As I have said before the entire reason for this ride was to complete US50, “The Loneliest Road”; alone at the age of 50….oh, and to get the certificate and PIN.
Here is where the obsession began and then it grew to 2,000 miles
Here they are:
Official certificate, my jacket with pin attached
Sweet!
Here are two maps of the 2,509+ mile ride through 3 states. What a blast. I still can’t believe I did this!
3 States; 2,000+ miles
For those who like to look at terrain
Here is a picture of me while riding, one of our fellow riders had a penchant for snapping pictures while flying down the road…
In no particular order:
1) Call and make reservations…this way I could have gone to Arizona instead of Caliente, NV
2) Use a bottle with a screw cap in my saddlebags. The one I had leaked Gatorade all over. It was a bumpy ride.
3) Take the trail mix out of my saddlebags so that the attack of the killer ants would not occur. They were everywhere. So insidious.
4) Pay attention when Jeff, my mechanic, shows me how to do something.
5) Bring a Camelbak water bag with me on long, hot weather trips. I have two and brought neither.
6) Pack 25% less clothing. And then pack less clothing.
7) Purchased that replacement throttle lock. It would have come in handy.
8) Left the rain suit at home. Well, maybe not really that one. If it had poured I would have been complaining that I didn’t take it. I was lucky the storm passed quickly.
9) Bring a small bottle of distilled water for the battery
Off to complete a portion of the maintenance. Will wait until I get the replacement transistorized ignition to do the valves, points, and timing. But everything else will be done over the next 2 days…
Hey wasn’t I doing the same thing about two weeks ago?
What I found after starting the basic maintenance:
1) I began with one suspect spoke (it clunked instead of pinged when tapped with a screw driver). Now I have 3 spokes that “clunk” and two are next to one another. No more riding Dash until he gets all fixed on the front tire. So time to buy a new rim (why not) re-lace the tire, add new wheel bearings (after 37+ years I think it needs new bearings), and a new front tire (knew it would need that after this ride so no surprise on that front). The rear tire is perfect so that will wait until either a spoke goes there OR I need a new tire.
229 miles on its own steam plus 83 miles towed. Day 13
The route: Primm NV>I-15>Victorville 18W (towed there)>18W (under Dash steam again)>138>14S>5N>126>101>HOME
I had decided to get an early start out of Primm NV and was on my way by 7 am. Dash did not need any oil and we were happily traveling down the I- 15 south when Dash decided to suddenly stop running. I looked at the trip-o-meter and it read 66.6. I am not joking. Safely off to the side of the road I began to check what it could be. Since it stopped so suddenly I figured it was electrical. All my lights and horn worked fine. Hmmmm. That was puzzling. I checked gas by disconnecting the hose and turning on the petcock. Gas was plentiful. I checked the fuses. Check. I checked the battery water level and connections. All good. I tried to start the bike nothing. Zero. What the hell. So now it was spark. I thought it could be my spark plugs but they wouldn’t all fail at once? Would they? That seemed silly. I wiggled all the wiring. Then I wondered if it was the transistorized ignition I added last year. I called Jeff my mechanic in Carpinteria but it was too early. I knew there was an easy way to reconvert to points but I wasn’t paying attention when Jeff told me about it last year. Cars were blazing by but no one stopped. Some honked though.
Time to call Geico. On the phone they set up a flat bed tow truck for me. I was literally sweating to death. It was so hot.
Here is where Dash stopped running. Mile marker 120
Jeff called me back and we spoke and he concurred it was the ignition. I tried to start Dash and at least it was making a noise now so as it cooled it was trying to get spark. Jeff asked me to check the spark at the plug directly and walked me through how to do this. Luckily a nice Harley-Davidson rider stopped to assist. No spark in plug 3 and 4. I called Jeff back and reported my findings. Now he wanted me to take off the points cover but I couldn’t get the screws to budge. It was crazy hot. I probably was not trying as hard as I could either. I was frustrated and a bit dejected by this point. Oh, and did I mention melting? I felt like Frosty the Snowman when he was locked inside the greenhouse. I remembered about disconnecting wires to revert it to points but failed to mention this to Jeff (out of apathy most likely) and just then, 1.5 hours after Dash took his unscheduled break– my very own tow truck arrived.
