2021 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
- Thread starter pashnit
- Start date
When I was a kid, my dad got up at 6am every day of the week. Every day, he prepared poached eggs and put jam on his toast, then made us 5 kids drink milk. Sunday was pancakes or French Toast. It was like that for over 10 years. He never slept in, at least that’s my memory of him. He insisted he didn't need an alarm clock, that was just his natural rhythm. There was work to do. We got up, and went to work.
40 years later, now I’m an early riser. I love the early start, and our dilemma for today's ride is timing. Everything during today’s ride has to happen in a certain sequence at the right place, at the right time of the day The larger the tour group, the harder that sort of voodoo magic becomes.
Our loop today is the ‘big loop’, a 325-mile motorcycle ride around the circumference of the Santa Ynez Mountain Range. This loop has fast sections, long straights, whoops, bumping over the La Panza Range, the Temblor Range, the 5160-ft Pine Mountain Pass, a famous biker bar, an exciting no-center-line twisty goat trail section, a motorcycle museum plus slipping unnoticed through a major city in which Wealth is determined by the Size of your Gate.
Did I mention the museum? We have to be there before it closes. Fall behind, and we won’t make it in time. Timing is the key. The fall riding season also means shorter days and at 7am, the sun is barely over the horizon. I asked the crew to leave an hour early and to be ready to ride at 7am.
40 years later, now I’m an early riser. I love the early start, and our dilemma for today's ride is timing. Everything during today’s ride has to happen in a certain sequence at the right place, at the right time of the day The larger the tour group, the harder that sort of voodoo magic becomes.
Our loop today is the ‘big loop’, a 325-mile motorcycle ride around the circumference of the Santa Ynez Mountain Range. This loop has fast sections, long straights, whoops, bumping over the La Panza Range, the Temblor Range, the 5160-ft Pine Mountain Pass, a famous biker bar, an exciting no-center-line twisty goat trail section, a motorcycle museum plus slipping unnoticed through a major city in which Wealth is determined by the Size of your Gate.
Did I mention the museum? We have to be there before it closes. Fall behind, and we won’t make it in time. Timing is the key. The fall riding season also means shorter days and at 7am, the sun is barely over the horizon. I asked the crew to leave an hour early and to be ready to ride at 7am.
The next morning, the air is laden with moisture, as we are only 12-miles from the ocean. The bikes are all covered in a thick layer of dew, but the crew assembles in the early morning, motors idling with a bit of steam rolling off, wafting white wisps flowing from the exhausts. I know it’s early, but we’re here to ride.
What no one tells you, or is willing to admit, is early departure is awesome. Traffic is light to non-existent, the air is cool and crisp, and there’s no one else on the road. The group made their way over a low pass, away from the ocean and through Santa Margarita. This is the entrance to Highway 58, a beloved motorcycle road used by few, but loved by all.
What no one tells you, or is willing to admit, is early departure is awesome. Traffic is light to non-existent, the air is cool and crisp, and there’s no one else on the road. The group made their way over a low pass, away from the ocean and through Santa Margarita. This is the entrance to Highway 58, a beloved motorcycle road used by few, but loved by all.
Rolling across the California Valley
The ghost town of California Valley is past the turn southward for Soda Lake Road next to the Carissa Plains elementary school. Ghost Town might not be the appropriate word for something that was never built, but the map indeed shows a town. And quite large, teeming with endless grid line of streets, each one named.
The year 1960 rolled around and the original Spanish Land Grant was doled out to several rather optimistic land developers who believed the California Water Project would bring water to the area. Streets were graded, named and 7000 2-1/2-acre plots were created and sold through nationwide advertising at $600 apiece for the aspiring community of California Valley. 7000 x $600 scaled up for inflation equals $3.6 billion in today’s dollars.
Despite the national ad campaign and the promise of land for a $20 down payment, no suburban paradise was ever built. The soil was too alkaline for crops, there's no water. Electricity ended at the community center that was built but was never extended into the 'town'.
