Pacific on my left for 1500 miles

So rode my WR250R up the California 1 and the 101 from San Diego to Seattle for a holiday before spending the next year in Afghanistan.
No plans for off road riding on this trip.


I actually started in Oceanside. A small beach community just north of San Diego  (which apparently translate in German as "A whales vagina")


Stopped in Laguna Beach for a photo. There was a plastic surgeon's office advertising for 'beach body botox' should have stopped for a picture of that sign.




Laguna Beach


There weren't too many bronze, self-entitled kids wandering about today.


This refinery was just outside Laguna Beach.




Little surfer girl.


Here's the pier at Seal Beach. I'm starting to see a trend here. Ocean side town, big long pier.


There was a surfing school holding class today.


Hanging 10.


The Pacific Coast Highway runs right through LAX. Stopped for a photo op. There wasn't much to see from the PCH running through Los Angles. I didn't even see the Hollywood sign.


Leaving Los Angles. Malibu on the horizon.


PHC coming in to Santa Barbara. There was like a mile of RV's parked on the side of the road, camping out.


Santa Barbara has a pier too. huh, imagine that. Only this one, you can drive on. The cars had to pay, Motorbikes are free. See, there are advantages to travel by bike!


You get premium parking too!


Soon after my photo on the pier, did i notice oil all along the side of my motorcycle. Uh oh!


Shiny tire is a bad tire. The oil filter gasket had I put in from my oil change the day before apparently was bad. Time to get it fixed ASAP!


Most motorcycle shops are closed on Mondays (boo!). These guys were open, but didn't have the o-ring I needed. They did point me in the right direction to a shop that would have the part I need.


Which puts me here.for the night. ;-/
Well, they say it's not an adventure until something goes wrong. Only 200 miles short of where I was planning.
Looks like I'll be a bit longer on the road that I though.


Santa Barbara Motorsports to the rescue. They have me a new o-ring and washer for free.


Why, yes, I will take two, thank you....


Heading out of Santa Barbara to see this painted cave thingy. This was the road leading up into the mountains.


Panorama of Santa Barbara. You can see Oil Rigs off in the distance. A common site off the California coast.


At the painted cave.


Yup. That's paint and it's in a cave.


Stopped in Solvang. There is a very cool vintage motorcycle museum there.


Porn


more porn. This is an 8 cylinder Moto Guzzi. This is #2 of 6 in the world.


This is Virgil Elings, owner of these fine bikes. He invented the nano-microscope in the 80's. He eccentric to say the least.


...and very sexy too!


back on the PCH, here are a couple of California Condors airing out their arm pits. They like get really sweaty flying around and stuff.


There were lots of seals along the coast. The sign said take one home for free, but I didn't have room on the bike.


A panorama (and my thumb) of the road outside Big Sur.


Helmet hair and light houses.


Just over the Golden Gate Bridge. No toll going north. Sweet!


Coming out of San Francisco.


Stopped for the night. Hope I don't roll out of bed the wrong way.


Back on the road...


Panorama, cows ocean and road.


More scenic ocean. Have to remember to keep the ocean on my left. Made that error twice.


This day just keeps getting better!


Made it to the end of the California 1!


On to Hwy 101 and the Redwoods.


Yup, big ass trees...


After a goon nights rest, I'm back on the road.


Had some time, so I stopped in and played on the Oregon Dunes.


Riding in deep sand is hard work!


Say Cheese!


Apparently Sotherby's is selling this rock.


This is Bob. He owns EVOO Cannon Beach Cooking School. He's awesome, my wife and I are going to see him next week, and eat some awesome food.


Here comes Washington. Only 100 miles till home.


100 miles later....

A few notes about the trip:
The PCH from San Diego to Los Angles is nothing to write home about.
The PCH North of Los Angles around Big Sur is awesome.
- Lot's of twisites and elevation changes.
The PCH North out of San Francisco is awesome.
- Relentless twisities. Relentless and tiring. A R1200GS would be useless, as you can never really get over 50mph for the most part.

The bike
Stock settings on electronics and exhaust
MODS - Safari Tank, Seat, Scott Steering Damper, Heated Grips
Mostly got 60 MPG on CA1 (220 miles to a tank)
Fast sections of the 101 (65 MPH) dropped to 50MPG (180 miles to a tank)
Fuel was never an issue with the Safari Tank.

Awesome! How did you get your bike south to begin with?

I am from the east coast, and have visited San Diego, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. I would love to do the whole coast like you did.

Nice trip.

