I finished my project of compiling all the video from the trip into a nice video of the trip. Its been 5+ years since I last did a ride like this or a video project, so I was a bit rusty. But I had a great time putting this together.
Total stats from the trip are:
- 2253 Miles on the motorcycle, 2700+ if the tow/truck back to Denver is included
- 8 Days Riding + Driving
- 3 States
- 2 National Parks
- 2 Podcasts and one Audio book finished on the ride.
Total video recorded on the trip from the full time dash cam setup (Innovv K2) and the cam in the cockpit was over 1TB. This gave a spoil of riches in terms of video content to go through, but also an intimidating amount.
The plans turns out to be a bit different than the original plan, but in the end I was able to ride into some different areas, and only missed out on Los Alamos, NM. I will plan to go back down there in the future.
The Original Plan (all days different colors) 
The Actual Ride (Red Part1, Blue Part 2, Cyan – Truck)
I am still going through some of the info and items of note from the trip, but a few items from the trip of note:
Post Oil Spill tasks on the bike
Turns out coating the bike in motor oil is a pain to clean off. It took hours of scrubbing to get most of the oil off of it, and the exhaust itself even once cleaned still smelled of hot oil for the first 200 miles or so of riding (to be fair, some oil did drip into the exhaust as well).
The Tires which were soaked in motor oil for 48 hours, recovered perfectly. I scrubbed them with degreaser then brake cleaner, and after a quick break in period, the tires are perfect. Big props to the Pirelli Scorpion Train II tires as they handled some crazy weather without issue.
Audio Books/Podcasts
So I’ve avoided really doing a lot of stuff with podcasts, and generally havent listened to audiobooks. I figured this trip would be a great time to try them. In the end I am way into this on the motorcycle now!
Audio Book – Yellow Dirt : A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos. This is a book I wanted to read since going through Monument Valley back in 2012, on the recommendation of another traveler I was talking to. I finally “read” through it in audio format on the bike, for the most part while riding through the same Navajo territories/reservation land that the book was covering. This made it very connected and real while I was riding.
Podcasts –
- Wind of Change – Neat podcast covering the potential that the CIA used the Scorpions and the song “Wind of Change” to topple the soviet union.
- The Deal – A review of the history and ground breaking nature of the Iran Nuclear deal the US and Europe put into place with Iran in 2015/16.
This was the first trip I’ve done where I didn’t listen to any music, just podcasts and audiobooks. It actually kept me more focused on the ride than music!
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