best link ever

ever wondered what an air-raid siren using Tom Araya's wail would sound like?

slayer siren

wind river/lewis river

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yesterdays ride, 218 miles total. way too hot to be out on a bike. 101 in Portland, felt like 200 up there. coming back through Carson i felt like a heat gun was aimed at my neck. it was actually cooler inside my leather jacket than on my skin. 

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above is the upper section of the Wind River Hwy., 5 miles of continuous banked curves, posted 30MPH, and steady uphill. perfect asphalt surface, no debris, no traffic. take a minute to click on the larger map and check out the detail, its pretty amazing. 

i taped the G9 to the instruments and took a minute of video on the way back, going downhill. i caught up with a slow-moving truck so i stopped filming. the vibration really messed it up, but at least the G9's light meter can keep up with going in and out of the shadows, something my old A520 couldnt. this is the clip after i used iMovie to speed it up:

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once you turn on to Curly Creek Road (or NF-51), its steeply downhill into the Lewis River valley. the curves are very gentle (with the exception of the compound switchbacks at the viewpoint) and can be taken very fast. kind of a relief after all that hard work coming up...

another sick motorbike ride

today i thought i'd go on another one of my favorite loops, this time out east. there are sections of this ride that are really intense, very tight turns and severe grades. obviously the weather was perfect today, and again very light traffic. Gordon Creek Rd. will expose your 30-year-old bike's age quite well...

Larch Mountain is beautiful, but the pavement on the last 5 miles is a little rough, and it's easy to mistake the many mini-sinkholes and cracks for shadows. i actually had to stop at a Plaid Pantry and buy some new shades because my Smith's polarized lenses caused this weird distortion in my visor that made the road look like it was covered with bumps and shadows. believe it or not, these were the least shitty-looking:

this section is Marmot Rd...it runs parallel tho Hwy. 26 through a small valley just to the North. after twisting around through the trees you pop out into this incredibly picturesque clearing made up of farmland, pastures, and old barns. ahead in the distance is Mt. Hood, and soon its back into the trees before ending at Hwy. 26. 

i stopped by the "secret spot" or "blue hole" or whatever else its know as on the way back too. it's more or less across from Dodge Park on the Sandy River. unfortunately the gravel double-track has been fenced off and posted with NO TRESPASSING signs about 5 minutes into the woods. instead of risking some kind of bullshit ticket i just found my own spot, and it was totally sweet. 

todays ride

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211 miles, took me about 5 hours with a breakfast stop in Elsie. i was actually pretty cold since everywhere west of that first tunnel on Hwy. 26 was covered with fog, and the closer i got to the coast the more it turned into mist. i guess the worst part about this loop is that you have to really put your time in on 26 to get to the good stuff, but its totally worth it once you get there. a couple years ago Hwy. 53 was repaved along its entire length, so the surface is really smooth and clean. there are a couple sunken grade areas that have developed, but overall its still a damn good stretch a road. if you take a couple turns around Mohler you can link up with Miami River Rd, pretty much a continuation of the North section, but not as smoothly surfaced. there was heavy fog and mist through here today, but little traffic.

i managed to get the CB wound up and overtake a couple trucks, too. you still got it, baby! that little bastard has got to be one of the most reliable bikes ever. it is showing its age here and there, though. i've popped out of gear a couple of times and the shift lever often doesn't return to center after upshifts. then there's the oil leaks. and the plug fouling. and the sticky forks...