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Sound off from the Westside of Washginton USA for SportBike Northwest.

I'm heading down early Wednesday, 07/29.

Round-about Route or NF25 route depending upon who's who that shows up.

Pace: Moderate
Meeting Place: Federal Way, Crossing Plaza at 348th and Enchanted Parkway (HWY18 / I-5 Junction), Starbucks
Meeting Time: 7AM'ish
Stands Up: 8AM
Arrive: Depends, 3PM to Stevenson the round-about way a drunk bear crosses over the pass through Yakima or 1PM a NF25 crow flies.

Any one from the Westside want to hook up and roll down together? Anyone already have a plan? We can also meet along the way...Puyallup, Milton, Randle, etc...

From Sounder Rider:
2009 Sound RIDER! Rally in the Gorge
July 29 - August 2 in the Columbia River Gorge

Ride the KTM demos courtesy of KTM USA
Watch the new High Speed movie from Jeff Jensen on the big screen at the Twisted Throttle Main Stage
Take in a rolling clinic or two
Enjoy four nights of camping at the fairground at no additional charge
Ride the twisties along our recommended rides
Ride the Ducati demos courtesy of Eastside Motosports
Participate in the Silent Auction and pick up on some great items from Avon Tyres, Ventura Luggage, Black Dog Cycleworks, Dunlop and more
Ride the 200 mile poker run on Saturday. Choose from our paved or duals sport routes!
Enjoy great BBQ from Outlaw BBQ
Ride the historic Maryhill Loops Road

http://www.soundrider.com/rally/
__________________
http://pnwriders.com/groups/pnw-dam-tour-westside/

I've updated with route maps and departure details. Anyone going to join in a week of bike camping and endless road trips?

Well I think it will be NF25 route to get to Stevenson.

I am hoping I can do this...... but my shift work could be the deathly end.

That would be awesome if you could go too!

Here's a few shots of the ride down, around and back from the rally in the Columbia River Gorge (Oregon & Washington states). I've kept the commentary down but as always ask if you want more info.

Just about to leave, the "F" in sport touring mode.


Horsetail Waterfall on US30 near Hood River, Oregon. It was nice in the shade with the water fall mist for awhile. The air temp was 106F in the sun.


Up at the Vista House on US30. The wind speed was clocking in at 37 mph and air temp was 104F...felt like a hair dryer.




Hood River bridge, grated deck and average wind speeds around 35mph. I crossed this one several times over the five day rally.


Took a route from a previous year rally up to the West side of Mt. Hood, Oregon. The Duc registered 109F air temp.



Who's this coming down the hill?


Let's all go get lunch up at Government Camp Ski Resort in Oregon! Air temp 105F.


I basically got up every morning around 5AM so I could beat everyone to the showers and get in a two to three hour ride before everyone else hit the rode, including the RV's (caravans) and cagers. It was also much cooler in the morning.


Here's Stone Henge in Washington State...yes I'm not kidding. I've included a walk-through video at the end of this post.



So, if you came to the rally and signed up for the Friday morning cornering clinic, you got two things, a chance to race with the new BWM 1000RR (only 3 in the States) and 3 hours of fun on the closed circut, one-way traffic Mary Hills Loop.





The Mary Hills Loop is approx. 2.5 miles long and has 26 corners and is pretty much done in 2nd and 3rd gear with a couple of opportunities to put your bike in 4th for maybe 2 to 3 seconds. We're not talking average corners either, switch backs to 260 degree decreasing radius turns, several 300 degree turns of 60 foot radius. The sound of 35 bikes roaring through the loop made so much racket that cruisers were stopping at an overlook to look on with amazement on highway 97 to Goldendale, Washginton.


Pictures of the bike barn back and tent area at the rally campsite.



Another shot of the gorge area near Carson, Washington.


And now for the Stone Henge video. I hope this works...I have not uploaded a video before to this site.
http://s578.photobucket.com/albums/ss22 ... =045-1.flv

Great Pictures Cherrio! It looks like you had a great time. Did you switch bikes with any of the guys? Just wondering if you piloted the FJR that is in the pics. I am assuming that there was zero problems with the "F". We will have to plan another "F-Troop ride. Crash.

Very nice pictures, and I'm officially moving to the PNW

Hope you do.... we got Great riding up here just limited amount of dry time.

Cherrios I am looking at these pictures and dieing inside that I couldn't go. If you are doing this again next year I'm gonna beg my union (seniority) brothers to let me have this weekend off. If not I'm going to have a ton of attendance points against me because I am going!

Yes, this was a blast, except for the endless heat. I didn't slow down on most days to take snapshots of all of the self-ride routes. This year they were trying to keep down to small squads instead of large groups to cut down on accidents. I was never in a group of more than 5.

I had a good time, meet some great people including a short ride (I was 1 of 4 bikes) and sit down with drinks with Reg Pridmore, the very first AMA Superbike Champion: he won the series the first three years of its existence: 1976, 1977 and 1978. That was cool! I almost had him sign my bike, but I thought a hand shake would last longer for me.

Hey Jeff,

One of the rally rules was no swapping so most did not. I did however begged and begged and begged the BMW touring rep to let me take the new 1000RR for a spin...no go though. I did get to try out the new KTM Super Duke 990. It was fun but the center of gravity was too high for me and the throttle was real choppy. The "F" had no issues except I burned through a set of tires.

Here's a short uphill snibit of a longer route from the rally. I had to go back to take this little section 3 times...Google Maps does not do justice
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=45.684357,-121.401672&daddr=Mosier+the+Dalles+Hwy%2FUS-30+to:rowena+oregon&geocode=%3BFUI0uQIdsNnD-A%3B&hl=en&gl=us&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=13&via=1&sll=45.682798,-121.389828&sspn=0.079872,0.153637&ie=UTF8&ll=45.686756,-121.331978&spn=0.079866,0.153637&z=13