r/PDXrideit

Started riding last October, finally felt ready this last Saturday to tackle the twists on 30E (Historic Columbia River Highway) out to the falls!

We left around 9am and once we got onto 30 we basically had the whole road up to the falls to ourselves! Perfect opportunity to learn how to zip around those turns.

Purchased this 2007 DR650 with 12k miles for $1200 a few weeks back, it was sitting in a guys barn in Northern Washington. Didn’t run, just needed a little love.

New coil, jets, plugs, stator, pickup, ignition switch, turn signals, plastics, Tusk Waypoint tires, springs, boots, and an OEM exhaust from a wrecked DR650.

She runs great!

It came with an aftermarket seat and it’s horribly uncomfortable, is the seat concepts the best for a big rider? 6’4 275

Shot on Rebel T5i.

And I took full advantage.

Aw, y'all... I haven't one one of these in a hot minute, and I'm not sure that I have the same brain for retaining highlights like I did back in the day. Here goes something!

Met up as planned at Barton at 9am-ish, and I was late to the party as predicted. I was joined for the day by u/SoloMotorcycleRider, u/SpiralGray, and a 4th on a hot new Kawi-Davidson Eliminator. We hung out in the parking lot for the preset hour-ish and then after everyone was road ready (about… 10-15 minutes late. Not my fault this time!) we got after it.

First “stop” was at Ripplebrook Camp Store to make sure we all had a chance to regroup. The internet lies… it is open and operating. Get your shit together USDA. It ended up being a tidy enough collection of bikes that we were able to keep track of everyone and stuck together until folks voluntarily peeled off along the way. After that we dropped down NF-46 as planned into Detroit. u/SpiralGray pulled out after the turnoff and took point on most of this leg. Just after the 224 turn-off, for the first 5-ish miles, the road surface-surface was decent but was also a consistent scattering of uneven surface levels/scars and swaths of smooth re-patch and a nearly non-existent center line. If 1 is fire trail and 10 is PIR, it was a 4/5? After that it was quite pleasant and improved to more of a 6/7 (sorry… but it was) it might have even been an 8 but we apparently were chasing right behind a storm, cause the surface was vehicles-in-front-of-you-kicking-up-wet wet for the stretch up til about Breitenbush. Just before Breitenbush was the only truly sketchy second IMO the majority of both lanes aside from auto tracks was a mess of muddy gravel for about 100 feet then back to smooth sailing. I 100% forgot about the section of NF-46 that switches back and then snakes down into the valley. *swoon*

Quick pit stop to regroup at River Run before the turn on to OR-22 and The Gingerbread House. The milkshake definitely holds its own. I don’t want to throw shade but I wanted a chocolate strawberry malt and THEY WERE OUT OF CHOCOLATE SAUCE, C’mon y’all! That’s day one shit. Regardless, the not-chocolate strawberry malt was pretty damned tasty and the tots were just about perfectly fried. 10/10 would eat there again.

Called at audible after the shake stop, and took backroads through the sticks up to OR-214 instead of taking OR-22 and cutting up through Sublimity. We started on Fern Ridge Road (right across OR-22 from The Gingerbread House), turned on Bass Hill Road (I missed this turn and we had to double back maybe 1/4 mile… not gonna lie. This is what happens when you let the ADHD kid call the shots on the fly on roads they are thoroughly unfamiliar with), the continued on to Coon Hollow Road, took a right onto 170th Ave which becomes Triumph Road (fitting…), another right to stay on Triumph follow by another onto Carter Road before one last right onto OR-214/Silver Falls Hwy and back to the “planned” route. These were hands-down my favorite roads of the day. Belly full of carbs, smooth clean surfaces, rises and falls, twists and turns, gorgeous views and scenery. I love that I live here. No doubt.

OR-214 is wide open, clean, and as to be expected for a route of this nature. We did hit a slow down not too deep in that was clearly because of a gathering establishing a motorcycle memorial honoring a recent fallen rider. They wanted revs from us as we passed, and they got them. I don’t know who you were, but you were loved. The usual other speed drops and slow downs for a gorgeous weekend morning in a hiking heavy area of a hiking heavy State.

On in to Silverton and on through to Mt. Angel, a bit of garbage traffic through Woodburn to get across to the other side of I-5 and then opened it back up to St. Paul and the turn to Wilsonville Road.

Wilsonville Road remains one of my favorite “slow” roads in the close-in area around the Metro area and today was no exception. Nothing exciting or intriguing to report on this section. If you know the road, you know it. If you don’t. Go ride it.

Wilsonville round winds about and becomes Stafford. Which I learned is still/again closed at Johnson… so I wound my way through the suburban hellscape of West Linn, back over to Stafford above the closure and back into the city.

I purposely didn’t spend much time on traffic and oblivious Oregon drivers… cause what are you gonna do? You’re gonna do what you gotta do… and we did.

I absolutely will be heading back down to Stayton area to explore more of those rural/farm backroads. Damn they were pretty.

Thank u/SoloMotorcycleRider for the meager selection of photos. He bullied me into it... and by bullied I mean "Hey, you could take a picture here. You know. For your write up later."

[dictated but not read]