Anyone take a L-O-N-G cruise on yer Busa this summer?

A shot from the 838 mile ride.
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LCB what gear is that you are wearing and where can I find it.:thumbsup: Patiently waiting for the 09's. (white):popcorn:

The jacket is Joe Rocket (women's) and the pants are Icon ARC textile. My favorite places to shop for gear are Kneedraggers.com, Newenough.com and Ebay. Icon also has ARC jackets to match:

Icon ARC.jpg
 
did a 4500 km round trip from Toronto, Ontario Canada down to Deals Gap in July.

Had an amazing time. I had 2 Oxford saddle bags and a tank bag I used as a tail bag.

Only comfort mod's to the busa are a gel seat (Suzuki Accessories) and genmar handle bar risers (used to lower the front). The back is stock height.

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I'm preparing to take a long trip (~1,200 miles) with my Dad from St. Louis to Oklahoma and back. It will be my longest trip ever by a factor of 5 almost. I've upgraded my bike with Heli-Bars, a DB windscreen, Givi V46 topcase, Firstgear sidebags, a Vista Cruise throttle lock, and an OEM centerstand for touring duty. I still need to go get some Buell pegs and a rainsuit and I should be OK. My Dad will be on his V-Star 650 and he wants to get a bike-to-bike radio setup working before we leave. We're both pretty stingy, so spending $200-$300 on one of the mainstream solutions is out of the question. We're going to see if we can make some FRS radios work with a helmet mounted headset. Here's hoping...

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So what part of OKLA are you coming to, I live in Broken Arrow OK. Its just out side Tulsa.
 
So what part of OKLA are you coming to, I live in Broken Arrow OK. Its just out side Tulsa.

I'm actually going to Broken Bow, OK. My dad grew up there for part of his youth. I'm not sure what route we're taking yet. Still in the planning stages.
 
I'm in the middle of a road trip to Vegas. Company is paying for gas because they aren't going to have to pay for a plane ticket! Awesome!

So far, I've gone: Linky thingy

I got rained on pretty extensively but lemme tell ya, it was all worthwhile.

Backing up, I started yesterday at about 3:30 NM time. The flat slab to Grants, NM was just hellatious. Why is it that a flat slab will wear you down instantly but a twisty road 10 times as long will actually refresh you?!! Gassed up there and headed on. My favorite tamale place across the street was already closed for the day so I sucked it up and kept on going.

The section of the road from there to Ramah and Zuni, NM is incredible. The views just can't be beat, no matter what. Passed over into AZ, and went South to St. Johns. That ride is a bit of a slab and it was just started to get to dusk. Clouds were starting to chase me down, too. Gassed up, did a quick map check and radiator flush and kept right on going.

When I was about 20 miles from Show Low, the rain started to come rather persistently. not hard, but constant. About 10 miles from Show Low it started raining buckets. I ride just as fast in the rain as I do any other time and people ho I was passing were probably thinking I was insane, just for being out there for one thing and for going past them for another.

I don't mind riding in the rain at all, as long as it isn't cold, that is. Aside from that, I'm fine with riding with the rain coming down. On the other side of Show Low, it was definitely dark and still pouring buckets. I was pretty well soaked and the fact is, it WAS starting to feel cold. Especially at 80 miles an hour. Oh, well.

My destination was Heber AZ where I had arranged to stay with my cousin and her family for the night. About 10 miles from Show Low, the rain finally stopped and over the next 20 miles, I actually dried out. The roads cleared up and visibility was all good!

Stayed the night with my cuz and got the royal treatment! Beautiful family! At about 5:00 this morning, it had started to rain in Heber but it was a light rain. Steady. Geared up in this and hit the road. Loved it. Then it started to REALLY pour again! For about 5 miles, it was buckets from the sky again. When it stopped, I dried out pretty good again.

When I got to Payson, I gassed up again, and started hunting for coffee. My cousin is Mormon and they don't have coffee. Dangit. Found a little restaurant and sat down. Didn't get service for what seemed like forever so I got up and left. It was raining once again, and pretty good again so I just kept on going.

When I got to Mesa, I stopped at an AM/PM and drank a cup of their crappy Jave and went and hung out with one of my brothers for a couple hours. Then went and had dinner at Chee Burger, Chee Burger in Chandler where I met up with another of my brothers for an hour or so.

Hit the road again and gassed up somewhere in Peoria. Went to Wickenburg and, not knowing just how far it was to Prescott, topped off the tank there, flushed the radiator once more and got under way to Prescott. Realized it was only about 60 miles but it was getting dark. That road from Wickenburg to Prescott is PERFECT for motorcycles. The only problem with it is that it's not long enough. Those of you in CA who ride ACH, would find this road much more satisfying. Better turns, and better asphalt. My only regret was having to ride it in the dark.

Oh, well. I'll do it again some time when it's light.

