Kidder
09-16-2004, 10:57 AM
Five of us loaded up two vehicles and two trailers and headed from DFW to Albuquerque, NM on Thursday. Our ultimate goal was to go watch the Tech/NM game since one of our riders is a Tech alum. For the rest of us, we were probably more interested in riding but the game would be a welcome change.
Friday: We decided to take highway 550 from Albuquerque to Durango, CO. Big mistake. Three of us were on sportbikes (2 Gixxers, 1 Z-1000) and one was on a VTX and the other a ST1300. The road there, while somewhat scenic, was slab with a few sweepers thrown in to keep you awake. However, once we got to Durango 200 miles later, things improved drastically. The roads were great. However, the weather gods must've been against us because storms were brewing up in the mountains. We tried to go from Durango to Silverton but the weather just wouldn't let us (it was in the 40s and rainy). So, we decided to ride back to A'que. This was at 5:30pm! Our groups got split up and myself and the other gixxer rider went **** bent back to A'que. The other group showed up about an hour later although they had stopped at a casino. The ride back was not good because it got dark and we were worried about deer. The pace back was fairly high to keep up with cars (85+). It was quite stressful and we were glad to make it back to A'que in one piece. 530 miles total.
Saturday: This was a good day. Three riders decided not to get up early because they were tired from the previous day. So, myself and the other gixxer rider (that's right, the VTX, ST1300, and Z1000 riders were tired...LOL) headed up highway 4 from San Ysidro through the state park and into Los Alamos. This ride was great. The temps were perfect for our Mesh Jackets and the roads were quite twisty. We didn't want to speed severely through the park so we kept the pace at around 70 MPH. It was a blast. The scenery was beautiful. We got up to around 11k feet on the top of the ridge above Los Alamos and could see down into the valley back towards Jemez Springs/San Ysidro. We even saw a herd of elk in a protected part of the park in late morning. Unfortunately, we had to cut the trip short due to the game that was starting at 6p. So, we gassed up in Los Alamos and headed back to A'que. 250 miles total.
Sunday: We all got up early and did the same route from 550 to 4 into Los Alamos. However, our ultimate destination was Taos. So, we took out of Los Alamos 501-->502-->503-->76-->518 into Taos. These were twisty roads all the way! My kind of riding. We rode through heavily wooded forests in the park to desert/mountainous terrain heading up to Taos. We ended up having lunch in the plaza in Taos and then reversed the route back. We saw elk in the preserve both coming and going. It was very cool. We ended up rolling back into A'que at around 8p. 320 miles.
Pics to come (hopefully).
Myself and my other gixxer riding buddy ended up doing 1100 miles in three days. Not bad for a couple of hyperbikes. A 500+ mile day on my Gix 1000 is definitely not a problem on the big bike. I was quite pleased since normally we only do 300 miles/day. The cool temps definitely helped with riding endurance.
Friday: We decided to take highway 550 from Albuquerque to Durango, CO. Big mistake. Three of us were on sportbikes (2 Gixxers, 1 Z-1000) and one was on a VTX and the other a ST1300. The road there, while somewhat scenic, was slab with a few sweepers thrown in to keep you awake. However, once we got to Durango 200 miles later, things improved drastically. The roads were great. However, the weather gods must've been against us because storms were brewing up in the mountains. We tried to go from Durango to Silverton but the weather just wouldn't let us (it was in the 40s and rainy). So, we decided to ride back to A'que. This was at 5:30pm! Our groups got split up and myself and the other gixxer rider went **** bent back to A'que. The other group showed up about an hour later although they had stopped at a casino. The ride back was not good because it got dark and we were worried about deer. The pace back was fairly high to keep up with cars (85+). It was quite stressful and we were glad to make it back to A'que in one piece. 530 miles total.
Saturday: This was a good day. Three riders decided not to get up early because they were tired from the previous day. So, myself and the other gixxer rider (that's right, the VTX, ST1300, and Z1000 riders were tired...LOL) headed up highway 4 from San Ysidro through the state park and into Los Alamos. This ride was great. The temps were perfect for our Mesh Jackets and the roads were quite twisty. We didn't want to speed severely through the park so we kept the pace at around 70 MPH. It was a blast. The scenery was beautiful. We got up to around 11k feet on the top of the ridge above Los Alamos and could see down into the valley back towards Jemez Springs/San Ysidro. We even saw a herd of elk in a protected part of the park in late morning. Unfortunately, we had to cut the trip short due to the game that was starting at 6p. So, we gassed up in Los Alamos and headed back to A'que. 250 miles total.
Sunday: We all got up early and did the same route from 550 to 4 into Los Alamos. However, our ultimate destination was Taos. So, we took out of Los Alamos 501-->502-->503-->76-->518 into Taos. These were twisty roads all the way! My kind of riding. We rode through heavily wooded forests in the park to desert/mountainous terrain heading up to Taos. We ended up having lunch in the plaza in Taos and then reversed the route back. We saw elk in the preserve both coming and going. It was very cool. We ended up rolling back into A'que at around 8p. 320 miles.
Pics to come (hopefully).
Myself and my other gixxer riding buddy ended up doing 1100 miles in three days. Not bad for a couple of hyperbikes. A 500+ mile day on my Gix 1000 is definitely not a problem on the big bike. I was quite pleased since normally we only do 300 miles/day. The cool temps definitely helped with riding endurance.