Cyclerides.com Weekly Update
6/20/07 

Greetings Riders,
 
Well, the blow torch effect has now hit the valley of the Sun and the National Weather service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning for Thursday and Friday with predictions of record temps in the 114 degree range. Yep, I can see it now, you are reaching for the mouse to go to the Cyclerides.com Day Rides to see where you can go to ride without a heat advisory warning. I can already see the motorcycle taillights heading North this weekend. If you do that, and go to the Flagstaff or Alpine area, you can save yourself about 25 of those blistering degrees as they are predicting in the 85 degree range up there. Payson is predicting around 95 and believe it or not, Sedona is going to be looking at 103. So wherever you end up going, you will probably want to stay in the 6-7000 feet of elevation.
 
Even though it is going to be ridiculous hot in the Valley, you can still plan your ride by leaving town early, getting to elevation and still have a great day of riding. That is exactly what I did this past Saturday. Mrs. C. was a little under the weather this past week so I decided to get out of her hair for a while and head North to Williams to check out the Rumble on 66. Even though it is hot on the desert floor in the middle of the day, with the humidity low, it still cools off nicely to the low 80's to give us avid riders a chance to get out of town and head for the hills. As long as you leave by 8-9am, even on the hottest of days, it is still only 89 degrees on your way out of town. That is great riding. Take a look at these hourly temperature graphics for Friday, one of the hottest days of the year so far. This will give you a good snapshot of when to "Get out of Dodge". And more importantly, when not to come back to Dodge. After 26 years in Arizona, the heat doesn't bother me much, but it is nicer to be returning near sunset.
 
Saturday, I left at 7am, destination Williams, wearing a long sleeve shirt to keep the sun off of my arms with the thermometer reading 82 degrees. It was a beautiful time to hit the road. By the time I had hit Sunset Point it had dropped to a pleasant 78 degrees. With the whole day to just ride and take it easy, stopping off at the Rimrock Airport in Rimrock, AZ, (which is located just off of I-17 near Montezuma Well National Monument) was the perfect prescription to satisfy my desire for flying. I had been reading about the Air Creation ultralights and knew that there was a guy up there that gave lessons and demo rides in the craft, so I thought this might be the perfect time to pay him a visit. As luck would have it, there was a pilot who had just returned from an early morning flight over Sedona, so I chatted with him for a while to learn about this type of flying. After about 20 minutes of flying talk, my attention turned back to the Road Glide to continue the trek to higher ground. 
 
My next stop was to be Munds Park to meet up with the Dan and Kathy McKinnon for breakfast and a ride to Williams, but from I-17, I could hear the sound of Sedona and Schnebly Hill Rd. calling out my name. The closer I got to the exit, the louder it became.  Must have been one of those vortex's we keep hearing about reeling me in, but it WAS hard to pass up a beautiful early morning ride to Sedona with bright blue skies and the sun lighting up Bell Rock. Not to mention the prospects of another ride on Schnebly Hill Rd. So off I went on Hwy. 179 for my 26 mile detour, putting on hold breakfast for another hour. Before reaching my turn to SHR, I stopped at a cool little place called Silver Son West on the left side of the road a couple of miles from Sedona. It is apparently an art gallery, but they have some of the coolest old signs hanging all over the place that were begging to be photographed. I also got this GREAT shot of some old wagon wheels and the red rocks. Click Here. 
 
After that, I was on my way for the slow ride up Schnebly Hill. This time it only took me an hour to traverse this 10 miles of twists, turns and exposed boulders. It is rough for sure, but still one of the best 10 miles of scenery you will see in Arizona. Check out the video from my last trip. Or some pics from this time up. 
 
Reaching I-17 again, I was only 2 miles from Munds Park and ready to meet up with Dan and Kathy to head to the Lone Pine for some scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and orange juice. The great thing about this trip so far, was that I had ridden for 3 hours, 120 miles and it was still the same 83 degrees as when I left home. Now that is how you do Summer riding in Arizona. But I knew I was eventually going to have to pay for all of this cool riding weather on my way back to the Valley. With now 3 of us riding we headed North for Flagstaff and then West on I-40 to Grand Canyon HD in Bellemont where we met a couple of guys from Belgium. You can almost always meet some riders from out of the Country at GCHD because they all come through here to see the Grand Canyon. It was then on to Williams to take a street side seat at Cruisers Cafe to watch the bikes roll by that were trying to soak up some of this premium riding weather as well.
 
After about an hour at Cruisers and a pitcher of Pepsi, the McKinnons headed back to Munds Park and I was on my own again riding South out of Williams on Hwy. 73 for parts unknown. I decided to take a short cut across to Jerome from 73 through Perkinsville on a dirt road, a route that I would not recommend. Do you ever have one of those times when you ask yourself, "What the Heck was I thinking?" That was one of those times for me. Even though the temperature was back to 95 degrees by the time I reached Jerome, it was still very pleasant riding. But the mid 80's were just around the corner as I would once more cross 7000 feet in elevation as I took another one of my favorites routes down 89A and Mingus Mountain. This is a great ride with over 100 twists and turns that I never tire of.  
 
