Featured Rideout Cruisin' Through The Weekend With Gordo

My new Fat Boy and I cruised more than 200 miles together this past weekend, enjoying brisk temperatures and sunny skies. Well, sunny on Sunday anyway. On Saturday I rode with girlfriend named Leila who rides a H-D Sportster Low ST. Today I rode with a contingent of our usual Sunday morning ride group. I now have 332 miles on the bike and "officially" have only 168 miles to ride before break-in period is over.



So who is Gordo? In a previous post about my new Fat Boy, @Ducatitotriumph asked me if I've ever named my bikes. I've tried here and there but nothing has ever stuck. But today I've named one of my bikes for the very first time. The Fat Boy will hereby be known as El Gordo or "the fat one" in Spanish. Although that sounds a bit mean-spirited, I did a bit of research and "gordo" in Spanish is the literal translation of "fat". But it can also be used as a term of endearment. So El Gordo--or perhaps Gordy--he is. But NOT to be confused with Geordie.

After gassing up the bikes at QT, firming up our ride plan, and Leila modeling her new gear for me, she and I headed north about 45 miles to the town of Mammoth for a Mexican food lunch at Mi Pueblito.




Two bikes pulled out just as we were pulling in but we were some of the first customers to arrive and were the only motorcycles parked in the Motorcycle Only parking spaces. That's Leila in the photo. It's always nice when you can see your motorcycles right from where you're sitting.


It didn't take long before the parking lot was filled with motorcycles. Four off-road riders appeared shortly after we'd settled in to our patio table spot. Wow....they say that Harleys are loud! Very soon after the off-road riders parked, three more riders appeared--two on Harleys and one on a Gold Wing. I was surprised at how much interest El Gordo sparked!


Today was Leila's first time at Mi Pueblito, one of my favorite "Covid Era" restaurants meaning that there's pleasant outdoor seating available and that the food is really, really good to boot. Leila and I had been trying for months to ride and have lunch together so we had a lot of catching up to do. In fact, of all the motorcyclists that stopped in for lunch, we were first in, last out. By a lot.


Today I opted for one of my favorite combination meals, a tamale (choose green corn or pork with red chili sauce), two eggs any way you like them, and refried beans. I had two of the green corn tamales. Leila had the posole and tortillas. And they always start you off with a bowl of chips and a jug of fresh salsa.


Leila lives way west of Tucson proper, so typically when we ride home from riding together we go our separate ways rather quickly. However, today I needed to go by Tucson Harley-Davidson to order and pay for some parts so I was able to ride with Leila for a large portion of our ride home.

After confirming my order and paying my bill, I ran into Tommy, one of the main salesmen at Tucson Harley-Davidson. He and I talked briefly about my Fat Boy and Fat Boys in general. He told me they'd just acquired an older Fat Boy. Then he took me to the back bike storage area and showed me this--a 2001 Jade Green Fat Boy with about 40K on the clock. Mr. Sandi's Fat Boy was a 2001, too, but black. The only motorcycle color for Mr. Sandi.


And here, @DCS900, for you. A photo of El Gordo's left side in the THD parking lot.

Today's mileage--110.


CONTINUED...

 

Sunday's ride

Since the morning temperatures have been quite chilly (in the high 30's and low to mid-40'sºF), my e-mail to our ride group stated that we'd be meeting up at 11am for a lunch ride rather than meeting at 8am or 9am for a breakfast ride. No voting, just an "executive decision" on my part. In response to the e-mail, one of our good riding buddies, Russell (who is out of town for family business), e-mailed me back with this meme.


Even with (or maybe because of?) the late start we did have a decent turnout with seven of us meeting up at our nearby QuikTrip gas station. One of the guys just chatted for a bit then said he had to ride back home to make it to an afternoon appointment. So our remaining group of six included three Harleys (my Fat Boy and two Street Glides), a Suzuki Ninja 400, a BMW 1250GS, and a Victory Hammer.

The first part of our ride today mirrored Leila's and my ride yesterday and took us to Oracle, Arizona and the Oracle Patio Cafe, another Covid-era restaurant / ride choice. Oracle is on the way to Mammoth but Mammoth is about ten miles farther up the road. When we arrived, we were greeted by the largest group of motorcycles I ever recall seeing here! Here's a photo the largest group but there were a handful of bikes across the street and another half dozen or so in a parking area off to the right of El Gordo. We thought we might have been beat out for a table but we only had to wait about 10 minutes.






By the time we rode to Oracle and were seated at a table at the Patio Cafe it was well into the lunch hour. I went wild and ordered something I'd never had there before--a tuna melt with chips (potato chips) made in-house and herbal iced tea. Delicious.


We've gotten to know some of the waitresses at the Oracle Patio Cafe because we've come here so many times since Covid hit. Today Katie was our server and was efficient and friendly--and even took a photo of our group at my request.


