Not a great shot…but there was plenty of wildlife
I arrived in John Day at 9pm a tired and spaced rider and was welcomed by all the BMWsporttourers! Within moments I had a glass of vine in had and some wonderful conversation. No one cared that I was dirty, sweaty or silly, as everyone was in a similar condition. A fitting end to a perfect day.
Hands down the BEST RIDING DAY of the trip!
Day’s Miles 347
Day 8—July 8
I decided to spend an extra day touring the area around John Day, as there were truly some amazing roads and sights.
The John Day Chamber of Commerce puts out a map of the “best motorcycle riding in the NW” and it is an amazing little map. On it there are many roads mapped out even showing you how many corners on each one. It presents red roads as paved and blue roads as gravel, so one my make a choice of the sort of ride they are interested in experiencing. Map in hand, I was ready to go and join some of the beemer group.
Sadly, joining in was not in the day’s play of cards. My bike was not running the best. It was sounding bad, having a difficult time starting, and staying running. There is little difference in the elevation between John Day and Reno, so I doubted that was the issue, but the gas is quite different. There is no ethanol in the gas in OR, so maybe that was part of the problem. I filled with the highest octane I could find and went to Polaris to see if they could suggest a carb cleaner.
I spend the morning hanging with the service dept at the local Polaris dealer. They were wonderful, made some suggestions, checked the bike, adjusted the idle and added the cleaner, then suggested I take a short ride where someone would find me if I had issues.
110 miles later it seemed to be running much better! Thank you Polaris!!
The loop around John Day was one of the Chamber’s moto-routes, from JD to Fossil Beds, Kimberly, Long Creek, Mt. Vernon and back to JD. Fun roads and beautiful country, sans the high temperatures, a good ride was had.
