My MotoGP Austin Weekend.

[cOoTeR]

MotoGP is going to be in Austin, TX next week. I'm going to put the touring abilities of my H2 SX SE to the test. I'm going to be doing at a minimum 2,101 miles of riding over Thursday- Monday. I'll try to post pictures and updates as I go along if my cell phone signal is good enough.

Thursday 714 miles from my house to the hotel
Friday Hill Country ride about 270ish miles
Friday about 130 miles to where were staying in Hutto TX
Saturday 66 miles round trip to the track
Sunday 33 miles to the track then 897 miles back to my house split between Sunday and Monday.

[Ninja H2SX]

^^^ Should be a good test of the H2SX's touring abilities.

[Barrel]

Have a good trip and enjoy the race.

[cOoTeR]

Dirty bike

Tire repair kit

Washed bike

Today was the only day that the dealership had available to have their lead tech work on my bike for the first service. The dealership owner and service manager won't let anyone else touch my bike even to move it into and out of the service bays lol. So I dropped it off last night after work. I didn't wash it because I wanted to show them the amount of fluid I had coming out of my fuel tank vent tube. So it was pretty dirty. I had to trailer it down because I pick my son up after i get off work and my wife won't let him ride with me yet.

So I got off of work today rushed home dropped off my work truck jumped in my SUV picked my son up went to the dealership to pick the bike up. Paid for the service and went over everything they did. They informed me that there were A LOT of dead bees inside the intake tube by the filter. I had went through a swarm on my last ride so I wasn't really surprised to hear there were bees in there but i didn't think there would be a notable amount. Apparently the intake lets in a lot insects in a short amount of time so that's something to keep in mind. I decided to buy a tire repair kit white i was there to prep for the trip, hopefully i don't need it. I grabbed a moose racing tire kit that came with plugs patches tools and a CO2 tire inflator kit. It said the 3 CO2 canisters can fill a 180/55 tire to 32psi but the guy I'm riding with this trip has a similar kit with CO2 cartridges so if we need more we have em. I looked the bike over and it looks good so I loaded it up and headed home.

I unloaded the bike with help from my 5 year son. Had a quick dinner then he and I washed the bike really quick. It was getting dark as we were drying it so hopefully there's not too many water spots left. But it'll get wet Friday and or Saturday for sure so I'm not to worried about it. Then I decided to put the tire kit in the space by the battery. It fits nicely in its little zip up bag.

Then the fun really started, time to pack last minute. I'm impressed with how much I added into the bags. One bag I fit 5 pairs of gym shorts, 7 t-shirts, a pair of jeans, 5 pairs of underwear, 6 pairs long socks, 6 pairs short socks, hygiene products (bar of soap, mini shampoo, deodorant, mini body spray, tooth brush, mini tooth paste) a pair of cargo shorts and a pair of shoes. The other bag I fit a heavy hoody sweatshirt, pair of jeans, a hat, spare gloves, a hat, frogg toggs rain suite, chargers (2 phone, 2 Sena 20S chargers), my RAM phone mount, 5 rags/cloths, chain lube and a can of spray cleaner.

I'm getting up in about 7 hours to do the first stretch to Junction, TX.

[vcyclenut]

congrats sir have a great time, im super jelly!!

[Champ87]

I unloaded the bike with help from my 5 year son........he and I washed the bike really quick.

Helping Dad with the H2 SX SE. That boy must feel like he's got the coolest Dad ever. Enjoy your trip. Ride safe, have fun.

[KevinRLi]

Yeah. Lots of lucky kids out there

[cOoTeR]

I got a slightly later start than I had planned and left the house at 6:30am. It was a bit chilly at 47°F but I knew it was going to warm up within an hour or so, so I decided to just wear a t-shirt and shorts under my leathers. As soon as I turned out of my neighborhood the temp dropped to 45° then it dropped to 42° for about 20 minutes. I was considering pulling over and putting warmer clothes on but decided to tough it out.

Going over the first mountain range it warmed up nicely but as I dropped back down near Wilcox, AZ the temperature dropped back down to the mid 40s for awhile. After about 45min it started to warm back up but the wind got really bad. There was a constant headwind that really hurt my gas mileage and I ended stopping in Lordsburg, NM for had and a quick bite to eat at arbys. I was hoping to make it to Deming before needing to stop but the wind messed that up. I rode to Las Cruces, NM where i topped off because I wasn't going to make it to El Paso where I originally planned to stop. Then I rode to the east side of el Paso where I filled up and drank some water. I could have gone further but I knew there weren't any decent gas stations for a long way after el Paso so I decided it was best to fill up. The temperature was about 77°-80° the rest of the ride. I then stopped in Van Horn, Fort Stockton and Ozona for fuel without incident. From Ozona there was about 90 miles to go until my hotel in Junction TX. I averaged about 90-95 mph between Ozona and Junction. Really wish the cruise control could be set higher than 85mph.

I kind of wanted to take more pictures but I was meeting a friend that only had a 6 hour ride and he was ahead of me. But overall the bike did better than expected as far as comfort goes. I wasn't tempted to take longer than necessary breaks at the gas stations just fuel up use the restroom get some water and hit the road. It was 10hrs worth of riding and it took me 11hrs including stops and lunch. It wasn't until about 600 miles that I started wanting to get off the bike, but that's about the same for me even if I'm driving a car. After getting to the hotel and getting settled in i was ready to go ride some more but we just rode to get some BBQ at Lums BBQ. Pretty good place. I'd recommend eating there if your ever in Junction TX.

So far my average speed on the bike is 82 mph and I've spent about 24hrs total on it according to the hours on the dash. Lol.

Got about 300-400 miles planned today. Weather looks like it's going to cooperate so it should be a fun day for hitting some twisty roads.

[cOoTeR]

Hill Country has been pretty fun. I'm definetly getting a radiator guard before coming back to ride here again. These roads have a lot of gravel. Other riders aren't as courteous here as they are in other areas. We only had 2 people that got over to give us room to pass them the others we had to make the pass work. But other than the gravel and slow riders it's been pretty fun.

People are definetly drawn to the H2 SX SE. Just about every had station people come over and ask about it.

[Vmatti]

Trying to watch on TV but quite misty weather