| Author | Message | ||
     Fzrider |
I am "Flying and Riding" February 18-19 in San Francisco. Since I am from Ottawa, Canada (3 feet of snow now) I will be riding for the first time since September 05... I am pretty excited! I will be getting an Electra Glide 2006, with a radio!! Should be quite a shock after driving an XB. Do any of you have suggestions on how to spend 2 day starting from San Francisco late February. Should I just drive South towards L.A. to avoid rain and where it is warmer? Any suggestions? Anybody thinking of doing the same, as it is quite cheap. Thanks in advance. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Highway 1 down the coast is beautiful. 101 if you are in a bit more of a hurry. 5 is superslab and you'll probably want to avoid it. Marin county is absolutely full of beautiful riding roads if you stay in the SF area (Message edited by diablobrian on February 06, 2006) | ||
| Fzrider |
How far down the 1 do you suggest stop, sleep and then turn around back to San Francisco in a two-day trip? | ||
| Diablobrian |
I haven't done it for 14 years. I'm sure there are locals with more recent knowledge on badweb. The ride is amazing though. Don't discount doing Day trips up into/around marin county. Some of the best riding in CA | ||
| Jackbequick |
From San Francisco, taking the coast route (CA-1) and then US-101 down through Santa Barbara to Carpenteria is about 370 miles. That would be a pretty good one day sight seeing ride on a hawg. You'll have to keep your mind on on what you're doing most of the time on CA-1 but there are some relaxing stretches a lot of things to see and places to stop. For the second day, leaving from Carpenteria (which is about as close to L.A. as anyone in their right mind would want to get), going East on CA-150, then North on CA-33, then CA-119 to I-5 will give you a nice 115 mile run that includes some twisty up and down hill stuff through Padres National Forest and across the coastal mountain range down into the San Jaoquin Valley. Staying on I-5 it can be a straight fast 292 mile slab run back to The City. Or you can take I-5 north about 215 miles to CA-152, then cut back west to Gilroy, and take US-101 and I-280 (The World's Most Beautiful Freeway) North back to The City. That route through Gilroy makes it about 300 miles back to The City. So your second day would be about a 415 mile day. I'm an ex-Californian living in Maine, I haven't done the Coast Route and the trip through Padres National Forest in about 20 years but it ought to still be a nice ride. If the weather is warm or later in the year I'd be more inclined to head North out of San Francisco and do a similar run up to Eureka, then over to Redding, and them back down down south. Finding accommodations should be easy enough this time of year, I'd just ride till I found I wanted to call it a day rather than try to make a reservation and locking myself into a destination. I just worked this all out in a few minutes with M$ Streets & Trips 2006, that's a decent software for route planning if anyone is looking for something like that. It has good and pretty current data, you can add a GPS to it too and take it on the road in your laptop when you're traveling by cage. Jack | ||
| Fzrider |
Thanks Jack, I will definitely consider this trip, weather depending. | ||
| Silverado140 |
Was just there over the summer. I stayed with family in Santa Cruz. I would HIGHLY suggest taking the 1, but wait until mid-day before you take off. The fog is killer in the morning. | ||
| Chance |
It look like "Jackbequick" wrote a fairly nice trip planner. I live just ten minutes from the San Francisco airport, but moved up here last year from Santa Barbara. It really depends on when you actually hit the road and when you have to have the bike back. Go to "theweatherchannel.com" the night before you leave. Enter zip code 94107 at the top of the page for San Fran weather and 93101 for Santa Barbara. If I can be of any help to you, let me know.... | ||
| Jackbequick |
Chance - Have you ever made that run from Carpenteria through Padres? I did it many years ago and it was slow but memorable then. I had an Uncle that lived in Ojai we used to go fishing on Lake Casitas. With people commuting 2-3 hours to work in La La Land, I'm wondering it is all stoplights, strip malls, and subdivisions now. Jack | ||
| Skyguy |
RIDE THE COAST!!! I did it three times last year alone. Let me know if you want the ultimate route as I have ridden ALL (no kidding) of the twisty roads between San Francisco and San Diego. | ||
| Spuds |
hey FZ.....have a great ride!!! I'm green with envy, but I'll keep the home fires burning..... Rod | ||
| Chance |
Jack, sorry I haven't checked this lately...Yeah, I've done that ride, but it gets up to a couple thousand feet...not wise for FZ this time of year...could be snow or ice. I rode the 150 up to Ojai, then out the 33 almost to the 5. But the best part was when I caught the 58 back to the coast. Since then, I have ridden the 58 both directions, but I still prefer east to west. As far as the strip malls are concerned, there aren't any along the path I just described. Ojai is still a small town. The Dear Lodge is still there. Let me know when you want to come back out this way... |
