Tiffany Ambling through America

[Tiffany]

Originally Posted by dlh62c

Looks like someone has the ABC's of packing and world travel down to a science.

Access
Balance
Compression
and
Streamlined

Ride Safe!
daryl

Daryl, right from the word go on the bike trips it's been light packing for me and for my pillion rider- yep, all the stuff for two people including full camping and cooking gear fits into those boxes.
Although to be honest, I'm not sure my "pizza box" on the back would be described as streamlined

[Tiffany]

Originally Posted by Tall Mike

I'm looking forward to seeing Tiffany in Boise, Idaho on Thursday June 7th at the Happy Trails shop!

I had parts on order that I was traveling to pick up and was pleasantly surprised at the coincidental presentation...
Looks like I'm staying for dinner and and a slideshow!

We're setting up the slideshow as I type. I'm upstairs in the office area, while Thelma is down in the service department, they seemed to think that having handlebars that don't sit straight is a bit of an issue

So the guys have set to work




I think I will owe Jeff a few drinks later

Looking forward to meeting Mike and the others this evening, the Canadians have already arrived, having ridden through a major storm to get here. Thelma and I have scrubbed up for this event, but she is doing better than I am.

[dlh62c]

Originally Posted by Tiffany

Although to be honest, I'm not sure my "pizza box" on the back would be described as streamlined

Originally Posted by Tiffany

Tiffany
I consider 'Streamlined' as not having stuff strapped here and there all over the bike, its all contained. Like a UltraLight backpacker, one needs to separate their needs from their wants. It's a skilled traveler who can do more with less and this can be a real point of pride. Plus its allot easier to manage less stuff.

Ride Safe!
daryl

[Tiffany]

Joe got into the swing of things and started spraying the twisted and dented petrol tank







To prove I was taking my boiler-suited role seriously, here I am having a skype conversation with my sister in England, still in work clothes, which as I was on video mode she was able to see and appreciate


Back out into the open-air workshop and even the topbox had a facelift



We start piecing everything back together



which takes a while as nothing seems to fit!!

Meanwhile, Joe is still spraying

[Tiffany]

Two pairs of hands are needed for this tricky bit




we're getting there




almost done

[Tiffany]

Finishing touches



and then I'm off to Ojai as Thelma has an appointment there

with these guys



This is Adrian, the maestro of BMW seats, he works at Bill Mayers Saddles, and here he is putting the finishing touches to my new GS Adventure seat.



at the end of it all



Thelma looks fantastic and they decided I needed a bit of smartening up too and gave me a new t-shirt.

Huge thanks to Joe, Lara, Erdem, Sarah, Rob, Adrian and the rest of the guys at Bill Mayers.

Thelma and I are ready for the road once more.

[batoutoflahonda]

Crossed paths with Tiffany outside a Safeway in North Bend, Wa.

It was nice talking with Tiffany. If you ever need a place to crash or work on the bike up there in Easton, WA. Drop me line.
Good luck on your travels. See ya around.

Dave

[Tiffany]

Originally Posted by batoutoflahonda

Crossed paths with Tiffany outside a Safeway in North Bend, Wa.

It was nice talking with Tiffany. If you ever need a place to crash or work on the bike up there in Easton, WA. Drop me line.
Good luck on your travels. See ya around.

Dave

Hi Dave
It was good to see another airhead in the carpark and nice to meet you. Many thanks for the offer of accommodation, I'll let you know if I'm heading back through that way.
safe riding
Tiffany

[Tiffany]

With Thelma looking good, we headed down to the beach, in search of a certain sign...



OK, so I hadn't actully ridden the whole route, but I HAD ridden from Phoenix to Chicago and then down to LA all within the last two weeks.
and there was a familiar face, Gary aka Bear who also works as a motorcycle guide, he specialise in Route 66 and we'd last met at a bike show in England last year.



