RR54: Lost Coast Dual Sport Ride: Getting Old / Birthday Ride, Part I

The lure of “dual sporting”… Riding off into the unknown, where the paved road ends and the wilderness begins. Like Springsteen’s song from Philadelphia, “It’s just you and I my friend”. I turn 40 years young in 2019 and it seems like a big moment to celebrate. While lots of trips have been planned for the birthday, a celebratory motorcycle trip is sure called for.

I have always wanted to ride the SheetIron 300 – a dual sport ride organized by the Oakland Motorcycle Club through the Mendocino National Forest. Unfortunately due to the 2018 Ranch Fire the 2019 Sheetiron was canceled. And that’s how, as sort of “the next best thing”, I signed up for the North Bay Motorcycle Club Lost Coast Dual Sport Ride. The ride starts and ends in Ukiah and we spend the night in Fortuna, riding through the Lost Coast on Day 1.

Here is the map of the complete route. Mostly public roads, but it does go through some private lands, so explore at your own risk.

Ayon joined me on this ride on his R1200GS. We left Fremont late Friday night (September 27th) and reached Ukiah around midnight. Traffic was very light because it was so late at night. I was impressed by the KTM auxiliary lights; they cast a bright beam of light down the road. We checked into our hotel (Motel 6) which was a basic, run-down motel in a not-so-nice neighborhood of town. Notice the trash bag with the Coors cans…

The next morning, Saturday, we were up early and the staging point for the ride was close by. We gassed up and went down to registration. I checked in my bag with the MC and they trailer all luggage to the end point.

Some guy was checking in a regular India style suitcase. Ayon did not miss the photo opportunity.

Our first road for the day was Low Gap Road. Reasonably easy 30 miles of dirt, but the temperatures were still cold in the morning. My bike read 44F at the top of the summit.

Nice wooden bridge on Low Gap Rd

Interestingly there was a guy who did the whole ride on a Harley Softail. He did just fine. But the lady with him on the BMW GS broke her ankle in a get-off and had to be rescued by fellow riders.

Dada lost it on somewhere Low Gap Road, but no harm done, the GS is a tough bike.

From Low Gap Rd we rode to the Coast and took Hwy 1 till Fort Bragg. We stopped in Fort Bragg for gas and Ayon decided to get a quick bite at Cravingrill which is small quick-serve Middle Eastern place along Hwy 1. The food was awesome there – the babaganoush was superb. We spoke to the server there and he was from Pakistan. It turns out that a lot of people from Pakistan come to Fort Bragg to live and work!

Our lunch stop for the day was this private beach a few miles north of Fort Bragg. Lunch was simple, some hot dogs, chilli and snacks, but it was fun hanging out with the rest of the crowd there. We rode up to the ocean front and took some pictures.

After lunch we tackled the famous Usal Road and it did not disappoint. Beautiful views of the coast and a long way through the coastal redwoods. It was tiring, but fun.

We then rode up to Shelter Cove for a few pictures and made our way back to the hotel for the night. The official route for the day followed Kings Peak Road to the Lost Coast (see RR34), but we were tired by that time and decided to head back to the hotel on Hwy 101.

We stayed the night at the Super 8 in Fortuna, a much better room than the Motel 6 of the previous night. We drank a few beers at the Eel River Brewing Co in Fortuna where we met Eddie Benson, the owner of Fremont Honda Kawasaki. We were really tired that day and slept well at night.

Day-2 was easier in terms of dirt. We first rode through the Avenue of the Giants (see RR42) and then made our way inwards away from the coast. Day-2 was full of hard packed fire roads with little technical stuff. It made for easy riding and was a welcome break from the previous day.

We had a quick lunch at Wheels Cafe and Pub in Laytonville, and made our way back home. We didn’t do the full route for Day 2 either – gotta keep something for next year! It was a long ride from Ukiah back home to Fremont, but the dirt sections of the day were easier and we weren’t super tired.

Here is a video I edited, turn up the volume.

Overall this was an excellent 2 day ride. A little exhausting, but “the adventure” total made up for that. Among the “big bikes” the most popular bikes there were by far KTMs, followed by Honda’s Africa Twin and the BMW GS.

