I went for a little ride in the mountains this morning. Temps in the mid 50s going up to the mid 60s by the time I got back home. Although I have never ridden this road, I really expected there to be loads of people. Sunday morning and all that sort of thing. Cell phone camera doesn't do it justice:
It really seemed like there was nobody there! I was just riding along by myself with the smooth & twisty road. The engine's flexibility really made it enjoyable, just leave it in 3rd for the slower sections otherwise just leave it in 4th. Nimble handling and the ability to adjust my line on corners where rockfall made it necessary really showcased the best of the bike. I went up for about 40 minutes then stopped for a few minutes and headed back down. On the way down I passed numerous racer types zipping up the road. At least five or six gave me the 'thumbs up'. Now it was certainly not my riding attire nor my tremendous lean angles (of course they were easily taking one hand off the bars for the salute as they were flying thru the corners!) so it must have been the R12R that was getting the attention. A couple of times on the way down I was passed by the growling/whining multi-colored snake of 10+ racer types going mach 10 as I hugged the right shoulder with my right blinker on. Just a mini ride report for those of you in parts of the country (world?) where the weather is not yet cooperating...
For the racer types, the "thumbs up" sign, is more than just a hello wave...
It's to let you know that they have not recently seen any law enforcement, on the way.
So you can feel relatively safe exceeding the posted speed limit...
Now that makes a lot more sense. It did seem strange that they were showing the love to our beloved R when they were much more likely to get excited over some Bimota/Ducati/RacerX equipment. BUT I guess the upside is that they thought perhaps the R and I were capable of some super-legal velocity. Still don't think I'm going to be practicing that one hand on the bars while zipping through the corners with the footpegs dragging routine.
Beautiful looking area. In addition to the the thumbs up, you may see them give tap on the brain bucket as a heads up to police activity ahead. Your bike looks good and in the tighter sections doesn't give up anything to the sport bikes.
