[djthompson43]

Spent three days riding around Arizona and had a blast! I think I hit just about every recommended route you guys threw my way. Picked up my Yamaha FJR1300 in Scottsdale and headed to Payson, down to Globe, on to Clifton, up to Alpine and finally parked it for the night in Show Low! Great first day! Next day on to Prescott (wonderful twisties just outside of town), then to 89A through Jerome and on to Sedona for the night. If I had known more about Jerome in advance I would have skipped Sedona and spent the night in Jerome, very cool city! Sedona was a bit of a disappointment, too commercialized for my taste although my wife would have loved it! My buddy was on a BMW K1300GT that he rented from Eagle Rider in Scottsdale. When he rented it he was told they re not open on Sunday's so he had to turn that bike in on Saturday and pick up another one at AZRide which is where I rented my bike from. So Saturday's ride was from Sedona to Scottsdale to exchange his bike. The rout was mostly interstate 17 which was very boring and extremely hot! He picked up his new ride (Honda 1300) and we were off to Deer valley for the night. Sunday morning we struggled to come up with a good route that would get us back to the rental place in time to drop off bikes and get to the airport by 2:00PM. Decided just to run up to Payson again, then back towards Scottsdale where we hit Bush Highway and headed off to Apache Village. My buddy and I both agreed the BMW was clearly the best of the three bikes, tremendous top end speed and nice, firm feel. I spent most of my time on the Yamaha which also had ample horsepower and handled the twisties great. Unfortunately, it lacked cruise control and the engine put a ton of heat on my calves, almost unbearable at lower elevations where the temps got to 100degrees. Yamaha was definitely fun to ride, extremely easy to handle, but I just didn't feel as safe on it at the high speeds. BMW also handled the curves very well, and was fast as hell! Covered 1200 miles in just over 3 days and saw some spectacular scenery. Don't think I could handle the Phoenix temps in the middle of summer!

Thanks to all of you who contributed ideas on where to go and what to see. It was very helpful in our planning.

dave

 

[rwbloch]

It's fun to read your rapid account of your trip. Happy it went well.

 

[hagar]

I rode my Honda 1000 Hurricane in Phoenix in 1990 when it hit the all time record heat of 122. Even though the bike was parked under cover, the heat from the tank burned the inside of my legs pretty bad. That day was like a SHTF event, there were cars and buses broken down EVERYWHERE, and a lot of RV's spontaneously combusted on the highways.

 

[Foiler]

I was a welder back then and driving a VW.