April 1 to 11 Las Vegas, Yuma, San Bernadino, Barstow, Flagstaff, Route66, Grand Canyon, Winslow Update

[guzzirider]

Flew out of Pearson at 8:30 pm to Los Vegas and got in at about 11:30.
Self check-in at an Airbnb.
The Airbnb host drove me the 15 minutes to pick up the 2015 Yamaha FJ-09.
The motorcycle was private owned & rented thru Riders-Share.com.
Check-in went smoothly.
I did a short trip around Los Vegas just to get the feel of the motorcycle.
Original plan was to do a 250km loop out to Valley of Fire but the weather started to deteriorate
and I did not have my gear packed on the motorcycle yet.


Headed south for Yuma the morning of April 2 for a 2 day stay.
I was to meet up with a person I used to work with but he had already sold his park unit and was heading back to Alberta.
On second day in Yuma I headed to Wellton & back up over a mountain range with some nice high speed sweepers.

I-8 East bound with West bound crossing underneath it


It seem the only thing to do in Yuma is to play golf or camp in the desert.
In April the temps are in the 80 degree F range and over 100F in summer.

Headed for Hemet California (south east of Las Angeles) on April 3.
Some very nice back roads in Southern California.
It was nice to see green landscape again.
West of Ocotillo you start to climb to higher elevations with strong winds and cooler temperatures.
In Hemet the temperature was in the mid 60F range with building cloud cover.



Mountain Center towards Hemet


April 5 the plan was to head north to Big Bear Lake but the weather report was calling for poor road conditions with rain and possibly snow.
Headed north to Barstow on I-215 and !-15.
Encountered rain from San Bernardino to Victorville.
The sun came out at Victorville but I was outrunning a nasty looking storm cloud to Barstow.

Thats all for now because I have to go work on my 1974 Yamaha DT175 but will post more tomorrow.
For a report on what my impressions on the FJ-09 go to this link

 

[guzzirider]

April 6 was sunny and about 50 degrees F when I departed Barstow.
I toured along sections of Route 66 that run parallel to I-40.
There is not much to see as a lot of the gas station and restaraunts from the the glory days of Route 66 have long disappeared.
The pavement is sometimes better than I-40 because of lack of trucks.
I did stop at the Ludlow Cafe for a coffee.









The landscape thru Arizona is pretty bleak!

At a reststop looking out at I-40


A lonely stretch of Route 66 on the way to Oatman




At Needles I left I-40 and headed north on Route 66 to Oatman.
Only seen 1 donkey but 100s of tourists.
There was no place to park so I just drove thru.
Google Oatman
That put me in the front of tha pack leaving town on a nice twisty road.





Stoped at Kingman for the night.
I visited the Tranportation Museum with a nice selection of electric cars.
Because of the number of photos I have posted a photo link.
On the trip I got up close to a Cyber Truck and rode in a Model Y
More on that later.

A classic Route 66 Diner.
Home to the 4 .lb Monster burger.

 

[timtune]

Oatman. Nothing but redneck tourist trap. You were right to keep rolling.

Did you rent the bike? EagleRider??

 

[guzzirider]

April 7 was off to Winslow Arizona.
The weather was sunny and getting warmer.
Just west of Flagstaff I will climb to over 7000 ft. altitude
Although it is sunny the temps are in the 50s F with snow on the side of the road in the shade.
East of Flagstaff you start to drop altitude and temps recover into the 70s F
After spending 47 years in Alberta and riding in the mountains I had the gear to accommodate all four seasons in one day.



I headed from Kingman to Peach Springs and Seligman on Route 66



Seligman



Only stopped in Flagstaff to gas up and then headed East on I-40 to Winslow.
The Meteorite Crater was on my way so made the small detour.
It costs US $27.00 to look at a big hole in the ground and a fancy building.









IF you travel Route 66 you should stay in a Ma & Pa motel at least one night






The song "Take It Easy" performed by the Eagles has made Winslow Arizon almost famous.
I have posted a link to more Winslow pictures

I will post more of the trip later.

 

[guzzirider]

Oatman. Nothing but redneck tourist trap. You were right to keep rolling.

Did you rent the bike? EagleRider??

I am not a redneck so I did not want a Harley!
Did not rent from EagleRider.
Rented bike from riders-share.com
The best part of Oatman is the road leaving town.