 

 

RR53: Return to Metcalf

Blast from the past – Labor Day 2011, I visited Metcalf Motorcycle Park (RR10) and rode the OHV park with a bunch of SBR guys. With the new KTM 990 I was able to go back to Metcalf after more that 8 years. And it was a total blast!

The first couple of times the ranger denied me entry because my Akrapovis exhaust pipes did not come with a spark arrestor. After some research online I was able to buy FMF spark arrestors which made the pipes legal for public lands.

First time out in the park was on Sept 8th with Ayon (R1200GS) and the second time round on Sept 22nd was Ayon (R1200GS), Akshay (Tiger 1200) and Anil (KDX220). We had a total blast riding Trails 1 and 2, and also the TT track. While Trail 2 was relatively easy, I had a hard time riding Trail-1 at first. The steep drop from the top of the hill, with a little whoop in the middle made me a little uneasy, but I was able to handle it the next few times we went around.

Thankfully none of us crashed our bikes, and we all came out OK. The KTM 990 does a great job of handling dirt one minute to riding the twisties the next and then blasting the freeway home, all within a couple of hours.

Here is a nice pic along the TT track –

RR52: Adv Ride through Clear Creek

I have been wanting to ride Clear Creek for a very long time. I had only heard of this place from others (e.g. on SBR) and I’d seen all the pictures, but I’d never actually been there. Clear Creek was shut down by the BLM back in 2011, but a couple of years ago reports started coming in that vehicular through-traffic was being allowed as long as you had a permit.

With the recent KTM 990, this ride suddenly became a possibility and so I was excited. I got 4 permits (for Anil, Akshay, Ayon and myself) and we did the ride on Sunday August 4th. It was the middle of summer and the temperatures varied from 50F at the coast to over 100F inland, all in a matter of 5 hours.

Akshay (Triumph Tiger 1200) & I started the ride from Fremont and met up with Anil (V-Strom 650) & Ayon (R1200GS) at the Bailey exit on 101 in South San Jose. From there we took the freeway all the way down top Gonzalez and filled up on gas. This was at about 8 in the morning and the coastal area was foggy and cold, down to the low 50s.

First up was Gloria Road. This is a graded fire road that runs between 101 and Hwy 25. The road is super smooth and it was very easy to ride. We climbed to the top of the pass and by the time we descended, I was comfortably doing 30-40mph in the dirt.

Next up was Old Hernandez Road, and the famous water crossing. I was a little nervous as I approached it, but I simple road it slow and crossed over with no drama.

We rode down Coalinga Road and entered Clear Creek. There is a locked gate and the the permit gives you the code to the locked gate. It was getting very hot by now, so we kept moving.

The road through Clear Creek was amazing. The rugged terrain, rocky cliffs and the general desolate nature of the place was fascinating. There was nobody there, we were literally the only ones inside Clear Creek that day. As the road climbed up the mountain we got some amazing views. The road back down was fairly challenging, with lots of rocks, ruts, dips and bumps. Anil got stuck in one of the ruts and he needed a little help getting out.

As we exited the BLM park, the lock code at the entrance did not work at the exit. We had to go around the locked gate. There was just enough space for a big Adv bike to make it around, but we did so successfully.

On our way out I stopped briefly at Idria for a picture

The last leg of dirt was along Panoche Road which runs from Panoche Inn to I5. The road was mostly flat, smooth and well graded, with one interesting water crossing. Anil was riding my KTM 990 then, he crossed the water with ease.

We got to I-5 exhausted with the heat and off-road riding. After a quick bite at the Baja Fresh, we headed back home along I-5.

It was a great first adv ride for me on the KTM and I learnt a lot about riding off-road.

 

2015 KTM 1290 Super Duke R and 2008 KTM 990 Adventure S

Over the course of this summer I bought two motorcycles, within 3 months of each other. This was the first time I bought two bikes in such a quick succession, and it was the first time I have had more than 1 motorcycle in my garage.

