Two Weeks of Riding the Coast

A few months back while discussing our 2010 road schedule with Adam of Twisted Throttle (not to be confused with our own Adam), he had asked me if I would be interested in doing some riding with him between BMW MOA Rally and MotoGP since they are in consecutive weekends.  I was hesitant initially because by doing so, it would mean away from the office for about two weeks while the office is on skeleton crew because of the two events.  As time went by, I started to convince myself that time away from the office will be good for me and this would be a good opportunity to do some good riding instead of my usual fastest route to and back from events because of time restrictions.  Finally in the Spring, after working out the logistics and a general itinerary with Adam, the ride was on!

Day 1: Santa Monica to Sacramento

I left Santa Monica around mid-day after spending a few hours in the office in the morning.  I did take the boring route of I-5 all the way up to Sac.  Nothing too exciting on the ride, except I did haul ass as traffic was light.  Did encounter a few CHP's along the way but no real saves.  I got to Sac in the late afternoon and hung out and spent the night at one of my good buddies from college, who, btw, had just passed his MSF course a week ago and is about to join our two-wheeled fraternity.

Day 2: Sacramento to Bend

After a satisfying and unexpectedly long breakfast at the historic Tower Cafe, I left Sac for Central Oregon.  While getting gas at Red Bluff, CA, I ran into three guys on a motorcycle trip.  The three guys were all from the Sac area and they were going to do some back road riding in the Trinity-Six Rivers-Klamath Forests.  They asked me if I'd like to join them.  It was really tempting, but unfortunately I HAD to be in Bend that night so I turned them down.  The ride to Bend was uneventful on I-5 until I got past Redding, then the scenery started to change for the better as I approached the Shasta region.  I then cut over to US-97 and made it to Bend in the early evening.

Days 3 & 4: Working the BMW MOA Rally

Since my motel was in Bend, about 20 miles away from Redmond where the rally was and my only mode of transportation was the bike, I had to ride to and back from the rally.  The speed limit around town in Oregon is 55 everywhere, even on the highways, so it made it really easy to go faster than you are supposed to.  The first morning on my way to MOA, as I was approaching Redmond where the freeway portion of US-97 was coming to an end, my TPX started going off on K band.  Even though there were a couple of shopping centers right up the road and it could've been a false-positive, I immediately slowed down to 55 and started looking around to see if there are any cops around.  Better safe than sorry.  Sure enough, about half a mile later, I see a cop pulling over someone on the opposite direction.  Not a save, but it's always good to know when cops are around.

On Saturday night, as I was filling up my bike at a gas station, I ran into Tim R. and Marcus L. of Seattle, whom I had a conversation about the TPX, tickets, and bikes in general just the night before at the motel lobby.  We talked about our riding itineraries and found out that we were all heading out to Seattle the next day and they knew some back roads worth checking out and invited Adam and I to come along.  I checked with Adam to make sure he was okay with it over a fantastic dinner dinner at Deschutes Brewery.  The decision was easy; locals showing us the back roads can't go wrong!

Day 5: Bend to Vancouver via Seattle

Pee break in Yakima.

We met up at the crack of dawn and hit the road with Tim and Marcus.  Since I'm the one equipped with the TPX and the Laser Jammer prototype, they decided that I should lead.  Not a problem, that's what a guy with a radar detector should do anyway.  We started on US-97 through Oregon, a relatively scenic highway, desolate at parts.  We opened up at parts and made it to the Oregon-Washington border in pretty good time. After a short breakfast break, we were back on the road.  We got to Yakima and then hit up highway 821 along the river.  Tim was initially concerned with the traffic on 821, but it turned out to be of no concern at all.  The traffic was light, probably because we were there pretty early in the day.  821 is a great road with numerous unobstructed sweeps.  It is also on 821 that I pulled a bone-head move that could've gotten me a pretty fat ticket.  We had gotten stuck behind a RV and I was looking for an opportunity to pass.  Since I'm leading the group, I usually wait until a stretch where I think the entire group could pass.  For some reason, I didn't do that.  Instead, I passed on a double yellow with a blinding turn just ahead.  It was totally safe me to do so, except there happened to be a Washington trooper coming in the opposite direction, which I didn't and couldn't see until I had passed the RV.  Instantly, I thought to myself "shit, I'm going to get pulled over."  I kept on looking at my mirror, expecting the trooper to make an U-turn, but the trooper never did!  I got lucky, real lucky.

