Going to the Hills (and tire comment)

[sixwillwin]

Going to the Hills this weekend with a Harley buddy. Should be a blast, never been out there with the bike. No big plans, take the long way out there, spend a couple days riding. I know we will be in Deadwood Sat. nite as he has a free Cadillac Jacks room to use. Finally get to use my maps of the sweet roads sent to me by a fellow board member.

Got a new front shoe put on yesterday so I should be ready. My old front was a Metz 880 with 11k miles and the left side of was cupped some and down to the wear bars and the right side probably had another 5-6k miles in it. Anybody else wearing the left side more quickly than the right? Trying the new Avon Cobra this time around. Also have a new 250 Cobra ready for the rear but not needed yet. Oh yea, I dropped wheel and tire off at Motorplex yesterday (only job so far I cant/don't want to do myself is the M&B), and at least they didnt give me any grief about bringing in my own tire, but it was $32+ for the simple M&B, holy crap, there went my tire savings probably. What do you other Sioux Falls guys do or use? $32 seems excessive to me for 1 tire.

[black hills]

Have fun!! If you get Hungry the Sugar Shack on 385 (4-5 miles north of hwy 44) has good burgers. Also check out downtown Rapid City if you have time. Have a beer on the sidewalk at Paddy O'neils ( The ALex Johnson Hotel, then take a walk down "art alley".

[sixwillwin]

Short but fun trip out west! Lots of road construction, chip overlays and stuff, that sucked but it will clean off I guess. Didnt get to all the roads but Nemo was great, the guy I went with never been to he Hills before so we had to do the Needles highway and stuff, geez that takes forever. After what seemed to be 2 hours of creeping up and down that hill, that was a 1/8 mile open stretch that I opened her up out of boredom and yep, P. County sheriff comes around the corner, I nailed the brakes and he nailed the lights and sirens, At least I got it slowed to 57 in a 20 he said. He liked me though and only gave me the speech and sent me on my own, he was a great guy.

One thing I realized that the maps have county road numbers and such but most of the signage has them called by a street name, so that made it very hard to find some the roads we were looking for.

We took 44 out there and 44 back after doing the badlands tour on the way home. I would NOT recommend that road, from 10 west of Winner, you get the sh*t beat of you all the way to Rapid. Although 44 from the river to Winner is awesome, that little stretch was my fav of the whole trip.

Fun seeing all the bikes, I am used to only cruisers and crotch rockets here in SF. Saw lots and lots of BMWs and dual sport bikes. Lots of group of guys from all other the place with just regular old Hondas and yama and such. Pretty cool all the stuff people can pack on bikes and just go.

I had not been to keystone in many years, I could not believe how that place has changed, wow, I didnt even recognize it. Cool place that isnt so little anymore.

[itallica]

We took 44 out there and 44 back after doing the badlands tour on the way home. I would NOT recommend that road, from 10 west of Winner, you get the sh*t beat of you all the way to Rapid. Although 44 from the river to Winner is awesome, that little stretch was my fav of the whole trip.

Man... sorry to hear that ... I was going to take the "south route" in a few weeks to Deadwood/Lead.

So... west of Winner... 18 was the rotten road?

[black hills]

Yea, I would avoid Nemo Rd. from Rapid to Nemo for a few weeks. They are chip sealing and the waits are long. Plus the chips are several inches deep in some areas. I had a nice 70mph wobble going on Saturday :roll: :D

[sixwillwin]

We took 44 out there and 44 back after doing the badlands tour on the way home. I would NOT recommend that road, from 10 west of Winner, you get the sh*t beat of you all the way to Rapid. Although 44 from the river to Winner is awesome, that little stretch was my fav of the whole trip.

Man... sorry to hear that ... I was going to take the "south route" in a few weeks to Deadwood/Lead.

So... west of Winner... 18 was the rotten road?

The only place 44 was good was from Platte to west of Winner where it joins 183. And the Platte river bridge/44 will be closed in July for a couple of weeks. 46/18 is in good shape, we took that route on the way out there (to Winner) and then 44.

[nodakbassmaster]

glad you had a good time!! 8)