Your favorite ride

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High_Side · #1 Unread post by **High_Side** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:48 am

Post up details of the best ride you have ever taken on a bike; that one ride that will forever stick out in your mind as the one to beat. Everybody has got one, so lets hear it......

High_Side · #2 Unread post by **High_Side** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 3:49 am

I'll go first then

WAY back when I was 16 y.o. I took a ride with my parents and their friends through the north-western states and a good chunk of B.C. I was riding a lowly CX650E Honda but I felt like Freddie Spencer when I got to the Kootneys. We did 800-1000km a day and I still remember going out to rip through a few turns close to town at night after we had settled in to our hotel room in New Denver B.C.. My parents thought I was nuts but knew how addicted I was. An added bonus was that the CX-E was never sold in the states, and even though it was two years old at the time lots of people would come over to check it out as they had never seen one before. My dad taught me alot about riding on that trip as I followed the sea of sparks from parts dragging on his Aspencade through the Kootneys. Even though the final stretch home from northern B.C. was through a snow-storm, it still was my most memorable ride.....
High_Side

pinger05 · #3 Unread post by **pinger05** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 10:28 am

Every ride I have taken has been memorable. Heck I remember the rides at 9pm on Sunday just to get gas for the week ahead.

The one that sticks out in my mind was the first long distance ride I ever took. It wasnt that far, just a day ride but it was the longest I have ever ridden on a bike. We took our Wings out to Sesbe Park in Monterey CA. That day was just a pefect for a ride. It was a warm Sunday afternoon right after church. The traffic on Interstate 5 was calm as well as all the feeder roads up to the 5. Then we got off into the mountains and a few curves. The curves wernt as fun on Wing as they are on a CB750K but it was gratifying to twist-n-go the 1500cc engine...

Ahh I miss my bikes...

scan · #4 Unread post by **scan** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 11:41 am

The first out of state ride I took on the present bike. I went to Michigan for a weekend and rode all over and visited friends and went on a large group ride. I had just purchased the bike not 2 weeks earlier and it was running a little odd. It would accelerate, but had a terrible bog when I would "get on it". It didn't ruin the bike, but I knew I had to get something fixed. When I was on the group ride these guys kept taking off from every light very fast and I kept trying to keep up. At one of the lights I was ready and was revving to take off. The light changed, I had the RPM's quite high, I let the clutch out, and the front end lifted up. Scared the heck out of me. When I popped back down I took off after them again and it was a whole new bike. I guess I cleaned out whatever was wrong, and the bike ran great - and the same as today. The whole rest of the weekend I was all smiles. That's the best ride I remember.

BuzZz · #5 Unread post by **BuzZz** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:49 pm

Mine was actually a race. Does that count? Too bad, it's gonna have too...

It was my first Hare Scrambles and it was held at the Vega Recreational area near Fort Assiniboine..... scrub pine forest trails and open sand dunes. As a newcomer to the whole Scrambles thing, at sign-up they placed me in the last row. They give you little paper numbers to tape onto your number plates, according to your start row. They set us off in groups of 5 at 30 second intervals.

So I'm sitting on line waiting while every other bike present leaves except us. Finally they waved us off. I hit the start like it was a motocross, balls-to-the-wall. At the first marked turn I looked back, the rest of my line was waaay back there..... so I'm pretty pleased. I just kept the hammer down and soon I was catching rows in front me. More coolness

I had just got my CR-500 and it LOVES sand, so I was catching people left and right, and blowing past them like sign posts. I started noticing numbers on bikes I was passing and soon I was passing guys with 2-digit numbers.... I was 215 or something like that.... and I'm wondering how long this race was. Soon I'm back at the startline and at the check they tell me I got 2 more laps..... right-on, I got more ground to cover.

I was catching fewer and fewer guys now, but the numbers kept getting smaller. I kept riding like my hair was on fire. Back at the check again, I had me a brainstorm and checked my fuel. Good thing too, I would have run out on that lap. Quick detour to the pits and top 'er up, and I was off again. The last lap I was lapping dudes with triple digit numbers and catching guys with numbers in the 20's. I ended up taking the over-all that day. The right bike on the right course and one of my better days all came together at the same time for me... which never happens for me. That was also the last Scrambles I Overall-ed in, but I'll never forget it. I was un-freakin-stoppable that day.

Sure could use another day(or 365 of 'em) like that again.....

On the street, one midnight blitz of downtown Edmonton with my buddy Corby in the mid '80's stands out as too much fun to be legal. And it wasn't.

But we tore the hell outta the downtown core for 3 hours.... absolutely empty streets, my RD-350 was running perfectly, it was awesome! Too bad that the streets are never that empty anymore...... dam ricers and skater-punks are always out these days......

britishjoe · Sun Nov 20, 2005 9:32 pm

I was 16 years old and Id recently rebuilt a GS550 with a mate of mine, middle of the night, 110 MPH...and thinking IM HOOKED!!!

#7 Unread post by **Skier** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 10:41 am

I took a trip down to Boise, ID from Pullman, WA to visit an internet-buddy (fellow motorcyclist and cigar fan). I took the long, scenic way and I would say it was the best ride of my life.

The part that stuck out the most was Hells Canyon National Recreational Area. The road was a forest service road, but Oregon paves their forest service roads, so it was all good.

The road twisted and turned through mile upon beautiful mile. Hairpins, sweepers, zig-zags, it was all there. Road was in decent shape and there was little to no traffic. You felt right there in nature with huge trees and bushes zooming by at 45 or 50 MPH.

Next time I have a free day, you can take one guess where I'm heading.

#8 Unread post by **sv-wolf** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:30 am

Seven great days riding and camping through France last year - from the north to the south coast and back again. The weather was lousy for a lot of the time, I spent several days soaked to the skin, the peripherique round Paris was as sensationally awful as I'd always imagined, I ran out of fuel miles from anywhere, but somehow the ride was just brilliant. The landscape was stupendous (once Northern France was behind me), and the French toll roads are a joy to ride on. One day I rode nearly 800 miles through the south-west of the country. I just couldn't help it. I hadn't planned to ride that far, but I was enjoying myself so much I couldn't bear to get off the bike.

CNF2002 · #9 Unread post by **CNF2002** » Mon Nov 21, 2005 11:36 am

Every time I ride its my favorite ride...so my favorite ride was this morning!

Ions001 · #10 Unread post by **Ions001** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:42 am

The best ride of my life took place at what was one of the worst times in my life. My marriage of 11 years was over.

In a fit of depression, I quit my job and purchased a 2002 Suzuki Marauder 800. That very night I put three changes of clothes in a dufflebag and rode north from Mesa, Arizona. I spent the next two months riding through Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. I didn't stay anywhere for more than a couple of days. Mountain roads, desert sunsets, and some of the best and worst people I've ever met in my life. It was what I needed at the time. I'll never forget that ride.