NorCal ride - 11/15

So I posted that I was going to Northern California (http://www.600riders.com/forum/usa-pacific/41411-im-going-california.html and was looking to spend a day riding, and met up with wrlomas for a ride. Since I was flying I couldn't take my bike, and since I didn't want to commute to SF to pick up and drop off for a one day rental, I got a--err, well... I rented an adventure bike. A BMW R1200 GS. It was as heavy and hard to handle at a stop as I feared, but once it started moving it actually was really nice to ride. It seemed to be able to handle any kind of misbehavior I could invent in a turn and pretty soon I felt like I should be dragging a peg any minute. I'm sure I wasn't that close. I'm a pretty conservative (read "slow") rider. The motor has a big low end thing going on that is pretty fun, but even so the only time I went over third gear was to find out how many gears it had. I got it from Adventure Touring. Mike there set me up with the right bike and did a great job going through all of the BMW quirks and nuances so I didn't have any gotchas on the road.

Rob and I met in the morning after traffic and headed out on some of his favorite roads. It was a blast.

So here are some pics. We only stopped a couple of times 'cause the roads are so great!

More pics. The sunset shot is in Jenner where we ate some pretty amazing chowder.

Great that you guys hooked up! Thank you for the update and pictures!

Glad it worked out for you. Can you post a map of the approximate route you took? Or just tell us some of the roads?

I always try and stop at the Cafe in Jenner for a cup of coffee

I had a great time on the ride. We rode from Santa Rosa to Calistoga over the mountain. From there we went to Middletown up another great road. We tried to cross over to he Alexander Valley on Western Mine Road but it turned into a dirt goat path. The Bmw handled it well but I didn't want to beat on the FZ for 20 miles so we backtracked to middltown and Calistoga. Up the Alexander valley to Geyserville, by lake sonoma and picked up the Skaggs Springs road over to the coast. We then rode down the P.C.H. from stewarts point down to Jenner on a perfect afternoon. Sun was shining, weather was warm and the scenery fantastic.
We exchanged bikes on Skaggs springs and I got to ride the Beemer. At a stop the bike weighed 1 million pounds and was top heavy. As soon as you start moving the bike lost all its weight and became a nimble ride. Tractor power and a smooth suspension made it alot of fun on the twistys. Second gear goes on forever. Overall a nice bike.
Great ride, new friend and alot of fun was had. Gotta love this forum.

This link SHOULD work for the map: http://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=S...-Y2yTuEgDFJSE_Fa2XNXA&vpsrc=6&mra=ls&t=m&z=11

Nice route - thanks for the story and pictures!

Whenever you're headed this way, Rob, let me know and we'll do a ride on some Georgia mountain twisties. I promise no banjo music.

mikw73 said:

Whenever you're headed this way, Rob, let me know and we'll do a ride on some Georgia mountain twisties. I promise no banjo music.

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Soooo what do you think about the roads in California versus the east coast?

No doubt about it Mike. I gotta be in Quebec city next summer and Atlanta is sorta on the way. I'll need a big parking space for my rig, got any good ideas?

VEGASRIDER said:

Soooo what do you think about the roads in California versus the east coast?

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Necro-reply. Sorry, man.

On the whole, riding in Northern California is a good bit better. The biggest difference though, is the weather. We have shorter periods of nice weather here in Georgia. I can almost never wear leather here, as I usually need to have either mesh for staying cool or a really warm jacket and pants. (I'm gonna get a heated liners soon.) After weather, I'd say that on the whole, the roads here are slightly better maintained once you're away from our city, but you have to drive a lot farther to get to the good ones. Northern California's wine country at least seems to have faster transitions between a larger number of smaller land features, which makes for great varied riding. The Appalachians aren't huge mountains, but there are a lot of roads on them and many are pretty amazing. The exception to this is the coast highway, which is consistently pretty incredible. Also, traffic is a bigger problem here than in the wine area. As long as you stay away from what Rob calls "The river of steel."