The ghost town of California Valley is past the turn southward for Soda Lake Road next to the Carissa Plains elementary school. Ghost Town might not be the appropriate word for something that was never built, but the map indeed shows a town. And quite large, teeming with endless grid line of streets, each one named.
The year 1960 rolled around and the original Spanish Land Grant was doled out to several rather optimistic land developers who believed the California Water Project would bring water to the area. Streets were graded, named and 7000 2-1/2-acre plots were created and sold through nationwide advertising at $600 apiece for the aspiring community of California Valley. 7000 x $600 scaled up for inflation equals $3.6 billion in today’s dollars.
Despite the national ad campaign and the promise of land for a $20 down payment, no suburban paradise was ever built. The soil was too alkaline for crops, there's no water. Electricity ended at the community center that was built but was never extended into the 'town'.
Last edited:
Highway 58 is famous for the whoops, these ripples you see here. Pop-up hills where at the right speed, the bike goes airborne.
Of course, I would know nothing about that. Just what I heard.
Of course, I would know nothing about that. Just what I heard.
This twisty stretch at the top of the range along Highway 58 is super fun, good pavement, although speeds went way down to account for the wet pavement from the rain that fell earlier.
Gary provides his review of the ride and the view. Gary recently moved to CA from the East Coast, went looking for someone to ride with and discovered Pashnit Tours. After he rode the first tour with us earlier this season, He signed up for all of them, ...and a Season Pass for 2022, so he can ride all of those too.
150,000 miles ago, I was leading a tour group out of Taft and had 12 bikes behind me. We were headed up Highway 166 away from Maricopa and entered a thick fog bank. Speeds were reduced as visibility was measured in yards, the riders behind simply following the taillights in front of them at a safe distance.
As we flowed up to the top of the Caliente Range, a vehicle appeared directly in front of me, parked in the middle of the highway. Let me say that again. He was parked in the middle of the highway, and not politely parked on the shoulder, rather blocking, not moving. He was pulling a U-turn in the middle of a major highway. My brain processed the distance, the escape routes, the bikes behind me in a staggered formation and the wet road beneath me in an instant. I was going to T-bone the car, and my brain committed to hitting the car. Couldn’t go right, couldn’t go left, couldn’t slam on the brakes, I could only slow as fast as my three brake discs would allow on the wet road.
My very first thought was, Well, this sucks, I’ll probably be fine, I’m armored up, and we were riding at a reduced safe speed, but I’m really going to mess up my Hayabusa. Then the car in our lane moved, a little, and instead of committing to hitting the front quarter panel, I processed the distance at hitting him square. Then he inched forward a few more feet in the fog. Recalculating. I then committed to impacting the rear quarter panel. At the last moment, as the group was mere feet from the car, the vehicle sitting in the middle of the highway moved again, and I missed him by about six inches.
The entire sequence took seconds to occur. And just like that, a moment later, we broke through the fog bank, crested the Caliente Range and proceeded down the other side under clear blue skies with not a hint of fog towards Cuyama. The fog had been so thick, only the first few riders even saw the entire sequence play out. Nothing happened, and we continued on like that crazy close call never took places. After that ride, I was so jolted by the near miss, I parked the bike and didn’t ride for six months.
Years later, here we are riding up the same exact stretch of road and all I can think about is the idiot guy making a U-turn in heavy fog in the middle of a major highway. But today, no fog, perfect temps, blue skies as the storm from a few hours ago broke up. I’ll never be able to ride that stretch of Highway 166 without re-living that sequence. A couple of guys that still ride with us present day were on that ride all those years ago in 2007 and still remember it like it was yesterday. But again, today, clear sailing without incident.
The goal is to ride Highway 33 and over the 5160 ft Pine Mountain Pass, bumping over the Santa Ynez Range into Ojai. Delightfully twisty. And the summit is one of the most photographed lookouts in all of Southern California, looking down on Wheeler Gorge.
Similar threads
