2024 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa
- Thread starter pashnit
- Start date
Oddest thing I've seen along Little Panoche Rd is this is the local drag strip. Drag cars unloaded from trailers and this is their quarter mile - and yes, this is the middle of nowhere. I didn't get the camera quick enough first time I rode through here and I didn't quite place what was going on at first.
This is one of my favorite photo spots.
Photographed all my bikes in this same spot.
Same spot - super goaty before they paved it for the solar farm
This is one of my favorite photo spots.
Photographed all my bikes in this same spot.
Same spot - super goaty before they paved it for the solar farm
Quick stop at everyone's favorite decommissioned nuclear power plant - Rancho Seco, ignoring the ‘Authorized Personnel Only’ sign riding right up to the 40-story cooling tower. Active only during the 80s, but after experiencing the ‘the third most serious safety-related occurrence in the United States as of 2005’, Rancho Seco was shut down. The twin cooling towers remain and are visible from all over the Central Valley & Sierra Foothills.
Last edited:
Marin-Fall Colors Tour
I never used to plan motorcycle tour dates in November.
Our tour season was done in mid-October. And it was like that for 20 years. I expanded our ride season a year ago and added a tour of Marin-Sonoma, the mountainous region north of San Francisco. This is the area we skip during our Northern California Tour in August, riding quickly through it to reach NorCal. What if we did a ride through the regions we constantly skip and focus on just this concentrated region north of San Francisco?
5am departure to ride the 2.5 hour ride to Sausalito, a tiny hillside town on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's fall now and our days are shorter. Arriving at the meet spot and the sun is just starting to come up.
Sausalito is right on San Francisco Bay next to the harbor - the masts of all the boats are right there
Mark & Rob, my buddy Rob signed up for 9 tours in 2025, we'll be seeing a lot of him & his Africa Twin in the coming tour season.
Oh, and we're huggers.
I hug everybody when they show up for a tour, just excited to be on the bike and go riding with the fellas. Nothing better.
We also have Rob's GF Kat with us, always a pleasure to have her along with us riding two-up on Rob's Africa Twin. She has her own bike, but prefers to ride two-up on these tours with Rob
I never used to plan motorcycle tour dates in November.
Our tour season was done in mid-October. And it was like that for 20 years. I expanded our ride season a year ago and added a tour of Marin-Sonoma, the mountainous region north of San Francisco. This is the area we skip during our Northern California Tour in August, riding quickly through it to reach NorCal. What if we did a ride through the regions we constantly skip and focus on just this concentrated region north of San Francisco?
5am departure to ride the 2.5 hour ride to Sausalito, a tiny hillside town on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's fall now and our days are shorter. Arriving at the meet spot and the sun is just starting to come up.
Sausalito is right on San Francisco Bay next to the harbor - the masts of all the boats are right there
Mark & Rob, my buddy Rob signed up for 9 tours in 2025, we'll be seeing a lot of him & his Africa Twin in the coming tour season.
Oh, and we're huggers.
I hug everybody when they show up for a tour, just excited to be on the bike and go riding with the fellas. Nothing better.
We also have Rob's GF Kat with us, always a pleasure to have her along with us riding two-up on Rob's Africa Twin. She has her own bike, but prefers to ride two-up on these tours with Rob
Last edited:
Our bikes... Joel had this Aprilia Tuono all set up for touring with hard bags on it. Don't see many of these.
The new Tuono has these cool wings on the back... Vanes? Fins? Winglets? I dunno, they're just cool lookin'
My buddy Mark had a Tuono a few years ago and I'd ride his.
The new Tuono has these cool wings on the back... Vanes? Fins? Winglets? I dunno, they're just cool lookin'
My buddy Mark had a Tuono a few years ago and I'd ride his.
Last edited:
Bruce just picked up a brand new Indian at his local dealer. First ride!
He normally is a Victory guy and has been riding these tour for the last 10 years on his Victory(s). He's the only tour alumni that prefers a cruiser.
Bruce recently spent two years building a custom Victory in his garage - combining two bikes. the front of a Victory Vision with that barn door front end & a tail off a different Victory - came out to be a beautiful bike! Custom seat, custom paint, came out amazing and a one-off custom.
He normally is a Victory guy and has been riding these tour for the last 10 years on his Victory(s). He's the only tour alumni that prefers a cruiser.
Bruce recently spent two years building a custom Victory in his garage - combining two bikes. the front of a Victory Vision with that barn door front end & a tail off a different Victory - came out to be a beautiful bike! Custom seat, custom paint, came out amazing and a one-off custom.
Last edited:
A short walk from the parking lot on the summit of Mt Tamalpais is a loop trail that leads around the circumference of the summit. We don't hike on these tours but a quick walk and there's this really cool viewpoint.
Comon kids! Field trip time!
Comon kids! Field trip time!
Interesting history up here. In August 1896, a 7-mile railway was completed from Mill Valley after six months of work to reach the summit of Mt Tamalpais. Locals in 1896 took a steam train to the summit and then boarded a passenger car much like the replica you see today on display.
