My MO is to never pass anyone on my Sunday morning rip. I wait for gaps so that I never catch anyone on my little "test track". I usually do this very early in the morning and am home before any traffic builds anyway, but today it was 25 degrees in the morining and I waited til noon to ride.

It seems that thisstretch near the house has lately suffered from an inundation of knee draggers, just like the Gap. A photo guy set up shop in one of the turns and the hords came in droves. Just like the Gap, the locals are pissed and the police are reacting...just like the gap.

I swear, the worst thing that can happen to a rider is that their favorite road winds up on other peoples t shirts.

Back to the story.I have two turn around points. One is at the top of the run and the other is at the bottom. The bottom turn-around gives me a mile long view of approaching traffic and lets me time a clean run by entering just in front of an approaching vehicle. Today I pulled (respectable distance) out in front of a white SUV to begin what was my final run up the mountain. There was a line of traffic behind the truck and even though the gap wasn't as good as I wanted,I decided that I would just slow up if I caught a slow car and wait for the SUV before resuming my pace.

This happened 3 times on this run. Each time I gave the car I caught up to time, by slowing to a crawl, the SUV appeared much quicker than I expected. I was impressed that the driver was making such good time on this very windy-*** road.

I caught the car for the third time at my upper turn around and pulled in to take a rest. I dropped the bike on its side stand and began removing my gear. By the time I removed my helmet and gloves, the SUV was pulling in behind me. There were some very discreete blue lights flashing in the dash. Needless to say, I was surprised.

The officer was a fairly young guy with a pissed look on his face. He was, to his credit, pretty controlled as he read me the riot act about hanging my *** off the seat and scraping my knee, the locals complaining/the cops reacting, old inept drivers drifting wide and making me a traffic fatality, my dress and bike type making me look guilty of miscreant behavior, need to take a bike like that to the track, gonna get busted and bike confiscated if caught again....etc.

I was all "yes sir"-like at appropriate moments and quiet during his tirade. I did not tell him that I was not going much faster than the speed limit but just keeping my speed through the turns. I did not explain to him why I kept slowing and he was able to catch up. I did not tell him that I was not part of the crowd terrorizing locals and tourists on this gnarly stretch of twisties.

I did not get a ticket, but I will have to find another place to play on Sunday mornings.

Track day on the 25th at CMP. At least next Sundays ride is not going to end like this one.

 

Sorry to hear your stretch of twisties has gotten trashed.

I guess that's the price we have to pay for being bright, shiny and loud.
BTW, were you exeeding the limit (and I don't mean 6-8 over)?
or just taking the corners aggressively while remaining wthin the law?

(Speed limitare the white signs that state as such, the yellow signs that just state a speed before tight turns are a reccomended speed for that particular corner and hence they don't state the words "speed limit")

 

A moment of silence for your former favorite spot.

At least you conducted yourself in the proper manner and avoided the ticket.

 

Dwhite,

I always go somewhere in the neighborhood of the speed limit in the few short straights and never pay attention in the curves. But I guess "agressive" would be acurate.

D Collins,

Your condolences are appreciated.

RIP/Gods Speed

[IMG]local://upfiles/21254/FC318E0AD6EC4700BDE0BFD938B91F4A.jpg[/IMG]

 

We have a fav stretch of road, its about 20-25 kays of bitumen, the old Pacific Highway (highway 1) which starts north of Sydney & sometimes run parallel to the F3 Motorway, which replaced it as the main road some years ago, it snakes its way through cutouts, over bridges, and great views of the the water. Has the best twisties, hairpins, inclines & declines, that can test any bike & any body to their limit, or it can be a really nice punt, depending on your mood or the size of your nuts. Because it meanders past water (views) the area has started to attract a lot more permanent housing (used to just fishing villages). Which in turn means more people moaning about these nasty bikers shattering the Sunday arvo tranquility of cheese & bikkies & a cheeky Cab Sav. So after much complaining, the powers that be, have increased the police presence (read: revenue collection). Not happy with that, they then resurfaced the road with bitumen & road gravel, and left it uncompacted (as would normally be done on a major road).
The police & alteration of the road have little effect on the bike traffic though!!, Keep riding your favourite roads, ride in pairs if you can manage it, stick to the speed limit though!!. Don't let the bastards win, they will just hold it up as a perfect example of wot they can do to us low life bikers, when they get "tough".
Here's an example of an ordinary (any time)Sunday at the Road Warrior Cafe.

 

^^ damn the agusta is SEXY