Well, I made it thru another Utah1088 event. Placed 8th with my riding
partner, Alan on a Honda ST. Although we got behind on the last leg at
night going thru Cedar Breaks and Zion Nat'l Parks and finding this
cemetery 3.5 miles down a dirt road, so had to forgo a big bonus in
Vegas to make it back to the finish in time. If had done Vegas, would
have put us in 3rd spot.
Did 1256 miles in 23 hours (took advantage of a big bonus to start an
hour late), which was fairly easy, even had time for a 20 min nap around
3 am (averaged just under 55 mph). With my modified internal tank (7.2
gal) and fuel cell (4.2 gal) over the back seat from Dan Danielson, I
had a range of 400 + miles, so gas was never an issue. My consumption
was between 38-42 mpg. Oil consumption was the usual - 1&1/2 quarts for
the 2,750 miles I did on this trip. The Lucas oil additive I added to
the Golden Spectro 4 10-40 blend seemed to help. I plan to switch over
to Mobil 1 full synthetic for the next rally to see if any better.
Did a spectacular loop that I would recommend to anyone visiting Utah,
that was some of the most awesome vistas I've seen in my travels -the
Grand Staircase - Escalante Nat'l Monument, in southern Utah, East of
I15 and South of I70. Take Utah State Hwy 24 off of I70 to town of
Torrey, then go South and east on Hwy 12 thru Tropic to 89. The only
down side is some of it is 30 -35 mph limits, but the scenery is so
spectacular it is hard to keep your eyes on the road.
So far in the past two months since I stopped working, with the Tx
rally, the Utah event, Goldendale and another trip up to Oregon, I've
logged almost 12,000 miles and been thru every state west of Louisiana
(inclusive), except for Wyoming and Montana. I hope to hit those when I
compete in the Col Thin air TT next month.
So far, retirement is great!
--
Dave Biasotti // Fremont, CA
