watermnp
Member
Hey, everyone. As you can tell by my post count I haven't participated much here, but I have been reading the posts for quite awhile (since I bought my max over a year ago).
Over the past couple months I've been prep'ing for a 17 day road trip to explore mostly the Southwest US, leaving from Washington DC and arriving in San Diego. This forum was a huge help! I thought I'd give back a bit by sharing some of my experiences on the trip and how the max held up.
Preparing for the trip: Mods
I very carefully read a lot of suggestions for touring modifications, and coupled with my own experiences and a minor accident requiring some replacement parts, I made the following changes for my trip...
Python Motorsports "Max Bars": My stock bars were bent and I wanted something that was a little more conducive to a "slouched" riding position for me. These worked perfectly, just that teensy bit more comfortable that stock.
Bar Snake: I can't recommend these enough - I stumbled across a mention in a thread here and had to google it to find out what it was! The change this made to the feeling of the bars was incredible. I literally do not feel the vibrations of the bike at all - no joke, my hands would get sore/uncomfortable from wearing gloves for hours straight but never once did they go numb from vibrations. From here on out this will be the first mod I do to any new bike I buy.
Kurakyn Grips + Throttle Boss: Took me a bit to figure out installation, but the guy from Python was very patient with me (didn't realize I needed to keep the stock sleeve! luckily I hadn't tossed 'em). These made a HUGE difference as well - my wrist got sore some days but never my fingers.
The grips are very thick and chunky (too much at first but I got used to it really fast), making it very easy to position the throttle. I thought the "throttle boss" idea looked so dumb and could never work, but once I put it on I was hooked. Even just puttering around town this makes casual throttle control and maintaining speed so much easier.
Yamaha "Engine Guards:" Obviously these are highway pegs, in spite of Yamaha's disclaimer... I have mixed feelings about these. The right side doesn't bolt on properly because my (2006) has an inset hex bolt on that side, but the lower bolt at least works. It seemed this bolt would hold everything but after awhile the right side guard would start to slide down - fixed it by wrapping it with some wire at a Wal Mart but that's pretty ghetto. I'll need to look into a long term fix for this (different bolt obviously).
That said, I did find these very useful on the trip. I probably spent more time with my feet on the stock pegs, but it was very nice to straighten my legs out now and then. I think the most common position I took that used these was having my left foot on the forward peg with my right foot up on the engine supporting my right wrist. That's pretty comfortable and stable at 65MPH for me, worked well on long lonely straight roads.
A couple things put me off on these a bit. First, I felt like I had to keep my legs a little tense to avoid slipping off all the time - basically had to push into the pegs. I didn't like that, and will work on a fix eventually (I thought maybe some of that sandpaper like stuff you put on outside steps?). Second, whether mental or not, I felt as if the bike was much less stable with my feet on those pegs going around deep corners - I quickly got in the habit of switching my position to the stock pegs for any strong cornering.
Furbur Fix + Magic Washer: You all know this. It's real, wow. I do feel as if the bike is more susceptible to wind instability after this, but I'm also half-convinced that's in my head. Either way, without the Furbur fix I would not have been nearly as comfortable/happy with my ride. Rock solid at 90+MPH, sweepers at any speed are totally stable, etc. It's like a different bike.
Everything else was basically stock and worked out great! I had no problems with numbut or anything, probably because I could shift position a lot.
Loading the Bike / Support Gear:
I was carrying an REI Mars 87 backpack with the waist strap removed strapped to the back of the bike. This included a bear can carabinered to it, as well as full camping gear (bag, pad, tent, etc.), an Acer Aspire One netbook, misc support gear, and clothing for around 5 days. I wrapped it all with a standard backpack duck cover for my pack and strapped it to the back seat of the max with no modifications using four straps. Total weight was around 70lbs I think (not light).
This was a little nerve-wracking the first day but after I got used to it and built up confidence it held up surprisingly well. My fears of the pack shifting or falling off at speed were completely unjustified. After doing that, minor things like strapping an xbox 360 and a new laptop to the back to get home from Fry's wasn't a big deal at all!
Cold Weather Gear Super Tip: I had some serious problems with cold weather on my ride, including one day riding off a mountain in a snow storm after making emergency camp at 9000ft and waking up to 4+ inches! The first few days I struggled with extra layers and gloves (I even had cold weather riding gloves), but eventually hit on something that maybe is obvious to everyone else: ski gear.
Once I tossed my bike gloves for a pair of ski gloves, packed on a solid fleece layer on top, and bought a pair of high end North Face ski/winter hiking pants, everything got much much better. Definitely recommended if you do any extensive cold weather riding. (one calculator I found indicated that at 70MPH riding in 30 degree weather was like being -10...)
