So, be warned, your computer might explode from the length of this (although the little box they give you always makes things seem much longer than they actually turn out to be) (you can laugh and make a wiener joke now.) But I just did anyway by saying that.
So, in the month that I haven't posted on my mediocre, hardly viewed blog, I got a road bike. And not some stupid ten speed. It's a REAL road bike.
Okay, it's not quite a "real" one. You're probably envisioning some sleek, blacked out Harley Davidson. Nope. I hate Harley's anyway. But that's for another post. My bike is a 2002 Suzuki Savage 650. A tiny little cruiser that most people view as nothing because it only has one cylinder. A Thumper, as they say. And by they, I mean we. And by we, I mean motorcyclists.
It's usually a girls bike. I'll be the first to admit it. But the fact is, I'm the size of most girls. And I've accepted that. I don't care that I'm riding a "girls bike" because this thing is funner than heck! Anyway. I'll get on with my post.
I just got back this afternoon from a three day up through Idaho and Yellowstone. I live about two hours away if you take the highway, so we've been there often, but this was my first and my parents second time up on bikes. This was also my first "real" ride. I've been out on little half hour jaunts around the area, but nothing like this.
First, what I learned about riding street bikes in general (well, mostly the bad things) (I've been dirt biking since I could touch the ground on a bike)
1- Bison are cool in a car when they're in opposing traffic, but scary as hell when you're on a bike.
2- GoPro's are great when you think you're about to be gored by a bison. Capture your last moments in stunning 1080p.
3- Rain sucks.
3- Same goes for semi's in opposing traffic going 75 with a crosswind.
4- PVC rain pants will melt on your exhaust (anyone have a solution to that?)
5- Put that rain gear on before your actually get to the rain.
6- Bread bags over your socks work great if you don't want soaking feet. Again, put them on before the rain.
7- Pack extra socks You might hit rain and not have your breadbags on yet.
8- Mom's are secretly terrified of street biking (she was looking back on almost every corner for the first two days.) It was especially fun when I passed that 1 ton up the hill.
9- Wasps can somehow still get inside your jacket, and sting you.... multiple times (3 to be exact) before they find their way out the bottom of the leather.
Second, things I learned about my Savage.
1- This thing has plenty of balls to haul my scrawny butt around. My dad named him "Lil' Thumper" cause it's "The Little Thumper That Could" After I passed a 1 ton truck up a mountain pass doing about 80 or so. With a pretty gnarly headwind to boot.
2- If you're a small guy (or girl) like me at 5' 4", 130lbs. The Savage is a GREAT bike. Especially if you've never even touched a manual gear box on a vehicle. The things just lugs WAY down low and I'd have to try to get it to stall on take off if I wanted to. My only problem is I'm still trying to run the thing like my dirt bike, or my brothers Ninja 250 so I'll get the thing pretty rapped up before I shift. I need to learn to just chill.
4- Road bikes are pretty much the most fun you can have in the mountains. Not only can you blast around some windy corners, but your whole viewing angle changes. Instead of the 30 degrees you have looking out the side of the car window, I have 180 degrees (give or take) of awesome. I've been to "Jellystone" so many times in my life, but none of them were like this. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
4- My dad's bike is fast as hell. (2003 Kawisaki Concours) When you line up next to your old man, who's total bike weight with gear and all is about 1300lbs, you're not even touching 500lbs, and you still get your butt handed to you, you know that bike is fast. But that's what you get when you have an engine with more power than a Civic and redlines at 12000 rpm. The crazy thing is that they now have a Concours 14. 400 more cc's to scare the crap out of you.
5- Your hands go numb and your ears start to ring after about an hour of riding at 75 in the wind.
6- 50mph is like the perfect speed on this bike. Enough to see the country go by, be comfy in your rpms, and still have enough umph to get around the slower traffic. Lil' Thumper just purred.
I'm in love with this bike other than the speedo being in the tank. It's a pain to have to look down to check your speed, but for the most part, I was behind dad, so I just gauged my speed off him.
