Last Saturday I picked my young friend Jeremiah up at the airport and early Sunday morning he started on his trip from SoCal to Virginia on his FZ-09. I rode with him as far as the first gas stop, at Newberry Springs on I-40.
As an aside, I put a few farkles on the Yamaha while it was in my garage, like a decent seat and a windshield. I rode it several times, and in the end decided that although the extra power was nice, I prefer the handling of my Strada. Also, he was on low fuel warning at 100 miles...mine never came on. We said goodbye and I headed back to Barstow on old Route 66.
From there I rode due south on Hwy 247. This ends in Lucerne Valley, where I had breakfast. The Cafe was a hoot, see pic. Truly "The Middle of Nowhere." Then it was up Hwy 38 to Big Bear Lake, over Onyx Summit - the highest highway pass in SoCal at 8443 feet.
Once past Big Bear I rode 45 miles of great twisty road down to Mentone. At one point a pheasant flew over the road in front of me... only the second one I've ever seen around here. Not native!
When I returned, the dash showed 275 miles total at an average of 59 mpg. Not sure it that's accurate, but it sure beats that Yamaha! I was on the gas all the way, too. I'm keeping this bike. Clutch next, then another go at the suspension. Have a stock Hyper seat to try, maybe modify. After that I'm running out of things to fix.
Oh, the lights were great. It was dark all the way to Barstow, and they were really useful for dealing with slowpokes and taking a look going into corners.
