Big Bend NP Trip - Saturday

My onboard temperature gauge was at 45° and light rain mixed with small hailstones was pelting my helmet and bouncing off my instrument cluster. I told myself that the *safe* route was to take I-10 all the way. At the last minute, my body rebelled and I veered right for the exit to SR-41 and a day of relatively straight but scenic back roads.

I had started the morning with a three route plans. The first and most fun (twisties through the hill country) was completely nixed by the uncooperative weather. The second was a long drone down I-10. The third, and my ultimate choice, was of Texas and US highways through the hill country and then skating along the Mexican border on US90.

For the first 30 miles, I was certain that I’d made a bad choice and would need to turn around. The rain was light but steady. The hail had died down, but could reappear at any moment. Warm and dry with my winter riding suit, Widder electric vest, and heated grips, I was prepared to go all day in this light rain, IF it stayed light.


Happily, the rain eventually stopped and I was left to my own thoughts as I rolled down gently curving US377. When the highway intersection warning sign for FM-674 appeared, I was mildly regretting giving up so soon on my fun route for the day, but telling myself that it would pay off in the end if I made it to Alpine, TX before dark for my planned rendezvous with Anna (Vivid1).

In another brilliant strike of inspiration, I turned left onto FM-674, recognizing it from my pre-trip planning.

The road was dry, scenic, and quite a roller-coaster. The rain had not filled the creeks at all, so the low water crossings provided my stomach with a dip of gravity rather than the clench of worry. I greatly enjoyed each of the 60 miles to Bracketville, TX. As I slowed to obey the reduced speed limit signs that always seem to infest populated areas, the sky let loose again with a moment of the hardest rain I’d seen all day. I was just thankful that it had seen fit to wait until I was back on straight roads.

The rain was far behind me as I got fuel and lunch in Del Rio, TX before continuing down US-90. Though mildly curvy in places, the road was marked with a 75mph speed limit, so I didn’t really regret missing out on the 80mph sections of I-10. Although the sky was gray and overcast, temperatures were hovering in the mid 50s.

I stopped for a brief photo shoot at Amistad Reservoir.





And stopped again at the Pecos River crossing.









The horizon was socked in with fog and the temperatures were dropping into the 30s around 4:30pm as I approached the mountain range surrounding Alpine.

I entered the fog about 20 miles from my destination. It wasn’t a complete white-out, but I slowed and turned off the headlight modulator. After a while, I noticed that a truck was keeping it’s distance behind me. I signaled him to pass, hoping to follow his tail-lights for a while. He had seemed happy with my 65mph pace, but immediately sped up to 75mph once past me. I wasn’t really thrilled to be keeping that pace in the fog, but I followed him until a LEO coming the other direction twinkled his lights at us in warning. The truck soon disappeared and I was left to make my own way. The hotel soon appeared and I parked the bike.

Anna was still several hours away, so I walked across the street to warm up with some coffee and my book for a few hours. When she called to tell me she had arrived, it was dark and still foggy. I could barely make out the huge lighted sign for the hotel just across the street.

After unpacking the bike and her truck, we drove into Alpine for dinner at the Edelweiss Brewery in the historic Holland Hotel. We each had schnitzel (tenderized breaded pork) while chatting and swapping sport-touring stories. The live band (two guys with a ukulele) entertained us with such popular favorites as “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and “Meet the Flintstones”. We fled back to the hotel when they broke out the bagpipes.

Big Bend NP Trip - Friday

Sport-Touring encompasses many different things, among them a willingness to travel long distances for the chance to briefly experience a distant kickass (and sometimes not so kickass) twisty road. All too often, this “touring” consists of "getting somewhere" by droning down a curve-deficient highway in sub-optimal conditions because that’s where the vacation time-window happens to be.

Sub-optimal conditions were very much on my mind that morning as tiny hailstones pinged off my visor and onto the chip-sealed surface of the almost deserted Texas hill country highway.

It was one of those days.

It was the weekend before Christmas 2006 and I was headed to Big Bend National Park for a winter sport-touring adventure. I had taken the previous day, a Friday, off from work to get an early escape from shopping-frenzied Houston.

Friday’s ride was mostly unremarkable. I took a northerly route out of Houston, along familiar FM roads that were part of my usual day-ride repertoire.





Lunch (sans pie, alas) was at the Texan Café in Hutto, where I paused to snap a photo of the creepy cow‘s head hanging over the entrance.


I crossed I-35 north of Austin, finally getting to roads that were *almost* out of reach for a day-ride from Houston. After a Texas highway patrol officer took time from his busy schedule to remind me not to enjoy the curves too much, I slowed down to note with sadness the roadside grading work. From the looks of things, by this time next year FM1431 will be downgraded from “One of the better roads in the state” to “Newly improved and straightened 4-lane connector road”.

The short winter day was waning as I turned south with plans to meet an old friend for dinner in Boerne. I took the Willow City Loop, a very scenic 1.5 lane goat trail, and then FM1376 past famous Luckenbach, TX.






The last orange rays of the sun were disappearing from the sky as I pulled into the chain restaurant parking lot. Dinner with my old friend was pleasant, but even more so was the thought that by the time I got back on the bike for the 30 mile interstate dash to Kerrville, it would be dark enough for my headlights to be effective.

I fell asleep to the Weather Channel’s ominous whispers about a Saturday of storms and near-freezing temperatures.

Which gets me back to that dreary and cold Saturday morning. I was droning down I-10 west of Kerrville at 80mph (the nice speed limit signs said I could!) and moments away from making a decision.

Revised my dash

One of my gripes with my ST has been a lack of good mounting points for gadgets. My xm radio and gps have been mounted on RAM arms attached to the mirror stalks, but I couldn't find any other places to cleanly put a RAM ball for my camera.

A couple of companies make expensive mounting products for the R1200ST, notably "The Gadget Guy" and Z-technik. They are nice, but I didn't like their lack of rubber-mounting and especially with "The Gadget Guy" mount, the need to spend even more money on base mounts.

A few months ago I noticed that Touratech had developed a gadget mount for the ST. It was amazingly cheap ($29.30!) and looked nice and clean. It was also labeled "backordered", which discouraged me from ordering.

I ordered the Touratech mount two weeks ago. To my surprise, I received notification that it had shipped only a week later. I installed it on the bike on Thursday night.



Of course, after spending only $30 on the mount, I wasn't about to go out and purchase Touratech's expensive mounting brackets, so I made do with some 1/2" conduit hangers that have been rattling around my "bits box" for a while. (The black stuff is a bicycle inner tube that I use as a convenient roll of rubber shims for anything that needs vibration damping or shielding between metal mounts)(I used fender washers to widen the base for my Quest gps mount)


Aaaaaaand with everything mounted up. The xm radio gets waterproofed 100% of the time because I can never tell when Texas will decide to let loose on me. The ziplock freezer bag is held on with a band of double sided velcro.




And now, with 2 RAM balls and all my RAM arms freed up, I can mount other really cool things!

Some Happy Tidings

I had a nice solo ride on Saturday. I rode over 400 miles in a triangle between Houston, San Antonio, and Austin. The R1200ST officially clicked over 20,000 miles. More pictures and a short ride report later.

In other news, I was notified that I will get a nice raise effective January 1st. Yay me!

I also recieved a year-end bonus check that will enable me to write about some new farkle (accessory) installations in the next few weeks. It also injected some welcomed cash into my truck loan. I'll likely have the truck paid off by mid-2007.

And with my finances finally freed up to put into savings/down payment...who knows...by this time next year, I could be moving into MY OWN HOUSE!

//knocks on wood
///crosses fingers
////bounces down the hallway, wild with glee!

18k Service on the R1200ST

Well, I finally did it, even if it was a few miles late (at 19, 300).

Rebecca came over for bagels and lox on Thanksgiving morning. After finishing breakfast, we headed out to the garage to tackle the service on the R1200ST.

I was fairly confident that the valve adjust would be a breeze. I had printed out the entire section on valve adjusts from my service CD, and also a very good thread from Advrider.

Instructions? Check! Tools? Check! Gloves? Check! Grease smudge on nose? CHECK!

Open engine surgery: this is the scary part.

The valve adjust was even easier than expected. I don't think I'll ever again pay a dealership to do it. Next we moved on to an oil change, draining some very black oil and refilling it with clean Shell Rotella T Synthetic.

Next step: Beg a Twinmax-owning friend to help me sync the throttle bodies.

Full Beaver Moon Tech Day

Last weekend, Rebecca, Deb, Eric, and I rode up to Canton, TX to attend a tech day, BBQ, and camp-out held by Howard and Jill from TWTex.

I only took a few pictures, but the photo thread is here on TWT.

I didn't get anything done on the R1200ST, but I *supervised* while Rebecca did an oil change, replaced brake pads, and did a brake fluid bleed. Deb got assisted with some electrical wiring, and Eric was along for the ride.

The hosts were prepared with excellent smoked turkey and brisket. The bonfire was huge, and made even more entertaining by the meteor shower happening that night. The four of us snuggled up on Rebecca's queen size air mattress to get a better view (and keep warm).

The ride back to Houston on Sunday took a little detour through Tyler and the piney woods with lunch at a cafe in Henderson. We were having such a good time that it almost didn't matter that we were eight miles from the Louisiana border at sunset.

The ride into Houston in darkness was a good test of my new winter gear. My on-board temperature gauge was in the high 40s to low 50s. I was using my Widder vest, heated grips, and balaclava. I was very glad of the extra clothes I'd brought for layering purposes.