Hewhois
08-02-2005, 10:21 PM
Greetings!
I had a GREAT time the past few days :) Got some video from my bike that I am working on uploading and also some GPS track pics and elevation plots.
As some of you know, I live in Tampa, FL. My local area has a few "hills" nearby, here and there, but for all intents and purposes it is flat riding, very flat. I was able to go up last year in June to the Ashville area and surrounding roads with my old 1150RT for one week, and that was the extent of my mountain riding career till now.
Ever since I got my new job schedule with 3 days off in a row (Sun-Tue), I've been wanting to take my current ride ('05 ST1300) up to the mountains and curves. My plan was to do a 3 day trip with NO vacation time needed. Ride up on Sunday, ride around the area on Monday and ride back down on Tuesday, all on my normal weekly days off. Either in Northern GA, Virginias, Carolinas, Tennessee, wherever :) If the first one went well, then I would do more, to different areas each time, eventually one a month perhaps?
I mentioned to a friend that I was hoping to start doing this soon, and asked if he knew any good places in Northern GA to stay a couple nights. I ended up staying at his place this past Sunday and Monday night :) He even sacrificed his own personal time to ride with me through some great Northern GA roads on Monday, whataguy!
So, this Sunday I rode up to his place from Tampa. About 490 miles one way. Avg moving speed was 77mph and I averaged about 44mpg. I left home around 10:30am and got there around 5:30pm, ~6.25 hrs of riding time and ~45mins of gas/rest stop time. Made two stops on the way up, first leg ~215miles, middle leg ~125 miles, last leg ~150 miles. Could have cut down the gas/rest stop time some, but I was taking it easy :)
Some totals that include the trip up on Sunday, riding around on Monday, and the trip back Tuesday:
Total Trip Miles: 1108
Total Trip Moving Time: 16hrs17min
Total Ascent: 34,587ft
Max Elev: 3251ft
Min Elev: -70ft (guess where that was, lol)
Max Ascent: 457 ft/min
Max Descent: 415 ft/min
Max Speed: 70mph...plus or minus 26.5...
I will post more text about my experience later. For now, I'm gonna work on getting some vids, pics & plots uploaded. While watching the vids, please keep in mind the following ;)
I approached each corner as a complete unknown, 'cause they ALL were ;)
Even on the straights I was careful, didn't want to over accelerate and misjudge the next entry speed.
Limited my shifting when really twisty, pretty much stayed in 2nd in the tight stuff.
During this trip, I tried to concentrate on technique and smoothness instead of speeding through the corners. Setting entry points, setting up the correct lines, making as few corrections in mid-turn as I could manage, setting an appropriate entry speed, keeping a steady throttle hand through the turn and hopefully increase it as I go through the curve, and most of all, coming back home with no new scratches/injuries to me or my bike :) Lots of room for improvement of course, over all I think I did well, and I made it back home safe and sound :)
Yes I know, I'm such a squid! :P
Oh, and my friend was very considerate and kept his pace waaay down for the poor Flatlander :)
I had a GREAT time the past few days :) Got some video from my bike that I am working on uploading and also some GPS track pics and elevation plots.
As some of you know, I live in Tampa, FL. My local area has a few "hills" nearby, here and there, but for all intents and purposes it is flat riding, very flat. I was able to go up last year in June to the Ashville area and surrounding roads with my old 1150RT for one week, and that was the extent of my mountain riding career till now.
Ever since I got my new job schedule with 3 days off in a row (Sun-Tue), I've been wanting to take my current ride ('05 ST1300) up to the mountains and curves. My plan was to do a 3 day trip with NO vacation time needed. Ride up on Sunday, ride around the area on Monday and ride back down on Tuesday, all on my normal weekly days off. Either in Northern GA, Virginias, Carolinas, Tennessee, wherever :) If the first one went well, then I would do more, to different areas each time, eventually one a month perhaps?
I mentioned to a friend that I was hoping to start doing this soon, and asked if he knew any good places in Northern GA to stay a couple nights. I ended up staying at his place this past Sunday and Monday night :) He even sacrificed his own personal time to ride with me through some great Northern GA roads on Monday, whataguy!
So, this Sunday I rode up to his place from Tampa. About 490 miles one way. Avg moving speed was 77mph and I averaged about 44mpg. I left home around 10:30am and got there around 5:30pm, ~6.25 hrs of riding time and ~45mins of gas/rest stop time. Made two stops on the way up, first leg ~215miles, middle leg ~125 miles, last leg ~150 miles. Could have cut down the gas/rest stop time some, but I was taking it easy :)
Some totals that include the trip up on Sunday, riding around on Monday, and the trip back Tuesday:
Total Trip Miles: 1108
Total Trip Moving Time: 16hrs17min
Total Ascent: 34,587ft
Max Elev: 3251ft
Min Elev: -70ft (guess where that was, lol)
Max Ascent: 457 ft/min
Max Descent: 415 ft/min
Max Speed: 70mph...plus or minus 26.5...
I will post more text about my experience later. For now, I'm gonna work on getting some vids, pics & plots uploaded. While watching the vids, please keep in mind the following ;)
I approached each corner as a complete unknown, 'cause they ALL were ;)
Even on the straights I was careful, didn't want to over accelerate and misjudge the next entry speed.
Limited my shifting when really twisty, pretty much stayed in 2nd in the tight stuff.
During this trip, I tried to concentrate on technique and smoothness instead of speeding through the corners. Setting entry points, setting up the correct lines, making as few corrections in mid-turn as I could manage, setting an appropriate entry speed, keeping a steady throttle hand through the turn and hopefully increase it as I go through the curve, and most of all, coming back home with no new scratches/injuries to me or my bike :) Lots of room for improvement of course, over all I think I did well, and I made it back home safe and sound :)
Yes I know, I'm such a squid! :P
Oh, and my friend was very considerate and kept his pace waaay down for the poor Flatlander :)