Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Fri, 09 Jul 2010

The Art of the Pass

I had a free day today, and decided to take a little ride before it got too hot. Seattle's been dealing with fairly bipolar weather lately, and a week ago, it was in the 50s and raining. Today it topped 90 with perfectly clear skies.

I loaded up Google's map page, and started scrolling around. I found a little road near Carnation, called Griffin Creek Road. It looked delightfully twisty and interesting, and I'd never heard of it before. I figured there was a reasonable chance it was a dirt road, but it was worth a trip to find out.

I loaded up the Camelbak with ice and water (a fine idea, and it stayed very cold until my return home several hours later), and headed out on the Ninja 250. My usual route for this kind of trip is to take 520 out to Avondale (520 really just turns into Avondale where it terminates), then turn right on Union Hill Road, and follow that through its twists and turns to Snoqualmie Valley Road, which runs up the west side of the Snoqualmie Valley, and eventually leads to some of the best twisties in the area (although they're brief, and relatively high traffic).

This time, I continued out to Carnation, and south a bit to pick up Griffin Creek Road. I got there, and it was indeed a dirt road, but with an internal shrug of the shoulders, I headed up, figuring I'd turn around if it got too uncivilized. I finally stopped a few miles up, where the road suddenly narrowed from a wide single lane to a narrow single lane. I didn't have anything to prove, and paused in a convenient pool of shadow to take off some of my gear and spend a few minutes without earplugs in. It was very pretty, although not particularly picure-worthy -- the picture would have been titled, "Trees." Any follow-on shots would have been titled things like "More trees," or "Bike with trees."

I turned around, and on a whim, decided to turn south on Carnation-Fall City Road, and make my way to Snoqualmie Falls. I was most of the way there, so why not? I made my way to the falls, and, sweating in my gear among the tourists, took a couple of quick, "I was really there" photos.

I made my way back to the bike, and back down the hill, the way I'd come. I stopped at the delightfully deceptive "$1.00 sweet cherries" booth ($1 buys you a miniscule amount of cherries, although you can certainly get those few for a dollar). I rolled on.

As I was coming back along highway 203, I was reminded of something Jeniffer and I had experienced and discussed in our trip around the North Cascade loop last month: no one knows how to pass any more.

So, the way it works is this: on any two-lane road (ie, one lane each direction) where passing is permitted, well, passing is permitted. Generally speaking, to do it legally, the vehicle in front of you should be going less than the speed limit, and you shouldn't exceed 15 MPH over the speed limit in your overtaking maneuver. In Washington, at least, it's illegal for any vehicle to detain 5 or more vehicles behind it, and it's required to pull off the road to let the other guys go past. I suspect other states have similar rules, and it's certainly a common-sense idea.

Anyway, it was interesting to me how atrophied the skill is. Everyone who drives on a multi-lane freeway is used to simply having a second lane available for overtaking. Someone in front of you not going fast enough? Pull into the next lane, and overtake them at your leisure. On a two-lane road, it's not that easy, of course.

First, you have to determine if it's safe to pass. That is, is there oncoming traffic? Do you have a dashed line? (If there's a solid yellow line in your lane, passing is prohibited, usually for a very good reason.) Is the guy in front of you behaving predictably? Sometimes the best course of action is to back off, or pull over for a few minutes to let them get ahead.

If things are safe, turn on your turn signal, gun the motor, and jam past the slowpoke. Signal back into your lane, and slow down to something approximating the speed limit for the benefit of the local constabulary. It's really easy, particularly if you're on a motorcycle.

Of course, not all motorcycles are created the same. The Ninja 250, while it embodies many fine attributes, will never be mistaken for a powerhouse in the modern pantheon of motorcycles. With the 250, you have to plan your strategy with a bit more care -- find somewhere with good visibility, a useable gap between cars ahead of you if you can't pass the whole line in one go, etc. It's actually a pretty interesting challenge.

On our trip on Highway 20 last month, Jeniffer was riding her BMW F650GS (a confusingly-named 800cc vertical twin), and I was on my Ninja 250 (a rationally-named 250cc vertical twin). Her bike produces something like 80 HP, mine screams along with maybe 28, for a not terribly substantial difference in weight. It was with interest, therefore, that I would pass people, and wait a surprisingly long time for Jeniffer to catch up, despite rolling through some prime passing areas. When I asked her later what was happening, she said she's just not comfortable passing, and deferred to my decade-plus of experience. This is by no means an attempt to rag on Jeniffer or her riding skills, it's just interesting to me that we have such different approaches to it.

But similar to both my ride today, and our ride last month, was the fact that very few other drivers showed any inclination to pass. We'd come upon these long trains of cars unhappily guttering along behind a slow vehicle, and I'd pass them in one or two leaps as conditions warranted, and Jeniffer would catch up to me a bit later.

Therefore, I'm urging you, fellow drivers, break free of your multi-lane roadway habits, and actually take a chance on your next road trip. If you're driving a modern car, you have so much power available to you in most cases that passing is little more than a trifle, to be accomplished with as much difficulty as most people execute the pouring of a cup of coffee. You can do it. You can break free of the mental chains. And you can get around that slug ahead of you.

Posted at 18:22 permanent link category: /motorcycle

Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.