Bluehole
New member
My wife and I decided to take a trip down to check out Mt. St. Helen's again. It had been a number of years since we had been there and was a good excuse for a lengthy road trip. Mt. St. Helen's is at the southern end of Washington state about 50 miles east of I-5. The road leading up to Helen's is made for a motorcycle/spyder. Lots of twisties.
We left at 7:30 am heading East on the Pacific Coast Scenic Highway, better known as Hiway 101, which took us to Olympia, Wa. Turned South onto I-5 for the short 40 mile run to the turn off heading for Helen's. Hiway 101 is a pretty good test of how you and your Spyder are working together. I was definitely in sync with ours! Setting up on the outside, steering down to the apex and drifting to the outside going thru the curves….man, it was going to be a great day!!! Same went for the road up to Helen's. I-5 let me know that the Spyder was tracking true and straight.
Weather was perfect for the days event. Started out around 56 degrees and the closer we got to I-5 the warmer it got. At the turn off to go to the mountain it was 76 degrees. Perfect!!!
A picture or 2 for your viewing….
View attachment 90473 View attachment 90474
It’s peak is around 8400’. This day there was no smoke from it. Vegetation is still very sparse at the base of the mountain. It has been 34 years since its eruption. The sleeping beast will awakening again one day.
Got back home around 5:30 pm. Logged 411 miles for the trip. Calculated 39 mpg for the entire trip. Roads were all good—mostly 2 lane—50 mph or better. 80 miles of interstate where I let the Spyder run up to 75-80 mph.
Wife enjoyed the trip very much. I see lots more 2 up riding in my future---which is, for sure, a good thing!
The Spyder was a great machine straight out of the crate, once I got rid of the bad tires. A little judicious application of the right farkles, as suggested by the membership of this forum, and viola, it is a WOW factor of 10. An absolutely AWESOME machine, this 2014 RT Limited with the 1330/Se6 package!!!!! Time to go get my first oil change---3458 miles.
We left at 7:30 am heading East on the Pacific Coast Scenic Highway, better known as Hiway 101, which took us to Olympia, Wa. Turned South onto I-5 for the short 40 mile run to the turn off heading for Helen's. Hiway 101 is a pretty good test of how you and your Spyder are working together. I was definitely in sync with ours! Setting up on the outside, steering down to the apex and drifting to the outside going thru the curves….man, it was going to be a great day!!! Same went for the road up to Helen's. I-5 let me know that the Spyder was tracking true and straight.
Weather was perfect for the days event. Started out around 56 degrees and the closer we got to I-5 the warmer it got. At the turn off to go to the mountain it was 76 degrees. Perfect!!!
A picture or 2 for your viewing….
View attachment 90473 View attachment 90474
It’s peak is around 8400’. This day there was no smoke from it. Vegetation is still very sparse at the base of the mountain. It has been 34 years since its eruption. The sleeping beast will awakening again one day.
Got back home around 5:30 pm. Logged 411 miles for the trip. Calculated 39 mpg for the entire trip. Roads were all good—mostly 2 lane—50 mph or better. 80 miles of interstate where I let the Spyder run up to 75-80 mph.
Wife enjoyed the trip very much. I see lots more 2 up riding in my future---which is, for sure, a good thing!
The Spyder was a great machine straight out of the crate, once I got rid of the bad tires. A little judicious application of the right farkles, as suggested by the membership of this forum, and viola, it is a WOW factor of 10. An absolutely AWESOME machine, this 2014 RT Limited with the 1330/Se6 package!!!!! Time to go get my first oil change---3458 miles.
hyea:
