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[ST] "It Ain't the Tool: The Canyon Carving Shootout" excerpts



"Has this happened to you? I know it's happened to me. I have this
recurring nightmare: I'm riding the fastest, most powerful,
best-handling sportbike I've ever owned up a gnarly, twisted mountain
road. I'm braking late and getting on the gas early. I'm wearing
leathers and my kneepucks are lightly tapping the ground in the
corners. My wrists ache and my knees are straining, but it's worth it
because I'm going fast as heck. I'm on a vehicle that is purpose-built
to do one thing and one thing only -- go as fast as possible on
pavement.

I'm not looking in my mirrors, because there's nothing in them but
blurry elbows, but if I did, I would see a crusty old guy wearing
moto-cross boots and an even crustier old Bell helmet with goggles,
astride a monstrosity of a motorcycle, a dirty, banged-up dual sport,
rolling on skinny tires and making all of 32 bhp. He's gaining on me,
and then, with almost no warning aside from a whirring sound not
unlike a Huey helicopter, he is past me, pushing the bike into the
next bend as he disappears from view. The guy looks like he's barely
awake, much less breaking a sweat."

--------

"So I've described three dissimilar motorcycles we have here in the MO
garage: so what? We chose these three bikes because they represent two
totally opposite approaches to having fun while riding fast on a
twisty road.

The first approach is what I will term the "holistic" one. "Holistic
Sportbiking" is an almost ceremonial affair, with image and appearance
being paramount. On our ride up the Angeles Crest highway, we saw a
couple of acolytes of the Holistic Church of the Sportbike. They were
both riding the preferred vessel, the GSX-R, with rear fenders
ceremonially chopped, and dressed in baggy, spotless one-piece
leathers and pristine, unscuffed knee sliders.

Holistic sportbiking is an activity performed infrequently and often
in large groups. Only the most high-tech, class-leading motorcycles
are acceptable. Great amounts of thought, time, energy and money are
placed into improving power, brakes, suspension and appearance. In
practice, these motorcycles rarely see the racetrack, but instead are
ridden on carefully selected two-lane roads somewhere near the speed
limit. Much time is spent at rest stops comparing tires, suspension
and other esoterica.

The other approach is a more practical one. It's usually practiced by
older guys who have been riding a long time. They love to ride and
ride long miles. They demand comfort before almost everything else,
yet they blaze through even the bumpiest of turns without even slowing
down.

Practical sportbiking involves long, 250 mile or longer Sundays spent
on a variety of roads. Any line on the map is acceptable, as long as
it's not an interstate. When the pavement disappears or is impossibly
broken these practical riders don't even flinch.

Therefore, a practical bike must have a comfortable seating position,
decent wind protection, good fuel range and suspension with sufficient
travel to handle a wide variety of pavement."

--------

"With an uncomfortable riding position, even the best chassis,
suspension and motor aren't enough to compensate for multiple hours in
the saddle. The Aprilia puts the rider in a state of real bliss when
everything is just right, but how often, on a six-hour ride, do you
have those moments? When just the right mix of experiences- the
perfect apex, gaining on your buddy, the sun on the back of your neck
and the roar of exhaust in your ears- sends the serotonin into your
pleasure centers? Not that often, really, though we keep riding for
those intermittent pulses of pleasure. But most of our leisure riding
is spent connecting the twisty spots with straight-aways."

"Unless you do more than 10 or 15 trackdays a year, your ticket to
moto-happiness might not have "RSV" stamped on it."

-------------

It's a great article - if you have the chance, read the whole thing on-line.
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