"Nasty Turns"

[John Soliday]

Steven,

Amazing that brings back memories!  I moved to Colorado from San Jose.  Me
and the ex were "patrons" of the observatory and would go up there to look
through the large refractor after swilling overpriced Napa wine and snarfing
cheese, no kidding!  The one thing I remember is there at least isn't any
real gravel or sand on that road vs. our here.  I took the ex's new '98
Taurus SHO up there with a buddy of mine on night and passed several
"geezers", which I probably qualify for now ;-) on the way up.  When we got
up there the brakes were really cooking but we had a lot of fun on the way
up!

Cheers,

John (I'll see if they can google map the road I was thinking of here in CO)

-----Original Message-----
From: gpzlist-bounces at micapeak.com [mailto:gpzlist-bounces at micapeak.com] On
Behalf Of Steven Bixby
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2010 5:18 PM
To: GPZ List
Subject: "Nasty Turns"

I don't know about "nasty" in the sense you mention, but I have something
similar - on the E-to-W climb of Mount Hamilton, just east of San Jose area.

This road is flat-out the twistiest road I've ever been on.  It's a good 15
mile long climb, with probably 150+ turns, with many of them having a radius
of literally just 8-10 feet.   I might go two or three miles at a stretch
never leaving 1st gear.

Some of the turns are right handers in which you gain 20 feet of altitude in
30 feet rolling - you gotta be really good on the friction zone.... "or
else". :)   Once you finally do get to the top, you stop, get off the bike
and spend a half-hour unkinking your shoulders for the ride down the other
side, which is almost as twisty!

A Google Maps link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mt+hamilton,+ca&
sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=58.425119,74.53125&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Mt+Hamilton
,+Santa+Clara,+California&ll=37.332631,-121.680708&spn=0.058146,0.072784&t=h
&z=14

Alternatively, a tinyURL version:

*http://tinyurl.com/yft7pdt

*
On Tue, Apr 6, 2010 at 4:05 PM, John Soliday <johnsoliday at msn.com> wrote:

> OK, this would be a nice new thread; what's the nastiest low speed turn
> you've ever ridden on your GPZ?  I need to take a picture of mine but Mike
> and Charles probably know this turn.  It's a uphill, 180, usually covered
> with sand, and (I am not kidding) there was a small dead bear on the side
> of
> the road there.  If I had my camera or my phone (wish, darn it I forgot to
> take, but there's not cell coverage up there anyway) I would have loved a
> shot of it.  Anyway, it's the turns out of Ward, CO right before you hit
> Peak to Peak Highway, up by the Mill Site Inn.  And since the dirt turns
on
> Old Stage Road, I would never take my GPZ on, they don't count!
>