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Re: [ST] Western Rallye Adventures(very long) Part II



Steven "Dirty Dawg" Kohlscheen wrote:

> I take off with Greg, who happened to be at the dealer when I showed up,

Imagine my surprise (and the sinking feeling in my stomach) when he
showed up!  


> a Presidents job of schmoozing is never done.

S'truth.


> We head over the road we
> stumbled upon the year before at STAR, CO 65.  This has to be the best road
> in the west, a near perfect balance of great scenery and technical road.

Awesome, awesome road!  And newly paved.  Even I, Mr. Slowpoke
Flatlander, had a blast on this road and was able to ride quite briskly
and confidently.  Very enjoyable.


> I drank about half my flask of Tequila that night.

Note to self - buy some Tarantula Azul tequila (Hecho en Mexico, but
bottled in Weston, Missouri... go figure!).

 
> I have a wonderful ride thru the canyons and mountain passes of CO 141.  

Yup... Steven and his group passed me although I left about 10 minutes
of them.  Damn speedsters.  ;-)

> One of the interesting little things to happen was the plague's
> worth of blackfiles in one canyon run.  

Caddisflies actually.  The local trout must have been quite happy.

> And although I missed the bear, I was about 10-20
> min ahead of those that saw it, I did get to try my maximum braking skills
> when I rounded a blind corner to find 3 horses standing in the road!

I too missed the bear, and was lucky enough to find the pinto ponies had
move off the road when I went by, though I was still surprised to see
them.  The only animal-Sprint interaction was when I ran over some sort
of lizard that shot across the road between sweepers.  The "thump-thump"
sound still haunts me...

> The evenings festivities were filled
> with stories of bears, horses, and bicyclists in the road.

Nothing like coming up on a bike race at speed.  I'm an ex-bicycle racer
and I've got so say that these racers were pretty rude.  The difficulty
was that the riders weren't in a peleton, but rather in gruppetto's or
riding solo.  The cyclists were strung out on Hwy 141 for miles making
for some tough riding.


 
> Greg and I pack up to head out in the morning, same situation, my bike runs
> rich until it gets warmed up.

He didn't mention that we were riding the twisties and sweepers on Hwy
50 at a high rate of speed.  Well... Steven was.  I couldn't keep up
though I almost caught him on one very long straightaway (had to have
been close to 2 or 3 km) where I was doing about 130mph/209kph (actual,
not indicated).  This was with a tank bag, tail pack and Triumph Sport
Panniers.  Triumph recommends staying below 80mph/129kph with the
panniers mounted, but the bike was rock steady.

> I wave down Greg and explain to him what happened.

A front end wash-out.  That must have been very scary!!!!

> I whip off the bag, get out my Leatherman and bend the hook on the bag back
> into place.   I get the feeling Greg is questioning my sanity about now, if
> not previously.

Nah, not really.  I just obey the 3 meter rule.  It's not like you tried
to kill me in my sleep or anything.  ;-)

 
> The final indignity happens in Russell, KS... Insert much cussing and, well
> cussing.  

Yup, much cussing.  Some people who were re-fueling their automobile saw
Steven freaking, then looked at me as if to ask "Is he going to be
okay?"  I just sat there cool and calm (obeying the 3 meter rule) and
they realized that Steven and I have gone through this before.  Ain't no
thang.


> I enjoyed meeting more of my fellow riding enthusists and being able to put
> some faces with the names here.

Me too!!!

GG

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