Saturday morning was kind of cool and I wanted something to do so I thought I might take a short ride. Pushing my dusty bike out of the garage I noticed that is was somewhat windy. The air temperature was 53 degrees which is cooler than my preferred riding temperature of 70.
The bike needed to be washed as it has collected dust from sanding and sawing in the garage. There were many reasons that I would not attempt to wash the bike with the main reasons being it was too cold and it was 10:30.
You might ask what 10:30 had to do with not washing the bike. It would take at least an hour to get to the Bunk House if I were to ride the most direct route. Since I want to have lunch and I want to get there before the noon crowd, I could not take time to do a thorough job of cleaning the bike.
I dusted the bike with a soft dry towel attempting to remove most of the dust and hoping more dust would blow off during the ride. The bike didn’t look that clean but I needed to get on the road.
The wind seemed to be out of the south most of the time and the riding wasn’t too bad. If you have ridden with a side wind you will understand that when you are riding on a straight road your bike must lean in the direction of the wind. The harder the wind the more you lean.
I had passed through Valley Mills, TX heading for lunch. The speed limit after you get out of the city limits is 75 mph. Being a good biker and not wanting to slow down the cars and trucks, I set the cruise control on 75mph.
In the olden days when I was a young person I thought anyone who had a radio on their motorcycle wasn’t a real biker. Now that I am older and hopefully wiser I would not have a bike without a few options such as cruise control, radio, CB, hand warming handle grips, cup holder, back rest, trunk light, burglar alarm and more.
Back to the ride; A few miles west of Valley Mills there is a long curve to the left with an incline and in the middle of the curve there is an overpass which crosses a rail road. The wind can be rough on this portion of the road as there are few wind breaks. For anyone that has ridden this road on a windy day they understand that the wind can increase dramatically when entering this long curve and crossing the overpass.
Imagine doing 75 mph already leaning due to the wind, and then entering a curve which requires you to lean even more when you are suddenly hit by additional gusting winds. That is bad enough but it is even worse when meeting a vehicle. I can tell you it is a scary situation.
I slow down before entering the curve in preparation for whatever.
Arriving there were 4 pickups in the parking lot at the bunkhouse and possibly 10 people inside eating. Lunch was good but I must say I was disappointed when I did not receive a senior discount.
By the time I had finished eating the Bunk House was full of people and the parking lot was almost full.
I decided to take the long way home so I headed south out of Clifton, TX. I took a small side road which was paved and two cars could pass but just verily. As I rode I thought that I had been on this road in the past. After about two miles the road turned in to gravel and then I remembered I had tried it before. Not enjoying gravel I turned around and headed back to the main road.
Somewhat disappointed, I decided head back into Clifton and take the direct route home.
The ride home was uneventful until I got on Hewitt drive. I was surprised as to how much cross wind there was on Hewitt Drive. I would say it was the windiest portion of the entire ride.
Have a nice day.
Don Ford
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