Jump to content

Doing a Pandemic ride around the southwest


Clegg78

Recommended Posts

Made it home!  955 miles in 3 days.   This last day was brutal unending winter weather and rain until the end, then 60+ mph winds.    The bike worked brilliantly powering through 30F snow and rain.   I had wool base layers on and a heated bib.

mode B day for sure:)

C5C36F5A-CB20-4104-94ED-B3680FBCE868.jpeg

041ADB8C-1114-4DCB-BE71-A4EB0B109233.jpeg

6ECE4085-BD72-4440-950A-75B007306D6E.jpeg

4BF3FE06-77D0-4564-B5D0-BFC7238316F6.jpeg

  • Thumbsup 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Supporting Member

@Clegg78 - glad you made it back safely. Getting into weather like that can be nerve wracking especially crossing a mountain pass, you have to commit to reach the summit and continue or turn around and find an alternate route, and hope the weather isn’t worse on the detour...

  • Thumbsup 1

***2015 Candy Red FJ-09***

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, betoney said:

@Clegg78 - glad you made it back safely. Getting into weather like that can be nerve wracking especially crossing a mountain pass, you have to commit to reach the summit and continue or turn around and find an alternate route, and hope the weather isn’t worse on the detour...

 Yup, after I got over the pass I realized rather fast that the weather system was way further east than I was expecting, and looked at the weather radar while riding and saw the tunnels at the divide on I70 were closed and it was a snow storm... so I diverted down to take 285, but by the time I got going on 285, the weather had moved in over that segment...   It was either divert again and burn another hour and ride into an area reporting 80mph wind gusts, or just force through... so I forced through.  I watched the temp closely.  It got to 31F at one point, but the roads were still just wet.    If it dropped into the 20s, or I saw slush forming I may have parked at any shelter I could find to let it blow through. 

Definitely one of the longest 4 hours of riding I've had.     

1 hour after I went over independence pass a BMW SUV rolled off the road I was on due to ice... that's how close I was to being phucked.  

  • Thumbsup 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Total miles on the bike in 7 days 2253mi (including the one short day up to the grand canyon while I had the wheels balanced in flagstaff. )   Total including the tow/drive back to Denver: 2736mi  

In the map the Red lines are the first trip attempt, Blue is the 2nd, and the Cyan is the tow/truck. 

2020-10-12_14-39-41.jpg

  • Thumbsup 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Supporting Member
6 hours ago, Clegg78 said:

 Yup, after I got over the pass I realized rather fast that the weather system was way further east than I was expecting, and looked at the weather radar while riding and saw the tunnels at the divide on I70 were closed and it was a snow storm... so I diverted down to take 285, but by the time I got going on 285, the weather had moved in over that segment...   It was either divert again and burn another hour and ride into an area reporting 80mph wind gusts, or just force through... so I forced through.  I watched the temp closely.  It got to 31F at one point, but the roads were still just wet.    If it dropped into the 20s, or I saw slush forming I may have parked at any shelter I could find to let it blow through. 

Definitely one of the longest 4 hours of riding I've had.     

1 hour after I went over independence pass a BMW SUV rolled off the road I was on due to ice... that's how close I was to being phucked.  

Yikes, Scary situation!  You got lucky with that one. 👍

  • Thumbsup 1

***2015 Candy Red FJ-09***

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So I finished putting together a video that took the 1TB of video data that was recorded on the trip into a concise and fun video breaking down the 8 days and 2250 miles of adventure.  I've done a bunch of these kinds of video in the past, but this is my first one in the last 5 years, and I had a blast making it.   Enjoy!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×