This is David loading Dash for his tow. David also offered me ice cold water which I gladly drank in one gulp.
Off we went to Victorville to a Honda shop that had mechanics who knew vintage Honda bikes. Though I was certain it was the ignition I thought it best to have them look over all the connections and they were going to call Jeff while he found the instructions to switch the wiring. I must add I had two trucks ready to pick me up in Victorville one was a friend of Jeff and the other was Rocky my riding partner the first four days of the group ride. So sweet.
Dash enjoying HIS ride. I have to admit it was nice being in an air conditioned car riding down a very boring road.
At B&B Cycles in Victorville I met Andrew and Mark. Mark worked on the bike and checked everything out for me and once he converted the wires Dash sprang to life. I made Mark show me 3 times how to switch the wires so I would know. I think he thought I was dense. A very simple operation.
This is Mark smiling…haha
I left Victorville after having lost 5 hours to this little inconvenience. If I keep this up– soon I will know how to do every road side maintenance. I can only dream.
I made it to the 126 without incident and then Dash began to sputter and eventually died. What the hell? I called Jeff (poor Jeff) and he thought maybe something wiggled loose because now I had no electrics but the fuses were all fine (I’m good at checking fuses). I wiggled the main wiring harness, the connections behind the ignition switch, and all the plug boots. For the second time today Dash sprang to life. Off I went and shortly thereafter I was safe in Carpinteria.
Here is a picture of Jeff. One of the nicest guys in town and a great mechanic.
So that was my super long trip all so I could ride US 50.
Today I will start the basic maintenance that Dash will need and I am sending back the ignition to the guy who makes them and he is going to send me a new one while he figures out what happened to the original one. A nice guy who got right back to me about my plight.
381 miles. Day 12
The route: Bryce NP>12>89>I-15>56W>319W>93S>I-15>Primm NV
No blog yesterday because all of Nevada wants you to gamble and not mess around on the internet so they apparently have found ways to make it frustratingly difficult to connect.
I awoke to a wet travel cover but Dash was perfectly dry. Just ahead a storm was brewing so I decided to get out of Bryce and make my way toward a soothing hot tub of spring water in Caliente. It was to be a leisurely day. Emphasis on “was to be”
A few more pictures of beautiful Utah.
The hoodoos
As I rode out of Utah, with storm clouds threatening but never really materializing, I flew through a series of small towns as I made my way back into Nevada. I stopped at New Castle to get some gas and when I came out there was about 2,000 flies swirling around my bike. It was like the gates to hell and the flies were the minions. Was this yet another portent? The picture doesn’t do the amount of flues justice as they were also camera shy.
The ride into Caliente was very nice. Another long stretch of pavement with sweeping turns and rain clouds.
Entering Caliente I was ready for a relaxing stretch before my push home tomorrow. I rolled up to the hotel and something was amiss. There was no one around. No one. So I stopped to take a picture.
Then a nice young man walked around the corner and told me that it was no longer a hotel but instead a rehab facility. What? Aww, what the hell. I rode down the main street to re-group and pulled into a strip mall and went to the very end where all the shops were shuttered.
As I parked I noticed a small bike shop but I decided to sit on the curb, pull out my paper map and figured out my next move. Within moments a woman emerges from nowhere and waves hello to me. She is the perkiest person I have ever met and is the personification of multi-tasking (she made me look lazy). She introduced herself, Susan, as the owner of the bike shop and immediately set to work checking out my tire tread and helping me plan my route – all at the same time. I was thinking of going to Tonopah but found out that was a very long way. Susan offered and then was on the phone calling friends to make certain I could stop at their place to get gas.
Here she is with a 1972 Honda CB350 in her shop. It is not running but it would be a great stock bike when she gets it up and going.
Leaving Caliente I snapped a picture. I love those dinosaurs. I remember my father bringing me home one on a rope (soap on a rope was very popular in the 70s).
