Category: Ride Reports

Ride Report #20

A few hours free on Sunday and excellent weather (mid to upper 70s in November) usually equates to a ride around town.

I left home to get gas at the local Ardenwood station. While filling up I decided to try Fuelly — this website that tracks fuel consumption and mileage for your vehicles. I got 49.1MPG on my last tank. It’s going to be fun tracking MPG over the next several years!

FuellyI decided to ride a mix of freeway and twisties, mostly along familiar roads: 800, 680 and Calaveras.

Calaveras was superb! The weather was fine, not too cool but not too warm. There was very little traffic and I could ride at my own pace.

I’m starting to get the hang of this bike now. The engine is incredibly powerful (at least that’s what I think, coming from a DR650 thumper). The bike handles the curves very well. It is easy to lean over and confidence inspiring through the turn. The brakes are solid — in fact, sometimes a bit too harsh — and slow down the bike very effectively coming into a turn. I enjoy the engine braking too, and I’ve gotten used to that riding the thumper. But the biggest grin lingers right after the turn when I’m pulling away. The bike rockets away effortlessly, no matter what gear I’m in. In fact, I kept the bike in 2nd and 3rd for most of Calaveras.

After about 75 miles in the saddle, all I can say is that this is a wonderful machine. Quite comfortable, enough power, excellent handling. Looks pretty too!

Ride Report #19: Hollister Hills SVRA

Hollister Hills SVRA is the oldest and largest off-road park in California. I’ve been itching to go check it out, after having been to Metcalf and Carnegie. Unfortunately, HH is about 75 miles from home — a solid hour and a half on the super slab. Anyway with baby #2 due in less than 4 weeks, I thought the New Year break would be the ideal time to go check it out. I’m not going to have any time starting Feb. The forecast for Jan 1st 2012 was an awesome 73 F (~23C). Now that is nice for January in the Bay Area.

So I took 880 and 101, gassed up at Hollister and reached the park a little after noon.

Hollister is much bigger compared to the other two parks. And being a holiday, it was packed with riders. The parking lots were full and I could see kids buzzing around in their high pitched two strokes almost everywhere.

As a cautious newbie, I decided to try out the greens. I rode Rancho Road, Harmony Gate Trail and Field Road (all three greens). The trails here are long (longer than the other parks, i.e.) winding and certainly a lot of fun. A lot of tree cover makes for a picturesque ride. This winter has been unusually dry and so there was a lot of dust being kicked up.

I also tried a couple of blue trails (tighter, narrower and steeper), but nothing too adventurous. The good part of the Hollister Hills is that almost all the trails (the major ones for sure) are one way. So there’s little danger of running into someone at speed — a thought that makes me wince.

The DR did awesome — and I’m getting tired of repeating myself here.  It is however, heavy and a handful to manage. But it takes you where you want to go and has no complains doing so. In fact if you listen to your DR closely, it is begging you to go explore it’s limits.

I took the slab back home for the boring ride home and kept up a brisk 80mph speed. The DR did not skip a beat from being abused on the trails to grinding down the freeway miles.

Last evening I washed off the dirt. Now would be a good time to clean the air filter and chain. Maybe next week 🙂 Adiós!

Ride Report #18

Last weekend, I rode with Shobhit from Fremont to the Berkeley Hills.The weather was cool (late December), the sun was shining and thankfully there was no rain.

We rode on Palomares, Redwood, Pinehurst, Skyline and Grizzly Peak. This was my first outing on Pinehurst and I loved it. There isn’t much information on Pinehurst online, but what a treat it was to ride. The initial curves are wide and sweep at a constant radius. This makes for great riding and pushing the bike to it’s limit. As Pinehurst gets into Alameda county, it becomes more winding, more narrow and sometimes more wet.

The last few curves on Pinehurst, before it hits Skyline are brutal. Some of the turns have the radius of just a few feet. Couple this with rapid elevation changes and it makes for very technical riding. A fun ride overall, but full attention and focus needed.

We took a break atop Grizzly Peak where we took in the amazing views of the Berkeley hills. I’ve been coming to these hills dozens of times, for about 10 years now and this was my second time on the motorcycle. My first ever, was also on a motorcycle, riding two-up with Keshav Dani on his CBR929, back in 2001. So there — a bit of nostalgia. How time flies!