SCAVENGER HUNT!! Now for those of you with a GPS, I left you a little present somewhere in the Jerome area. I put a long sleeved black Cyclerides.com T-Shirt inside a zip lock bag and stuck it under a rock. All you have to do is find it. It is located at these GPS Coordinates: N34 42.465', W112 09.139'. When you find it, have someone take a picture of you holding the shirt, or if you are by yourself, take a picture of the shirt when you find it and then email me the photos. Happy Hunting!
 
After hiding the shirt and thoroughly enjoying the ride down Mingus Mountain I cut over on Fain Rd. to 69 to I-17 and braced myself for re-entry into the Valley atmosphere. Believe it or not, it wasn't that bad. I landed back in town at 6pm. A little earlier than I would have liked, but I had something to do that night, so I just sucked it up, drank a bottle of water the last 20 miles and did fine. But Ideally I would rather hit the valley at around 7:30pm this time of year. Most of you that do this, know the minute you start the downhill descend from Sunset Point, it is like someone opened the oven door in front of you.
 
So if you are planning an out of town trip this weekend. A good one would be Sedona by 9am for Breakfast, up 89a to Flagstaff, over to Williams for a refreshment, on up to the Grand Canyon, across 180 to Snow Bowl, take the lift to the top, back around to Flagstaff for dinner before timing your trip back to the Valley at a desirable time. Have Fun!
 
Click Here for some photos from the day.
 

 This Week's Bike Night Events

Saturday, June 23rd
Mark Streech Fund Raiser. Some of you might have heard the horrific story of the young man that got rear ended on his motorcycle and then thrown into the path of an 18 wheeler coming from behind that could not stop in time to keep from running over him. You probably heard about this on the news, if not, there are video links from the newstations below. Here is the story:
On May 4, 2007, around 1:30 am, off-duty DPS officer George Aguilera was in his personal vehicle heading south on I-17 when he hit Mark riding his motorcycle. The impact sent Mark tumbling onto the freeway. A Swift Semi Truck, traveling behind Mark and Aguilera, was unable to stop before running over Mark - who lay on the freeway from the impact of being hit by Aguilera's vehicle.
 
The injuries Mark sustained were: a skull fracture, multiple fractured vertebrae, his left leg was broken in ten places and he ended up losing his right leg. Also, he suffered other major trauma to his body. Mark spent over three weeks in ICU; 2 of those weeks being almost completely under sedation. DPS officer George Aguilera did NOT have insurance on his car!! Mark needs help with his living expenses so there are some fund raisers planned to help him out while he recovers. There are a few ways to help Mark. One way is by simply making a donation via Pay Pal. You can do this from the front page of his web site. Click Here. The other is the ride on June 23rd. Starting at Cycle Gear, 15643 N Reems Rd, Surprise, AZ. We are asking for a minimum $20 donation to ride. We will be heading to Yarnell, Prescott, Verde Valley, Strawberry, Payson and back into NE Phoenix. We will be stopping in Prescott for an hour lunch. Click Here for links to TV News Videos of the accident. 

Next Week 

Buddy Stubbs Hogs and Subs. The party at the end of the month is always at Buddy Stubbs. Stay out of the heat and party inside. This month drop by from 11am - 3pm for Free Food, Live Music, Free Pool Tournaments starting at Noon, Museum Tour at 12:30pm, Phoenix H.O.G. Charities walking Poker Run, and much more. Lots of covered bike parking. Not only that, there will be a huge sidewalk sale. 1 DAY ONLY! Check out the great savings on leather jackets, boots, mens & women's MotorClothes apparel. Extra 10% off on all sale MotorClothes items discounted at cash register. Buddy Stubbs is located at 13850 N. Cave Creek Rd. in Phoenix, AZ. 602-971-3400.   

Extras 

I am sad to report that we lost a couple of riders this past weekend. Joe Smitherman and Jon Hepburn collided into each other late Sunday night and were both killed in the accident. Joe Smitherman's Potluck Memorial Service is scheduled for Saturday afternoon from 3pm to 7pm @ Chandler Elks Lodge ( Chandler Boulevard & Pennington (light) turn south on Pennington & right just behind the carwash) 1775 West Chandler Blvd. In the event you need further assistance please contact Greg Wessels at 480-620-2547.
 
This is one of the Jamie Kennedy experiment spoofs. Funny stuff. Click Here to View. 
Yikes! Watch this video showing one lucky guy that escapes a racing crash. Click Here to View. 
This one could only be titled, "Four Lucky Guys". Click Here to View. 
This report from Lou Dobbs is not funny, but really kind of troubling what goes on behind the scenes that we don't know about. Click Here to View.