2015 KTM 1290 Super Duke R

On 27th April 2019 Akshay and I drove down to LA and picked up a 2015 SuperDuke. I had been looking at SuperDukes for a while now. I first test rode one back in August 2018 and I loved it. It is a fairly tall and roomy bike, it looks the part, but more than anything it has a ridiculous engine. The first time I rode it, I was hooked, I knew I had to get one. As I searched for bikes here and there, many popped up, but the one in LA was special. The previous owner had gone a little crazy in modifying it and it had all the right things for me. I spoke to him over the phone and he accepted my reasonable offer.

So we drove down to LA the night of April 26th and stayed at a small motel in Santa Clarita. Early the next morning we checked out the bike and it was great. There was another bike in LA that we wanted to see – a mostly stock 2016 – so we went down there and had a look too. In the end the orange 2015 won me over and we made the deal. We took turns riding it home on I5 and made it home by mid afternoon.

The SuperDuke, as it turns out now, is a phenomenal motorcycle. It is, by far, the fastest, rowdiest, craziest motorcycle I have ever ridden. The Suzuki Hayabusa is a mellow bike in comparison. It has certainly taken me a while to get used to the power of the “SDR”, but I have started to enjoy it tremendously. With a very short wheelbase and an intensely torquey motor, the SDR is prone to wheelie-ing. Even with traction control on – it will wheelie in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear.

Here is what I posted to a ZRXOA thread (yes, the ZRX board is still one of favorites)

I’ve put about 400 miles on the bike so far. The first 300 were simply riding it back from LA. After about 100 miles of twisty riding, here are some observations:

The bike has a lot of power. It makes a tremendous amount of torque off the line (106 lb-ft with the Akrapovich system), definitely more than the Busa. While the Busa develops speed linearly, the Duke jolts me in the seat. It is definitely a bit jumpy … and a small amount of throttle makes it lurch. I am still getting used to the power. Second & third gear roll-ons are a little scary.

Handling is great. I’ve not played around with the suspension damping settings, but it seems to take turns confidently without drama. It has a much shorter wheelbase than the Busa, so it turns like a bicycle. As I sit much higher on this bike, I get the feeling that I can lean it a lot more. I scrubbed the rear tire to the edge, the fronts will need to wait till I’m more confident.

With traction control ON, the bike still wheelies in first, second and third gear. Maybe only about 6-8 inches, but the front wheel does come off the ground. The TC light comes on for a second and the wheel comes back down. I have not yet yanked the throttle open, but even a firm roll-on in second gear lifts up the front. I have not tried to turn off TC, too early to try that.

I did play around with ABS modes. The supermoto mode was interesting and it makes it so easy to spin the rear wheel. I never knew that rear wheel spin was a thing – coming out of a turn, I can spin the rear wheel with a little gas, and the bike is pretty composed and under control. Lots of fun.

Not much difference between Street mode and Sport Mode. Sport is a little more aggressive I guess, but this is such a big departure from the Busa that I didn’t notice the difference between the two. Rain mode is mellow and I can feel the bike slow down. A gentle Sunday ride would be best in Rain mode.

BTW, this is not a freeway bike. Riding in sixth gear feels like I am lugging the engine, even if I’m going 80+.

2008 KTM 990 Adventure S.

On 25th July 2019 Akshay and I drove about 50 miles north to Suisun City and picked up a 2008 KTM 990 Adventure S. This was not an impulse buy, but a bike I have always wanted to buy … ever since the first 950/990 bikes came out. I was especially interested in the S model, with the higher seat height and longer suspension travel. There are always a lot of 950 & 990 bikes listed for sale on advrider.com, so I started my search there. A few weeks into the search the exact bike that I wanted popped up on the local SF Bay Craigslist. So I made a deal with the seller over the phone and went and picked up the bike the next day.

The 990 adv S is a great dual sport adventure bike. Powerful engine, roomy ergonomics, decent brakes and amazing off-road capabilities. The Hepko Becker hard bags provide a ton of storage while the LED lights up front create a visible facade to traffic around the bike. I am loving this bike so far, the only downside is the twitchy fuelling at low RPMs, which I can hopefully fix with a fuel map from AdvRider.

