Bad Roads

[sermn8ter]

What are the worst roads any of you have ridden on? I am in Detroit today and tomorrow, thankfully not on the XS, and there are some bad roads up here. I can't imagine riding a bike on most of them. Anybody around the Plymouth, MI area? I am up on business, doing an install of firewalls, PC's and printers for one of our branchs here. It is off of Beck Rd. near the Compusave? Compuserve? arena/movie theatre....something or other. I was in Cincinnati earlier this week. There weren't a whole lot better. Miami two weeks ago, they weren't too bad. Ours in Georgia are not too bad for the most part. Pretty well maintained. The roads up here in Detroit are bad. I imagine all the snow and salt in winter kills them, but there are lots of cracks and potholes that would throw a bike down in a heartbeat. I have seen some riders, but not too many.


By the way, the old bike is getting some new paint. I'll have to post some pics when it gets done. Thanks Buck.

[Dragonrider]

Top of the World Highway, Yukon Territories, and The Dempster Highway in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

Then of course there's the "High Five" construction area here in Dallas...

[xssiveone]

Shoot, pick an expressway in the Detroit area... they're ALL bad!! I'm not far from where you are. I'm across the border in Windsor,Canada. There is another XS'r north of you in Warren, used to be another in Brownstown. I might be heading across the border tomorrow morning.. shoot me your number and I can call if I get out that far. Not planning on it, but what the heck, it's a Canadian holiday tomorrow so who knows?


Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canucks.

[Artic_rider]

Come to Grande Prairie (way up in the cold canadian artic) heck, there idea of a fresh hiway is putting some oil down on the road, and covering it with pebbles...yikes...and the pot holes...man oh man. I work in the richest province in canada...in the industry that gives our provincial government on average 5 billion dollar surplus...a province which has no debt to speak of...and I basically drive on gravel roads. Yep, time to move south of the boarder I think. Happy Canada day to all my fellow Canuks out there BTW!!!

[LoserShoes]

Geez there Dragonrider, 70 mph down a dirt road, reading a map and taking a picture at the same time. . You weren't talking on a cell phone too were you?

Steve

[Bud Manley]

He's actually doing 75. probably smoking a cigarette and going the wrong way up a one way street drunk with a teenage girl on the back seat.
tsk. tsk.

[Dragonrider]

Well.....I did slow down to take the picture...

LOL! Fortunately the cell phone wouldn't work (woohooo!)

Didn't have the teenage girl either...drat.

(shrugs) Ya get used to it.

480 miles of gravel/dirt on a single day's run...gotta make time somehow.

It's big up there guys...I was averaging 700 miles a day even stopping for days at a time.

Kind of sobering to be 5000 miles from home.....

On the Dempster Highway northwest of Dawson City I determined I needed to replace my back tire...

I had to drive over 1000 miles (down to Fort Nelson) to get one.

Think about it!

[Artic_rider]

Haha...all the way to Fort Neslon for a tire...that sucks...lol. What brought you all the way up here mate? Did ya enjoy the veiws at least?

[Dragonrider]

It was a road, I had to ride it!

The view were great...except for the thousand's of miles of smoke...I was there last June/July...this week a year ago as a matter of fact...and the fires were everywhere.

I loved it, and will be back that way again...

[Artic_rider]

Planning on taking the Alaska hiway from mile 0 (Dawson Creek, BC) all the way to the end next month...maybe I should bring an extra tire...lol

[Dragonrider]

Well, things change up there fast...but the Alaska Highway itself was in pretty good shape last year...only a couple hundred miles were plowed up and being repaired that were at all difficult...

I came back over "Top of the World" highway out of Tok...goes to Dawson City in the Northern Yukon via Chicken Alaska....Dawson City is cool...the road is fun, but not paved for the most part (first 50-ish miles are, the rest is not). There is a lot of burn between Tok and Chicken...





I recommend these maps...
http://www.karo-ent.com/
as they show ALL the gas stops/lodges etc...and fuel spacing is a bit critical out there!

Stop at Liard Hotsprings..mile 497 or so...right at the BC/Yukon border...great park with camping...or you can use the lodge across the road (friendly, good food, inexpensive). The hot springs there may have saved my life (or at least the rest of my trip).

http://lifeisaroad.com/stories/2004/10/23/alaska2004index.html

Good luck, and enjoy it!

[sermn8ter]

Sorry I missed you Brian

I didn't see your response until I was already out of there and back in Atlanta. Maybe I'll ride up that way one of these days. Thinking about the 4 corners deal next year anyway. Gotta get a windshield and some luggage for the bike before I do that one though. I wish I had the bike in Detroit, I would have preferred the ride back on it over the plane ride I had. Tried to land in the middle of a bad storm,....TWICE.... thought we were going down hard there for a while. Didn't have fuel to circle, so wound up going to Columbia, SC to refuel. Finally got fueled and cleared, and headed back to GA. I nodded off, and got woke up hard. I thought we were landing, it hit that hard, but it was turbulence from the same storm system. We flew back through it on the way back. I was glad to get on the ground. Of course it took forever to get our luggage to the carousel. Altogether I was in airports for 12 hours that day. I got to Detroit Metro at 12 noon, and finally got my luggage in Atlanta at midnight, from a flight that was supposed to get there at 4:45. I'll stick to two wheels whenever possible.

[xssiveone]

No big deal.. maybe next time. As it turns out, I would not have had any time to spare as it was. Got of to a late start and then SWMBO had to be back at noon for work.

Sorry about the rough flight, I'm with you about riding/driving. I's much rather be in control.