After 821 we got on I-90 to head into Seattle.  We did pick up a few state troopers along the way, including unmarked troopers, but no real saves.  There was one almost save, as we picked up an unmarked trooper from about half a mile out, but we weren't really going that fast at the time.

I-90 was an awesome interstate.  It was scenic and had numerous sweeps, and it was an interstate experience unlike anywhere else.  We did get stuck in traffic and it sucked not being able to split lanes, but it was a good stretch nonetheless.  I also opened up during this stretch when I thought it was safe to do so and I think both Marcus and Tim were pretty happy to be able to use the upper-bands of their BMW's.

At Triple XXX Rootbeer.

We finished our ride at the famous Triple XXX Rootbeer Drive In and parted ways.  Tim and Marcus rode home, Adam went to see his aunt in the Seattle area, and since I had the rest of the afternoon to myself, I rode to Vancouver, BC, to see a friend.

On my way up to BC, the TPX registered what I thought was the only true save of the trip.  I don't remember exactly where I was, but it was in Northern Washington, not too far from the border.  I was zipping along pretty good, when the TPX went off with a weak Ka.  Instinctively, I let go of the throttle.  The road was undulating but I could still see pretty far ahead and I didn't really see anything up the road.  The Ka then went away.  A few seconds later, Ka came back on, then went away.  Hmmm, looks to me like either the Ka is coming from far, far away, or a cop using instant-on up the road.  Sure enough, about three-tenth of a mile later, I was approaching a slight uphill and right when I was about to crest the hill, Ka went full blast and I see a motorcycle cop sitting in the median hiding behind some bushes.  The Ka then quickly went away.  Yup, cop was using instant on and the TPX sniffed it out in advance to warn me about it.  I'm glad that there were other vehicles ahead of me, or else I would've never gotten the Ka signals and would've probably ended up with a ticket.

Day 6: Vancouver to Newport, OR via Mt. St. Helens and Portland

St. Helens!

I left Vancouver early in the morning with the intention of meeting up with Adam at 9, but ended up getting stuck in the line at the border for way longer than expected.  After finally made my way down to Seattle, we took I-5 down to Castle Rock, then cut over to 504 to check out Mt. St. Helens.  504 is another fun road with plenty of sweeps and amazing scenery.  We made it to the observatory, watched the movie that everyone said we had to see, and rode back down 504 again.  We stopped at Portland to grab a quick dinner with my friend (who also happened to be our company's lawyer) at Brasserie Montmartre before we cut over to US-101 via Road 18.

Our goal was to get to Coos Bay by the end of the day, but by the time we got to 101 it was already dark.  We ended up spending the night at Newport, OR.

Day 7: Newport to Redding, CA

We got up early again and hit the road.  We rode through the first tank and got gas in Florence, OR.  At the gas station, we asked the station attendant where he would recommend for breakfast.  "The Dunes Cafe", he said, without skipping a beat.  When a local doesn't even have to think to recommend a place to eat, you know it's got to be good.  We got there and weren't disappointed.  The food was delicious and came in large portions, just what we needed to get ready for a long day of riding!

Our next stop was Coos Bay because I wanted to stop by the Steve Prefontain Memorial at the Coos Art Museum.  I was a competitive distance runner through college and even today, I still try to relive my glory days.  There was no way that I was going to go by Coos Bay without checking out the memorial for arguably one of America's greatest athletes.  After passing by the museum without realizing it, we finally found the place, thanks to Adam's Droid phone.

The memorial was just a room upstairs in the museum and it had photos, trophies, medals, and various memorabilia on display.  It was smaller than I expected but very well presented.  I got goose bumps as we strolled through the memorial.

After the short visit, we were on the road again.  We cruised down 101 through the amazing giant redwoods and then cut over to Redding.  Why would we want to go to Redding?  Because we wanted to do Road 36, arguably one of the best roads in California, so we've heard.  We cut over to Redding via Road 299, which was also a fun twisty road.

