Great Day Trip!

Sunday Feb. 10th, 50 deg at 8:30 am departure, back Scottsdale 5:30.
I don't have any heated gear, and you w'ont need any for any part of this 385 mile day trip.
H87 “Beeline” to Payson, straight ahead, 60-70 mph easy cruising to wake up. Keep on 87N,, and met up with 4 Phoenix BMW riders in Pine,, for the rest of the trip. Snow on the roadsides in the elevations,, no ice, great road conditions, little or no traffic, continue on 87 to 260 west trough Camp Verde, lots of nice sweepers, keeping it under 90mph on this leg,, fantastic scenery,, Flagstaff snowcapped peaks in distance, fabulous,, 260 ending at 89, then to Jerome. Jerome is a little postcard kind of place,, switchbacks up into town,, lots of history, artsy place,,, try the fudge,, 20-40 rides there at mid day, so must be popular destination for riders,, bar on the corner of downtown has great character,, walked around for maybe an hour. Stay on 89 climbing out of Jerome on Twisties, then descending towards Prescott. Great twisties, some sand in centre track,, road a bit chewed up from sand and snowplows,, but still great,, hardly any traffic so nothing to hold you back from having a blast! Sand will be non-issue after winter and rain washes it away. Into Prescott for a mid afternoon coffee,, Staying on 89 and back into twisties,, no sand this leg and road is great, twisties are cleaner>safer>more challenging>fantastic!,,, vehicular traffic picked up only marginally,, but still easy enough to get in front of 4 wheeled stuff. Out of the elevation back into some sweepers and then straighter stretches where we are cruising at 100, and at times around 130-140 mph for what seem like 10 mile stretches,,, the Kawi concours14 is running about 7500rpm in OD at this point,, but I'm not out here to see how fast it goes, but it definately goes,,, just keeping up with the lead bikes,, and after that well pretty monotonous heavily trafficked from Wickenburg to Scottsdale on hwy60, where I get my ride to AZRide by 5:30, total is 385 miles.
There are few places that rent other than Hogs Wings and big Beemers. Azride have a small fleet, but pretty good variety of rides, very proffesional and knowledgeable couple run the joint. 9 out of 10 recomendation.
Kawisaki Concours 1400 is a sweet ride. Ridding position is upright, but it is so stable that I almost feel that I let my guard down tracking curves,, it just wants to carve right in and back out and handles those twisties like nothing,, but feedback is there and it still lets you know you have to push on the bar.. Could have kept riding for hours,,, didn’t squirm my butt around in the seat once, no joint pains, not tired at all. At 650 lbs, the weight distribution makes moving the bike around dead slow, seem like it's a lot lighter of a ride. Power band is impressive, distribution is consistent rpm dependent,, so the only downside to this ride is heat generation,, which I only notice from Wickenburg to Scottsdale, riding at 55-75 mph in 75 degrees,, and yep it's giving it off.
For 160 dollars rental 400 free miles, plus gaz, insurances, etc,, it works out to a pretty cheap couple of hundred dollars to trial a great ride on a route that I think described above as offering, well,,, everything.
There is absolutely nothing here,, close by where I live,, that compares to what you have there for riding,, so I'm not envious,, I'm outright jealous!
This is a great route for anyone from outside of the area too. lots of hotels, great AZ hospitality, so come in to the area, ride the route the next day, overnight and back home.
There is a ton do do other than Golf in Arizona!
Peter
(Ontario, Canada)