Price, Paul, Bonnie, and I went on quite the adventure last weekend....here's the story.
A week of harried, maybe this will happen maybe it won't, finally comes down to the wire and at Price's 80's b-day party it becomes official...it's on!
I get the text the nite before...meetup at paul's at 8...yah right...so of course I get there at 8:45 to find everyone in sweats and Paul is spitting out crepe's on the stove(mm good, he cooks? whodathunkit)...figgers. Now they know to invite me 2 hrs ahead of schedule instead of 1 har har. So we shoot the shiznit and get leathered up.
Up the 15 a ways and some random route following Paul and he "thinks" he knows the way over to the 5...well eventually we made it. The roads were good anyway. Didn't stick on the 5, hit up the 1 and followed the coast. Not so great in the southern part, as the city creep had filled it full of stoplights and traffic, so that's not much fun, but lane splittin eases it up. We stop at Joe's Crab Shack in a marina I think in the Long Beach Area for some grub. Mm Mmm King Crab Legs are soo good. We oogled the million dollar boats for awhile and headed back out. A little further north the road opens up and follows the beach, waves crashing in to the left, hills of untold goodness and twisty roads to the right....Price wasn't sure where to go exactly here, but we came across 2 guys on a Tuono and SuperMotard and they offered to tow us around a bit. HOLY crap can you say technical? More first gear holy crap am I gonna make this turns than you can shake a stick at! Who builds roads like this? We criscrossed a couple different roads and according to our guides, most all dump onto Muholland, which takes you down to the beach, then pick another one and have a go at it. Zoom out a bit on this map (centered on the widely famous The Rock Store ) and you'll see what I mean.
30...sa=N - Google Maps
The spagetti roads in this area are truly amazing, the views of the ocean from the hillside is amazing too, but don't look for too long, the next turn is 20 feet away sometimes less. We end up taking a break at the Rock Store, unfortunately closed...but nice to have been there all the same. Wow what a day, only a paltry 200 miles and we've been worked. We raid Seth's place for the nite and go out for some really good NY pizza. Then decide to catch a movie at the somewhat famous Arclight Theater....they have booze! WOOT, wow pricey in this neck of the woods(ouch). We saw Superhero movie...you gotta be kiddin me...wow that sucked, I'll take Biker Boys or Torque any day...sheesh.
Day two: We get suited up and head out mid morning. Destination: Highway 2. A bit of highway to get there, nothing exciting....then we arrive... at the bottom of.....
Angeles Crest Highway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HOLY CRAP, this road is the most amazing thing you have or will ever see. Do you like Sunrise? This is 500% better, wider, cleaner, better views.. AND... get this... 55 miles...YEAH THAT'S RIGHT FIFTY FIVE MILES of unending twisty goodness that blows away any road I've ever been on. Long sweeping 100 mph goodness that is seemingly never ending...everyone that goes by in the other direction offers up a thumbs up. We're noobs here so... is that the local wave? Is that the "all clear no cops"? Is that the, you noobs need to kick it up a notch? We don't know, but we'll be back and we'll find out for sure. Straightaways? None to be found here. Turns turns and more turns...and den....more turns...and den more turns...and den... HEY look a nice restaurant! We stop for lunch, Paul and Price, came, saw, and got the tee shirt, a pimpin black long sleeve with a nice map of Hwy 2 on the back. I snagged a lil spagetti strap top fer my girl, cuz I'm cool like that... We chatted with the locals a bit, and found out the sign at the bottom that says closed really means it. CRAP...30 miles back down and were all gettin close on fuel...oh the humanity! Our goal is Big Bear so now we gotta work this out.
Back down the 2 a bit (no fair I wanna take a couple, um, laps on the 2 dammit!) , to tortunga road or something and up to the 138. Tortunga road?...effing great, nice and twisty too, not as good as the 2, but a kick ass route none the less, no complaints here. Woot! We stop for gas and Price mentions the whoop dee doos on the 138. I've been to Ridgecrest a million times so I know what that's all about...
