Ride across the USA

[Inhouse Bob]

Thanks for the link to your complete photo collection and sharing our country with us. I am enjoying the ride!
Be safe in the heat. It takes a toll on tires but also on you.

[Frulk_imp]

We meet in Escalante Friday PM. Plan was to ride bikes to Hanksville Saturday and pic up tires in my truck and have them put on. If you think your tires won’t last the 130 miles I’ll haul them on my bike to Escalante and see if this guy can put them on.

https://utahstories.com/2013/07/the-moto...escalante/

[Inhouse Bob]

We meet in Escalante Friday PM. Plan was to ride bikes to Hanksville Saturday and pic up tires in my truck and have them put on. If you think your tires won’t last the 130 miles I’ll haul them on my bike to Escalante and see if this guy can put them on.

https://utahstories.com/2013/07/the-moto...escalante/

Probably worth dragging the tires out there just to meet the guy!

[Cormanus]

Looks like Django has a fair way to go to get to Escalante on tyres he says are already toast. This added tension is contributing greatly to the story. Not.

[flynrider]

Brings a sense of Deja Vu. About 10 years ago I miscalculated how many miles I had left on a rear tire on a road trip in Southern Utah. Spent a whole day riding from small town to small town looking for a tire without success. Ended up at a shop just outside of Salt Lake City that could fix me up.

I swore I'd never overestimate a tire's capability again, but managed to pull a similar trick just before the '17 West Coast Rally. Tires have a way of wearing much more quickly as they reach the end of their lives.

[LongRanger_imp]

Me too! Rode from San Diego to Denver via Escalante and Hanksville in August one year. My rear Dunlop, which seemed fine before I left home, was worn down to the cords by the time I reached UT 12. Had to ride to Durango, Colorado, before I could find a replacement. High speeds, a fully-loaded bike, and intense desert heat will do it.

[rboe]

Last time I rode Oatman to Williams I got over heated and bailed on 66 at Kingman and rode to Williams to cool off and hydrate like crazy. And that was in May!

[LongRanger_imp]

Well, our intrepid traveler Django had the unfortunate mispleasure of stopping in Baker, CA, today, home to the "world's tallest thermometer." I've seen 118F on that thing. It ain't pretty.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Of interest to read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_...hermometer

[Django]

Well, our intrepid traveler Django had the unfortunate mispleasure of stopping in Baker, CA, today, home to the "world's tallest thermometer." I've seen 118F on that thing. It ain't pretty.

Well, it was only 90 °F this morning....at 8 am.

Baker is an ugly place, not worth to stop, other you need some internet access and a coffee. Even that failed in the first restaurant, but the found internet access at that Crazy Greek.

Needles was extremely hot, though have no exact values. Then in Oatman it was okay. However I felt all time comfortable, my heat strategy (got from iron butt forum) works well: close vents of jacket in front, open back vent of jacket, wear long functional underwear and poor water down the neck and chest under the jacket. The evaporation produces a very pleasant cooling. Watering the cushion in the helmet helps a lot with the head.

I wasted some time in Kingman to find an internet hot spot, failed on that. But the payoff was, that I had a very pleasant ride in the evening hours along 66 from Kingman to William. Nice temperatures, a kindly breeze and NO traffic at all. And this evening I found a very fair motel room in the middle of Williams. Needed a room to have some reliable internet access for my communication and to load up the battery of all my devices. Despite I use a power pack very successfully, after a couple of days I run low of energy. The power pack I do upload during the ride under the seat. But for planning on the notebook and my cell phone, I end up to use more energy than I reload.

@Frulk: if we ride gently, I guess those 130 miles won't hurt any more. However, this Motorcycle Desert Doctor looks really cool!

At least we have the tires already and only need some help, to mount them on the rim, which I can't do myself.

Btw. even Formula One teams do miscalculation on the tire stratey.