Google Map of the Albuquerque, NM to Kerrville, TX, the planned route.
I’ve ridden about 5 or 6 SS1K (Saddlesore 1000) rides up to now. My first was documented but never submitted. Several of these rides have been in the 20-22 hr. range, for reasons such as mechanical failure, back road routes, and my EggSanity Gold that needed eating time. As a result, I was convinced that I could stay on my bike for up to 24 hrs.
In Preparation – I posted a question about optimal starting times here and got several good ideas about planning and timing. I was also fortunate to get a riding companion, Cliff, to join me in the ride. Cliff had completed one BBG already, as part of a 50CC ride. We were originally planning a 12:30am start. We aborted this when I could not get myself to sleep before the ride. We rescheduled to 8am the morning of 8/15/18. I have two bikes I use for LD riding. K1600GT and an HD Road Glide. I choose to ride my Harley. Cliff was riding a BMW R1200RT. We both took a spare gallon of gas in our saddlebags, just in case.
A Simple Plan – It was simple (or so they say). We would ride “the slab” starting in Albuquerque, NM, take I-25 South to Las Cruces, NM. Then we’d hit I-10 East through El Paso, TX to Kerrville, TX. Total of 763 miles and then execute a “turn and burn” retracing our steps backward to Albuquerque, NM for a 1527-mile BBG. Google estimated travel time for this route is 21h 16 min. Starting at 8am, we’d get to Las Cruces/El Paso area in about 4 hours. Traffic around noon shouldn’t be too bad.
Learnings – (1) My K1600GT gets around 220 miles on a 7gal tank. It has a bit to spare at that range. I’m a big guy, so running at highway speeds make for a bit of gas guzzling. My HD Road Glide was expected to get 180 miles on a 6-gal tank. WRONG. Riding at an aggressive pace, my HD was getting around 150/160 miles/tank. We ended up making 12 gas stops on this ride.
(2) Don’t press your luck. In Texas, after our Fort Hancock fill up, we had ridden about 130 miles and I decided to pass up a gas stop at Balmorhea, TX, expecting that there’d be another opportunity in 20-30 miles. WRONG. Running out of gas on I-10, I pulled over on the shoulder, Cliff behind me. We dumped our 2 precious gallons into my tank and prayed there was another gas station within 60 miles down the highway. 52 miles later, we find a gas station in Fort Stockton, TX. Those 52 miles consumed 1.4 gals of the 2-gal reserve. PHEW! We gassed up our bikes and our containers
(3) Cliff and I were doing a very good job of riding together. We’d gassed up, taken bio-breaks, and snack together. He had originally led and now I was leading. We got close to a populated junction in the road. There was a bit more traffic around, moving at a slower pace, and some construction and warning signs. I-10 was littered with flashing warning signs with messages. Many of them warning drivers, not to Text and Drive. It so happens that there was this “flashing sign” that said, “Talk, Text, Crash”. For some reason, my eyes/brain read this sign as “Crash, Take, Exit”. Doesn’t make sense now but that’s what my mind read as the sign flashed one word at a time to me. So, I moved from the left lane to the right lane, and then took the exit ramp that just happened to be conveniently in front of me. As I look for Cliff, he’s riding by eastbound on I-10, head turned, staring at me with a look of puzzlement on his face (I imagine, as I could not see through his brain bucket). Other traffic is moving along with him and I realize that whatever that sign flashed, it wasn’t “Crash, Take, Exit”. I wound my way through a ½ mile of frontage road to get back on I-10. No sign of Cliff. I keep riding east towards Kerrville. I start getting phone calls from Cliff about 5 minutes later, but I don’t know how to activate phone pickup on my new Wireless Headset – DAMN! 3 more calls from Cliff and I find an exit, pull off and over to call him back. We connect, and I am 20 miles down the road while he’s looking for me at the exit behind me. We aren’t far from Kerrville and agree to meet up there at our turnaround point.
The Turnaround – I got to Kerrville in about 11 hrs. I gassed up and went into the gas station/grocery to get a convenience food dinner. It was 8pm CDT, we had started in the MDT time zone. Cliff arrives in about 15 minutes, gasses up, and joins me for cooler sandwiches, and cheese sticks. I ate two bananas as well, after taking my medications (some of you older folks understand about meds). Everything is good, we chat about the ride so far. We concur that we need to keep or increase the pace just to make sure we complete the BBG with some time to spare.
