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Subject: "3 Sisters"...motorcycle roads in S Cent TX
Posted by: sarge33rd
- [99331714] Tue, Jun 12, 2007, 17:32
below is a copy/paste of my "ride report" for the bike trip I took Sunday. Originally, I planned on being out 2 days, but my front brakes went out Sunday, and these roads are not such that you want to even consider riding them with only 40% of your braking capacity.
14 hrs and 600 miles later....
this is a copy/paste of my "Ride Report" for todays trip on another forum:
Came out of Harker Heights (Killleen) at 5:40 this morning. Caught 963 (a local area favorite) over to 281 to work my way down to Luckenbach. Got there too early for much of anything, but took a couple pics and headed South to catch 473.
First time on 473, and thats a road I'll be hitting again...and again...and...well, you get the point.
Worked my way westward and finally caught 16S just south of Kerville. Now I've drug ft pegs on the Wing before, but this is the first time I drug one side and then the other on the ensuing corner! (Wasnt gonna be the last time today though!!!!) I thought 16 was "The Bomb"...a feeling which was about to be surpassed.
337...what can I say? She starts out kinda eeeeeasy like. Large looping turns, fairly flat...she's teasing you. She's daring you to twist that throttle, and you will. About the time you convince yourself that "this road isnt all that" and get on the throttle...your next thought will be "Holy %&^*&^! Both brakes ... hard ... downshift ... twice ... lean hard! WTF was that?" but you'll have no time to ponder it as there is another coming right at you and then another and another and ...
Then you have the altitude changes. Hairpin turns while climbing left, then right, and hairpins diving left and diving right. Scenery to kill for but you wont have time to enjoy it. Its just WAY hard to make yourself go slow enough to visually take in the view, because its too much fun to "challenge" the road. I know there were multiple points where I was grinning like a 6 yr old in a Toys-R-Us with his Grandpa, but I'm not entirely convinced the giggling I heard wasnt the asphalt chuckling while thinking, "I almost got you that time. Watch out for the next one or I WILL get you!"
If you want to think of the 3 roads (337, 336 and 335) as "sisters"...337 is the one who you want to "run into" on a Saturday night, but you'd NEVER think to take her home to meet your Mom.
335 is the next "sister" to greet you. Not as vicious as the one you just met, but still loads of fun. Very much like 337, but not as severe. This is the sister you hope to hookup with. You just know she's going to challenge you, but she isnt as likely to break you as 337 would be.
336? She's the "biatch" of the 3. The girl in HS who wouldnt even talk to you. This road is challenging but also irritating. Peppered by "cattle grates" (a device which unnerves me), she's the twin to 335, but the grates make her the "evil twin".
As Tom posted in the other thread where I asked about this ride...337 just east of and coming into Leakey, is under repair. You get to ride rock/gravel for about 1/4 mile or so. 187 just north of 337, has the same condition, but closer to 1/2 mile currently.
Also rode 39 today. (Kurt posted a map which I assume was from one of his rides. I printed it and pretty much rode that same route today. You can find it here if you care to look: http://www.twtex.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18500)
39 is almost like 2 different roads. Starts out with nice long sections with sweeping turns. A nice change of pace after the sisters. A chance to get on the throttle and put some serious wind in your face. Then suddenly, she becomes the 4th lost sister to the other 3! Small towns dot 39 though, so its not severe...just fun.
For any who havent ridden this bit of roadway just yet, much as I hate cliches I have to use one here, trust me...this is a MUST ride piece of asphalt. After you've ridden it once, you'll go back. I am...next weekend.
I had planned on camping tonight near Fredericksburg and then hitting the sisters again tomorrow, but on 39 today, my front brakes starting making an evil metal-on-metal sound. The sisters are not the route to tackle, when you dont have access to 60% of your breaking power. So I nursed the bike home tonight with just rear brakes and will get those looked at this week. I have a cooling vest coming UPS tomorrow, so next weekend will be a great opportunity to put that to the test.
All told today, 14 hrs after leaving the house this morning, I pulled back into the garage minus my front brakes. *shrug* Tired, hot, weary but elated by a day spent putting some 600 or so miles on the Wing and having an absolute ball doing it!
5:30 in the a.m. just prior to departure, imageshack cropped this pic for some reason
Lukenbach Schoolhouse
Historic marker for same schoolhouse
1367...couple miles south of Lukenbach
437...a GREAT bike road
Camp Verde
view at very low level "river" crossing. (Note how the fences capture crap during flash floods)
lots of low level crossings with some beautiful scenery
337..the biggest of the 3 Sisters
another water crossing
nature at work
337 again
climbing a hill with some riders in front of me
these next 4 were taken at the same spot
shot of a mesa using my zoom lens. (camera was turned 90 degrees...sorry)
another mesa
2nd mesa through zoom lens
wildflowers that I shot from up close with the zoom on max. wanted to blur the foreground and the background, focusing only on the center area.
field of marigolds I think? (like the 1st one, imae shack cropped hell out of this one too)
view on 39..tree lines alongside a creek...gorgeous place
obligatory pic of the bike at that same spot |
| 1 | sarge33rd
ID: 99331714
Tue, Jun 19, 2007, 12:48
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Some stills and video from this past weekends trip to "3 Sisters"
Met up with a fella out of Houston, and he had a video cam setup on his ride. He's a new rider, so he tended to trail behind me a good bit, but thats OK. He stayed within his limits.
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