wrencher919
04-07-2008, 07:36 AM
well sunday was a good time. had a ton of fun.
we met at chevron at 2pm 4 brave souls out to risk the elememnts and dodge the dark clouds lingering on the horizon, a 919,fz6 and 2 zx6r's, first ride i think kawi has ever dominated (lol). we got to experience almost every great aspect of this sport all in one day.
it started with 2 harley riders on full touring machines trying to look as tough as they could and glaring at us while they filled there bikes at chevron.as they left i made sure to give them a huge smile and a wave. well we head out on the open road east towards chase. moderate pace settling onto our bikes and into traffic. out of nowhere a honda blackbird dive bombs us.... wtf? oh well i look over at a black zx6 and i think we must have both been thinking " ok lets see how fast that thing really is " because we both dropped a gear and headed off after him. after a few seconds of low flying we where reeling him in, when all of a sudden some nut job put a turn in the road..... well that got us almost on top of him. alas wouldn't you know it our new found show off speed demon turns off just as road gets fun. oh well forget him. we have a mission, a destinatioin, rumour of a new road to enjoy.
well we are at speed so might as well keep it up for a bit.a few rather aggressive passes of those weird 4 wheel things ppl drive and we are seeing chase in no time at all.atleast i think it is chase hard to tell through the column of smoke coming from the back end of an old motorhome we are stuck behind. not sure what was making all the smoke but was a hard to see through and probably following him was a cloud that stretched out for atleast a kilo back.
just this side of chase we turn off onto the road we have been anticipating. it immediately climbs the hillside and throws some fun little turns at us, kinda teasing us with what could be ahead. the road is a little tight lots of turns. great scenery,we are all a little cautious watching for the patches of gravel. there was some in the corners but there was always a clear line to keep your tires on. it seems like we are barely moving after the time spent blasting the T/C. the farther we go the better the corners get some neat decreasing radius, a couple fun tight turns and one great big sweeping left turn along side a very beautiful mountain meadow complete with rotten old barn, creek , mandatory single cow and of course the 2 foot high SNOW BANKS. yup snow banks. was getting cold not sure how high we where in the mountains but it was cold and lots of snow. ignore the cold,the snow and the gravel i am really enjoying this road... all of a sudden my fun comes to an end.... yup the pavement ended with it...
well now is a good time to stop and warm up. i light a smoke and we all visit our fav pine tree/lavatory just on the other side of the ditch, yes it's that cold. we stand there just at the edge of the pavement the tows of our boots hanging off into the gravel unknown. some one mutters i wonder how far it goes??? well just like god was listening along comes a very old couple in a cute little subaru who says there's only 9 kilo's of gravel and it is all good. woah just 9 short k. heck we could do that right? someone says hell i don't care if it takes 15min to go that 9. well we all look at each other give each other a few words of encouragement and take the plunge.
not even 50 feet onto gravel and here comes a lone bike heading towards us. well almost a bike it is a harley, so we stop and ask him what he thinks? he says, "its great but a bit of mud on the top!" ok now we have to do it if some old guy on a harley can we can too.we start off slow at first then find it's not so bad. the 2 kawi's are moving slower. i think gravel,full body work, and clip on's must be a bad combination. after a few K we are moving along in 3rd gear all of sudden a certain fz6 rider starts sticking his foot out in the turns... is he warning me of a hazard? wait he did it again? nope i think he is trying to flat track that bike through the turns LOLOL.
we stop on a paved bridge in the middle of nowhere gravel both sides ???? i am thinking if you had a paver up here to do the bridge why not do both sides???? anyways a few pics on a frozen bridge, frozen creek and gravel road four very dirty bikes. i am thinking of soemhting like welocome to BC adventure motorcycling at it's best.....
well off we go again after regrouping. finally we hit pavement again and what a stretch of pavement it is! we pass pillar lake its still frozen over solid. the roller coaster ride down the mountain continiues. we pass the next little lake it's frozen and still snow banks. i look out and think to myself those guys ice fishing must be cold, can only imagine what they where thinking of us as we rocketed past there frozen little lake. we run some very fun corners down the mountain into falkland the 9 kilo's of gravel where worth it.
in falkland we stop for gas and of course i was long over due to apease my habit, where was jim it's better when he is there smoking with me. then i don't feel like i am the only one holding everyone up. smoke done bikes gassed up we are off again. we head west now looking to home. familiar roads the words someone said at the gas station" lets get going before we get snowed on" running through my mind..... we set a rapid pace thinking of hot showers and warm meals that await us at home. once at montey lake we attack the road screaming through well known turns passing cars and pushing our bikes, how exciting. down the hill to the t/c and into town was very uneventful.
we stop out side of suzuki and 2 must be off to domestic duties but us other 2 have time to burn yet. so my ever advenerous riding partner says lets go to the go kart track and laugh at jim on his toy bike. now that sounds like fun...
