This reminds me of a ride I had over the North Cascade Highway a few years back.
A bunch of us decided to get together and do the ride over to Winthrop from Bellingham and back. Maybe 450 miles, we showed up on a three Road Kings, two Ultras and a Buell.
Well you can imagine who thought he had the biggest balls......yup, the twisty bustin' haul assin' Buell. So off we go.
We're doin' some backroads down to the pass highway and the Buell takes off about three times, does some passes on cages and then is waiting up the road for us.
So we hit the pass highway which has much more limited access and we are going to be in the wind for a few hours of twisty mountain highway, climbing and descending all the way. By now I've had about my fill of the Buell guy but I've been hanging back with one of the Road King riders who is new to riding and not exactly keeping up with the others.
We'd go along for awhile and then hold up a bit for him to catch up so I rode with him for 20 miles or so. Somewhere along in here the Buell drops a couple gears and grabs a handful of throttle..........I had decided that since he enjoyed it so much he may as well have a little company and did the same.
I'm no super bike racer but I do have over thirty years on big bikes and countless miles, the Buell guy wasn't new to riding either, but he wasn't a super bike racer either from what I'd seen. This is the long way to saying, if you ride within your limits and don't allow yourself to get sucked in, you can stay with most anybody.....at least close enough they know you are there.
Brake a bit earlier getting into a corner and power up a bit earlier too in most cases and guess what, the Buell guy is looking over his shoulder as much as he's looking up the road. After about ten minutes of this and the three lights of my Ultra burning in the back of his helmet we came to a construction area and were stopped for the roadwork, as I pulled up he was putting his foot down at a stop and he looked over and said, "oh it's you....I wondered who the hell was keeping up with me."
It wasn't by any stretch a race and I had my hands full the whole time, but the group enjoyed the rest of the day as a group with the Buell in our midst and nary another break away.
What a great day that was in the mountains with some friends.
Bottom line you can ride the Ultra through the twisties and have a great time and be comfortable as has been said here. Then get back on it and go right on back, but the Sportster guys will definitely be wishin' they were on the Ultra by the end of the day.
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Topic: Limits for our Ultras? (Read 4680 times)