California Dreaming

[chitown]

4 hours ago, koth442 said:

Slight side bar, let us know what you think of riders-share. I haven't heard of it before, sounds neat.

+1 There are places in the east I don't want to spend the time to get to and there aren't always many options for rentals or they're limited to cruisers. 

Been using Turo (same concept) locally and have a Tesla X right now. Did a Performance 3 awhile back. I'm in an ev-related field so it's a nice option for research. And omg the acceleration  

[koth442]

5 hours ago, chitown said:

+1 There are places in the east I don't want to spend the time to get to and there aren't always many options for rentals or they're limited to cruisers. 

Been using Turo (same concept) locally and have a Tesla X right now. Did a Performance 3 awhile back. I'm in an ev-related field so it's a nice option for research. And omg the acceleration  

Interesting... I'd never heard of Turo until today either. Might have to check both of 'em out!

[Guest]

On 7/8/2019 at 8:23 PM, chitown said:

Big Bear and east

138 toward Arrowhead/BigBear - 18 - 38 - 10 (freeway, but only to get to the next good road) - 243. This puts you in Idyllwild. If it's not hot I'd consider taking 74 Palms-to-Pines out to Palm Desert, maybe eating there, reverse the route (243 is worth several laps) or slab back via 10-15-138. 

I'm back from my California trip. The wedding was a drag but the bike rental was probably the best ride of my life. First off, I rented a 2017 FZ 09 on Riders-Share and it was excellent. Got a great motorcycle from a great guy. The FZ 09 feels very similar to my FJ 09 except for I have K-Tech on both ends of my bike and it makes a big difference. Still, the FZ09 with stock suspension is a pretty good ride.

Ok,  about the ride. The guy I rented from recommended one  of the routes that Chitown did and told me it was his favorite. I had an hour ride out through the desert from my hotel to the mountains. One cool thing about this area of the desert is that there are these areas with dips and rises and at speed you feel like you're gonna get launched. I actually broke out into a huge smile at one point. After about an hour it went from straight to starting to get a little curvey and then as I started to go up the mountains, it became  holy shit cool. Twisty doesn't even begin to describe it. Short tight turns that had me flicking the bike back and forth, close tight turns like I've never seen. Cut backs, hairpin turns and elevation changes that just never ended and a gazillion turns that that never stopped. The route is nicknamed "The Rim of the World" and it is like someone designed a road for maximum motorcycling fun.

Now I have to explain something. I've been riding for most of my life and I'm 62. Almost all of my experience has been off road so I'm always working on improving my pavement skills. Recently I've been trying to figure out trail braking and trying to incorporate it into my riding but haven't found any improvement or understood what it was really going to give me.  So on this ride through the mountains I finally discovered and figured out trail braking and damn, I was riding twice as fast through turns and it just became the most natural thing ever. I was able to just crank into and out of turns fast and comfortably. It's so simple and it set me free.

So back to the ride..... There are lots of cars and bikes up there and it's mostly single lane except for a few sections of passing lanes. No matter what people up there are driving, they think they become speed racer. SUV's and mini vans become Ferraris. Of course there was nothing up there that could touch a decent sport bike and so besides the technical aspect of riding up there, there were lots of bonsai passes. At one point I got behind 3 Harley baggers and all of a sudden they they are trying to ride like they're on crotch rockets. That didn't last long as I could see how ragged and bad handling those bikes really are and they waved me by and pulled over never to be seen again. The funny thing is nobody wants to get passed and worked their asses off to keep me from passing them. Most gave up and eventually would pull over and let me pass. Others I had to find a spot and blast by. There was one guy in a Beemer (car) that decided he wanted to race and when we hit the passing lane section his driving became maniacal in trying to keep me from passing him. The funny thing was that it wasn't even challenging on a motorcycle.  I dusted him and he fading back into the distance. After a few hours I started coming down out of the mountains and finally back into the desert and much to my surprise I ended up on old Route 66 which was way cool. Eventually I made my way to Barstow and took a good look at my Google maps and realized I had a pretty long ride back to where I was staying. The map routed me to Route 58 which goes through the heart of the Mojave Desert.