we get to the go kart track to the sound of a small 4 stroke engines revving very high and making lots of noise. we pull up to the fence to see this crazy guy in full leathers with a dirt bike helmut and goggles having to lift his knee off the pavement to miss the tire sticking out of the inside edge of track.WTF????? wow is he ever going fast on that litttle bike.. look at him go.... wait there's 2.. wow they are both going fast, tires chirping knees dragging pipes wailing..... we pretend like it's no big deal and slowly wander around back of the builiding to the pits. the boys are getting warmed up now. they are racing one in front working at keeping his line and being smooth. the latter pushing hard to try to get a tire inside the leader. enter pass blocking HHAHAHA. they come in to pits after a few mins of running hard have a laugh and compare there lines. talk tires and strategy and turn to us and say hey you guys better ride these things or we are going back out again.
well i just met this guy... wayne i think they said his name, was 30 secs later he is encouraging me to get on his bike and go tear it up on a track. ok if you insist! lol full leathers race boots and helmet. sitting in the pits with some old go karts. i squat down on this little bike pull the clutch in rev it up a few times... damn do i feel silly.
out on the track first few laps are slow check out the corners find a line get a feel of this little bike, wonder how far it leans? thinking back to when i first got there yeah it will lean farhter than i will. LOL. ok 2 laps down time start seeing what this little bike will do... front straight,sweeping left, little chicane... hairpin... brake hard turn it in give her thtrottle and off we go. holy crap this is fun my helmut is too small to contain my ear to ear smile... a few more laps starting to get more comfy. finding my lines pusing it a little. thinking i am doing about a 35 sec lap. i pull in pits and can't stop laughing. hard to get helmet off due to laghter. my riding partner pulls in a couple laps later and off the owners go.
we watch them for a bit another few spectators show up. someone finally puts a stop watch on these 2 mad men ripping around out there 20 seconds!!!! 20 seconds!!! they are doing 20 second laps... HOLY S___T!!!
well a few more laps and some gentle prods as to how to spend more money on another addiction that involves a bike! off i go home home for dinner. i pull in driveway and wondering if i am late for dinner? wife is in kitchen and opens garage for me i pull right in. take of my helmet she kisses me and says "thats a frist you are 15 min early". dinner will be ready in 30.......
well all i can is from start to finish what a great day of motorcycling. first real ride of the year and we are off to an awesome start......
cya all thursday
Chris
we met at chevron at 2pm 4 brave souls out to risk the elememnts and dodge the dark clouds lingering on the horizon, a 919,fz6 and 2 zx6r's, first ride i think kawi has ever dominated (lol). we got to experience almost every great aspect of this sport all in one day.
it started with 2 harley riders on full touring machines trying to look as tough as they could and glaring at us while they filled there bikes at chevron.as they left i made sure to give them a huge smile and a wave. well we head out on the open road east towards chase. moderate pace settling onto our bikes and into traffic. out of nowhere a honda blackbird dive bombs us.... wtf? oh well i look over at a black zx6 and i think we must have both been thinking " ok lets see how fast that thing really is " because we both dropped a gear and headed off after him. after a few seconds of low flying we where reeling him in, when all of a sudden some nut job put a turn in the road..... well that got us almost on top of him. alas wouldn't you know it our new found show off speed demon turns off just as road gets fun. oh well forget him. we have a mission, a destinatioin, rumour of a new road to enjoy.
well we are at speed so might as well keep it up for a bit.a few rather aggressive passes of those weird 4 wheel things ppl drive and we are seeing chase in no time at all.atleast i think it is chase hard to tell through the column of smoke coming from the back end of an old motorhome we are stuck behind. not sure what was making all the smoke but was a hard to see through and probably following him was a cloud that stretched out for atleast a kilo back.
just this side of chase we turn off onto the road we have been anticipating. it immediately climbs the hillside and throws some fun little turns at us, kinda teasing us with what could be ahead. the road is a little tight lots of turns. great scenery,we are all a little cautious watching for the patches of gravel. there was some in the corners but there was always a clear line to keep your tires on. it seems like we are barely moving after the time spent blasting the T/C. the farther we go the better the corners get some neat decreasing radius, a couple fun tight turns and one great big sweeping left turn along side a very beautiful mountain meadow complete with rotten old barn, creek , mandatory single cow and of course the 2 foot high SNOW BANKS. yup snow banks. was getting cold not sure how high we where in the mountains but it was cold and lots of snow. ignore the cold,the snow and the gravel i am really enjoying this road... all of a sudden my fun comes to an end.... yup the pavement ended with it...
