You're going to have a laugh at my expense...

....and I deserve it, so it's OK...

After church, I decided to find the snow level east of Foresthill in the Sierras, so I ran up to Auburn, caught Foresthill Road and started east. Foresthill Road is a well-maintained mountain road with quite a few passing lanes and lots of sweepers.

I maintained what I thought was a pretty good pace up the hill, but at one point, there was a car and a motorcycle behind me, so when a passing lane showed up, I moved right to let the others by. The motorcycle passed me first, on a tight left sweeper which was posted at 40 mph. The bike turned out to be a Harley Fat Bob piloted by a guy in a T-shirt and a beanie helmet. He went around me like I was standing still, portside floorboard scraping the pavement and throwing sparks. I was running about 45 or so, so the Fat Bob was easily at 65+ as he scraped along, passed me and motated on down the road. He was gone by the next set of sweepers.

I immediately had two thoughts:

1. I was impressed by the Fat Boy rider. He knew his skill level, he knew the bike's capability and he had confidence in his ability to exploit both. He was riding that bike at the edge of its cornering performance envelope, but did so with ease and grace.

2. My nose was a bit out of joint because I had not yet developed that level of skill and confidence with the SWing, considering my last buncha rides have all been in the hills and mountains on twisties and sweepers...

Anyway, I found the snow about 5 miles east of Foresthill, then the end of the plowed road at China Wall with about 4' of snow on the ground.

Sat and considered the whole thing and remembered that when I rode a "regular" motorcycle, I shifted weight to the inside of a turn and dropped the inside knee. By doing this, I found that the motorcycle stabilized and went around the turn faster than if I did not shift weight and remained straight in the saddle. I also remembered that I had not tried this on the SWing and that it had never occurred to me to do so.

So on the way back down the hill, I did.

Worked great. Just like with a "regular" motorcycle, shifting weight inboard and laying the inside knee out stabilized the bike and allowed me to go much more confidently through the turn at a higher rate of speed.

Doh...

Bet you knew that already. I did too, but I was just riding a "scooter," so it never occurred to me to try. See how paradigms screw us up?

Don't be afraid to hang a knee off your SWing in the corners...it's really cool.

Here are some photos from the run today...

Foresthill Road eastbound, where the snow begins-about 5 miles east of Foresthill

End of the road at China Wall

Looking into the canyon of the North Fork of the American River from China Wall

SWing in the snow

Crystal Range-canyon of the Middle Fork of the American River from Wharton's Overlook.

I hope you had a chance to be on two wheels today...

That's all for now!!!

Nice pictures Jinglbob. That's the only snow I want to see. I did get to be on two wheels- to work and back. Damned overtime.

I always wondered what snow looks like


lovely pix