 

RR51: 2019 Sierra Pass Ride

This was a repeat route of the annual Sierra Pass ride (2011, 2015, 2017, 2018) with the following notable exceptions:

  • First time doing this route on a SuperDuke. I really enjoyed how light and easy this bike is to ride in the twisties. It produces tremendous power when you need it to, it turns quickly when you steer it and it stops almost immediately when you ask it to. What a fun bike!
  • First time with some snow around us! The winter of 2018-2019 was a very wet one and there was a lot of snow on the ground in June. Lake Alpine was still a bit icy. The temps were cool and it made for a very pleasant ride.
  • First time on a weekday – so no traffic at all in the Sierras, but a lot of commute traffic on Patterson Pass Road. We actually started early, at about 6am before the sun rose, so it was doubly difficult to ride on Patterson Pass.
  • First time for a couple of new riders (Ayon on his Triumph Speed Triple and Anil on his Suzuki  V-Strom), but everything went smoothly. No close calls, no crashes, no tickets.

 

 

Ride Report #50: 2019 MC Trip

If you’ve seen the Coen brothers 2011 epic movie True Grit, you probably remember the finale: Jeff Bridges riding through the night on a horse with Mattie, who has been bitten by a venomous snake. As the night turns to day, the horse eventually collapses from exhaustion but Bridges continues on foot, even as it starts to snow. Bridges gets Mattie to the doctor in time, and Mattie survives, although she never sees Bridges again. That was an amazing movie and somehow reminded me of this years motorcycle trip.

May 18th 2019, Friday

We started the day, early as usual, meeting in the Niles area of Fremont. Shobhit flew in from Seattle the night before and he rode Akshay’s BMW S1000R, while Akshay rode his new Aprilia Tuono. I was riding my Suzuki Hayabusa with a simple tail bag at the back, enough to carry stuff for 3 days. After a very wet 2018-2019 winter, it had not rained for the entire months of April and May, but right around the time of this trip, the weather changed and a lot of rain was forecasted.
As we started off from Niles, it was raining lightly and we took the freeway down to San Jose where we met the rest of the group. Anil (Suzuki VStrom 650), Ayon (BMW R1200GS) and Sravan (KTM 1090 Adventure) were the new riders for this year. Ayon is a pro photographer and many of the beautiful pics below were shot by him. After a few pictures we started down Uvas Road, road over Hecker Pass and then to the coastal Hwy 1. After a short burst of fun on Laureles Grade, we made it to our first gas stop in Carmel Valley. Sravan and Ayon ate some breakfast, while the rest of us chatted. We then rode Carmel Valley Road (without getting lost this time) and it had stopped raining by then so I enjoyed the Busa on the twisty parts of CVR.
We stopped for pictures on the green bridge over the Arroyo Seco river. We parked all 6 bikes on the bridge mid-span, so we probably irked the dozen or so cars that went by. We then rode down to King City for lunch, where we ate at El Lugarcito Restaurant. The burrito was decent, but the beer was good!
I got onto Sravan’s KTM as we started down Jolon Road. The KTM surprised me with how easy it was to ride, and how comfortable it felt. The engine was great, full of torque at the low end and it was easy to ride into the triple digits. Riding Jolon was excellent, bright skies, mild temps and not much traffic. We switched bikes and then rode down Interlake Rd, Nacimiento Lake Dr and Godfrey Rd till we reached Chimney Rock Rd.

As we rode to the end of Chimney Rock, we stopped by the spot that Shobhit crashed last year and took a few pics. It was a great reminder to slow down and enjoy the road. We stopped for a short break at the end of Chimney Rock and turned right on to Adelaida Rd as we returned. We then road Vineyard Dr and Peachy Canyon Rd back towards Paso Robles. Peachy Canyon was probably my favorite road of the day – nice tight twisties and very little traffic. I was following Anil and a good clip, not too fast, not too slow, just right for the most amount of fun.

By the time we go to Paso Robles, it was getting to the end of the day by now, and we were all a bit tired. I did want to ride Hwy 229, Rossi’s driveway, but I didn’t feel like making the extra 20 mile detour. That road will have to wait for another time. It always seems like by the time we get down there, we are ready to call it a day and we don’t end up riding that road. Anyway, we then rode down to the KOA at Santa Margarita Lake where we camped for the night. The last few miles to the campground were fun. A completely open road with very wide turns, I opened up the Busa to about 150 and stayed there for more than a couple of seconds. It was fun. Sravan and Anil were kind enough to go back into town and get everyone dinner, again Mexican gurb from a Taco truck in town. We got a small campfire going and there was a lot of beer and whiskey flowing, among other things.