Who installed a landing strip big enough for a 767 on the 138??? Traffic's been kinda spotchy but we get to this flat 4 lane straight into the distace as far as you can see road, with nary a car in sight, and all you can see is the the little heat waves waaaaay off in the distance. I kinda look around a little, cuz my itchy thottle palm is wanting to punch it, so without saying a thing, I'm sure I put out the "are we gonna go??? vibe"... Paul comes up from behind and passes me, not to fast but in it for sure, as he catches up to Price, I see the tell tale puff of smoke and I know it's on. Click Click Click, go lil R6 go....miles pass...many of them.....many of them....
I've seen up end of 170(indicated) a couple times.....well lets just say pinned in 6th the R6 is rock stable. I have a tank bag in front of me so I can't tuck. No problem. I've got a backback bungied to the back seat too. That thing rolls up to 180 real easy and stops. Damn you rev limiter! Damn you smaller front sprocket! She ain't done, she's got more! GPS calculations later show that 180 is more like 158...oh well I'm not setup for the salt flats, I'm setup for the track...it'll do. A couple minutes of flat out, fawk me that's fun I tell ya.
As we get closer to Big Bear, wow it's first gear twisty's again, and more and more and more.... woot! I pray to the god of turns, and he delivers!
Ahh finally Big Bear, the cabin, the cold (oops watter wetter ain't anitfreeze, but it turned out ok), the hottub, the pizza, the capt....this ain't about campin out, this is about the ride....now... the pain begins for our 2 days of curvy bliss....Apparently, we could only outrun Murphy for 2 days, bastard rides a 1098 I think and caught up quick.
During day 2, we discover Price is down to the metal on the rear. Cra ha hap. There's a couple cycle stores in Big Bear, one, closed on sunday, the other...no tire bigger than a 150, that ain't gonna work on the back of the Busa. We risk it, and roll down the hill to the only place within 500 miles that has a service dept open on Sunday. WOOT. I can't find the place on google or I'd give em props here. A couple hours later, we are golden. This puts us near the 215/91 interchange with most of the afternoon left. So we decide to take the 10 over to the 243, thru Ildewild down to the 79/78 area that most of us are familar with...sounds good lets roll!
About 5 miles up the 91.....CLUNK>>>ZING....no power, hey I know what that is....chain's gone, gawddammit you gotta be effing kidding me. I pull off... and by some small miracle, my chain is hanging on the rear peg. No damage to the bike at all. Ironically, the peg was down only cuz Price rode ***** when we went to get lunch while his tire was getting changed. I'm the only one with a back seat, guess I'll have to fix that to avoid this situation in the future Ask Paul for the pics. Price heads back to the store we just came from, to snag a master link and some lube....comes back with a non o-ring master link, well crap, it'll fit, if I don't use the cover plate..hokey, but I'll take it easy and were not going down the twisty part, it's getting late now, and if this breaks in the middle of nowhere, we're screwed. Back to the 215 and headed to San Diego. We stop for gas about half way and the link looks good...whew dodged that bullet.
Almost home....rollin down the 15, traffic opens up a bit and the other 3 speed up some. I lose my head for a sec, heck only 20 miles to go, what can happen? Well I give her a nudge to get up a tad above 90. DUMB mistake, KACLUNK>>>ZING...I glance in the mirror and see a deadly swirl of spagetti chain flinging thru the air...fortunately it didn't hit any cars. This happened at the top of the hill just past Lawrence Welk Village....so I coast for a looong ways, but not an exit in sight, so I finally coast to a stop and survey the damage. It made a weird noise so I know something ain't right. Chain guard? Gone. Hugger? Cracked bad and missing pieces. Swingarm? Nice chain tracks and a hole punched in it. (I found out later, two hunks of aluminum around the front sprocket broken off and a nice dent in the oil filter, amazing it didn't get pierced) I call up my darling Michelle and ask her to bring my truck and the required cycle toting accessories. Price loops back and the other 2 shoot home. Big Fiddy arrived to finish this Epic Journey.....dammit so close yet so far...
All in all a great weekend.
You can be sure we are dragging as many people as we can up for an Angeles Crest run pretty soon! You won't be disappointed!
Linear Mode
