IBA Saddlesore Ride Being Planned

I'm starting to plan a SS1000 ride out of the LA area. Comments & suggestions welcome. Other serious & sober riders are welcome along as long as the party stays manageable (like 3-4 max maybe). While I'm no grandpa yet, I'm a mature rider (35+ years) and not a zealous risk taker anymore. Anyway, here's my first cut at a route. Plan would be to leave around 4 AM and be back in Santa Clarita by 9-10 PM. Don't know if a weekend or a weekday is better as I need to study the traffic patterns and decide when to be where so time isn't lost unnecessarily. The route is designed for scenery today but may have to change to put more miles on the interstates for brevity sake.

First cut: Route.

W2

Wee Willy said:

I'm starting to plan a SS1000 ride out of the LA area. Comments & suggestions welcome. Other serious & sober riders are welcome along as long as the party stays manageable (like 3-4 max maybe). While I'm no grandpa yet, I'm a mature rider (35+ years) and not a zealous risk taker anymore. Anyway, here's my first cut at a route. Plan would be to leave around 4 AM and be back in Santa Clarita by 9-10 PM. Don't know if a weekend or a weekday is better as I need to study the traffic patterns and decide when to be where so time isn't lost unnecessarily. The route is designed for scenery today but may have to change to put more miles on the interstates for brevity sake.
First cut: Route.

W2

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Couple thoughts. You're going to need a receipt in Minden/Gardnerville to prove that you didn't take Monitor Pass. I don't know why you're going through the heart of the Bay Area - might as well stick to LA freeways. If you're doing that route on a weekend, you better do it early in the morning. Otherwise it's going to suck. Weekend traffic is worse than weekday. If it were me I'd hang a left on I-5 south in Sacramento, take that down to 152 so you can get to Big Sur. Still over 1000 miles and way better traffic.

jwhite518 said:

Couple thoughts. You're going to need a receipt in Minden/Gardnerville to prove that you didn't take Monitor Pass. I don't know why you're going through the heart of the Bay Area - might as well stick to LA freeways. If you're doing that route on a weekend, you better do it early in the morning. Otherwise it's going to suck. Weekend traffic is worse than weekday. If it were me I'd hang a left on I-5 south in Sacramento, take that down to 152 so you can get to Big Sur. Still over 1000 miles and way better traffic.

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Yes, good points, thank you. I was worried about the Bay Area leg of the route too. I'd expect to hit that part sometime after 12 pm and if I were doing this on a Friday, that "might" not have been too bad. Such was my thinking. Plus I'd get to cross the GG Bridge. But on reflection I like your suggestion better. So here's route 2.

Route 2.

W2

Not sure I would take the PCH on an IBA run. Especially on the second half, when you may be feeling fatigued. I've driven that (only once though) and it would seem to me that your speed would be down somewhat due to the frequency of corners. Just a thought. Although I had considered riding part of the BRP on my first IBA run................then I drove part of it on the way home from Myrtle beach. Great road on a trip, perhaps not for an IBA run (at least not ALL of it)........ to each their own though. Maybe it would work better to start with that leg (PCH) and finish with interstate?

EDIT: OK I just realized you had already planned the route that way. My bad.

should've paid more attention

You don't mention any dates, Wee Willy, but I'm sure you've considered that midday through the Sacramento Valley -

in July or August - can be a brain and body frying experience, with temps often WELL into triple digits. Though it's not gonna kill you, it can sure take a lot out of a person, especially halfway through a thousand mile day.

All the best on your ride.

Old Michael said:

You don't mention any dates, Wee Willy, but I'm sure you've considered that midday through the Sacramento Valley - in July or August - can be a brain and body frying experience, with temps often WELL into triple digits. Though it's not gonna kill you, it can sure take a lot out of a person, especially halfway through a thousand mile day.

All the best on your ride.

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Thanks for the heads up. I work in the high desert down here so heat is something I'm pretty used to, but I wasn't aware of the Sac. Valley situation. I recently did a ride through Phoenix (Clicky) and at 106 deg. OAT, that was a ride to forget. I will bear this in mind. Thanks.

W2

Looks like I have at least one riding partner now.

W2

I think that's a great route. It's a ride I'd enjoy doing. You can bank some time early on 395, then you get some really great mountain roads, then make some more time on I-5, and finish up with a challenging run down the coast. Yep, that's my kinda saddlesore. It's very doable, but this won't be a 16 hour run - I predict somewhere around 20-21 hrs at a leisurely pace. Let us know how it goes!

jwhite518 said:

I think that's a great route. It's a ride I'd enjoy doing. You can bank some time early on 395, then you get some really great mountain roads, then make some more time on I-5, and finish up with a challenging run down the coast. Yep, that's my kinda saddlesore. It's very doable, but this won't be a 16 hour run - I predict somewhere around 20-21 hrs at a leisurely pace. Let us know how it goes!

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I agree on the time to complete. My early-early original plans were to skip straight down the 5 and that should keep me w/in the 16 hrs. Adding the coast route will definitely slow things down. I'm now thinking I might want to reverse the route and come home down the 395. The last bit of run is fairly straight, well paved & wide. Good for eating up the miles after that second wind.

