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2022 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
- Thread starter pashnit
- Start date
My first experience with weightlessness was in a '65 Pontiac Catalina.
My oldest brother had done some work at a neighboring farm and instead of offering him cash, they offered a 15-yr old kid two matching 1965 Pontiac Catalina's that were sitting up in their barn. He took both, one was a parts car, and the other we got the big 389 cu in motor running. To test the Catalina's road worthiness, my brothers & I loaded in and went barreling down our 1/2 mile long fresh-cut alfalfa field. At one particular rise in the field, we got enough speed that the 4000 lb Catalina went airborne, and so did I in the back seat. We laughed for days.
Time warp out of the Unsupervised 80s and back into present day, there are only a few places in California where you can replicate that experience, and we're headed right for one of them.
Always had a fascination with wide open spaces – middle-of-nowhere kind of places. Imagine riding at speed for an hour and seeing nobody. As in, no one. No other cars, people, paved side roads. Just wide open high desert riding. This is the Benton-Crossing Loop. It’s nearly 70 miles, up and over the 7650' Wildrose Summit and starts and ends in nearly the same place. Why ride such a loop if you haven’t actually gone anywhere? To ride the Whoops on Highway 120. That's it. To ride the whoops. At just the right speed, the front tire comes off the ground and the bottom drops out.
Giggles. And I get to be 11 again.
https://www.pashnit.com/ca-benton-crossing-rd
My oldest brother had done some work at a neighboring farm and instead of offering him cash, they offered a 15-yr old kid two matching 1965 Pontiac Catalina's that were sitting up in their barn. He took both, one was a parts car, and the other we got the big 389 cu in motor running. To test the Catalina's road worthiness, my brothers & I loaded in and went barreling down our 1/2 mile long fresh-cut alfalfa field. At one particular rise in the field, we got enough speed that the 4000 lb Catalina went airborne, and so did I in the back seat. We laughed for days.
Time warp out of the Unsupervised 80s and back into present day, there are only a few places in California where you can replicate that experience, and we're headed right for one of them.
Always had a fascination with wide open spaces – middle-of-nowhere kind of places. Imagine riding at speed for an hour and seeing nobody. As in, no one. No other cars, people, paved side roads. Just wide open high desert riding. This is the Benton-Crossing Loop. It’s nearly 70 miles, up and over the 7650' Wildrose Summit and starts and ends in nearly the same place. Why ride such a loop if you haven’t actually gone anywhere? To ride the Whoops on Highway 120. That's it. To ride the whoops. At just the right speed, the front tire comes off the ground and the bottom drops out.
Giggles. And I get to be 11 again.
https://www.pashnit.com/ca-benton-crossing-rd
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There’s something similar very close to me.
Zerks
Registered
To much adrenaline here can get you in trouble real fast. Pinning the throttle from right here would be well beyond my threshold even at the first launching point. How fast do you crest these 3 points?
Very close. I live a quarter mile west of 41 on road 415 which is also called Raymond road. It turns into road 600 as you ride further west. As you enter Raymond the first right turn is road 613 that turns into Ben Hur road when you cross into Mariposa county from Madera county. The road with the hills is road 603, a few miles west of Raymond.
Yeah, only a fool would pin the throttle going over these hills. I think I was going 85 when I crested the tall one which was very scary and I got two wheel air. Not doing that again. 65-70 is fun and I learned that keeping my eyes on the road as I crest the top keeps my stomach out of my throat.
Mono Lake in the Eastern Sierra is one of my favorite places.
I passed by back in March riding home from our Pashnit Death Valley Motorcycle Tour along the lake shore, but experienced heavy wind gusts. First, one gust blew me clear across the road. This was after I rode by the overturned Semi just laying on its side along the highway. Then, a few miles later atop 8100 ft Conway Summit, I pulled over to take a picture and put the kickstand down, at that moment, the wind picked the bike up and lifted the front tire off the ground rotating the Hayabusa up on the rear tire and kickstand.
Yah, nope. I motored on. I'll take that picture another day. Today, our experience was calm and serene, nothing like my experience a few months earlier. Depending on when you visit, the shore is often covered in alkali flies, completely blackened and moving. Creating clouds of flies as you walk through them as they feast on the salt. Only a few today as they hatch in the water along the shore soon.
