Tim TomCross Country Adventure

[Tim Tom]

Maro,
As Steve said we've been home for just over a month now. Your route sounds very similar to mine though. Have a blast, and stop at every fuel stop when crossing the western deserts. Especially Nevada. There isn't much out there. If you haven't yet you could very well do some dirt roads in Utah and Nevada. Especially if your doing off the beaten path camping. Your Vee should handle it just fine, my GS did .
Have a blast on your trip! It's a once in a lifetime experience (or never) for many people.

Bob, I will get to posting up more pictures soon I promise!

Aaron, nothing definite yet. All I know is July and Nova Scotia. Trying to get Nate (my oldest brother) to accompany Kyle and I. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Steve]

All I know is July and Nova Scotia. Trying to get Nate (my oldest brother) to accompany Kyle and I. I'll keep you posted.

Better plan on taking some heated clothing.

Two of my sisters and their husbands went to Nova Scotia in July a few years ago. From the time they left Maine until they got back, the temperatures never got above mid-50s. They were VERY thankful they all had their Gerbing jackets and gloves.

.

 

[maro]

hahaha, dayum.

im jealous u did it on a gs. well kinda, im really enjoying the wee. so im camping in moab, headed to portland. please give me some tips on good camping spots from portland down to la. whats was ur route?

 

[Tim Tom]

I still can't believe that I did it on GS. We went from Utah, up to Reno and Lake Tahoe, then north east to see the redwoods. Hit the Pacific Coast near Eureka. We only got as far north as Orick, California, about 50 miles south of Oregon. From here we took Hwy 1 until it split off to Rt. 101 (PCH) above Ft Bragg. I strongly recommend the stretch from Hwy 1 to the coastline, it's a super twisty fun road. We took 101 down to Pismo beach then headed back east. We got about 80 miles from LA.

Be sure to ride 101 on a weekday. Much less traffic = much more fun.

I can't really help you from Portland, but in California we had a good site staying near Trinidad, at a place called Emerald Forest. The owner is a bike nut, and gave us a discount for riding in. The campsite was in the redwoods, and pretty cool.

The other cool place we camped on the CA coast was at Half Moon Bay, about 15 -20 miles south of San Fran. We found an RV park there, which had an awesome pub attached to it. Great hot food and drinks, plus two genuine London Double-Decker buses built into it! The place is called Camerons, and I understand it's sort of a local landmark. Lot's of interesting people there. Worth the stop. Plus they have showers.

Enjoy the ride and take tons of pictures! The PCH is awesome!

 

[Tim Tom]

More pictures now!

More pictures now!

So as we last left the story off, Kyle and I were camped at the feet of giants in California. We woke up to a cold and damp morning, and suited up for the day. The plan was to head north up Rt 101 to see some of the ancient coastal redwoods. We stopped at Ladybird Johnson Grove to have a look. Words cannot describe how big they actually are.

It was a very misty morning, which I was told is typical for that area.

The redwoods were way more interesting in person than I thought they would be.

It was a very quiet an eery morning surrounded by giants.

Very beautiful though.

We spent a little bit of time at Ladybird Johnson Grove, but the road called us back, and we headed south. We shortly found our first view of the Pacific Ocean.

A bit anticlimactic really, but we were ecstatic all the same. Even though it was too chilly to remove the helmet for the picture.

To be continued soon!

 

[Tim Tom]

More pictures now! Continued!

More pictures now! Continued!

As we headed south down Rt 101 the fog eventually lifted, and it was a gorgeous day. We saw a sign for the Ave of the Giants, and decided to pull off and check it out. The Ave ran parallel to Rt 101 and worth the detour.

Please forgive my photography here, the dense tree cover tricks cameras into using a much lower shutter speed than needed, and without a manual setting and a tripod, shooting in the Redwoods is quite difficult.

A bit blurry I know, but to give a good idea of what it was like.


Kyle scaling a STUMP.

The GS among the Giant Sequoias

The exposed root structure of a fallen giant.

The weather niced up enough for Kyle to ditch the rain suit. He is standing on the same tree as in the pic above.

Kept expecting to see Ewoks from behind the trees.

And of course what trip to the redwoods would be complete with riding through a big tree!

It was a bit touristy, but I figured I wouldn't be back for a while. Plus Kyle seemed interesting in getting the cute Russian girl to take our pictures.

However I probably ruined all of our coolness with the Russian girl by doing this.

Opps. The bike was tired. It DID just cross the entire country to ride through a stupid tree after all hahaha. Jeez it was heavy to pick up though. There were a few other bikers there, and one of them, a woman on the back of a fancy BMW tourer said her husband would have been screaming curses everywhere if it had been his bike. I just laughed. No damage was done.

The reason I fell was I was trying to ride one handed while putting the camera away. In the dirt. On a loaded down mule. Lesson Learned there. On the plus side this picture shows off my very high tech mounting system. A hunk of 2x12 trimmed to fit with some long bolts.

More pictures very soon!

 

[7981GS]

Nothing smells quite as sweet as the redwood groves in the morning.
PCH south from Fort Bragg to just past Bodega Bay is a motorcycle rider's heaven.
(Weekdays and with no road construction that is.)
Darn near impossible to pull over anywhere to take pictures of the breathtaking view of the road and the surf as there is nowhere to pull over.
There is even a little spit of a town along the way with a hardware store with a little Deli inside!

Eric

 

[Tim Tom]

More pictures now! Continued! Again!

