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Arctic Circle Journey (USA Southeast / Midwestern states)

41K views 75 replies 37 participants last post by  JMS 
All that boring flat land must have soon been forgotten when you got to the interesting stuff. Going places, getting amongst them, doing things; that's what motorcycling is all about to me. Bring 'em on; inspire others.
I thought I might feel the same way crossing west on my first trip through the Canadian prairies and Rocky Mountains. You'd expect the flat land to be dull. However, it really has a charm of its own - if you look for it. The wind on the prairies can be pretty incredible. Not boring at all. The sunsets can be absolutely stunning. Nothing dull there. The wheat fields - as they undulate with the breeze like cilia responding to sound waves on the organ of corti. Mesmerizing. The wonderfully fresh smell of cow $hit - um well.... Seeing a city emerge out over the horizon - so many miles away. Inspiring.

Mike
 
As far as steep uphill climbing goes the CBR doesnt have much to work with for sure. The only thing I could realistically pass were the semi's going 20mph. Don't expect to have any passing power but the bike can make it up some really steep mountains (you might have to ride in lower gears as well)
Riding my CBR125R fully laden with camping gear through the hilly sections along the trans-Canada highway north of Lake Superior, I was able to maintain a speed of around 80km/hr (50 mph) up the steeper sections in 4th gear. I weight about 220lbs with full gear. That seemed fast enough for me - I never seemed to be holding up traffic. Unfortunately, many of the hills along that route don't have passing lanes - so ironically, I found myself actually slowing down on the CBR125R as I approached traffic moving even slower than I was. From my experience on these hills in my 2009 Civic Si sedan, most vehicles slow down considerably up these long inclines - with traffic traveling between 90km/hr to 100km/hr (55-62 mph) at the fastest, compared to between 100km/hr and 115km/hr (62-72 mph) on the flat sections of the same highway.

Others on the CBR125R forum who have toured through the Rockies on their CBR125Rs have reported similar 80km/hr speeds up the long inclines in the mountains of Alberta and B.C. Was this your experience too Bullseye?

On the other hand, my CBR250R was able to maintain a speed of 115km/hr (72 mph) (in 5th) up one of the long hills around Lake Superior described above, fully loaded, on my touring/camping adventure from last year. This hill had a passing lane and I was overtaking a guy in a pickup truck who decided (for kicks?) to speed up and race me. I passed him. Along this route I've never seen any vehicle climb these hills faster than 70 mph. Even through the Great Smoky Mountains a few years ago (in my dearly departed 1992 Civic Si hatch) I was passing all sorts of vehicles like they were standing still up those hills with my cruise set at 120km/hr (75 mph).

The_Lucky_Owl - was this similar to your experience? It's hard to imagine the CBR250R really needing to go any faster up these hills. Am I missing something? Does one really need to go faster up through the mountains?

Mike
 
Another thing is the "COOL" factor !!! You don't know how many times people were asking us about the bikes !!! Gas stations and anywhere else we stopped ....people were asking us all sorts of questions !! "You can travel on a 125cc ??" ....." "You rode all the way to hear on that??"..Yeah... it was lots of fun. We even had 3 police officers talk and eye up the bikes on the ferry ride back home. They too had lots of questions. One officer laughed and said " This is crazy .. I just bought my young son a 150 cc dirt bike and its bigger than yours !!" He was very impressed with our bikes and everywhere we were going on them !!
Thanks Bullseye! I had the same experience with my touring/camping trip on my CBR125R. Of course - because the saddlebags covered the 125R emblem, many people assumed I was riding a CBR600R. :rolleyes: Ha..ha.. But you could tell who the avid riders were - they knew from the skinny tires, small size, colour scheme, engine, etc. that it was a CBR125R. Their expression of shock that I was riding across the province on a 125cc motorcycle was incredibly satisfying. Their reactions were liberally peppered with very entertaining streams of profanity.

Lucky Owl - thanks for keeping the small displacement bike touring mystique and spirit alive! :)



Mike
 
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