Over the Top and Back Again, SS1000 ( very long )

[Mark Dieck <mdieck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Over the Top and Back again, my personal SaddleSore 1000. This is an extremely
long post, and I apologize to those that my deem it a waste of bandwidth.

Who am I, Mark Dieck I live in Mesa, Az ride a Y2k Sapphire Blue Sprint ST.

Opted to start my SS1000 at the Mobil station just down the street from my house.
Fired up the bike, had already done a walk around on the bike, tire pressure,
chain, oil, water, etc., everything looking good. Couple of miles down to the
mobil, fill up with gas and note the start time. Ooops the pumps at Mobil don't
time stamp their receipts. Mosey in to the store, pick up some snacks and use the
credit card, now we have a time stamped receipt.

The first leg of the trip was from Mesa, Az, part of the greater Phoenix
metropolitan sprawl, down to Tucson, Az.  The route included about 10 miles of
surface streets, up onto I-202 for about 10 miles, before catching I-10 for the
run down to Tucson. The morning air was nice and cool and traffic was light,
settled into a 95 mph pace as indicated by the speedo on the bike. A little over
an hour later hit the north side of Tucson and the expected light traffic. Catch
the junction for I-10/I-19 with no problems and get headed east on I-10, first
stop is planned for Wicox, Az.  Pull in for gas just outside of Wilcox, at 0822,
with 203 miles down.  No problems with the bike, though I have to admit that I had
a tough time getting comfortable on the bike. Not really sure why. Fill up the
bike, clean the visor on my helmet, take a check around the bike, everything
looking good, time to get going at 0838, 16 minutes off the road not bad.

The next leg of the trip has me headed towards Las Cruces, NM, on I-10. Maybe it
was just early morning achiness or something, since when I get back on the freeway
the bike feels great underneath me, just like you want it to. Look down at the
speedo, cruising along at 105-110 on the speedo and feeling great.  Very light
traffic on the freeway, and perfect weather conditions, lets let it go and get
some miles put away while I am feeling good. Ride into the west edge of Las Cruces
about 1030, and find the junction for I-25 north with no trouble. I don't know
about others, but when I am on a trip I always like to catch my fillup as I am
leaving a city rather than entering. Anyway the ride into Las Cruces is
uneventful, the 207.6 miles are covered in 2 hours 13 minutes. Take some extra
time at this stop to catch a snack and drink, and to call home and let my wife
know where I am and that everything is ok. Back on the road at 1115, and headed
north towards Albuquerque.

So far on the trip I hadn't been passed on the road by anyone, but just leaving
Las Cruces a small pickup passed me and settled in front of me. No problem, just
gave me someone to pace off of as they were running 100-105 on my speedo. This leg
of the trip was the proverbial PITA, had crosswinds coming from the west at
estimated 25 mph, with gusts up in the 30?s.  The winds were really pushing the
bike around. After about an hour it became evident to me how much extra effort is
required to ride in those conditions. Everything on my left side was starting to
ache from the unbalanced riding position required to keep the bike and myself
stable in the wind. Fortunately traffic was light and other than the wind the
road/weather conditions were excellent.
On the first two legs of the trip, I had averaged about 45 mpg. Running up the
hill from Las Cruces to Albuquerque and fighting the wind my gas consumption went
to 40 mpg. This caused me a bit of concern as I started watching for gas stations
coming up on Albuquerque, but managed to roll in at 1337, and put 5.157 gals into
the tank. Thank goodness I didn't have to go much further. At each of the stops I
got some rather amused looks from people as I cleaned off my visor using the
windshield cleaning tool at the stations.