May 19th 2019, Saturday

We rose pretty early the next day and packed up our luggage and left. There is a small gas station at Santa Margarita Lake, but it sold 87 gas only, and that was not suitable for the Aprilia or BMW, so we rode back up in Paso to gas up.
Next up was Hwy 58 from Santa Margarita to McKittrick. This 75 mile stretch of road is superbly entertaining. The road offers a lot of variety – wide sweepers and tight downhill twisties initially, flat straight endless roads up ahead and finally a long winding downhill section of mountain road towards the end. The pavement was freshly tarred in many places and there was very little traffic. We enjoyed the road thoroughly and stopped at a vista point for a few pictures.
Just a few miles away we stopped for lunch at the McKittrick Hotel Penny Bar and Cafe . I was expecting a quaint, middle of nowhere roadhouse bar, but it was a pretty crummy. We ordered omlettes & beers, but the food was pretty bad. We pressed on – through the boring stretch of the central valley – to Bakersfield, where we stopped for gas and coffee. It was getting late in the afternoon and we had a lot of riding left for the day. I was planning out alternate routes in my mind, but nothing would prepare me for what would come eventually.
We took Hwy 178 out of Bakersfield towards Lake Isabella. This is a very scenic highway, it runs alongside the Kern river and after the very wet winter of 2018 the river was cascading down in full glory. The rapids were gorgeous and Ayon stopped to take a few pictures. The road was also very entertaining, but traffic was a little on the heavy side.
We took a short detour to Miracle Hot Springs off Hwy 178. In keeping with tradition, the dip in the hot, really hot, springs was a welcome break. A short hike from Hobo Campground the area offer three small soaking tubs: mild medium and hot! While the hot tub was really hot, most of us got comfortable in the medium pool. It was also the one right next to the flowing river. So we all took turns alternating between the cold water of the Kern river and the warm water of the hot spring. All in all, it was a great rejuvenating experience. As we started to gear up, we could see storm clouds gathering.
In spite of the clouds and light rain at that point, we decided to continue along the planned route. We passed through Kernville and took Mountain Hwy 99 north towards Sherman Pass. With all the snow from the winter, the road to Sherman Pass was closed, not at the Junction to Mnt Hwy 99, but a few miles in. So we continued on, towards the junction of M50 and Hwy 99. It had started to rain moderately by then. It all took a pee break and warmed our cold hands on the giant Busa muffler. The stock mufflers came in handy!
By the time we reach M90, The Great Western Divide Hwy, we were freezing. Anil was having doubts about hypothermia and I couldn’t see more than 20 feet from my fogged up visor. By the time we reached Ponderosa Lodge it had started to snow. The road was covered in a thin blanket of snow, and there was a moderate dusting on my windshield, bike and Aerostich. Things were getting crazy. Google Maps puts the elevation there at 7165 feet and the rains had turned into snow. While some of us were thinking about what to do, I was not really thinking at that point, Shobhit made the wise call to keep going. Things were not going to get any better unless we got off the mountain, so we pressed on.
We pulled over for a beautiful waterfall on Hwy 90, and a bunch of hands went straight to the Busa pipes for some warmth. The rain had abated a bit and the clouds were starting to clear. Sravan caught this beautiful picture that perfectly captured the moment. We did find some warm coffee eventually at Pierpoint Springs Resort in Springville. No cell reception there, but I texted Shruti over wifi that we’re going to be late to our final destination.
As we descended the mountain completely, the air warmed up, but the rain kept going off and on. The last 5 miles to Visalia were consummate True Grit. With a heavy downpour on the freeway, practically zero visibility, big cars and trucks passing us on the fast lane, I was holding on to the Busa for dear life. Somehow we made it to the hotel unhurt, but with a great sense of pride. Thankfully my Aerostich Roadcrafter kept me warm and dry. With 4+ hours of continuous rain the suit never leaked, even a bit and performed its duties to the fullest. I truly believe in that suit, it was well worth the high price tag.
We ordered some delivery pizza, while Ayon went for a foot massage. After a lot of scotch whiskey, we called it a night.

