Dallas to Vegas on a Monster: A fairly uncomfortable idea

[junior varsity]

I did it. I rode my M900 from Dallas, TX to Las Vegas, NV. It was horribly uncomfortable and I would not do it again. 2,800 mi round trip. My pops road his H-D Ultra Classic from Nashville, TN to Dallas, TX to Las Vegas, NV and all the way back. He also has cruise control, highway pegs and a backrest(cheater). I now know why they make Goldwings, or hell, any bike with a fairing. Wind gusts in the panhandle of Texas and parts of New Mexico were so strong I was leaning sideways just to continue in a straight line.

Had some carb issues in Albuquerque and again in Las Vegas related to the extreme heat at the asphalt (my pop's bike has a road-temp gauge that showed in excess of 120 at one point). Turned out the stock carbs needed synced, badly, and the idle adjusted down. Ran like a top after that.

On day 2, my kickstand tried to leave me. Apparently one time I took the bolts out and put them back in without loctite. I went to stop and the kickstand just swung down with only one of the bolts holding it into the case, the other lost on the highway somewhere. Luckily, all H-D dealers stock METRIC bolts, thanks to the V-Rod. So we found a dealership, popped in, and they supplied me a M10 bolt and some loctite and I was back in business.

Here are some pics from the ride. None from Vegas, because I just walked around there, lost all my money, and the outsides/insides of the hotel look like they do in everybody else's pictures.

Lesson learned: Buy an ST2/3/4 or rent an ST1300 or goldwing. Also, The interstate and straight roads are really not for me.
I come with pictures:

At the beginning. Before I fully understood what was about to happen. Look, I was even so naive as to give a thumbs-up at one point. (idiot).






I had to ditch the tail bag. it was going to wear into my fancy paint and also there was some rucksack interference. I put this on my pop's megacruiser, only for him to accidentally ship it home (with my regular clothes for Vegas in it) when he shipped camping gear back when we decided beds were in order since I was getting beaten to death by the wind on the plains.




















Dam picture.


lost feeling to my important bits, here's a picture of the realization:




There were lovely, rolling hills. But alas, there were no curves worth mentioning. (When's the group ride to E. TN/NC/N. GA?)


Traffic Frustrations:


Leg Stretches:


This is a big ass hole in the ground that they charge $15/person to see. I'm not impressed. Skip the meteor crater (unless you want to see where the moon landing was staged).






Palo Duro Canyon (Canyon, TX):




I must admit that I had a fun time overall, though it was quite exhausting. I would definitely do another long roadtrip again, just not on anything but something designed for such a job.

Product Review: Autocom worked great, once we figured out how to adjust the sensitivity so that crosswind gusts wouldn't activate it at speed. Also, it demands a shitload of 9v batteries (one per day nearly) if you don't wire it into the bike (which I refused to do, as I likely won't use it again until another large roadtrip).

[junior varsity]

Huge Props go to Pat Clark Motorsports in Las Vegas - They are the Ducati dealership of Las Vegas and they are a fantastic shop. Mike looked at my bike immediately when I was complaining about the stock carbs, and did a few adjustments and I was back on the road nearly instantly. It was cheap to boot. I'd swear by them if I lived in Vegas.

[fastwin]

That sounds like a long boring road trip... my ass hurts just from reading about it! Yeah, Hwy 287 from DFW up to Amarillo is the same type of wind beating. I have trailered bikes up to Santa Fe, NM and our family cabin near Cimarron, NM in the heat of the summer and I have always been amazed at the riders braving the west TX heat and the 40mph wind gusts heading toward Amarillo! Hell, they blow my Suburban all over the road. You can see the riders fighting the same wicked side winds! No thanks! Too old for that s#@t.

[Monster Dave]

Props on making it through! That was a long ride!!! We did a ride from Phoenix, AZ to Monterey CA in one day (700miles). Then rode down the PCH the next day to LA (400 miles), and ultimately rode back from LA to Phoenix 373 miles, for a grand total of almost 1500 miles. After our first iron butt ride to Monterey we couldn't wait to get off the our Monsters. Talk about Monster Butt!!!! LOL

When you look back on it though, although you wouldn't want to do your ride again the same way, it was an unforgettable experience. Good job!!! 