well now is a good time to stop and warm up. i light a smoke and we all visit our fav pine tree/lavatory just on the other side of the ditch, yes it's that cold. we stand there just at the edge of the pavement the tows of our boots hanging off into the gravel unknown. some one mutters i wonder how far it goes??? well just like god was listening along comes a very old couple in a cute little subaru who says there's only 9 kilo's of gravel and it is all good. woah just 9 short k. heck we could do that right? someone says hell i don't care if it takes 15min to go that 9. well we all look at each other give each other a few words of encouragement and take the plunge.
not even 50 feet onto gravel and here comes a lone bike heading towards us. well almost a bike it is a harley, so we stop and ask him what he thinks? he says, "its great but a bit of mud on the top!" ok now we have to do it if some old guy on a harley can we can too.we start off slow at first then find it's not so bad. the 2 kawi's are moving slower. i think gravel,full body work, and clip on's must be a bad combination. after a few K we are moving along in 3rd gear all of sudden a certain fz6 rider starts sticking his foot out in the turns... is he warning me of a hazard? wait he did it again? nope i think he is trying to flat track that bike through the turns LOLOL.
we stop on a paved bridge in the middle of nowhere gravel both sides ???? i am thinking if you had a paver up here to do the bridge why not do both sides???? anyways a few pics on a frozen bridge, frozen creek and gravel road four very dirty bikes. i am thinking of soemhting like welocome to BC adventure motorcycling at it's best.....
well off we go again after regrouping. finally we hit pavement again and what a stretch of pavement it is! we pass pillar lake its still frozen over solid. the roller coaster ride down the mountain continiues. we pass the next little lake it's frozen and still snow banks. i look out and think to myself those guys ice fishing must be cold, can only imagine what they where thinking of us as we rocketed past there frozen little lake. we run some very fun corners down the mountain into falkland the 9 kilo's of gravel where worth it.
in falkland we stop for gas and of course i was long over due to apease my habit, where was jim it's better when he is there smoking with me. then i don't feel like i am the only one holding everyone up. smoke done bikes gassed up we are off again. we head west now looking to home. familiar roads the words someone said at the gas station" lets get going before we get snowed on" running through my mind..... we set a rapid pace thinking of hot showers and warm meals that await us at home. once at montey lake we attack the road screaming through well known turns passing cars and pushing our bikes, how exciting. down the hill to the t/c and into town was very uneventful.
we stop out side of suzuki and 2 must be off to domestic duties but us other 2 have time to burn yet. so my ever advenerous riding partner says lets go to the go kart track and laugh at jim on his toy bike. now that sounds like fun...
we get to the go kart track to the sound of a small 4 stroke engines revving very high and making lots of noise. we pull up to the fence to see this crazy guy in full leathers with a dirt bike helmut and goggles having to lift his knee off the pavement to miss the tire sticking out of the inside edge of track.WTF????? wow is he ever going fast on that litttle bike.. look at him go.... wait there's 2.. wow they are both going fast, tires chirping knees dragging pipes wailing..... we pretend like it's no big deal and slowly wander around back of the builiding to the pits. the boys are getting warmed up now. they are racing one in front working at keeping his line and being smooth. the latter pushing hard to try to get a tire inside the leader. enter pass blocking HHAHAHA. they come in to pits after a few mins of running hard have a laugh and compare there lines. talk tires and strategy and turn to us and say hey you guys better ride these things or we are going back out again.
well i just met this guy... wayne i think they said his name, was 30 secs later he is encouraging me to get on his bike and go tear it up on a track. ok if you insist! lol full leathers race boots and helmet. sitting in the pits with some old go karts. i squat down on this little bike pull the clutch in rev it up a few times... damn do i feel silly.
out on the track first few laps are slow check out the corners find a line get a feel of this little bike, wonder how far it leans? thinking back to when i first got there yeah it will lean farhter than i will. LOL. ok 2 laps down time start seeing what this little bike will do... front straight,sweeping left, little chicane... hairpin... brake hard turn it in give her thtrottle and off we go. holy crap this is fun my helmut is too small to contain my ear to ear smile... a few more laps starting to get more comfy. finding my lines pusing it a little. thinking i am doing about a 35 sec lap. i pull in pits and can't stop laughing. hard to get helmet off due to laghter. my riding partner pulls in a couple laps later and off the owners go.
we watch them for a bit another few spectators show up. someone finally puts a stop watch on these 2 mad men ripping around out there 20 seconds!!!! 20 seconds!!! they are doing 20 second laps... HOLY S___T!!!
well a few more laps and some gentle prods as to how to spend more money on another addiction that involves a bike! off i go home home for dinner. i pull in driveway and wondering if i am late for dinner? wife is in kitchen and opens garage for me i pull right in. take of my helmet she kisses me and says "thats a frist you are 15 min early". dinner will be ready in 30.......
well all i can is from start to finish what a great day of motorcycling. first real ride of the year and we are off to an awesome start......
cya all thursday
Chris