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| Members of the Sport-Touring.net website get together for a scenic tour of the Central Coast of California |
| California Sport-Touring.net Meeting, June 2002 Back in May 2002, someone had a bright idea of organizing a California gathering of ST.net�ers. Afterall, there were a few members within close proximity of each. Plus, we just couldn�t let them East coasters have all the fun. So after 20+ Forum pages of planning and dreaming, the date and destination was set. Since there were two distinct geographically located riders involved in this meet, we chose a central meeting location of San Simeon, California. The first group was from the Bay Area and another from the Southern California area. The Bay Area riders outnumberd us southerners, and they consisted of Bluepoof (Carolyn), Grizzelda (Terry), Taliskar (Ted), Goldylocks (Ed), Redcliffs (Stephen), & CWS (Carl). The Southern California group consisted of Ksann (Ken), Shizoku (Dave), and Rogue Biker (me). The meeting was set at the last weekend of June in the lovely coastal and touristy town of San Simeon/Cambria. Both are within 5 miles of each other and are located in the Central Coast of California, about 200 miles north of Los Angeles. Day 1: The Beginning of a Long and Wonderful Day. I met Ken at 5:30 AM for day 1 as we had the longest trip of the whole group. We needed to ride out of Orange County & Los Angeles by 8:30 AM to meet Dave some 75 miles away. Ken and I originally planned to take Angeles Crest Highway all the way across L.A. but a brush fire the night before shut down the roads that lead to the �Crest. So after a 20 mile drone on the freeway Ken and I were forced to backtrack to an alternate route. That alternate route involved some serious lane splitting in morning rush hour traffic. Yuck! Ken was leading on his rented �01 VFR800 fitted with saddlebags and I watched as he threaded his way in between SUVs & minivans, sometimes missing them with his saddlebags by mere inches. Once we got passed traffic headed for L.A., the freeway opened up and Ken was soon cruising at 90 mph. My Bandit 1200S and I were struggling to keep up as there was a slight headwind that buffeted the hell out of me and forced me to put a tight grip on the bars. I couldn�t wait to get to the twisty back roads. |
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| Ken (Left) and Dave (Right) pose next to their bikes are Wendy's restaurant. We were getting ready to hit the back roads on our way to San Simeon to meet the Bay Area members. |
| Ken and I met Dave at a Wendy�s fast food restaurant at the entrance to Magic Mountain amusement park somewhere well north of Los Angeles. We had breakfast, took some pics, and we were off towards our first twisty roads. Dave and his ZZR1200 led us out of the area towards the town of Ojai, California. We stayed on secondary roads which were mostly small highways and country lanes but they weren�t too terribly interesting. There were a few sets of twisties that passed through some farmland and low hills. One short stretch surprised us with quite a few decreasing radius turns, one of which I underestimated and ran wide on. I was so embarrassed! On another section of fun sweeping S-turns we were positively stuck behind a farm truck that was hauling ass through the turns! We had to wait for a short & clear straightaway to pass as this truck wasn�t giving us any opportunity to pass in the sweepers! Grrr�.. After the fun but short stint on the unexpected hairpin turns & sweepers, we arrived in downtown Ojai, which had a pleasantly restored old downtown area made for tourists. They had a lot of touristy shops, historical buildings, and even horse drawn carriages and antique looking but restored buses that ferried tourists around the town. As pleasant as it may sound, I�d rather avoid such places myself so I just kept on going. Out of Town and Into the Countryside I was glad to get out of Ojai. We gassed up at the outskirts of Ojai and hit Highway 33 towards the Los Padres National Forest. All other cage traffic disappeared as we climbed our way up Pine Mountain, the tallest peak in this forest. The turns along Highway 33 were mostly 30 mph constant radius with good visibility and smooth surfaces. Although some turns had some dirt strewn about, it wasn�t a problem as we could see them well before hand. The scenery was also very pleasant as the road went through a mountainous forest area that at some point followed a streambed. I�ve taken this road a few times before, although this trip was only my second time on it by motorcycle. It was as beautiful and fun as ever. I�ve read that during the weekend, Highway 33 is a Ricky Racer road for the local sportbikers. I can understand why as it twisted and turned and threw in a few satisfyingly long straights for a good 30 miles. That is, until we got down from the mountains and onto the Central Valley. At which point Highway 33 remained merely straight. |
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