Subject: Glorious in Corsica
Author: Patrick Hayes
Date: Jun 9, 2002, 8:26 AM
Post ID: 1710401071
A very long ride down the east coast today. The rain threatens a bit and we
have some periods of rain. We made a clever decision to drive through the
center of the old town of Porto Vecchio just at lunchtime on Sunday. Its a
rats maze of one-way streets and we manage to do a full square loop gridlock
with the lead rider once again pulling in behind our trailing support
vehicle. What noise and what smell!
This east coast road is mostly straight and well paved. Clicking along
happily at 100km as we get passed by luxury cars doing 160 or so. We're 22
bikes long and they think nothing of taking the full line. So what if there
is a curve. They just continue on through to then end. Oncomming traffic?
So what.
The roads in the mountains are just the opposite. They have a centerline,
but it does not designate lanes. Since there is only about 5' on either side
of the line. If you meet someone oncomming, you're entitled to the size of
road that fits your vehicle without regard to where the stripe was.
We did a mountain road like this yesterday except it was so foggy you could
only see the one bike in front of you and no more. The hill on your left
shoulder is nearly vertical and you know without looking (better not) that
the drop on the right of the pavement is just the same.
This place ranks right up there with my trips to the Dolomites, the Alps and
the IOM. Clearly a worldclass motorcycle destination.
Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA