Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Scenes from a motorcycle trip.

Dang Rick, why don't ya just go outside and kick around a hornets' nest instead...?

...or find a Cop and drive up and down flipping him the bird and revving them staight pipes just as loud as you can ?

...or better yet, go out into the woods and find a grizzly to fight

Women is all about kind words, and feelings, act accordingly.

Doesn't mean you have to get rid of the bike, or lie, far from it. A little Ghandi might go along way here; don't hit back, not even verbally. Be not forgetting how much she has done for you, you know, bearing yer children and all of that. JMHO.

Anyhoo....

It has been awhile since I rode motorcycles much, and it still has been awhile in some ways, even after this ride. Most of this ride was on the superslab, not much in the twisties.

I used to be a fair hand, and tormenting Ninjas on that KLR back then was a joy Fact is, a thumper on back roads has much to recommend it; they are lightweight, got a broad powerband, and will lean over as far as you care to take 'em.

My old Ninja I used to ride was better than me everywhere, if I messed up going into a corner on the wrong line or too slow, a quick downshift back into the powerband and I could horsepower my way out of anything.

Not so a thumper, you gotta hit all your shifts just right, pick your lines just right, and hit the brakes at just the right time. Do all of that Grasshopper, and you can torment anybody on a tight backroad. Plus you get to wring out every last foot-pound of torque the engine has, pegging the throttle regular. Never mind the tach, you don't need one, that thumper will sing to you where it is constantly. Loads of fun

Now there is a new class of bike out there, not seen ten or fifteen years ago when last I was out there... this, the "Moto" class bike. Like this one at the Tail of the Dragon store at Deal's gap....



...or this one outside of a dealership in New York State...



Everyone I spoke to who was on one of these things was a lifelong motorcycle loonie, typically thirties or older, who had switched over from sport bikes on account of their "moto" was so much more fun. They ain't cheap either, everything extraneous removed or lightened, lots of high dollar performance modifications put into 'em.

They ain't about looks, they ain't about comfort, and they aint about image, they are about a sort of motorcycling in its purest form. You see a bike like this on a backroad? Unless you are very good, move over so he can pass...

My own cornering was out of rythm. I mean I did OK, respectable, but I weren't carving like back in the old days either. Part of it was the sage principle about never riding faster than you can see, a lot of it was a whole lot of those turns changed radius constantly (maybe a result of the local geology I dunno), but most of it was me.

OK, when you are leaned into a turn where the the radius increases, you just roll on the throttle and feel like an expert. A decreasing radius turn however will get yer attention, a downhill decreasing radius turn will really grab your attention ( ) and leave you clumsily rolling off of the throttle while reaching for the brakes and trying to keep from drifting off of the pavement (while leaned over to the left) or drifting across that double yellow line (while leaned over to the right).

The thing is, most of your braking power lies in that little patch of tire contact up front. In a tight turn, when you are far leaned over, a whole lot of friction forces are acting on that few square inches of rubber (this is why tires purpose-built for that sort of thing are wide, of a soft compound, and have little if any tread). Hit the front brake in the middle of all that and you can overload that little contact patch and lose traction. Pretty much you can slide the back tire all over and not go down, but lose traction up front, and most of us will go down in a heartbeat.

Along the 55 winding miles of the Skyway I was hitting downhill decreasing-radius turns reg'lar, enough to get my attention. My brother's lowered cruiser weren't about cornering anyhow, and he didn't have high expections based upon remembered performance like I did, so he prob'ly had a better time than me.

Actualy, for all my cornering histrionics along the Skyway, he kept up pretty well.

For reference, here's that map again....



We had turned left off of the Skyway to get to the Joyce Kilmer woods, which as it turned out was just below the dam of that lake that lies just above the word "Robbinsville". You can't see the lake from the Skyway, the country is too steep and mountainous. Coming back to the Skyway we climbed up the road that ran back up the other side of the lake (where I dropped my bike) to Highway 129 and so inadvertently missed Robbinsville, so I cannot comment on it.

It seemed to us that there was a bunch of lakes impounded behind dams up there. Highway 129 northbound on that stretch was steep and winding, right after crossing below yet another dam and a small lake we leaned into a hard, climbing right hand curve, that was where we came upon the signs for the Tail of the Dragon Store, just ahead.

So quite suddenly, in the middle of all those hills and corners, we had arrived; the intersection of Highway 129 and 28, Deal's Gap, a place of motorcycles....



Birdwatcher