Dr. Greg & Wotan take a 4-day "Tour of Southern New Mexico"

Dr. G - please say thanks to Mrs G. for "pushing" you back out the door in the interest of science so we can be the beneficiaries.

Great report. .

Keep them coming.

Dr. Greg, I want to first off say Thank You, your RR is top notch and was an absolute joy to read and view. This, coming from a Native New Mexican.

I was born and raised there and your RR makes me miss it incredibly. Something about that place really is just captivating and enchanting, not to mention it's absolutely beautiful and is a dual-sport motorcyclist's wonderland.

There's only one glitch in the entire thread that I found very confusing. You mentioned being able to see the Texas plains from South 14 (now named NM-337). My Grandmother lived out there when I was a kid and I spent a lot of time up there... I'm pretty sure you can't see Texas from there being as it's right on the back side of the Sandia/Monzano Mountains smack dab in the middle of the state :huh

I know I'm probably missing a joke here and will feel awfully silly.

OK, it's a deal. Congrats on your "new" GSA, and good luck on your upcoming rides. Write 'em up so we can all <strike>make fun of</strike> follow along with your trips .

OK, ok, I was finally enjoyin' a day off from the keyboard. I'll try to get that written up tomorrow. I'm almost glad I waited this long cuz I have a better "feel" for the GSW now. And I can't possibly disappoint an inmate of GB's stature .

No, you are completely correct. From that vantage point one can see, maybe, 50 miles at most down into the Southeast New Mexico plains. The Great State of Tejas is a HECK of a lot further away than that. It just SEEMS to me like I can see forever---even as far as Texas

New Mexican really is an "enchanted" place, despite Figure 120. Thanks very much for following my report; I'm glad you enjoyed it.

--Doc

Thanks for your latest report and looking forward to your motorcycle comparo. The Adirondacks?... Really?

Your little narrows along NM 117 is more interesting than anything I've ridden through in upstate New York. The best they have going around those parts is the lakes filled with Garwood speedboats and those cool little namesake pine deck chairs they have to watch them from.

You're in that neighborhood, so what can I say? However, what say you to the enormous response to Adirondacks and Beyond...

Seems like there's more there than one cliff face, no? Plus I have historical interest: the Theodore Dreiser book.

Finally, there's a LOTTA country between New Mexico & The Adirondacks---both GOING and COMING. Surely it's not gonna be a waste of time!?

Please someone say NO cuz I've already got my reservations...

--Doc

OK, fellas, because of popular demand (OK, I guess I made the offer)---here is the link to my "comparison" of the 2010 Ducati Multistrada 1200S and the 2013 BMW R1200GSW.

I've intentionally written this up as an externally-hosted HTML file so that this would reduce "squabbling" over the writeup (not that that ever happens).

It would have been easier for me to have written up a PDF document and posted it, but that would've required YOU to have downloaded the PDF, then opened it...too much trouble, and we aim to please.

So here is my subjective comparison. Feel free to contact me w/questions or comments (I doubt there'll be much of either, since we're all too busy).

Thanks again to all who followed my "4-day" ride report. I hope some of you enjoy reading the bike compare.

Oh yeah, I guess I should post the link:

2010 Ducati MTS1200S & 2013 BMW R1200GSW
​

If you have trouble accessing the article, please tell me.

Thanks for your attention.

--Doc

Great to see ya riding Doc.

"NO!"



If you need a place to eat, sleep, wash body and clothes, service the bike or ?
the door is always open and the moonshine (purely medicinal) is there for the tasting, pm if you are traveling through Western NC and need anything.

Cheers

Hey, I know you from the BadWeB forum! Didn't I ship you a jacket from one of my (several) bike wrecks? Hola and welcome.

Yep, I'm gonna be riding' for 26 more years...all on the GSW .

-- Doc

Wow! Great write-up and comparison of the two bikes. That was as thorough of a comparison as they get!

I read the Adirondack RR. Yeah, it looks like that. Very green... Vermont and the rest of New England looks alot like that too. Villages with a little common in the middle with a couple of steeples standing guard over them. The farms are pretty awesome around these parts too, with their stone walls and interesting add-ons build by the generations that lived there.

I like the west best, but I have friends who don't. Too brown they say. My place in AZ is in the higher desert well north of Phoenix. To me it is very lush and green with its variety of desert plant life, but it's not for everybody I guess.

Thanks, Doc, for that great comparison report between your Duc and your new BMW. Very concise! I am sort of missing my old KTM 950. I should ride the new GS to see what it is like. I am surprised to read you think the new version is so different from the older models. I might try one of the new KTM 1190's too.

-P

Thanks for taking the time to do the trip report for us.

I never bumped into you on the BadWeb forum. I had 2 Ulysses with a Street Glide between them.

Kimberly flew out to the Tri-Cities and we rode back through Lolo Pass, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole before the Buell started missing occasionally. In Northern Oklahoma the fuel pump went out and it was trailered home is the correct H-D fashion.

It took H-D 6 weeks to fix the pump so it was traded in on a Gold Wing.

About 10 miles further along I spotted this string of 20-30 flatcars carryin' something---couldn't figure out what these things were. Eyeball Figure 101 and lemme know if you can figure it out. Just curious.

Figure 101. Long string of flatcars carryin' something...what?​

I really enjoyed your RR, by the way.

Nice write up DR. G on the bikes. I am not too surprised on your choices.

I will never forget our first meeting , first ride together ,you on that Buell , on the two track from Sipapu over to Angel Fire. Sandy and I still share all that happened on that trip/weekend.

I might add, you did very well on that street tired Buell

Thanks for the info, have fun
gale

Reading your RR has been enjoyable on several levels. One, because I sometimes miss New Mexico’s great scenery, especially while partaking in two wheeled travel of either the human or petrol powered variety. Even more so because my life changed so much after moving there in 1980, and at least partly that was to your credit. I graduated from UNM with a BS in ME in ‘83, having taken and survived a few of your courses. It’s a good thing I managed to keep that double integrator experiment from railing as it’s the only way I could ever manage an A grade. I’m sure there are many, many similar stories as mine, but I have never looked you up to say thanks, so here it is… THANKS.<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
Most importantly, I read your BMW-Ducati comparison and nearly fell off the chair when I saw you actually programmed an electronic cruise control in the Ducati chip. Thinking about it a bit more it really shouldn’t have surprised me. I just chose a new Super Tenere, over the Tiger Explorer, in spite of the lack of cruise control and would love to try to do the same on it. Apparently the new 2014 model will have it so maybe there will be a retro-fit kit, but if not then I would like to know what was involved. Feel free to PM me if you don’t want to put everyone else to sleep with the root locus etc.

Thanks for writing that up. GB wasn't the only one wanting to see what you thought.

Thank you for another great RR and especially for taking the time to write a clear and helpful comparison between the MTS and the GSW. Great stuff!

Those rail cars are loaded with concrete railroad ties, they are replacing the old wood ties with these new concrete ones.