US MotoGP Day 6

Who replaced our engines?

Last night, while Adam and I slept in Sonoro, CA, someone swiped our motorcycles, put in brand new supercharged highly tuned engines, and parked the bikes back exactly as we left them. I swear.

But I get ahead of myself. After a good nights sleep in Sonora we decided to have a leisurely morning and wait until the local motorcycle shops open at 9:00 am see if we could find some tires. We walked downtown and ate breakfast, washed all the dried grasshopper guts off our bikes, and let our fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages. We finally found a Honda dealer in Modesto that had tires in stock and could change them that day. Their service guy name James (with a name like that, he must be a good guy) even gave us some tips on good roads to ride on the trip from Sonora to Modesto.

We fought traffic and the stifling heat of central California for the 60 miles or so to Modesto. I have always loved the state of California since I first visited in the early 80’s, but boy the traffic is just the worst. The triple digit temps didn’t help – worse than the Nevada desert.

Finally we found Honda Kawasaki of Modesto. I have always found the local dealers to be very helpful when traveling on a motorcycle, and these guys were no exception. Just let them know you are traveling cross country and they treat you like a king. Even though we arrived around lunchtime, they found the tires we needed and jumped right on changing both bikes. Adam and I had lunch and when we got back the service department was almost done with our bikes. We spent time talking to the owner and his son (can’t remember their names but will get them and post here) and they showed us all the old bikes they collected, the custom dirt bike they built, and were just very interested in our trip and our gear and the fact we were father/son riding sportbikes across the country. Very, very nice folks and great service. In just a couple of hours we were on our way with new rubber, along with new Honda-Kawasaki of Modesto t-shirts. We plan to save them for race day. We were also told to be sure and visit Cannery Row in downtown Monterrey on Friday and Saturday night for bike night. It will be absolutely packed with sport bikes and should be a really good time. We certainly plan to attend.

Leaving Modesto we pointed west to catch one of the many interstates in California. Heading south through the blistering heat, we found a small side road on the map that lead from the interstate, up over the hills, to San Jose. Our plan was to go 60 miles further south and then head to Monterrey, but it was so darn hot we wanted to get to the cool coast ASAP.

New #1 sport bike road in America

OK, I changed my vote. Highway 12 in Utah was the past champion and still runnerup. But Adam and I found a new #1. It was unanimous. It is not much of a road and very, very little traffic, which is amazing since the road dumps out right in San Jose CA, a very big city connected to San Francisco. I can see why it is very lightly traveled by normal vehicles. First, it doesn’t go anywhere, but more importantly because it is about 60 miles of the most twisted, curved, steep, winding pavement I have every had the privilege to ride. Everyone talks about “The Dragon” in North Carolina, but I can’t see how it can be any better than this. I swear we rode 60 miles in first and second gear, diving corner to corner, over and over and over again. By the time we got done both of our wrists were worn out, our bodies exhausted, and our new tires were well broken in. I have no idea how those Honda brakes can hold up to the abuse we put them through, but they were still working like new at the end. The road climbs 4,000 feet up the mountains and back down again. I kid you not, 60 nonstop miles with maybe 5 cars the entire way, no police, a few deer, squirrels and other critters, and some scattered bicyclists. Nobody in a car drives this unless they have to, since they would be sick when they got done and they can only go about 10 mph the entire route. It took us nearly 3 hours to ride this thing – with a couple of brief stops for pictures and rest. The pavement wasn’t the best, but that just added to the challenge. It was not nearly as dangerous as Sonora Pass, but just mile after mile after mile of 15-25 mph corners, end on end, with maybe 100 yard straights in between. They don’t make roads like this in Oklahoma!

Back to the engines

And this brings me back to the engine swap on our bikes. Our trip started in Oklahoma, with an elevation around 1,200 feet above sea level. We jumped right on the Interstate and got to the Rockies and really didn’t start putting the bikes to hard use until we were at 7,000 foot elevation. The rest of our ride has been at 5,000 feet or above until today. We started today’s spirited ride at 140 ft altitude and holy crap batman, the bikes were un-frickin-believable. Adam and I both were just amazed at how much more power our bikes had. It was downright scary, even for Adam, who is a great rider and very familiar with his bike. The CBR1000RR goes from lighting fast to oh-my-god-this-thing-is-scary-fast when at sea level. You can light up the rear tire in any gear at any time. Lift the front wheel in any gear at any time. In the mountains we were starting the curves at 7-8K rpm and accelerating to 10K and the bike would leap forward. But down here, acceleration at 7-8K scared the crap out of me. Even Adam was astonished, although he was loving the newfound power, spinning that rear tire through every corner. Even I would light up the rear tire at times while leaned over. A couple of times I wheelied out of corners while still leaned over, the front end shaking it’s head in anger, ready to leap forward like a wild mustang. The pavement was like sandpaper so the grip from the new tires was just awesome. However, you could still spin the rear tire and have the bike wheelie while leaned over, scrubbing off that expensive rubber. I was intimidated by the power and finally started riding the twisted road in a higher gear so that I was accelerating out at 5K rpm rather than 7-8K. This made the bike much more manageable for me and didn’t scare the pants off me with the acceleration.

Of course Adam was having a blast, wearing out his knees, scraping his boots and the side of his pants, leaving long rubber marks out of the turns. He would leave me behind in just 2-3 turns and end up waiting for me about 20 miles down the road. In the past I would worry about him riding so hard on the street, but he has proven to me many times over that he is a very safe rider. I had another motorcyclist say to me the other day “you let your son drag his knees on public roads?” Well, first off, he is 18 so can do what he wants, and second, he is an excellent rider, far better than I ever was, and has been riding since he was 4 years old. And thirdly, I have seen him scrape his knees through corner after corner after corner, very safely. We have seen thousands of corners on this trip and many other trips, some with dirt or gravel in the corners, some with oil, sand, cars, deer, and all kinds of crap you see on a public highway. Although an aggressive rider, he knows when to go fast and when to be cautious. He has proven to me many times over that he is a safe rider so I let him do what we wants and just cheer him on. I still give him safety and bike tips from time to time, but nowadays I am learning from him as much as he is learning from me.

Tonight we are staying near San Jose and plan to ride some local roads along the coast, where it is nice and cool, and hopefully end up around Monterrey for the races.