Tally Whacker
Not another Mike
My buddies and I have a few rides we do every year, and a trip to Death Valley is one of them. It's usually scheduled for the first weekend in February, but several of us had unbreakable commitments that weekend she we bumped it back to the 28th of February and the 1st of March.
The ride is known as the Frostbite, bu this year's unusual weather conditions made it very, very warm- we saw temps in the mid-90s on Saturday. In celebration of the conditions, we renamed this year's ride from "Frostbite" to just "Bite". In the past we've done this ride in very cold conditions- a few years ago, in fact, the high temp we saw was 35 degrees, so this was a remarkable change.
I had scrambled to get my break-in service done prior to this ride, and I'm happy to report that I got the bike uncorked two days beforehand.
After work on Friday I rode up to my friend Mike's house in Long Beach, and encountered my first problem with the M1000R.
I set my phone to navigate me to his new house through my SENA headset, but little did I realize that when I stopped for gas and restarted the bike, it hijacked my communication and silenced my audio directions, so I missed his exit on the freeway by quite a few miles.
On the positive side of things, I got to lane split through Los Angeles rush hour freeway traffic both northbound and southbound on the 405 freeway, so that was a win. :138:
Saturday morning we launched early and headed back south a bit to southern Orange County to ride Ortega Highway (The only fun road in that area). We met up with a third member of our group and had fun winding through the mountains and out to the Palm Springs area, where our fourth friend waited for us. In the heat. Thankfully, Morgan had found the only shade and wasn't wilting too badly in the 96f morning.
Out Box Canyon Road, Morgan hit some sand in almost the very first turn, but saved it by standing the bike up and riding off into the desert before making his way back onto pavement. Well done, Morgan! That shook his confidence a little and it took him a bit to get back up the speed, but that was fine.
Our first real stop was in Amboy at the world-famous Roy's on Route 66. Just because. Whenever I pass through I make certain to buy something from the gas station store in the hopes that the business can cling to life for a little while longer.
That may no longer be a concern- there were far, far more people there than I hade ever seen, which became a trend for the rest of our trip.
Just a few miles past Amboy, I stopped for this photo:
In Shoshone, the southern gateway to Death Valley, we stopped to check out Dublin Gulch. Miners dug caves for dwellings back a bit over a century ago. You can see one of them back there behind the bike to the right:
It must have been a very challenging life for those guys.
The day was running late by the time we got our first view of Lake Manly. Although I'd been to Death Vally many times, this was the first time I'd ever actually seen that ephemeral body of water, and I'd been looking forward to it. The heavy rains we had here in California a few weeks ago filled the Badwater Basin and also produced quite the display of flower blooms. The yellow and purple of the flowers were a lot more impressive in person than in these photos. What you can't see in these pics were the stunning amount of people there to also take pictures of the flowers and the temporary body of water.
(Here's me, all broody and mysterious)
Lake Manly is there off to the left:
Starting out early the next morning from our overnight at the world-class El Portal Motel in Beatty, Nevada, the morning was a bit cooler than we'd faced the day before, but we were OK with that.
Unfortunately, Wildrose Road was closed, so after a verbal sparring match with some local jackasses we turned around.
Exiting the park, Mike wanted a picture with he Death Valley sign. While we were lining the bikes up, that young lady asked if her mom could pose with us, and we said that of course she could.
A quick stop at Ballarat followed not long after, and that was pretty much it for photos.
Morgan split off at Ridgecrest, but the rest of us continued on to Lake Isabella, then south on Caliente-Bodfish Road (truly, one of our group's favorite roads anywhere). A quick stint on boring roads led to us to Angeles Forest Highway and then Angeles Crest, which we railed in the dark. My bike's high beam is nearly useless- it's pointed way, way too high.
Freeways took us south, my buddies peeling off while I continued another hundred miles to get home.
It was a touch over 1200 miles for me for the weekend, with a mix of freeway, high speed back road (I managed 155 mph indicated, just to test my luggage security), tight and twisty narrow roads, loose sand and gravel, and even a tiny bit of mud. All in all, a good way to break in my new bike.
