Last time I was here, I had a really nice ride over this section of pacved road and described it as "MotoExtacy". But, I was new to touring at that time and didnt really know what sort of roads I would find in other places.
This time however, I have ridden about 80,000Km more (which it turns out is equivelent to riding twice around the world at the equator!) and I now like to think I know roughly what is a good road and what is a bad road (at least in the Americas anyway)!
and...
No question,
No shaddow of a doubt...
This little bit of pavement is "hands down" the "absolutely nicest" piece of pavement I have ever ridden!
Sure, the scenery is not quite as captivating the second time around, but honestly, you are spending almost all your time with your eyes glued to the road anyway, so there is plenty of leeway to go through the area a few times without getting bored.
Last time I rode through, I hade wider panniers and the bike was five cm lower... Consequently I was dragging the toes of my boots through the turns quite a bit :)
This time the bike is narrower and higher and I didnt touch down, but again, I had a REALLY good time!
The "Chicken Strips" being refered to in the title of this post are not a food reference... Thats what motrorbike people call the bands on the sides of the bike tyres where there is tread, but where the bike has not been leaned over sufficiently for this area to be on the road. Thus these areas on the tyres do not get worn and look different to the central band of tread that does hit the pavement.
So, riders can gague the "aggressiveness" of another rider just by looking at his bike tyres. The width of these strips indicates the skill/courage of the rider... The wider the strips, the more "chicken" the rider is.
For my part, I think Im relatively conservative, especially with a loaded bike on Mexican roads.
Im happy with my "chicken strips" if my rear tyre has none at all (its fatter and therefore easier to touch down right to the edge) and my front tyre has "thin" strips about 5-7mm wide (as per the pictures).
When Im on a sport bike without a load, on roads I know, and in good weather, I like to have no chicken strips at all after a ride on the "twisties". Really aggressive riders will not only have no chicken strips but the tyres will be all "smeared" with the melted tyre rubber as well!... but not for me today :))
So, I had my Chicken Strips for breakfast today :)))
