Many years ago, my wife worked on Saturdays. We were newly married and for a short time, Saturdays were all mine. I was in-between bikes after selling my much-loved ’93 Kawasaki ZX-11D & began the task of saving up for my dream bike, the all-new Hayabusa which had just come out in 1999.
But I had bought an EX500 for my new wife, who had recently gotten her motorcycle permit. She hated riding on the back, and wanted her own bike. She went to the local community college and took the MSF Course in their parking lot.
The Ninja 500 was small, nimble and peppy. But no one was impressed by the Baby Ninja, it was unassuming and even had pink pin striping. However, it ran like a sewing machine, and the 16-inch rims made it very nimble on backroads. Each Saturday, while my wife worked her weekend day shift, I would head out and explore a new set of roads with the EX500. The rule was I had to be back before she was home from work, which meant a little over 8-hour day-ride. Four hours out, four hours back created a 4-hour radius from home base.
Back in the olden days, there were no resources online that talked about motorcycle roads, you looked for squiggly lines on a paper map, or you had to buy a book at the local book store. And books about roads in California, I had quite a few of those. And my latest new book,
Scenic Driving California, had an alluring photo on the cover.
I came to learn this photo was a shot of Bolinas Ridge north of San Francisco, better known as Ridgecrest Blvd. This cover photo of a curvaceous road atop grass covered rolling hills and a mountainous background was too alluring to ignore. I had to go find this road and set out on the baby Ninja one Saturday to ride it. That started the love affair with Bolinas Ridge, one of my favorite spots in the state.
First ride ever on this road with a 35mm camera, coolest shot ever