Blowing hot and cold

Words and photos by JK

It was 118 degrees when we left the motel in Parker. The R1 was pretty close to overheating whilst we waited for traffic lights to change and my right leg was getting well toasted unless a cross wind blew the heat onto my left leg! The ride up Hwy 95 to Lake Havasu was beautiful and I finally understood why I see more boats being towed by pick-ups in the middle of the desert than any sea-side resort! The river was stunning and it looks like a great place to enjoy water, sun and hot temperatures. Lake Havasu City was only founded in 1964 and apparently the McCullock chainsaw guy bought London Bridge unseen in a hurry. It seems he was disappointed as he thought he'd bought Tower Bridge or something. Anyway, there it stands doing good service in this town for a lot of boaters and holiday people. We had a bite to eat as the friendly waiter told us the story. We headed north again to the I40 and on to Kingman. We were fuelling up in Kingman and I saw a well-clad biker roll in on a Buell 1125. I’ve sat on one at the motorcycle show in Phoenix last October but I’ve yet to see one bought and running on the road. Unfortunately the all new Buell got bad press for its fuel injection glitches when it first appeared. Erik Buell is a very innovative engineer (example: the petrol is stored in the aluminium frame) and his new Austrian built Rotax V-Twin engine was a radical departure from the Harley norm. I spoke to the rider (an audio engineer from Hollywood also named Eric) for his impressions. He LOVES it! He did mention allowing time when starting up to let the electronics “do their thing” and then it was fine. The handling should be awesome as that is a strong trait of Buell bikes. We said our goodbyes and headed towards Williams where we planned to stop for the night. As we rode to ever higher elevations a huge black cloud loomed ahead. We got soaked. The temperature dropped 40 degrees in 2 minutes! We were in the middle of nowhere with no shelter, no turn-offs, nothing! By the time we got to a petrol stop it had stopped and we were blue with cold. From one extreme to another! There was nothing for it but to slog the last 20 miles to Williams and find a warm hotel. Once that was done we enjoyed cruising the streets of this cute town and had the BEST ribs in the world at the Route 66 restaurant. Live music made for a pleasant end to the 216.8 mile day. Tomorrow: the Grand Canyon!