Mt. Lemmon and the DrySpec D38 Rigid bag

The last few weekends Kiri and I, and the folks, have taken small day trips up the mountain to escape the heat.  It's been hitting ~105-108 degrees daily so being able to head up to 8000' where it's in the mid eighties is a real treat.  My dad bought my mom her own helmet and this is their first extended ride together on the Explorer.  On the old Honda her back would hurt when riding the pillion seat, but on the new bike she didn't seem to be in any pain. 

My dad has been busy adding on the accessories.  The crash bars and skid plate are new.  The old skid plate was simple plastic.  The new one looks like it can deflect bullets.  Not that he's planning on taking it off road any time soon:)

He's also added hand guards.  I'll be jealous of these when winter hits.  Not having cold wind on my hands, heading down the road, would be mighty nice.  Since these pictures were taken he's also added on heated grips, more headlights, and all of the luggage boxes.  I'll try to get a picture of the whole enchilada next time I see it.  For those of you wanting to know if he's run into any problems with the Explorer he's told me that sometimes the bike has a hard time shifting into first.  The solution is to let out the clutch just a bit and it will slip into it.  He's also experienced the bike stalling on him when going down the road.  It's only happen twice so far.  We're not sure if it's related to excessive heat, or maybe an electrical problem with all the work he's had done.  I'll report back if the problem persists.  He just had his first oil change at the 500 mile mark.  I'm guessing the bike is sitting round ~600 miles right now.

I've posted this picture before.  Tucson is out on the horizon and you can see the road winding up to where we are now at Windy Point.

Cheese!  Someone always has to have their eyes closed!

This visit we ate at the Iron Door restaurant.  It's my personal favorite as you can stare out at the aspen trees and the ski lift heading up the other side of the valley.  Cherish the temperature while you're up here.  Heading back down into Tucson the temperature rises 25 degrees in the span of 30 miles.  Ugh.  Luckily for Kiri and I her parents have a house at the base of the mountain and we stop to take a dip in their pool.  It's a life saver:)

 Then last Saturday we road up again to have breakfast with my sister and their family.  This is outside another restaurant called the Sawmill Run that just opened in the town of Summerhaven.  Quite a variation of bikes out front when we pulled up.  After heading in a large group of Ducati riders arrived.  There was even a 1199 Panigale in the group, not in this photo though:(

 An inside shot of the restaurant.  They had a couple of large groups show up right after us.  Always a good day when you get your order in before the table of 18 sits down:)

We sat outside on the patio.  My parents sharing a table with my sister's family.

Tuyen was able to ride up this weekend as well.  We sat at the bar,  it provided a good view of the bikes coming and going.

That's it for the Mt. Lemmon pictures.  Before I go I wanted to post some photos of a new toy I received this evening.  My dad, uncle, and I are planning a small 3 day trip the weekend after July 4th.  We're heading up through Prescott and then over to Alpine.  Since we're heading into the raining season I wanted to pickup a small travel bag that was water proof and smaller then my current Speedpack bag.  After looking around on the Twisted Throttle site I decided to try out the DrySpec D38 Rigid bag.

Some of the things I liked about it.  It's completely water proof, has easy access from the top, and maintains it's shape even when empty.  It also has plenty of places to strap additional gear on top.  And yes I probably could have gone with saddle bags, but I have a strong dislike of saddle bags on the bonnie.  Just a personal feel of how I want the bike not to look like.

You can see the size difference between the new bag and the larger Speedpack bag.  I'm still a big fan of the Speedpack bag, but it's more of a week, or longer, travel bag.  I'm looking for something on short weekend trips.

Here's what she looks like on the bike.

 I'll be posting pictures from the trip so I'll make sure to include how it looks strapped down and all that.  Until next time!