The Return Leg – We had arrived in Kerrville with sunlight at our backs. The first half of the trip was hot. Southern NM and Texas were having peak temps around 97F. With the heat coming off the asphalt and my engine, I know the immediate temps around my motorcycle had to be over 100F. Moving at a good clip though meant the even the warm wind in our face had a good effect on me. Now, we had eaten, and the sun was down. It was 8:40pm CDT as we got back on I-10, riding west. We had some time to make up, as we were just 20 min shy of the 12-hr. mark.
I pick up the pace. I religiously watch my odometer clicking down the miles in my head, counting towards 150 miles. Thinking, “92 down, refuel in 58 miles”. “128 down, refuel in 22 miles”. “Is there a gas station within 22 miles going west?” Query my HD navigation, which sucks by the way. There are 5 gas stations behind me about 9.8 miles. Scroll, scroll, where are the stations in front of me. Damn HD Navigation. Oh, finally, there’s a station 29 miles in front of me. Okay, looks like I must get 160 miles out of this tank and not 150 miles. Mentally, my fingers are crossed. It goes this way all the way to the outskirts of El Paso, TX.
Flashing Sign – Oh gosh, what does this sign say? “I-10 Closed in 26 miles. Take 375 Exit for I-10 Detour.” A mile down the road – same sign. Another mile down the road, and there’s the 375 Exit Ramp. At the bottom of the ramp, a detour sign – Turn Right. Following 375, there’s another sign – continue for 29 miles to I-10. This all worked out for us until we got close to I-10. On our way, we find barriers, some single lane roads, and confusing signs. We finally make it onto I-10.
Home Stretch – We’re 2 miles from the New Mexico border. Hallelujah! It’s only 276 more miles to go. We made up time on westbound 1-10. We have about a 1.5-hr buffer. We gas in Hatch, NM. Take a bio-break. I get an empanada while Cliff gets a 5-hr energy drink. The ride has been getting cooler and cooler. Riding in the cool rather than the heat is refreshing and helping to keep me awake and aware. We’ve got this! Hitting I-25, I get about 15 miles down the road. It’s getting cooler. We hit the Border Patrol inspection checkpoint and I ask the officer if I can pull over to put on a jacket liner. Sure thing, Cliff pulls in behind me and he puts on his jacket liners as well.
Getting back on I-25, I stare down the highway, my eyelids are getting heavier, and I start getting a bit of tunnel vision. It’s not “the wall” but I do find that I need to concentrate more. I am giving myself a mental pep talk. “Ok Simon, you can do this. It’s only another 200 miles. Damn, what do I need to do to get over this?” I start flexing my thigh and calf muscles to an unknown rhythm. I make sure I get some water. I raise my modular helmet, I lower my modular helmet. I flex my muscles. I take another drink of water. What do they say in the commercials? “Rinse and Repeat”. Passing T or C, NM, now it’s only 149 miles to go. Let’s get past Socorro, NM and then it’ll only need 76 more miles. Rinse and Repeat, Rinse and Repeat. Socorro! Now the highway repair handiwork comes into our lives. Two lanes merge to one lane. Concrete barriers on the left and right of us, we’re squeezed into a riding lane that’s part blacktop, shoulder, and rumble strips. It seems to run forever in front of me. Cliff is falling back. It’s hard to see his headlights, all four of them fade into the night. Finally, for what seems to take forever, the barriers disappear, and the road opens into two lanes in front of me. 73 miles to go but I need a gas stop in the next 30 miles. We gas up and take a final bio-break. We have a 1.5 hr. margin when we pull into the station. We lose about 20 mins at the gas stop.
Back out on the highway, we have 40 miles to make our final checkpoint. I’m over the dreary eye issues. I am tired but getting more alert with the knowledge that in about 35-40 minutes we’ll have completed our 1500-mile BBG.
In The End – Cliff’s motorcycle performed a lot better than mine from a fuel efficiency point of view. My Harley really slowed us down with the extra gas stops. All in all, I think the ride went well. However, I won’t be using the Harley for another BBG anytime soon, hopefully never.
Here are some of my final statistics for the ride.
12 gas stops,
1596 odometer miles,
1536 GPS miles,
1527 Google Map miles.
Avg MPG – 28.5
Avg MPH – 70.3
Total Elapsed Time – 22h, 42mins
1 Friend, Cliff
– Thanks for joining me on the journey.
Spotwalla GPS Tracking Map of the Albuquerque, NM to Kerrville, TX, the actual ridden route.
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