continued

so i left dumas around 10:00 am and buzzed thru roadkill and tumbleweed central to the border at texline, tx.  kept a nice pace of 60 mph until 20 miles before texline where i road on grooved pavement to the border...not my favorite......the temperature was supposed to be in the 70s but i didn't get above 55 all the way to taos, nm...in texline i stopped for gas, hot coffee to warm up and to put on my thermals and winter gloves...that helped...i also finally got my music situated...i got a nice cheap pair of earbuds that lock the wind out so i can actually hear the music...also i decided to run my ipod directly to my charger oin the sidecar so i didn't have to worry about the battery...listening to dead kennedys through the cowboy towns was nice...i saw a few blue pick-ups...

nice to have the cameras going...had the helmet charged, new canon, and of course the trusty iphone...got to the border and took the obligatory photo of laru and sign, me & laru w/sign, and me, laru and a photo of my dad w/sign...it's one of the cooler state signs...two peppers, one green one red, on a yellow background with new mexico in blue i think...also saw a dead coyote on the side of the road just after the border...

blew through n.m. on hwy 56/412 until springer right at the hwy 25 jnct...the landscape started to change around here...got gas at a fina...when's the last time you saw a fina gas station...more of the 90 grade gas...it's like water...beef jerky and cashews, then on hwy 25 for 3 miles and back on a smaller road #58 that took me into cimarron, n.m....the road was a little rough but interesting with dips and curves and the massive rockies staring me down...i shot some helmet cam footage on this road into cimarron where there was a strip of median that had 5ft x 3ft portraits of notorious cowboys and other shady figures from the 19th century...pretty cool...

leaving cimarrron i got on hwy 64 that took me further into the mountains...helmet cam on the whole time through cimarrron canyon state park, ute park, eagle's nest where you could see baldy mountain (a 12,000 ft peak), thru carson national forest on windy roads that had me climbing in 2nd and 3rd gear.  coming down the into taos, n.m. i started thinking the elevation must be messing with my bike...because it was just hard to keep the bike over 50 going downhill into a head wind of only 5-10 mph...

last night i talked to the guys at ural n.w. and explained that this had occurred coming into the little elevation that the eastern and central panhandle of texas offered...more wind mind you but minimal elevation...they suggested a few things...clean out air filter (i did), check sidecar brake adjustment (i did and it was to tight and dragging), and check carb sync (i did and it was a little off, the right carb needed a little increase in the throttle)  when i left this morning i reconfigured the load and put the huge camera case INTO the sidecar...,thereby getting rid of the sail that caused my bike to drag so much...i knew it was dragging from this but not that much...i honestly didn't think it would fit in the sidecar and it doesn't really, but kind of...like i said, the whole first 75% of today was super smooth...fast (58-65 mph) no fighting the drag...the bike tracked straight without my trapezoids burning...nice ride...but at the end when i got a little higher, i started to have the same problem...the bike worked harder but better if i just left it in 3rd through 52-55 mph...but as soon as i shifted to 4th even on the flat it would bog down and lose speed to 45 mph...

mark and ben at ural nw said it could be the valves are tightened too much...that's all i have left to check, but it's out of my league...so maybe a shop, or better yet, i'll just keep on pushing until it drives me batty or i can't leave 2nd gear...

so now i'm in taos, n.m....and i'll tell you more about that tomorrow

time to relax

----jleep