Day: August 19, 2019

Got up early enough to enjoy breakfast at one of my favorite cheap hotels, Baymont by Wyndham Amarillo East, while I called some more motorcycle shops to see about getting my back tire replaced. Three states, and not a single shop had the Michelin Commander 2 in 160/70-17B.

Well, this morning I got lucky. Tripp’s Harley-Davidson in Amarillo had the exact tire in that size. Boy did I get lucky. I swear I got there 15 minutes before they opened and they already had a dozen bikes lined up for service. Yes, the Freewheeler next to mine has a laundry hamper bungee corded down. No, I didn’t ask. LOL.

Here is a side by side picture, before and after. Thanks to an old Army buddy for the good advice, in preparing for Tail Of The Dragon.

I took off on today’s 300 mile trip from Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma City, OK. Standing temperature reached 102, which felt like 108, not even factoring the wind at 80 mph.

I stopped every hour, to hit the bathroom and to rehydrate. I was pleasantly surprised the water in the flask was still cool, even after an hour in over 100 degree weather. One of the rest stops had signs up warning folks to stay away from the grass and rocks. Because. Rattle Snakes.

At one gas station some dude pulled up with a fine example of Duct Tape use #5403.

Today’s route amounted to just under 300 miles, as always I forgot to start Relive when I left the hotel.

Route:

Before I left on Interstate 40, I took a moment to do some math. If I head out today, from Santa Fe, NM to Amarillo, TX, that would leave me at a spot with 1,800 miles to go…1,200 miles to get to Tail Of The Dragon, and then another 600 miles to get home.

This means that starting tomorrow (Monday), I can do 300 miles per day, and have time to enjoy (endure?) Tail Of The Dragon. Monday through Sunday is seven days, so six days at 300 miles per day seems like the perfect way to wind things down.

That’s assuming I don’t get wiped out by one of those Darwin Award candidates ripping through the turns on racing bikes, or a trust fund kiddie in dad’s Ford GT.

I had 260 miles or so to do today, so I hit the slab, keeping to <redacted> MPH. On one of the gas stops I had to wait 20 minutes for a windmill fan blade to negotiate a parking spot on the side of the road. Pretty friggin’ amazing riding past one of these blades.

The driver happened to be a mechanical engineer, and even he said the amount of engineering that went into designing the blade is staggering. He wouldn’t tell me what the blades cost. I told him my guess is “too fucking much since they are paying mechanical engineers to drive the trucks”.

He didn’t think it was funny. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On a gas stop I took a really close look at my back tire. Geez, yea, it looks like it might just make it home, but hoping to replace it before I get to Tail Of The Dragon. Even though I plan to take it easy, I want to make sure I have maximum traction.

On a side note, that’s the same tire I rode back in October when I relocated from Simi Valley, CA to Ocoee, FL. I hit 32,504 miles at today’s last gas stop. So that means I have about 20,000 miles on that tire!

I’m a believer in what they say about the durability of the Michelin Commander 2. Roughly twice as many miles as the OEM tire, which I replaced at 12,000 miles.

Today’s route: