US MotoGP Day 4

Highway 12 in Utah – Voted best sportbike road in America

At least it has that vote by me, and now Adam. What a road. We pulled out of Torrey Utah about 9:00 am local and it was still pretty chilly. I was thinking about putting on my heated vest, since at daybreak the temperature was in the low 50’s. But being in the high desert southwest, I knew it wouldn’t be long until it warmed up nicely. By the time we departed temps were in the 60’s so we just went with a jacket liner under our Joe Rocket mesh vests. Good choice.

The ride starts out on a long, sweeping climb to 10,000 feet in a national forest. Very few cars that time of day. There were several bovines and deer in the area, so we kept speeds down a notch. Just fast, easy 80 mph sweepers through tall pines, aspen, and cedars. Wildflowers were blooming all around, making it seem like we were riding through a Charles Russell painting. Old corrals, horses grazing in the pasture, and hawks circling overhead completed the picture. Made me think I was an old-time cowboy, riding my trusty steed through the old west wilderness, in awe of the scenery as it unfolded before me. The CBR’s throaty exhaust whine was muffled by the rock and roll tunes blasting from my iPod. I knew Adam was having a good time because of the fist pumping he would do every few miles.

After the fast, scenic sweepers the road drops down off the mountain in a series of tight switchbacks, taxing the brakes of the CBR once again. Slow for the town of Boulder, then wick up the throttle again as the road climbs up onto a sharp spiny ridge in a series of 30 mph turns. The scenery changes drastically, from awesome old-growth forests to bare slickrock canyons etched by eons of wind and rain. Both sides of the highway drop sharply into the broken canyons below, warning you that if you make a mistake it is going to really, really hurt, all the way to the bottom.

That was just the first 40 miles. THEN comes the really good part. The last 20 miles before Escalante is just a sportbike heaven. The road drops from the top of the ridge down into the rugged canyon below, arcing down the canyon in tight, dangerous, yet exhilarating turns. One turn in particular got both Adam’s and my attention. It is a tight decreasing radius turn at the end of a short, steep downhill. The outside of the curve was lined with concrete barriers and warning sings, probably as a result of all the vehicles that had gone over the side. There were certainly plenty of tire marks and deep gouges in the concrete of the barricades, indicating that plenty of people had still not heeded the warnings. While we passed this turn at different times – Adam well ahead of me – both of us had the same eye-opening, butt tightening, white knuckle experience. The steepness of the downhill fools you and you carry a LOT more inertia down the hill than you think. All of a sudden you are thinking “uh oh” and you grab the brakes with two fingers instead of one. The barricade is coming up very, very quickly, but man oh man, those CBR brakes are just stunning. They scrub off the inertia and speed in just a couple of seconds, turning a white knuckle experience into a good bench racing story.

After dropping into the bottom of the canyon you arc your way through a series of tight 20 mph blind S turns, sheer solid cliff walls inches from your handlebars. There aren’t any straights to speed of, just slam on the brakes, arc through the corner, accelerate hard out for about 2 seconds, and then slam on the binders again while flicking the bike over the other way for the next corner. Do this about 10 times straight, then you cross a bridge onto a nice increasing radius climb up out of the canyon. You can start accelerating hard with the bike healed over, spinning the rear tire if you are Adam – not me. This is a steep, steep climb and the 200 yard straight gets you just enough time to wrap the bike out in first, then second, then third gear. The CBR just leaps forward up this hill when shifted at 11,000 RPM, the front end an inch from the pavement. It is easy for even me to hit about 120 mph on this short straight. Nothing to get in the way, a sheer rock face on one side and a canyon dropoff on the other. Brake for the sweeping right hander as you climb and life is good, good, good.

After our fun in the canyon, we stopped and were both grinning like drunken sailors. I looked at Adam, he looked at me, and we both said at the same time “Wanna do it again?” Heck yea! So we go back the other way to the spiny ridge, stop and talk to some other riders from Wisconsin, then do the same thing again on the way back. We spent most of the morning on Highway 12. It was just about worth the ride just by itself.

Escalante to Panguitch

We stopped in Escalante for fuel and lunch. Our buddies from Wisconsin were there so we had lunch with them. They were also heading to the races, one on a BMW K1200LT, another on a BMW R1200GS, and the third on a Honda Interceptor. The K1200LT guy had a wooden leg but seemed to handle the bike without a problem. As Adam and I were readying to leave, two couple from North Dakota stopped in for lunch on big Harley’s touring bikes. Once again we talked to them, but they had not heard of the races, just out for a couple of week tour of the southwest.

Rolling out of Escalante we were met with hot temperatures and fast roads. Our Sahara vests worked well. We soak them in water and the gel inside holds the water for several hours. Placed under your jacket, the evaporation cools your body, making it seem like you are riding with air conditioning, even though the temperatures were approaching 100 degrees. Modern high tech clothing is really amazing.

The ride to Panguitch is very scenic. We backed it down a notch for the most part, enjoying the scenery and the winding road. Bryce Canyon was quite unique, along with Red Canyon and all the other national parks and monuments in the area. After fueling in Panguitch we rode over a mountain pass with lots of snow around. Adam did his Titanic scene at 10,500 feet, enjoying the cool weather and great view.

Tonight we are staying in Cedar City, preparing for the hot ride across the Mojave desert tomorrow. We plan to leave about 5:00 am to beat the heat. We just hope we can find fuel on our route, which leads us to Yosemite National Park tomorrow afternoon.

Tires
Tire wear is a big issue. Be laid down a lot of rubber over the last two days, ripping through canyons and flying down long hot straights at triple digit speeds. My plan was to put on new rubber in San Francisco, but I am now hoping we can make it that far. We just clicked over 1,700 miles on our trip and our rear tires are showing some serious wear. Adam’s tire is all bubbled up on the sides (looks cool) while both are getting close to the wear markers in the middle. Modern sportbike rubber is amazingly sticky, which is a very good thing when faced with those whiteknuckle moments (see above) but the price you pay is tires that wear out in about 2,500 miles of hard use. That used to bug me, but nowadays I want the stickiest rubber I can find so I can save myself from my occasional adrenaline rushes and lack of caution. Luckily those are becoming less frequent!