Yet another great ride under the belt. With a new set of tires Will (Red) was eager to see the difference in handling. Needless to say he was pretty damn happy after the ride.
We headed up N.W. from Phoenix through Wickenberg, AZ and up "the hill" to Yarnell. This is an infamous climb of about 2000' in less than 3 miles with im sure no less than 2 dozen beautiful 30-60 mph tight and smooth roll-on-the throttle twisties.
My Green beast handled better than ever, also, as i had just adjusted the front/rear ride height and corrected a severe case of underinflation as of last Friday (Thanks for reminding me VYPIR). I can only speak for myself when i say that the Yarnell twisties were taken at about double the limit the whole way up. This is not overly fast compared to some megasquids who have been known to take this hill at ridiculous speeds.
After topping out, we took a break and regrouped. Along on this ride were Will's wife Jenna on her y2k Shadow Sabre 1100, (can we say BIG bike??), a guy named Dave on a Rebel like thing (a friend of Will and Jenna's), and another Will, (another friend of thiers) on a 1995 VFR 750.
We headed off again for Prescott, AZ. But there were more twisties to tackle before arriving. One of the great things about Arizona, is the amazing diversity in ecosystems and climate zones. In Phoenix you have HOT, desert, Cactus, and a Metropolis full of angry a$$holes. But as we headed out the temps got cooler, the cactuses disappeared and by the time we got to Yarnell, we had all but left the desert behind. We might as well have been in Nebraska as we cruised along through such tiny cottonwooded communities as "Peeples Valley" and "Congress".
In no time we were arriving at our second "riding road" of the day. Where "Yarnell Hill" is a great smooth and exhilirating ascent literally right up the side of a mountain, the "White Spars" as they are known, are a beautiful set of World Class twisties that span the west end of the Bradshaw mountains, which in this case, separate the high desert which lay south of the range from the ponderosa pine blanketed Alpine Plateau of the Prescott National Forest and the city of Prescott, to the north.
Entering the White Spars you are immediately greeted by clear smooth and VERY playful twisties. These go up, go down, are flat, banked, inclining, declining, tight, sweeping, hairpins, straightaways, etc etc. Quite the treat.
I found the adjustments i had made to my bike a week ago were right on the mark, as the "turn-in" problem i had fought with last time up here was virtually eliminated. The bike stayed planted and was predictable and stable the whole day.
Eventually we stopped at the "end" of the run, and regrouped.
After this brief break we continued on the same direction and were in Prescott, AZ in a few minutes for lunch and a MUCH needed "real" break.
For the trip home we decided to try the famed Skull Valley loop, which has been written about in many bike mags. Personally i was not impressed. I had been on the road before a few times in a cage and had no great recollections. I was therefore not surprised when all we got were a few decent sweepers but nothing to write home about.
By taking Skull Valley, we bypassed the White Spar segment we had ridden up on, but continued on home the rest of the way we came up, this time *descending* the venerable Yarnell Hill.
This makes my second descent on a bike, and umteenth overall descent (cages, etc). I had alot more confidence going down Yarnell Hill this time than last, and was quite happy with my bike's performance. Unfortunately, Will, Jenna, Will and Dave got slowed up a bit by some cages and i had to wait a minute at the bottom of the hill.
We continued home to Phoenix, where we soon began to bake. Let it be known that the temps were nice when we left in the morning, but by the time we got to Will's place we were more or less slow cooked. Always drink lots of fluids!
Cant wait till next time!
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Fear Green.
[This message has been edited by GreenNinja (edited September 04, 2000).]
Man, that sounds like a dream to me, especially where living in Florida is sooo boring... the Highest altitude here is the landfill, and they won't let us ride there... Everything here is straight and flat, which is good for top speed runs but not much more... I'm glad you enjoyed your ride, that definitely sounds like fun!
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Joe
1999 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, 4,100 miles, Vance and Hines Titanium slip on, synthetics, more to come soon!!!
Living in North Florida is a dream too, a nightmare!! Besides straight roads, except for housing developments and Interstate ramps, we have too cold to ride mornings from November thru March , then we have Love Bug season (spring) so it's too buggy to ride , then we have summer, afternoon showers everyday and too hot , then it's Love Bug season again (fall) , but wait, we have October, it only has an average of 3.11 inches of rain and the average low of 55 and high of 81, the best riding month in the year for us ! AZ sounds too good to be true !
