E AZ Devil's Highway Ride

With such an ominous name as Devil's Hwy you can imagine adventure, fear, foreboding, smiles...blah, blah, you get the idea.

A sportbike ride, from old school to new bling.
The classic CB900F, the low mieage R6, the 2 Brits (Triumph's).



Four bikes, three boys and the girl. Here are some more pics.


The classic Honda




The low mileage R6




And The Brits





Off to work I go. More later

Hey Cathy!

I'd be happy to send over some of my ride pics to either you or Skip to use on this thread. I would be happy to post up some of my pics and provide some narration as well (with your permission of course).

Your thread, your call... just let me know.

Post your story here Pauly. Pics too, or fwd pics to Skip and he'll post them up.

While Cathy's off to work I'll fill in with a few pictures from the ride. If you've never ridden 191 in Eastern AZ you should make a point to get there someday. Our ride started in Tucson last Friday and the weather was perfect for riding I 10 to Safford. Overcast and about 85 for July in AZ that's about as good as it gets. We dodged rain the whole day and that made it pretty nice too.

Here's the gang. YZFCathy, Low Down (Pauly) in the back and Merchant Mariner (Jason)


Out of Safford you head North to Clifton/Morenci where the good riding starts. Morenci is a big mining town


Some good turns through town with a couple of tunnels and then your off for a 100 mile stretch. During the weekdays it open road. I passed one car in 2 1/2 hours. The road can be dirty so you need to stay a little toward the center with no guard rails and big drop offs. Very fun stuff. Enough talk here's my pictures.

Tunnel shots



The 900 was killer. I haven't had it out for a while. Only 7000 miles and all original. Jason asked why I brought this bike. All I could say was to have fun.

A little different than Cathy's 03 R6 that turned over 80,000 miles this weekend. She doesn't get out and ride much though.








Here's Low Down coming through the trees.


And Cathy chasing him down.


Merchant Mariner


Low Down feeling MM coming up fast


We had a fun day taking picture. We would leap frog each other and then find a good turn and rip off as many pictures as you could. Some times these guys would go by so fast it was just a blur.






Other times I'd be sitting there waiting so why not take a few of the 900. Now is that a good looking 28 year old bike or what?






The day was perfect
















Cathy at Hon Dah the next day eying the Maserati. Look it's blue like the R6 it must be fast.



Here's my wife, we sure do have fun.



She'll be done with work this afternoon for a few hours and maybe she'll post a few more pictures.

Saturday home through Salt River Canyon was beautiful but someone else will need to post pictures of that section.

Once past Globe the furnace was turned on and it was well over 100 and time to get home fast. Thanks Skip

AZ 191 (ne 666) is simply amazing. Gotta get over there from NM sometime this Fall. Thanks much for sharing.

And yes, your 28-year old bike is stunning

--Doc

Sorry for the delay... on to some pics!



Here we are in Tucson getting ready to ride ~170 miles of un-devilish slab so we can get to the 'good' stuff...







Once we were off and moving, I snapped a few while on the go...













Once we hit the twisties, I didn't take many pics, but here are some of my fellow riders...

Cathy:



Skip:



Jason:



I think Jason is really enjoying himself so far...







We were all having a blast... hopefully I wasn't too much of an anchor for these speed freaks.

Here's some snaps of us riding between Hannagan Meadow and Springerville...







Cathy really knows how to cruise in comfort on that 'low mileage' R6!








Once we got settled in at the hotel, we got together for some drinks and to shoot the shinola (sorry, no pics of this, but a good time was had by all). Then it was time for grub, and back to the hotel to polish off a bottle of Crown Royal (Thanks Skip!).


Day 2 was another nice day for riding, though it didn't take long for us to start stretchin' the legs and such...


















Here are the few pics I got riding through the Salt River Canyon...









After fillin' up the bikes and bellies in Globe, it was a mad dash back to Tucson...

Jason was ready to part ways with his Daytona:






I was ready to get off my bike as well. The riding was great, and the company was too... I'm proud to have both nearby.


Thanks for letting me share.

I've ridden to Albuquerque a few times and up to Colorado through Grants. There's some nice sections of old Rt 66 West of you then you can drop South out of Grants. Also try Route 180 in New Mexico and over Mule Creek Pass. It will take you right over to Morenci to head up 191 to Springerville. It's a great loop, good food at the Blue Moon Cafe in Glenwood, NM too. You won't be disappointed with the ride or food.

Skip, when I look at your old 900 compared to those crotch rockets it looks like a stretch limo of motorcycles.

Some more of the ride....

The beginning, at breakfast. We found this place accidently a few weeks ago and now it's becoming a regular stop.

