Great stuff. We are going to the West coast middle of August, you are raising the anticipation level. Enjoy the ride.

 

Kevin you are great sharing your trip with everyone nothing is more important than family. I don't want to live to close to some of mine just sayin have a safe trip fearless

 

What are the inspection stations all about ?

 

Yes, we are spending much more time this trip, than previous trips, visiting family.


Are you going to be riding up the coast north of LA, and especially, north of San Fran? Amazing roads and sights!


Thank you. Visiting is great!


Well, I don't really know. One at some state lines is usually for fruit transportation...they don't like fruit coming from one state to another. But NO One asked us about fruit...and there were lots of Border Patrol present at each.

They just waved us through (as they did most everyone else).

So glad to have move out of Kalifornia long ago.

 

Day-6

Had a great couple of days visiting family. Mom & Dad, 2 brothers, 1 sister, their spouses, their kids, their spouses, and their kids!

When it came time to leave out, mom & dad were there, my brother Greg & his wife Marci, my nephew Ben & his wife Emma.





Mary in the mirror.






Greg kept goading me to do a wheelie...I told him I don't like to so far from home...in case a belt breaks, well, brotherly peer pressure got the best of me and he took a pic and a video. lol






Click for 5 second Video




Plan for today is to get up to HogPro, get a tire for the front of the TG, then we were going to visit Screwball & Vesta, but they had to be out of town. So we are going to head north from there toward Hearst Castle.


We took the inland route (15)





I met Mary in San Diego 26+ years ago. After we got married, almost 25 years ago, we moved to Mississippi.

If I remember correctly, this road used to be a two-lane back then. It is almost unrecognizable now.


A bit further north and inland....




...the famous Topanga Canyon in SoCal....



...happens to be the exit to take to get to HogPro.


Got to HogPro and got to meet Drew in person. We've known of each other for over a decade via the forums, and been doing business via phone & email for a good bit of that time. Was great to finally meet him in person and spend some time talking bikes. Good people.

I've decided to get a rear tire and mount it reversed on the front of the TG. I was hoping to get a Michelin Commander II, but they did not have that, so I got a Metzler 888.





We took the tire over to a local Indy shop and had it mounted...



...I've been using Dyna Beads for balancing in all tires for 7 or 8 years. So I gave the guy some Dyna Beads to put in the tire, he said he was familiar with them and had used them quite a bit himself. When we left out there was a little low speed vibration, but I figure he used some bead sealer and some of the beads got bunched together. Hopefully they will break up over the couple hundred miles.



Drew gave us directions to Mulholland Drive and Mulholland Hwy. Wow, what a great ride!





More in next post-

 

Day-6 continued


Even though it is so close to LA, it is 35 miles of great road, and it is like being out in the country.



I apologize to any LEO's here...but I had a lot of fun on this road...





...with the rear tire up front, it grips so much better than a stock front tire. A lot more meat on the road. The tire barely fits in the fender. It is a huge improvement for curvy roads at speed.



I've been on long, straight, flat roads too long....






....this road is just the right medicine.






A bit of a view of a small part of the road.





Can't tell you how much fun I had on this road!





Gotta mention, not only is Mary great at taking pics...we were hitting these curves pretty hard and she got well over 100 pics on this 35 mile section of road...



...many of them in the middle of the curves. I could never ride as a my passenger, would literally scare the crap out of me. I am most fortunate that she enjoys it.


This is the last pic for today....




...soon after the battery in the camera wore out, but we were back on the interstate, heading north.

Traffic was heavy, so we ended up calling it an early day and stopped in Thousand Oaks.

I should mention-We've been using the onboard nav and it is amazing how this has made our trips so much more enjoyable. No matter how much time we spent with a map, would would not have been able to make all the changes of freeways between SD and Hogpro...but it took us the fastest way, smooth as silk.

Tomorrow we're going to Hearst Castle. Never been and Mary has wanted to see it.

 

Kevin, thank you so much for this trip! I have been on many of these roads several times before but unfortunately it has never been on a bike.


The photo perspective from you and Mary is wonderful!

 

subscribing to this fantastic road trip. safe travels you two.

 

Great documentary on your travels. Looks like a great time. Thanks for posting so we can follow along. Safe travels and we look forward to the rest of the trip.

 

Nice pics. ride safely fearless