May 20th 2019, Sunday

On the last day we had a decent hotel breakfast, geared up and were on our way. The skies were clear initially, and we made the long flat boring ride across the central valley on Hwy 198. Just as we hit Coalinga, it started to rain, and it got very heavy at times. We gassed up in Coalinga and rode Hwy 198 and Hwy 25 up to Hollister. This was the last twisty bit of the ride, so everyone was trying to enjoy it. With all the rain, the roads were wet and I was not pushing it at all. We caught a nice break from the rain at the intersection of Hwys 198 and 25. We got some nice pictures there.

 

On Hwy 25, I stayed back with Ayon and Shobhit, riding cautiously on the wet tarmac. A few miles down the road, Sravan low sided his KTM Adventure on a lefthander. We all stopped, recovered his bike and thankfully he was OK. After reviewing the video of the crash, I was amazed at how little damage that did to the KTM. We took some pics and started back on our way.

 

Lunch was at La Villa De Jerez in Hollister, continuing the Mexican choice for cuisine. We said our goodbyes there and rode back home. It did rain some more but at this point I didn’t care much. With the Aerostich, my body was warm and dry.

The Busa odometer showed a total of 881.9 miles.

Ride Report #49: Sierra Foothills Ride

This was the second long ride I did in between jobs (Velodyne → Waymo)… a long day trip into the Sierra foothills. The 2019 winter was turning out to be a very wet winter, the snowpack was very tall (the fifth ever recorded since 1941) and hills very were green.

We started the day early from Fremont and took Tesla Rd through Livermore out of the Bay Area. We crossed the central valley a little north of Turlock, on Keyes Road. This road goes through the heart of farm country, there were all sorts of farms on both sides of the road and lots of heavy truck and farm equipment traffic. Keyes Rd joins Hwy 59 which soon turns into J16 and then it starts to get interesting. We turned right over a bridge over the Merced river and then followed Hornitos Road through the small town of Hornitos. It was my first time exploring this area and I loved the roads here. There was very little traffic. We split off J16/Hornitos towards Hwy 49 on Old Toll Road, which was a small goaty trail with a single lane and very rough pavement.

We got to the vista point at the top of the Hwy 49 grade (“little dragon”) at which point Akshay realized that he had lost his rear seat and some tools. We back tracked our way, down the bumpy old toll road and back on J16. A few miles later I spotted the seat on the side of the road and we resume our trip. We then took Bear Valley Road (also a fine road) to Hwy 49, down the little dragon and to lunch in Coulterville.

There is no gas in Coulterville, so we pressed on. We rode up Greeley Hill Road for a short distance and then took Priest Coulterville Road to the top of the Priest grade. This was easily my favorite road of the day. Short and sweet, not overly taxing on a Busa, still winding, goaty and fun. The scenery was great, the traffic was very less and we got to Priest grade easily.

We then rode down Old Priest Grade and enjoyed the very steep grade! We then continued to Hwy 120 to Chinese Camp and rode Red Hill Road and La Grange Road back to Hwy 132. At this point Akshay was running very low on fuel and there was no gas station in La Grange. We asked a store owner and she mentioned the nearest gas was towards Coulterville. When we arrived at the gas station, 15 miles later, Akshay’s bike was almost out of gas, showing an available range of zero miles.

We gassed up at Don Pedros Market on Hwy 132 and made the long and boring journey back home. We took the freeway all the way back as I had to get back on time and coach Anushka’s basketball team that evening. No laws were broken, but we did see triple digit speeds for a little bit on I5.

I really enjoyed this ride and I have a new appreciation for the roads in the Sierra foothills.

 

Ride Report #48: Hwy 36, 3 and 299

By an amazing stroke of luck, I found myself with 4 weeks of vacation between jobs. The first two weeks were a little busy wrapping up my old job and planning the start of the new job, so it was closer to 2 weeks than 4, but by any means a long stretch of time to myself. So what does one do with 4 weeks? If this was really 4 weeks in the summer, I would have made a solo trip to Alaska. Solo because it’s almost impossible to find someone else with that much free time. Yup, thanks Silicon Valley. So I ended up meeting lots of friends, hanging out with the wife and kids, going on a school field trip, traveling to the East Coast, and a couple of day long motorcycle rides. This was the first of them.

