Coalinga Loop - Tuesday, 12/30/08

[Alex]

Leaving Denny's Milpitas at 9 AM, will swing by Hollister Starbucks by 10 AM on the way to 25/LGC/Coalinga for lunch. Folks will be back in the bay area by 3 or 4.

Base route looks something like this: (roughly 300 miles)



But some folks who want more miles may be taking different routes back, 1 group will be heading out to the coast through Hunter-Liggett after Coalinga.

[Alex]

What a fun day! 310 miles door to door, and probably 250 of them at WFO. Met 2 friends at the first rally point:



After breakfast, headed toward Hollister for the 2nd rally point. Even though a number of folks who said they would come bailed this morning (lame-o's!), there were still five more bikes at the Hollister Starbucks, so the 8 of us were on our way to Coalinga on schedule a little after 10 AM. We took the short loop out of Hollister to Union Road, before hanging a left on Cienega on the way to 25. Leading the way with the ninjette's engine screaming, I made friends with a pickup truck early on Cienega. Such good friends, in fact, that not only did I get the finger, but the driver made sure to share his feelings with everyone else in the group as well as we went around.

While the weather was foggy and cold on the highway down to Hollister, from Hollister south it was just perfect. Clear, bright, sunny, and warming up by the hour. Here's some of the bikes along Cienega:



All the way down 25 I was playing cat and mouse with Tim, me wondering if it would make sense to just ziptie the throttle to WFO, and him chuckling at me on his CBR1K, being able to roll away at will. The ninjette really rewards momentum, so anything that I allowed to scrub off in the corners takes some time to build back up once again. Not an issue with 160 hp, but still quite an issue with 26.

Road conditions were pretty darned good the whole way down, though there were a few dark spots in some corners that have significant tree cover; Tim and I both backed off to a sane(r) pace as we encountered them, but this was a very small part of the road. Overall the conditions were better than expected, and traffic was minimal to nonexistent. As per usual, we stopped for a minute at the intersection of 25 and Los Gatos Coalinga Road:



Discussion turned to what the conditions were going to be like on LGC, and there was some speculation that the water crossings might actually be water crossings this time of year. Turned out that the streams weren't high enough to leave any water in those washes, but that probably won't be the case all winter. Along LGC there were a number of more sketchy areas compared to 25, with a bit more dirt on the road, and even one scary area of frost. It just appeared after a blind left, but luckily it's not an area where you're carrying too much lean angle, so even though some folks slid around a little, we all successfully stayed on two wheels. Here's the group about halfway down LGC while we waited a short bit to get us all together again:



Rest of LGC was uneventful, but the new pavement on the south end coupled with the road layout itself as it opens up wider and wider meant speeds crept up to the point where there wasn't much of a cat and mouse game left; the cat was miles ahead while the mouse was crouched as low to the tank as possible at WFO for minutes at a time. Here's the last group shot at the end of LGC & Derrick Road before heading into COalinga proper:



Lunch at the traditional Mexican place was good as always. While there was talk prior to today about people taking different routes back, it turned out that we all did pretty much the same thing. Out 198W, to the bottom of 25; then 25 all the way back to Hollister. Though Dr. Diesel did take us on a short dogleg coming out of Tres Pinos that I can't remember taking before.

Thanks to everyone who showed up, and hopefully more ninjettes can make it next time. It really was a blast zipping around on the little monster all day, and it never skipped a beat.

All pics are up in this gallery.

[kkim]

Alex, you officially suck!!

Looks like a fun day... wish there were people here to ride with. Looks like a sane bunch of guys, too. no...

thanks for the ride report

[Alex]

Originally Posted by kkim

Alex, you officially suck!!

It's not all roses, Ann made me take her to see Twilight tonight. While I didn't exactly have the urge to jam a long-bladed screwdriver through my eye socket, I would describe it as, well, almost that.

[kkim]

lol.. Vampire chick flick!!!

[Angel-be-Good]

I would've never thought to ride to Coalinga for fun, but that route does look nice. Does it stink like cows on that route?

[Alex]

Nope! That's only right by highway 5 as you're passing through (near Harris Ranch). 25 isn't anywhere near there. You really should check out 25 & 198 at some point, they are both easily among the best m/c roads in the area.

[OldGuy]

Alex - thanks for the great report and pictures. Brings back memories of the area. We lived in Morgan Hill 12 years ago and I used to fly RC Planes out of a field we had just north of Hollister ever weekend.