My advice to anyone there in central NM who is a bit tired of looping
through Taos and returning through Las Vegas, NM would be to head NW
on US 550. It's good in NM and absolutely sublime in Colorado
between Durango and Montrose.
It had been years since I took the road myself, and I had forgotten
how wonderful it was, until I rode "sweep" at the International
Norton Owners Association Rally last weekend. It is all fine, and
from Silverton up to Ridgway there is nothing like it anywhere.
(The newest Norton on the ride was 35 years old, but I did not have
to load any broken-down Norton onto the truck; one lightly dressed
woman got welts from hail and mild hypothermia, so she rode the last
fifty miles in the truck while her husband rode solo.)
Which means that you don't have to have a Ducati to enjoy that
particular ride, though it might help.
Frank Snively