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It's been a while that I posted here but here we go - posting now!
A buddy and I took 6 days to take a very cool bike trip; buddy rides a Yamaha FJR and I was on my Tiger 900 GT.
The route: Home (DFW area) > New Mexico > Arizona > Utah > Colorado > New Mexico > Home:
The trip ended up being just over 2800 miles according to my bike; seeing that my rear tire was pretty much gone by the end of the trip, I do think there was a little bit of error in those readings (and we know that speedo is about 5 mph aggressive) but:
Days 1 and 6 were long haul pedal to the metal kind of days; from DFW to Santa Fe on day 1 and from Red River (NM) to DFW. Lots of slab. Cruise control FTW! No, really; it is incredible!!
On the way to Santa Fe, we tried to follow Route 66 for a bit; but we ran into the area that was unpaved anymore, so after a little bit of that we opted for the highway instead (you can see it in the green part right of the bike here) because we had so much distance to cover:
On day 2, the destination was Page, AZ. Some cool riding on the way... first made it to Los Alamos and then over the mountain and this beautiful valley:
Further along, we took the time to go by Ship Rock peak; pretty wild, I have never seen it in person:
Obligatory storm / dust storm once we hit Arizona; we decided to stop in Rock Point because wind gusts were getting really nasty until the storm came through, with all the dust in the air, it was getting dangerous to ride:
Day 3 saw us do a quick stop at the dam in Page, AZ, just so we can say that we took a dam picture:
Then made it to Bryce Canyon... beautiful!!
Rode around the park a bit more:
Onto to the final destination for that day, Hanksville, UT! Some beautiful sights on the way (rode through Capitol Reef NP which is also incredible); lots of varied terrain. That was probably my favorite day of the trip:
Another early start on Day 4! Destination this time was Cortez, CO... also beautiful riding, especially in the morning:
This was supposed to be "Lake Powel" (northern part) but the lake is very low (the ranger said about 30 ft under):
Day 5 - we headed north from Cortez and rode by Telluride, CO and then in Ridgway, we turned right to go via Ouray and Million Dollar Highway, on our way to ultimate destination, Red River, NM. Looking south toward Ouray when in Ridgway, wondering what those clouds will bring us in the mountains:
As it turns out, dry albeit a bit cold all the way to Durango. Beautiful, as always! This is probably my favorite area of Colorado:
Into New Mexico... on the way to Red River, also beautiful!! This is probably an area where it was the coldest as we went over a mountain to make it to Taos (mountains are behind my back LOL). Temp got down to 32:
Made it to Red River! I like Red River; went skiing there for several years (and will try to go again this December). We rode through that storm to come here and about 10 minutes later another one came through and it was sleeting LOL so we were happy we had a hotel here:
Next morning, got to scrape some frost of the windshield and the bike LOL:
Well, from there on, after about first 3 hours it was a long boring ride home. Overall, it was a great trip!
Bike specific (2020 Tiger 900 GT):
This was the first trip of that length that I took on the 900. I did 2 days rides before, but nothing like this.
The bike is phenomenal; I knew that I was buying a great bike but the bike is better than that, IMO. It fits me well, behaves very well on the highway and twisties, handles winds well. Also, that cruise control! Very pleased! I used either highway or rain ride modes on this trip, I can tell the difference.
The seat... well... let's just say that because of (reasons) - the Sargent seat I bought did not come to me in time so I was riding on OEM seat (with a sheep skin). It was okay but just okay; I would not do it on OEM seat again. But it was not terrible.
Getting the Givi windshield was a great move on my part; I was not getting fatigued with wind pressure on my shoulders, I get no buffeting (the shield is vented like the OEM shield is) so this was another success.
Grip heaters are okay but not great. I guess they are adequate; but once you have heavier gloves on you don't really feel the heat as much as you feel the lack of it when you turn the grip heaters off.
I bought the H&B C-Bow luggage (Xtravel bags which are semi rigid, I guess). This worked out great. It is very easy to take them off and into the hotel room and of day. Content was bone dry after rains and storms along the way. I don't see how stuff would not stay dry in those things LOL unless they were compromised somehow (tear or what not). I was a little worried that there is no closing mechanism for bags themselves (the bags do lock to the bike carrier) but did not really worry about it when we were doing shorter hikes or at lunches.
My rear tire needs replacing now; I am switching to Michelin as I can get dual compound (for more longevity riding flat roads). I explicitly dislike how OEM tires (front and back) feel when they hit tar sealant ("tar snakes"). Seems like Colorado and to a degree Utah is in love with the stuff and it is all over the place. Slipping on those things all over the place; very unnerving. Michelins handled this much better when I rode some of the same roads on my V-Strom in the past so Michelin it is.