More to come as I go to Vegas tomorrow and head home on Friday!

--Wag--

P.S. Didn't bring the camera; too much luggage to squeeze it in. Sorry, peeps.
 
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What's with the multiple radiator flushes? Is this a euphemism for going potty? Or is it a requirement for hitting long stretches of highway?
 
I had to run through a major storm in the mountains thru WV and western MD before I stopped for the night - that was fun. Got home safe & sound - looking forward to another long trip. Best advice - take ibuprofen every time you stop for a rest.

Shelter from the storm in La Vale, MD:

I'm only 38 miles from La Vale.
 
JUst got home an hour ago for a long 860 miler from home 2 days five of us left yestery morning three of us rode home. Two of my cousins went down in south eastern ohio yesterday route 260 after we rode the little ohio dragon 536. Gravel is not a friend of ours no one hurt just mostly sore one really hurt repsel honda. Finished tour up on 33 between WV and Vir. and headed for home. 33 was my faverate hands down awesome road some trafic today though.
 
My trip to Vegas continued.

Another -->Linky Thingy<--

Got up the next morning in Prescott and hit the road. The road from Prescott over the mountain to Jerome and Cottonwood is an impressive canyon road. The pavement wasn't all that great but a very nice set of twisties there in the Mingus Mountains. Found it very rewarding. After Jerome, coming into Cottonwood, the road was better paved, just not enough of it! Only about 5 miles.

In Cottonwood, I gassed up and hit the side road in Sedona and took that up to Flagstaff through Oak Creek Canyon. Just a spectacular road, peeps. If you ever get in that area, take that road. Lately, there has been a lot more tourist traffic and there is ever-increasing residential side roads so be careful. You still have good visibility, though, and you can cut up through there quite well. The scenery is about as good as you could ask for. If you're in your car, take your swim trunks and do the hike up to slide rock and play around a bit. Really cool area!

In Flagstaff, I looked to the West to see ever-increasing rain clouds and decided to take my original ride up North. Once you get up out of the Flagstaff area, there aren't a lot of gas stations. I was gassing up any time I had more than 50 miles on my trip meter just to be sure.

That's some barren country through there. Still very beautiful, though. The rock formations are beyond compare. The tough choice is whether to take the north loop through Page, AZ and around through Kanab. I took the South route, however, because I wanted to hit that road going up through the hills of the Kaibab National Forest. THAT road is one I've wanted to ride for many years and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. Dang glad i did, too. That road on a bike is spectacular.

Coming down from the plateau into Hurricane (pronounced hur'-i-kin by the locals) the temperature increase about 3 million degrees in about 6 miles. That little twisty road is okay. In Hurrican, even though it was Labor Day, there was a pretty decent looking bike shop open but they didn't have the tire I needed. I felt I was pushing it a bit but decided to go ahead and take it easy getting to Vegas.

Three hours in the heat. Wow. Not much worth noting in that section of ride except the Virgin River Gorge is very impressive.

Hot ride to Vegas. Stopped at the Valley of Fire turnoff to gas up. Headed in to my buddies house and stripped off sweaty gear. Thank the stars he had the A/C on all the way!

A little more to come.

--Wag--
 
Kicked back at my bud's house for two days. Went to company meetings for the next day. Got up Friday morning and headed out of town. >Linky thingy<

Mostly flat slabbin' through this part of the ride. The Hoover Dam was pretty cool to ride through. They nearly have the suspension bridge complete. All they need now is the span to be finished and the dam road will be officially closed. If you're looking for investment grade vacant land, Northwestern Mohave County, AZ is going to boom very soon, end of '09, early '10.

After getting past the dam, flat slab to Kingman, flat freeway haul to Flagstaff, lunch, flat slab to Joseph City, AZ, just before Holbrook. Spent the night with my Aunt and Uncle, got up this morning, jetted out early, gassed up in Holbrook, flat slabbed to Grants, NM, gassed up, got home this afternoon.

Of the entire trip, today was the toughest part of it. Just hard to ride in a straight line. Plus, my iPod died and I had no tunes. Bummer.

What was notable about this entire trip is that there were only two times when I encountered other bikes heading my direction. One was about 20 miles before Kingman when I passed about 10 Harley's cruisin' along.

The other was when I was gassing up in Grants, a Harley with a single-wheel trailer approached and we chatted a bit. I left before him and kept my speed to about 10 over. A while later, this guy and his wife flat out HAULED the mail right by me. They had to have been going 100+. We waved at each other and they went on their merry way! Kinda cool, I guess.

Over 1,700 miles and even though I had a break in the middle there, I still pushed a lot of miles in only four days of ride time.

My apologies for the lack of photos. Even if I had had room for the camera, I wouldn't really have had a lot of time to take pics. Next time!

Anyhoo, yeah, that's my long summer ride for the year!

--Wag--
 
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