2024 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
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The ‘bike on a bridge’ shots will comply with the suggestion on the picture thread. Post one there and suggest another ‘challenge”.
Death Valley Motorcycle Tour
Traditionally, our Death Valley tour used to be the season opener. First tour of the year.
I launched this tour idea in 2012. The first year I offered this tour, I had 15 riders sign up, then 18 in 2013. It was a big group, but I've since limited this particular motorcycle tour to 10 bikes and cut it off the registration there.
My Gen2 in 2012 in Death Valley
This was the year that I rode a full-days ride home into a snowstorm that had just passed over our home base. I used to live at 3300 ft and snow is not uncommon in March. Sorta rolled around chain control and rode up the freeway to my neighborhood in Camino. That was hairy & promised myself I wouldn't do this again. I was lucky and a snowplow had just plowed the highway and I rolled up through the slush in the wheel tracks & made it to my exit. But this is March in the Sierra Nevada Foothills & this scene is perfectly normal.
I had just bought the Gen2 and promised myself I wouldn't drop it in the snow, but i made it to my house (both feet on the ground, 5mph) safe and sound. Meanwhile, my wife came out and helped me shovel the driveway so we could get the bike into the garage.
Then in 2013, I had 18 riders sign up for the Death Valley Tour. That was a big group. And it was hot that weekend, temps got to 97 at Badwater Basin.
The Gen2 in 2013 in Death Valley
This bike was all set up for long distance touring and I had just completed an 1000-mile day Iron Butt ride a few months earlier. Rode out to Bonneville Salt Flats on the Nevada-Utah border & back in one day. Couple of months after this shot, I did a Bun Burner Iron Butt ride which is 1500 miles in 36 hrs & headed out to see Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. Loved this bike. It was set up perfect for distance riding.
Traditionally, our Death Valley tour used to be the season opener. First tour of the year.
I launched this tour idea in 2012. The first year I offered this tour, I had 15 riders sign up, then 18 in 2013. It was a big group, but I've since limited this particular motorcycle tour to 10 bikes and cut it off the registration there.
My Gen2 in 2012 in Death Valley
This was the year that I rode a full-days ride home into a snowstorm that had just passed over our home base. I used to live at 3300 ft and snow is not uncommon in March. Sorta rolled around chain control and rode up the freeway to my neighborhood in Camino. That was hairy & promised myself I wouldn't do this again. I was lucky and a snowplow had just plowed the highway and I rolled up through the slush in the wheel tracks & made it to my exit. But this is March in the Sierra Nevada Foothills & this scene is perfectly normal.
I had just bought the Gen2 and promised myself I wouldn't drop it in the snow, but i made it to my house (both feet on the ground, 5mph) safe and sound. Meanwhile, my wife came out and helped me shovel the driveway so we could get the bike into the garage.
Then in 2013, I had 18 riders sign up for the Death Valley Tour. That was a big group. And it was hot that weekend, temps got to 97 at Badwater Basin.
The Gen2 in 2013 in Death Valley
This bike was all set up for long distance touring and I had just completed an 1000-mile day Iron Butt ride a few months earlier. Rode out to Bonneville Salt Flats on the Nevada-Utah border & back in one day. Couple of months after this shot, I did a Bun Burner Iron Butt ride which is 1500 miles in 36 hrs & headed out to see Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. Loved this bike. It was set up perfect for distance riding.
I'm not a big fan of super-hot weather on a motorcycle (100+) so going to DV any other time of year than very early spring is out. So that's March. It's hit or miss on the weather in March. As mentioned earlier, it was 97 one time we were here in Death Valley. But then, It could be pouring rain - it was last year in 2023 - but I had family conflict and couldn't ride that one a year ago, so my buddy led that tour last year and I missed it.
I normally run 12 tours per season, but last year, I expanded the roster to 17 tours. Why? Two kids in college. Pretty simple actually. But it creates a great deal of work to plan that many rides since everything is planned a year in advance. Plus trying to fit 17 weekends of riding meant lengthening the ride season on the front and back. Which is why motorcycle tours got added to February, and November.
Cue the Death Valley Tour. Awesome weather predicted. High of 78. In Death Valley. That's awesome. Death Valley hit 129°F (120°F at night) last summer in 2023. 129! Crazy. But our weekend would be perfect. And zero rain.
Closed roads though would still be a minor issue. This was Mark & Tim headed to the meet spot in Tulare on the other side of the state the day prior to the ride.
Meeting our two new guys Phoenix & Jim. They're both ADV guys on BMW GS's but have been reading my travel articles for 20 years plus Jim was a member of the Pashnit Forum, a sport-touring forum I ran 2004-2008 back in the heyday of discussion forums, and long before social media. Jim finally said, we got to sign up for one of these Pashnit Tours.
Jeff & Tim were actually on the very first Death Valley motorcycle tour back in 2012.
12 years later, here we are still riding together, a few more gray hairs but still touring together.
I normally run 12 tours per season, but last year, I expanded the roster to 17 tours. Why? Two kids in college. Pretty simple actually. But it creates a great deal of work to plan that many rides since everything is planned a year in advance. Plus trying to fit 17 weekends of riding meant lengthening the ride season on the front and back. Which is why motorcycle tours got added to February, and November.
Cue the Death Valley Tour. Awesome weather predicted. High of 78. In Death Valley. That's awesome. Death Valley hit 129°F (120°F at night) last summer in 2023. 129! Crazy. But our weekend would be perfect. And zero rain.
Closed roads though would still be a minor issue. This was Mark & Tim headed to the meet spot in Tulare on the other side of the state the day prior to the ride.
Meeting our two new guys Phoenix & Jim. They're both ADV guys on BMW GS's but have been reading my travel articles for 20 years plus Jim was a member of the Pashnit Forum, a sport-touring forum I ran 2004-2008 back in the heyday of discussion forums, and long before social media. Jim finally said, we got to sign up for one of these Pashnit Tours.
Jeff & Tim were actually on the very first Death Valley motorcycle tour back in 2012.
12 years later, here we are still riding together, a few more gray hairs but still touring together.
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Randy, the dude in the middle, was also on that first Death Valley Tour in 2012. The guy on the right, Mike, is my most senior tour alumni, he first signed up for a Pashnit Motorcycle Tour in June 2008. He's been signing up for these tours for 16 years.
Headed for Glennville, population 130, a tiny ranching town in the Southern Sierra Foothills
We've been passing by this shell of a streetrod for years in Glennville.
Headed for Glennville, population 130, a tiny ranching town in the Southern Sierra Foothills
We've been passing by this shell of a streetrod for years in Glennville.
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Ahh yesteryear, gas for 25.9. Fill your bike up for just over a buck..sigh….a BUCK! And now, over $20!
One of the first times we went over this pass in March a few years back, it was so sandy from the sand trucks, that two of the riders in the group slipped in the sand, not crashing, but slipped in the sand and the bikes fell over. Have to be extra careful. They don't salt roads in California, but they are very liberal with the sand trucks over these mountain passes.
Another time, I was on my Z1000 and leading a group over this same pass. Little too fast on the downhill and touched the rear brake and immediately locked up the rear tire in some sand. The Z1000 is a streetfighter type motorcycle and zero weight in the back end. The bike started to slide and the back end swing around, Just as I was feeling that sphincter clenching sensation of the bike slipping right out from under me, I cleared the sand and the back tire caught and the bike immediately straightened up. I needed to change my shorts at the bottom of the hill. Let's not do that again the guy behind me who saw the whole thing said.
Easy does it and zero issues.
Another time, I was on my Z1000 and leading a group over this same pass. Little too fast on the downhill and touched the rear brake and immediately locked up the rear tire in some sand. The Z1000 is a streetfighter type motorcycle and zero weight in the back end. The bike started to slide and the back end swing around, Just as I was feeling that sphincter clenching sensation of the bike slipping right out from under me, I cleared the sand and the back tire caught and the bike immediately straightened up. I needed to change my shorts at the bottom of the hill. Let's not do that again the guy behind me who saw the whole thing said.
Easy does it and zero issues.
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