More pictures now! Continued! Again!

After lugging up the bike we bolted out of there (with our tails between our legs) Kyle ragged on me a bit, but I soon showed him who was boss. That is by leaving him the dust on super twisty road from Hwy 101 to Rt 1. Kiss your own ass type turns marked at 10 mph, which I had never seen before. Sorry I did not take any pictures there as I was having WAY too much fun. After 30 glorious miles we were out of the trees and had arrived at the coast proper.

I don't think anyone thought that my old and leaky GS would have made it this far, but it proved its own merit. Time and time again.

Kyles new bike also proved to be quite the adventure rig. Not even a whimper from the big bike. (As a side note, Kyle's hand made saddlebags also worked very well, and MANY people thought they were factory!)

The tail end of the gloriously twisty stretch of road.

Below us on the beach were a group of young cyclists who had ridden down from portland.

The view of the spectacular PCH. Which would be our heaven on earth for the rest of the day, and the next one.

If there was ever a road built for bikes. It's this one. Forget the dragon, with it's puny 11 miles. I'm talking about 2 days worth of twisty corners. Each one different. The Pacific Coast Highway.

Perfect.

That day and half on the PCH was without a doubt one of the highlights of the whole trip. Well worth crossing the flat and straight midwest and the hot deserts. Every motorcyclist should ride this. It's that good.

By the end of the day we had crossed just under 400 miles. ALL of them being on very twisty back roads. We were cooking and rode the hell out of the bikes that day. We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and rode through SF. Found a campsite south of SF in Half Moon Bay. The campsite was nothing special, just an RV park really. But attached to it was an awesome pub. It was a cool place, with two London Buses build into the pub. That kind a place. It's walls were littered with history, including pictures of the Queen, Al Capone, and even Winston Churchill there. They had great food, great beers, and a great end to a fantastic day.

 

[Big T]

Maro!

Maro!

Clear you PM box!!

contact me

 

[Tim Tom]

Haven't had time to update this thread with more pics due to school starting up again. But will get back to it soon I promise. Still have tons more pictures of the PCH, and the grand canyon

 

[Redman]

More PCH.
More PCH.

Picture of bike on side also showed bottom of panniers sidebags to be wooden. Would not have thought that.

And you buddy hand made his sidebags. Impressive.

.

 

[Tim Tom]

More PCH.
More PCH.
Picture of bike on side also showed bottom of panniers sidebags to be wooden. Would not have thought that.
And your buddy hand made his sidebags. Impressive.

Haha later today if all goes as planned!

Because there was a lip on the bottom of the mermites, where the sides connect to the bottom, it made trying to mount them to the racks solidly near impossible. To get around this I cut up a 2x12 so it would fit inside the lip. Now I had an even mounting surface. A few screws from the top of the bag into the wood serves as the connection. I then drilled the wood and metal and used some 2" through bolts to mount to the rack. Perfect. It was a pain to get everything to line up though.

Of course I had it easy compared to Kyle. He has a knack for fabrication, and cut and welded them up out of some sheet steel. His most accurate measuring tool is a 30 year old Stanley tape measure . The crazy part is they are friggen identical. And he built one, then the other. He has a very good eye for building.

 

[Tim Tom]

So I've been home for a very long while since I last posted up here, and sorta left the Ride Report unfinished. That's not cool. To recap, Kyle and I were coming down the PCH and loving life. Now because you lot don't like to read, and because it's cold, about to snow later, and I still almost don't believe I did this trip. I'll get back to it and share some more pictures.

All of these pictures were from the Second day on the PCH. From Half Moon Bay to San Luis Obispo. By far on of the most memorable days of the trip. Gorgeous roads, scenery, wildlife, weather.

I apologize for the brevity, and picture heavy post, but I'm not feeling like a wordsmith today, and they tell the story better anyhow.

The next day we would begin our journey back east.

 

[Baatfam]

Hooray!! The story continues.

 

[Redman]

MOre day 2.
More day 2.
More.
More.

I will need to see where on PCH that is.
Even my wife says a ride on PCH sounds like a good idea.

(and maybe I also need to concider some of the other 3-lettter-abreviations that I hear the So Cal guys use)

More Tim TOm, more.

.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for continuing Tim, awesome pic's! Gotta love seeing the seals sunbaking like that...

 

[cowboyup3371]

Finally, thank you and keep it going

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Ugly looking babes there?

Ugly looking babes there?

Man those are some fugly females on that beach?
I'm stayin' in Michigan!

 

[Tim Tom]

Glad to know you guys are still interested after I dropped the ball on this .

Redman, this part of the PCH started on the south side of Santa Cruz, and we took it down to about 80 miles north of LA. Also of interest on this part of the PCH is Hearst Castle, the estate of William Randolf Hearst. Also where Citizen Cane was filmed. We stopped to have a look, but didn't make it past the visitor center because it was insanely crowded on that saturday, and we wanted to keep on riding! We did see a zebras walking the grounds, but I didn't get a good picture of them... Just have to go back I guess .

I'll post up some more pictures from this day soon, including the biggest wild animal I've ever seen. Don't worry, I won't make you all wait too long!

Cheers,
Tim

 

[Allie]

Man those are some fugly females on that beach?
I'm stayin' in Michigan!

Not quite ready to seal that deal with a kiss Bill? :lol:

Thanks for posting, Tim, beautiful pics. I'm so bad I still have ride reports pending from local trips.