore and most any bearing house has them. Standard size is 17mm
FJRBandit
Well-known member
What an amazing trip! Thanks for taking the time to share it with the gang. Hopefully, the "adventures" are behind you now. Looking forward to the homestretch report.
(Mental notes for future trips - Rowena Curves, Helper, UT )
(Mental notes for future trips - Rowena Curves, Helper, UT
)
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
Put off reading this until I was sure I'd have the time to read it straight through. Good idea, as your photos and terse prose are captivating. (Note to self: Crater Lake, Rowena Crest)
I assume you mad it out of Craig, Colorado ... ?
I assume you mad it out of Craig, Colorado ... ?
1911
Well-known member
Final Approach
Our little tire detour, and the fire detour on the tire detour, means that we’ll save southern Utah for another trip. Anybody wanna do Moab next spring?
This is not tragic. The Helper area would make a great day ride, especially when all the roads around Manti-la Sal National Forest are open. Forgive me if this is common knowledge to folks that hang out on the more western parts of the forums.
So we trade Bryce Canyon and Moab for Salt Lake, Helper and Rocky Mountain National Park.
The first thing we do leaving Craig is to stop by the big W to restock. A WalMart that stocks RCBS and Nosler-coolest thing I’ve seen since WalMart stopped selling SingleSixes.
We roll into RMNP and set up camp at Timber Creek Campground amidst a cool drizzle and the elk rut. First choice for dinner is to find a restaurant in Estes Park. The mileage to and back seems easily enough doable.
By the time we get up to 11,000 feet the temp is down to the low 40s and the rain is steady and sideways, and mixed with a little frozen stuff.
We bail on crossing Milner Pass this afternoon, drop back down to camp and throw something on the propane. We fall asleep to the lullaby of bugling elk, yipping coyote and a light rain on the fly.
Thursday’s attempt to cross over to Estes Park is drier and goes much better. We even catch a few spots of sunshine. A little color in the trees and the traffic that goes with tree color makes it feel like home (BRP).
And we walk a little tightrope. I’d sure hate to have a wheel bearing seize here.
RMNP is our last attraction but not quite our last excitement. We drop down into hazy Denver traffic and then strike out across Kansas. There is a north/south line of thunderstorms that stretch nearly from the bottom of the nation to the top, moving west to east. The kids are at home. They have come up from Florida to attend that big horse thing in Tryon, NC. Since they are going back to Florida Sunday, we want to get back home Saturday afternoon. It would have been perfect to spend an extra day putting about Colorado to let the storms clear out but our desire to get home overrides.
We catch up to the front and then ride along with it, getting gradually deeper and deeper into it. You can imagine seeing this from very far off in the wide open Kansas skies and running it down. It’s not too bad until we get to the leading edge, where the traffic comes to a crawl. We start thinking about Dorothy and Toto and take cover, motel in Salina. When we watch the local news we learn that the traffic jam was due to an 18 wheeler getting blown over.
Friday, Salina to the KOA in Paducha Kentucky is fairly uneventful. In the homestretch on Saturday, fate smiles on us a little, as far as the location it chose for our second flat tire of the trip, just south of Chattanooga.
By then we are finished with the slab and turn on final, through north Georgia. We beat the kids to the house.
A little more adventure found than sought, but still an AWESOME trip. Great memories that will last a lifetime.
I still have stacks of old magazines from before the internet days. There is nothing in them that ever inspired me to do a trip like this or armed me with enough info to enable it. MAYBE by this point in life I would have found said info and inspiration without motorcycle forums. Generations before have. MAYBE we’d have done a trip like this without the little bit of courage that a hard copy of the FJR Assistance list provides, or the countless examples of how far a stranger will go help a fellow rider that we find on the boards. MAYBE, but don’t bet on it. So, as for me, now, I’ll thank the forums for the info and inspiration, and the people that organize stuff like Reuben Run, YFO and EOM, for great memories.
YeHaw!
Leaving with a couple “after” pics
Our little tire detour, and the fire detour on the tire detour, means that we’ll save southern Utah for another trip. Anybody wanna do Moab next spring?
This is not tragic. The Helper area would make a great day ride, especially when all the roads around Manti-la Sal National Forest are open. Forgive me if this is common knowledge to folks that hang out on the more western parts of the forums.
So we trade Bryce Canyon and Moab for Salt Lake, Helper and Rocky Mountain National Park.
The first thing we do leaving Craig is to stop by the big W to restock. A WalMart that stocks RCBS and Nosler-coolest thing I’ve seen since WalMart stopped selling SingleSixes.
We roll into RMNP and set up camp at Timber Creek Campground amidst a cool drizzle and the elk rut. First choice for dinner is to find a restaurant in Estes Park. The mileage to and back seems easily enough doable.
By the time we get up to 11,000 feet the temp is down to the low 40s and the rain is steady and sideways, and mixed with a little frozen stuff.
