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I just wanted to write a little about my morning, while it was still fresh in my mind. I took off this morning at 8am in glorious sunshine and met up with half a dozen other blokes and we went on a trip that took us to the edge of the Darian area, which seperates Panama from Columbia, a kind of natural border of swamp and virgin rainforest.
Anyway, we got of the main highway and onto so serious backroad, with haripins, decreasing radius bends and short straights, all smooth tarmac and of course with blind exits thanks mainly to said rainforest. The road ended at a little dock that serves as the main transport route for the numerous Indian villages and towns that occupy the Darian. We went in at a sedate pace, due to the road I guess, and after some refreshment I let it be known that I was going to up the pace on the way back. We had a guy down from Texas, and he was in, as he was surprised at how slowly we went, and my buddy on his GS was up for it and was happily scaring little children blipping the trottle of his "two brothers" exhaused mundo ATV. I would have said silenced,but the bike is anything but quiet, and frankly makes my GS seem tame until of course I get on the cam, where the wail hurts my ears.
So one final check of my split link (Twice now I have lost the clip, without, thank God, loosing the whole chain) tyres and general search for peices falling off, and we set off.
My friend really sets the tone by waving me past and then in a instant shows me the finger and we are off... Normally, due to the poor road surfaces he leaves me for dead as I weave and wobble and slip and slide on the crap surfaces, but not today. Perfect road and not dissimilar to the Norfolk backroads I learned my craft. The pace was a tad more than brisk and for the first km or so I couldnt get past him and had a real job of keeping my very worn Chengshin to behave. I can live with it spinning up once I am straight, but it was spinning while cranked over which was a little unnerving and I was trying to hard to keep English pride with this German upstart! My GS has always behaved like a two stroke, needing to be upward of 8000rpm before anything happens, then just gains power through the redline up to about 10,000rpm before it drops off and mechanical sympathy takes over..
This didnt help with such a tight roadcourse where the loping boxer seemed to make all its power of idle all the way to about 7000rpm, meaning that just as I was making progress and catching him another 1st gear corner was there, and I couldnt go around the outside (blind) and didnt get the lunge coming out of the curve (after all even though he is German he is a great friend and I didnt want to get too close...) and of course I had a traction issue to deal with (the Texan was behind me and said I was leaving nice arcs of rubber on the road). Anyway, so there we are steaming along BMW GS1150 up front me behind and the Texan guy on yet another BMW (1100 RT??) the pace is pretty fast, but not silly, and I am doing all I can to get by the 1150 on the brakes (you know that aint gonna happen) when we come out of a 40kph sweeper onto a 1/4mile straight and I can loose the GS.. I get the power down earlier than Biaggi, at least thats my story, and already the Boxer is 2bike lengths ahead and it is going to be a dash to the next curve, by the top of second gear he is still two bike lengths ahead and then my gs comes alive in 3rd and then 4th gear with 210kph showing on my speedo I go past the beemer like it is standing still. It may well be as I have gone very deep into this bend.. Hard on the brakes and leaned way over I knock it down a couple of gears and hear the chengshin chirping on the pavement in protest, but I dont care, I am through, and not only that but I didnt crash, and I can concentrate on my game and put some distance between us. A couple of minutes of this pace and I know I am going to pay, so I back it off to a livable pace and when I stop and light up a cigarette at the rondevous point the German pulls up grinning from cheek to cheek, closely followed by, no, not the Texan, but a Doctor sporting a very tasty Edition 80 (rockster, more BMW, special limited edition jobbie) who decided that he should exersise his right to go a lot faster than anybody as he has the most modern hooligan bike around..
Once the rest of the group arrived we once again set of at a more leisurely pace of around 120-140kph, but on highway back to the city and home for a cold shower.
What I should mention is that last week an odd noise started coming from my clutch at idle and I was supposed to be taking it easy until I took the time to pull it all down and fix it. As luck would have it there is no worsening of the noise, and I will no doubt post the result of my findings.