I headed over to the Santa Monica pier, as I needed proper proof that I had reacched the Pacific Ocean (I live on the coastline of the Atlantic in England)



lunch at Bubba Gump's and I saw this old advertising sign which seemed very apt for those who have just ridden Route 66, not sure if it was just a joke

[Tiffany]

Thelma and I headed down to the beach, I was tempted to have a quick ride on the sand but thought I might get told off


Leaving the ocean behind I headed out onto the concrete jungle that forms LA's freeway system. It's something that we hear about in films and on the telly, but it's not until you're in the solid queues of traffic that you appreciate just how bad the congestion is. I went into Brit biker mode and filtered through (lane splitting as it is called over here)

headed out towards the desert




some distance down the road noticed the lines of wind turbines on the hilltops around me, it was a bit eerie and made me feel like a lone wagon in the last century surrounded by native Indians.
Everywhere I looked there seemed to be turbines





Of course the key thing about wind turbines is that they are usually built in places where there is a LOT of wind so not a pleasing sight. I held on tight ready for the gusts but I was in luck, it was a rare wind-free day in the valley, and I soon arrived in Palm Springs at my friend's house.



A warning that it would be a flying visit...a quick catch up on 18 months of chat and happenings, a great Mexican meal with very nice margaritas (sorry, we seem to have lost the photo of the margaritas!) and then I was up and on the road at 5.30am making the most of the relatively cool temperatures at that time of the morning.
As I set off down the road, only the dog was up to see me off



I was heading to Flagstaff and had a lot of miles to cover that day, with a lot of desert to cross.

[GypsyWriter]

Boy, you DID get lucky with the wind!! I've been in full-blown sandstorms up near Palm Springs, I'd be scared to ever take a bike through there! Enjoy Flagstaff, should be a teensy bit cooler than the desert.

[dfhepner]

Originally Posted by Tiffany

and valve clearance



always tricky getting Thelma's rocker covers on and off due to the somewhat distorted crash bars (not sure quite how they ended up like that)

I found that the crash bars cause more damage on an AirHead than the prevent. On my R75/6 they tweaked the frame and cracked open the valve cover when the crash bars came in contact with someone rear bumper at low speed.

[Tiffany]

Flagstaff was to be my destination, I was heading for the Overland Expo
As I looked at my odometer, I realised that I'd managed to cover over 5,000 miles in the four weeks since I had left Phoenix, and yet I was just 120 miles from my starting point.
I knew I was heading in the right direction when I saw vehicles like this



Then, while I was at a petrol station, two bikes did a U-turn and pulled up, they had recognised Thelma - she's getting so famous that before I know it she'll be asking for her own Facebook page. The riders were Mark Ordway and Gaurav Jani who had literally just flown in from Delhi, loaded his stuff onto a borrowed GS and headed up to the Expo. I tagged along with them (I'm sure I was invited!)



I requested some off-roading, Mark knows many of the trails in this part of the world and we headed up Schnebly Hill Road

As always, I didn't slow to take photos on the gnarly bits, just too busy hanging on. Further up we stopped for a break and I got some pictures




just lost the rest of this page as the computer crashed..off to make pasties for tea, I'll finish this section later

[One Less Harley]

Originally Posted by Tiffany

just lost the rest of this page as the computer crashed..

...better the computer crashed than you.....

[Tiffany]

As we headed up the Schnebly Hill Trail, we saw some other riders, this is Gaspard from San Diego (or possibly SoCal), not sure if he's on ADV Rider, but if anyone knows him, I've got a couple more pictures of him riding the trail on my facebook.



we paused to look at the great views



Thelma was looking particularly immaculate that day...just an hour before I got driven off the gravel by a small pick-up truck

Gaurav was tearing up the trail- no sign of jet lag



we made it to Mormon Lake, a great setting for an event like this



There were travellers everywhere... in trucks, buses and even an old ambulance as well as the many on bikes. I saw quite a few familiar faces, including Austin Vince and Ted Simon, I tried to keep a low profile as the last time I'd seen those two, I got a bit silly after my second glass of wine and was last seen sitting on Ted's precious original Triumph from Jupiter's Travels whilst wearing a pair of Austin's wife's knickers on my head

Luckily no mention was made of the occasion, and in fact Ted even had a few kind words to say about Thelma



I gave various talks and taught some classes, generally having a ball of a time. I wondered over to the vehicle driving track to watch some of the big trucks in action



looking at the way they were driving, I was glad I travel on a bike



some were getting rescued



I, rather foolishly jumped into a land rover with Jeff Simpson, who was having a go at the tippy over course (it probably has a more technical name than that) I sat in the back, kept quiet, took photos and wondered why on earth I had voluntarily got in as the whole vehicle tipped from one side to the other.





I informed Jeff that my Mum wouldn't be too happy if he tipped this thing over with me in it