Saturday Ride Oct 20

[Mel]

Hey guys,

I had a fun ride today with the 3 of us. It was me, myself, and Mel ! The weather is coming on fast and this will probably be the last weekend to ride, so I want to make the most of it. Anyone up for a Saturday romp? I'll be leaving Starbucks on N McCarran again at  10:00am and headed up to the Grass Valley, Nevada City, and Bullards Bar sector, just having fun on the roads less traveled. See you in the morning if you're up to it!

Mel

[dub]

Have to work tomorrow, but I was thinking of a sunday ride.

[Mel]

Who's up and ready to ride ?

Mel

[BMWSportRider]

Anyone else for a Sunday ride? I can go. I will be taking my R1200RT as it will be cooler all day.

[dub]

This Saturday ride is now a Sunday ride,  meet Mel same time same place 10/21 above if you're in.

[Mel]

I'll be down at Starbucks on N McCarran just before 10:00 to see if anyone is coming, and I'll see you Wiles up in Truckee at 89 about 10:30.

Mel

[BMWSportRider]

I was there about 10:05 this morning. No one there. I was a little delayed as I had to change a headlight this morning. It was pretty windy, however, so I wasn't sure anyone showed up anyway.

[Mel]

BMWSportRider,

Damn, sorry to have missed you this morning. I was there about 9:45 and left at 10:00 sharp because I had to meet Wiles in Truckee at 10:30. I just assumed nobody was coming as I didn't see any posts about the ride.

Wiles,

It was good to meet you, and I had a great time riding with you today. Hope you enjoyed a few of the roads we went on, even though we had to deal with some traffic here and there, along with some boring sections. We have similar type bikes which made it even more fun and we were running at a nice pace . Hope to ride with you again soon.

Mel

[dub]

I took Rock Creek Rd to Mosquito Rd back down to Placerville as you recommended.  Holy cow, I think it rattled my fillings loose.  Cool roads though, Rock Creek is just kind of dug into the side of the canyon up above the river.  A great experience.  But for me, if I'm in Georgetown and have to get back to South Lake, WWS to Ice House is the hands down choice of routes.

Those were some neat roads you showed me, I had fun.  I hope I can remember a few of them for the future. The road to Washington was awesome, Ridge Rd to Pike was fun, Pleasant Valley to Bitney Springs was cool too.  There is definitely a limit to the bumpiness at which point I stop having fun.  Most of those we did yesterday were OK.   Rock Creek was a little too goaty, I need more suspension travel for that one.  I think a motard, dual sport or middleweight ADV bike would be perfect for something that bumpy and tight.

The roads themselves are fun, but I must admit, riding 1.5 hours of slab just to do a few 12 mile out and back goat roads isn't that appealing to me.  Instead of slabbing out 80 to 20 to get to those roads around Nevada City/Grass Valley, why not take 49 all the way there?  That would make the overall ride better for me, personally.

I know I said this last week, but I think that will be my last street ride of the year.  I was cold pretty much the entire time.  Heading back up 50 towards home, it got colder and colder (as you would expect when climbing in elevation) then right when I hit echo summit it started snowing.  Nothing serious that stuck, just some light flurries.  Getting snowed on during a Sunday ride is where I draw the line.

[dub]

Mel, I was trying to map my ride to save for future reference, but I have no idea where we went in the Auburn area.  Also, I not sure how far up Ridge rd towards pike we went before turning around.

Before Auburn: http://goo.gl/maps/WkonH
After Auburn: http://goo.gl/maps/vRZAD

Can you fill in the rest?

[Mel]

Wiles, glad you were able to check out Rock Creek Rd and Mosquito Rd on the way back. I can understand that you would prefer WWS and Ice House out of Georgetown to get back to South Lake, especially if your suspension isn't sorted out for the bumpier stuff .

Yeah, the roads we did yesterday were not too bumpy, even the goatier ones. I can say that more suspension travel is not really needed for the bumpy goat roads. It really is getting your suspension dialed in for the street that matters. My FZ6 does not have long travel suspension and has damper rod forks on the front, but with the work I have done on it, I can run into the bumpiest corners at a very spirited pace and the bike will track straight and always in control.

I totally agree that was too much slab or straight boring road, but I just wanted to get to the good parts the fastest way to keep the day short. It would be much better to do the Downieville or Quincy route and hit those roads up on the way back down 49.

I can believe you were freezing your butt off with just your leathers on! I had my textiles on with a zip-T base layer on underneath, and I was getting real cold as I climbed the summit on 80. Luckily, I had a Primaloft vest in my pack, so I pulled over and put that on and was good for the rest of the way home. I think you're right though, the street riding season is over up here. I'll have to trailer my bike down to Capitola a few times this winter just so I can keep riding . I'm just too used to being able to ride all year.

Mel

[Mel]

Wiles, we went 4 miles up Ridge Rd to the fire station at the Pike City Rd junction. Now that was a damn fun 4 miles both ways .

We came down 49 into Auburn and turned right on Palm Ave which turns into Mt Vernon Rd. Went out Mt Vernon to a left on Baxter Grade Rd, and then a right on Wiles Rd. Took that down to a left on Gold Hill Rd and went down and turned left on Ridge Rd (another one) which took us right to 80.

Mel