I love Virginia!

Friday night I made it down to Winchester, VA and crashed with Tim and Leesa. Great couple, just a great experience all around. I had to hit the road right after breakfast, but I wish we could have had more time.

Get to the entrance to Skyline Drive at Shenandoah around 1:30 am, the park ranger tells me there's an entrance fee, so I had to turn it around and pull some cash out of the machine back in town. When I get back, instead of a friendly park ranger, there's a sign in the booth that says to pay when exiting. Yeah right. The ride starts off at an incline climbing in altitude the side of a sheer drop. Off to the right, a magnificent view of the valley, to the left, the Blue Ridge Mountains rolling off into the distance, painted the deep red of late fall. Long, sweeping twisties through some of the most beautiful country in, well, the country. 100 miles of mixed terrain: mountains, and deep woods, and meadows, and views, and just amazing.
Once the incredibleness of the surroundings sets in after about 30 miles, and road concentration starts to set in, I start thinking about how to take these turns quicker, and smoother. I like to think I'm pretty good, generally I take the posted speed limit, and double that, and that's the minium speed to take the turns at. But I remember an article I read in Bike magazine about leaning in to the turns, really getting in to them, hanging off the bike, ass sliding side to side getting in to the turns. And I start thinking "How are you supposed to slide your ass from side to side when it's planted on the seat?" Here comes the breakthrough.

Get your ass off the seat.

I remembered another article, most probably from the same fine publication, discussing the differences between the quintessentially American cruiser, and European (in origin) sportsbike, and how they reflect the respective cultures from which they developed.

America being a big country, with lots, and lots of long, straight roads begat the cruiser. With a relaxed riding position, it's designed to be comfortable for long stretches, on straight roads. Big, fat, heavy, loud, comfortable, and very cool looking, They're quintessentially America. But they handle like a bloated hogzilla. They're even fucking called Hawg's fercrissakes. Cowboy's rode across the plains with their asses planted in the saddle.

Europe is a collection of relatively small countries. There aren't any super-mega highways. Lots of cool, windy, twisty roads. European sportscars are designed for handling over acceleration. This is where horse racing developed, and motorcycle racing. How to horse racing Jockey's ride their thoroughbreds? They're in a forward leaning crouch, over the torso, with their heads close to the horse's head. They don't sit down in the saddle, they ride bent at the knees, standing up in the stirrups.

So I got my ass out of the seat. Bent at the knees, standing on the pegs.

It was a revelation. It added another 20 mph to my run.

Phenomenal. Until I lowsided pulling over to check directions. I killed the road and the twisties, but got taken out by a pile of gravel. Always the way it goes.

Nice guy from Texas pulled over to help me get the bike back on the road. He stopped short from telling me to slow down. But I know he wanted to.