See part 2
Riding the Manawan road turned out to be a life-sized mechanical lab that revived recent painful experiences – and with some thought, older ones too…
If you ever ride a motorcycle on the Parent road, you will feel quite at home on the Manawan road. Both roads have the same vocation: fast fire roads that have been tortured by loaded logging trucks. Both roads send the same painful sensations to the rider: intense vibrations in the handle bars… strong enough that one cannot keep his hands tight on the grips – imagine yourself trying to stop a Harley Davidson engine from vibrating with your hands.
It was quite stressful to ride the Manawan road under those conditions with a pickup following closely at 45 mph (75 km/h). I could not go any faster because of the intensity of the vibrations transmitted by the washboard-like road and I was under the impression that the guy behind me was losing his patience. I let him pass as soon as I had a chance and I made a first stop.
If I had not brought along a ratchet with the appropriate socket that fits my suspension adjusting nub, I would have turned around without a second thought. But fortunately, it could be fixed.
