Yesterday, we were riding through the Santa Monica Mountains, strafing canyons, exploring inconceivable lean angles and basically enjoying a week in sunny So Cal. The trip to test ride, photograph and generally soak in the West Coast streetbike scene has become an annual journey for team CRM and this year, what with Pittsburgh experiencing one ball-shriveling, frost-biting winter, was a joy. Besides riding the curve-ripe Mulholland Highway every day, we ventured further afield to Newhall, where custom builder Dustin Kott joined us for some seriously quick riding along the fabled Angeles Crest Highway. This stretch of snaky asphalt is known to local riders as “the fast road,” and for god reason; offering a deep contrast to the 50-60 MPH hairpins ands-turns of roads between Agoura Hills and Malibu, these canyons offer smooth, high-speed sweepers where you can pull over and catch sight of sportbikers going at it full-throttle. Canyon riding is an amazing and highly specialized discipline as most of the riders we spoke with confessed to preferring specific roads which they ride again and again, several times each day to get their kicks. There is not necessarily a game of pure horsepower as it is impeccable knowledge of each successive twist, turn and undulation in the pavement. We watched gape-jawed as a pair of hepcats on Harleys blasted past a fairly competent guy on a BMW sport-touring rig – all while dressed in skateboard sneakers, flannel shirts and plenty of attitude. Later, while parked up at the Big Oaks biker bar, we joined the regulars for a feet-up viewing session of the varied and amazing bikes catapulting themselves along the road. These was a sleek, black Norton Commando decked out in Dunstall fairings and making pretty rapid progress through the twisties and pack after pack of GSX-R riders, supermoto racers and folk aboard muddy little dual-purpose bikes al going far faster than we thought possible. Watching folks have this much fun on two wheel is just what we winter-stalled journos needed to feel alive (and thawed) again.
The day’s star attraction, however, proved to be this nutter who was riding the ever-loving nut off a Yamaha R6. This kid- and judging from the flexibility he displayed couldn’t have been more tha 25 – was working his bike around the corner at a velocity that would have impressed Marc Marquez. In fact, it appeared that the current Moto GP Champ had clearly affected this rider’s psyche as he wowed the crowd with elbow-down cornering not once, but 23 times before common sense or a realization of his own mortality kicked in. The assembled crowd of old school Hog riders, touring bikes and everyone in between stood up from their easy chairs at the Big Oaks outdoor dining room and issued a well-deserved standing ovation, but Mr. Elbows Down was long since gone.