Well, not much to write about in October. My birthday came and went by, my wife and son gave me new side boxes for the V-Strom from sea horse. They sat in the house for a few weeks before I had time to get them installed. I used the EOM mounts and fabricated pieces to hook up the new boxes. I like the sea horse box, I used one on my FJR for a topbox. They are built well and easy to mount. I also installed wiring for a extra 12 volt plug and for the Nuvi 500 that was given as a gift.
As November rolled in I was getting the V-Strom ready for the Bit Nippy 1000 coming up the first week in November. I found a 1.5 gallon Rolplx tank that I mounted where my topbox normally sits. It is always nice to carry a little extra fuel just in case. Talking to the organizer the longest stretch we have to do is 240 miles, which if all is going well my V-Strom can do. I decide that just in case, I would add the extra capacity if something happened. So the V-Strom was ready but was I?
I was waiting to decide if I was going to be able to ride based on my knee. I injured it in Canada in the boundary waters back in June. I went on a boyscout canoe trip and twisted my knee. I set it up that I would go to the start and see how it felt and decide the morning of the ride. I rode up to the starting point (Las Vegas, NM) on Friday afternoon without any issues. Not really a big deal it's only about 120 miles from home. I arrived at the hotel/starting point and settled in waiting for the other riders to arrive. They started filtering in and soon there was 25 people of which 19 were riding. We all went to dinner that night and were given out packet with route and release forms. After a so-so dinner, I filled up the tank and headed back to my room. My goal was to get to sleep by 22:00 and get up at 04:15 for the 05:00 start. All went well and I was up by 04:15 getting the motorcycle packed up and ready to go. My knee was a little sore but really didn't feel that bad so what the heck I decided to give it a go. I sat around with a few of the riders, having a cup of coffee waiting to get checked out for the ride by one of the volunteers. The volunteers needed to get our odometer reading and keep us in place till the official start of 05:00. Once it was 05:00 we were allowed to take off and the only rules were we had to get gas recipes at the designated corners and be at the Village Inn in Albuquerque, NM by 04:00 to be considered a finisher. The reason for 04:00 and not 05:00 was that we had a time change and the clocks rolled back at 02:00.
A little history the reason for the ride being called Bit Nippy is every year we are always looking for the coldest weather but this year the weather was quiet mild. This is the third year for the ride, the first one was a run to AZ where we stopped at the Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, AZ then back home. The second year was a run to KS. and back down through CO. This year I believe the low was registered on I-40 between Albuquerque and Gallup at 26 degrees.
I started a couple minutes after 05:00 flying down I-25 heading for Albuquerque then Gallup, NM for our first fuel stop. I was running about 5 mph over the speed limit on the Interstate and knew I could not make it all the way to Gallup without out fueling up. The ride from Las Vegas to Albuquerque was done in the dark running through the northern mountains around 80 mph was a little nerve racking. You really need to keep your head on a swivel watching the road and looking for wild life. But all went well passing a few of my peers on the road, I passed the three guys from Texas about half way to Albuquerque. Looked like they were going to stick together through the whole ride. Once in Albuquerque, I turned West onto I-40 and pulled off I-40 for gas about 60 miles outside of Gallup. Since I have 24 hours to completed the ride I really wasn't to concerned about the lengths of my stops so I grabbed a cup of coffee and watch two of my peers ride by. I do not ride with heater gear so even though the temps didn't drop below 26 degrees that's still cold running at 80 mph! I grabbed cup of coffee it was a nice warmer upper and stretched the knee out.
