Tucson Area Rides Thread

[SpeedySteve]

Ride Name: Reddington to the backside of Lemmon
Date: November 24th, 2012
Meeting time: 0830
Meeting location: Circle K E on Tanque Verde
Estimated Length of Ride: 100 miles round trip?
Difficulty: easy/medium. bumpy
Notes: bring food and ample water. There's no services to stop for munchies or water.

Not sure if I will make this ride. However, there are a few folks meeting at the designated place and time for a ride up and over reddington and up the backside of Lemmon. Always a fun ride!

[SpeedySteve]

Ride Name: Big Bend Christmas Trip
Date: Departing December 23/24? TBD
Meeting time: 0600
Meeting location: Houghton parking area north of I10
Estimated Length of Ride: 12-14 days; December 23/24-Jan 5th
Difficulty: 1000 miles+ of dirt! 3,000ish total miles. Should be easy(er). I am riding a 600 lb bike with camping gear and food provisions
Notes: read below


Howdy Folks -

I'm in the midst of planning of a Christmas Holiday on the motorcycle. 6 days of vacation from work net me a total of 15 consecutive days off from work. Needless to say, I plan to spend those day living out of the motorcycle; the way a proper holiday should be spent . Right now, I don't have any companions on this trip . Even my SO is unable to take time off, so this is currently a solo trip. I apologize for the late posting given the potential magnitude of the trip. My original plans to Baja with a few buddies fell through due to scheduling and prep time. So, last weekend I start planning my backup trip, which is now my only trip, and the trip that I currently don't have any buddies tagging along with.

I have spent a fair bit of time researching routes and things to do. My goal is to get to Big Bend National Park area from Tucson using as many feasible dirt roads as possible. That is my reason for posting most of the daily routes with Bing Maps, they allow routing with smaller secondary/tertiary roads.

So, If you have a wide open Christmas break and want to tag along on a well planned trip - hit me up! I am a bit type A with planning, well, more like researching; while out on the trail I may deviate from the plan with knowledge of the surrounding area. I suppose the route doesn't deviate that much, but the timing may (you know how it is, finding fun alternative smaller dirt roads to the plan and spend more time exploring those and not really progressing along the planned route while the sun continues to set and you find a place a hundred or so miles from your planned destination for the night). This will be a cooler trip - I will be sporting heated gear. I also plan to tent most/all of the nights with the exception if a storm rolls through; in that case I will probably be in a hotel keeping dry / not snowy.

Anyways, this trip should be a good hearty chunk of hella fun man time. If you want to tag along for the whole route - yay! If you have time for a few days - great! Come out and have fun, then ride home to entertain the inlaws or whatever responsible grown ups do

Here is a link to the public dropbox folder that contains the word doc that acts as notes/itinerary and the good earth files that I will convert to .gpx format and toss on the GPS.

I have national forest maps for Lincoln National Forest in NM, Delorme Atlas & Gazetteers for NM and TX, AAA state maps, and a specific map for Big Bend. I am very much a bing sat map/google earth road researcher, so the entirety of the route thus far seems to be reasonably passable by bikes according to imagery.

The itinerary and GE files are works in progress. I hope to finalize the Big Bend trip research this weekend and update the dropbox folder with the latest itinerary and Google Earth files.

If you're interested in a Christmas motorcycle holiday, hit me up! All parties interested, we will meet in person December 21 or 22 to discuss any pending matters and to allow me time to discuss the objectives and details of the route. Of course, we can be in contact by email/phone beforehand to discuss whatever.

Cheers,

Speedy

[BobM]

Ride Name: Bullsprings Rd/Flux Canyon
Date:Saturday Jan 19, 2013
Meeting time: 08:45am - Ride starts promptly at 9:00am
Meeting location: Green Valley - Chevron Gas station at Continental and I-19
Estimated Length of Ride: 200+ miles
Difficulty: Mixture paved, hard packed 2-track, rocky climb (Flux Canyon). OK for stock DS bikes with experienced riders.

This will be my first off-pavement ride on my new DR650 so I'll be keeping the route simple.

Time and meeting place to be confirmed when I know who is going.

Bob
Updated: Time and place Jan 15.

[Artboy57]

Hey folks, any recommendations for some easy dirt around Tucson for a couple out-of-staters? On a 650 and a 400, staying with an in-law April 6 and 7. No GPS, looking for fire roads or interesting old mines, etc. Trying to avoid endless sand washes or single track stuff (hey, I'm an old guy!)Thanks for any advice.

Chris (artboy)

[HoosierTrailmaster]

Originally Posted by Artboy57

Hey folks, any recommendations for some easy dirt around Tucson for a couple out-of-staters? On a 650 and a 400, staying with an in-law April 6 and 7. No GPS, looking for fire roads or interesting old mines, etc. Trying to avoid endless sand washes or single track stuff (hey, I'm an old guy!)Thanks for any advice.

Chris (artboy)

Chris,

Head down to the Santa Rita's (South of Tucson). Plenty of forest roads, some old mines, not many washes or single track, nice climb up to Gunsite Pass.

[alaskasail]

Originally Posted by Artboy57

Hey folks, any recommendations for some easy dirt around Tucson for a couple out-of-staters? On a 650 and a 400, staying with an in-law April 6 and 7. No GPS, looking for fire roads or interesting old mines, etc. Trying to avoid endless sand washes or single track stuff (hey, I'm an old guy!)Thanks for any advice.

Chris (artboy)

There are some nice rides in beautiful country around Arivaca and you won't see too many (if any) other people. If you look under my account (alaskasail) at EveryTrail, I have some posted. Like:

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1347903

-

[Artboy57]

Thanks a lot! 2 days will be barely a taste, I hope to be back in the fall. If we stick to dirt roads on plated bikes are there any permits or so forth we need to buy? We always want to be legal.

Thanks again.

[HoosierTrailmaster]

As long as you are a street legal bike with out state license no need for any OHV stickers.

[russbryant]

Originally Posted by HoosierTrailmaster

As long as you are a street legal bike with out state license no need for any OHV stickers.

How's that leg healing Allyn? Are you up for the Red Garter yet? It's this Thursday.

Russ

[jsonder]

I normally ride in the Santa Ritas every weekend and am probably an even older guy. PM me if you want to get together Artboy57.

[Artboy57]

Thanks again for the tips,gents. Jsonder, I sent you a PM.

[sky_high]

Hey guy's its skyler. Anybody have a used tire for on 18in. Rim laying around? I need to replace my rear tire on my xr 400, but am a poor college student.

[swimmer]

Originally Posted by sky_high

Hey guy's its skyler. Anybody have a used tire for on 18in. Rim laying around? I need to replace my rear tire on my xr 400, but am a poor college student.

I'VE got a Tw-302 120/80. $20. 60%

[jsonder]

As a point of information, the Great Basin saddlebag will fit on most two fiddies.



I think that I'm going to like the bag. Giant Loop put last year's bag on sale, but all that was left was orange. I can live with that.

[Flashman1]

Originally Posted by jsonder

As a point of information, the Great Basin saddlebag will fit on most two fiddies.



I think that I'm going to like the bag. Giant Loop put last year's bag on sale, but all that was left was orange. I can live with that.

Is that your Honda?