Jack and I decided to go South this week as it was looking cold in the mountains around here.
Thursday as I was setting out to meet him in Corona, the first decision as what to wear. The forecast called for cloudy weather with highs in the 70s, so I opted to put the liner in my 70 degree Triumph jacket at it was about 50 outside and forgo the sweatshirt and long johns, since the 70s would be quite nice. As I grabbed the liner that was laying in the garage and shook it , I looked down and saw a big spider at my feet. I don't know if he was in the liner, but it did cause me to shake it some more. The poor spider didn't survive the day.
Jack must've been thinking along the same lines as he showed up in Corona dressed about the same, but with a heavier jacket and no liner.
We fuelled up in Corona, and and I was starting down the road, it dawned on me that I had actually gassed the bike up on the side stand, so I didn't have a full tank of gas! Oh, well, get some on the road. Just think about it before I hit the 200 mark, since my low fuel level light took a dump several thousand miles ago.
I had the Pirelli MT66s that I had installed a few days ago to try out and see if they were doing to be any better than my beloved K-70s. I had about 170 miles on them as I had ridden out to the shop and been through Carbon Canyon a couple of times on them and they felt very good there. Those rides and the one over to Ontario were spent about 75% on freeways. So I got a bit of a checkout there. They seem to ride a bit smoother on the freeways than the K-70s, but they tend to have a bit more weave in the striations of the freeways. Nothing alarming, but it's there. They are much smaller in diameter than the K70s. I've seen some advantages and disadvantages from them. One advantage is that the bike is lower making it easier to get on and off for us height impaired folk, and the bike sits up a bit straighter on the sidestand. I got more gas into it than at the old lean angle! Oh, yeah, the smaller gives me a lot of the punch back that I lost with the 18T sprocket! The bike is much quicker out of the hole!
Anyway, a trip starting down Temescal Cyn, and weaving down to Carancho Rd and Deluz, one of our all time favorites. Over the freeway from Fallbrook to Rice Cyn. Now the farther inland we get, the colder it's getting and we are beginning to rue some of our early morning decisions! It was fine while we were riding, but when we stopped we got rather chilled. Who says riding a motorcycle through the twisties doesn't give you exercise?
We were going to go up Palomar mountain, but decided that in the name of freezing our butts off and just continue down the 76 would be a wiser choice. the 76 was lightly travelled that day was a lot of fun. There's usually a lot of traffic there and and you're stuck behind them worried more about getting around them than enjoying the road. We didn't run into any traffic until we were down to Lake Henshaw which was about 3 miles from were we were turning off to go up Mesa Grande. The 76 is pretty straight there anyway so we weren't really missing any fun!
Now Mesa Grande is a different critter, pretty steep, very twistie road going to the top of the mesa, then opening out to some nice fast stuff, sith a great view on the climb of a Lake Henshaw with very little water in it. We do need a lot of rain around here. It's been a very dry couple of years and isn't looking any better so far this year. If like last year, it only rained on days when the local clubs had a ride scheduled, this year, those have even been dry!
After we got off the mesa and on the 79 we went down to the 78 again foregoing going up the mountain to Julian. We did see a lot of smoke up on the mountain west of Julian, and as it turns out they have a big fire up there. It probably would've been on our proposed route, too, although a lot of that was burned out a few years ago. They may already have their fire break!
But we were looking for some of the other roads off the 78 that I hadn't been on in probably 15 years and Jack hadn't seen at all. Going down the 78 was a fairly decent ride but we did get stuck behind some clown from Nevada who was driving like he'd never seen a curve before. Or a couple of Bullets in his rear view mirror! We finally had to double yellow him and continued on out way. We turned off on Old Julian Road that goes west to Ramona. WE stopped at Jack-in-the-Box for a quick lunch. I don't think the place had any heat on, as I was freezing my butt off in there! It still seemed to be getting colder the further we road, and now we were headed
back toward the coast. We left there and got back on the bike to warm up! We got on Highland Valley Road and took it over to the 15. Ighland Valley is another one that I hadn't been on a in a long time, but I got to see why it was always in the back of my mine to hit again. it is a great road with several deceptively tight turns in it, I mean genuine 10-15 mph stuff!
When we got tothe 15 Jack said, "Man, we're way down here". Meaning we were a long way south. We were south of Escondido. He said he wanted to look for a gas station and took off in front off me. I followed and once we got past Escondido I tried to wave him of the freeway to get gas, so a few more miles up at an exit I wanted to go on with some great roads going back to Temecula, I thought he saw me waving him off, but we were behind a truck and he missed the exit. I turned off there hoping he's cut the gore, but he didn't and I was on the exit ramp and went on down to enjoy Old Castle, Lilac, Couser Cyn, and back up Rice into Temecula.
I had 199 miles at that point from Corona and took 2.888 gallons of gas which included the shortage from the Corona.
I jumped back on the 15 there and as I was riding home, the traffic was moderately heavy but moving good. I was kinda running between splitting traffic and the the traffic blowing by me like I was parked. My speedo seemed to be reading fast now as it should be with the smaller wheels. An open spot in the slow lane caught my attention as there was no one in front of me for about a half mile, so I nailed it, then very soon I was going by all the traffic! I got up to an indicated 91 before the speedo stopped climbing! It was in a well grooved lane and the faster I went the more the weave increased intensity as I passed 90 I had to put a bit of pressure on the bars to hold it steady.
The tires performed remarkably well through the twisties and such, and the minor weaving usually wasn't an issue. The grip was very confidence inspiring, probably more so than the K-70s.
The odometer didn't seem to be much different than the K-70s. The ride to the shop and back, 100 miles) showed within 1 mile between the two tires. The run to Corona was very close, too. And back from Temecula (60 miles).
Now a couple caveats on the tires. They have very quick turn-in, almost oversteering. the K70s demonstrated a bit of this, but not quite as much. The steering itself is still a bit heavy, not bad, just a characteristic of the bike geometry. However, with the mild twitchiness shown on my bike, I don't think I could recommend these tires to a C5 rider with the leading axle forks. B5s should be fine with them as are G5s, and possible the new C5s with the straight legs.
They cost about $20 more than the K70s,and are supposed to give a much superior life span, but I'll only know that when I wear them out. So far they're great!
After I got home I had covered 284 miles and and gotten 72.3 mpg. that's combining the fuel stop at Ontario with Temecula to even out the less than full tank at Ontario. I was still a little chilly getting home, I don't think the temps ever got up to 60, maybe the last few miles home.
Yeah, I know, poor bastards crying about weather in the 50s, when some of you are really freezing your butts off, wishing it would get up to 50!
But I do have the thank the little flyscreen for keeping me much warmer than I would've been with the wind just beating on my chest.
That is a highly recommended option!
I love this bike!
Bare