A Harrowing Ride

Yesterday when riding up the Devil's Tail, Chris noticed the bike felt ”squirrelly” - particularly on left hand corners.


Inspection of the rear tyre revealed it was severely worn, and more so on the left side. It had deteriorated very badly in the last day or so. We set our itinerary to take us into Alberquerque where our GPS said there was a BMW dealer and we could expect to get a new tyre. It was "only" 250 miles away.

Before leaving Alpine, we said farewell to the friends we had made last night and ate breakfast at the Bear Wallow Cafe.

We left with enough fuel for at 154 miles according to the bike computer but found none until we reached the tiny town of Datil 84 miles away at the intersection of US 60 and NM 12, at which point the computer indicated we had about 14 miles left to empty. We also wanted to put some extra air in the rear tyre to save the little tread that was left, but the air compressor at the service station there was not working.

By this stage we had well and truly left the lovely high altitude hills of Alpine with its green cattle pastures and weird elk noises heard from the pine trees. The land slowly became dryer, then low bushes, then scrub and finally flat, bleak yellow grass plains with very dry looking mountains in the far distant background. Cattle were trying to find shade under trees, they curled up under low bushes, but on the plains they had nowhere to go. We saw two or three groups (about six in each group) of deer congregating near the waterholes that were available to the cattle. On our journey we had noticed that most farmers had provided shelter for their animals. Even in cooler areas a few cows huddled under tents provided by the farmer. Only a few horses were seen in enclosures with no shade. Where shade was available the animals used it. You could see them under a tree, next to a barn, or poking their noses out of a barn door. These hot, dry flat plains offered nothing.

Closer to Alberquerque we followed the Rio Grande which was very green because of intensive farming. The lush tree line indicated the flow of the river. All the tributaries however were nothing but dry river beds at this time of year. Surrounding the river is desert.

We rode the 26 miles to Magdalena at reduced speed to hopefully reduce tyre wear. The first service station we stopped at didn't have air – vandals had cut the air hose and damaged the inflator some time ago and the proprietor's response was simply not to fix them.

A little further on, at a repair shop, we increased the pressure from 40 to 46 psi.- 4 psi above the recommended value.

About 30 miles further on we reached I-25 in Socorro and turned north to Alberquerque. The speed limit was 75 mph. Given the condition of our tyre, Chris chose to ride at 60 mph, but with all the other traffic doing 80 or more that was a bit scary...

We reached Alberquerque at 4 pm, and wasted 45 minutes trying to find the BMW dealer which we ultimately did – 0.3 miles from where the GPS took us. We had hoped to get the tyre replaced today, only to find the bike people don't work on Mondays (doh!).

We went looking for a motel. The first was $130 or so + tax – no thanks! We phoned a few more around the same price or more before finding one close to the BMW dealer for $55 including tax. The room was large, with a kitchen and comfortable.

We were really exhausted after travelling over 250 miles in temperatures that climbed into the mid 90's as the day wore on. We could walk to the Oasis restaurant which was next door to our Studio 6 motel. Apart from being a real dining experience with white tablecloths, wine glasses etc., the food was really good, and we came out feeling more relaxed, and happier than when we went in.