Jon, aka CCJon of ridingthehorizon fame and published author of several motorcycling and travel books paid Martha and I a visit.
I've known Jon for over 5 years at least, he successfully rode his Ural to Alaska from Key West but did have engine troubles enroute back to Texas shortly after my own ride to Alaska back in 2013.
Yesterday evening, Jon and Nestor, his nephew from Colombia arrived at our home in Centennial, on their way to Alaska! Nestor, had already ridden the South American portions of the Pan-American Highway and had just transited the Central American and Mexico portions as well before meeting up with Jon in Houston.
CCjon astride "The Beast"
Nestor, the Colombian nephew, had named Jon's newest rig "La Bestia" or "The Beast" upon seeing it apparently. Jon liked the name and so it was named.
It's quite the rig, the sidecar portion is basically a pop-up camper bolted onto a subframe attached to the V-Strom DL1000 Tug. Jon has made some mods to the tug to account for the added strain of sidecar duty; such as a530 drive chain, different gearing sprockets to deal with the loads.
After a quick dinner, we all headed out to catch the sunset as Jon wanted to get a pic of the rigs at my usual sunset picture taking spot:
As you can see, the sun and clouds didn't cooperate in terms of a nice sunset....
We then returned home, me driving "The Beast" and Jon riding Fiona. I must say, it was a solid feeling ride, good acceleration and smooth for the most part. Its much wider than my rigs of course so I kept a close eye on the curbs on the way home.
Both Jon and Nestor spent the night to get some rest for the next portion of the riding the next day.
Jon and Nestor ready their motorcycles prior to us
riding to a nearby diner for breakfast.
After breakfast, courtesy of Jon, a brief picture session:
We then went to a gas station to fill up Nestor's gas tank. Jon's rig didn't need fuel yet so it gave me a chance to take some pics of it.
Finally, all was in readiness, we rode together to the entry point for northbound E-470 toll road and I waved goodbye to them. Safe Travels you guys!
Their mission is to ride to Alaska (all the way to Deadhorse, of course) and back to Houston by September 15. That's a lot of riding.
10 comments:
Now that's a side car ... carry capacity and accomodations. Who could ask for more. Safe travels to them.
More like a sidecamper! Biggest rig I've seen so far, even bigger than the sidecars on the Honda Goldwings....
Did you pass my contact numbers to him Bob P
Did you pass my contact numbers on to him?? That is a big rig.
Cool! It looks like the camper-rig has a few changes. The fuel cell is now on the back of the tug instead of the sidecar. I hope I'm in town when they get up here...
Bob P...I've messaged him that your contact info is available, awaiting a response.
RichardM, he's got your contact info from me, I believe you're in the itinerary.
Hi there! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you
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Anonymous, the captcha thing is turned off for now, proved troublesome for some commenters.
it's under settings, comments....word verification
What a cool rig, and so neat to see a V-Strom sidecar setup! I just posted pics on my blog from the V-strom rally in BV last month. He would have been the talk of the rally!
MotoVentures I can imagine he would indeed have been the center of attention!
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