My wife and I left Yakima on Friday morning for a 2 1/2 week bike trip. We made it to Redding CA the first evening. We rode mostly 2 lane except for a stretch of freeway from Weed to Redding, about 70 miles out of a total of 500. US 97 from Klamath Falls OR to Weed CA was a great run as it wound through the mountains.
Someone on this site recommended CA299 from Redding to Eureka. Truely a great road. Tight properly banked switchbacks leading up to Buckhorn Summit(or pass) and then long sweepers down. The road follows the Trinity River for the rest of the 140 miles. I talked to a guy in Reno who said its an even better ride from west to east.
We then followed US 101 south until we could take US 1 to the coast. The 22 miles from the intersecton of US 101 and US 1 to the coast was extremely twisty. I didn't count the curves but it was one 15 or 20 mph curve after the other for the whole 22 miles. Us 1 along the coast is scenic with vistas of the Pacific around every bend. We pulled over after 300 miles as Pam was getting tired. On Sunday we rode US 1 south through San Francisco and spent the night in Gilroy in preperation for a appointment with the Corbin factory on Monday evening. I spotted several SEEG's on Sunday as we were riding South of Bodega Bay. There must have been a rally of some sort because we passed literally hundreds of bike heading north. Sunday was not the day to ride Highway 1 for the first time. Traffic was literally bumper to bumper for miles then it would spread out for a while. Tight and twisty decending into San Francisco but worth it as I watched Pam grin in my rear view mirror all the way across the Golden Gate bridge. By the way, for the less sophisticated the GG bridge is a toll bridge. I had an unhappy motorist behind me as I fumbled with gloves, wallets and the toll. No break for bikes. It cost me $10.00 for 2 bikes.
The Corbin factory was an experience. Pam had her close solo re-worked to lower it and move her closer to the bars. No charge. I had a Corbin Solo custom made to fit with the Solo tour pak mounting bracket. The seat actually fits better than the Solo I ordered earlier. I also had the tour pack pad recovered in leather to match the seat and added some red piping to both. I had my choice of leathers but stuck with the black pebble grain as the choices were overwhelming. I met Mike Corbin and we received a free lunch in their on site restaurant. Gabriel and his crew took good care of us. Internet rumors about shoddy service after the sale are a thing of the past if indeed they were ever true. We spent most of the day at Corbin then left for Merced where we hooked up with an old classmate of mine, drank some red wine and went to bed early.
We tried to overnight Tuesday at Yosemite but they were booked solid so decided to ride into the park for the day. Bad move, road construction caused 2 30 minute delays an we elected to head north east. We spent the night in Jackson, CA and then rode CA 88 into Reno where we dropped by Freedom Racing. We had a great steak at the Bonanza bar and grill in Jackson. A local recommended it. Apparantly an extremely wet and snowy winter left only a couple of choices for getting over the Sierra's and one was I-80. No thanks; we didn' regret CA 88 as it was a great ride. My bike was idling poorly and I asked Brad at Freedom if he could Dyno tune it. It wasn't a good day for them as they were preparing for an event this weekend but he threw it on the Dyno anyway. Turns out the throttle position sensor was set incorrectly. Don't know how or why but the bike runs much better now. Dyno numbers are 100 hp and 102 torque. Brad said he could get more out of it w/o the lowers but we didn't take the time to remove them. The numbers reflect the typical freedom package. The only adjustment he made was at the idle position as he didn't have time for a complete Dyno tune.
I installed Garmin 2610 for this trip. I'd been agonizing over a GPS for weeks and finally pulled the plug 2 days before we left. I downloaded the entire Western US on a 1 gig compact flash card. I couldn't find a 2 gig card locally but will pick one up later as I understand you can load the entire US on the 2 gig card. I got a package with the chrome ram mount, the larger U-bolt for the Chubby 575's, and a touratech rubber vibration isolated mount from Cycoactive out of Seattle. I could have gotten the gps cheaper elsewhere but they were close, had everything in stock and guaranteed next day delivery. I'm sold on the concept. I have a gps on my boat and the dinghy and didn't think one would add much to motorcycling. Wrong! I carry a laptop to communicate with my office and I use it to prepare routes for the next day and then simply download them to the GPS. The MapSource software is not as user friendly as say Streets and Trips but it certainly can be made to work. I simply type in the street address of our destination(usually a hotel) and it gives me a route from my present location. I can specify route preferences(no major highways) and tweak there route easily if I want to use another highway. We rode right to Freedom Racing's door and from there to our hotel where we had reseved a room. I haven't yet utilized all the features but if you do stray from your route for gas or to eat the unit will redirect you back to the route. I agree that the voice directions may not be necessary as the on screen prompts are more than adequate. It has a resetable odometer and four trip meters. I could go on and on but suffice it to say I really like the unit.
We plan on riding around Reno tomorrow,around Lake Tahoe, and maybe out to Virginia City before heading for the Grand Canyon and points east on Friday. Sorry about the length of this post but this is also my way of keeping track of where we went and what we did.
Dan
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Topic: Trip report (long) (Read 1639 times)