The ride is known as the Frostbite, bu this year's unusual weather conditions made it very, very warm- we saw temps in the mid-90s on Saturday. In celebration of the conditions, we renamed this year's ride from "Frostbite" to just "Bite". In the past we've done this ride in very cold conditions- a few years ago, in fact, the high temp we saw was 35 degrees, so this was a remarkable change.
I had scrambled to get my break-in service done prior to this ride, and I'm happy to report that I got the bike uncorked two days beforehand.
After work on Friday I rode up to my friend Mike's house in Long Beach, and encountered my first problem with the M1000R.
I set my phone to navigate me to his new house through my SENA headset, but little did I realize that when I stopped for gas and restarted the bike, it hijacked my communication and silenced my audio directions, so I missed his exit on the freeway by quite a few miles.
On the positive side of things, I got to lane split through Los Angeles rush hour freeway traffic both northbound and southbound on the 405 freeway, so that was a win. :138:
Saturday morning we launched early and headed back south a bit to southern Orange County to ride Ortega Highway (The only fun road in that area). We met up with a third member of our group and had fun winding through the mountains and out to the Palm Springs area, where our fourth friend waited for us. In the heat. Thankfully, Morgan had found the only shade and wasn't wilting too badly in the 96f morning.
Out Box Canyon Road, Morgan hit some sand in almost the very first turn, but saved it by standing the bike up and riding off into the desert before making his way back onto pavement. Well done, Morgan! That shook his confidence a little and it took him a bit to get back up the speed, but that was fine.
Our first real stop was in Amboy at the world-famous Roy's on Route 66. Just because. Whenever I pass through I make certain to buy something from the gas station store in the hopes that the business can cling to life for a little while longer.
That may no longer be a concern- there were far, far more people there than I hade ever seen, which became a trend for the rest of our trip.
Just a few miles past Amboy, I stopped for this photo:
In Shoshone, the southern gateway to Death Valley, we stopped to check out Dublin Gulch. Miners dug caves for dwellings back a bit over a century ago. You can see one of them back there behind the bike to the right:
It must have been a very challenging life for those guys.
The day was running late by the time we got our first view of Lake Manly. Although I'd been to Death Vally many times, this was the first time I'd ever actually seen that ephemeral body of water, and I'd been looking forward to it. The heavy rains we had here in California a few weeks ago filled the Badwater Basin and also produced quite the display of flower blooms. The yellow and purple of the flowers were a lot more impressive in person than in these photos. What you can't see in these pics were the stunning amount of people there to also take pictures of the flowers and the temporary body of water.
(Here's me, all broody and mysterious)
Lake Manly is there off to the left:
Starting out early the next morning from our overnight at the world-class El Portal Motel in Beatty, Nevada, the morning was a bit cooler than we'd faced the day before, but we were OK with that.
Unfortunately, Wildrose Road was closed, so after a verbal sparring match with some local jackasses we turned around.
Exiting the park, Mike wanted a picture with he Death Valley sign. While we were lining the bikes up, that young lady asked if her mom could pose with us, and we said that of course she could.
A quick stop at Ballarat followed not long after, and that was pretty much it for photos.
Morgan split off at Ridgecrest, but the rest of us continued on to Lake Isabella, then south on Caliente-Bodfish Road (truly, one of our group's favorite roads anywhere). A quick stint on boring roads led to us to Angeles Forest Highway and then Angeles Crest, which we railed in the dark. My bike's high beam is nearly useless- it's pointed way, way too high.
Freeways took us south, my buddies peeling off while I continued another hundred miles to get home.
It was a touch over 1200 miles for me for the weekend, with a mix of freeway, high speed back road (I managed 155 mph indicated, just to test my luggage security), tight and twisty narrow roads, loose sand and gravel, and even a tiny bit of mud. All in all, a good way to break in my new bike.
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