Autumn Rides

Due to several weeks of dryness in this part of the country, leaves have begun to change on many trees a little earlier than is normal. With days warming into the high 60's or better at this time of year, it does make for some spectacular riding in the higher elevations. 7 of us made a run out to Cooperstown this past weekend and it was a great trip. Some excellent roads of every type you'd want to ride, blasting through the mountains, fantastic scenery. We stopped outside town to visit Doug's buddy who runs a cycle dealership, who has a building across the street, and in that building are some sweet premium condition semi-vintage bikes. After that we grabbed lunch and then took another route back. 234 miles for me and not a single ache. Back in time for my son's baseball game. A great day all around.

Every now and then I head out on my own for a quick solo ride. Often this occurs after 1PM weekdays as I wait for the temperature to come up and then take a late lunch break. I always feel kinda decadent doing this as it's like being independently wealthy or something; most people back at work, slave to the grind, and me out riding. It's a great freedom.

I was out a week or so back, just making boxes, trying to find some new routes to incorporate into our weekend rides, and ended up on the west and north sides of the Tomhannock Reservoir.

There are several interesting roads in that area and you have to know your way around just a little bit as all the roads are labeled County Road ## and they all sort of blend after awhile. If there is no traffic to contend with, Reservoir Rd (County Road something or other) can be a very entertaining rip.

A morning playing in the dirt

Boys were off from school today so I decided it would be a good time to head over to the riding club and get some time in on the trails. Now personally, I could live nicely at this point without dirt riding. It was awesome when I was a kid, but it was also the only game in town when you are a kid. I remember having a poster of a 250cc dual purpose bike on my bedroom wall. I used to look at that when I was a teenager and think man, that bike would take me anywhere I wanted to go; no stopping me.

Now it's my boys with posters up on their walls, though I will admit to having a few up in the garage...

Colin has always been fearless since the first day he started riding on the PW50 at age 5. Scares me constantly while I'm watching him, the way he charges after it. He is interested in tips for improving his technique and follows direction. He wants to be a better rider every time he goes out.

I think it won't be too many more years before he is outrunning me.

 

Ian hasn't had benefit of all the years of riding. He's more cautious by nature and tends to be tensing up and over-controlling the bike on the trails right now, which gets him into trouble more often than we'd all like. He is doing very well on the open areas where picking a line isn't so important and he too is working hard on technique.

Something that I've noticed over the years is that neither of my boys have the deep attachment for  motorcycles that I have. Once we are home again, they go off and I am left to unload and put everything away. They do not lavish attention on their bikes and indeed treat them as another piece of their lives; an appliance. I am saddened sometimes that we have made their lives so rich with experiences that many extraordinary things are taken for granted. Conversely, to this day I cannot walk through my garage without looking at, speaking to, sitting on or polishing one of my bikes. Perhaps I am the one with the problem. Oh well.... after I post this, I'm going to walk around my desk and sit on my office-gixxer for a while and consider this issue some more.

A great finish to a great weekend

Today is Labor Day and a couple friends and I were able to get together for a few hours of casual riding. It's become somewhat of a tradition to try and catch a ride saluting the end of summer whenever possible over the years. Weather-wise, it was another spectacular day for riding. When I left home at 08:30 aboard the Monster, the temperature was 53 degrees and warming on a bright sunny day. The plan today was just to take it easy, ride a moderate pace and maybe practice form along some twisty roads. Just get out and ride while the riding is good.

I made my way over to Scott's house and we spent some time discussing the merits of various bike modifications, both current and future. Then he selected the bike he wished to take out today -- now there's a weighty issue that we should all have to struggle with. For this mission, he selected the GB500. Sadly, it was not to be as even with a fresh battery, the bike simply did not want to fire up. So after a few attempts and a couple of very near-starts over a span of several minutes, he decided to fallback to the 750 Monster. Always a good choice.

