{"id":15212,"date":"2021-11-16T08:27:48","date_gmt":"2021-11-16T16:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=15212"},"modified":"2021-11-16T08:27:48","modified_gmt":"2021-11-16T16:27:48","slug":"yamaha-rd350-part-8-im-gonna-ride-my-horse-till-i-cant-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2021\/11\/16\/yamaha-rd350-part-8-im-gonna-ride-my-horse-till-i-cant-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamaha RD350 Part 8: I\u2019m Gonna Ride My Horse Till I Can\u2019t No More"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of my many personality flaws is that I\u2019m overly fond of television talent shows. It\u2019s pretty embarrassing how many of these type of programs I watch by dribs and drabs on YouTube. I\u2019d like to break free from the habit but it seems like there is always another undiscovered talent that needs my attention. One of my favorite talent show singers is a chick named Hadwin.<\/p>\n<p>Hadwin has a very distinctive voice like Amy Winehouse or Janis Joplin had distinctive voices except she\u2019s not like them at all. When she was very young, Hadwin\u2019s strange body movements bordered on uncomfortable-to-watch but now that she is older she seems to have calmed down a little. Her voice ranges from a squeak to a low, hollow echo and it\u2019s not so much the quality of her voice that makes her great, it\u2019s the way she rips apart songs with abandon. I wouldn\u2019t call her voice sweet but you\u2019ll be able to tell it is her singing as soon as she opens her mouth. It doesn\u2019t hurt that she looks a little bit like Emma Peel from the 1960\u2019s British TV show The Avengers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/anwtg4C0PTc\" width=\"600\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Which is an off-kilter intro for my first big ride on the 1974 RD350. The bike still needs some work but I really wanted to put some miles on the thing to see how it would fare on a longish ride. I started with a run up highway 54 into Carrizozo. 54 is a long, straight road that averages about 4500 feet elevation. As it\u2019s located down in the Tularosa Valley, 54 is usually a bit warmer than the mountain roads to the east. Most of the time traffic on 54 is going about 70 mph and on this day the RD350 was keeping up easily, spinning between 55 hundred rpm and 6 thousand. Unfortunately the RD\u2019s speedometer was showing 85 miles per hour and no way was I going that fast unless a RD350 tops out at 130. I calculated my fuel mileage at the first gas stop as 41 miles per gallon. I thought that was pretty good fuel mileage for a thirsty two stroke. Must be that Torque Induction?<\/p>\n<p>On the way up 54 I noticed the RD350 had a narrow blubbery spot around 5000 rpm and as I turned onto Nogul canyon road and climbed in altitude the blubbery spot grew wider. Nogul canyon road takes you by many curves to the base of the Ruidoso\/Alto area. It\u2019s a fun road to let the RD350 wail a little and the road tops out at a little over 7000 feet. I couldn\u2019t wail too much because the RD\u2019s oversized rear tire rubs the fender in hard corners. I have new, correct size tires ordered. By managing my engine speed, a process made easier by the Yamaha\u2019s smooth-shifting 6-speed gearbox, I could get past the rich spot on the fuel delivery and from 5500 up the bike ran fine. You could feel the power loss the higher you went. Gavalin Canyon Road skirts Ruidoso to the east; it\u2019s a twisty road but has a lot of local traffic trying to avoid the zillions of Texans who visit Ruidoso. Many times there are more Texans in Ruidoso than Ruidosoans.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15217\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"374\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-600-300x187.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On my way downhill on 70 to Tularosa I took the old road to The Old Road Caf\u00e9 on the Mescalero Indian Reservation. The Old Road Caf\u00e9 is a multi level place that looks like some sections are real adobe. The back porch area has a decided slant, I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it toppled over one day. The Old Road Caf\u00e9 has the best tacos around. They are oily corn tacos with shredded beef, homemade salsa and I love the things. I loaded up on tacos, rice, beans and iced tea before taking the final plunge into Tularosa and the Tuliefreeze ice cream shop for a little reward.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15221\" src=\"http:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-600-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-600-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-600-2-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>All in, the RD350 tootled through the mountains and the valley for 150 miles. It was a blast listening to the little twin sing that old song and I was surprised by the RD\u2019s ability to keep up with modern, yet rural traffic. If you had to you could run 80 miles per hour as long as you wanted to hold on. From faded memories I thought the RD would be more of an around town bike but after I get it sorted I see no reason the bike wouldn\u2019t do well on long trips. The only limiting factor is the 3-gallon gas tank, which means you need to find a gas station every hundred or so miles. That\u2019s not always easy to do in New Mexico.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Never miss an ExNotes blog!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of my many personality flaws is that I\u2019m overly fond of television talent shows. It\u2019s pretty embarrassing how many of these type of programs I watch by dribs and drabs on YouTube. I\u2019d like to break free from the habit but it seems like there is always another undiscovered talent that needs my attention. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2021\/11\/16\/yamaha-rd350-part-8-im-gonna-ride-my-horse-till-i-cant-no-more\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Yamaha RD350 Part 8: I\u2019m Gonna Ride My Horse Till I Can\u2019t No More&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[66,140],"tags":[2416,2203],"class_list":["post-15212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joe-gresh","category-vintage-motorcycle","tag-hadwin","tag-yamaha-rd-350"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1-900.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15212"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15227,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15212\/revisions\/15227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}