Glad you enjoyed it - you won't see much of anything like that over in the land of man-jammies.  I haven't been down the Coast Highway since about the late '70s sometime.  I've presumed that like a lot of other places, a few decades of development and enhanced coverage and popularity have changed things a lot (sort of like Yellowstone), and it just wouldn't be the same for me to go back.  Obviously, I could be wrong on that.  You certainly seem to have found the trip well worth it, so good on ya.

And thanks for sharing the trip with us; come home safe.

Woot! From SE Washington.

Looks like a great trip and perfect weather for it.

I brought the bike down in my truck and left it there, as I was making several trips to the San Diego area over the last few months. Last trip, I flew down and rode home.

maddaddy wrote:

I brought the bike down in my truck and left it there, as I was making several trips to the San Diego area over the last few months. Last trip, I flew down and rode home.

Nice. I think that would be the way to go. I feel like if I did an out and back, I would probably just want to get home as fast as possible on the way back.

I was going to comment on the weather, too. Looks like you got lucky in that department!

Cool trip, thanks for sharing & thanks for your service.

Looks like you hed a great trip! Thanks for posting it! I lived in SF for five years back in the '80s. I didn't have a bike then but had a friend who would loan me his old Yamaha whenever I wanted. I will disagree with you about a 1200 cc bike being useless on those roads. No substitute for HP, no matter how curvy the roads are! 8^)

mollycbr123 wrote:

I will disagree with you about a 1200 cc bike being useless on those roads. No substitute for HP, no matter how curvy the roads are! 8^)

Nope.  The OP was right: utterly useless.  Particularly from a WR250 mindset.

You don't ride scenic highways like that just to see how fast you can get from point A to point B.  And certainly not while on an adventure/dual sport ride soaking up the view and the surroundings.  If you are, I think you're kind of missing the point.

I can also think of lots of dirt roads that lighter, smaller horsepower motorcycles will pretty much feast on the big bore, big horsepower brethern if that were put to the test and enjoying the view were just thrown on the trash heap.

As far as that goes, back when I was young, stupid, and irresponsible, those of us with little RD350s used to lurk on the Airport Road.  It was nothing BUT miles of tight, tight curves connected by miniscule straight stretches.  We preyed on the much more expensive, bigger, high horsepower Z-1s and 750 triples. Sometimes with an equally stupid girlfriend in a miniskirt along for the show and hanging on for dear life; gotta have a witness along, y'know. Like I said, we were stupid.  Public humiliation at it's finest.  Looking back - somewhat amazed and thankful I killed neither somebody else nor myself - I really wish I'd been adult enough to restrict that kind of riding to tracks, not public highways.  Too soon old, too late smart, I guess.

Bikes have moved on a lot since the early '70s, but I bet the young, stupid, and irresponsible on public highways and dirt roads can and do still find light, nimble, and fast smaller displacement bikes that still eat the high horsepower crowd on truly tight roads, riders being equal. I doubt the giant killers have disappeared.

Personally, I'd much rather just idle along on the Coast highway, the Beartooth, Going To The Sun, the Kananaskis, etc and just soak in the view.  Don't need to fret about horsepower to do that.  I can't remember who's sig line it was, but it said something like "You only need 26 hp to see the world; the rest is just wheelspin".  I think it was Big Dog Adventures, but I'm not sure.  I think he hit the nail on the head.

Jäger wrote:

mollycbr123 wrote:

I will disagree with you about a 1200 cc bike being useless on those roads. No substitute for HP, no matter how curvy the roads are! 8^)

Nope.  The OP was right: utterly useless.  Particularly from a WR250 mindset.

You don't ride scenic highways like that just to see how fast you can get from point A to point B.  And certainly not while on an adventure/dual sport ride soaking up the view and the surroundings.  If you are, I think you're kind of missing the point.

I can also think of lots of dirt roads that lighter, smaller horsepower motorcycles will pretty much feast on the big bore, big horsepower brethern if that were put to the test and enjoying the view were just thrown on the trash heap.

As far as that goes, back when I was young, stupid, and irresponsible, those of us with little RD350s used to lurk on the Airport Road.  It was nothing BUT miles of tight, tight curves connected by miniscule straight stretches.  We preyed on the much more expensive, bigger, high horsepower Z-1s and 750 triples.  Sometimes with an equally stupid girlfriend in a miniskirt along for the show and hanging on for dear life; gotta have a witness along, y'know.  Like I said, we were stupid.  Public humiliation at it's finest.  Looking back - somewhat amazed and thankful I killed neither somebody else nor myself - I really wish I'd been adult enough to restrict that kind of riding to tracks, not public highways.  Too soon old, too late smart, I guess.

