The first time I rode a motorcycle in California was on the Iron Butt Rally. I dropped into the northern part of the state, through the redwoods and out to the coast. On another rally the theme involved light houses and I started at the Oregon coast and collected points all the way to a life guard chair in San Diego. In between a buddy from the east relocated to San Rafael; I’d been out there to ride with him a few times and always loved it.
Thanks to my friend Rick I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Southern California in the same way my friend Dave introduced me to the northern part of the state. As a good Yankee I have a love / hate relationship with California. As a motorcyclist if I’m going to be honest with myself it’s all envy; except when we stop for gas.
There is nowhere else in the country with the variety of terrain, climate and roads as California and it is all compressed when you get to the Los Angeles area. As a benefit LA came after the automobile and the car culture that was born here is alive and well. In the span of a day you can ride twisty roads from sea level to over 4,000′, see snow capped peaks, farms and vineyards before turning around to drop down to the beach.
When I reached out to Rick I asked about the condition of my tires. I knew they were suspect as I had planned to switch them to a more dirt orientated tire for the riding we were expecting to do. The virus changed all that and now I needed tires that would be good for a coast to coast ride. Rick informed me the rear was good for 500 miles and the front would “probably” make it. I’ve never left on a big ride on a probable tire. Rick was willing to take my bike to his dealer for a set of tires which proved to be vital.
Upon landing in LA I was met by Rick and off we went to an In and Out Burger for lunch. This was my first visit to fast food, at home we stocked the pantry early. Here it was a zoo with restaurant staff taking orders outside on panasonic toughpads which are very expensive military spec tablets. A cool toy when they could have smashed three ipads for each one of those mil spec units. It took us about 40 minutes to get lunch and the drive up to Ventura took almost twice as long as normal. The beaches were closed but there were a lot of people taking a look from the relative safety of their cars
When we arrived at Rick’s place I was delighted to be reunited with my motorcycle and my gear. It was a beautiful day and it was easy to talk Rick into a quick ride into the hills to scrub in my new tires. It was very wise of Rick to take my bike in on Friday; by the time we got to his garage it was too late to get tires. Rick had a small club ride planned for Sunday and he invited me to stick around.
I’m generally not one for group rides yet here I was riding some very technical roads with some very good riders who are also local. It was quite enjoyable to a point when the extra focus and concentration necessary to ride with such a group overcame my desire to do it. I gave Rick a wave and set off on my own. We had a planned rendezvous with our friend Lu for dinner.
I had a ball. On my own I was able to enjoy my own pace, get over any jet lag and see some of the best of the area.
Up in the hills all sorts of things can jump out. Here I came around a turn and there were two guys setting up to do a tandem flight on this hang-glider. I waited and waited, took a whole bunch of video but at the end of the day they decided it wasn’t quite right. Probably a good decision because jumping off a mountain on a hang-glider strapped to another person is something that would likely punish indecision.
I continued on to Lu’s place for a dinner of wicked thick pork chops, fine wine and a most excellent cigar. Lu has a nice place. I’m very lucky to be welcome there although someday the guys at the gate are going to get wise and not let me in.
All in all a fantastic weekend in Southern California.
Weekend fun. Blue route is the Saturday afternoon scrub in, Magenta was all day Sunday.
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