I’m finally on my way out of Albuquerque. The plan was to leave last weekend but I got delayed. I love Albuquerque so it wasn’t a bad thing.
The plan is to go up to Moab, stay a couple days there then head east over the Rockies to Pikes Peak. After that I plan to head back to Albuquerque for a day or two for some minor maintenance on my bike before I head back east for a little while.
BMW wants $225 for this part. RIPOFF
I had my bike hooked up to a computer locally to see if there is anything wrong with my bike. Well, I should have gone and left well enough alone. The computer found two fault codes. The first one was an intermittent short in the coolant temperature dashboard light. The other and possible more expensive problem is an oxygen sensor circuit malfunction. The fault wasn’t present when tested so it could be something as simple as a loose wire or it could mean my oxygen sensor is going bad. The sensor itself costs $225 to replace.
(Update: I found the same sensor made by Bosch on Ebay for $59. I’m breathing easier.)
Luckily if my oxygen sensor bites the dust, I won’t get stranded. My gas mileage will go way down though.
Before I head back east I wanted to make a couple quick stops in Moab and maybe Pikes Peak in Colorado if weather allows. I have a friend locally here that has the same motorcycle as myself so we swapped oxygen sensors on our bikes. I plan to stop by Albuquerque later this week on my way back east so I will test the bike again to see if it is the oxygen sensor or a loose wire. Hopefully it will turn out to be an easy and inexpensive fix.
I decided to finally take a half-day ride up to Madrid and Cerrillos, New Mexico. The two towns are very close together.
Cerrillos is mostly made of gravel or dirt roads with very few shops.
I came across the St. Joseph’s Catholic Adobe Church and renovated home called Berardinelli House that use to be a saloon in its day.
Evidently there is no leash law in the town because on more than one occasion I was outracing some mutts on my bike. This became a little annoying quite frankly.
The Casa Grande Trading Post was a Mom and Pop shop and mining museum. They also had about every bottle imaginable in the store. Outside they had a quant little petting zoo for little kids and BMW motorcycle riders. Most of the animals were common. Some weren’t.
North of Madrid, NM, I stopped in a semi-famous or maybe infamous tourist spot called “The Bone Zone” It’s just someone’s front yard where a sculptor created all kinds of eerie art from different types of bones, glass and other items. It was worth a stop.
Madrid, NM is another one of the many “artsy” towns I have been through. Honestly I prefer the landscape around Madrid more than the town itself. Maybe I have gone through too many artsy places. The all seem to run together.
A couple years back the biker movie “Wild Hogs” with Tim Allen, John Travolta, Martin Lawrence and William H. Macy was shot there. A cafe that built and used in the movie is still there. (Sorry…I didn’t get a picture.)
From Touchstone Pictures
The whole day was beautiful. The wide open spaces of New Mexico are just a delight to ride through. The weather was cool and the day was quite settling. The day help me realize how this would be such a great place to settle permanently again.
