Nice Ride Today...

[Amos Iron Wolf]

Supposed to be a Nor'easter rolling in this evening. Not gonna be freezing, but still dropping down to a low in around 42 w/20 mph winds by morning and a high around 50 tomorrow.

Today was quite nice though. Started off with some fog and cool. About 11AM I met up with forum member Amistad who is the First Officer for our chapter of the SCRC to scout the route for the Jan 1st Polar Bear Ride.

Since I have a new phone I used my old HTC EVO in a bracket on the handle bar with the app Ulysses Speedometer. Good app by the way. I'm going to have to wire up a connection at some point I guess as even with the extended battery the EVO running screen on and GPS active has a range of about 120 miles. I have been able to use the app enough to know the variance between my bike's indicated and actual speeds. With the slightly taller tire on the back the bike runs about 2.5-3 mph faster than indicated. This will come into play later.

We took out from the starting point outside Del Rio with the fog still on. I led since I had the digital speedo phone thingy and we wanted to replicate the ride for the first part. We passed through the Border Patrol checkpoint and on to Comstock where we picked up RR163 heading North to Ozona. As we got rolling on RR163 the sun poked through and within 20 miles or less we had sunshine and just a little cool still. The route takes you through Deadman's Pass and into some interesting highs and lows for a good while. Eventually RR163 opens out a bit, but stays two lane all the way into Ozona. Once in Ozona we checked verified the location of the Steakhouse where we will be feeding our inner oso (bear). Total run is about 112 miles or so one way.

We fueled up in Ozona then took off with Amistad in the lead for Sonora about 34 miles to the East on the super slab, I10. The speed limit is 80 mph btw. Just before we got to Sonora I was able to drop back a little then twist the wrist to catch up. Before backing off I hit an indicated 90 mph on the bike's speedometer which as mentioned earlier is reading about 3 mph lower than actual at that speed. Not too bad for a 38 horsepower 750 with a windshield, saddle bags, and a 215 lb rider. There was even a little throttle left.

After lunch and an top off for the return trip to Del Rio we headed out of town and down SH277 which would take us the 95 or so miles back home. By now it was mid afternoon and the sun was comfortable on us. As we got closer to home you could feel the cooler air gathering in the lower points. Not drastic, but in that way that only someone who is riding in the wind can tell.

Going up one way and coming back the other we ended up riding along some beautiful valleys and dry river beds. Not the verdant, rich valleys like say the Willamette Valley in Oregon or CrazyDave's New Hampshire valleys. But wild and beautiful to the eye in the way of someone who has seen desert and appreciates those areas that are filled with low trees and just look a bit more rich than the areas beyond.

At Loop 79 Amistad rolled off on the loop to head to his place and I followed the last little bit of SH277 to Hwy 90 which I took on back into town and home. All in all we put in something like 382 miles today.

Last night we had a club ride up to Uvalde for some incredible all you can eat ribs at a place called the Oasis Outback which is a BBQ and Grill inside a small outdoor store with a pretty good selection of fishing, archery, and gun stuff, plus some outdoor clothes, knives, and jewelry for the ladies. Did I mention the ribs were darned tasty.

Since we did KSU for that one around 1730 (5:30 PM) we road almost all of the way up in the dark and all the way back for a round trip run of about 148 miles. I can assure you that late at night you remember that you love hills for the warm air at the top and sort of cringe as you start down the other side because you know just how cold those pockets of air are in the low points. You also realize shortly after starting out if you forgot to tuck your pant legs into your boots or snug em down with blousing rubbers. Then you spend the next hour ragging on yourself for forgetting.

So all in all, a couple of us were able to take advantage of living in Southwest Texas this weekend and got in some great riding.

[Fat Kid]

No pics it's never happened

[CrazyDave]

Went for short putt ourselves, and a nice walk too.

[Amos Iron Wolf]

Originally Posted by Fat Kid

No pics it's never happened

Ha! Tell that to my butt when I dropped it back into the saddle after posting the above to run to the store for a few things since the wife has been dragging around this weekend under the weather.

Dave, glad you could get out some. Always touch and go in those parts this time of year.

[woodboats]

Good write up.
382 miles is a heck of a good ride also! Well done.

[PapaSmurfMC]

Originally Posted by Fat Kid

No pics it's never happened

Great writing...saw the whole thing in my head. Try it.