Day 13

Miles driven 455 – Total Miles 4691 – Mountainaire, AZ to Safford, AZ – 7 hours on the bike

I’ve only gone about 4500 miles so far and my back tire is almost gone!! I was expecting to get about 6000 miles out of it, but I guess it’s time to replace it before I get out of a larger city. I called around Flagstaff and found a shop that had the Pilot Power tires I wanted so took the bike in early this morning, but they’ve got a few people ahead of me… so I wait.

Around noon they get me in and put on the tire. While they’re at it, they over-tighten the chain which causes it to start making a lot of strange noises. The mechanic convinces me it’s because of using an aluminum rear sprocket and the sprocket is all messed up now.

So I spend the next hour calling around to find a rear sprocket for a Hayabusa. There isn’t one to be found in all of Arizona!! I worry about how far I’ll get before I can find a new sprocket and take it on down the road. When I stop next I post a message on the Hayabusa.org forum asking about this issue, and the general consensus is that an aluminum sprocket should be fine and they most likely just over-tightened the chain. I loosen the chain and lube it up, and the noises go away. +1 for the forum, -2 for the bike shop.

While all this was going on, I had driven to the Meteor Crater located outside of Flagstaff. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see. They charge $15 to get in and other than a quick look at an amazing sight, there isn’t anything else to do here. I was in and back out within 15 minutes.

On to the Petrified Forest National Park… another disappointment. I guess after seeing the incredible beauty and grandeur of places like Zion, Sequoias, and Mesa Verde, I have become jaded to the smaller wonders. There are petrified trees here, but they are few and far between. Otherwise lots of desert and not much else.

My next real destination is Tombstone down in the south of Arizona. I’d heard that hwy 191 heading down that way was a fun motorcycle road, so I headed that way. I reached Alpine AZ just before dusk, and that’s about where the curvy fun road starts. Decision time: wait here until the morning, or keeping going in the dark… Guess what I did I went on through in the dark. It was a very long, very curvy, and very fun road. Again I was pushing it and having a blast in the dark. I didn’t see many deer which are my nemesis, but tons of rabbits and even a desert fox (I think). It was late by the time I was out of the mountains and down into the heat again.

I found the Coronado National Forest and went up to camp again. As I was setting up my tent, I look down and there is a scorpion right at my feet! Very cool. After seeing this guy though I was wary about them getting into my stuff, so made sure everything was locked down tight and sealed away. Another peaceful rest in the wilderness.

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