Novice Touring Question

[ddavitt]

Looks like everyone else has this topic pretty well cornered. (-:

So allow me to ask, whereabouts in Utah are you headed?

I'll be heading up to a town called Meadow Utah , beautiful little farming community where I grew up . Not much bike riding to be done in the area except for dirt biking ! Its about 160 Miles south of Salt Lake on I-15 . I'm hoping if the weather is fine I can take the route that parallel's I-15 up through Kanab and Salina and cross the mountain range either at Beaver(I-70 interchange) or Scipio .

GS's points about weather and waterproof gear are not lost on me , I've seen it snow up there on the fourth of July !!

I'd imagine the "Nebo Loop" would be good twisty riding , near Nephi. But I'll primarily be taking care of a bunch of family matters (the good kind) while in the state.

[BRUMBEAR]

Enjoy your trip and has been stated stay off the Interstates and ride IN the land not just simply through it

[JackoftheGreen]

Hard to find nicer riding than Southern Utah in May, I'd definitely be prepared for some low temperatures though in and around Fillmore.

I've stopped in Meadow many times to gas up, never explored further than the interstate though. I'm glad it's good family matters that bring you back to your hometown, that's not often the case. (-:

My vote, make the crossing on the 70. I've never ridden that stretch myself, but I've made the 50-89 run from Scipio to Richfield several times to visit family in Koosharem and it's pretty dull. The 70 looks a lot more entertaining.

[ddavitt]

I've driven both stretches many times in cages and I may just take another route entirely , more southern than the 70 interchange is another drive that's fantastic mountain scenery , I think it crosses at around Cedar City (Twistys and alpine forest ! all two lane). Depends on the weather really, if its nice and sunny, I will go for it ,if not the 70 interchange is a decent route and should be clear no matter the weather !

Edit : the Scipio route is my failsafe route ,. its a boring non challenging way to where I am going , and about 45 extra miles . I might be fatigued after a non-stop from phoenix and this is an easy tho longer way for me to earn my iron-butt , I may stop overnight somewhere, but its not my intention to at this time , depends on how I feel . stopping for fuel regularly and stretching my legs will take a bit longer than if I took a cage , so the jury's still out on that possibility .

This brings up another Noob question , what would be considered a good days ride , timewise ? this is a 10-11 hour drive in a car , should I split it ? I commute daily 45 minutes each way on the bike , and with an old geezer like me , the carpal tunnel does start to kick in . I have but don't use often a mechanical throttle lock (Poor boy cruise control) , lol Its nice when I hop on the highway for distances over 10 miles or so , weekend and day trips , but don't use it for commuting as the traffic is so variable in town.

[gsJack]

How old a geezer are you? 10-15 years ago I was doing 400-500 mile Interstate days on a GS500 to get to the mountains to play at age 70 give or take. Now 50 miles is getting to be a long day. LOL

[ddavitt]

Ha-Ha !
I guess when its put into that perspective , I'm still a pup . I'll be 54 when I set out on this trip.

Its not so much the age , but the mileage on this model . I'm not as good as I once was , but I'm as good , once , as I ever was !

[gsJack]

I was 52 when I first rode a bike and have ridden over 400k miles since then so just keep on keeping on, the best is yet to come.

[JackoftheGreen]

Ddavitt,

Longest stretch I've ridden so far in one shot was about 470 miles non-stop from Vegas to North Ogden. That was a fair weather run and I was about at my limit for a days riding, but we'd spent the previous evening putting Fremont Street to bed so maybe that's not a great yardstick. Keep in mind that riding takes longer than driving -- more gas stops and more time spent at each gas stop. Getting in and out of riding gear for restroom breaks, unpacking and repacking wallets, credit cards, etc, and just plain stretching your legs -- it all adds up until a gas stop can stretch beyond half an hour where it might take less than ten minutes by car.

It looks like there's lots of crossings from 89 to 15, I haven't ridden any of them but I've looked at StreetView for most of them and I'm itching to ride them all. One note, the 153 isn't paved all the way though, so don't hang your hopes on that one. Also, one of those roads suffered a major wash-out and was under heavy reconstruction last summer, don't know if it's cleared up or not yet. I wanna say it was the 9 through Zion. UDOT has a website with a hotline for road condition information, check with them if you decide to make the crossing anywhere south of Cedar City. I'm sure it was one of those.

Good luck and happy riding!