Sunday Morning Ride

[No Worries]

It was pouring rain early Sunday morning. Around 9:30 the sun was out and I got a call from my friend Dean. He was supposed to teach a Total Control class earlier, but canceled because of the rain. Wanted to know if I wanted to ride. An hour later we were riding up Lookout Mountain.

He had just gotten back from Miller Motorsports Track in Utah. He had towed his GSX-R1000 and RC-51. The Gixxer did 182 on the straight, and his RC did 165. The curves on Lookout Mountain are very tight and relatively slow. After that, we decided to ride up Golden Gate Canyon which has faster curves.

Now my GS1000 put out 76hp three decades ago when it was new, and the top speed was around 130. But I stayed right behind Dean on his Gixxer. How's this possible? We've both taken the Total Control class by Lee Parks, we both have decades of riding experience, and we both love curves.

The reason is that many of the curves are blind. Mostly Precambrian granite. You can't see around the rocks. The prudent person doesn't know what's around the corner, so you have to take the corner not at your bike's maximum speed, but at a speed you can stop at.

Here's what I've seen in the road around blind corners: snow, sand, transmission spills, abandoned cars, rock falls, and creeks running across the road; deer, fox, coyote, and elk; bicyclists and hikers; cars trying to make a three-point turn on a two lane with no shoulders, which turns into a nine-point turn (then they give you a dirty look when you skid up to their door); and tourists stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of the deer etc.

When we got to the top of the canyon, Dean said he was almost out of gas. He was using his trip odometer, but forgot that his bike only gets 20mpg at the track. We made it back to Golden and he still had 0.2 gal left when we filled up.

Last year on top of Lookout Mountain, I met two riders on R6's. We shot the breeze and I said I'd follow behind them going down. They said they were scared to ride down and were taking the interstate back to Denver. Riding lessons and bike maintenance are much more important than riding the latest race replica.