FZ ride down the California coast.

[Roadstergal]

We had initially planned to do a bicycle ride from our house to Santa Cruz this past weekend. However, my hubby was a little under the weather, so in the interest of not making that worse, we changed our plans slightly to a ride on the motos farther south.

We put the SV1000S back in street trim, and I washed the poor neglected FZ6. We packed clothes for overnight in one of my saddlebags, and my takes-up-too-much-space dSLR in the other.

Stopping for gas.

We had an uneventful ride down 280 and across 84. When we hit 17, though, we were pulled over by a moto cop. We suspect he was looking for squids gearing up to go crash on 9; he gave the SV1000S a few good look-overs, I suspect looking for a fix-it ticket opportunity. But m'boy's lighting is stock, his plate isn't somewhere ridiculous, and his tires are DOT (if shagged), so the officer let us go. My bike is too stodgy for even a second glance.

The wind was cool, so we stopped in Monterey to get another thermal layer for m'boy. Hang-gliders drifted drowsily overhead. It was that kind of day.

Highway 1 south of Monterey was a nice change. Not the tightest turns, but good fun; the traffic was light and the day was beautiful.

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[Roadstergal]

At one stop, we heard an unmistakable "Ourh-ourh-ourh-ourh!" It was very, very loud. We looked down, and saw a lot of sea lions. Big ones, swimming around, heaving themselves across the beach, fighting, napping...

Hubby: "That's the most photographed FZ6 in history. Have you ever stopped to think about how it feels about that?"

I asked if it minded, and it didn't say anything, so I assumed all was well.

It was good to get back on the Fizz. I haven't ridden it much - when there's a 'tard in the garage, it's the bike that gets chosen when the weather is crappy. When I don't ride the Fizz, I start thinking about other bikes I could have instead that I shouldn't have. Then I ride this one, and I remember it's the perfect bike for what I use it for. It's comfortable and practical, low in drama and high in utility. The suspension isn't spongy, but isn't so supersport-stiff that it's bad for real-world roads.

The SV1000S is now at an in-between point; a bit too hairy for the real world, too heavy for the track. Awfully attractive, though!

Not as attractive as its rider, IMO, but that's my own feeling in the matter.


I got mooned!

(The above, as well as a few others, were taken with my point-and-shoot - it's not as good as the dSLR, but it's very convenient.)

This library was not as sexy as you might think.

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[Roadstergal]

We made a double-time hurry to find a good vantage point to watch the sun set. We found one. The sunset was utterly, utterly stunning.

We headed back to Santa Cruz to our waiting hotel room. We had gotten a ground floor room so we could put the bikes in the rooms with us. It wasn't exactly the best part of Santa Cruz, after all. As there was an inconveniently placed wall, we had to shuffle the bikes around a bit and take off my bags, but in the end...

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[Roadstergal]

Hotel-provided. As the toilet paper did not say "Ass," I was a little confused. We need to be told these things.

It's a good thing we didn't ride the motards.

We slept well, then jockeyed the bikes out to head back home the next morning. Then, we went on a bicycle ride. It was a route very near our house, one that m'boy has taken and I haven't.

It starts off with a gentle climb, then gets steeper, and steeper, and steeper. That's one thing - but doing it with a strong headwind is just crazy hairball. But we made it, with much panting and swearing.

This is from close to the top. We came from down there.

This is an abandoned bunker at the top, and my bike.

The trip down was a different kind of hairball. You could get up to some very bad speeds very quickly. M'boy let me try his bike, as it has disc brakes. OK, I've wanted disc brakes before, but now I know I need disc brakes. So much stopping power, and with modulation and lack of fade!

This is from halfway down. The snakey blue water is the Crystal Springs reservoir.

We made it down in one piece - which is good, as we had a supermoto test day yesterday.

 

[Cmayer31]

Awesome pictures! It was just like going down the coast, but without the cool wind and nothing better to do cops. I love that part of the coast and made the drive up to Santa Cruz, in a cage, when my brother was going to UCSC; go Banana Slugs! :thumbup:

Looks like you both had a lot of fun and a good weekend vacation. Which takes-up-too-much-space dSLR are you using if you don't mind my asking?

 

[ferrariman]

Wow..looks like you had loads of fun to say the least..I am planning on doing the same route sometime..i hope sometime this weekend..if I have company..going alone would suck! but cali has these beautiful places which just cant be afforded to be missed...cant wait to take it out and have some fun again..last week Skyline blvd ride was fun...hope this week the weather is good and again lets me to go take it out for a spin.
Thanks once again for sharing the pics...only makes me hungry to go out and ride my FZ. I love this bike and who doesnt!?

 

[VEGASRIDER]

Thanks for posting, that sunset picture is Awsome! LOL on your bikes in your hotel room. They would never let me do that at the Four Seasons.

 

[Ghost Weim]

Wow - great pictures! :thumbup: The one of the bike with the sunset could be a bike of the month contender...

Jealous... We have snow again.

 

[hardway]

Outstanding pics! I just did this ride in the other direction with much worse weather, I like yours better

 

[craig007]

great pic's. I bring my bicycle into hotel rooms all the time, but I never though about putting my FZ6 in a room with me. hmmm....

 

[reiobard]

awesome pics and looks like a great time. I love that you parked the bikes in the hotel rooms.

 

[Wavex]

Amazing pictures thanks for sharing!

Love the bikes in the hotel room lmao

 

[davidsa1]

Looks like a great trip! Every time I see pictures from your side of the country I get a little jealous you have such great roads and scenery.:thumbup:

 

[Roadstergal]

Thank y'all for your kind words!

Yes, I feel my luck for having this kind of scenery. I was born and raised in Chicago, then went to college near Philly, so I'm not used to... how you say... natural beauty.

My dSLR is a friend's Olympus E-500 that I bought when she upgraded. It's actually not all that bulky - I just have a padded carrier for it, the lenses, and all of the accessories, so it takes up a bit of a disproportionate amount of space.

 

[BMX9000]

I always get green of envy, when someone posts pictures from that area of California.
I have been there by car, but i would really like to ride a bike there.
Maybe some day i will.

Great pictures, and great words to follow.

I am hoping to go ride on friday, the forecast is pretty good, no rain and 5 degrees celcius(WUHU):rockon:

Peace

 

[DefyInertia]

Awesome pictures and thanks for the ride report. Did you doctor any of those pictures at all?

I just left Chicago after spending 8.5 years there

 

[SANGER_A2]

Hubby: "That's the most photographed FZ6 in history. Have you ever stopped to think about how it feels about that?"

I asked if it minded, and it didn't say anything, so I assumed all was well.

Lol. I love this quote!

 

[nimzotech]

Cool Adventure!
Thanks for sharing :thumbup:

 

[lytehouse]

Those are some great pictures! Thank You for sharing with us..