US MotoGP Day 2

Curvacious Roads

Wow. This is what we came for. All day riding in the most wonderful, winding, twisted roads you could hope for. We have to stop and give thanks to the road designers of 40 years ago who came up with these wonderful designs. Today’s road builders just want to straighten things out. The ones of yesteryear KNEW how to make roads for bikes. Tight 20 mph switchbacks, wide smooth 100 mph sweepers, decreasing radius corners that catch you buy surprise, tight arcing 180 degree bends that open out onto big straights, begging for you to roll on the throttle and power slide out of the turn. They must have been bikers. Yea, that was it. I think they were related, maybe brothers, to the ones in Arkansas.

The difference in the west vs the eastern part of the U.S. of A. is that they have so much darn land out here. They have to connect all these great roads with long stretches of nothing. At least the view is good and the population sparse.

Red River

Next to Telluride CO, Red River is one of my favorite towns. Adam and I discovered it on a dual sport ride 4 years ago. We met up with a bunch of other riders at a bit BMW rally and had a great week of riding. We met a bunch of friends here so it I always fond in our memory. A great place to hang out on main street, wake up early, have some coffee while watching the joggers run by, and best of all, get on your bike in the morning and be in the twisties or the dirt trails about 30 seconds after leaving town.

After a leisurely morning drinking coffee and working on my blog update, we jumped on the bikes about 9:00 am local and hit the asphalt. The weather was brisk and a bit cool, but that just made the ride out of the mountains perfect as we carved corners to Questa. We both were jumping up and down in our seats, pumping our fists as we arced through one corner after another. Funny though, the corners I used to think were a bit tight are don’t seem nearly as tight on the CBR. It handles so well, has smooth electric style power out of the corners, and the light touch one finger brakes just seems to eat up the corners. Man, today’s modern sportbikes are just a huge leap forward from what I remember from years past.

Highway 62

After crossing the Rio Grande Gorge west of Taos we followed US 62 over some mountain pass I can’t remember the name of. Again,m roads that I thought were pretty tight from past rides are just easy sweepers on the CBR. Adam led most of the day today. He liked a bit faster pace through the corners than me, so he would pull away and then wait a bit on me in the straights. Later in the day as I got more comfortable with the bike I was keeping up a bit better, but my last high speed getoff was still fresh in my mind. As usual, we stopped at some scenic lookouts and talked to other bikers. This is one of my favorite pastimes. Most people think I am quiet, but that is probably because they are not bikers or pilots . I like talking to other riders, finding out where they are from, talking about where they are going, how they like their bikes, and all that cool biker stuff. It doesn’t matter if they are on choppers, dirt bikes, crotch rockets, or Goldwings, they are all part of the two wheeled community. They “get it”.

Colorado

We took a new route into Colorado this time. It went from Chama NM up to Alamosa CO. Note to self – don’t take this route again. While the first part of the ride was pretty good, it did not make up for the flat, boring, hot 50 miles into and out of Alamoso. Stay away from Alamosa.

Heading west we went to Creed CO, another favorite mountain town where you can park your bikes on the only main street in town, sit on a bench in front of a downtown store and chat with people as they stroll by. We met a couple from Boston that had flown in to Denver and rented a Harley for a week. You could immediately tell he was from Boston with that Booaston accent. They were on the tail end of a weeks vacation. We talked about old bikes we had, riding dirt bikes with your buddies, wiping out and picking the bike back up while all your buddies took pictures. Creed – great old mining town, be sure to visit, lots of twisty roads around. Be sure to purchase overpriced fuel there, since there are not many fuel choices on the road.

Next stop was Lake City, a 50 mile or so ride from Creek. This goes over Slugmillion pass, which is just awesome. Winding roads up, and really tight winding roads down into Lake City. Adam was dragging his knees on these curves, the best ones yet. He did a great job leading, riding fast but cautious. You have to really watch these passes because often there is gravel or sand in the corners, left over from the snow season. The key is to go in easy and out hard. This way if you see something unexpected you can still get on the binders or cut around it. As you exit the corner and can see out then you can get on the gas. I had been riding the CBR like my ZZR, pulling out of corners at 5000 RPM, but on this leg I figured out that was not the secret. The powerband on the CBR is much more like a 600 than a 1000. It has more power than a 600 all throughout the powerband, but to really make it sing you need to hit the corner apex at about 8000 RPM and exit at 11000 rpm. You do that and the bike just leaps out of the corners. Even at 10,000 ft altitude you could wheelspin on the corner exits if you wish. The bike just handled much, much better. The CBR is so smooth all the way through the powerband, unlike any other bike I have ridden. Even the ZZR, which I thought was pretty smooth, had a buzz at 5k rpm.

Decending into Lake City really puts the brakes to the test. You are diving downhill into really tight, 20 mph corners, carrying a lot of inertia into the corner. The brakes have to scrub off that inertia and on most bikes will start to fade after 10 corners or so. Not the CBR. The brakes work great, one finger power all the way down the pass. I am just constantly amazed by the brakes – without a doubt the most awe-inspiring feature of modern sportbikes.

No air = bad night

We made it to Montrose right before dark, and because of the holidays not a hotel room was to be found. Even the campgrounds were full. We finally found a campground well after dark on the road to Ridgeway. Pitching our tents in the dark was pretty easy since we have camped a bunch. After our shower I was looking forward to a nice soft air mattress but – what was this – it was flat. I swore I aired it up. I blew it up again, went to bed and about 15 minutes later woke up and figured out I was sleeping on the hard ground. I could tell this was going to be a LONG night!