I went to Vegas. On the way I ran into road work. Look at the dust cloud about 5 miles in the distance. For 5 miles I rode in that dust which I would soon find out was loose gravel.
The nice man with the stop sign took a picture of me waiting patiently
After making certain to hold onto the bars loosely, keep the bike under power, throttle steady, and ride in the tire track of the car in front of me I emerged unscathed but covered in white gravel dust. That was a slip sliding good time.
This was supposed to be my relaxing day!
Las Vegas is not meant for the daytime. What an ugly town. It was a shock seeing all the billboards after miles and miles of expanse. If you believe them then ABBA has not aged one day since 1970. There they were in their white jumpsuits, with their Swedish charm looking bright eyed and bushy-tailed. The road never stopped. I finally ended up in Primm NV because I wanted to be on the other side of the town for my push homeward.
Oh and lest I forget I have been riding into a constant head wind since Carson City. I’m no longer bothered by windy moments. This really has been a great adventure.
273 miles. Day 11
The route: Ely NV>50E>487 to Great Basin NP>UT-21S>I15>89>12>Bryce Canyon NP
I awoke to a zillion aches and pains. This was the first time in the entire trip that I felt achy — I am blaming the wind. Otherwise the day was beautiful. Excellent riding weather not to hot and not to cold. I left Ely NV at a reasonable time and headed out to Lehman Caves so I could be there when they opened at 8am.
The ride was quite leisurely without many twisties. I arrived promptly and ended up being a tour of one which was super fortunate. Here are some pictures of the caves but the one I like the most is the first one because the guide told me that during prohibition they used this part of the cave as a Speakeasy. I can’t imagine crawling out of those caves drunk. It is quite the labyrinth. The pictures do not do it justice but it was quite spectacular.
They call this “bacon”
After I left 2 sweet little deer ran across the road in front of me. I saw a lot of deer running across the road today.
On the way out I noticed this:
As I left there were beige birds dive bombing from the side of the road. Everything in Nevada is beige.
Finally in Utah I found myself traveling the second loneliest road in America UT-21. The wind was also quite strong throughout all of Utah. It would come and go without warning. I decided to pull over and rest a bit. As I put my foot down I noticed I was less than 2 inches from a red ant nest. I pulled forward another 10 feet and watched the grass grow for a bit. Then of course a gust of wind arrived that almost knocked me over. Glad I was not riding during that one. After taking off I noticed that the bugs seem to grow bigger in Utah. My helmet was covered with them in no time flat. I should have seen this as a portent of things to come. As I traveled along some nicely twisty roads I noticed rain clouds to my left and to my right. But directly in front of me was an expanse of blue surrounded by fluffy clouds. I could only hope I was going to be following the blue and white fluffy clouds. After traveling along those roads with barely a soul visible I can now understand why early travelers in covered wagons were so happy to see people. My hardships could barely be compared to theirs and I was as gleeful as a child on Christmas when I saw someone behind me and don’t even get me started as to when I saw them at a rest or gas break.
As I merged on to I-15 at a steady 75 mph I couldn’t believe how many bugs were hitting me. Then I realized it wasn’t bugs but rain. Then the rain turned to hail like bullets. No time for the rain suit packed firmly in my saddlebag. I got soaked. The upside of the rain was that I was able to clean my face shield while riding and so at least all the bugs were gone. Ten miles later I pulled off the road and it was bright and sunny. I dried out. Ten more miles and I was greeted by this…
Then it spit down some sprinkles and no more rain. I was soon in Bryce and was greeted to such spectacular sights. Gone was the beige of Nevada…Everything was crisp and colorful.
I started looking for a hotel and everything was booked. Apparently this is the best time of year. I finally found one I liked and then went exploring. I found this little area called “Fairyland”.
I gave Dash some more oil (he doesn’t like anything above 7,000 feet when it comes to oil and we are at almost 8,000 feet), lubed the chain again (my nightly ritual), and washed off the multitude of bugs and road yuck from the rain. Now it is time for me to get cleaned up and plan my route back to Nevada and Caliente where I am going to soak in a hot tub!
BackdoorMotoAdventures 