I finished the ride to Gallup as the sun came up and picked up my gas recipe as I pulled into the station one of the guys that passed me while I was at my first stop was just pulling out and as I was finishing fueling one of the guys (Dan) showed up on his BMW. We exchanged pleasantries and I headed off to Shiprock, NM. The road to Shiprock is always a little rough, it seem they are always doing something on that road. It was a quiet ride in following a little sports car that seems to want to share the up front time with me. Every once in a while they would slowdown and I would pass then maybe 10-15 miles later they would pass me again. This went on several time, till I pulled off in Shiprock to get another recipe for my next corner. As I pulled into the station, Dan caught me and a second bike pulled in as I was getting back on my V-Strom. We chatted for a couple of minutes and I wished him a safe ride and off I went. As I pulled back onto the road there was the BMW again in front of me. I decide to ride on his tail through Farmington and Bloomfield. As I pulled up next to him at a stop light in Bloomfield, I asked if he minded me tagging along on his fender. He said the more the merrier and he was going to pull off soon to grab a bite to eat. I told him there was a pretty nice place in Chama if he could make it that far. Kind of unusual riding with someone it was kind of nice, most of the time Long Distance Riders (LDR) ride alone and never see another rider sometimes for days. So having someone to follow and ride with can be enjoyable. So off we went for Chama, NM and our third official fuel stop. It was a nice winding road through the mountains and Dan was setting a swift pace. As we pulled into Chama we were closing in on the half way point. There was three other bikes just completing their fueling and pulling out I talked with Dan asking if he wanted to get a bite to eat, he said if I was okay he would like to push on. I told him I was good to go so we fueled up drank some water and pushed on. (I think seeing how close we were to the other riders made him want to continue). So off to Raton, NM for the next fuel stop by way of Taos and Eaglenest. This section was all mountainous roads with a short jaunt across the Taos Junction Bridge. You might remember the bridge it was in the movie "Wild Hogs". It is a great bridge to cross it spans a deep gorge just outside Taos. As we were flying through the sections Dan was scraping his pegs quiet a bit. At one point we hit a turn and Dan said if I wanted to pass go ahead and I told him pick a speed he was comfortable with and I would follow. I think he felt I was pushing a little, there was a couple of corners he slowed down quiet a bit and I was applying the brakes pretty hard to give him some room. I wasn't trying to push and he was running fine, we were making great time. We also passed the Philmont boyscout property, just before Cimarron. This is one of three boyscout high adventure camps, My son and I will be there next year in June backpacking. As we pulled into Cimarron, we were applying the brakes to get down to the speed limit. Cimarron is not a big town and as we passed the city limits we saw a couple of cruisers sitting on the side of the road in the middle of town just relaxing. As we passed you could tell they were kicking back having coffee just monitoring the road. As we left town we kicked it up a notch and as we came up on NRA Whittening Center we were applying the brakes again, the speed on that section of the road was 55 mph and we were running close to 90 when we encountered the first of three state trooper cars. They looked like they might have been at the Whittening Center on the way back to the state trooper post that we had passed about 2 miles back. After we passed the second trooper, I saw the car in the distance and I thought no way three in a row. I back out of the throttle again and sure enough a third trooper but this time he gave us a long look before continuing on his merry way. After that encounter, we slowed it down till we reached the interstate and Raton for our fourth mandatory fuel stop. We pulled off the interstate for fuel at the turn for Clayton, NM. As we pulled into the station with Chris and Jeff still fueling, Chris said we were 5-10 minutes behind Bob, Rex and Jack. Dan and I were not in a hurry so as Chris took off we were still fueling the bikes and grabbing a quick snack and drink. Jeff hung around and we told him to join in if he wanted too. I called home and was scolded by my wife she said my Spot wasn't sending a signal, I told her it was flashing and all was well. I shut it off and turn it back on and hopefully it would work the rest of the way in for her. She never has liked it when I do these rides but at least the Spot lets her know I'm okay and still moving. She and my son were worried when they were not getting the signal.
After Dan checked in with his wife the three of us took off for Clayton our next fuel stop and turn South. On the way Jeff was falling a little bit behind so Dan backed off the throttle and slowly Jeff caught back up. Once together again we lowered our pace which was probably the right thing to do, there are several turns that are pretty tight on the road into Clayton that are not well marked. We road straight into Clayton with no issues, grabbed out fuel recipe and hit the road for Tucumcari, NM our last mandatory fuel stop. Later at the finish, we heard that the three riders from Texas had an accident on the way to Clayton. One rider ended up getting checked out at the hospital. One of the other riders did go down but was okay. Out of the three, one totaled their motorcycle and one banged his up, they decided to head home from there since they were right on the TX line. I'm still not sure what happened but the important thing was everyone was going to be okay.
Our next goal was to get through Nara Visa, NM before the "Zombies" came out. If you have ever been through Nara Visa it is a little town at the corner of State Road 402 and US Highway 54. There is no gas stations only a hotel a few houses and several building that have been burned out or collapsing due to neglect. About the only thing moving during the daylight are the trucks coming out of Texas into New Mexico but as it starts to get dark the town seem to come alive "Zombies". We hit the town limit just as the sun was setting and as we expected no one on the streets but we were seeing a few of the houses and the motel lights starting to come on. Needless to say we didn't slowdown much we just focused on the road and headed for Tucumcari for our last fuel stop before heading for the finish in Albuquerque, NM.
We arrived in Tucumcari about 45 minutes later (it was completely dark now). We grabbed our mandatory last fuel recipe and started down I-40 for Albuquerque. The Interstate was busy and we were maneuvering around the semi-trucks, we must not have been that visible because several time the trucks would pull out in front of us as we were trying to pass. Outside of the few times we had to slow down for the trucks all went pretty smooth into Albuquerque and to the finishing point at the Village Inn. 16 hours and 15 minutes later Dan, Jeff and I were getting off our motorcycles and heading into the Village Inn for breakfast at 21:15. As we walked in we were greeted by Bob, Rex, Chris, Jack and our official witnesses. We sat down shared stories about the road, it was there that Bob told us about the three riders from Texas. So out of the 19 riders that started seven were now finished and three were out so we were still waiting on nine riders. I hung around for a couple of hours and two more riders showed up, we heard a couple were late getting out of the mountainous section so we knew that would be a tough ride for them the rest of the way. When all was done we ended with 16 finishers out of the 19 starters and a lot of good stories
Well until next time ride safe.
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