Mike covered it pretty well and I thought I would throw in my 2 pennies.
Saturday afternoon I finally got off my ass and bought some new tires. I picked a set of MEZ4's for the first new set for the bike and let me say I am ecstatic about them. On my previous set, the bike would just not lay over. I could get no closer than about 1.25 inches from the side of tire (this is the only way I can gauge this). After I finished the run up Yarnell, I had managed to get within 1/2 inch of the side of tire.
The ride was awesome, with temps in the mid 80's once we got out of the desert and traffic fairly light the whole way up to Prescott. Thoughs cages that we did encounter were either happy to pull over for us, or we passed them in the passing zones.
I can't say enough about the White Spar run, it is the nicest set of turns I've encountered thus far. Most have a line of sight all the way through, are banked to some degree and usually on-camber, and on a bike, the posted speed limit seems almost ludicrous. It's just too bad it takes over an hour to get up there....
Well anyway, it was an awesome run, and my wife and I were so exhausted that we slept from 600pm last night until 600 am this morning... (damn tired)
Anytime anyone comes out this way with their rides, Mike and I would be more than happy to show you the way!
"May as well have been in Nebraska?" Hey, I resemble that remark! It only takes two hours North, or three hours South to get into any serious twisties. What kind of elevation are you talking about. The first time we rode through Estes Park Colorado(Big Thompson Canyon etc.) and over the pass the elevation was so high the bikes rode like CHIT. No air. We had been joking around about it on the way up, but once there, it was no joke. We were even getting light headed from the lack of oxygen. Not a good thing to be on those roads(no guard rails and drops of a few THOUSAND feet off the side. Was just wondering about the elevation, and do F/I bikes compensate enough for that on their own?
Cool you had a great ride.
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That don't fix it? Get a bigger Hammer
1993 GSXR 1100
If you want to ride some twisties here in Florida, let me know. FloridaSportbikers is doing a ride on October 1st which is a Sunday. We will be experiencing some twisties, not Arizona twisties but they are good as they come in Florida. Let me know!
Have you guys ever rode out 87 east to Payson? I did that run in July, on my way down to Phoenix from Gallup. That was a really nice ride in the mountains. Looking forward to doing that run, again. There is a great top end run up 99 to Winslow, too.
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Todd Hoffmaster
'00 Katana 600
39 speeding tickets and now I have a V1.
That run is one of the greatest I've ever been on. Sorry I didn't make the Labor Day ride. I do want to make a run for Payson, Roosevelt Lake, and Globe sometime (next weekend).
If you really want to test your skill and suspension ride the road to Bagdad. (79 I think). Oh yeah bring and x-tra set of undies.
------------------ You get the best thrills on two wheels!
To ride a Rebel up there must be pretty exciting. That is a very anemic bike even before you leave sea level. Variety is so nice to ride with, I rode with a huge variety on Labor Day weekend, myself.
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Todd Hoffmaster
'00 Katana 600
39 speeding tickets and now I have a V1.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Aril, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by RCjohn: Mike, Were you the one in the picture bent over...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
John, once again we must remind you that this is NOT gaysportbiker.cum! If you wish to explore your (perfectly valid) alternative lifestlyle choices, please do so in the CHAT forum.
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Aril, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by VYPIR: I do want to make a run for Payson, Roosevelt Lake, and Globe sometime (next weekend).
If you really want to test your skill and suspension ride the road to Bagdad. (79 I think)...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
We were gonna do the Bagdad segment but the natives were getting restless and it was hot out (WAHH WAHH WAHH) but i wanted to.. oh well.. maybe nextime. VYPIR would you want to do Salt River Canyon instead?
Has anyone had an issue with Honda burning oil (i'm guessing it's burning it, because there is no leaks in sight anywhere) Bike has 6K miles on it and a two brothers slip on exhaust. There is some carbon build up on the end of pipe after riding for an hour or so. The bike seems to be running...
Well that worries me abit. I'm conserned how all this data is going to be used. Of course many others will argue against the existance of the system itself.
Luckily for some of us, the expance of putting something like that in the states will keep it from happening for quiet some time.
After going to the dark side and riding HD's for the past 8 years I've come back to my beloved sportbikes.
Brand new Ducati 939 SuperSport S.
It feels great to be back.
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Everything here is straight and flat, which is good for top speed runs but not much more... I'm glad you enjoyed your ride, that definitely sounds like fun!