The water in the lake feel like soap, like Windex. With no natural outlet, the water can only evaporate and leaves behind the salts which accumulate. No fish survive in this lake, but brine shrimp love it.
All the Tufa (too-fah) Towers you see were once underwater, as the lake level has dropped. The south side has the most Tufa Towers. The court battle to prevent the siphoning off of the water that replenishes the lake & is diverted to Southern California seems to be over, but in 20 years of my coming here, I’m still waiting for the lake level to rise back up to the signs that line the wooden walkway to the lake shore. The water can rise and fall 4 feet over the year from run-off vs evaporation. Ever wandering around the Eastern Sierra, make sure you stop here.
I passed by back in March riding home from our Pashnit Death Valley Motorcycle Tour along the lake shore, but experienced heavy wind gusts. First, one gust blew me clear across the road. This was after I rode by the overturned Semi just laying on its side along the highway. Then, a few miles later atop 8100 ft Conway Summit, I pulled over to take a picture and put the kickstand down, at that moment, the wind picked the bike up and lifted the front tire off the ground rotating the Hayabusa up on the rear tire and kickstand.
Yah, nope. I motored on. I'll take that picture another day. Today, our experience was calm and serene, nothing like my experience a few months earlier. Depending on when you visit, the shore is often covered in alkali flies, completely blackened and moving. Creating clouds of flies as you walk through them as they feast on the salt. Only a few today as they hatch in the water along the shore soon.
The water in the lake feel like soap, like Windex. With no natural outlet, the water can only evaporate and leaves behind the salts which accumulate. No fish survive in this lake, but brine shrimp love it.
All the Tufa (too-fah) Towers you see were once underwater, as the lake level has dropped. The south side has the most Tufa Towers. The court battle to prevent the siphoning off of the water that replenishes the lake & is diverted to Southern California seems to be over, but in 20 years of my coming here, I’m still waiting for the lake level to rise back up to the signs that line the wooden walkway to the lake shore. The water can rise and fall 4 feet over the year from run-off vs evaporation. Ever wandering around the Eastern Sierra, make sure you stop here.
Zerks
Registered
I use to think years ago that getting both tires off the ground at speed would be fun and not unsettling to experience. Then, after doing it I found out that it spikes the feeling of fear and not something worth doing because it always creates wobbles that creep me out.
Just watching the Isle of Man racers confirms its not for the faint hearted.
The problem is the landing which is nose down as if (after) a ramp jump you have landed too far down on the much too steep receiving ramp. I think the front wheel touched down a smidgeon before the rear. No wobble though. The good feeling is pinning it coming off the hill and in the bottoms and as you’re going up again making sure 70ish is the limit at the top. The G forces in the bottoms are kinda cool, feeling the suspension going down as well as my body being scrunched down. The weirdest feeling is if you’re looking at the sky/horizon as you top the hill. It’s feels like the earth has disappeared and you’ll fall forever. Keeping the eyes glued to the pavement saves you from this feeling…after a couple times. 
Next morning, we woke up to this. Chilly morning in the 30s.
Nearby is Monitor Pass - Highway 89, one of the best scenic viewpoints in the Sierra Range.
www.pashnit.com
Nearby is Monitor Pass - Highway 89, one of the best scenic viewpoints in the Sierra Range.
Highway 89 | Monitor Pass | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit
Alpine County Motorcycle Rides - Montor Pass
www.pashnit.com
Monitor Pass is one of my favorite rides. It's been my FB cover photo forever and a day.
If you do FB, send me a friend request
Gary and I were headed back over the range, so I had some company. Gary is a recent transplant to California, and everywhere I take him, it's the first time he's seen it. He's always excited.
We're on the California side of the Smith valley below us, the other side of this valley is Nevada
If you do FB, send me a friend request
Gary and I were headed back over the range, so I had some company. Gary is a recent transplant to California, and everywhere I take him, it's the first time he's seen it. He's always excited.
We're on the California side of the Smith valley below us, the other side of this valley is Nevada
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