V weekend

[glennw]

I recently spent three days riding the V through some of California?s best bike roads. My route was inspired by a recent magazine article test rating the ?Best Street Bike? in Cycle World a few months back. Though I have been to this part of the Southern Sierra's many times, I was always in a car taking the shorter and straighter routes. I followed most of the map that was part of the article starting from my Santa Barbara location. These guys picked some of the ?twistyest? mountain roads I have ever been on in Southern / Central California. Almost all were two lanes, many freshly paved (rare on CA?s normally thrashed road system).  I added a few extra roads on my own; one was about 40 miles of excellent 5-7,000 ft high mountain roads through huge Sequoias. The weather was perfect at 60 to 80 degrees depending on the altitude.
3 days and almost 800 miles of bliss. Not so much as a hiccup out of the V now with over 38K on the clock. When I arrived at my motel stop the first afternoon, they had a vintage hot road show going on in the little town of Kernville. Even covered with bugs the bright yellow V got some admiring glances from a crowd who know?s a good classic when they see one. Because of the round headlight and painted fly screen (and because it has no YAMAHA decals on it) most people ask me if it?s a Buell. I try not to be insulted. I tell them it a 1982 YAMAHA with 2002 Harley Davidson technology.
On my way home, out in the middle nowhere I spotted a bike coming up fast behind me. Alongside pulls up the bike I wish I could afford, a DL1000 Suzuki. He slowed down enough to look at the V, waved and took off. The thing had manufacturer?s plates on it (another bike test?).
Well now I know why the magazines test ?em in this part of the world.