After work Mini-Adventure

[Johnny_5]

My friend Karen just visited me in Mesa, AZ. It took some slight convincing that she should come stay with me: "It's 80 degrees today" (She lives in one of those cold places with white stuff everywhere.)

So she came down and brought her bikes. One day after work we took off for our mini-Adventure. Me on a KTM 990:



Her on her BMW F650GS:


We started in Mesa and the first destination was here (The mountains not the brewery):


I forgot to take a picture of the peaks


Karen's just getting off of an injury so we had an easy going pace = lots of pictures of Karen after I had rode ahead:





We decided to switch bikes to try each others out. Karen on the KTM:






You should note that the tank bag makes a very nice tail bag with proper bungy cord usage. It was either that or be unable to get as forward on the bike and get hit in the crotch a lot on the ride up the mountain

Two very different bikes. Where the KTM has a very sensitive throttle, the BMW is very mellow with almost a lag at low RPM. At low speeds KTM suspension seems smooth until getting on the soft suspension of the BMW. For cruising at lower speeds the BMW is comfortable to sit and ride while I much prefer the KTM suspension for more aggressive standing riding. But on to the top!



Karen says: This is PHOENIX! There's not suppose to be snow!



Now we start heading down hill into the Roosevelt Lake area and Punkin Center. After fighting with the camera we got a group photo:

At this point Karen is almost unable to stand upright due to her laughing at my inability to operate/out run the camera:


Now the light starts going so the pictures are reaching an end too:





We ended up getting gas and food (food didn't rate a picture, or I forgot) at the Butcher's Hook. There were water dogs (This picture is not of the group we saw, they were definitely uglier):


Then in the dark headed down the twisty Apache Trail dirt road which turns to the Tortilla Flat twisty pavement.

Back at 11pm after about a 100 mile trip. We both were dragging at work the next day but it was worth it

[SgtMike]

Got some time to burn = RIDE! Great scenery, COOL BIKE!

[GB]

Nice to have this sort of riding in your backyard!! Thanks for the report and pics

[hilslamer]

Originally Posted by Johnny_5

Me on a KTM 990:

Nice ride. Great report...where is the map of your travels?

[Chanderjeet]

Nice little mini adventure. Good pics.