 

[guzzirider]

April 8 was the ride down Arizona hi way 87 to Phoenix.
I discovered a nail in the rear tire and it was loosing about 10 lb. of pressure in 12 hours.
There was no where to get a repair done so I stopped at a Auto parts shop and picked up a can of tire repair/inflater.
I then inflated the tire to 40 psi and hoped for the best.
I never had to use the tire inflator and made it back to Las Vegas.
It was just a matter of checking tire pressure when I stopped for gas and added air when needed.
It was sunny and in the high 60s F but I would be above the snow line in the Pine AZ area.
The temperature was in the 80s F when I got to Phoenix.



Stopped in Pheonix at a restaurant to kill some time before the Airbnb was ready.
The waitresses where showing a lot of cleavage, belly button and leg!
I could be accused of being an old male pig. BUT I AM STILL A MAN.

April 9 I left Phoenix for Congress, Prescot, Jerome, Sedona to Flagstaff.
Beautiful roads with lots of twisties.



Jerome, a town with a 10mph switchback on Main Street


Sedona with bright red rock formations.




North of Sedona coming out of the Oak Creek Gorge on AZ 89A hi way


It had warmed up to the mid 60s F in Flagstaff since April 7th but was still just above freezing at night.
Off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

 

[guzzirider]

April 10 was my trip to the Grand Canyon.
Sunny and about 40 degrees F in at 10:00 am.
Of course I did the coldest part of the trip in the morning going north on hi way 180.
Again I was above the snow line.
As you near the Gand Canyon the elevation drops and temperatures rise.





The final day of my trip was fom Flagstaff to Loa Vegas to drop off the bike.
The temperature ranged from 34 degrees F in Flagstaff to 85 Degrees in Los Vegas.
My plane did not leave until 11:45 pm so I had booked a flea bag motel to get a few hours rest.
I unloaded my luggage from the bike at the motel and repacked for the flight home.
The check-out of the motorcycle went well and got a an Uber back to the motel.
At about 9:00 pm I took an Uber to the Airport.
I did not even get a bag of peanuts on the flight back and arrived about 7:00 am Toronto time.
It was pouring rain in Toronto to almost Kingston.
After 27 hours I finally made it to my bed.
I think I am getting too old for high stress adventures.

There will be one more post covering Tesla experience., rider-share.com and costs.

 

[timtune]

I am not a redneck so I did not want a Harley!
Did not rent from EagleRider.
Rented bike from riders-share.com
The best part of Oatman is the road leaving town.

EagleRider does not just mean Harley. You can rent bmws, yamahas, and maybe hondas? They are stand up folk with a solid rep.

 

[guzzirider]

EagleRider does not just mean Harley. You can rent bmws, yamahas, and maybe hondas? They are stand up folk with a solid rep.

I had checked them out and they didn't have anything that met my needs.
This was a one off thing and most likely will never rent again.

 

[guzzirider]

Tesla, riders-share.com & costs

I have attached a spread sheet of costs of the trip.
It is an approximation in Canadian dollars and does not cover everything such as bottled water.
Because of the dry climate I consumed copious amounts.



I had 2 encounters with Tesla vehicles.
First I was able to get a close up view of a Cyber Truck in a parking lot.
This thing is huge think DeLorean on steroids.
I just don't expect to see many at Home Depot being loaded up with 30 bags of cement and 24 12" 2X6.
There where finger prints all over the doors.
In my opinion it is a SUV not a truck.

I had an Uber ride to the Las Vegas airport in a model Y
I was unimpressed with the quality of ride and it would have been nice if the owner had used the air conditioning in 80 degree weather.
I had a previous ride in a Toyota Celica that was much smoother ride.

riders-share.com was a good experience and book in and out went well.
The prices where reasonable.
They opened up a wider range of motorcycles to choose from than with Eagle Rider.
I wanted a motorcycle set up for touring rather than just cruising the strip looking cool.
I put on over 3400 km with the only issue being the nail in the rear tire that I picked up along the way.
riders-share has a policy of not repairing tires but replacing them.
This was a cost that I had not counted on but understand the policy.
OH WELL! life happens.
That was the first tire issue I have had since 1968.
I am in the habit of always carrying a can of tire inflator/repair.

 

[STARSHIP]

Great trip and you covered so much ground and much more than my wife and i did by car as we stayed longer in Las Vegas, Death Valley, Grand Canyon and Sedona.

Thanks for the great write up and cost overview, and that is exceptional value for the bike from riders-share.com compared with the traditional bike rental companies.

Will have to keep them in mind and see some other great locations available.