A summer ride today

I left Tucson headed north on hiway 77 ( oracle hiway ). Rain season is on so temps are a bit lower, I don't think it was over 100 anywhere on the ride. I rode north past Oracle  through Mammoth then to Winkleman. At Winkleman various roads form a 90 mile triangle of 3 hiways. I rode NW thru Hayden, Kearny to Superior, an old mining town. Actually all these town are from the days when Arizona was  the copper state. We still produce copper but not like then. At Superior (look for Hermanos Restaurant to eat). I then rode east 20 miles to Globe passing over the "top of the world".

Ages ago, in the 20s and  30s folks would drive about 40 miles on dirt roads to the top of the world at (4500')  because there were scrub oaks for shade and the temp was only 98 or so instead of 110 common to Phoenix. Today who bothers as we have AC, back then folks valued a slight decrease in summertime temps, now the "top" looks and is, forgotten. But a nice ride. Traffic can be bothersome on this 20 mile stretch. You will ride through the "devils canyon" here and the rock spires are beautiful.

In Globe - Miami, both old  copper towns with good solid brick buildings if you take the time to look for them. Eat at Guayos, just north of globe on the Roosevelt lake hiway. Ride through town, east and a couple miles out of town turn south toward Winkleman. Here you will ride over El Capitan Pass at 4990 feet. El Capitan saw wagons and oxen many years ago.
As you approach Winkleman the geology is absolutely fantastic on both sides of the road. Look for the tip of the Winkleman smelter ( old copper town) and you are back ready to ride home to Tucson. I used  to recommend Marias but a while back I was 3 day sick on sorry bacon so Im reserved on them just now. If you have to eat there, stick to pancakes.

This ride is short but beautiful. In Arizona the flora changes dramatically with elevation and the elevations change from about 2500 to almost 5000. Have a bottle of water and a health bar on hand "just in case". I do recommend this ride and it is approachable from three directions, Tucson , Phoenix, or Safford.

Sounds like a fantastic ride. When it gets into the 90's up here we say, "It's not the heat. It's the humidity." We have a way of saying things that aren't necessarily true. IT IS THE HEAT!!!

I don't know how you chaps ride in heat like that.I go out most days and in England just now we are having(for us) unusually high temps of 80+.Tuesday I was out for about two hours in bright sunlight and roughly 100 mile ride around.Although wearing cotton biking jacket and kevlar jeans I was tiring and wishing for some clouds. Wednesday I usually go to the coast, about 100 mile round trip,this time there was some cloud cover, a few spots of rain at the coast. A more pleasant ride home. I honestly prefer damp and cloudier days myself.

Yes it is a bit hot and humid at the moment, I was out on Tuesday wearing my Hein Gericke Air Suit and Schuberth open face helmet and I was still hot. Of course the large back protector pad in the jacket doesn't help as it seems to stop perspiration from evaporating. My Icon hi-vis vest probably stops some airflow through the front of the jacket too.

Yesterday I was out riding in the same HG suit but ditched the vest and wore my Camelbak filled with water and some ice cubes instead. This worked well and as the drinking tube is insulated I don't have to blow air into it to push warmed up water back into the Camelbak bladder.

I've yet to wear my new Klim Overland suit during this hot weather, it should vent a lot better than either my HG or Rev'it summer suits through the large intake and exhaust vents on the jacket and pants. It also has softer vented D3O armour and back protector and it's a looser American box cut style so more air should flow through it.

Dale N. wrote:

Sounds like a fantastic ride. When it gets into the 90's up here we say, "It's not the heat. It's the humidity." We have a way of saying things that aren't necessarily true. IT IS THE HEAT!!!

  When it gets to the 90's here, we say winters coming.            

Hi Yo, I sort of know what you're talking about. My wife and I took too motorcycle trips to FL in August several years back. Mainly because of the old saying: "August is the hot dry month". We were looking for the dry rather than the hot part of that. Anyway, both trips went well and the Hot and the Dry played a big part.