Back on the road, by 1350, making the run thru Albuquerque to catch I-40 westbound
for Flagstaff, Az. Hoping that the wind will abate as the run from Albuquerque to
Flagstaff is across the top of a plateau with nothing to break up the wind.
Looking back, I should probably have taken a bit of a rest break in Albuquerque to
relax the neck muscles some. Still no navigation problems as I catch the I-40
junction and head west. The wind isn't showing any signs of abating, and
unfortunately it is still coming primarily from my left side, so no relief for the
muscles.  This leg of the trip was probably the least enjoyable of all. My muscles
were really aching, the bike was being pushed around by the wind, and I was way to
far away to have started thinking about have completed my journey. This was where
the only mechanical problem with the bike occurred. Sometime during this leg, the
left side screw that holds the plastic overlay for the indicator lamps had worked
loss and fallen out. The right side screw looked like it was still securely in, so
the overlay wasn't going to fall out, so I pushed on. Passed thru Gallup, NM which
is about 25 miles east of the Az/NM border, that gave me a very needed lift. I had
been watching the billboards and had a gas station picked out about 20 miles into
Az. Had a good run from there into Chambers, Az pulling in at 1620 with another
199.8 miles behind me. At this point I, in spite of my aching neck, I was feeling
very confident that the trip was going to be a success. Had the poorest fuel
mileage on this leg, guess the wind was really making a difference, 38.7 mpg.

Heading back out with a bit of energy from the snack and stop, but also with a bit
of trepidation as I realize it is another 100 miles or so to Flagstaff across the
open with the wind blowing.  Oh well, noone ever said it would be easy. This is
where some trip planning bore fruit. The distances between stops for the last two
legs were the two shortest on the trip which made them much less strenuous. The
winds were still there all the way into Flagstaff, but now I was on home turf in
some ways, and the prospect of filling up in Flagstaff and then being on the last
leg gave me some extra energy. Made the run into Flagstaff and turned south onto
I-17, catching a gas stop about about 15 miles out of Flagstaff. At this point I
had been on the road 12.5 hours and had ridden 977 miles according to my odometer.
One more leg and I would accomplish what I had set out to.

This leg is where not setting an alarm to wake myself up came into play. I had
hoped to make the entire trip in ?daylight?, starting out in the early dawn and
finishing at dusk. It was now 1845 and my finish point was a solid 2 hours away,
with at best an hours worth of daylight left. I had wanted to make the run in
daylight, as I have not augmented the lighting on my bike and the stock lights
really donut cut it, IMO. Back on the road, no longer on the top of the plateau,
and with a change in direction the wind is no longer causing me problems. My aches
are not aching as much, or at least I am not noticing them as much. I am on
familiar roads, having made the run up to Flagstaff many times, and other than
having some minor concerns about finishing in the dark, am very confident of the
outcome. The run down the hill from Flagstaff to Phoenix is thankfully uneventful,
the traffic here was the heaviest of the trip, but still would be considered
light.  Work my way thru Phoenix and head towards home, taking the same route that
I take home from work every day. The last 10 miles or so on surface streets. Have
you ever wanted a red light to stop you?  Well at this point I did, I just wanted
to stop the bike, put my feet down and rest. Even if it was just for 30 seconds. I
have driven that stretch of 10 miles several thousand times, and have only made
the entire stretch without a red light maybe twice. Well, I would have welcomed a
red light, but not a single one, green all the way back to the same Mobil station
that was my start point for my end point.

Eleven Thousand One Hundred Twenty Four miles in Fourteen Hours Forty Eight
Minutes. My saga was complete with a fill up, and coke for celebration and to get
the obligatory time stamp. The 2 miles home seemed like they took forever and yet
no time. My mind was racing replaying back the entire ride. I was pumped that I
had done it, yet very spent by the effort.  Oh, the reason I have titled my ride
Over the Top and Back Again, is that as I was riding I noticed that I went over
the Continental Divide while heading towards New Mexico, and then then came back
over.

It has now been 48 hours since I started and 33 hours or so since I finished. As I
think back on the trip there are things that I would do differently and lessons
learned. I will try to post those in the future.

Thanks to those that read this.

Mark Dieck



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