850 Commando in Arizona questions

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eskasteve

eskasteve

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I'm moving to Gold Canyon, Arizona the first week or so of June. Are there any Norton folks in the area? Once I get settled in it would be great to meet up with like minded riders. Any advice for protecting my 73 850 from the heat of Arizona. My bike was purchased new in Washington State and other than a couple of trips to northern California it has spent it's entire life in this cool damp climate.
Steve
 
eskasteve said:
Any advice for protecting my 73 850 from the heat of Arizona. My bike was purchased new in Washington State and other than a couple of trips to northern California it has spent it's entire life in this cool damp climate.
Steve
Click to expand...
Get your bike an oil cooler with a thermostat. Change oil often when the ambient temps get up there.
Cheers,
Thomas
 
Gold Canyon is basically east Phoenix........... get yourself an alarm.
 
CanukNortonNut said:
eskasteve said:
Any advice for protecting my 73 850 from the heat of Arizona. My bike was purchased new in Washington State and other than a couple of trips to northern California it has spent it's entire life in this cool damp climate.
Steve
Click to expand...
Get your bike an oil cooler with a thermostat. Change oil often when the ambient temps get up there.
Cheers,
Thomas
Click to expand...

+1
 
At the extreme risk of starting yet another thread war I am planning to install a t-stat controlled oil cooler. Also, I've been running Mobil-1 full synthetic 20W-50W for many years and I will increase my change intervals. I now change it after the first good ride in the spring and again just before I put it to bed in the late fall. It goes no more then 1,800 miles between changes. Those intervals are averages with excessive use dictating more frequent changes. I'll probably go to 1,000 mile intervals once I've relocated. Thanks for the advice.
 
I used to live in Glendale AZ. Before moving twice, never want to do that again.
Mike at AMR in Tucson has a ride every Fathers Day Weekend up to Hannigans Meadow. US 191 in eastern AZ is a great road for riding a Norton.
If you ride out to Tortilla Flats up by Canyon Lake not far from Gold Canyon watch out for stupid riders on sports bikes and snow birds in the winter they are all crazy.
If you are settled in by Fathers Day you can go to Mikes ride or you can join us in Dolores Colorado for a fun weekend.

John Ebert #237
 
N0rt0nelectr@ said:
I used to live in Glendale AZ. Before moving twice, never want to do that again.
Mike at AMR in Tucson has a ride every Fathers Day Weekend up to Hannigans Meadow. US 191 in eastern AZ is a great road for riding a Norton.
If you ride out to Tortilla Flats up by Canyon Lake not far from Gold Canyon watch out for stupid riders on sports bikes and snow birds in the winter they are all crazy.
If you are settled in by Fathers Day you can go to Mikes ride or you can join us in Dolores Colorado for a fun weekend.

John Ebert #237
Click to expand...
I will have already moved by Fathers Day but need to head out that weekend back to Washington State for a three week vacation. This whole move thing has almost killed both my wife and I. When is the trip out to Dolores? My bike has quite a bit of stuff on it from that corner of the world.
I've done the ride out to Tortilla Flats and know exactly what you mean about the sport bikes. A Suzuki 1000 clipped a friend of mines right hand as it was using the shoulder as a passing lane. Broke a couple of his fingers and of course we never saw that GSXR again.
 
eskasteve said:
N0rt0nelectr@ said:
I used to live in Glendale AZ. Before moving tapache wice, never want to do that again.
Mike at AMR in Tucson has a ride every Fathers Day Weekend up to Hannigans Meadow. US 191 in eastern AZ is a great road for riding a Norton.
If you ride out to Tortilla Flats up by Canyon Lake not far from Gold Canyon watch out for stupid riders on sports bikes and snow birds in the winter they are all crazy.
If you are settled in by Fathers Day you can go to Mikes ride or you can join us in Dolores Colorado for a fun weekend.