Bikes have moved on a lot since the early '70s, but I bet the young, stupid, and irresponsible on public highways and dirt roads can and do still find light, nimble, and fast smaller displacement bikes that still eat the high horsepower crowd on truly tight roads, riders being equal.  I doubt the giant killers have disappeared.

Personally, I'd much rather just idle along on the Coast highway, the Beartooth, Going To The Sun, the Kananaskis, etc and just soak in the view.  Don't need to fret about horsepower to do that.  I can't remember who's sig line it was, but it said something like "You only need 26 hp to see the world; the rest is just wheelspin".  I think it was Big Dog Adventures, but I'm not sure.  I think he hit the nail on the head.

We will just have to agree to disagree on this, I suppose.  Sure you can go around the world on a 26 hp bike.  You can also idle along and see the sights on a 150 hp bike.  But there are plenty of things you CAN do on a 150 hp bike, that you can't do on 26hp, which really comes in handy sometimes on LONG trips.

Either way, it's all good!

mollycbr123 wrote:

We will just have to agree to disagree on this, I suppose.  Sure you can go around the world on a 26 hp bike.  You can also idle along and see the sights on a 150 hp bike.  But there are plenty of things you CAN do on a 150 hp bike, that you can't do on 26hp, which really comes in handy sometimes on LONG trips

Like doing the CDT, for example?  I think that qualifies as "LONG".  How about the TOI?  The TCT?  Thousands of miles and many days long... I think that should qualify as "LONG" as well.

My guess is that whatever 150 hp bike you have in mind is dead on arrival for any of those LONG trips and probably couldn't complete the first day.  Having five times the horsepower won't help you one iota.  On the other hand, I doubt there is anywhere a 150 hp bike will go that a 26 hp WR250R/X cannot.  Might not get there as quickly... on the other hand it can probably maintain the legal speed limit the entire way. One of the reasons so many of us chose these particular quarter litre dual sports.

Which makes my point that claiming there is no substitute for horsepower simply is incorrect.  Whether because it is massive overkill like using a sledge hammer to try and and drive brad nails, or whether a bike with that much horsepower is simply incapable of dealing with the ride at hand.

There are indeed situations where more is better.  And there are also situations where less is better.  But "no substitute for HP" simply does not fly... particularly if you dip your toes in the adventure/dual sport world.

My guess is the OP felt that the hp he had on tap for this ride was just fine and 150 hp wouldn't have improved matters any.  But, it's just a guess...

Jäger wrote:

mollycbr123 wrote:

We will just have to agree to disagree on this, I suppose.  Sure you can go around the world on a 26 hp bike.  You can also idle along and see the sights on a 150 hp bike.  But there are plenty of things you CAN do on a 150 hp bike, that you can't do on 26hp, which really comes in handy sometimes on LONG trips

Like doing the CDT, for example?  I think that qualifies as "LONG".  How about the TOI?  The TCT?  Thousands of miles and many days long... I think that should qualify as "LONG" as well.

My guess is that whatever 150 hp bike you have in mind is dead on arrival for any of those LONG trips and probably couldn't complete the first day.  Having five times the horsepower won't help you one iota.  On the other hand, I doubt there is anywhere a 150 hp bike will go that a 26 hp WR250R/X cannot.  Might not get there as quickly... on the other hand it can probably maintain the legal speed limit the entire way.  One of the reasons so many of us chose these particular quarter litre dual sports.

Which makes my point that claiming there is no substitute for horsepower simply is incorrect.  Whether because it is massive overkill like using a sledge hammer to try and and drive brad nails, or whether a bike with that much horsepower is simply incapable of dealing with the ride at hand.

There are indeed situations where more is better.  And there are also situations where less is better.  But "no substitute for HP" simply does not fly... particularly if you dip your toes in the adventure/dual sport world.

My guess is the OP felt that the hp he had on tap for this ride was just fine and 150 hp wouldn't have improved matters any.  But, it's just a guess...

The OP was on a road trip. I'm on my third multistrada, and would definitely pick the multi over my WR for any road trip over a few hundred miles, if for no other reason than comfort. But that's just me. Again, we can just agree to disagree, because it's all good.

I didn't make up the saying "There's no substitute for HP." It's been around motorsports for a long time.

Looks like a wonderful trip! Thanks for taking time to post the great pics.

xaman wrote:

Looks like a wonderful trip!  Thanks for taking time to post the great pics.

^^^What he said. Sorry for the thread hijack OP...