As far as a review of the actual ride:
Day One: Mainly just taking the backroads around S. E. Idaho and finding towns that I didn't even know existed. Which is really cool. I saw a "Pop. 75" sign. Going out on the farmland that's west of the Idaho Falls and Rexburg area with just wide open stretches of awesome. Especially now when the grain harvest.
We stopped off at Big Jud's in Ashton for dinner. (They have a Boise shop that was features on Travel Channel's Man v. Food. Yes. I've had a Big Jud, and yes, I regretted it.) Pretty much every burger on their menu is great. If you're in Boise, Archer or Ashton Idaho, you gotta stop in.
Then we went on up to our cabin in Island Park. It was my first full day of riding, and I was pumped to say the least.
Day Two: This was our "Yellowstone Day" We hand intentions to try and hit the whole Grand Loop, but people think they have to get their telephoto lens set up on their camera and take a snapshot of one little bison a 1/4 mile away from the road. EVERY TIME.
Sorry, local guy rant. But it makes for asinine traffic back ups. When you're in a black leather jacket, on black asphalt, on a black air cooled bike, you have something to complain about.
Oh, and the rain I eluded to earlier. That slowed us up quite a bit. So, we ended up just taking the Lower Loop. But it was still gorgeous.
There were many nice little twisty spots that if you're lucky, you can catch them just right to not be ruined by the family in the Subaru Outback that seems to always be going 5-10 under the limit while looking for an animal.
BIG FOOD TIP
If you're coming in through the west entrance around meal time DO NOT stop to eat in West Yellowstone.
Those $5 foot longs everyone loves. They're $9. Want the Buffalo Chicken (my favorite) $12. Go to one of the little places in Island Park. Ponds Lodge, Macks Inn, and the Henry's Fork "something or other) Grill will get you twice your meal for the price. It's only about a 20 mile distance from their to "West". It's worth it if you're cheap like me and you happen to be in the area.
Day Three: After waking up to what looked like certain rain, I slipped on my trusty bread bags in my newly dried boots and fresh socks and expected the worst. We came out of Island Park on the Mesa Falls Scenic Highway, and I have to say we should have gone up that way. One of the funnest stretches of pavement on the whole ride, and the landscape is gorgeous. If you haven't, you need to stop at the Upper Mesa Falls. You get about 50 yards away from a big old waterfall. Makes for some great pics for your riding scrap book.
We came off the "mountain" and headed for Teton Valley by way of Felt. Yep. That's the town name. Felt, Idaho. I know.
Teton Valley is one of those places that it would be nice to have a little cabin there, or you could live there if you really wanted it. Jackson Hole is only a hop, skip and a jump away and the place is infested by the people that didn't want to pay the asinine home prices in JH, so they settle for the next best thing and ruin The Valley. Sorry, another local rant. That's where my grandparent grew up, and where an aunt/uncle/cousins live, so it's a common discussion.
Wanting to get home in time to take a nice nap, we decided to not go through Jackson and cut through Pine Creek Pass through to Swan Valley (Yeah, it depends on the day, or who I'm talking to if I say creek or crick) Swan Valley has the Rainy Creek Store commonly referred to as "the square ice cream store". They have square scooped ice cream. It's made by a local company called Farr's Ice Cream, here in Idaho Falls. I recommend the Huckleberry. Farr's also has some pretty rockin' candy. The squared-ness of it all is really just a novelty, but it's a good way to cool off, and a spot to gas up at the least.
The 50 miles from Swan Valley back to Idaho Falls were brutal. We had some pretty gnarly crosswinds. My dad wasn't even flinching for most, but I had some pretty heavy counter steer going on to keep me centered in the lane. The Semi's in opposing traffic didn't help either... nor did the howling wind noise.
Anyway. That was my trip. If you have any questions if you have a trip planned, I know my way around the area. Feel free to hit me up. Or don't. Your choice.