The Trip:
I left DC and basically hauled ass towards the southwest to get away from the cold. Made it to Texas in a couple days mostly on the Interstate (I know! I was in a hurry), where I finally switched to happy roads. It's impossible to review everywhere I went, but here are some sweet sections that really stood out for me:
Highway 82 Texarkana to Cloudcroft: Aside from Lubbock, the entirety of this road was pretty much in the Middle of Nowhere. Had to pay a lot of attention to gassing up because stretches of 70-80 miles without a station were common - basically I'd stop at every gas station and ask how far to the next one. Most of this road was flat, straight, and lonely. Very few corners until going up the mountain to Cloudcroft, but sometimes straight roads with no one around are just what people need.
At one point I was doing maths in my head and calculated that if oncoming traffic and myself were both going 70MPH then in some stretches I was spotting (when they rarely came) oncoming traffic over 3 miles in front of me.
Highway 191 aka 666 aka The Devil's Highway: I actually backtracked about 80 miles to hit this road after getting a recommendation from a salty old biker at a diner. I have very mixed feelings about this road. First, let me just say that it's pretty sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. It's practically a few straight hours of riding a couple inches away from multi-thousand foot drops, with barely any straights. I spent almost all my time in 2nd gear going northbound on this thing, ripping up to 7000RPM then backing off for the next corner, repeat. Highly recommended.
Highway AZ78 to Mogollon: Seriously, this road is impossible to describe accurately. I'll just say there's a good 5 mile section that is one lane, barely paved, covered in gravel, and most of the time you are barely a couple feet away from death. Somehow this is actually pretty awesome. Heh.
Highway AZ64 from Grand Canyon to AZ89: This road doesn't get enough credit. Coming into GCNP on AZ64/180 was very crowded with cars, obviously the typical route. Heading out on the eastern side was almost completely empty though, and while the road itself wasn't anything to write home about, the scenery was breathtaking. At one point you ride down this extended slope for miles with a huge canyon off to your left. It's fantastic.
Highway NV67: This was an unexpected gem. Very newly refinished road for most of it, again in the middle of nowhere, very twisty. Really quite a pleasure. Saw a number of bikes going both directions on this road, so obviously the word is out for the locals!
There were a bunch of other fantastic places I visited, but those are the standout roads for me. One warning: 82 in New Mexico tore up my rear tire pretty bad. I had to stop at a dealer in Las Cruces and get a new rear tire - I went from a fair amount of tread to bare in a couple hundred miles of two lane blacktop!
Pictures!
Worth a thousand words right? Here are some shots of the max on the road (more can be found on my flickr page):
And my personal favorites..
Thanks for reading and all the help you guys (unknowingly!) provided!
Over the past couple months I've been prep'ing for a 17 day road trip to explore mostly the Southwest US, leaving from Washington DC and arriving in San Diego. This forum was a huge help! I thought I'd give back a bit by sharing some of my experiences on the trip and how the max held up.
Preparing for the trip: Mods
I very carefully read a lot of suggestions for touring modifications, and coupled with my own experiences and a minor accident requiring some replacement parts, I made the following changes for my trip...
Python Motorsports "Max Bars": My stock bars were bent and I wanted something that was a little more conducive to a "slouched" riding position for me. These worked perfectly, just that teensy bit more comfortable that stock.
Bar Snake: I can't recommend these enough - I stumbled across a mention in a thread here and had to google it to find out what it was! The change this made to the feeling of the bars was incredible. I literally do not feel the vibrations of the bike at all - no joke, my hands would get sore/uncomfortable from wearing gloves for hours straight but never once did they go numb from vibrations. From here on out this will be the first mod I do to any new bike I buy.
Kurakyn Grips + Throttle Boss: Took me a bit to figure out installation, but the guy from Python was very patient with me (didn't realize I needed to keep the stock sleeve! luckily I hadn't tossed 'em). These made a HUGE difference as well - my wrist got sore some days but never my fingers.
The grips are very thick and chunky (too much at first but I got used to it really fast), making it very easy to position the throttle. I thought the "throttle boss" idea looked so dumb and could never work, but once I put it on I was hooked. Even just puttering around town this makes casual throttle control and maintaining speed so much easier.
Yamaha "Engine Guards:" Obviously these are highway pegs, in spite of Yamaha's disclaimer... I have mixed feelings about these. The right side doesn't bolt on properly because my (2006) has an inset hex bolt on that side, but the lower bolt at least works. It seemed this bolt would hold everything but after awhile the right side guard would start to slide down - fixed it by wrapping it with some wire at a Wal Mart but that's pretty ghetto. I'll need to look into a long term fix for this (different bolt obviously).
That said, I did find these very useful on the trip. I probably spent more time with my feet on the stock pegs, but it was very nice to straighten my legs out now and then. I think the most common position I took that used these was having my left foot on the forward peg with my right foot up on the engine supporting my right wrist. That's pretty comfortable and stable at 65MPH for me, worked well on long lonely straight roads.
