Test Ride, test post
So I did this last weekend, so it’s not testing all the conditions I’ll see on the road, but I’m giving posting a try with some of the hardware I want to have with me when I actually go on the road. I bought a new iPad, partially because my old one was 5 years old and developed a crack through the screen (no idea how that got there), and partially because I wanted one with a bigger screen. So I edited these photos on it, and also am writing this in the notes app.
The nominal goal for the day was to see what multiple hours on the bike felt like, and also to run out the clock til the first service. On both of those counts, I think I did pretty well. The first half hour of this ride was on 580, getting across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, which was windy as hell. New tires were a lot smoother on the grooved sections of pavement, enough to make me think that the stock tires really aren’t meant for highway riding at all. I struggled to maintain over 55 mph on the old rubber, but the new tires were perfectly happy up to… let’s say keeping up with traffic and leave it at that, yes? I’m not a speed demon by any measure.
Anyway, I was soon enough over the bridge and off the highway, headed through San Anselmo and Fairfax to hit Francis Drake, which I’d stay on for the next several hours. First, though, I stopped in the shade of the one (1) tree in a grocery store I passed, to drink some water and try downloading some maps (which didn’t work, but gave me an excuse to stop at a cute little shop for wifi, later).
Got back on the road, got over White’s hill, passing the toiling cyclists, and down into the San Geronimo valley. If I’d made a right turn, I’d have passed Roys, which also served as the forest moon of Endor for one of the follow-on movies after Return of the Jedi; a little further north on that same road is a nice cheese shop; you can keep going all the way to Petaluma, if you want. But I didn’t.
There are three ‘towns’ in the valley, Woodacre, San Geronimo, and Lagunitas (yes, the one the beer was from, although they hadn’t brewed there in years when they sold to Heineken). I cruised through the first two, as there’s not much you can see from the road, just clusters of houses climbing up on the hills. Lagunitas has a cool looking post office and store that caught my eye, and I do kinda wish I had gone in there. I stopped to take some photos of each, at least, and then moved on.
The road wound around through more houses and into Samuel P Taylor state park, narrowing a bit but eventually coming to a T junction where it hits the 1. Right at that T is Olema, the aforementioned cute little town. I got a soda and a cup of Wi-Fi, just to get directions and figure out where I was going to turn around for the day. Kehoe Beach is just about at the end of the road up towards the point of Point Reyes, north of the Lighthouse about 12 miles.
You make a left off the 1 and go down the worst patch of road I’ve seen in quite a while, for a while, maybe half an hour, park off to the side of the road, and hike for maybe 20 minutes (if you stop for photos a bunch) and then slog through the last hundred yards of fine sand for 10 minutes, and then there’s a nice driftwood log to sit on and enjoy a snack, if you brought one with you. Mine was Salami and some kind of cheese that didn’t work at all with salami. I sat there for half an hour, just enjoying the sound of the waves. Then I got up, slogged back through that sand, hiked back to the bike, put my gear back on, and started towards home. I stopped on the way to enlist some new newsletter subscribers in Woodacre (hi G & D), and then just motored home. Total time on the bike, about four hours.
I’d say the trip was a resounding success. The weather was hot to start and then quite mild as I got closer to the coast and after the sun was on the wester, as they say. I stopped a couple times to take photos and realized I desperately need a tank bag; I’m designing one but I may just buy a Mosko Moto bag (given the number of hours I have before I get on the plane to do this, I may end up buying several bags).
OK, also: stuff I said I needed to get done last time? Racks are painted and on the bike, shipping is arranged (pickup August 12th from my house, receive at their warehouse), and I bought my one way ticket to Minneapolis. I bought an AlpineStars Tech-Air 5, an airbag vest. I bought this iPad, to have a choice of machines to take with me. And finally, as stated above, I went on one test ride. I still need to go camping a bit, make sure everything’s kosher, but we’re getting very close.
I know I said I was going to do the gear list thing but this is what was in my heart tonight. I have a partial list going, but I’m still deciding what cameras to take (ALL OF THEM, says the devil on my shoulder), how much non-moto gear I need (rain jacket? Hiking shoes? Idk), a bunch of little details I’ll probably fret about until the last minute that don’t super matter. Matt’s first rule of the big trip: the things you worry about will not be the things that go wrong.