Threeteas
New member
Okay, the weather was amazing, dry and warm, but with a breeze to keep armpits on the acceptable side of pungent. The views were simultaneously intricate and panoramic, with endless detail to be picked from the abundant and overwhelming land and sky scapes.
The roads were uncongested and free flowing, with sufficient variety to test, stimulate and dawdle in equal measure.
So what was the reason I'm not enthused?
People. Fellow riders. That's why.
I think the error came in joining a dealership ride out, where the dealership sells a variety of marques, so lightening quick sports bikes were running with behemoth cruisers, 250cc Rebels were sharing space with ST1300s and other mis matched stuff.
It made for a disjointed and disrupted ride. On a couple of stops folk were arriving as others were about to leave..."you guys are so fast", "yes well you are towing a bloody trailer, on a day's ride out".
I couldn't work that one out, how big does a lunch need to be?
The Northern Cascades road in Washington does deliver some great riding, not as up close and personal as the 410 around Mt Rainier, which was the previous weekend's ride (and I have to say preferable), but none-the-less a road that could be enjoyed as a spectacle, if not spectacular ride.
The stop off point, by the liberty bell rocks, was breath taking however, not least because I get vertigo and the slightest of edges leaves me sucking air in rather too rapidly for comfort, so not for me the feet dangling over the edge 'photo opportunity', thank you.
I rode home alone and enjoyed the road and scenic sensations all the more for not being pushed or pushing. I could stop for the shot of the waterfall mist rainbow, the glacial bowl turned pink by the lowering sun, the river's glint as it chased the lowering light down stream, dispersing across an ever increasing surface area, so as to catch more reflections.
Would a BMW group ride out have been any better?
You know I somehow doubt it.
There may not have been the macho banter of how many seconds had been ripped off a lap time, or the capacity of a fibreglass trailer, or whether you could fit a dog in it if you cut a hole in the top...rivetting stuff, but I dare say a group of beemer riders can contrive to be just as dull..."now telelever suspension and the boxer twin ..."
The moral...there isn't one, except perhaps, sometimes, even with nature's best attempts at beguiling vistas, people can change your perspective.
The roads were uncongested and free flowing, with sufficient variety to test, stimulate and dawdle in equal measure.
So what was the reason I'm not enthused?
People. Fellow riders. That's why.
I think the error came in joining a dealership ride out, where the dealership sells a variety of marques, so lightening quick sports bikes were running with behemoth cruisers, 250cc Rebels were sharing space with ST1300s and other mis matched stuff.
It made for a disjointed and disrupted ride. On a couple of stops folk were arriving as others were about to leave..."you guys are so fast", "yes well you are towing a bloody trailer, on a day's ride out".
I couldn't work that one out, how big does a lunch need to be?
The Northern Cascades road in Washington does deliver some great riding, not as up close and personal as the 410 around Mt Rainier, which was the previous weekend's ride (and I have to say preferable), but none-the-less a road that could be enjoyed as a spectacle, if not spectacular ride.
The stop off point, by the liberty bell rocks, was breath taking however, not least because I get vertigo and the slightest of edges leaves me sucking air in rather too rapidly for comfort, so not for me the feet dangling over the edge 'photo opportunity', thank you.
I rode home alone and enjoyed the road and scenic sensations all the more for not being pushed or pushing. I could stop for the shot of the waterfall mist rainbow, the glacial bowl turned pink by the lowering sun, the river's glint as it chased the lowering light down stream, dispersing across an ever increasing surface area, so as to catch more reflections.
Would a BMW group ride out have been any better?
You know I somehow doubt it.
There may not have been the macho banter of how many seconds had been ripped off a lap time, or the capacity of a fibreglass trailer, or whether you could fit a dog in it if you cut a hole in the top...rivetting stuff, but I dare say a group of beemer riders can contrive to be just as dull..."now telelever suspension and the boxer twin ..."
The moral...there isn't one, except perhaps, sometimes, even with nature's best attempts at beguiling vistas, people can change your perspective.
