2025 Pashnit Touring on a Hayabusa

[pashnit]

As we drop out of the Foothills, we finally reach the floor of the Central Valley

Don't see many of these anymore: A lot of our Tour Alumni have multiple bikes in the garage and will rotate bikes for these tours.

Randy normally rides a GSX-S1000GT+, but he's also a huge Buell fan and rides his Buell on some of these tours.

He rode up from Los Angeles to meet us as we're getting close to Southern California and we're now in his backyard as we reach Porterville.

Our day went something like this: That patchwork in the middle is all the farmland of the 300-mile long Central Valley and the Sierra Range at right. Our ride day connects all the foothill roads at the base of the range, but staying below 4000 ft to stay below the snow line.

After 200 miles of twisties, you can see where we drop out of the foothills and do a quick 60 miles of straight roads to our stop for the night.
The low range at left along the ocean, we're riding that next!

Parkfield | Central Coast Motorcycle Tour | Pashnit Tours

Ride Coast Range & San Luis Obispo County with Pashnit Motorcycle Tours based from the tiny ranching town of Parkfield

www.pashnittours.com

 

[pashnit]

Next day, the ride continues south along the base of the range: This is what spring looks like in California, fields of wildflowers.

Green fields and miles of yellow glow headed for Fountain Springs

....and bikes, lots of bikes...

Back into The Foothills

 

[pashnit]

Every intersection, the group stops and regroups...

 

[pashnit]

Cows everywhere. This region of California is all ranching.

Each cow requires 15-18 acres of unirrigated rangelands in the Sierra Foothills, just to support one average sized cow (1,200 lbs) for a year.

It doesn't rain here for (at least) 6-8 months out of the year with our Mediterranean climate.

 

[pashnit]

Old Stage Rd is the original stagecoach route of the 1860s through these hills. Note much has changed.

Dropping into this valley and weaving through these hills

 

[pashnit]

Old Stage Rd

Woody Granite Rd

 

[pashnit]

Woody Granite Rd

 

[pashnit]

Woody Rd is on the very edge of the flat Central Valley, the snow capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada Range are directly behind us.
The pavement is brand new super smooth super twisty.

Stopped for a break, Mike was so proud, he clicked over 30,000 on his Tracer 900. He had to stop and take a shot of the occasion.

I think the majority of that mileage has been riding on these tours. We see a lot of Mike.

Vicki says, This is wild. Not a soul around and these curves...!

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

Some of our bikes - Nice sticker Randy

Mike's Tracer 900

other Mike's Ténéré 700

 

[pashnit]

Just loving Rich's Moto-Guzzi.

We'll be seeing more of Rich, his wife has been riding with us more than he has.

Now that he's back riding again, they both can come with us together.

 

[pashnit]

Luc's Z900RS looks like it just came off the showroom floor, it's so clean. Probably cuz he's polishing it every time we stop for a break.

Except... Luc says he keep scraping the center stand bracket on the pavement while leaned over

Then, there's this little number. Does all things well.

 

[pashnit]

Paul sold his Hypermotard and got a KTM instead. A lot of our tour alumni have gone to KTMs to tour on.

Tim (there's three Tim's on this tour) asked, You want to ride the new Triumph Tiger Sport 800?

I gazed down the road - didn't have to ask me twice.

 

[pashnit]

Tim ordered the bike months ago, and got the first one in the SF Bay Area a week prior to the tour date.

This thing is a week old. Still has that new bike smell.

Triumph Tiger Sport 800: It's a beauty.

Tim got his with the hard bags, and Mark ordered his with the rear rack only. It purrs, and feels like it just came off the showroom floor.

So smooth!

 

[pashnit]

More twisty bits of Woody Rd - fresh pavement and miles of s-curves is pure butter.

 

[pashnit]

Round Mountain Rd - we just rode this two weeks ago and quite a few posts back

But nope. Doesn't get old

 

[pashnit]

Round Mountain goes round the mountain and to the edge of Bakersfield

Bakersfield is about as far south as we'll get on this tour, anything further south is considered Southern California and we've got a whole separate tour for SoCal coming up in a few weeks.

Southern California | Pashnit Motorcycle Tour

Pashnit Tours rides Southern California Mountain Ranges

www.pashnittours.com

The whole mountain is pin-cushioned with oil wells

 

[pashnit]

Round Mountain is also all open range

And gotta be alert. Single lane road, no center line, with two way traffic.

Oil drill rig trucks popping out from blind corners just when you think you're Ricky Racer.

 

[CBXRider]

It’s a great time of the year to ride, all the fields are green and the air is clear. It’s pleasing of course but still surprising to find so many nicely paved roads that are so void of traffic.

 

[pashnit]

Topping the kids off. We take over the place. Bikes everywhere.

See that crack in the mountain - that's the Kern River Canyon

It's a busy road, so if you can ride it with minimal traffic, it's super curvy canyon riding fun.