I had a late start and left in the afternoon rather than the morning. It was a really good thing, I had planned an 8 hour leg versus the first day to be 12 hours. Leaving at 1 pm, I had projected I would get to my hotel room around 9. I forgot about the highway construction which added a few more hours onto my already tardiness. I really wanted to arrive in the day time - I knew the mountains would be cold as soon as the sun set. How cold, I just didn't know. Plus, I didn't want it to rain, snow or hail since most of my roadtrips tend to attract these elements. In May, it snowed and hailed while I traveled this route via car. I planned on going the exact route since during the car ride, I completed a recon of the area and wrote down the roads I needed to take as well as refuel stations. I broke the trip down into 3 days - first day 8 hours, second day 8 hours and the third day with 5 hours.
Anyway, after the road construction and high winds, it took me about 2 1/2 hours to get the the first town. (Under normal conditions, it would only take 75 minutes)... plus it took half my tank of gas. I really had to find a better way to load my bags since it was causing alot of wind drag and causing horrible fuel economy. If it continued, I knew I wouldn't be able to make some of these distances since there are not any gas stations along certain points along this journey. I was seriously tempted to turn back and spend the night at the parents house. The only thing stopping me was the construction - I didn't want to sit through it a second time around. Anyhow, I had hotel reservations that were not flexible. I did call though to tell them it would be an extremely late check-in, perhaps 11pm.
The day was quite nice - dry roads, cloud covering... nice ride. Oh! It was also a time to road test some new items. During that last roadtrip from Texas to Washington my luggage bags didn't make it... so I got new ones. The old set were made of leather and when full extremely heavy. Whew! I know I grew some muscles on that trip carrying everything up and downstairs at various hotels along the way home. I had seen some new luggage bags with wheels and thought it was a fantastic idea. Normal people suitcases but compact enough to fit on a bike. So that is the one I got for this trip. It's sooo cool! You just roll it around to where ever you go - well, you know how wheeled luggage works so I won't explain. Really convenient.
Then my other new article was leather pants. I've been wearing chaps in the past and they work great all except a certain area on the body where it doesn't cover... and that part gets cold too. Or in other instances when it rains, everything is dry except that one area - yup, the groin area... last time I went to visit a friend whom thought I wet my pants. How embarrassing. So these leather pants work great! I really like it a lot.
I had my map holder too. I got it on my last roadtrip and it came in really handy. It's a clear plastic folder with four magnets on each corner. It sticks on the gas tank so you can insert a map or directions in the pouch and be able to reference it while riding instead of having to stop each time for further guidance or like in my past, put the directions in my helmet and have it fly out. I thought it was a great invention whomever made it. I thought I was all high-speed with this cool gadget too... until other bikers passed me and had a GPS system hooked up to their bike.
But on with the story... I went along my planned route and had some really great views - mountains, rivers, couple deer, birds, etc. It started getting alittle cold in the early evening then after the sun went down, it was downright freezing! The temperatures were in the low 50's but on a bike with the windchill factor, it's approximately 20 degrees less. I started going faster and faster. Surprisingly, I didn't see any police which made me even go faster. I thought the faster I got there, the faster I could warm up inside my room but whew! It was cold. My new mantra was 80 more miles... I can do this... I've been colder (as my teeth started chattering). Somehow, in the cold I miscalculated my mileage and the fuel stations. I forgot... small towns close early. I had to bypass several fuel stations since it was late (only 7pm!) and really thought I was going to run out of gas. 60 more miles to go... My previous fuel record was 127 miles so I knew I could last a bit longer but had to slow down to conserve on gas (then my hands and whole body started shivering). 40 more miles... it really was cold out. I could see my breath on my helmet face shield. More mantra... it's cold, but I've been colder (and in all actuality I have but I had a passenger and a full tank of gas). Finally, I saw a gas station as my bike hit 133 miles, in the red zone... and they were out of premium. 10 more miles to town with no idea where the hotel was. I didn't know if the regular gas would ruin my tank so I only got alittle bit - enough to get me into town to find an open gas station with premium. It took me a few minutes to get back on the bike... inside of the refuel station was nice and warm and by then I was shivering really really bad. So bad, I didn't know if I could make it the last 10 miles... so close but still so far and soooo cold and I already had on all my layers of clothing I brought with me. Finally made it to the hotel room around 930pm and sat in front of the heater for a few hours.
Needless to say, I slept good that night with the heater cranked on high.
Day 2
I left Kalamath Falls, Oregon and planned on staying in Gilroy, California for the night. The weather was suppose to be real nice although still cold - high 50's/ low 60's. There was frost on my bike and bundled up in everything I had when I left. During the ride, I kept having to stop to remove an article of clothing - it was hot out! I still had on a jacket but had to wear it since there wasn't any more storage space anywhere on the bike. Left around 9 and arrived at 530pm. Great day for a ride. Met up with some friends.
Pic of my bike - road ready... this was taken in Oregon during Day 2 ride. This is the only pic for my whole road trip.
Day 3
So this was the final day of my ride. Left Gilroy around 11 and arrived home at 430pm. Whew! I forgot it was Friday and rush hour traffic begins at noon. Still made it in good time though with dry roads and hot weather. I was really happy I got to ride on Pacheco Pass - it's a really great bike road with lots of curves. You can't help but to go fast.
I got to Tejon Pass, which is almost an hour away from Los Angeles, in the hills when I saw several fire trucks. I admit I was rubbernecking. Lots of semi-trucks on the road and I was just searching for a semi blazing with a smoke bellowing engine and fiery shrapnel all over the place but was disappointed. I did see several overheated cars on the road side (but that's normal). There were at least a dozen fire trucks on both sides of the highway. I kept looking side to side, left to right, right to left... nothing. Then for some reason I looked up. Oh... fire. The whole hillside was on fire! There were some spots that were charred black, other spots with smoldering smoke but lots of fire. Holy smokes! Now normally, I don't like driving fast on grooved pavement but after seeing fire, I laid down some rubber and took off. Scary... fire was just a few feet above the highway... all over! So I guess that wasn't LA smog but rather lots of smoke.
Lane splitting is legal in California. It's when motorcyclists ride in between the lanes. I did this a few times before when I lived in San Francisco and stuck in rush hour traffic. I stopped because my mirror hit an SUV mirror as I was driving between an SUV and another vehicle. Never did that again my whole time in SF.
I had thought this particular interstate had a carpool section the whole way home. Carpool is great since there is very little traffic in this lane. Everything was great until it ran out into regular traffic for about a 20 mile stretch. My choice was to remain in the stop and go traffic or lane split. So I thought it would be okay to lanesplit as traffic was moving... the California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops do it all the time and they have bigger bikes. There was another biker that was zipping long so I followed him and my stress level went up 110%. For the most part, people realize there is a biker and scoot over a tad. Drivers of big trucks, utility vehicles are nice enough to move over. I thought I came close several times to several cars but the cars that tried to block me from passing were the hybird/ electric car drivers. They would shift all the way to the line so I wasn't able to pass although I'd just move to the next lane. Finally, I came upon a bus... do I lane split with a bus and several large SUV's? The bus was taking up alot of space... I chickened out several times and this was only 10 miles into it. There was another biker lane splitting too right behind me. I ended up going into the next lane. That biker chickened out too and kept following me. After 20 miles, my nerves were fried and finally the carpool lane opened up again. Whew!
So now I'm home. The bike has enjoyed a bath and a nice wax job. It's road ready for tomorrow's ride... and on Sunday.
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