Porter
Junior Member
I just got back from renting a UC in AZ. Great trip and I would say the Sedona via Jerome, Wickenburg and Tortilla Flat rides listed on "Cyclerides" are excellent. Very well mapped and easy to find. Thanks AZDave for the link!
I am posting this because I probably would not have thought of this and perhaps it will get someone home:
When we were just leaving Oak Creek Canyon and heading to Flagstaff I met a fellow and his wife at the look out over the canyon riding a Honda Goldwing. (He was 73 and had been riding since he was 24 and now needed a reverse gear, hence the Honda. It also appeared to me that he may have had a stroke at some point but this Iowa Ironman was still on 2 wheels with his wife, touring our country). Somewhere along his travels he had picked up what looked to be a piece of welding rod and it was sticking out of the oil pan. He had pulled over because his better half was commenting that he was taking corners to aggressively and scraping too much. He noticed that it only happend in one direction and pulled over to find a "curb feeler" sticking out. The weather was starting to get bad and it was gettin late in the day and cold.
A cordless screw gun, a self tapping hex head screw and a piece of floor mat cut into a gasket plugged the hole, stopped the leak and held for over a hundred miles to get him home. A lot of this stuff came from friendly people who wanted to help.
I am from the east coast and I know I am jaded. No offense to people from downtown Phoenix, but that seemed much like any city on the east cost as far as people go. But in all the towns and stops from Wickenburg, Tortilla Flat, Payson, Rye, Jerome, Cottonwood, and Mayer I have never met a more friendly and hospitable group of Americans, particularly friendly to bikers. Maybe I just got lucky these past 4 days but AZ seems a whole lot nicer than MD.
I am posting this because I probably would not have thought of this and perhaps it will get someone home:
When we were just leaving Oak Creek Canyon and heading to Flagstaff I met a fellow and his wife at the look out over the canyon riding a Honda Goldwing. (He was 73 and had been riding since he was 24 and now needed a reverse gear, hence the Honda. It also appeared to me that he may have had a stroke at some point but this Iowa Ironman was still on 2 wheels with his wife, touring our country). Somewhere along his travels he had picked up what looked to be a piece of welding rod and it was sticking out of the oil pan. He had pulled over because his better half was commenting that he was taking corners to aggressively and scraping too much. He noticed that it only happend in one direction and pulled over to find a "curb feeler" sticking out. The weather was starting to get bad and it was gettin late in the day and cold.
A cordless screw gun, a self tapping hex head screw and a piece of floor mat cut into a gasket plugged the hole, stopped the leak and held for over a hundred miles to get him home. A lot of this stuff came from friendly people who wanted to help.
I am from the east coast and I know I am jaded. No offense to people from downtown Phoenix, but that seemed much like any city on the east cost as far as people go. But in all the towns and stops from Wickenburg, Tortilla Flat, Payson, Rye, Jerome, Cottonwood, and Mayer I have never met a more friendly and hospitable group of Americans, particularly friendly to bikers. Maybe I just got lucky these past 4 days but AZ seems a whole lot nicer than MD.