John Ebert #237
Click to expand...
I will have already moved by Fathers Day but need to head out that weekend back to Washington State for a three week vacation. This whole move thing has almost killed both my wife and I. When is the trip out to Dolores? My bike has quite a bit of stuff on it from that corner of the world.
I've done the ride out to Tortilla Flats and know exactly what you mean about the sport bikes. A Suzuki 1000 clipped a friend of mines right hand as it was using the shoulder as a passing lane. Broke a couple of his fingers and of course we never saw that GSXR again.
Click to expand...

Dolores is on Fathers Day weekend too. It is a yearly event put on by the Western Slope Norton Riders. You would be amazed by the number of British bike owners in the Dolores / Durango area. There is a Triumph Museum out in the East Mesa / Apache Junction area but as I remember it is owned by a snow bird and only open in the winter. I have a friend who used to have a Norton years ago that lives in east Mesa and rides a Busa now and is smart enough to ride like a sane person. He also does wonderful wood work.
John Ebert #237
 
I should be all settled in and ready to ride sometime in August. We hope to have everything in the house taken care of which will free me up to get the Norton ride ready. It's gonna be weird de-winterizing it in 100 degree+ weather. In Washington I usually do this chore when there are three 45 degree non rainy days in the forecast. See you on the road.
 
You will find that the best time to ride is between 6 and 8 am. The rest of the time you will be hunkered down inside with blinds drawn and ac on full blast.
 
lazyeye6 said:
You will find that the best time to ride is between 6 and 8 am. The rest of the time you will be hunkered down inside with blinds drawn and ac on full blast.
Click to expand...

Light weight, you can't ride into a blast furnace? I rode the day it hit 122, am I tough or just crazy?

John Ebert #237
 
Riding in Phoenix in August is tough........ unless you wait until after 10 pm. for it to cool off a bit.
The snowbirds have the right idea.
 
One of the reasons that we are moving to AZ is so that we, not the weather, will dictate when we ride. When the heat gets nasty we will head to the high country in our travel trailer. We will be kind of the opposites of snowbirds. We expect that our Norton will probably be an anomaly among all of the Harleys and Gold Wings, but so what. We've never really been that status quo. My wife and I have already taken a vow that once in AZ we ARE NOT buying a Buick or Crown Victoria just to fit in. We will see what Arizona life is all about. We are about three weeks away from the move. As I was packing I found a whole box of Norton parts that I forgot I had. All is good.
 
Good luck on your move, hope all goes well.
as far as your plan..... been there - done that.
Tried living in Phoenix, but the amount of people and the being trapped inside air conditioned buildings all of the time
pushed me out of the valley to Northern Arizona (Flagstaff - Sedona) . The growth around there eventually drove me across the rez to Colorado.

FWIW: there are plenty of old bikes in Arizona. a Norton is no more of a anomaly there than it is anywhere else.
Also..... a bike with a radiator is a good thing to have when stuck in traffic
 
Does anyone on this forum live in the east valley? Once I'm settled in It'd be great to hook up with some locals. I've done quite a bit of riding in the area but there's nothing like local knowledge.
Steve
 
I left California last year and reside in Sedona, AZ. I haven't seen any other Nortons on the road but there is someone in Prescott who has advertised his Norton for sale last year on Craig's List. I hope I'm not the only Norton owner in Coconino County. I would be glad to hook up with you!
 
Let's plan on meeting up once I'm settled and the weather has cooled a bit. I'll PM you with a bit more info.
Steve
 
Kim Z. said:
I left California last year and reside in Sedona, AZ. I haven't seen any other Nortons on the road but there is someone in Prescott who has advertised his Norton for sale last year on Craig's List. I hope I'm not the only Norton owner in Coconino County. I would be glad to hook up with you!
Click to expand...

Ron Fraterelli who used to run Ron's Norton's lives off of 89a on the Prescott side on Mingus Mountain. Stop and have a beer for me at Tom and Jerrys in Jerome.
Check him out at Ron@nortoncommando.com

John Ebert #237
 
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