Three in the group opted to ride directly home after lunch and the other three of us rode on to do the Webb Road Dogleg Loop as I call it. Personally I'd have chosen to ride the loop three more time, I was so enjoying the riding today.

Tucked back into the garage after 95 miles on the day today. My odometer now reads 332 miles. Only 168 more miles until "the fat one" is broken in.

 

All hail el gordo! Brilliant writing as per and nice to have a name and a left side too!
Add in a taco bar and the day is perfect!
Thanks for sharing!
Ps, it’s raining here. No tacos either.

 

Thanks, D2T! Yep, you're right. A taco bar to end the day yesterday would have been perfect. Sorry about your crummy weather. I hope you get a nice sunny dry day soon. If you could at least get your hands (and mouth and stomach) on some good tacos you'd have that consolation.

Speaking of tacos, your post reminds me that Mr. Sandi and I are about due for our weekly fix from one of the Mexican restaurants closer to home. Thanks for giving me this evening's dinner plan.

 

In Spain el Gordo is a massive lottery, which puts a smile on someone's face from time to time. It's one of those words which can be used in a negative or positive manner, depending on situation. Let's hope you don't wind up calling it cabron!

Brilliantly used by the Chili Peppers....

 

Lovely couple of days for you @Sandi T. As usual great narative and pictures.

 

I read about that Spanish lottery when I did some research on the Spanish word for "fat", @Smilinjack. It made me think twice about naming my Fat Boy "El Gordo". But living an hour from Mexico I decided I'd think of the term from that more close-to-home vantage point. I had to look up "cabron". Yes, let's hope I don't wind up calling calling Gordo cabron!

Love that Chili Peppers song.

 

Are you quite sure you didn't mean to call it 'El Guapo'?

 

Well, El Gordo is guapo in my eyes, @Octoberon. He's a chico guapo gordo.

 

Thanks, Bikerman! I'm looking forward to our next road trip, too. But at this point we don't have anything planned. Mr. Sandi and I have a couple of extra days off during the last weekend of February for "Rodeo Days". Yep, we close down the schools here in the wild, wild, West when the Fiesta de los Vaqueros is on. It's a Tucson tradition since 1925. Anyway, we're looking into doing a short-ish road trip that weekend but the weather will still preclude a number of places that we like. So we're mulling over our options. We shall see....

 

Sandy, wow, awesome ride report, you put the bar really high.
Gordo is a word that accommodates to the intonation, can be anything from aggressive to kind.
I think it works really well for your bike

 

@Sandi T
Wow you have done it again. Fantastic photos and scenery great bike. And an award winning short novel. Just love you and Mr Steve to bits. You really know how to live.
Joe

 

@Armando Morales
Thanks for that feedback, Armando! It's great to get input from someone from Mexico on my Fat Boy's name choice. Since I live in Tucson an hour from the Mexican border, I was hoping that Gordo would fit.... even though lots of Google links to El Gordo came up for the Spanish lottery. But I live close to Mexico, not Spain.

 

Great write up as ever @Sandi T and it sounds as if you're loving your new bike, it was obviously a great decision!! I have to steel myself to open your threads when our weather's horrible as I always get a big stab of jealousy .

 

Thanks for the positive feedback, @Mrs Visor! Yep, I'm definitely loving my new bike. I certainly don't mean to make you jealous with my posts. Having lived in Minnesota for many years, I can totally understand your feelings. I definitely had to learn to love the feeling of anticipation. Hang in there--it's nearly mid-January already.

 

I am only joking Sandi, even I am not mean enough to begrudge anybody their sunshine!! .

 

You got me wanting to ride my Fat Boy on my western tour this coming May. I will be coming from Penna. and plan on touring Arizona , Utah and Wyoming , three of my all time favorite states. My plan is to use my Tiger and do some off road riding and camp along the way , so using my Fat Boy off road could be harmful to my custom paint and chrome.......

 

Gorgeous Fat Boy, @Twobuells! Very nice custom paint and other mods. I wouldn't take that bike off-road either. What year is your Fat Boy? Your Tiger is looking good, too. Whereabouts in Arizona are you planning to be on your summer road trip?

 

Love your rides new name @Sandi T. El Gordo is perfect and would be the lottery for some of my friends
Even cabron can be badass, or dude, both appropriate for such a great looking machine
Loved the ride write up and commentary, as usual

 

Thanks for the compliments Sandi T , My Fat Boy is a 2012 , have owned it since 2014 , And have done some serious tours on it. I 've owned numerous Harleys and the Fat Boy model is my all time favorite.
I plan on taking a southern route across the USA and entering southern Arizona.
I want to visit my old stomping grounds around Sierra Vista and Tombstone , where i lived for two years. From there i plan on heading north up thru Tucson , Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Then onward to Utah and beyond.