I left Fremont early one weekday morning and drove to Redding to Bill’s house. The drive was uneventful and easy as I listed to Dirty John. We had a big breakfast at Lumberjacks and started on our way after dressing warmly. The first part of the ride was I-5, straight down to Red Bluff. We took the exit to Hwy 36, gassed up and then stopped at the famous Hwy 36 sign for pictures.

I consider the initial part of Hwy 36 as truly the best of any road in California. It was cool but dry and I enjoyed the curves and whoops very much. The first 40 or so miles were easy and we kept a brisk pace. As we started the climb to the top, it started to get cold and wet and we saw remnants of snowfall on the edge of the road. We had slowed down, but by the time we summit-ed we were going at a slow crawl. The last 5 miles were a True Grit ride, white knuckles, death grip, shivers, the works 🙂 We made it across somehow and stopped in Hayfork for gas and some much needed hot coffee. Hwy 3 and 299 were also very good, as usual, and 172 mile ride came to an end at Bill’s house in Redding.

I very much enjoyed riding Bill’s ZX10R. I looked up the Motorcycle Consumer News spec sheet… A 2008 Gen-II Hayabusa weighs in at 577 lbs wet, while the 2004 Gen-I ZX10R weighs 432 lbs wet. That’s a whopping 145 lbs difference! No wonder the ZX10R feels like a bicycle with a rocket engine. The engine on that bike revs very quickly and builds constant linear power everywhere. While the bike is pretty docile, the front wheel has a tendency to come up. I remember on one of the many whoops on Hwy 36, I crested the top of the hump while gassing it just a tad more than necessary and front end came up by a lot. Great fun bike and I immediately saw the appeal of a light track liter bike.

Ride Report #47: Carmel Valley Road

 

October 7th, 2018

After a lot of route planning and watching the weather forecast, we decided to ride down to Paso Robles using mostly country roads and enjoy a long day-ride in this beautiful fall weather. The Sierra passes had started to get cold after the first snow there, so the plan was to explore the roads of the Central Coast. There were 5 riders in all – Akshay (BMW S1000RR), Shravan (Aprilia Tuono), Anil (Suzuki V-Strom 650), Gokul (BMW R1200GS Adventure) and me (Busa).

We first rode past Uvas reservoir till Hwy 152 and then took Hecker Pass towards the coast. It’s been a few years since I rode Hecker Pass. It was clear and traffic-free on a Sunday morning and we enjoyed pushing the bike through the twisties. We got to Hwy 1, rode it down to Monterey and took Hwy 68 to Salinas. We turned right on Laureles Grade, a fun short road with nice curves, but decent auto traffic, which got us to Carmel Valley Road (CVR).

The plan was to take the Chachagua Road detour off CVR and rejoin the route using Tassajara Rd. I had a sinus headache going on, so I decided to stay off the goaty Chachagua Road and meet the crew at the intersection of Tassajara & CVR. I got there, but they simply didn’t come, first for 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, now an hour. I rode up to the intersection of Tassajara & Chachagua waited a little more, still nothing. I then rode to the point where Tassajara turns to dirt. Didn’t see them, so I kept searching. I then rode out all the way to Hwy 101, where I finally got cell phone signal. For a brief moment I got a call through to Akshay and he told me everyone was OK; they had just gone way further ahead on the dirt part of Tassajara Rd.

Long story short, we regrouped back in Carmel Valley after they rode 40ish miles of dirt, while I did a couple of laps of CVR. I’m really starting to like that road, it reminds me a lot of Mines road. Too bad I couldn’t join the dirt adventure, but I did see some excellent pictures. And as long as everyone is safe, there is always the next time.

We had lunch at Kathy’s Little Kitchen (very mediocre) and made our way back home via the freeway.

 

Tassajara Rd runs to the Tassajara Zen Mountain Retreat  a meditation community run by the San Francisco Zen Center whose mission is to “to embody, express, and make accessible the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha.”

Here is video of the place –

I also found a video of Tassajara Rd on Youtube, made by the SF Zen Center –