The first trip was the better of the two with only about 10 miles of rain in three little stretches in Mississippi (I don't know the two letter code for that state and I'm too lazy to look it up so I just typed in the whole name of Mississippi). Anyway, it was well into the upper 90's along with the humidity. When it did rain the interstate/highway turned into instant steam. We didn't even stop to put on our rain gear it felt so good.

The second trip was a bit cooler and we hit between 150 and 200 miles of rain. But still not a bad trip. We were still young and healthy enough to enjoy them both.

Flipping heck Meldrew, how many outfits have you got?. I have my winter gear(insulated waterproofs) and full face helmet.My summer gear , cotton biker jacket and kevlar jeans with open face helmet and same boots all the time. Only extras are winter gloves and summer gloves.

Old Limey wrote:

Flipping heck Meldrew, how many outfits have you got?.

Let's see now, I had a clear out when I retired and moved to Yorkshire and got rid of my old Aerostich, and BMW suits, and I gave my old Clover outfit to a local charity shop recently. Apart from the three outfits I mentioned in my previous post, I also have a heavier lined Hein Gericke outfit, a similar Büse two-piece I occasionally use, and a couple of pairs of plain black riding pants from Clover, and Shoei.

So if I do a quick mental inventory I'm down to a Polo two-piece breathable rain suit, two pairs of rain gloves, about five pairs of assorted summer and winter gloves, a pair of HG lobster claw winter gloves with matching neoprene overmitts, a dozen assorted Buffs, a pair of Magnum boots, and a pair of Alt-Berg boots made 40 miles up the road in Richmond. Two pairs of custom made ear plugs, a variety of synthetic and Merino wool underwear, t shirts, and lightweight fleeces, and a pair of Panoptyx/7Eye Diablo prescription glasses that make me look weird.

I'm about ready to replace my Schuberth J1 open face helmet and currently looking about. I wear that or a Scorpion Exo 900 flip front. Both are fitted with Interphone F4 headsets and Supervisor peaks.

That may seem a lot of stuff and it probably is, but I don't smoke, drink, take drugs, gamble, or buy any of that J.Costa and Dr Pulley nonsense, and being the thrifty type I make all my own dresses.  

Meldrew wrote

    .....and being the thrifty type I make all my own dresses.


Meldrew sounds like you have lumberjack in your blood, maybe not you said you don't drink!

We still produce copper but not like then. At Superior (look for Hermanos Restaurant to eat). I then rode east 20 miles to Globe passing over the "top of the world".

greysilver, Aridzona, Superior, Oak Creek Flats right next to the old Magma Cooper mine is being negotiated for what looks like one of if not the biggest copper lode in the world, they will use the old mine elevator shaft for ventilation. I've ridden your route a couple times and the run up Queen Creek Canyon is one of my favorites.

Thanks for the answers everyone. Englishmen! Out here in the SW USA especially in southern Arizona we kid each other with the reminder "ah but is DRY heat". When the temp hits 105 the humidity is usually less than 10% and often less than 5%. I wear Joe Rocket armored mesh for summer wear and moving down the road it is no hotter in the jacket than out of it. The color work too it is a bright (day-glo) yellow - green. Gloves are Honda mesh, blue jeans for legs and bmw vented boots. This get up works for me and is reasonably comfortable. If ever you find yourselves west and south of Phoenix expect summer temps of 115 plus (50C is not unheard of). No apparel works at these temps, it is miserable.

Because it is a "dry heat" certain evaporative gear works well for cooling. I have a Motoport kevlar mesh riding suit and the LDComfort sleeves and headliner work really well for me.

I was driving in on the I-10 at 115 degrees and I felt great....
for about 20 minutes...
then I thought I had caught fire....

so I stopped and re-wet the sleeves and headliner using gallon plastic Ziplocks of water brought for that purpose, and all was right with the world again...

That was the hottest part of the day, so we decided to stop for dinner, then everything was fine once the temperature dropped to a balmy 109 degrees.

I am working on a more consistent cooling scheme, will let you know when I get something worth bragging about.