Lee Hart's Web Site

Wednesday, 1/21/1998

Today went even smoother than the first two days. Angela and Tom didn't get up terribly early which was appreciated because it took until 3 AM to download all of my mail (I slept for about 2.5 hours of this download; normally I would have skipped it but there were a few minor fires left at the office.) After some mandatory games of chase the ball with their Rotweiler Thor I showered and came out just in time to sit down to a great pancake breakfast. I was overwhelmed. At the WetLeather dinner at Café Velocé evening of the Seattle International Motorcycle Show Angela foolishly^H^H^H graciously told me that if I was ever in the bay area that I'd be welcome to crash with them. Because of my short day on Monday (only 300 miles) I didn't know that I was going to make it to the Bay Area until about 4 hours before I arrived. Unfortunately when I stopped about 6 PM the gas station had neither a public phone nor cellular service so when I called them from the next gas stop 2 hours later they only got about 2 hours notice (I called from Santa Rosa). I made it from there to Sunnyvale in less than 2 hours. Things worked out well; as it happened Tom was telecommuting Thursday so I didn't need to rush out of the house early in the morning, and I got to see Tom's cool harem of bikes. His Harley Bad Boy is truly a work of art. Better still, Tom provided some excellent tips for roads to take on my way to Vegas.

Alas, all good things must come to pass and shortly after 11 I rolled out of there. The roads that Tom had pointed me to (CA 25 and then Peach Tree/Indian Valley Road) was a fantastic ride. It had it all; long straight-aways with nothing but cows and chipmunks looking on as well as fantastic twisties in the valley. For a stretch the road goes down to one lane (not one lane each direction, just one lane). That made for very interesting riding. On any corner where you can't see around it you must assume that some massive piece of farming equipment is coming the other direction. Fortunately I only saw 3 other vehicles moving on that road; one car (which did a fine job of reminding me exactly how narrow the road is) and 2 motorcycles. On one of the long long straight-aways I set a new personal best top speed. (150+ indicated, 140 MPH according to the GPS). I half expected to look in the rear view and see that one of my saddlebags or sacks loaded on top had split apart and emptied the contents on the road. (the BMW saddlebags are only rated for 80 MPH). I wish I had 2 miles and a place to set down all of the junk I'm carrying to try a proper top speed test. Due to the tankbag I can't fully duck down behind the fairing. The wind is mighty powerful at those speeds. Surprisingly my mileage wasn't that bad on that leg. I filled up in Hollister before getting on 25 and then filled up again shortly after getting on 101 at the end. In 109 miles I used 3.1 gallons for 35 MPG. This is on the low side for this trip but similar to what I get commuting.

When I finally pulled into Las Vegas ~556 miles and 9 hours after I started I was tired, a little sore (cold temperatures on that ~5,000 foot pass at night; my arms, legs and chest were quite warm but my feet and left hand were not) and a little hungry. After a few looks around for competitive rates I ended up at the Luxor (the big black pyramid with the Sphinx out front for those not familiar with Vegas). (I would have stayed at the Bally but they didn't offer any motorcycle parking; at the Luxor I parked it in front with the Ferraris.) After a shower I felt like a new person, but I really wanted a massage after that cold ride. Unfortunately Las Vegas has outlawed cross-gender massages, and anyway Luxor's spa was already closed by the time I checked in. Alas. By the time I unpacked and then ate it was past midnight; I figured I'd attack Vegas on a full night's rest. Not as aggressive as the ~657 mile, 12 hour day before but still a very good day. Great roads, good sunshine, good temperatures until the sun went down. Also when I arrived I wasn't anywhere as beat.

The only downside to the day was that I found out that my Metzeler MEZ4 rear tire won't make it through the trip. It only has slightly more than 6600 miles on it but it's just about down to the wear bars. All of the relatively straight roads I've taken on the trip have also squared it off a lot. The bummer is that I have a new, wider rear tire and rim waiting for me in Redmond. (180/55ZR17 on 5.5x17 instead of 170/60ZR17 on 5.0x17) (Unfortunately the tire wasn't in before I left). It's not certain that I'd be able to get both safely shipped down here before I leave (it doesn't help that the rim is in my office, packaging long ago discarded.) The good news is that since this is more or less a throwaway tire I can get sticky rubber that won't last much longer than the return trip to Seattle (it was more than 1500 miles getting here; I expect that I still have ~2000 miles to go). So unless the tire shop can convince me otherwise I'll be putting a Dunlop D207 tire on. (normally I'd agree with their assessment of a dual compound tire like a Bridgestone BT57 but not when I have a replacement tire waiting for me at home). It looks like Cascade BMW may be able to do my fork seal replacement (the original seals started weeping before the trip and leaking more vigorously during the trip), tire change and my 9,000 mile service at the same time. (FWIW, I tried to buy a tire at the local BMW dealer, in an effort to support the dealer network. They don't have any tires that fit a K12 rear wheel, but at least they did point me in the direction of the tire shop)

I still wasn't sure where I would leave my K12 while I was in Colorado. I wasn't keen on leaving it in a garage, and there was some gear (like camping gear, helmet, etc.) that I preferred not to bring with me. I decided to check to see if the tire shop could keep the bike for the weekend while they replace the tires and I'd then pick it up on Tuesday. If that wasn't possible I was going to talk to the BMW dealer and a friend of a friend that lives in Las Vegas.

I'd decided that I'd like to attempt the return trip in 2 days (arriving late Monday) but much would be determined by who (if anyone) that I decide to ride back with as well as the weather.