2021 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
- Thread starter pashnit
- Start date
That's a little snow...
As soon as there's any snow, that's the end of my riding...bike goes into storage.
ottafish
Registered
I think someone made a 4 wheel bike for that exact scenario. Think it’s closed in and can seat at least 5 and has a heater too.
Central California Motorcycle Tour
Have you ever heard that saying, If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. The quote is attributed to Woody Allen. And when you’re in the plan-making business, sometimes you get laughed at.
My recent 13-hour 600-mile day of motorcycling bliss a few days ago was a relaxing, almost meditative experience. Except for the last few hours of the ride. The chain began to make awful guttural noises of a highly disconcerting sort. Clunk, clunk, clunkity, clunk, it would say each time I accelerated away from a stop. I normally carry chain oil everywhere I go, but as the fates would have it, this was the one ride of the season I forgot to bring it with me. Over the last 18 years of doing these tours, I have forgotten every single item you normally carry while motorcycle touring at least once. One time, I forgot the camera memory card. Hard to take pictures without that. I have forgotten shoes, tour paperwork, camera chargers, phone charging wires, one time I forgot to bring pants. (I wore leather riding pants to dinner that day).
Ironically, I have carried chain oil for the last 10,000 miles of riding over the last few months and rarely if ever pulled out the can. Now the one time I needed it, I didn’t have it to ease my dying chain’s last gasps of life.
As soon as I reached home base, ordered another chain ($176) paying for expedited postage ($38) to get it here in a day plus making sure I ordered in-stock local to speed up my ship time. $223 with tax, this stuff isn’t cheap. The bike has 195 horsepower and weighs 485 lbs dry, never skimp on chains. I then swapped out the chain and promised myself I’d do the sprockets later, as bikers usually change all three items as a set. When there’s only 11 days in between planned rides, that does not leave a lot of time for unplanned repairs.
Furthermore, we have this rule with the tour business. Never do major maintenance or repairs right before a ride. Things go wrong, things get missed. And, through the years, I’ve had riders cancel long-planned rides due to maintenance not done correctly right before a major ride.
In my case, I installed the shift lever back together on the wrong spline and the bike wouldn’t shift into 1st gear. Something to do with the angle of my foot and the linkage. And, I didn’t test ride the bike after I swapped the chain, which is probably a good idea. I headed down to the meet spot 3 hours away in the pouring rain in the wee morning hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway, often splitting lanes past bad accidents. No first gear.
But I digress, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The last tour of the Pashnit Touring ride season for many years has been the closer, the last time we’re all together enjoying one another’s company. It’s also traditionally been a Central Coast ride situated in-between Los Angeles and San Francisco, allowing a north meets south easy ride for our regulars. I’ve re-designed this ride multiple times over the last 18 years with various routes and meeting spots, but the Central Coast is the one constant. Meet in the South Bay, an easy ride home for the SoCal riders. Unlike the previous tour a few days prior that was hastily moved away from bad weather, namely first snow in the mountains as the seasons begin their change. By chance, this planned ride also had a major inbound storm predicted, but luckily, our planned ride was already along the Central Coast – weather there was supposed to be perfect. We just had to get there. Figured out the edge of the storm front to be between Monterey and King City. Monterey rain. King City, no rain. Perfect!
Here’s a little tip about the California climate. When it rains in California and you want to go riding at the same time, find the edge of the storm and go ride there. That’s exactly what we did, the temps are perfect, the sky is always an amazing color, no haze, and there’s ZERO traffic. The incoming storm makes everybody stay home. But first, we had to get to that region.
FIVE INCHES(!) of rain were predicted in Sacramento, Five! That’s crazy intense rain. Even more rain was predicted in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. In the end, NINE inches of rain in 24 hours fell in some regions of the foothills. That’s a lot of rain. Lake Oroville (north of Sacramento) rose 32 feet from one storm.
They call them Atmospheric Rivers, a catchy name, but the term is literal. A river in the atmosphere that comes in from the ocean, hits the Sierra Nevada Range and dumps all the water right there. So much rain predicted, they had to invent an even-more catchy new term, Bomb Cyclone. Who writes this stuff
Flood conditions, and with the recent wildfires, landslides in the mountains are always a possibility. A massive landslide in the Feather River Canyon happened while we were on this ride and closed Highway 70....
The slide in the Feather River Canyon
...but we were far away on the other side of the state.
Good luck would be on our side, if we all met in the South Bay, we could ride south out of the storm front within an hour. It was a good plan. And the window to ride was Friday and Saturday, during the midst of the crazy Bomb Cyclone storm, but we would be to the south, along the edge of it.
The only catch to this plan is I would be headed back to home base in the Sierra Foothills in the midst of the Bomb Cyclone, and in the end, I would ride right through it, a 9-inch deluge of rain in 24 hours.
