Canyon Carving Bastard
Well not exactly. More like a canyon riding bastard. Earlier today the Orange Beast was taken for its first canyon run. I regret to inform you that I did not live up to the Orange Beasts expectations as a canyon carving rider.
In my defense I had 3 things working against me. First of all the previous owner was “smart” enough to wipe the wheels with armorall. What that does to a tire is makes it super slick in effect significantly decreasing the grip with the road surface. I was able to successfully eliminated most of the armorall during my daily commuting. However there was still armor aplenty on the sides of my tires. As a matter of fact I almost low sided earlier this week while leaning right on a freeway on-ramp. Motodisiac had wiped my tires with a carburetor cleaner a couple of days ago. That should have done the trick. Yet the sides of the tires looked shiny and still felt somewhat slick. Long story short I was still conscious of that fact in my today’s canyon carving pursuit.
Secondly KTM 950 Supermoto is a tall bike. Much higher than anything I ever rode in canyons. It felt top heavy to me and I was sort of afraid to lean hard.
And the third thing - I did not feel like dropping it :).
Our ride today was some 250 miles of freeway, tight twisties and winding roads near Ojai, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Santa Clarita. We left at 10 in the morning and came back around 5pm. Over 100 miles of the ride was a freeway, another 100 - winding roads and curves (no sharp turns), and the rest - twisties. KTM 950 Supermoto does not strike you as a bike that would be a comfortable long distance runner. So one can only imagine how my rear end felt towards the end of the day. Let’s just say that the soft area also known as arse felt nonexistent closer to the end of the ride.
Not much to complain or praise about the bike as I did not try pushing it. Although I did grow more confident in the second half of the canyon riding.
I am sure we’ll go canyon riding again sometime soon. And as long as it is not too far from home KTM Supermoto would be my bike of choice. On a ride like today the Futura would be a more appropriate ride. At least if I don’t want my behind to become numb again. It’s been over an hour after I came back home. And only now the numbness in the bottocks area is slowly going away :).