Yesterday I did my first long distance freeway ride. About 45 miles round trip from my home in Fremont to Mountain View, CA. My friend Suminder was riding his 1150GS alongside, so that helped my confidence. As I log more miles, I’m getting increasingly confident with the DR and have started to get a more intimate feel for the acceleration, braking and turning.
We set out on 880S; the traffic was mild and we kept it at about 70mph in the slower lanes. All in all it was a comfortable ride for me, enjoying the weather as I rode down. When we hit Rte 237, the wind picked up and I could feel the shaking (shimmy) from the blast. The DR did fine, but it confirmed what everyone says: The DR is not a freeway cruiser and was certainly not built for high speed cruising. The gel grips definitely improved the ride. As we got to Mountain View the traffic thinned out and Suminder & I picked up the pace a bit. Eventually we hit close to 90mph just before exiting the freeway 🙂 The DR did fine, with plenty of throttle twist left. I’m sure the bike tops off above a 100, but I have really no intention of exploring that range. Alright, everything on this blog is untrue and cannot be used against me in any form.
We had dinner at Taqueria Los Charros (an average burrito) followed by coffee nearby.
On or way back we took the Dumbarton bridge and the wind was howling! We reduced speeds, held on steady against the wind-blast and made it back home safely. A great experience on the whole. When riding the DR, I always return home with a smile.
Sujit Kirpekar 