We rode off into the mid-morning with the temp up around 60, blue sky and perhaps 20% of trees showing color now with the changing leaves of Autumn. A brisk ride of 15 miles or so of twisty backroads brought us to Luke's house where he was planning to take out his 600SRX. After some conversation we suited up and went north to retrace our general route up through Saratoga county. This encompasses a few miles of secondary roads, but mostly very rural country roads along rivers and past lakes, through the woods (didn't see Grandma's house) and a large portion out in farm country. This last area has the best roads, with tight corners and long sweepers and lots of elevation changes. And the occasional piece of farm equipment pulling out onto the road, so you have to stay sharp, and -- hope that day is NOT the day they had been out with the honey wagon...

Thankfully, along with perfect weather conditions, traffic was extremely light today, many vehicles we came upon graciously allowed us past as they seemed out for their own scenic drives, and the few trucks we encountered were for the most part passing in the opposite direction. There was one section where I was following Scott through a sharp left-hander, up a long rise and over the crest of a hill. Bright sunshine and fallen leaves swirling around in his wake as he passed through, making it seem quite magical for me as I dropped down over the hill and followed the road as it bent to the right.

I'd say that today we averaged about 65% of our normal pace, perhaps a little faster in the corners. It was a nice way to get out and focus on technique without a competitive atmosphere and just enjoy the thrill of riding. We made our usual pit stop to relax a little, grab a snack and top off the tanks, then retraced our route back down. All told, I racked up 165 miles and whiled away 7 hours with friends.

Today was another of those days where I am just grateful to be here and be able to do what I love doing. It may have been one of the best riding days I've had this season, and I'm hoping to squeeze in a few more before we are done.

First group ride with the S2R

Spectacular weather in the forecast for Sunday morning, so it's Ride On. You never know from week to week, who may show up, on what machines, and therefore what the tone of the ride will be. Destination to be determined by consensus on the spot. We gathered at the usual location at 09:00 and today we totaled 7. This was the first group ride that I've taken the Ducati S2R1000 to, so I was a little apprehensive, mostly because I'm still learning how best to ride this bike and I know the pace our group ride will take. This will be a test of my performance in the company of fast riders, judged not only by me, but by the entire group. And today, the fast guys are represented in force.

Now I am no slug, though my performance with the ZX6 this year has left a few things to be desired, but today I have to prove to myself that I can make this bike perform. I've put a couple hundred miles on it riding solo and my comfort level is pretty high, but this ride will set the bar.

It was decided that we would make a run out through northern Rensselaer county, dropping briefly into Massachusetts, and 3 different riders would take the lead depending upon our location. We snuck up on it by way of first heading up into Saratoga county. Out through Mechanicville, then continuing east at 100mph. North of Schaghticoke and then south, where the twisties start. The reverse way along Babcock Lake and Toad Point Rd. Further east, flying along Petersburg Pass until we run up on a group of cars crawling down the mountain. Turn around at the bottom in Mass. and head back up and over and into NY. Taconic Trail and Rt22 to Berlin; touched 125mph.

6 of 7 are V-Twin, 5 of 7 are Monsters

After that, up the backside of the mountain, through Taborton, and down the other side. Then I split off and headed for home while those still with the group returned to the gathering spot to disperse.

I could have ridden faster in many places, but position within the line often dictates the speed of your ride. There were also some road hazards in places and a lot of traffic in others. Overall, I think I did pretty well with the group setting. I'm still getting used to the power curve of this bike (VS say, my ZRX1200) and I was trying to keep below 7000 RPM as much as possible while I close in on 1500 total miles on the bike, so I was short shifting a lot.

Coming back down the NY side of Petersburg Pass, I downshifted setting up for a 90 degree lefthander and I'm just starting to hang off as I feed out the clutch and then I hear this loud *Bang!* and the bike shudders. I back off the throttle, and work through the curve, but I also knew that I had just found the rev limiter. It kicked in around 9200 RPM. So now I know... I knew it would be north of 8 grand somewhere, but surely not the same as 16K on the ZX6...

This wasn't the best of ride of my life on a few levels, but I'm still loving this bike. I think it was a good choice at a time when I needed a change and I'm really enjoying riding it. Now that I've got it fully broken in I can explore the full range of it's performance. And then there's the growing list of mods I'm planning...