I recently made the mistake of watching Long Way Round and Long Way Down and now want to do a cross country loop on our Monsters....

....I have it from good authority though that were I to insist on us doing something like that, that I'd be on my Monster and my better half would be in the car behind me... 

[junior varsity]

Oh, I have to say: Flagstaff, AZ was nice. Quite scenic - I would have liked to stay there a day and ride some of the roads, but I had to press onward.

[Buckethead]

Props to our friends with the iron asses!

Surprised you didn't lose a cheek to monkeybutt.

Sounds like a great trip, and a great experience to share with your dad. Gotta admit, I'm kinda jealous.

How many days did you guys spend on the road together?

[Monster Dave]

The one thing that we felt that was a really smart decision was the purchase of our tail bags. I can't imagine wearing a backpack that long. I removed my seat cowl for obvious reasons, but the bags were awesome and gave us something to lean back on when stretches of road got long.



We had them pretty loaded up too but they were solid:



The one thing that really saved us from Monster Butt was having leathers with padding in the seat.  ...and I was really grateful for that since I was riding on the stock seat.

[Pedro-bot]

Sounds EXHAUSTing.

Speaking of exhaust:
What exhaust is that on your bike? Conti Replicas, DP or __________???

[junior varsity]

How many days did you guys spend on the road together?

4 days to get there, 3 days to return. 3 nights in Vegas (which was plenty for my wallet).

What exhaust is that on your bike? Conti Replicas, DP or __________???

Those are the old DP megaphones, I picked up at NPR Ducati in Athens, GA a few years ago. They are more commonly seen in a chrome finish, but I did not like the chrome pipes, nor the chrome headlight ring.

[rockaduc]

Sounds like an epic trip, nice going, nice pics too.  My father and I do a mega trip like that on our snowmobiles in Canada (we usually cover 1200 miles in 4 days).  Awesome time together!!  You and your dad will cherish these trips.

[scduc]

Sounds like a great ride. Do you think that a DP gel seat may have made the ride a little more comfy? Great pics. Ive been on rt66 from LV to south rim of canyon. You must have carried extra gas? If I recall there are some pretty long stretches where you see nothing but desert.

[junior varsity]

Sounds like a great ride. Do you think that a DP gel seat may have made the ride a little more comfy? Great pics. Ive been on rt66 from LV to south rim of canyon. You must have carried extra gas? If I recall there are some pretty long stretches where you see nothing but desert.

I have a sargent, and its more comfortable than stock, but being able to lean back would have made the ride more tolerable. didn't have to carry extra gas - we filled up about every 100-120 miles, and i can usually stretch it to 140-150m in a pinch.

in other news, its true what they say about packing cold weather gear. You need it, regardless of the time of the year. The cold wind when clouds rolled in went right through my jacket and the temp dropped to right at 50 degrees. I thought i was cold. Then it began to rain.

[KnightofNi]

long stretches of hwy suck on a monster, or any sportbike for that matter.

hell it sucked on the sprint and it's kinda made for long trips.

you really do need to train your ass for long trips like that. trying to gou out and do it really does suck. though it should have gotten better as the trip went on (your tolerance for sitting in the seat that is)
i've done 300 - 500 mile days on the monster and was ok, but most of that was not on the hwy. 100 mi on the hwy and i start to hurt.

[seevtsaab]

The one thing that we felt that was a really smart decision was the purchase of our tail bags. I can't imagine wearing a backpack that long. I removed my seat cowl for obvious reasons, but the bags were awesome and gave us something to lean back on when stretches of road got long.

MonsterDave - what tailbags are those? What attachments did you use?

[seevtsaab]

What size Kriega pack is that?

Props on grinding out a distinctly non-Monster friendly trip.