Ride in paradise (short report) - Ducati.ms

DesmoBob · May 23rd, 2006, 5:40 am

I figure this will be just a tiny ride report. But since they closed down our racetrack, the bike hasn't seen much daylight, so any little ride is a joyous occasion.

Kakaako Park. Chad's Euro SS

On a local forum someone organized a Euro bike ride for this past Sunday. We met at a local park. For me all previous contact had been just forum screen names. It was nice to see some of the faces behind the names. It ended up not being all Euro, but it was all good.

I had been riding on this tiny island for over a decade, and thought I knew most of the riding spots. But our leader/organizer led us through a suburban area just above a glen, which turns out to be only a few minutes away from where I work.

And I never knew about it. It was a residential area (can't really get away from that on this island), but with lots of nice flowing turns and elevation changes.

We then headed east, past Hanauma Bay, through the short winding road (made popular by the opening scenes of Magnum PI), and stopped to rest at Sandy Beach. We decided we'd go to Norfolk (a nice twisty road near Mt Olomana), then another place called 13 turns. Everyone was to take it easy at these next two destinations, as we suspected rains from previous days may have made the roads a little dirty.

IMHO:
Riding > Surfing

Sandy Beach aka Sandy's

We went around the point toward Makapuu, then got stuck in traffic in Waimanalo town (with its one traffic light). Everyone knows what a joy a Duc is in traffic.

Then we entered Norfolk. I was third in the group, following the ride organizer (998) and a Buell XB12R. We locked in a brisk but controlled pace, and immediately noticed that there was indeed some dirt on the road. So we hand signalled dirt/debris to the rest of the group. About 2/3 of the way through, the Buell apparently slipped a bit on some of the dirt and went wide in a medium left and just barely stayed on the pavement. I hit the same dirt, but luckily I had just seen what happened, so I also went wide but stayed on the road. We stopped at the small makeshift parking area at the end of Norfolk, but it was just the three of us. There were supposed to be 9 bikes. Oh crap.

So about half a minute later, one more guy appears and says the GSXR guy went down. It turns out he crashed in the same spot the Buell and I slipped. He seemed unhurt, but he's probably sore today. His family came with a trailer for the bike.

So we were too bummed to finish off the ride through 13 turns, so we just went to the Big Mac factory.

Would you like fries with that?

SS904 · May 25th, 2006, 3:24 pm

Cool...

Lived there for three years. Bought my SS at South Seas on Nimitz highway near the airport. I've pretty much done that same run a few times. Never really liked 13 corners though. Too short, and there ALWAYS seemed to be mud on the road. I used to do "the loop". Nimitz highway to H1, through the canyons near Sandy beach, through K-bay, Kam Highway to the North shore, up snake road, through the pineapples, and down H2 back to H1 and home (I lived in Military housing near the airport). That could be an an all day ride with lunch included. My favorite ride was Tantalus and Roundtop. I hit that freaking road at least twice a week. Sometimes I'd leave work (Pearl) and make a run up there before going home. Check my avatar. That's the overlook on Roundtop... I could live on Oahu just for that road... Well, maybe for a few other reasons too, but Tantalus is definitely a bonus!

DesmoBob · May 26th, 2006, 12:11 pm

I used to live at the foot of Tantalus/Roundtop and used to ride it at least a few times a week after work.

Here is a hoopty old website I put together on Tantalus back when I had a quiet & stealthy Honda. It's horribly outdated--some of the landmarks have changed, road has been repaved, etc. But the corner-to-corner layout is still the same.
http://www.geocities.com/nsr800/enter.htm

Some day I'll have to go back up there. There was a landslide at section 14 recently. It's in pretty poor condition now.

SS904 · May 26th, 2006, 3:00 pm

Wow, is all I can say to that site! What a lot of work. Nice job!!! Makes me want to go buy a plane ticket.

Reading though that brought back some memories. The corner with that tree having the roots hanging down in particular! One day while riding up there, I got stuck behind a kid on an SV that was scaring the crap out of me. He went wide into on coming traffic on every turn. I was just waiting, and hanging back so he didn't get the feeling I was pushing him, for a place to pass. Well, I did, just before that turn. There was some loose stuff at that apex and my front washed a little! I saved it, and didn't go down, but the pucker factor was HUGE, not to mention the embarrassment I would have had if I had dumped it in front of the kid I just railed passed! Who would have been the squid then

???

turn1 · Jun 23rd, 2006, 4:34 am

Rob,
Sup bro this is Mark. Hey I didn't know you were on here too, haha. Here's a link to some more pics I posted here. http://www.ducati.ms/forums/showthre...5212#post45212

Ren is OK. His bike is still all bus, but just cosmetics. Putting together a big ride on July 2, 2006 it's a Sunday. http://www.forumshawaii.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=228561

Hope you can make it. I'm glad you had fun on the ride. Sorry I was holding you guys up on the turns, haha.

quikduk · Jun 23rd, 2006, 10:36 am

Wow! That was a cool site. I was born and raised in the islands. I can remember riding Tantalus two to three times a day in the summer (& sometimes during high school days). My first ride back then was a Honda CB200T. I used to ride it to HRP and strip it down to race it for the day. This was back in '79-'82 so I don't know if you guys were doing the same then. Lotsa cool memories...and I miss Zippys.

Later....oh wait, thats supposed to be Ciao!

turn1 · Jul 11th, 2006, 2:49 pm

Hawaii has changed a lot since the 80's. Zippy's is still here. Let us know if you're visiting and well have a Zippy's Ducati Meetup

quikduk · Jul 24th, 2006, 10:23 am

I was back there with the family about two years ago for two weeks on Maui and Oahu. You aren't kidding. The development and traffic is as bad as here on the mainland. We are supposed to get back there at either the end of this year or the middle of next, possibly sooner depending on work. I'll give you a heads-up if we are going to make it. Maybe I'll rent a bike in addition to the family required van and go cruising around the old place.