California

A collection of 159 posts

Jan/Feb '12 Premium Content

California Coastline

Imagine the Pacific Ocean crashing against the rocky coast of California’s northern half, a ribbon of asphalt longer than a day’s ride drawing the line between the land and the sea, and you’re on your way there right now. Your flight is booked, your motorcycle rental is

Nov/Dec '11 Premium Content

California

I’m just finishing a leisurely 100-mile cruise through California’s Joshua Tree National Park on a late afternoon in April. I head north on Highway 247, and soon after entering this massive OHV area, strong wind gusts from all directions start shoving around my laden, 712-pound Honda Interstate cruiser.

Sep/Oct '11 Premium Content

Reader Ride: Death Valley, California

Mar/Apr '11 Premium Content

California

It's as much about the time - and the roads - leading up to the race, as it is about the race itself. In July 2010, my brother Jim and good friends Pete, Gary F., and Gary K., and I spent five days of motorcycle touring together, logging

Jan/Feb '11 Premium Content

Las Vegas to San Francisco

Everybody warned me not to go through Death Valley in summer, but nobody said a word about Las Vegas! So I find myself in the stop-and-go traffic on I-15, as I try to get out of the city. The thermometer on the bike shows exactly 105 degrees. Underneath my riding

Nov/Dec '10 Premium Content

Part I: California, Nevada, and Utah via Route 50

While the Interstate Highway system may be the quickest way to wheel from sea to shining sea, it certainly lacks the personality that most motorcycle travelers seek. On the other hand, the process of discovering small towns, local color, and scenic stretches can eat into those precious vacation days. Well,

Jul/Aug '10 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Death Valley, California and Nevada

The roads between Nevada's Amargosa Desert and California's Panamint Valley are as much about big sky and land as they are a connection to the area's historic past. It's a place where myth meets reality and the remnants of that union-abandoned mining

May/Jun '10 Premium Content

Southern California - Reader Ride

Where else could one ride less than 200 miles and experience the Pacific Ocean, the mountains, and the desert, but in Southern California? Take into account that it's virtually always sunny, rains less than 45 days a year, and temperatures generally hover between 60F - 85F. Throw in

Mar/Apr '10 Premium Content

Northern California Wine Country

It's a happy coincidence: the same undulating topography that makes Northern California's hill country so perfect for growing grapes has also challenged transportation engineers to create some classic motorcycling roads. So what better way to find a bit of heaven on earth than to sample the

Nov/Dec '09 Premium Content

The Central Sierra Nevada and Yosemite

In 1986, CBS created a mini-series that parodied the overwrought primetime soap-opera melodramas of the decade ("Dallas", "Dynasty", "Falcon Crest"). In this series, titled "Fresno", the California city was lampooned for its civic pride, especially its status as the 64th largest city

Sep/Oct '09 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Ashland, Oregon

On November 27, 1941, travelers on US Highway 99 south of Yreka, Caifornia were astonished to find a band of men blocking the road and waving hunting rifles. They handed out a Proclamation of Independence, which informed one and all that the State of Jefferson was in "patriotic rebellion

Jul/Aug '09 Premium Content

Eastern California

When I first learned to ride a motorcycle over a year ago, there were two places I wanted to go: Alaska and Saline Valley, a long, remote desert basin on the west side of Death Valley. Within the first year of learning how to ride, I did both. The California

May/Jun '09 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Paso Robles, California

Known for its great variety of country roads, hillside vineyards, valley vistas and ocean bluffs, California's central coast has long been a favorite locale for photo shoots. And for motorcyclists, the town of Paso Robles is a perfect base from which to launch a shamrock tour of this

Mar/Apr '09 Premium Content

California's Highway 1

It's July and I'm in Redding, California. I have to return my borrowed SV650S to American Suzuki in Los Angeles. I could strafe Interstate 5 through the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys under the blistering summer sun and get there in a day. Or I could

Mar/Apr '09 Premium Content

Southern California Sojourn

Thanks to its mild climate, Los Angeles, California offers great riding almost every day of the year. And with its endless suburban sprawl and a plethora of interesting things to do and places to see, LA is a haven for motorcycle and scooter riders. We decided to take a day

Sep/Oct '08 Premium Content

California: Along Hwy 49

"In a cavern, in a canyon, excavating for a mineDwelt a miner forty-niner, and his daughter Clementine.Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling, Clementine, You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine." Rambling around the western shoreline of Lake Tahoe, I'm reminded

Jan/Feb '08 Premium Content

Along the Trans-America Trail

After surviving the unexpected floods in the Utah desert caused by the most rain the area had seen in the last 60 years, Jeff and I are on to the next, and hopefully drier, state of our cross-country motorcycle adventure. Goat Trail to Iceberg Peak In the far northwest corner

Sep/Oct '07 Premium Content

Mountain Magic

As many people live in California as in the whole of Canada, so you'd expect the state to be pretty crowded. And around the major conurbations that's certainly true. But much of the Golden State's northern territory is wild, mountainous, thinly populated, and etched

Jul/Aug '07 Premium Content

Canada to Mexico - Off-Road Excerpts

If you're up for it, this rugged, cross-country adventure could be the trip of a lifetime. Roaming from spectacular valleys where antelope caper to high plateaus where wild horses still run, we crossed river rapids and deserts and the undisturbed wilds of the western ranges. We stirred up

Mar/Apr '07 Premium Content

Cruising Nevada's Lonely Roads

For a brief 18-month period between April 1860 and November 1861, the east-west route across central Nevada was the busiest it had ever been. Spurred by the looming civil war, California Senator William M. Gwinn proposed a fast mail service from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, provided the mail could

Nov/Dec '06 Premium Content

Northeast California

It's 6:00 a.m. when I awaken in my room at the River Inn in Redding, California, the sun streaking through a gap in the drapes. It's early summer and the city is sleeping off the pyrotechnic display and festivities of last night's

Sep/Oct '06 Premium Content

Shamrock Tour® - Palm Springs, California

I have a theory that most males are fascinated by either wheels or spheres. The latter group spends much of their recreational time chasing a ball or watching someone else do the same. The "true" wheel guys share a passion for transportation, and they couldn't care

Jul/Aug '06 Premium Content

Moab to Los Angeles: Mother Lode of the Mother Road

Monument Valley, that dreamy, spiritual, red-rock vista so lovingly exploited by automobile ad directors must indeed be an impressive sight at sunrise or sunset, when the warm light and strong shadows etch its soaring spires and buttes against the sky. But under the cover of high clouds on a hazy,

Mar/Apr '05 Premium Content

Bakersfield, California Shamrock Tour®

Arriving at John Wayne Orange County Airport, the "Neuhauser Motorcycle Gang" is excited to begin their explorations in yet another area of Central California. In the next few days we'll roam over four loops in the Bakersfield area and our base, the Four Points Sheraton, is

Mar/Apr '04 Premium Content

Hot Springs California

The hot springs of Paraiso, Esalen, and Tassajara are known as the 'Ah Spas.' Line them up for an afternoon ride, and you're in for some serious Central California soaking. Pick the right day and you may meet actor Branscombe Richmond and his wife Lei. As