Helvetia Ghost Town Ride

Today I rode the BoXer from Sahuarita,Az to Helvetia,Az. Total mileage was 93miles, used both tanks and just have a drizzle left in one. Sahuarita to Helvetia is not that far but I was all over the place all the way to Madera Canyon and up the Santa Rita Mountains.

Helvetia's post office was established December 12, 1899 and discontinued December 31, 1921. Situated below the Santa Rita Mountains, Helvetia's population was around 300. A 150 ton smelter worked copper from the mines but did not prove successful. In 1911 the mines shut down due to the drop in the price of copper. Today they are mining in the area.

Photos 1 & 2) show the town back in the 1900's

Photo 3) is Helvetia cemetery

Photo 4 & 5) Sadly this is all that remains of the town Helvetia. When I was younger I used to ride my Three-Wheeler and dirt bike out there, there used to be so many more structures.

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Fair, Where is the girl? Lile Swan, Time Rider Man I wish I could have been with you for that ride

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Only Bikers know why dogs love to stick their heads out of car windows,

I sure wish we had those temperatures here it was -9 celsius yesterday and hardened ice on the sides of the road making it dangerous to drive cus you cant pull over.

The BoXer did very well on it's first off-road test. I had a few problems but after you see the videos I made you will wonder how it held up at all.

The mount for the handlebar gas tank broke and I also noticed a bolt that goes right against the tank that just about punched a hole. The pedal chain on the crank kept falling off, and one of the seals on the forks went bad. So far thats all I know that went wrong, I have not noticed anyhting else but I have not taking a good look at it yet.

Some of the ride was nice dirt roads, other parts were rocky, and lots of hills. I had some trouble going up many hills and a few times had to get off and walk the bike. The 48T sprocket was just not enough on some of the hills. Did well if I could keep the momentum up and RPM up but some of it was so ruff it was impossible.

I even did some riding in a sandy wash, a bit tricky but it was fun. Have video of that hopefully I can get it up soon. Heck, I have so many videos I dont know how I will put them together, but you will definitely be impressed with the BoXer.

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A few more pics.................

Oh, one thing ADD A KICK STAND! Every pic took me like 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to balance the bike lol. I am gonna have to make one.

I will get the videos up as soon as I can.

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All in all I had a very good time. My arms and legs are extremely sore, my back hurts. A huge bug flew in my mouth.... and I mean HUGE! I have no ideal what it was but damn was it nasty! When I tried to spit him out he just burst and I got a mouthful of nasty,nasty juice's.

I stopped and talked to a few hikers,campers, hunters, and had a very strange conversation with a Border Patrol officer. I think that officer was smoking something he found out in the desert lol. Maybe he was doing some coyote.

Saw a pack of Javelin and many roadrunners, no the boXer cant keep up with a roadrunner I tried.

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Sounds like you had a great ride Fair. Nice pics also. I envy you, it has been cold and wet here.
Elmo

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Elmo
All times wasted wots not spent ridin

Here is one video so far...............

YouTube - Motorized Bicycle Off-Road

Do you wear a full padded motorcycle suit ? looks real arid there were dry but not that bad we still have pine fir and many shrubs like saskatoon berries

hey nice ride and pics if you looking for a duall stand usa have some in stock if you want to buy one from them