I really needed to get out of the LA area this weekend, if only to get away from the squids that seem to dominate the Santa Monica Mts. near my home. Saturday was a wash, but Sunday, after a little family time in the am, I got my chance, and made a break for it! :biggrin: Since it was already after 10am when I got "free" I decided to slab it north a bit to see if I could make a loop out of the southern Sierras, so this ended up being my route: Collins Dr to N Princeton Ave - Google Maps Once through Bakersfield I made my way over to Bealville Rd. through Caliente, CA. and decided to take the uber-technical Caliente-Bodfish route up over the mountains vs. the super-fun & twisty Caliente Creek Rd. (you really can't go wrong either way, and next time I'll take CalCreek). The weather at this point was cool (50s) and cloudy; here's the view from the top of CalBodfish: By the time I got to the other side of Walker Basin the sun was out and it was a perfect day! Looking back towards Walker Basin: And looking out over Lake Isabella: After a quick bite to eat and some gas I made my way around the west end of the lake to Hwy 155; a fantastic road! Looking up though, it was clear there would be some cold and wet involved in the forest portion of 155: Once out of the tree-covered, mountain portion of 155, you get dropped into rolling hills with gentle elevation changes, and the roads cleaned up nicely as well. This resulted in miles of me laughing like an idiot in my helmet while seeing how hard I could push the big VFR through the twisties. A bit further on I just had to stop (to pay my respects to an indigenous plant of some sort) and felt it was a good photo-op for just what a fantastic day it was to be out riding! :wink: As time was wearing on and I needed to be home before dark, when I got to Glennville, where I would usually head north on Jack Ranch Rd. I instead stayed on 155 to town of Woody and a road by the same name, which I'd never been on. This turned out to be a FANTASTIC road, even if it did take me into Bakersfield! :wink: By the time I got home I found I've put roughly 2000 miles on the Pilot Powers, most of them canyons, and the tires are holding up remarkably well. By this point on the OEM tires I was already reaching the wear bars on the sides of the rear; not even close on these! :biggrin: What a great day to be on the bike!!!
Ha, yeah, I'm working on it, but damn these are round tires! lol That last half inch is leaned waaaaay over! lol
Your photos are fantastic. I know what you mean about those chicken strips. On my '07, it came with the Metzler's and I had those tires worn to within an 1/8" of the edge. I replaced them with the Bridgestone Battlax 020 and I am now nowhere near the edge. I'm embarrased to say that the I'm 1/2" to 3/4" away, but the tires are definitely much more rounded. Either that or I'm really slowing down ...........
Yeah, compared to the OEM tires, it's a lot harder to reach the edges of the Pilot Powers! ...here's what the OEMs looked like when I pulled them off.
Haha, thanks but no thanks. If anyone's going to grind off my peg feelers, it's going to be me! lol I'm actually riding these tires harder than I did the OEMs (better grip will let you do that) but the profile really is *that* much more rounded at the edges. I think I'd have to have a knee on the pavements to get out to that edge ...and I'm not a knee down on the street kinda' guy.
