cv_rider
Junior Member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2008
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- 819
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- Location
- Danville, CA Bay Area
Had an unpaid "vacation" as a cost-savings thing at my company last week, so after endless house chores, I finally got out for my longest ride ever on Friday, 240 miles in all.
Starting from Castro Valley, I went through San Francisco and took the obligatory picture in front of the Golden Gate. Hard to get a shot without 100 others in the background taking the same shot. There was a motorcycle cop cruising around the parking lot nodding in a friendly manner to the other bikers there.
From there, I went up Pacific Coast Highway to Stinson beach. The start of the road is a pretty tight set of twisties until it gets to the beach. Heading down, I saw a nice photo op, so I turned around to capture it, thinking that I have an unfair advantage of good weather for BOTM, with half our members still snowbound. Notice the dangerous lean angel the bike, as it was on the side stand on a slope. As I mounted it and tried to stand it up, I somehow lost balance and it flopped over into the dirt. I jumped off before it landed on me, just bruised my bum a tad. But it was leaned over more than 90 degrees, and with being on dirt, I couldn't get good traction to lift it using the technique of pushing it up using your back and legs I've seen on the forum. So I was stuck for a few minutes, until a couple of other riders came by and helped me lift it. It was kind of amusing because one of them was riding this old Suzuki that was probably a 100 or 150. Hardly weighed more than a bicycle, I bet! As he took off, he was probably laughing derisively at idiots who ride bikes too heavy to pick up on their own. Once it was up, I surveyed the damage. The Motovation frame slider was chewed up a bit (thank god for those -don't leave home without them), a few minor scrapes on the crank case, and the rear axle slider took some damage. A secondary blind spot mirror was smashed, top case was a bit scraped up. I was very impressed with the stock mirror - it has a way to become "dislocated" from its socket and was able to lie back against the fairing without being damaged. Just like a dislocated shoulder, I just popped it back into position and it was fine. I noticed that the Check Engine light was on. The engine wouldn't start. Sounded like the way a carbeurated engine cranks when the battery is low. That had me nervous, but I turned off power, then turned on again, the CE light cleared, and it roared to life just fine.
From there, I followed the beautiful coastline to Stinson Beach. Lots of nice turns of various diameter, but it's hard to keep the eyes on them for all the scenery around. Stopped in Stinson beach for a bit and chatted with some RR types for a bit, and then moved on to Olema for lunch, and then Point Reyes, to capture this picture with my namesake.
From there, I went further up the coast to Bodega Bay and finally Jenner, stopping at a turnout for some pictures of the coastline. This part of the road was really windy, and kinda scary. I was veering +/-18" from my intended line, depending on how gusty it was. And it was a narrow road with lots of turns, so not much room for error. Went slow, made it.
From there, I headed inland to Sebastopol along Route 116 which follows the Russian River. The early part of the road was nice except for the Volvo going half the speed limit. As it went inland, it got worse and worse. There was hidden driveway after hidden driveway, the type of road that had it been in an urban environment would have had a 25mph speed limit on it. But the limit was 45 here, and so I was moving along with the flow of traffic, but it was too fast for conditions, and there wouldn't have been enough time to react to a car popping out its driveway from behind a tree. So that part wasn't much fun.
It was a relief to get to the 101 freeway, and I took Highway 37 that goes across the north end of the bay. Here there was an accident, and I saved about an hour lane splitting between completely stopped traffic. After a spot of rain in Benecia, I was home, 240 miles later.
That was my longest ride ever. Especially on the last third of it, I was starting to get tired and I was losing focus. I think the key thing for me to enjoy an entire day riding is to make sure that I break it up with frequent stops for pictures, coffee, lunch, etc. Just sitting and droning on for too long gets tiresome for me.
Starting from Castro Valley, I went through San Francisco and took the obligatory picture in front of the Golden Gate. Hard to get a shot without 100 others in the background taking the same shot. There was a motorcycle cop cruising around the parking lot nodding in a friendly manner to the other bikers there.
From there, I went up Pacific Coast Highway to Stinson beach. The start of the road is a pretty tight set of twisties until it gets to the beach. Heading down, I saw a nice photo op, so I turned around to capture it, thinking that I have an unfair advantage of good weather for BOTM, with half our members still snowbound. Notice the dangerous lean angel the bike, as it was on the side stand on a slope. As I mounted it and tried to stand it up, I somehow lost balance and it flopped over into the dirt. I jumped off before it landed on me, just bruised my bum a tad. But it was leaned over more than 90 degrees, and with being on dirt, I couldn't get good traction to lift it using the technique of pushing it up using your back and legs I've seen on the forum. So I was stuck for a few minutes, until a couple of other riders came by and helped me lift it. It was kind of amusing because one of them was riding this old Suzuki that was probably a 100 or 150. Hardly weighed more than a bicycle, I bet! As he took off, he was probably laughing derisively at idiots who ride bikes too heavy to pick up on their own. Once it was up, I surveyed the damage. The Motovation frame slider was chewed up a bit (thank god for those -don't leave home without them), a few minor scrapes on the crank case, and the rear axle slider took some damage. A secondary blind spot mirror was smashed, top case was a bit scraped up. I was very impressed with the stock mirror - it has a way to become "dislocated" from its socket and was able to lie back against the fairing without being damaged. Just like a dislocated shoulder, I just popped it back into position and it was fine. I noticed that the Check Engine light was on. The engine wouldn't start. Sounded like the way a carbeurated engine cranks when the battery is low. That had me nervous, but I turned off power, then turned on again, the CE light cleared, and it roared to life just fine.
From there, I followed the beautiful coastline to Stinson Beach. Lots of nice turns of various diameter, but it's hard to keep the eyes on them for all the scenery around. Stopped in Stinson beach for a bit and chatted with some RR types for a bit, and then moved on to Olema for lunch, and then Point Reyes, to capture this picture with my namesake.
From there, I went further up the coast to Bodega Bay and finally Jenner, stopping at a turnout for some pictures of the coastline. This part of the road was really windy, and kinda scary. I was veering +/-18" from my intended line, depending on how gusty it was. And it was a narrow road with lots of turns, so not much room for error. Went slow, made it.
From there, I headed inland to Sebastopol along Route 116 which follows the Russian River. The early part of the road was nice except for the Volvo going half the speed limit. As it went inland, it got worse and worse. There was hidden driveway after hidden driveway, the type of road that had it been in an urban environment would have had a 25mph speed limit on it. But the limit was 45 here, and so I was moving along with the flow of traffic, but it was too fast for conditions, and there wouldn't have been enough time to react to a car popping out its driveway from behind a tree. So that part wasn't much fun.
It was a relief to get to the 101 freeway, and I took Highway 37 that goes across the north end of the bay. Here there was an accident, and I saved about an hour lane splitting between completely stopped traffic. After a spot of rain in Benecia, I was home, 240 miles later.
That was my longest ride ever. Especially on the last third of it, I was starting to get tired and I was losing focus. I think the key thing for me to enjoy an entire day riding is to make sure that I break it up with frequent stops for pictures, coffee, lunch, etc. Just sitting and droning on for too long gets tiresome for me.
