Today near the MO river
Posted: 10 Jul 2013 22:07
I decided to take the afternoon off and go ride up north. I stopped and got some kneepads first, was also looking for some adv boots like AS Scouts, Gaerne Adv, or Sidi Discovery but found nothing but mx stuff. Then I decided to hit some gravel for the first time, just south of 210 and east of 291.
South of Liberty on the River east of 291 - Miles of corn in there. I was still pretty nervous running full pressure on scorps and I have 0 - repeat 0 experience in the dirt and I know this is a twitchy little hotrod that wants to go and do just about 100x more than I'll ever figure out. These roads was nicer than the one gravel loop I did Sunday east of Leavenworth on Kisker/Stillings, as Stillings was a fresh dump of rock and was terrible. This was Raines, Nebo Hills, Old 210 and 52 St. Nice dirt-gravel mix for beginners and perfectly flat not much cornering. I put in some time here practicing. Did some slides for practice and gunned the bike too hard to see what the ass end does. I forced myself to use the rear brake exclusively. Coming from the racetrack where rear is only used for power slides or crashing, this is just wrong. I have gotten back to the habit of using both brakes. I got used to using the rear only.
Excelsior Springs Area - Next I went down up Raines to 84 and north on Nebo Hills and got on H and rode into Ex Springs. This was all fast paved to cool me off, get some gas and water. On out on 10 east I went to Y hiway and road it north until it became gravel at 160th. Nice few miles of rolling hills and woods with easy turns and shade. Met up with M and barreled down it back to 10 and retraced back to 0. O has a really nice fast turns and hills, I use it and H to remove any remaining chicken stripes on tires. Here I was looking for Wolf Hallow and Reynolds and Slach Creek and anything else between O-10-N boxes in a lot of hills and gravel roads. Google showed them to be really nice and boy, Wolf is just prefect, but Reynolds was a mess for me with the fresh gravel. Turned around. If you have not been up here to this area you are missing out. Did as much as I dared and headed down to east Candem on 210.
Candem has a few nice simple gravel roads to the river beyond the triple train tracks. I got lost down there in the corn and had to retrace my turns. I was looking for 43rd/Sunshine ( I memorized all of these places before I left home) to see Sunshine Lake but never made it. Next on down T/H to Henreita on 13 going to Lexington using highways too cool off. Took 224 west out of Lex to find some of those gravel roads that overlook the river.
This is Apple Road. There are the apples! It runs along the upper ridge west of Lexington but you really can't see the river, but you get some good views down to 24 highway. I ran Giblen Road, Shades, Home, Apple and who knows what else between 224 and 24. Really nice. I would rate these about almost like Wolf because they all have some major hill somewhere (going up from the river of course), but they are all short and the dirt/gravel I think is prefect and mostly flat. All of the gravel was fine, no piles of loose stuff to scare me. All of this gravel crosses 24 to O/M highway south of Lex. O/M is another of my favorite street bike roads. High speeds and no traffic. O/M had a lot of gravel roads coming into it. I was going to do Lexington Road but figured that was enough gravel for day 1. I hit my "required" 200 miles and got in some gravel. I am hooked!
South of Liberty on the River east of 291 - Miles of corn in there. I was still pretty nervous running full pressure on scorps and I have 0 - repeat 0 experience in the dirt and I know this is a twitchy little hotrod that wants to go and do just about 100x more than I'll ever figure out. These roads was nicer than the one gravel loop I did Sunday east of Leavenworth on Kisker/Stillings, as Stillings was a fresh dump of rock and was terrible. This was Raines, Nebo Hills, Old 210 and 52 St. Nice dirt-gravel mix for beginners and perfectly flat not much cornering. I put in some time here practicing. Did some slides for practice and gunned the bike too hard to see what the ass end does. I forced myself to use the rear brake exclusively. Coming from the racetrack where rear is only used for power slides or crashing, this is just wrong. I have gotten back to the habit of using both brakes. I got used to using the rear only.
Excelsior Springs Area - Next I went down up Raines to 84 and north on Nebo Hills and got on H and rode into Ex Springs. This was all fast paved to cool me off, get some gas and water. On out on 10 east I went to Y hiway and road it north until it became gravel at 160th. Nice few miles of rolling hills and woods with easy turns and shade. Met up with M and barreled down it back to 10 and retraced back to 0. O has a really nice fast turns and hills, I use it and H to remove any remaining chicken stripes on tires. Here I was looking for Wolf Hallow and Reynolds and Slach Creek and anything else between O-10-N boxes in a lot of hills and gravel roads. Google showed them to be really nice and boy, Wolf is just prefect, but Reynolds was a mess for me with the fresh gravel. Turned around. If you have not been up here to this area you are missing out. Did as much as I dared and headed down to east Candem on 210.
Candem has a few nice simple gravel roads to the river beyond the triple train tracks. I got lost down there in the corn and had to retrace my turns. I was looking for 43rd/Sunshine ( I memorized all of these places before I left home) to see Sunshine Lake but never made it. Next on down T/H to Henreita on 13 going to Lexington using highways too cool off. Took 224 west out of Lex to find some of those gravel roads that overlook the river.
This is Apple Road. There are the apples! It runs along the upper ridge west of Lexington but you really can't see the river, but you get some good views down to 24 highway. I ran Giblen Road, Shades, Home, Apple and who knows what else between 224 and 24. Really nice. I would rate these about almost like Wolf because they all have some major hill somewhere (going up from the river of course), but they are all short and the dirt/gravel I think is prefect and mostly flat. All of the gravel was fine, no piles of loose stuff to scare me. All of this gravel crosses 24 to O/M highway south of Lex. O/M is another of my favorite street bike roads. High speeds and no traffic. O/M had a lot of gravel roads coming into it. I was going to do Lexington Road but figured that was enough gravel for day 1. I hit my "required" 200 miles and got in some gravel. I am hooked!