Ride Report #17: Carnegie SVRA

Since my first dirt outing to Metcalf I have been itching to do it again. So last weekend, I found myself at Carnegie SVRA and spent a few hours on the trails there.

Carnegie is beautiful! Some very nice trails, long and curvy, challenging at times, but manageable on a DR650. Carnegie is also much bigger than Metcalf, so one could possibly spend a lot more time there.

I spent most of my time on the greens (Pottery Loop trail, Juniper Trail and Klin Canyon Trail) and some blues (Golden Eagle and Franciscan Loop).

Here is a picture of the hill training area. Riding up that hill is harder than it seems!

On top of one of the hills there

A nice view

A nice view is incomplete without the DR!

Some people were attempting (successfully) ridiculous stuff ! That grade is close to 60 degrees there (Big Bear Black, at the end of Klin Canyon Trail)

A nice tight blue trail

Spending some quiet time at the top

I spent so much time riding the trails that I came into reserve while doing a hill climb. So before heading back home, I had to gas up in Tracy (about 10 miles down on Corral Hollow Road) before I rode back to Fremont.

Again, I was amazed at how well the DR goes from riding trails to doing 80mph on the freeway. A truly awesome machine!

Ride Report #16

Suminder is back in town, although briefly. We met up for lunch at his place on Sunday and post-lunch rode down to Santa Cruz. On the way there we took the mountain roads: Page Mill, Skyline and Hwy 9. As usual, Page Mill and Skyline were a lot of fun. This was really the first time I rode Hwy 9 (all the way) and was a little disappointed. The initial sections of Hwy 9 (close to Skyline) were beautiful. Wide sweeping turns with great tarmac and very little traffic. However, after the Big Basin stop sign, the road turns left and the traffic picks up.  Hwy 9 then hits the towns of Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond and Felton, before getting into Santa Cruz. Traffic was pretty heavy and it wasn’t much fun cruising through the stop signs, traffic lights and such. The other issue was that a lot of sections of Hwy 9 were wet. Suminder almost lost control at one point, but recovered safely without a a fall.

On our way back we rode the freeway: Hwy 17 to I880. Boring but a quick and efficient return.

Ride Report #15

It’s been a few weeks since my long epic ride into the Sierras. While that was fun, it was also very tiring. In general, life has been very hectic off late, both personally and at work.

Anyway, I did find the time to squeeze in a couple of rides. Solo rides, ~50-60 miles each. Both rides were at dusk as the days are getting shorter.

This was my first time riding Redwood road and it turned out to be a nice surprise. The lanes are wider than Palomares or Calavares, and the turns are longer. It sure makes for fun riding. On my way up Redwood, I actually spotted deer at least three times. They were mostly at the side of the road minding their business, but one has to be extra careful when riding in these East Bay hills. I kept a steady (but mellow) pace and thankfully didn’t see any deer pull up in front of me.

Sometime during the Palomares/Foothill ride I lost the right side (muffler side) plastic panel. I had removed the panels and seat to install the new air filter, so I must not have tightened it up fully when putting it back. Anyway, it seems like a common problem and I found a used plastic panel in white on Advrider for $35. Dealer wanted $170 for the panel, heat shield, rubber bumper, etc.

EPIC Ride Report #14

The title says it all.This was an EPIC ride.

  • 450+ miles
  • 11 hours
  • 9,600 feet of altitude change
  • No crashes 0r tickets 
  • A sore set of rears and a numb pair of hands

Route: Home –> Hwy 108 (Sonora Pass) –> Hwy 395 –> Hwy 89 (Monitor Pass) –> Hwy 4 (Ebbetts Pass) –> Home

I left home at about 7AM on a cool Sunday morning.

I rode out to Tracy where I met with Alvin (on a red Triumph Daytona 675) and Paul (on a blue Ninja 600). We gassed up and started the ride towards Hwy 120/108. The first stop was at Jamestown… a small little town at the foothills of the Sierra’s.

From there the traffic on Hwy 108 starts to thin out and the riding gets fun.