The Scenic Railway was called the “The Crookedest Railway in the World”, twisting down 281 turns in 7 miles through numerous switchbacks and paralleling itself five times. The tracks had an average 5% downgrade and the gravity cars held 30 people.
A ‘Gravity Man’ operated a set of strong double brakes to maintain a steady 10-15 mph speed downhill. Steam powered trains then pushed several rail cars back up to the summit.
The railway was the Disneyland of its time, attracting many famous people such as Sir Author Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the naturalist John Muir, and other nobility and visiting dignitaries. Inventor Thomas Edison's film crew came to Mount Tamalpais in 1898 to shoot the first motion pictures in Marin County. The heyday of the Crookedest Railroad began to decline in the 1920s after World War I when the Ford Model T became common and vacationers drove wherever the roads could take them rather than being entertained by crooked railroads. By 1929, interest had waned, and the tracks were pulled up.
In present day, the railroad bed cut into the side of the mountain in 1896 still exists, however it lives on as a hiking and mountain biking trail. Mountain biking is said to have been invented on the sides of Mount Tamalpais.
The Scenic Railway was called the “The Crookedest Railway in the World”, twisting down 281 turns in 7 miles through numerous switchbacks and paralleling itself five times. The tracks had an average 5% downgrade and the gravity cars held 30 people.
A ‘Gravity Man’ operated a set of strong double brakes to maintain a steady 10-15 mph speed downhill. Steam powered trains then pushed several rail cars back up to the summit.
The railway was the Disneyland of its time, attracting many famous people such as Sir Author Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, the naturalist John Muir, and other nobility and visiting dignitaries. Inventor Thomas Edison's film crew came to Mount Tamalpais in 1898 to shoot the first motion pictures in Marin County. The heyday of the Crookedest Railroad began to decline in the 1920s after World War I when the Ford Model T became common and vacationers drove wherever the roads could take them rather than being entertained by crooked railroads. By 1929, interest had waned, and the tracks were pulled up.
In present day, the railroad bed cut into the side of the mountain in 1896 still exists, however it lives on as a hiking and mountain biking trail. Mountain biking is said to have been invented on the sides of Mount Tamalpais.
WuzzaCBXRider
Registered
A touring Tuono? That’s about as crazy as a touring Hayabusa! What will they think of next….
If you look close, you can see a big white dome up on the top of the peak. Waiting for the Ruskies to invade in the 50s...
Originally known as Mill Valley Air Force Station and built in 1951, this radar dish was part of a network of posts that were perched atop peaks surrounding the Bay Area. The facility was a USAF general surveillance radar station during the Cold War. These radar sites in the 1950s served as an unbroken warning system against a surprise atomic attack by inbound soviet aircraft prior to the era of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Fighter Jets were kept ready to take off around the clock 10-miles away at nearby Hamilton Field in San Rafael in case the need arose from the early warning system atop Mount Tamalpais detecting inbound hostile aircraft. During the 1950s, there were 28 of these radar stations spread out along the West Coast of the United States until the 1980s. Most of these mountaintop bases were decommissioned as new technologies such as early-warning satellites made the need for these Cold War-era radar sites along the West Coast obsolete.
The Mill Valley Air Force Station stayed active until 1983 when the site was turned over to the park service. The barracks for Air Force personnel atop the peak were finally demolished in 1996, but the foundations remain to this day. The FAA currently operates an Air Route Surveillance Radar at the site, which is what you see atop the peak today. The large white dome atop the west peak collects not only the aircraft position detected by radio waves, but also the altitude or beacon code by sending and receiving signals. The current radar has a range of 290 miles, extending out over the ocean.
Originally known as Mill Valley Air Force Station and built in 1951, this radar dish was part of a network of posts that were perched atop peaks surrounding the Bay Area. The facility was a USAF general surveillance radar station during the Cold War. These radar sites in the 1950s served as an unbroken warning system against a surprise atomic attack by inbound soviet aircraft prior to the era of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Fighter Jets were kept ready to take off around the clock 10-miles away at nearby Hamilton Field in San Rafael in case the need arose from the early warning system atop Mount Tamalpais detecting inbound hostile aircraft. During the 1950s, there were 28 of these radar stations spread out along the West Coast of the United States until the 1980s. Most of these mountaintop bases were decommissioned as new technologies such as early-warning satellites made the need for these Cold War-era radar sites along the West Coast obsolete.
The Mill Valley Air Force Station stayed active until 1983 when the site was turned over to the park service. The barracks for Air Force personnel atop the peak were finally demolished in 1996, but the foundations remain to this day. The FAA currently operates an Air Route Surveillance Radar at the site, which is what you see atop the peak today. The large white dome atop the west peak collects not only the aircraft position detected by radio waves, but also the altitude or beacon code by sending and receiving signals. The current radar has a range of 290 miles, extending out over the ocean.
Similar threads