W2

What dates are you thinking about going?

Old Michael said:

You don't mention any dates, Wee Willy, but I'm sure you've considered that midday through the Sacramento Valley - in July or August - can be a brain and body frying experience, with temps often WELL into triple digits. Though it's not gonna kill you, it can sure take a lot out of a person, especially halfway through a thousand mile day.

All the best on your ride.

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Did that once in August a few years back on a cruiser. I started to hallucinate I swear..... VERY good point Michael

Well, it's done. Yesterday a friend & I did 1032 miles in accordance with the IBA SS1000 rules. What a ride. This is the farthest I've ridden in a day's time by nearly 2x. My partner, Chris, was riding a Kawi ZX-10 (yup...). He damn near froze hisself in the morning and later that night...wanted a fairing bad. Course was a blast. We left at 4 AM with a full moon so even the dark was not. Kinda like JEB Stuart's ride around the Union Army of the Potomac in 1862, we did a ride around the socialists in Sacramento on Saturday the 3rd. We set no records, we took only a few chances and we had a blast. Some of the nicest bike riding country in the country and some marvelous weather (except heading down the I5 from Sacramento...wind was howling from 3 oclock). Did the coast route (PCH) from Monterey to Morrow Bay and began at 6:30 pm...got dark right away, but the moon was out and the surf was gorgeous in the moonlight. All in all, a great ride even though I was mentally fried when we pulled back in around 1 AM. Damn near pulled in front of a car at the last fill up...what a finish that would have been. Back alive and well this afternoon. Many stories to tell and I'll put some up soon.

SS1k Route.

Cheers,

W2

good on ya...I'm jealous as been planning my first ride since June

thanx for posting...look forward to more lies stories about the ride :yahoo:

Cheers,

Mike in Nawlins'

Congrats on the ride! Looks like you lucked out as I saw that there was snow and sleet happening in the Sierras today.

Hit the Road Jack said:

Congrats on the ride! Looks like you lucked out as I saw that there was snow and sleet happening in the Sierras today.

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Yup...missed it by a day. The temps have really dropped this week too. This was pro'lly the last good weekend for that route. It was a gorgeous ride though. The trip west through the mountains and then the run down the coast with a full moon showing the surf and cliffside details. This will be remembered with a smile for a while to come.

Cheers,

W2

OK, some pix and ride data. Here's some GPS data from my Magellan. My GPS only holds 2k worth of track points. I had it set to DETAILED on the track settings so it filled up and started to overwrite the earlier part of the ride. As a result, the first 5.5 hrs of the ride are not available. Here's the final route we took with fuel stops called out: Route

Ride speed vs. ride time:



& ride speed vs. distance:



Here are a few pix. The initial gas-up, 0405 hrs, 3 October in Santa Clarita.



My riding partner. He's on a 2005 Kawi KZ-10R. He wanted more fairing as the day wore on.



Stopped in Lone Pine soon after sunrise to get some warmer clothes on. Altitude's increasing.



East face of Mt. Whitney at sunrise from Lone Pine. Tallest peak in the continental US at 14,505 ft above sea level.



Breakfast at Hays St. Cafe, Bridgeport, CA. (Clicky)



FJR Pilot at lunch stop in Elk Grove, CA



Southbound on I5 heading to Gilroy. This was the most boring stretch of the trip.



Fill up in Cambria after a creep down the PCH coast road behind a cager afraid to exceed 40 mph anywhere (see speed chart above between hours 15 & 16). This was a very frustrating part of the drive. Ride was starting to wear on us and for almost 1/2 hour on a tight, twisty PCH in the dark, we followed a cager unwilling to pull over even though we rode nearly in her trunk on occasion. This was about 8:45 pm...4.5 hours yet to go.



My riding partner was frozen nearly through & through when we finally got back to Santa Clarita. He'd forgoten his cold weather gloves and was wearing my light touring gloves over his sport gloves with little success and his layering system wasn't working too well. Down the coast from Monterey, the temps ranged from the mid fifties along the coast to mid forties inland. I was snug with nothing more than my midweight ploypro & a mesh jacket with liner. That fairing jacked all the way up helped too.

Submitted all my paperwork a week or so ago...now just waiting to hear from the IBA.

Cheers,

W2

Very cool! Glad you both made it safe, if a little chilled Nice pics!

Makes me want to run it from the middle.

Wee Willy said:

My riding partner was frozen nearly through & through when we finally got back to Santa Clarita. He'd forgoten his cold weather gloves and was wearing my light touring gloves over his sport gloves with little success and his layering system wasn't working too well.

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Your partner will have earned that WORLD'S TOUGHEST MOTORCYCLE RIDERS plate backer fer shure!

Damn near pulled in front of a car at the last fill up...what a finish that would have been. Back alive and well this afternoon. Many stories to tell and I'll put some up soon.

SS1k route.

Cheers,

W2

It might have gained you additional witnesses :lol: Congrats on the ride :clapping: great pics!!!!!