I'll say this about the desert.....it is hot as a MFer........but the Mojave Desert was twice as hot as a MFer.  I did not see many bikes in the desert and I'm guessing it's because although I loved riding out there, I didn't realize that the desert heat is slowly sucking the life out of you. I started out the day around 8 AM as suggested here and I hydrated my ass off often. Although you're extremely hot, the dryness of the heat keeps you from feeling really uncomfortable. I rode the desert roads at 90 to 100 mph most of the time and went through 5 tanks of gas during the course of the day. After an hour on RT 58 I started getting low on fuel and finally had the fuel light start blinking and showing 12 miles of gas left...........and nothing but desert and highway as far as I could see. I started getting really nervous as the heat here was getting to me and I was scared shitless about running out there. On top of that, I was starting to feel kind of nauseous which is a sign of heat stroke. Finally I saw a mobile mechanic working on a tractor trailer and I stopped to see if he had any gas. This is when I discovered that I had full blown heat stroke. The mechanic didn't have any gas but he did give me a bottle of very warm water. I had to lay down in the shadow of the truck and sipped water and I was seriously worried. After about 10 minutes I felt well enough to get up and Google gas stations nearest my location. This is the funny part, it was only 2 miles down the road. I hopped on the bike and rode there and filled up. Ate half of a miserable gas station sandwich and a bottle of Gatorade and sat in the shade. I was fully heat stroking out and knew I had to get back as quickly as possible. So back on the bike and I rode like a maniac to make time as I knew I wasn't going to last long. It's an interesting thing, I didn't feel bad when I was riding but when I stopped for  gas or to hydrate I knew I was in trouble. Even so, I still was having a blast riding through the desert at 100 mph to make time. It's a weird cool place.  Around 5 o'clock I rolled into the hotel parking lot and just about crawled to my room. I was not in good shape and really should have gotten help. Instead I jumped into an ice cold shower and just stayed in there for a long time and then cranked the AC and laid on the bed drinking cold water. On top of that my wrists and hands were sore as hell from twisting the gas and squeezing the clutch all day. At  6 o'clock I got dressed and went to the wedding rehearsal dinner. The hardest part was that there was nobody that rode and I didn't have anyone to talk about this amazing ride.

The next morning we got up and went out for breakfast and then my GF took the car out and I took the bike to return it. We went separately so could let it loose for a last hour through the desert. It was great but I was pretty used up from the previous day.  The next day we drove down to San Diego and I got to stand in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans a month apart then flew back to Massachusetts the following day. That's my story and I'm stickin to it.  

 

[betoney]

Glad to hear that you had a great ride in California, I have never ridden in S.Ca but have ridden N.Ca many times and it is nothing short of amazing like you discovered.  Twisty just for the sake of being twisty or fast sweepers with lots of elevation changes, it cant be beat.  Its now a destination we ride at least once, usually twice a year.

The Mojave Desert sounds like hell, I'm glad you survived it, I have been through the Sacramento Valley in June, July and August on different trips, over 110F every time, its not for the faint of heart.

Hopefully its not your last trip out West and you are able to discover more of those amazing roads.

[Guest]

I'm ruined. I live in great back road country and now they feel like straightaways after the mountains in California.

[wanderer]

Glad you enjoyed, but mostly glad you survived!!

[Guest]

20 hours ago, wanderer said:

Glad you enjoyed, but mostly glad you survived!!

Woulda died with a smile on my face even if I didn't survive.

[chitown]

Glad it all worked out. I'm still on a ride. Every day saw triple digits until today. Vegas, North Rim x2 (staying at the lodge for two nights and riding to the lookouts and hiking a couple trails is bucket list material), Cortez, Salida, Moab, Cedar City, Tonopah, Tahoe x2, not sure where I'll be tomorrow. 

There are no ailments known to man that cannot be fixed with more throttle and more beer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

[betoney]

9 hours ago, chitown said:

There are no ailments known to man that cannot be fixed with more throttle and more beer.

Amen, Brother!  👍

[Guest]

Evaporative Cooling Vest - Pro's or Con's??

By betoney, May 17, 2018 in Gear Reviews

 

I just read the above thread and also a linked article about riding in extreme heat. I would say that I'm pretty fortunate to have survived riding 3/4 of the day out in the desert and even the mountains were extremely hot. First off I have to say that I didn't realize that where we were staying was in the desert. When I got out riding I was naive and totally unprepared. I felt fine until mid afternoon. Being from the east coast, you get used to humidity when it's hot so you feel uncomfortable as you become soaking wet from sweating. As I've now found out, in the hot desert your sweat is evaporating so fast that you never get saturated like I'm used to when it's hot. I never felt uncomfortable while riding. It was only when I stopped that I felt bad and knew I was overheating. LOL...  someone suggested I check the coolant on the bike but in fact it was myself that needed checking. I did know enough to keep stopping and drink a lot of liquids but that wasn't enough. I purposely left my jacket home and only wore a long sleeve shirt to keep from getting sunburned. I've always wondered why you always see people in the desert wearing a lot of layers and now I know that it's to insulate themselves against the heat. I had no clue. I sent my helmet, shoes and gloves out and could have easily included my jacket. I only wish I knew what I was up against and bought a cooling vest which is only $50 and brought my jacket. I had an incredible day in spite of my ignorance and made it back to my hotel through sheer force of will. This article also said that it takes a day or two to recover and you are susceptible to heat stroke in a shorter time in the following days and that's exactly what happened. The next morning I had to return the rental bike and had an hour and a half through the desert and although I didn't get heat stroked out again I was pretty much toasted for the rest of the day.   I decided to add this to this post because for anyone thinking of riding out in the desert and has no experience as I didn't. That place can kill you if your not prepared and this is not an exaggeration. Do your homework and it'll be one of the coolest places you'll ever see and you'll be ok. Otherwise someone will find your bleached out skeleton  and will steal you skull to show to their friends as a trophy they found.