Note the pretty flowers there. The Girly girl side of me showing!


A nice bit of cloud cover to break the heat.




As we got closer to Safford the clouds thinned and the heat rose.




Coming into Clifton. The twisty bits are just around the corner. Yummy!




Here comes the curvy arrows. See the yellow arrow sign on the right? That's a good sign of things to come.




Heading into the Mine area. Already the road turns nicely, see
:)




Jason going exploring in the Mine. He's prospectin' fer curves.




A big arse Mine eh!




Out of the Mine and into NFS land. Skip bending the 900 'round.




Jason and his Daytona.....far, far from Daytona and all those left handers.




Pauly on his new S3. He sold his Husky 610 for this tire eater. Zoomie!




Jason stylin'




Skip schoolin' us on the old school Honda




Playin with angles whilst riding down the road.




Good friends on a good ride. Life is good!




Hey now, you're too close. Be careful. Oh wait it's a self portrait. Whew, I scared myself there for a minute.




The Brits, getting ready in Springerville. I don't know what they're doing. Tucking in thier girdles or something.

Skip waiting and ready to get er' done.




All of us coming back from a very worthwhile little detour up towards Big Lake. Sweet little section of awesome road. A great way to start the morning.




A little stop in Hon-Dah for fuel and to tour the Casino and Hotel.




My husband. Nice little building you have there.




Pauly and Jason




Heading into Salt River Canyon




A small bit of Salt River Canyon. I have never had a picture do justice to this place. It's so spectacular and with so many nice sweepers I find little time to snap photos at all. Some day I'll stop and take a few.



That concludes my photo prowess or lackthereof. The ride was great, the company was awesome and the weather was cool until we got back down into the lower elevations.

Thanks Pauly for posting up in the TUS board. I had a great time riding with you, Jason and Skip.

Does it handle like one, too?

Just speaking from my own experience riding the 900....the swingarm felt like it was flexing right before my eyes in turns. Scared the bejezus out of me. I scare easily though.

Skip on the other hand, feeds that thing through corners like nothing and has a big smile on his face just like I do when I ride my bike. Go figure. Bikes = smiles, all of them! :)

There is frame flex or at least swing arm flex that is noticeable. The bike had close to 85hp at the rear tire back in 82 so it will go pretty well. The bike has been in the garage and ridden around the neighborhood the last few years. i pulled it out at the last minute because all I have is a big GS 1200 and a bunch of dirt bikes. Everyone else was going sport bike so I though what the heck.

The tires were shot so I'd like to do it again on new tires, but all in all, just lower the shoulder and drive it through the corner. That ride was a lot of fun and that bike still has more than most riders need.

Nice ride. I would like to do this loop later this year. Where did you stay after the first day? Thanks.

The loop and the ride are awesome. as is the food. 180 between the mule creek turn off and silver city is under construction, and there is some gravel left on the road. they haven't done the lines yet either, and the 'posted' limit is 35 through a large (30-40mi) section, though most people still go 50-60mph. not many cops on the road right now, I've seen a couple in buckhorn, but that is it.

We stayed in Springerville. Nice little motel with a great Cafe just down the street.

Its been said a few times already, but it was a great ride. What a great variation of roads to ride from tight first gear hair pins to high gear-throttle on sweepers.

Here are a couple of pics I managed to snap along the way.

off the 10 and making our way to the twisties!


having a look behind me


and now a look ahead




And here's Pauly waving "hello"


Now we finally get into some twisties and i tried to get a few glamor shots as people zoomed through the corners. Sadly my slow camera (or slow finger) didn't get the best action shots. But everyone is still making it look fun!

Skip making the Ol' 900 work


Don't let his posting fool you, he was right up front setting the pace.


When Skip wasn't setting the pace, Cathy took charge through the turns




Here comes Pauly with that beautiful new S3, giving it the good and proper break-in!




After some fun miles of twisties we pulled off to give ourselves a little break


Then got back on the road for more fun


and just as I pulled out the camera to get that great shot of the group in formation...............Cathy, where'd you go?????


Not to worry, with her skills she got right back with the group


It was a lot of miles and even though everyone was making me jealious with their cruise control, and paded seats, I can't wait to do it again!

Ok, not sure what I did wrong, but obviously I didn't get something right when I tried to post the pics. Never done it before, so if you can help, that would be awesome.

Yup, I'm very familiar with NM 180. I ride NM 152 over the Black Range to Silver City, then up 180. Sometimes cut across to Mule Creek and up the 666, oops I mean 191.

Great roads. Thanks for the cafe tip; I usually don't stop for much, but I might make an exception :dg

--Doc