As the altitude increased, the air got cooler and the DR started slowing down. Over the Sonora Pass, the loss in power is really noticeable. The DR still does have plenty power, but the sport bikes were a lot faster than me.

We rode down 108Hwy towards Hwy 395 and then headed north for lunch at Walker, CA. The BBQ was OK, not much to write home about.

After lunch, we rode up the Monitor Pass (Hwy 89) which then connects to Hwy 4.

All in all we did four major passes. Monitor Pass is clearly the best of them all for riding. Super silky smooth tarmac, breathtaking views and practically no traffic. Made for fun times 🙂

Hwy 4 is more goaty and winding than Hwy 108. The initial 30 miles is single lane with some very sharp turns. A little before Bear Valley, we stopped at Lake Alpine for some rest.

From there on, the ride home was uneventful. We slabbed it across to the Bay Area, the afternoon wind beating against our tired bodies.

Here is a nice video from Alvin’s bike. The camera turns around and focuses on me at about 4:17

Ride Report #13

Last Saturday I met up with a few riders from SBR and rode a “group ride” from San Jose to Patterson. This was my first ride in such a setting. The original SBR thread made it pretty clear that “This is not a NUB friendly ride”, so I was a little intimidated at first. I was also the only rider on a dual sport. The other six riders were on sport bikes (a Honda CBR1000, Ducati Monster, BMW S1000RR, Suzuki DL1000 and a couple of  Yamaha FZ1s).

We met up at Green Bites Cafe in San Jose and took 680 to Calaveras. Calaveras is goaty enough for a DR to keep up with the sportbikes. I had fun on the twisties, keeping up with the not-so-mellow pace of the leader Rick. We got off Calveras and rdoe through Livermore to Mines Rd. This was my first time on Mines Road and I was pleasantly surprised. Nice curvy asphalt with lots of shade and not too much change in elevation. The gravel was loose in a few places, but it did not matter much with my knobbies.

We pit stopped at The Junction, where bladders were emptied and cigarettes were smoked. We then got onto Del Puerto Canyon Road towards Patterson. I must say that Del Puerto Canyon has been my favorite road in the Bay Area so far. The road follows a creek for most of the way. Excellent views, moderately challenging twisties and great pavement (a few rocks here and there) made for a fun ride.

We had lunch at Patterson and I decided to slab it back. Seventy five miles of pure interstate at 90+ mph does not make for a fun ride. Before the Altamont Pass I was pretty much at 100mph (indicated) all the time. At those speeds, and especially out in the windy central valley, the windshield was pretty much useless. It was bending all the way back over the headlight fairing providing very little resistance to the wind.

I made it home safely, but exhausted after 200+ miles of riding. I loved the whole group ride thing and might try it out again. 😀 Next time, I should remember to take along my camera.

Ride Report #12

I did a couple of interesting rides this weekend, which were in addition to a 10 mile run, house work, buying Anushka a new bike, and a hundred other odd things. I’m glad this is going to be a slow week at work, followed by such a hectic weekend.

Anyway, on Saturday, we met up with some old friends in Belmont. Vjiay (below) rides a red Ninja 250. We rode down Skyline towards four corners, and then rode 84 and Pescadero to the Pescadero beach. This worked out to be a fun and enjoyable ride, with ample opportunities to push hard in the curves, followed by several mellow miles following a slow car or truck. We rode back to town on Hwy 1 and Hwy 92. I was impressed with the little Ninja: it had no trouble doing 90 mph (indicated) on the slab.

Ride Report #11 Half Moon Bay & Pescadero

Last weekend, I rode with Shobhit down to Half Moon Bay and Pescadero. The weather was a bit foggy as we set out, but cleared up pretty quickly as we hit the coast. Hwy 1 is arguably the most scenic route in Northern California and it was a pleasure to ride. We took a couple of pit stops and some pictures.

This also happened to be my first ride with the new windscreen 😀 I can definitely say the screen reduces wind blast significantly, especially off the chest. The ride is much more comfortable. The velcro stays in place — 100% firm. At speeds below 65 mph, the screen provides excellent protection; at 65-75mph it vibrates a bit and causes the headlight fairing to vibrate too. Above 75mph it is calm again and stays firm till 90mph (as indicated by the speedometer, not actual).

Some pictures of the ride: