This was a 2025 Thanksgiving Break ride. Mahesh was back in the Bay Area from Michigan, so we decided to do an overnight ride down to SoCal, planning to stay the night at Ventura.
I rode down from Fremont on my ST1300, and met Ayon on his Moto Guzzi Griso at the usual intersection of Bailey and McKean in San Jose. It was a cold and foggy day, it started out in the mid-40s and the most it probably got during the day was 56F.
Windshield fully up, heated grips on to max! I am continually amazed at how good the weather protection is on this bike and how easy it is to ride long distances even in the coldest of weather.
Mahesh did not show up at Bailey, he was running late, so we told him to meet us at Tres Piños. He did not show up there either, and we had limited sunlight, so we decided to keep going down Highway 25. The ride down Highway 25 was excellent. I was taking it slow, still getting used to the size of the ST 1300.
As we got to the end of Highway 25, I looked at my phone and I saw a couple of missed calls from Mahesh’s wife. Oh shit, I really dread getting a call from his wife 😢 given what happened on RR95. Thankfully, it turned out to be no big deal. Mahesh was trying to catch up with us, but his phone slipped out of his jacket pocket, and fell onto the road. He had to borrow somebody else’s phone, call his wife, look for the location, etc., and so he was not really in a position to continue the ride.
Anyway, no big deal, we continued along Peachtree / Indian Valley Road, and what a beautiful road that is, remote, lonely, and surreal. We decided to stop for beer and lunch at Firestone Walker brewery in Paso Robles. Been there before, and the beer was excellent.
From the brewery, we decided to ride Hwy 229 – Rossi’s driveway. It had been a long time since I rode there, and I didn’t quite remember the road, so it was extra fun. Short and sweet, great pavement, perfectly banked curves and a good bit of roller coaster style elevation change. Both Ayon and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
From there we decided to cancel our hotel reservations for the night and ride back home. It was a cold ride back up 101, but the ST makes these rides easy. I wasn’t even tired after a 400+ mile day. I loved my first longish trip on the ST.
This post was not created or edited by any AI model in any way. It is my own writing in my own voice.
Sujit Kirpekar 