A couple things put me off on these a bit. First, I felt like I had to keep my legs a little tense to avoid slipping off all the time - basically had to push into the pegs. I didn't like that, and will work on a fix eventually (I thought maybe some of that sandpaper like stuff you put on outside steps?). Second, whether mental or not, I felt as if the bike was much less stable with my feet on those pegs going around deep corners - I quickly got in the habit of switching my position to the stock pegs for any strong cornering.
Furbur Fix + Magic Washer: You all know this. It's real, wow. I do feel as if the bike is more susceptible to wind instability after this, but I'm also half-convinced that's in my head. Either way, without the Furbur fix I would not have been nearly as comfortable/happy with my ride. Rock solid at 90+MPH, sweepers at any speed are totally stable, etc. It's like a different bike.
Everything else was basically stock and worked out great! I had no problems with numbut or anything, probably because I could shift position a lot.
Loading the Bike / Support Gear:
I was carrying an REI Mars 87 backpack with the waist strap removed strapped to the back of the bike. This included a bear can carabinered to it, as well as full camping gear (bag, pad, tent, etc.), an Acer Aspire One netbook, misc support gear, and clothing for around 5 days. I wrapped it all with a standard backpack duck cover for my pack and strapped it to the back seat of the max with no modifications using four straps. Total weight was around 70lbs I think (not light).
This was a little nerve-wracking the first day but after I got used to it and built up confidence it held up surprisingly well. My fears of the pack shifting or falling off at speed were completely unjustified. After doing that, minor things like strapping an xbox 360 and a new laptop to the back to get home from Fry's wasn't a big deal at all!
Cold Weather Gear Super Tip: I had some serious problems with cold weather on my ride, including one day riding off a mountain in a snow storm after making emergency camp at 9000ft and waking up to 4+ inches! The first few days I struggled with extra layers and gloves (I even had cold weather riding gloves), but eventually hit on something that maybe is obvious to everyone else: ski gear.
Once I tossed my bike gloves for a pair of ski gloves, packed on a solid fleece layer on top, and bought a pair of high end North Face ski/winter hiking pants, everything got much much better. Definitely recommended if you do any extensive cold weather riding. (one calculator I found indicated that at 70MPH riding in 30 degree weather was like being -10...)
The Trip:
I left DC and basically hauled ass towards the southwest to get away from the cold. Made it to Texas in a couple days mostly on the Interstate (I know! I was in a hurry), where I finally switched to happy roads. It's impossible to review everywhere I went, but here are some sweet sections that really stood out for me:
Highway 82 Texarkana to Cloudcroft: Aside from Lubbock, the entirety of this road was pretty much in the Middle of Nowhere. Had to pay a lot of attention to gassing up because stretches of 70-80 miles without a station were common - basically I'd stop at every gas station and ask how far to the next one. Most of this road was flat, straight, and lonely. Very few corners until going up the mountain to Cloudcroft, but sometimes straight roads with no one around are just what people need.
At one point I was doing maths in my head and calculated that if oncoming traffic and myself were both going 70MPH then in some stretches I was spotting (when they rarely came) oncoming traffic over 3 miles in front of me.
Highway 191 aka 666 aka The Devil's Highway: I actually backtracked about 80 miles to hit this road after getting a recommendation from a salty old biker at a diner. I have very mixed feelings about this road. First, let me just say that it's pretty sick. Sick. Sick. Sick. It's practically a few straight hours of riding a couple inches away from multi-thousand foot drops, with barely any straights. I spent almost all my time in 2nd gear going northbound on this thing, ripping up to 7000RPM then backing off for the next corner, repeat. Highly recommended.
Highway AZ78 to Mogollon: Seriously, this road is impossible to describe accurately. I'll just say there's a good 5 mile section that is one lane, barely paved, covered in gravel, and most of the time you are barely a couple feet away from death. Somehow this is actually pretty awesome. Heh.
Highway AZ64 from Grand Canyon to AZ89: This road doesn't get enough credit. Coming into GCNP on AZ64/180 was very crowded with cars, obviously the typical route. Heading out on the eastern side was almost completely empty though, and while the road itself wasn't anything to write home about, the scenery was breathtaking. At one point you ride down this extended slope for miles with a huge canyon off to your left. It's fantastic.
Highway NV67: This was an unexpected gem. Very newly refinished road for most of it, again in the middle of nowhere, very twisty. Really quite a pleasure. Saw a number of bikes going both directions on this road, so obviously the word is out for the locals!
There were a bunch of other fantastic places I visited, but those are the standout roads for me. One warning: 82 in New Mexico tore up my rear tire pretty bad. I had to stop at a dealer in Las Cruces and get a new rear tire - I went from a fair amount of tread to bare in a couple hundred miles of two lane blacktop!
Pictures!
Worth a thousand words right? Here are some shots of the max on the road (more can be found on my flickr page):
And my personal favorites..
Thanks for reading and all the help you guys (unknowingly!) provided!
unk: Don't be a stranger - join the crowd here.