Have you ever heard that saying, If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. The quote is attributed to Woody Allen. And when you’re in the plan-making business, sometimes you get laughed at.
My recent 13-hour 600-mile day of motorcycling bliss a few days ago was a relaxing, almost meditative experience. Except for the last few hours of the ride. The chain began to make awful guttural noises of a highly disconcerting sort. Clunk, clunk, clunkity, clunk, it would say each time I accelerated away from a stop. I normally carry chain oil everywhere I go, but as the fates would have it, this was the one ride of the season I forgot to bring it with me. Over the last 18 years of doing these tours, I have forgotten every single item you normally carry while motorcycle touring at least once. One time, I forgot the camera memory card. Hard to take pictures without that. I have forgotten shoes, tour paperwork, camera chargers, phone charging wires, one time I forgot to bring pants. (I wore leather riding pants to dinner that day).
Ironically, I have carried chain oil for the last 10,000 miles of riding over the last few months and rarely if ever pulled out the can. Now the one time I needed it, I didn’t have it to ease my dying chain’s last gasps of life.
As soon as I reached home base, ordered another chain ($176) paying for expedited postage ($38) to get it here in a day plus making sure I ordered in-stock local to speed up my ship time. $223 with tax, this stuff isn’t cheap. The bike has 195 horsepower and weighs 485 lbs dry, never skimp on chains. I then swapped out the chain and promised myself I’d do the sprockets later, as bikers usually change all three items as a set. When there’s only 11 days in between planned rides, that does not leave a lot of time for unplanned repairs.
Furthermore, we have this rule with the tour business. Never do major maintenance or repairs right before a ride. Things go wrong, things get missed. And, through the years, I’ve had riders cancel long-planned rides due to maintenance not done correctly right before a major ride.
In my case, I installed the shift lever back together on the wrong spline and the bike wouldn’t shift into 1st gear. Something to do with the angle of my foot and the linkage. And, I didn’t test ride the bike after I swapped the chain, which is probably a good idea. I headed down to the meet spot 3 hours away in the pouring rain in the wee morning hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the freeway, often splitting lanes past bad accidents. No first gear.
But I digress, I’m getting ahead of myself.
The last tour of the Pashnit Touring ride season for many years has been the closer, the last time we’re all together enjoying one another’s company. It’s also traditionally been a Central Coast ride situated in-between Los Angeles and San Francisco, allowing a north meets south easy ride for our regulars. I’ve re-designed this ride multiple times over the last 18 years with various routes and meeting spots, but the Central Coast is the one constant. Meet in the South Bay, an easy ride home for the SoCal riders. Unlike the previous tour a few days prior that was hastily moved away from bad weather, namely first snow in the mountains as the seasons begin their change. By chance, this planned ride also had a major inbound storm predicted, but luckily, our planned ride was already along the Central Coast – weather there was supposed to be perfect. We just had to get there. Figured out the edge of the storm front to be between Monterey and King City. Monterey rain. King City, no rain. Perfect!
Here’s a little tip about the California climate. When it rains in California and you want to go riding at the same time, find the edge of the storm and go ride there. That’s exactly what we did, the temps are perfect, the sky is always an amazing color, no haze, and there’s ZERO traffic. The incoming storm makes everybody stay home. But first, we had to get to that region.
FIVE INCHES(!) of rain were predicted in Sacramento, Five! That’s crazy intense rain. Even more rain was predicted in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. In the end, NINE inches of rain in 24 hours fell in some regions of the foothills. That’s a lot of rain. Lake Oroville (north of Sacramento) rose 32 feet from one storm.
They call them Atmospheric Rivers, a catchy name, but the term is literal. A river in the atmosphere that comes in from the ocean, hits the Sierra Nevada Range and dumps all the water right there. So much rain predicted, they had to invent an even-more catchy new term, Bomb Cyclone. Who writes this stuff
Flood conditions, and with the recent wildfires, landslides in the mountains are always a possibility. A massive landslide in the Feather River Canyon happened while we were on this ride and closed Highway 70....
The slide in the Feather River Canyon
...but we were far away on the other side of the state.
Good luck would be on our side, if we all met in the South Bay, we could ride south out of the storm front within an hour. It was a good plan. And the window to ride was Friday and Saturday, during the midst of the crazy Bomb Cyclone storm, but we would be to the south, along the edge of it.
The only catch to this plan is I would be headed back to home base in the Sierra Foothills in the midst of the Bomb Cyclone, and in the end, I would ride right through it, a 9-inch deluge of rain in 24 hours.
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The bike wouldn't shift into first gear.
Easy fix, I slid the shift lever onto the wrong spline. Now, where did I put the 10 mm wrench.
Put it back to the right position and fixed! Like magic when you install it correctly.
Riding at night, in the pouring rain, not my favorite thing.
Easy fix, I slid the shift lever onto the wrong spline. Now, where did I put the 10 mm wrench.
