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End of winter ride 2008. 360 miles in a day.

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  curtis97322 
#1 · (Edited)
Over 100 pics of the ride at this link...
http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u228/curtis97322/Bike/Mt St Helens/

Saturday March 22, 2008. 2 days into spring, 3rd end of winter ride planned over 100 miles away. Up Mt. St Helens and back. What the heck, I need a long ride.

The day previous I'd went for a brief ride with my wife. The gas tank cap has had problems with venting for a while and on same breif ride acted up a couple times. My morning started with me pulling the gas cap apart and cleaning it - no problems on the 360 miles. I've never been great about cleaning my bike - but let's face it I was going to be around 100 bikers so I better have a reasonably clean bike - I washed my trusty steed (with frost on the ground) and started her up to warm her up. She was as dirty as she was before the bath by the top of the mountain.

By this time it was getting close to when I had wanted to leave. Ate some quick breakfast, did other morning routine things, and started getting my gear together and making sure I had everything in my bags that I'd planned on bringing. Once I had the bike started (again) and most of my gear on my wife popped her head out the door and asked if I still wanted her to go (she'd previously decided she wasn't going). By this time it was 10. I'd planned on leaving at 9. I gave her 5 minutes to get ready. She was ready in 7 (close enough).

The ride I was joining was scheduled to leave at noon. I of course followed the speed limit the whole way ;-) averaged 34mpg on the way there. With a gas stop on the way, I pulled in just in time to hear a pre-ride briefing, fill the bike and empty something else.

I ended up about mid pack of the second group (kinda wish I'd been in the front - faster group). The group I was in went about 45 miles up the 70 mile pass (a good thing with the vulcan's tiny tank) due to parts of the road being down to a lane and a half because of uncleared snow. I aughta ride with groups more often - I got almost 50 mpg on the group portion of the ride (compared to my 30-35 average on my own...).

Beautiful scenery, nice clean air. I'd love to ride the route in a couple months (and probably will) with the roads completely clear and a somewhat faster group (and a spare gas tank so that I can make it the full 140 miles round trip with no gas available). Roads in great shape, nice sweepers, awesome scenery. Due to the snow on the ground doc definitely got dirty all over again - but I'm still grinning ear to ear (though 360 miles is a bit rough on a glass ass).
http://www.motonorthwest.com/RDWRD_Hwy504StHelens.html
gives a good idea of the group portion of the ride I went on. http://www.motonorthwest.com/RDRW_EOW2008.html is the "official" ride report ;-)


My wifes backside should give an idea of how dirty the bike got.








Someone with a slightly more expensive bike than mine ;-)


Sightseeing the sightseers (they stopped to take pictures of all us crazy bikers)



'Twas a bit of snow on the mount


yup... that's all bikes ya see...
 
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#2 ·
Good looking picts there, I did a ride like that last year.
3 feet of snow onthe side of the road and we went for close to 100 miles.
 
#3 ·
Looks like a great ride! Do you have a heater you put in your skivvies?
 
#4 ·
Nope. Just freeze my balls off. Ya know it was a good ride when you're talking like michael jackson at the end... err... guess this ride didn't qualify.

Actually with a fleece under my jacket and insulated work pants over my jeans (I need to get some real riding pants) I stayed reasonably warm. Then again, I'm the guy that rolls the windows down in the car when it's 30 degrees out...
 
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