Thanks for letting me share that. My wife doesnt understand and feels that I am trying to commit suicide every weekend, and failing miserably!
CK
Anyway, we got of the main highway and onto so serious backroad, with haripins, decreasing radius bends and short straights, all smooth tarmac and of course with blind exits thanks mainly to said rainforest. The road ended at a little dock that serves as the main transport route for the numerous Indian villages and towns that occupy the Darian. We went in at a sedate pace, due to the road I guess, and after some refreshment I let it be known that I was going to up the pace on the way back. We had a guy down from Texas, and he was in, as he was surprised at how slowly we went, and my buddy on his GS was up for it and was happily scaring little children blipping the trottle of his "two brothers" exhaused mundo ATV. I would have said silenced,but the bike is anything but quiet, and frankly makes my GS seem tame until of course I get on the cam, where the wail hurts my ears.
So one final check of my split link (Twice now I have lost the clip, without, thank God, loosing the whole chain) tyres and general search for peices falling off, and we set off.
My friend really sets the tone by waving me past and then in a instant shows me the finger and we are off... Normally, due to the poor road surfaces he leaves me for dead as I weave and wobble and slip and slide on the crap surfaces, but not today. Perfect road and not dissimilar to the Norfolk backroads I learned my craft. The pace was a tad more than brisk and for the first km or so I couldnt get past him and had a real job of keeping my very worn Chengshin to behave. I can live with it spinning up once I am straight, but it was spinning while cranked over which was a little unnerving and I was trying to hard to keep English pride with this German upstart! My GS has always behaved like a two stroke, needing to be upward of 8000rpm before anything happens, then just gains power through the redline up to about 10,000rpm before it drops off and mechanical sympathy takes over..
This didnt help with such a tight roadcourse where the loping boxer seemed to make all its power of idle all the way to about 7000rpm, meaning that just as I was making progress and catching him another 1st gear corner was there, and I couldnt go around the outside (blind) and didnt get the lunge coming out of the curve (after all even though he is German he is a great friend and I didnt want to get too close...) and of course I had a traction issue to deal with (the Texan was behind me and said I was leaving nice arcs of rubber on the road). Anyway, so there we are steaming along BMW GS1150 up front me behind and the Texan guy on yet another BMW (1100 RT??) the pace is pretty fast, but not silly, and I am doing all I can to get by the 1150 on the brakes (you know that aint gonna happen) when we come out of a 40kph sweeper onto a 1/4mile straight and I can loose the GS.. I get the power down earlier than Biaggi, at least thats my story, and already the Boxer is 2bike lengths ahead and it is going to be a dash to the next curve, by the top of second gear he is still two bike lengths ahead and then my gs comes alive in 3rd and then 4th gear with 210kph showing on my speedo I go past the beemer like it is standing still. It may well be as I have gone very deep into this bend.. Hard on the brakes and leaned way over I knock it down a couple of gears and hear the chengshin chirping on the pavement in protest, but I dont care, I am through, and not only that but I didnt crash, and I can concentrate on my game and put some distance between us. A couple of minutes of this pace and I know I am going to pay, so I back it off to a livable pace and when I stop and light up a cigarette at the rondevous point the German pulls up grinning from cheek to cheek, closely followed by, no, not the Texan, but a Doctor sporting a very tasty Edition 80 (rockster, more BMW, special limited edition jobbie) who decided that he should exersise his right to go a lot faster than anybody as he has the most modern hooligan bike around..
Once the rest of the group arrived we once again set of at a more leisurely pace of around 120-140kph, but on highway back to the city and home for a cold shower.
What I should mention is that last week an odd noise started coming from my clutch at idle and I was supposed to be taking it easy until I took the time to pull it all down and fix it. As luck would have it there is no worsening of the noise, and I will no doubt post the result of my findings.
Thanks for letting me share that. My wife doesnt understand and feels that I am trying to commit suicide every weekend, and failing miserably!
CK
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