From the road
Jun. 1st, 2010 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumI am in SLO. I had the day free, and realised I could make a run to SLO and back, while still having time to recover/get my homework done.
Why do it? Because I can.
More to the point it's a convenient sort of training ride for the trip (which starts in about three weeks... Oy!). I was planning to be on the road before 0800, butlady_mondegreen had a slightly rough weekend, and so I left myself available to chat, in case she needed to talk. She did want to talk, and so I was on the road at 0900.
Breakfast in Salinas, and lunch at Mother's Tavern, in Downtown SLO. I'll head over for some coffee at BlackHorse (which used to be Downtown Espresso. Same owner, new name. Still "The home of the Velvet Foam").
Then back home.
Total drive will be about 400 miles, with about six hours of saddle time. The bike eats the road. Someone commented that, as a passenger, "The road goes by so fast, doesn't it?", and the answer is, no.
This bike seems almost stationary at speeds of less than 35, on the straigtaway. There just isn't any wind. Somewhere around 60-65, the engine noise goes away. The sound of the wind past the helmet (even buffered with the neck cowlcommodorified made for me, and the earplugs I wear religiously) becomes enough that the note of the motor is no longer audible. It rather becomes a feeling. The hum in the seat, the way the mirrors do, or don't, vibrate, the buzz in the pegs.
Once she gets to that point speed, on the interstate, becomes different. I'm dealing with the other cars, and paying attention for cops. It would be really easy to go really fast. I don't know where she tops out, but I suspect, when I take her to a track class, I'll probably have no problem getting her up to 120mph.
My hips are a little unhappy, so too my knees. But three hours of riding and break looks to be a good number. We shall see how it plays out across the weeks of summer.
Why do it? Because I can.
More to the point it's a convenient sort of training ride for the trip (which starts in about three weeks... Oy!). I was planning to be on the road before 0800, but
lady_mondegreen had a slightly rough weekend, and so I left myself available to chat, in case she needed to talk. She did want to talk, and so I was on the road at 0900.Breakfast in Salinas, and lunch at Mother's Tavern, in Downtown SLO. I'll head over for some coffee at BlackHorse (which used to be Downtown Espresso. Same owner, new name. Still "The home of the Velvet Foam").
Then back home.
Total drive will be about 400 miles, with about six hours of saddle time. The bike eats the road. Someone commented that, as a passenger, "The road goes by so fast, doesn't it?", and the answer is, no.
This bike seems almost stationary at speeds of less than 35, on the straigtaway. There just isn't any wind. Somewhere around 60-65, the engine noise goes away. The sound of the wind past the helmet (even buffered with the neck cowl
commodorified made for me, and the earplugs I wear religiously) becomes enough that the note of the motor is no longer audible. It rather becomes a feeling. The hum in the seat, the way the mirrors do, or don't, vibrate, the buzz in the pegs.Once she gets to that point speed, on the interstate, becomes different. I'm dealing with the other cars, and paying attention for cops. It would be really easy to go really fast. I don't know where she tops out, but I suspect, when I take her to a track class, I'll probably have no problem getting her up to 120mph.
My hips are a little unhappy, so too my knees. But three hours of riding and break looks to be a good number. We shall see how it plays out across the weeks of summer.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-06-01 10:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 04:29 am (UTC)I do, however, have interested in the skills one gains from being able to take the bike to one's limits, which isn't really possible on a road. The sightlines aren't there, and the conditions aren't knowable and there is opposing traffic.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 06:27 am (UTC)Heh!...at 1:55 I was emerging from the really fun part of the drive from Cone Peak to the open oak savanna on Fort Hunter Liggett, inbound to the City. Gods it is beautiful down there...so green with the late rains...and that road is amazing (Nacimiento-Fergusson...popular with the bikers, for sure.)
no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 06:52 am (UTC)How was the wind for you? By mid-afternoon it was horrid. I saw it moving cars; what it did to me was just awful. It also opened up some of my line on curves, because it got under me and changed my lean.
I did have a couple of places where I was over-leaning, and taking too aggressive a line; if I was only going to use one lane.
no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 05:09 pm (UTC)Shall try to figure out a way to introduce you to jorhett, he's the track racer. And good at it.
He pointed something out to me that I wish I'd learnt before my road trip to Colorado - when at altitude, -breathe- slower and deeper. Same things that make the bike/car fuel economy lower also make one's own "internal combustion" work less well. Amazing what a little decrease in o2 partial pressure can do to your brain and your hands!
no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-06-02 06:42 pm (UTC)