In the interest of testing my bike, I took a short road trip. I traveled with my brother and two friends. Below is a map which includes our route. Altogether it was about 800 miles and 3 days. Keep in mind that Alaska is about twice the size of texas.
We left Kasilof at 6 am Saturday and drove on the Sterling hwy through a fog to anchorage. On the way up I fell down in a gravel parking lot at a gas station.
I felt pretty stupid. After a short stop at a friends house in Anchorage, we continued on the Glen hwy to the Matsu Valley. We got a safe distance out of Wasilla (the last sesspool of road cops until Fairbanks) on the Parks Hwy, then opened up the throttle. I discovered that my bike has a top speed of about 107 mph. It is so easy to go fast, especially through Denali Park.
We arrived in Healy as darkness was starting to set in, about 9 pm. We decided to continue on to Fairbanks and stay the night there, because one of the guys in our group said he could get us a cheap room at a hotel he used to work at. It is quite exilerating to drive the windy road through the hills outside of fairbanks on a motorcycle in pitch black darkness. Yet that is nothing compared to driving a 2 mile patch of gravel at night, which is what we did, because the road on the outskirts of town was being rebuilt. We arrived at the hotel after 11 pm. The best deal the discount guy was able to work was 160 for a two bed room - just wee-bit disappointing. We were all too tired to complain though.
I felt pretty stupid. After a short stop at a friends house in Anchorage, we continued on the Glen hwy to the Matsu Valley. We got a safe distance out of Wasilla (the last sesspool of road cops until Fairbanks) on the Parks Hwy, then opened up the throttle. I discovered that my bike has a top speed of about 107 mph. It is so easy to go fast, especially through Denali Park.
We arrived in Healy as darkness was starting to set in, about 9 pm. We decided to continue on to Fairbanks and stay the night there, because one of the guys in our group said he could get us a cheap room at a hotel he used to work at. It is quite exilerating to drive the windy road through the hills outside of fairbanks on a motorcycle in pitch black darkness. Yet that is nothing compared to driving a 2 mile patch of gravel at night, which is what we did, because the road on the outskirts of town was being rebuilt. We arrived at the hotel after 11 pm. The best deal the discount guy was able to work was 160 for a two bed room - just wee-bit disappointing. We were all too tired to complain though.The next day, we decided to embark for Valdez. So we took the Richardson hwy to Delta Junction. While there we stopped at the Bufalo Diner. Their bufalo chips were pretty tasty. While there, we saw a truck with some sweet looking pipes.
About half way between Delta Junction and Paxon, I had a wreck. In the DMV motorcycle manual, it says that when riding in a group, riders should be staggered, meaning that the first rider should be on one side of the lane and the next on the other side of the lane and so on. It also says that when going around corners in group formation, all riders should revert to single file on the inside of the corner. Now I know why. I was riding in formation, but not going to single file around corners. I just happened to be going around the outside of a corner near the white line. There were some small peices of gravel on the pavement and when my bike ran over these, it went from the tilted turn position to the vertical non-turn position. Therefore my bike ceased to be turning and went onto the gravel embankment, but if I had been on the inside of the turn as I should have, I would have had time to correct myself before going off the road. Gravel is not good for turning for a motorcycle at 60 mph on a motorcycle. So I skidded the bike down onto it's side and jumped off. I was hoping that my bike would just skid to a stop. Unfortunately it ran into some bushes first and flipped onto its other side. The speedometer and headlight broke off their mounts as well as the sissy bar. And the handlebars bent. I was so pissed at myself. Fortunately the bike still drove fine. I used some wire to put the headlight 
back on and put everything else in my backpack. We spent so much time at the scene of the accident, that we would not have been able to make it to Valdez before dark, and I did not want to ride in the dark with my headlight being questionable. So we decided to stop in Glenellen and continue to Anchorage the next day. Driving with crooked handlbars makes your arms tired fast. When we got to Glenellen, we first tried to get a room from the Bible College there, but unfortunatley they didn't have anything available. As everyone knows, hairy people can't be trusted, especially if they ride a motorcycle. Our only other choice was to board at the only other hotel in town, which was rather overpriced.
About half way between Delta Junction and Paxon, I had a wreck. In the DMV motorcycle manual, it says that when riding in a group, riders should be staggered, meaning that the first rider should be on one side of the lane and the next on the other side of the lane and so on. It also says that when going around corners in group formation, all riders should revert to single file on the inside of the corner. Now I know why. I was riding in formation, but not going to single file around corners. I just happened to be going around the outside of a corner near the white line. There were some small peices of gravel on the pavement and when my bike ran over these, it went from the tilted turn position to the vertical non-turn position. Therefore my bike ceased to be turning and went onto the gravel embankment, but if I had been on the inside of the turn as I should have, I would have had time to correct myself before going off the road. Gravel is not good for turning for a motorcycle at 60 mph on a motorcycle. So I skidded the bike down onto it's side and jumped off. I was hoping that my bike would just skid to a stop. Unfortunately it ran into some bushes first and flipped onto its other side. The speedometer and headlight broke off their mounts as well as the sissy bar. And the handlebars bent. I was so pissed at myself. Fortunately the bike still drove fine. I used some wire to put the headlight 
back on and put everything else in my backpack. We spent so much time at the scene of the accident, that we would not have been able to make it to Valdez before dark, and I did not want to ride in the dark with my headlight being questionable. So we decided to stop in Glenellen and continue to Anchorage the next day. Driving with crooked handlbars makes your arms tired fast. When we got to Glenellen, we first tried to get a room from the Bible College there, but unfortunatley they didn't have anything available. As everyone knows, hairy people can't be trusted, especially if they ride a motorcycle. Our only other choice was to board at the only other hotel in town, which was rather overpriced.Monday morning, we headed out to anchorage. It was only about a 5 hr drive. We stopped at the Eklutna lodge for breakfast. Their water tastes like sulfer. We were getting pretty tired of riding.
We stayed the night in Anchorage and I commenced my search for motorcycle parts. I really hate that I damaged my nice bike.
No comments:
Post a Comment