A buddy and I took 6 days to take a very cool bike trip; buddy rides a Yamaha FJR and I was on my Tiger 900 GT.
The route: Home (DFW area) > New Mexico > Arizona > Utah > Colorado > New Mexico > Home:
The trip ended up being just over 2800 miles according to my bike; seeing that my rear tire was pretty much gone by the end of the trip, I do think there was a little bit of error in those readings (and we know that speedo is about 5 mph aggressive) but:
Days 1 and 6 were long haul pedal to the metal kind of days; from DFW to Santa Fe on day 1 and from Red River (NM) to DFW. Lots of slab. Cruise control FTW! No, really; it is incredible!!
On the way to Santa Fe, we tried to follow Route 66 for a bit; but we ran into the area that was unpaved anymore, so after a little bit of that we opted for the highway instead (you can see it in the green part right of the bike here) because we had so much distance to cover:
On day 2, the destination was Page, AZ. Some cool riding on the way... first made it to Los Alamos and then over the mountain and this beautiful valley:
Further along, we took the time to go by Ship Rock peak; pretty wild, I have never seen it in person:
Obligatory storm / dust storm once we hit Arizona; we decided to stop in Rock Point because wind gusts were getting really nasty until the storm came through, with all the dust in the air, it was getting dangerous to ride:
Day 3 saw us do a quick stop at the dam in Page, AZ, just so we can say that we took a dam picture:
Then made it to Bryce Canyon... beautiful!!
Rode around the park a bit more:
Onto to the final destination for that day, Hanksville, UT! Some beautiful sights on the way (rode through Capitol Reef NP which is also incredible); lots of varied terrain. That was probably my favorite day of the trip:
Another early start on Day 4! Destination this time was Cortez, CO... also beautiful riding, especially in the morning:
This was supposed to be "Lake Powel" (northern part) but the lake is very low (the ranger said about 30 ft under):
Day 5 - we headed north from Cortez and rode by Telluride, CO and then in Ridgway, we turned right to go via Ouray and Million Dollar Highway, on our way to ultimate destination, Red River, NM. Looking south toward Ouray when in Ridgway, wondering what those clouds will bring us in the mountains:
As it turns out, dry albeit a bit cold all the way to Durango. Beautiful, as always! This is probably my favorite area of Colorado:
Into New Mexico... on the way to Red River, also beautiful!! This is probably an area where it was the coldest as we went over a mountain to make it to Taos (mountains are behind my back LOL). Temp got down to 32:
Made it to Red River! I like Red River; went skiing there for several years (and will try to go again this December). We rode through that storm to come here and about 10 minutes later another one came through and it was sleeting LOL so we were happy we had a hotel here:
Next morning, got to scrape some frost of the windshield and the bike LOL:
Well, from there on, after about first 3 hours it was a long boring ride home. Overall, it was a great trip!
Bike specific (2020 Tiger 900 GT):
This was the first trip of that length that I took on the 900. I did 2 days rides before, but nothing like this.
The bike is phenomenal; I knew that I was buying a great bike but the bike is better than that, IMO. It fits me well, behaves very well on the highway and twisties, handles winds well. Also, that cruise control! Very pleased! I used either highway or rain ride modes on this trip, I can tell the difference.
The seat... well... let's just say that because of (reasons) - the Sargent seat I bought did not come to me in time so I was riding on OEM seat (with a sheep skin). It was okay but just okay; I would not do it on OEM seat again. But it was not terrible.
Getting the Givi windshield was a great move on my part; I was not getting fatigued with wind pressure on my shoulders, I get no buffeting (the shield is vented like the OEM shield is) so this was another success.
Grip heaters are okay but not great. I guess they are adequate; but once you have heavier gloves on you don't really feel the heat as much as you feel the lack of it when you turn the grip heaters off.
I bought the H&B C-Bow luggage (Xtravel bags which are semi rigid, I guess). This worked out great. It is very easy to take them off and into the hotel room and of day. Content was bone dry after rains and storms along the way. I don't see how stuff would not stay dry in those things LOL unless they were compromised somehow (tear or what not). I was a little worried that there is no closing mechanism for bags themselves (the bags do lock to the bike carrier) but did not really worry about it when we were doing shorter hikes or at lunches.
My rear tire needs replacing now; I am switching to Michelin as I can get dual compound (for more longevity riding flat roads). I explicitly dislike how OEM tires (front and back) feel when they hit tar sealant ("tar snakes"). Seems like Colorado and to a degree Utah is in love with the stuff and it is all over the place. Slipping on those things all over the place; very unnerving. Michelins handled this much better when I rode some of the same roads on my V-Strom in the past so Michelin it is.
I can only imagine how fun the 900 is.