Ride Your Own Ride

Riding through Northern New Mexico the vistas and terrain are ever-changing; from the colorful sandstone formations near Chimayo to the majestic peaks and green valleys of Cundiyo and Truchas.
Last Sunday was a perfect day for a ride from Santa Fe to Taos. The air was crisp and the skies were clear blue. Three friends and I took off up hwy 599, through the Tano Road area, to Tesuque. At the intersection to 285, we changed leads and I followed at the rear. (Two of my friends were riding on one bike so there were three bikes all together.) Traffic was not too heavy and the roads were dry. Just past Pojoque, we turned right on CR503 to Nambe. Shaded by a canopy of cottonwoods we made our way up the valley to the intersection of CR503 and CR520 to Chimayo. We decided to continue on 503 to the small town of Cundiyo. The sandstone, soon turned to pinon covered foothills making for a twisty, rolling ride. This road dips through several arroyos and after heavy rains, such as those the night before; the pavement becomes more of a dirt road. The small town of Cundiyo is quite charming; reminiscent of a small European town with narrow roads and small, charming homes. Just as we started out of town, a small grey kitty, decided to meander across the road. I slowed as he made a leisurely crossing and thought he must have a pretty good life here.
The road climbs out of Cundiyo and makes a rapid, steep decent to the next valley. The pavement is uneven and tight curves are thrown in for extra measure. I was now in the between the other two riders. I kept my speed down and stayed to the outside in order to avoid the traffic from the other direction. Whew! That was exciting.
From here we turned north on CR76 which took us up to the towns of Truchas and Trampas and Chamisal. I continued to follow in between the two bikes and kept my focus on the skills I’d learned throughout the MotoFemina project; taking an inside, outside, inside path of travel, countersteering through the curves and keeping my speed at one that I was comfortable maintaining.
Turning onto CR 75, it’s a short jaunt before the intersection that takes you up to Taos. So we were about ¾ of the way through our trip. As I came up on a curve, I noticed a Winnebago coming around the corner and crossing the center line by about 2 feet. I came out of the lean to avoid the Winnebago and just as you would expect, the bike took a straight line and I went straight into the guard rail, slid along the guard rail for approximately 15feet. The bike came to a stop, fell onto the guard rail and sent the front fender flying. I won’t go into how the rest of the day went but I would like to share what I learned.
Obviously I over reacted; coming to an upright position rather than coming out of the lean just enough to avoid being scraped but continuing to countersteer all the while.
Katherine (from MSF) was scheduled to come down this past weekend to train us on more advanced riding skills. Ironically those skills included stopping and braking in a curve, emergency reactions, countersteering and delayed apex to name a few. Since the bike was out of commission she was not able to train us on the road but rather went through these skills in a classroom setting. Her thoughts, her experience, and her lessons were eye-opening. After talking over the crash with Katherine, I realize I was riding above my mental skills and that going slower could possibly have prevented the crash. RIDE YOUR OWN RIDE. It’s easy to get caught up in following someone else. I did it on the race track some months back; trying to catch someone on a straight away only to have to brake before the corner because the speed was beyond my capability.
The TAKE HOME I got from Katherine: when you come to a turn that you can not see through, keep riding on the outside line, delaying the apex, until you can see, and then countersteer through the turn. Whenever you feel you are about to lose control in a curve, countersteer even more. As Laura said she learned from Torsten, “trust the bike”.