It's Always Fun

[eddiekay]

Lightwight bikes with a little bit of coaxing and compromise will do almost anything that can be done with any other kind of specialized bike.
We can run the ¼ like a Vmax…though not as fast.
The fire roads can be fun…pay atterntion to clearance.
Crossing a stream…not too deep, OK ?
Crossing the continent…see Nevada Wolf for that one.
On the track ? I’m reminded often that it’s more fun to drive a slow bike fast than a fast bike slow.
After a few rides on my first ninjette I realized that the bike could do more than my beloved FZ6, my trusty Sportster and brought me back to the machine that sucked me in to this world, my CB350.
Upland Road runs N-S and is a “secondary” road branching off roads constructed around the time of the Rev War.
We ain’t got no canyons in NY…but we got old roads.
The “primary” Rev War roads are mostly paved now but being very lightly traveled so the counties have no reason to maintain them until someone calls and complains. In this particular area, no one complains because they want to preserve the historic beauty of the roads.
Upland appears to receive no maintenance at all having fewer than 10 houses on it in what seemed like miles of riding, although it was probably less than a mile.
Ascending Upland was not difficult because the defects in the road were nicely progressive. The simple cracks in the surface at the bottom were followed by more and more difficult conditions so one was given a few yards to learn how to deal with one surface before coming to the next.
Cracks are easy. Then, what’s left of the cracked asphalt gives way to ruts, followed by ruts with crumbled pavement, then crumbled pavement and sand with flowing water. The conditions did not damage my Shinkos.
Going up hill is nice because when your tires stop biting, you have the chance to just flat foot it back down a bit and U-turn. Upland is not a steep ascent by any means and is wide enough to walk a turn. But by this point, the road has dozens of high spots and ruts parallel to the direction of travel. Like unevenly corrugated cardboard but big. Your front tire is within one rut, your rear is in another.
It’s not a problem for a 4 wheeled vehicle…with fat tires and 4WD but difficult enough for a little sport bikes propellers.
Nearer the top, the sometimes paved portion of the road disappears and reappears for no apparent reason. At those times you either ride on gravel, hard packed dirt or a mixture of the two, peppered with small, gravel sized pieces of asphalt and gray sand looking a lot like cement dust. The ascent was slow and I spent more time with my feet on the ground than the pegs but I will confess that my mind went to the videos of a dual sport rocketing up the hill tail hopping side to side…Baja, 80 miles north of NYC.
As well, I’m beginning to feel very amateur.
Hey, there are a few million dollar houses up here….how’re those rich guys getting up this hill everyday ? Paying attention to next driveway, I got my answer. Land Rovers and F150’s with a tonneau. Not your working class class. Tonneau ? Yeah, hides the cases of champagne.
It occurred to me that maybe the road was left in this condition to keep people like me out. So…I made a lot of noise with my new Area P…just to announce myself.
Now, I entered Upland from the “back door”…, from the end of the road that connected to another sparsely traveled road and while a little difficult it wasn’t too difficult.
I was about to descend to the “main road”…Route 9 ( we all have a route 9) and this part of the road is where there are more homes…with Land Rovers, F150’s and a Jeep or two.
Looking downhill, this part appeared a bit easier with fewer ruts and while paved here and broken there, a more consistent surface.
I began with my feet on the pegs in gear at idle and within a few yards was tapping the rear….steeper than it looks. The rear wasn’t doing what I hoped and every tap brought a little slide and a feeling that the bike was moving just a bit faster than a few yards ago. Sliding at a few MPH is not a reason for panic…unless the bike is being steered by the ruts and not the rider. The ruts, under the gravel and sand were winning. At the very first, it was kind of entertaining to see where the ruts would take me until , rear wheel locked, they took me real close to the deeply eroded edges of Upland. Deeply eroded like 3 feet deep with all kinds of menacing broken rocks…and water,,the kind that might have come the mansion at the top’s toilet…the kind of ditch you can’t pull a bike out of by yourself.
It was time to plant both boots firmly on the ground and walk the bike or have it walk me back to the center of the road and tap tap tap the rear some more.. The routine became lock the rear, slide a few feet and then correct my path.
I don’t get it…whatever was keeping that road surface in place was not helping me. Seemed like there was more to gravity and friction than I knew.
Perhaps half of the way down I saw a section that was surely hard packed dirt. It was steep with a sharp left at a level bottom bordered by a stream on the right, but it was level at the bottom.
Inexperienced adventure rider that I am, I took the chance of coasting to the bottom, in gear, clutch hand alert. Well…you dirt riders already know what happened.
The level bottom,,,yeah…ball bearing gravel, the kind that steers the inexperienced rider to the stream.
We hit the gravel moving, locked the rear but maybe the bike wants a bath and keeps on moving towards the water. I won’t pretend it was my superior technique but I put my left foot down, tilted the 300 so far to the left that a knee dragger would’ve been impressed and the rear came around not far enough to get wet but just far enough to maybe let me push the bike onto the path.
I felt like a little kid…the first time I skidded my Schwinn on some sand in the street. Look Ma, I didn’t fall.
Stock Shinko’s don’t work on ball bearings but the prospect of having to call for help can be motivating. So I pushed. Pushed her a few feet onto level, laughed out loud and continued the remaining few hundred back onto 9.
Had I taken a KLR or BMW on Upland Road I guess it would’ve been much different. But then, I wouldn’t have had anything to write about.

[Hero Danny]

tl;dr

But I agree, our ninjettes are amazing bikes! It always seem to put a smile on my face when I'm racing down the street on my little bike.

[eddiekay]

Yeah...a long post but the most memorable rides are the ones where stuff happened that I didnt expect. Up by you...I took a ride along some ridge road...near Pittsfield I think. Went up the road, covered in fog and i'm cussing myself because i'm 200 miles from home and it's raining. Didnt realize i was on a mountain....came down to ground level....no more fog....rode home damp but not wet.

[NevadaWolf]

Nice save. I like adventuring off pavement but very mindful of my weak little street tires and my "adventure" doesn't get too far from the safety of pavement.

Need knobbies, yes, we need knobbies.

[AmyF]

I'm finding the Ninja to be quite an addictive bike!

09 CFMoto Glory - little 150 CC engine - my first 2-wheeler so love it for that, it had great looks and ran great but was very underpowered and so limited me to mostly town driving.

02 Honda Rebel 250 - slightly bigger 250 (I think 238 cc technically) bike - nice relaxed ride position, but I just couldn't warm up to this one. It just felt too "hunky" to me - kinda big n slow.

05 Ninja 250 - a whole other story. I'm really starting to LOVE this little bike - very fun and very addictive to ride. I've had her just shy of 4 whole weeks now, but I've put nearly 1500 miles on already. Nice quite response bike, more efficient build than my Rebel, and all-around complete joy to ride.

[csmith12]

ps - That was a tough read.

[adouglas]

Don't mind Eddie. He's a Jack Kerouac fan.

Now that I've dated myself by coming up with a reference that only Eddie himself is old enough to get, I shall gracefully exit, stage left.

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by adouglas

Don't mind Eddie. He's a Jack Kerouac fan.

Now that I've dated myself by coming up with a reference that only Eddie himself is old enough to get, I shall gracefully exit, stage left.

Ha - I was thinking of Kerouac or Neal Cassady.

The ride sounded fun.

[eddiekay]

Err...that was the edited version...my HS english teacher was of some influence...Mr. Fibonaci if i recall