45 Days on a Gen3 Hayabusa - 2023 Pashnit Touring

[pashnit]

<cue the correct time warp music. 2023 please.>

The Three Sisters Motorcycle Tour idea has been shelved for the last decade.

But I'm constantly daydreaming about new motorcycle tour ideas and keep wondering if this idea would work for my 2024 tour season. I’ve been working on a route that’ll work, and I think I’ve finally figured it out.

Today would be the day to pre-run my 10-year-old idea & see if this tour idea is feasible.

Notice the bent bridge, the fault line runs through the creek bed & the opposite sides of the bridge are moving in opposite directions. Literally.

Highway 25

Highway 25, San Benito County | California Motorcycle Roads | Pashnit

Much loved Central California Motorcycle Ride in the Central Coast

www.pashnit.com

 

[pashnit]

This would be the first road : Metcalf Rd. It goes straight up this canyon & Is really steep.

 

[pashnit]

San Felipe Rd

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

Quimby Rd

View of the South Bay - this is San Jose & Silicon Valley
If you are a James Bond fan, this is the place Christopher Walken was going to blow up in A View to a Kill

 

[pashnit]

Quimby Rd has some crazy steep hairpins

 

[pashnit]

Quimby narrows to single lane, gotta watch those blind corners.

This is exactly how I got hit head on by a truck a few years ago, blind hairpin left, truck on the wrong side of the road coming right at me. Flashbacks.

No trucks today. Road all to myself.

 

[pashnit]

Quimby connects to Mount Hamilton Rd, the ride up to Lick Observatory

See it?

 

[pashnit]

Twisty Twisty

 

[pashnit]

Wildfire came through here a couple of years ago and burned everything, but it did open up the sight lines

 

[pashnit]

 

[WuzzaCBXRider]

Nice pics Tim. Been awhile since I’ve seen those roads. Moved over here in mid ‘17 and haven’t been back. I did ride hiway 25 again though four years ago when I rode over to Corbin’s factory for a new seat on my Kawasaki. Love that road. Made some top speed runs on the Busa down a couple of those straights years ago. How many miles did each of your first two Busas have? Have you given any thought of a hiway 49 tour north then Lassen and then Crater Lake then over to Grants Pass and down to the big redwoods and the coast above Crescent City and back on 101 thru the Avenue & hiway 1? Thinkin about it myself.

 

[pashnit]

Nice pics Tim. Been awhile since I’ve seen those roads. Moved over here in mid ‘17 and haven’t been back. I did ride hiway 25 again though four years ago when I rode over to Corbin’s factory for a new seat on my Kawasaki. Love that road. Made some top speed runs on the Busa down a couple of those straights years ago. How many miles did each of your first two Busas have? Have you given any thought of a hiway 49 tour north then Lassen and then Crater Lake then over to Grants Pass and down to the big redwoods and the coast above Crescent City and back on 101 thru the Avenue & hiway 1? Thinkin about it myself.

Ridden (cumulative) about 300,000 miles, nearly 200,000 of that has been on my (4) Hayabusas. Too hard to break down each bike, maybe 60k on the '00. Bought it in 2003, sold it 2012? Got the Gen2 in 2010.

We're headed for Highway 49 Yuba Pass this coming weekend, stay tuned!

Northern Sierra Nevada + Mount Lassen + Southern Oregon, got a tour planned for the 2024 ride season that circles Oregon. Stay tuned!

Oregon Motorcycle Tour | Pashnit Tours

Ride Southern Oregon motorcycle roads

www.pashnittours.com

 

[HayaWakened]

We're headed for Highway 49 Yuba Pass this coming weekend, stay tuned!

Northern Sierra Nevada + Mount Lassen + Southern Oregon, got a tour planned for the 2024 ride season that circles Oregon. Stay tuned!

Spent most of August just N of Hwy 49 on a dirt bike. Definitely Busa country all around: smooth blacktop and tons of curves. Recommend Quincy-La Porte Rd (to La Porte at least) as well the Oroville-Quincy hwy. Wish I'd had the Gen 2 with me. HTH

 

[pashnit]

Recommend Quincy-La Porte Rd (to La Porte at least) as well the Oroville-Quincy hwy.

Headed out to ride this loop this coming weekend. Super fun mountain loop up and over the Sierra Range and back again.

La Porte Rd

 

[pashnit]

Above the clouds

Actually, that's the marine layer from the ocean, but it sounds cool.

 

[pashnit]

Three Sisters | Pashnit Motorcycle Tour

Ride the three peaks surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area

www.pashnittours.com

Here’s what you need to know about Mount Hamilton. There’s an astronomical observatory at the summit, currently operated by the University of California. But the best part is it was all built in the 1870s. The observatory was financed by James Lick, a wealthy San Franciscan and philanthropist. But, the observatory atop the mountain is only a bonus, the real highlight is the road to get there.

James Lick negotiated that Santa Clara County construct a "first-class road" to the summit, completed in 1876. This road to the summit was built for horse-drawn wagons. All of the construction materials had to be brought to the site on wagons pulled by horse and mules which could not negotiate a steep grade. To keep the grade below 6.5%, the road had to take a very winding and sinuous path, which the modern-day road still follows. Tradition maintains that this road has exactly 365 turns in 18 miles.

The same road that once was a wagon road still offers up a purity of happiness, endless frivolity, numerous switchbacks, and bonus… banked corners. It’s a motorcyclist’s delight. And once at the top of the peak, you’ll have a view on a clear day of the entire San Francisco South Bay Area, well, the South Bay really. We also get to tour the facility, and learn about the observatory’s history.

Lick Observatory was planned as the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The observatory, built in a Classical Revival style structure, was constructed between 1876 and 1887.

By 1888, Mount Hamilton was planned to be the first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory in the world and a small community sprang up of scientist, astronomers, and astrophysicists. Current topics of research carried out at Lick Observatory include exoplanets, supernovae, active galactic nuclei, planetary science, and development of new adaptive optics technologies.

 

[pashnit]

Views from atop Mount Hamilton

You can watch other bikers coming up to the top of the peak a long wayof , and hear them a long way off.

Residential housing, people used to live up here year round to run the telescopes. There are quite a few telescopes & domes atop the peaks.

 

[pashnit]

 

[pashnit]

Lots of bicycles make the climb. I'll stick to my motorcycle.