Well, Monday night I returned from my road trip out to AZ for my close friends' wedding in Tucson, AZ. Rode out Thursday morning and had just a great old time. weather was perfect. Was having issues with my left grip. Seems like the OEM Kuryakyn grip glue is water soluble and after so many washes, ungrips. Not good, especially if you got 400 more miles to ride!

I stopped in 1000 Palms, CA and would like to give a VERY big thank you to Curtis at Mad Dod Motorcycle Company. Took time outta his moring to help me reset my grip, and didnt ask a thing in return. Great guy and definitely thank him for the knowledge he passed on to me about those fancy rake kits..... staying away from them like the plague!

Got to Tucson in about 7 hours of riding all the way on the 10. Weather was great all weekend and just enjoyed some short trips to the west of the city. Wanted to go up the Mt. Lemmon run but alas, I would have gone into my gas money for the trip back. Rode up Sentienial Peak and got some great shots of Tucson looking east. Never realized how big the "A" for the U of A was till then!

Trip back was kinda hot, and really windy a few miles after I crossed back into California. Fought a 15mph head wind until I got to Palm Springs.... where the headwind went up to at least 25mph! That part was NOT fun.

Made it back in one piece, with my worn rear tire still together. Friggen OEM tires SUCK; horrible wear characteristics IMO. Rode over 1100 miles total and was the first true rode trip I have taken. Bike handle the journey like a champ! look forward to me next trip, but I think I may try another route back to avoid that damned wind in Palm Springs!

 

Glad You had a great time in our State

 

Tustin to Tucson?...
Ortega Hwy to Elsinore/ south on the 15 to Escondido/ east out thru Julian and Ocotillo Wells. At Brawley, you can hop down 111 to I-8 or go further east to connect with the 8 closer to Yuma.
Beyond Yuma, (around Gila Bend, I Think) you can go south and take two lane highways the rest of the way to Tucson.
The 10 in the Coachella valley area is a great place for getting sandblasted! Glad to hear your trip went well!

 

Glad you had a good trip, but my question is this, how many miles did you get out of your oem tire? I still have mine on the bike with better than 6500 miles on it, and it looks as if it will make another 6500, everyone I have talked to says that that is strange, they are only getting at most of 500miles to a rear tire and about 8000 on the front.

[IMG]local://upfiles/47348/EDFD8F957FE443088D62484F7B6453E2.jpg[/IMG]

 

My rear is now down to the wear bars. Its the second rear tire I have on there and its only got 5K on it. Front tire was replaced before the trip and had 7K on it. Dunno what the deal is, but Ive never like Dunlop tires, either for bikes or cars. The OEM tires we use on Lexus cars are crap too...

Could be that Im running alloy rims. Its possible that spoked rim (tube) tires use a different compound and wear better than tubless tires.

 

Don't know how hard you ride your sled, but I get about 11K on the rear tire and a little more on the front. And about the wind, 25 mph! That aint wind. That's a breeze. We ride in 40mph cross winds all the time here in Texas. It sucks but if you don't ride because of the wind you don't get to ride in my neck of the woods.

FD

 

If I was only getting 500 miles out of my rear tire, I would look for something else.

Gart

(I know what you meant!)

 

Sounds like a great ride. I really liked Tucson when I was there last year.

 

Sounds like ya had a great ride!

Tire life? I ride HARD, and do a LOT of mountain twisties and just plain playin' around. That stuff eats tires a lil' faster.

On my bike, I got 6500 miles on that fat 200 rear until I got 2 nails in it! GRRRR!!! Original Dunlop, woulda gone at least 8000 miles!
And I did quite a few "drag race" style launches on that tire. Then I found out rubber ain't cheap no more!
(Nobody PATCHES bike tires here anymore, LIABILITY isuues, ya know?)

The front tire should go 15-16K. Typically, the front lasts twice as long as the back. If I don't get nails in IT! LOL!
Dunlop tires are RELATIVELY harder than Metzeler or Avon, they should last a LOT longer. Not as good of traction on Dunlops,
but I never thought I needed more.

As far as little 15-25 mph breeze?

I agree with Flakdog, you need ta ride in some WIND!!! I was out yesterday in some stuff that bordered on bein' scary!
Sand blowin' on the West Mesa so hard that ya couldn't see the road, and cages all around, and they can't see either!

Ah, who am I kiddin'? I was havin' FUN, big adrenaline rushes and all...

 

Well, the outside of Palm Springs is where California has some wind farms for power production. Dunno the exact figures, but 25MPH winds felt like a comfortabel guestimate.

I would have honestly taken the longer route through the back country on highways and stuff, but I had a very tight budget. taking the long way would have put me over my fuel budget. wish I could have though, but just wasnt in the cards this trip.