We bail on crossing Milner Pass this afternoon, drop back down to camp and throw something on the propane. We fall asleep to the lullaby of bugling elk, yipping coyote and a light rain on the fly.
Thursday’s attempt to cross over to Estes Park is drier and goes much better. We even catch a few spots of sunshine. A little color in the trees and the traffic that goes with tree color makes it feel like home (BRP).
And we walk a little tightrope. I’d sure hate to have a wheel bearing seize here.
RMNP is our last attraction but not quite our last excitement. We drop down into hazy Denver traffic and then strike out across Kansas. There is a north/south line of thunderstorms that stretch nearly from the bottom of the nation to the top, moving west to east. The kids are at home. They have come up from Florida to attend that big horse thing in Tryon, NC. Since they are going back to Florida Sunday, we want to get back home Saturday afternoon. It would have been perfect to spend an extra day putting about Colorado to let the storms clear out but our desire to get home overrides.
We catch up to the front and then ride along with it, getting gradually deeper and deeper into it. You can imagine seeing this from very far off in the wide open Kansas skies and running it down. It’s not too bad until we get to the leading edge, where the traffic comes to a crawl. We start thinking about Dorothy and Toto and take cover, motel in Salina. When we watch the local news we learn that the traffic jam was due to an 18 wheeler getting blown over.
Friday, Salina to the KOA in Paducha Kentucky is fairly uneventful. In the homestretch on Saturday, fate smiles on us a little, as far as the location it chose for our second flat tire of the trip, just south of Chattanooga.
By then we are finished with the slab and turn on final, through north Georgia. We beat the kids to the house.
A little more adventure found than sought, but still an AWESOME trip. Great memories that will last a lifetime.
I still have stacks of old magazines from before the internet days. There is nothing in them that ever inspired me to do a trip like this or armed me with enough info to enable it. MAYBE by this point in life I would have found said info and inspiration without motorcycle forums. Generations before have. MAYBE we’d have done a trip like this without the little bit of courage that a hard copy of the FJR Assistance list provides, or the countless examples of how far a stranger will go help a fellow rider that we find on the boards. MAYBE, but don’t bet on it. So, as for me, now, I’ll thank the forums for the info and inspiration, and the people that organize stuff like Reuben Run, YFO and EOM, for great memories.
YeHaw!
Leaving with a couple “after” pics
FJRay
Well-known member
Fantastic report. Ranks right up there with the best. Was great seeing you folks at the Reuben.
Fontanaman
Robin Trower
Outstanding ride report!
Panman
Well-known member
Yep NAPA found me some, the 2nd time.
I carry spares now, and a big ass crescent.This happen
Ten minuets after this
Always a spare set of bearings and a tire in the bottom of my trailer now.
I found Shinko 80-80 and 80-90 moped tires work. 80-80 are for the first Gen Bushtech's and the 80-90 are for the Gen ll's
1911
Well-known member
What an amazing trip! Thanks for taking the time to share it with the gang. Hopefully, the "adventures" are behind you now. Looking forward to the homestretch report.
(Mental notes for future trips - Rowena Curves, Helper, UT)
I was looking for something else and ran across a pic from Rowena that got lost in the shuffle, pity
Uncle Hud
Just another blob of protoplasm using up your oxyg
^^^^ Now THAT'S worth riding to Colorado.
1911
Well-known member
Fontanaman
Robin Trower
Before folks drive thousands of miles to see the Rowena Curves please consider the road itself is only 15 miles long. It is a local novelty road at best, not a destination highway.
Destinations Highways in the Pacific Northwest include:
Washington State Hwy 129/ Oregon Hwy 3 between Asotin Washington and Enterprise Oregon.
Hwy 245, the Dooly Mountain Hwy.
Oregon Hwys 26/19/218 190 miles of bliss in NE Oregon.
Here is another great 190 mile route in NE Oregon. This gets you close to the Rowena Curves.
And this route continues the fun along the Rowena Curves to the east side of Mount St. Helens then toward Mt. Rainer. Summer only and it is rough in spots.
Want more, PM me and you can stay at my place in Spokane too.
Nuff for now. This are some of the best of the best and I didn't even touch much of Washington State.
Destinations Highways in the Pacific Northwest include:
Washington State Hwy 129/ Oregon Hwy 3 between Asotin Washington and Enterprise Oregon.
Hwy 245, the Dooly Mountain Hwy.
Oregon Hwys 26/19/218 190 miles of bliss in NE Oregon.
Here is another great 190 mile route in NE Oregon. This gets you close to the Rowena Curves.
And this route continues the fun along the Rowena Curves to the east side of Mount St. Helens then toward Mt. Rainer. Summer only and it is rough in spots.
Want more, PM me and you can stay at my place in Spokane too.
Nuff for now. This are some of the best of the best and I didn't even touch much of Washington State.
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