Put it back to the right position and fixed! Like magic when you install it correctly.
Riding at night, in the pouring rain, not my favorite thing.
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Sport touring is governed by a series of rules, Universal Truths.
One of these rules is, There is no such thing as a cold/wet rider, only an unprepared rider.
Stay dry and warm, you can ride forever, and the rain is little more than an annoyance.
One of these rules is, There is no such thing as a cold/wet rider, only an unprepared rider.
Stay dry and warm, you can ride forever, and the rain is little more than an annoyance.
Love those "ring dings" Had a '79 Daytona myself and should have kept it...
Highway 25 out of Hollister will always be a super fun road to ride. Hollister is where Corbin seats are based. 20+ years ago, wife and I rode our motorcycles down to Hollister, and they made seats for us right there. That was way back on my ZX-11D before the Hayabusa came out and a Gunfighter saddle for her Ninja 500.
Having lived in San Jose for years I bet I’ve got a thousand Smiles on hiway 25. Great road with a few top speed straights and corners that aren’t that technical but still quite fun. My V1 came in handy more than once but thankfully the revenuers don’t frequent this road very much.
My biggest pet peeve is riding past something, cool stuff, I didn’t know was there.
And sometimes, you stumble on cool stuff by accident. While planning the Paso Robles leg of this ride through the Central Coast Range, and pulling up satellite images of the region, I found myself staring at what appeared to be airplanes. And helicopters. Lot of them. A quick zoom and I’m staring at a military museum in Paso Robles.
And here’s the pet peeve. I’ve been riding right past it for 20 years. Sort of. Okay, you have my attention. By happenstance, I stumbled onto the Estrella Warbirds Museum days before heading that direction with this tour and quickly determined we are going to go check out this place. We have to ride right past it. I love military museums like kids love candy stores. Tanks, planes, jet fighters, who doesn’t love this sort of stuff. Nobody. There’s nobody who doesn’t love this stuff.
The Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles has not just planes, helicopters and assorted military vehicles, they also have a huge custom car collection with a heavy emphasis on classic race cars. This place opened in 2009 which may explain why I didn’t know about it. We’ve been riding around San Luis Obispo, Co since 2004 and it didn't exist back in those days.
We rolled into the museum, and the group was eagerly adopted by our docent, who helped us navigate the sprawling complex. The facility looked small from the outside, but we repeatedly kept wandering in and around fighter planes. Every plane reminded me of a movie, oh, that looks familiar, and that also looks familiar like the Shooting Star. Even the recent MCU Captain Marvel movie had a Shooting Star in it, and that's just one example. Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Flight of the Intruder, the list went on. Everything looked familiar. And then entering one more building after the other, full of stuff!
The military memorabilia museum spanned WWI through the Gulf Wars. Then, there is building upon building of even more military stuff. It was endless, and I think the fellas loved it. Or, at least I did. And we are going back again, there’s so much stuff there, it’s like Disneyland for grownups, you can’t see it all in one visit.
And sometimes, you stumble on cool stuff by accident. While planning the Paso Robles leg of this ride through the Central Coast Range, and pulling up satellite images of the region, I found myself staring at what appeared to be airplanes. And helicopters. Lot of them. A quick zoom and I’m staring at a military museum in Paso Robles.
And here’s the pet peeve. I’ve been riding right past it for 20 years. Sort of. Okay, you have my attention. By happenstance, I stumbled onto the Estrella Warbirds Museum days before heading that direction with this tour and quickly determined we are going to go check out this place. We have to ride right past it. I love military museums like kids love candy stores. Tanks, planes, jet fighters, who doesn’t love this sort of stuff. Nobody. There’s nobody who doesn’t love this stuff.
The Estrella Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles has not just planes, helicopters and assorted military vehicles, they also have a huge custom car collection with a heavy emphasis on classic race cars. This place opened in 2009 which may explain why I didn’t know about it. We’ve been riding around San Luis Obispo, Co since 2004 and it didn't exist back in those days.
We rolled into the museum, and the group was eagerly adopted by our docent, who helped us navigate the sprawling complex. The facility looked small from the outside, but we repeatedly kept wandering in and around fighter planes. Every plane reminded me of a movie, oh, that looks familiar, and that also looks familiar like the Shooting Star. Even the recent MCU Captain Marvel movie had a Shooting Star in it, and that's just one example. Top Gun, Iron Eagle, Flight of the Intruder, the list went on. Everything looked familiar. And then entering one more building after the other, full of stuff!
The military memorabilia museum spanned WWI through the Gulf Wars. Then, there is building upon building of even more military stuff. It was endless, and I think the fellas loved it. Or, at least I did. And we are going back again, there’s so much stuff there, it’s like Disneyland for grownups, you can’t see it all in one visit.
EWM Webmaster redirect
ewarbirds.org
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