Got back from a gathering of ADV riders here in Michigan for camping and riding this past weekend up in Interlochen. (northwestern lower Michigan) Some went on dirt rides and others rode the pavement. There was a broad range of bikes present: sport bikes (GSXR, a Ninja ZX12R, Aprilia RSV4 and others) a Goldwing, a Yamaha V-Max cruiser, several dual sport bikes; (a couple KLR's, DR650, a BMW GS800 and others), a few dirt bikes licensed for road use and a scooter. (me of course) The spirited ride on Saturday was epic with perfect weather and beautiful scenery. I hung up in the front pack with the Ninja, the Aprilia and the Gixxer guy. It was smokin hot riding and we often left the rest of the group well out of view of the rear view mirrors. (we would wait for them to catch up at turn points though) Many were amazed that a scooter was even capable of being able to keep up... even more so to see it pulling away hard and fast and leaving them behind.:eek1 and with a car tire on the back besides! :eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1:eek1 The whole weekend was a lot of fun, made new friends, impressed the "real motorcycle" guys, (shamed a few as well....... a scooter?....faster/better than me? .......dayam!!!) shared stories, pizza and keg liquid. And the campsite cost was only $7 a night!!! One of the guys that lives nearby brought canoes and some paddled down one of the local rivers. It was a great time for all that attended. Can't wait to do it again next year. Hopefully I'm not the only scooter next time though. Not sure I can keep up my "bad boy" image. You can read more about the event from postings over on the regional forums "Central From Da Nort Woods to the Plane States" on the "Michigan ADV Meet n Greet Camp Trip 2014" thread. Best starting from near the bottom of page 25 and on where talk is after the event. Here's a link: http://www.advrider.com/forums//showthread.php?t=984513&page=25 When it comes up again next year I think I'll post reminders.... Can't say it enough... it was an awesome time.... just wish there were more scooters this time.... we were a bit under represented. Next year I hope there is a whole gang of us scooter heroes. .
You should have linked to this page of the thread. http://www.advrider.com/forums//showthread.php?t=984513&page=21 Apparently you were smoking them. So which scoot did you take?
Those sport bikes and the V-Max could easily top 150 mph if the riders wanted too. A Goldwing has a huge engine, but is not fast. A 600cc scooter shouldn't have any problems keeping up with dual sports or dirt bikes on the road. The Silverwing is my favorite real maxi scooter, because it is easier to ride slow, and it has no known reliability problems. To bad Honda canceled it, but I guess it wasn't selling.
Yeah, but where I was kicking ass was in the turns where I was millimeters away from scraping hard parts. It was a lot of fun but really, one of the main points of the thread was that it was about a scooter riding sport bike style while using a car tire and doing just fine mostly keeping up with the "real sport bikes". There was a guy (tkno) on a GSXR behind me who took lots of video. Can't wait til he posts some for all to see.
That day anyway. I normally don't ride like that.... just sometimes... usually when no one else is around. Everything was just right. Sounds corny to say stuff like being one with the bike, the road, and the moment, but there is no other meaningful way to describe it. But I did enjoy every moment of that ride that day. I'm sure there are others that know what I mean.
I lived in Michigan for a couple of years. Where exactly are these curves you speak of? The only remotely curvy roads I ever found where near Hell and up around Petosky.
Northwestern lower Michigan near Traverse City & Charlevoix. Roughly from Interlochen, over to the lake, up around the Leelanau peninsula, around Grand Traverse Bay, over to Chalevoix and Boyne City, then back down to Interlochen. There are some curvy roads in there. The ride was just a little over 280 miles. Up in that part of the state, you can't help but eventually come across curvy roads on a ride that long.
I mirror this but coming at it from the other side. I was all set to go on a scooter ride called "The Crazy German's Ride" and I had heard it was pretty nuts. A scrambling serpentine route through the city bombing through alleys and bicycle paths and you name it. The night before I took my scooter out just to be sure I was good to go. Did some curb hopping and roosting down some gravel pot-hole areas etc. I ended up breaking the swing-arm/CVT housing in half so I took the KLR on the scooter ride. So there is me, a Strom, A R100GS/PD, a WR, a 2wd ural following something like 50 lambrettas, vespas, rivas, ruckii, a majesty 2 up... God am I glad I took the ADV bike. Cutting through parking lots, bombing cross-cuts of industrial parks (deserted on a saturday night) all kinds of back alley short cuts, about a mile railroad tracks, wheelies in front of the capital hill police station, more bike paths and a few massive swarming traffic stopping downtown mumbai style cuts across 5 lanes of traffic. From a legal and safety stand-point its something that was a complete cluster-show. I acknowledge this. Damn was it fun and I was really impressed with what a great ADV ride it turned out to be and how well the scoots handled the terrain as well as the skill of all riders involved. Turns out with hardly any curb weight you don't need much in terms of suspension and standing on the foot deck is just as effective as standing on pegs.
OK, here's some video of the ride. Some parts of the video did not view the Silverwing because he was further back in the pack and missed some of the more daring turns.... still a pretty cool video though. http://youtu.be/PzO2TkIRLCU
I toured the UP so I was also wandering where the curvy roads were. I was hoping to see some on the video, but it was not to be. Those are straight roads, barely even a curve. Go to Colorado, any of the New England states or come to the western side of Virginia if you want to see curvy roads. I am glad you enjoyed the ride though, it looked like fun!
Like I said, the guy doing the video missed much of the best spots. Anyway, some of the better twisty roads in Michigan are in the northern part of lower Michigan; especially along the lake and up and around the Leelanau peninsula. (M-22 for example) There are some pretty nice roads in Arkansas too. It is where I am right now for the "Scoot The Ozarks" rally. Then I'm going to a gathering with the Maxi-Scoot group in Steelville MO. which has pretty nice roads all around the area too.
Slightly off topic, but there are some nice roads from Dexter toward Chelsea and then around places near Jackson.
