Days 5 & 6 Tuesday & Wednesday June 12-13

In the previous post I mentioned that I drove the road – AZ 191 – on Monday with the PU and trailer.  And I rode the road on Tuesday.  I actually did a 267 mile loop on Tuesday.

I had filled the MC gas tank as I left Springerville.  I asked a fella at the café in Alpine how far was gas in the direction of New Mexico – He said in Glenwood – about 55-60 miles.  Good-e-nuff thought I, I’ll gas there.

But there was a significant amount of road work between Alpine and Glenwood and the speeds were very slow behind the pilot car for 20-25 miles of the 55 from Alpine to Glenwood.

So… I get to Glenwood and the gas gauge is flickering between ¾ and ½ tank so I make the decision to not get gas.

Well… You know the result – and no I did not run out of gas – but within a few miles of leaving Glenwood the gas gauge was flickering between ½ and 3/8.  By the time I made the turn west on to 78 it was flickering between 3/8 and ¼.  Not too much further it was solid on ¼.

Luckily once I reached the AZ state line the road was mostly downhill and I was more or less coasting – using very little throttle and gas.  But when I did have to use throttle I kept the speed down to between 45-50 to conserve even more gas.

When I made it to the junction of 78-191 I found a dilapidated station that looked to be closed – but there was an attendant and I filled the tank with 3.65 gallons.  I’d have probably made it into Clifton – another 9 or so miles – but lesson learned – DO NOT pass up the opportunity to fuel up and avoid these tense am I gonna make it or not situations.

The previous post has all the good pics so we’ll skip right to…

Wednesday June 13th

Coming down the mountain from Alpine on Tuesday afternoon I thought that the exhaust note was especially loud – but wrote it off as the Hard Krome exhaust pipes have always been loud.

Tired from the ride, I parked the bike Tuesday night and slept like a log.

Wednesday morning I checked the oil and tire pressures and set off at 06:20 for Alpine and breakfast at the café.

On the way up the mountain I again thought I detected some extra volume for the exhaust.  Again – we’re climbing from about 6975 feet at Springerville to over 8000 at Alpine so I wrote it off as the extra throttle needed to keep the speed up going uphill.

After a wonderful breakfast at the café I came out ready to ride 191 from north to south with my video camera going.

But the sun was shining on the exhaust side of the bike just right and I saw this horrid discoloration!

 

Then I knew that my hearing had not deceived me and there was something wrong with the exhaust.

So back down the hill to Springerville and load the bike in the PU.

I’d paid for the night so I relaxed for the afternoon at the RV park.