Our rig in Ouray Colorado:
Just returned from a 2,500 mile, 18 day trip, up to the southern Rockies from our home, north of Tucson. We had a fabulous time with very few issues but...
Incident number 1: As I prepared to turn left into the Matterhorn CG 10 miles south of Telluride; narrow, two lane blacktop at about 8,200', brake lights and turn signal clearly visible, my speed down to 15 mph, the car behind me slowing and giving us plenty of following distance...
The Chucklehead in a large van pulling a trailer loaded with 3 river rafts (obviously a local), swings out into the oncoming g lane and begins to pass. ARRRRG! :M
I spot him in my mirror, bail for the shoulder, which was all of about 6" wide with a 500' drop to the creek below and lock up the brakes. The guy behind me is fine given his judicious following distance but the van with the trailer full of river rafts is alongside of my motorcycle trailer and he is looking like a deer in the headlights.
I waved him past, giving him the all too appropriate single digit salute and couple of
choice adjectives as he passes. :S
Incident number 2: Pull into the Jemez Falls CG and as we are checking in, glance back at the trailer to see my 500# bike leaning significantly to the left. That can't be good I thought. :h
Further investigation revealed that the right ratchet strap had snapped just above the "S" hook and the bike was leaning/resting entirely on the kickstand, which, happily I had left deployed. Don't want to think about what could have happened if the left side strap had parted. :E
Add in the morons (fortunately only a few), who seem to think that passing a vehicle doing the speed limit, over the double yellow on a curve or a hill is a good idea and overall it was a pretty mellow ride with few white knuckle moments.
A tire check at the gas station south of Albuquerque showed excessive wear on the trailer tires, (mileage unknown own as I bought it used). Tried to find a couple of new tires in Socorro on Saturday afternoon but none of them had my size in stock. Luckily the Wally World in Truth or Consequences had two, mounted on rims on the shelf for $97each.
Their tire shop was backed up for hours so we retreated to the Elephant Butte SP CG and I changed them out using my Harbor Freight: wheel chocks, 8 ton bottle jack, lug wrench, jack stand, and torque wrench (70# all around). This leaves me with 2 extra tires and rims, after I replace the original tires with Maxis'. In the future I will be traveling with two spares as two is better than one and I have plenty of room in the trailer. {The brand new spare that came with the trailer was the wrong size, my bad for not knowing}. :S
All in all, not that much drama for 2,500 miles but you never know what is awaiting you around that next curve. Be safe out there my friends!
:C
Just returned from a 2,500 mile, 18 day trip, up to the southern Rockies from our home, north of Tucson. We had a fabulous time with very few issues but...
Incident number 1: As I prepared to turn left into the Matterhorn CG 10 miles south of Telluride; narrow, two lane blacktop at about 8,200', brake lights and turn signal clearly visible, my speed down to 15 mph, the car behind me slowing and giving us plenty of following distance...
The Chucklehead in a large van pulling a trailer loaded with 3 river rafts (obviously a local), swings out into the oncoming g lane and begins to pass. ARRRRG! :M
I spot him in my mirror, bail for the shoulder, which was all of about 6" wide with a 500' drop to the creek below and lock up the brakes. The guy behind me is fine given his judicious following distance but the van with the trailer full of river rafts is alongside of my motorcycle trailer and he is looking like a deer in the headlights.
I waved him past, giving him the all too appropriate single digit salute and couple of
choice adjectives as he passes. :S
Incident number 2: Pull into the Jemez Falls CG and as we are checking in, glance back at the trailer to see my 500# bike leaning significantly to the left. That can't be good I thought. :h
Further investigation revealed that the right ratchet strap had snapped just above the "S" hook and the bike was leaning/resting entirely on the kickstand, which, happily I had left deployed. Don't want to think about what could have happened if the left side strap had parted. :E
Add in the morons (fortunately only a few), who seem to think that passing a vehicle doing the speed limit, over the double yellow on a curve or a hill is a good idea and overall it was a pretty mellow ride with few white knuckle moments.
A tire check at the gas station south of Albuquerque showed excessive wear on the trailer tires, (mileage unknown own as I bought it used). Tried to find a couple of new tires in Socorro on Saturday afternoon but none of them had my size in stock. Luckily the Wally World in Truth or Consequences had two, mounted on rims on the shelf for $97each.
Their tire shop was backed up for hours so we retreated to the Elephant Butte SP CG and I changed them out using my Harbor Freight: wheel chocks, 8 ton bottle jack, lug wrench, jack stand, and torque wrench (70# all around). This leaves me with 2 extra tires and rims, after I replace the original tires with Maxis'. In the future I will be traveling with two spares as two is better than one and I have plenty of room in the trailer. {The brand new spare that came with the trailer was the wrong size, my bad for not knowing}. :S
All in all, not that much drama for 2,500 miles but you never know what is awaiting you around that next curve. Be safe out there my friends!
:C
3oaks wrote:
Could be the van driver with the rafts didn't see your turn signal until he passed the vehicle that was behind you. May have thought you slowed down to allow both of them pass.
Giving someone the "single digit salute and couple of choice adjectives as he passes." is a very bad idea these days, even if you were in the right. People have done less and ended up "dead right" with all the road rage craziness. :S
Point taken however...
The trailer is so small and the back of the rig so large, with huge LED brake lights/turn signals there is now way he did not see my lights flashing. The car behind me had slowed and established a good/safe sized gap which probably saved us all. I had gradually slowed to about 10 mph and engaged my turn signals well in advance of the upcoming turn into the CG.
Sometimes a honk or gesture is mandated or the idiot just goes on by oblivious to their stupidity and destined to repeat it. He may have been (probably was), on a cell phone (yes we had coverage at the cg), but I was too busy trying not to get killed to notice. :E
As to the model of my bike it is a 1987 BMW R-80 RT, currently has just over 70,000 miles.... almost broken in. Here is a better pic:
:B
