Central California Foothills

[Motorcycle Mayor]

Did a nice several day ride through the central part of California last week, starting in Santa Cruz and ending in San Carlos, on the Bay. Highway 49 is fantastic, and the Merced River canyon is spectacular...and a fun bit of twisty.

Full details and pictures over at https://pursuit.olbert.com/2018/10/27/the-golden-chain-and-mt-hamilton/.

One detail that I didn't put into my write-up...

When I pulled into Patterson I was too early to check into my hotel. So I thought I'd stop for a cup of coffee at a nice little cafe I'd found online.

As I was turning into my targeted parking space, already going slow, I suddenly saw a "Police Vehicles Only" sign that had been hidden by the two vehicles on either side of the empty space. So I did something stupid, and hit the brakes to abort the maneuver and move to a different space.

You don't do that leaning into a turn on a 650 pound bike (well, probably more like 900 pounds counting me and my gear

). Kill your forward momentum -> kill your angular momentum -> kill the force keeping the bike from falling down -> presto! you're going down, hoping you won't break the mirror mount or crush part of your body.

Thankfully, nothing bad happened. Except that I picked up a few scratches on my finish...and was left with having to figure out how to get that 650+ pound bike back up.

Fortunately, before I'd spent too much time struggling, two young guys in a pickup pulled up, jumped out, and did it for me. Sometimes it pays to have white hair, I guess

.

I am very grateful to those two young men...who sped off before I could even offer to buy them a coffee. My hats off to Patterson, a place that is willing to help strangers!

 

[bigjohnsd]

With the FJR it is not "if you are going to drop it" it is "When am I going to drop it?"

 

[dcarver]

Say Whaaaaaat? Someone else on the forum lives Central Kali and rides an FJR? WooHoo!

Nice ride report, thanks for sharing..

 

[escapefjrtist]

Nice ride, thanks for taking us along!

~G

 

[russperry]

The weather around here has been beautiful recently so you picked a good time for those areas! A lot those roads that keep you off the interstates east of San Francisco Bay are quite lonely and as you say are a lot of fun to ride

Thanks for sharing

 

[Motorcycle Mayor]

With the FJR it is not "if you are going to drop it" it is "When am I going to drop it?"

Lol! That makes me feel better, John, thanx!

It’s a very solid and stable bike at any kind of speed. But slow? Not so much. I wonder why?

 

[exskibum]

With the FJR it is not "if you are going to drop it" it is "When am I going to drop it?"

Lol! That makes me feel better, John, thanx!

It’s a very solid and stable bike at any kind of speed. But slow? Not so much. I wonder why?

High center of gravity, esp. when loaded for touring. Contrast with a HD with a low COG - not ideal at 100+ mph, but easy not to drop at real low speeds. Not a wonder a lot of women feel the HD is easy to ride, even at its significant overall weight. Further, the FJR is a 4 cylinder that requires more rpm to be in its torque sweet spot, while the HD twin has abundant low speed torque off idle without the FJR's relative sensitivity to a smooth (off idle) throttle hand.

 

[Motorcycle Mayor]

LOL! Thanx, @exskibum; shows that you shouldn't always accept what you hear, because I swear "some knowledgeable person" told me when I bought the FJR that it was stable at speed because it had a low center of gravity

.

Is there a tech discussion somewhere on the site that goes into this in more detail? I'd be interested in reading it.

 

[hppants]

Beautiful country over there. Josh and I rode through that from Yosemite last year. Hwy 49 is choice, and there are others too.