[ST] First Ride of the Year

["Dan Wallander" <triumph99@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Down here, New Mexico way, they have a ride called the Big Dog Ride where on
the first of each year anyone with the dog's comes out for breakfast and as
much of a 325 mile ride as they can take, or the weather allows.

I showed up for my first Big Dog ride along with about 20 other riders.  A
good turnout since most of the state was blanketed with snow the last night
of 2001.  The local BMW club was well represented, though there was one each
of Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki.  Triumph was well represented with my ST, a
Trophy, an Adventurer, and a Daytona(Ported and polished head, new cams,
Black Widow exhaust, sweet.

The riding starts off about 9:30 with a southerly route through Tijeras
Canyon.  The road is wet, but with no cars around, we slice through the
curves.  As we go further South (it supposed to get warmer, right?) we run
into fog.  OK, that's not so bad.  Then the temperature starts to drop, the
fog gets thicker and starts freezing on my faceshield.  Not good.  We drop
out of the pass and the fog gets patchy.  OK, that's better.  Now I can see
about half the time.  We come to the first stop.  Turn back or go on?  Go
on.  We start to run into melting snow in the shady areas, slow down.  The
sun comes out, go faster.  The freezing fog comes back, slow down.  It's
really hard to see the snow patches when you can't see.  We stop for lunch
and none too soon.  The Highway Patrolman at the restaurant says the snow
starts for real just a couple of miles South of where we are.  We head for
the kennel.  Even the GS riders aren't going for that.  On the way home
we're on the West side of the mountains and we find a dry straight road.
120MPH makes for a quick trip back.

So, close to 200 miles today.  A little slick at times, definitely cold, but
everyone made it back safe.

Dan Wallander
'99ST


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