Day 8: Redding to San Francisco

The next day we got up early again (see the repeated theme here?) and hit up County Road 16 en route to CA-36.  Our original itinerary was to make it to San Francisco by around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.  This would allow Adam to get down to Monterey to help out with his set up at MotoGP.  But we decided to take a detour.  More on this later.

Road 16 was a technical road with a good amount of hairpin turns, and it was fun as hell.  Then we hit up CA-36, which was even more fun with a good mix of everything from hairpin turns to mini-sweeps.  Not to mention being up in the mountains with fresh air and awesome scenery.  From CA-36, we then got back on US101 again and ended up in Legget for a photo op at the redwood tree drive-through tourist trap.  As we were getting ready to get back on the road, I told Adam that we could take the scenic route down to the Bay Area via Highway 1.  Now, my experience of Highway 1 up to this point was between LA and SF, so it's mostly straight with a few sweeps and pockets of twisties.  I knew the stretch of Highway 1 between the Legget and the Bay Area would have a bit more twisties, but what I didn't realize was that it would be ALL TWISTIES!  I thought the detour would set us back an extra hour, hour and a half at most... boy, was I wrong!

Overlooking California coast.

Don't get me wrong, Adam and I had a blast going through the twisties on Highway 1, but it put us way behind our original schedule.  Our plan was to have a late lunch at Hog Island Oyster Company around 4, but we got there at just past 5 and missed having lunch there as they closed at 5.  Bummer!  But luckily, Tamales Bay Oyster Company, which was just a few miles down the road, opens till 6, so we could still have oysters for lunch.

We made it there, and as we were getting off the bike, I dropped the bike in the gravel parking lot.  I was tired and hungry, and got careless as I was about to dismount the bike and failed to pay attention to the gravel footing and lost my balance.  Luckily, my saddlebag took most of the impact and all I ended up was a broken clutch lever and scratches on my engine case, front left turn signal, and left mirror.

After a satisfying lunch, we rode down to San Francisco and parted ways there.  Adam continued down to Monterey and I stayed in the city with my cousin that night.

Day 9: San Francisco to Monterey

After a night of good sleep in the city, I made my way down to Monterey to get ready for MotoGP.  On the way down I saw CHP's and local cops everywhere.  I'm sure they were also getting ready for the big weekend as well!

Days 10, 11, and 12: MotoGP!

I left my bike at our booth since we had a car there and it was easier to carpool.  MotoGP was awesome as always.  Great crowd, great vibe, and great racing!  Even though I didn't get to see most of the races (I was there to work), I was still able to sneak away here and there to check out some of the races.

Day 13: Monterey to LA

Adam had a friend in the area, Nate, that wanted to do part of the ride with us, so he met up with us that morning.  We took the PCH all the way down to San Luis Obispo and had lunch at Fat Cats Cafe.  After putting myself in near food coma, Nate parted ways and we got back on 101.  Shortly after we got on the road, I had a close ticket encounter again.  I was leading and we were zooming pretty good.  I came up on a blind right sweep, probably going around 90.  As I was half way through the turn, I see a CHP hiding around the turn.  I immediately let go of the throttle, didn't hit my brakes because I didn't want the cop to see me jamming on the brakes.  As soon as I let go of the throttle, the TPX went off on a weak Ka for a split second.  Sneaky!  The cop was using instant-on as vehicles pass and had set the range on his radar gun to low.  Good thing I was alert and wasn't doing anything faster or else it would've meant a ticket.  Again, there is nothing much a radar detector can do in a case like this.

We made our way down to So Cal and I purposely pulled into a gas station on Kanan Road in Agoura Hills.  This is now my back yard and I know the roads of  Santa Monica Mountains pretty well.  I wanted to take Adam on my favorite road in So Cal, Latigo Canyon.  I asked Adam if he's interested in taking the scenic route back with an unintentional grin on my face.  Seeing my grin, Adam agreed to take the scenic route.

We headed south on Kanan Road and made a left into Latigo Canyon.  What better way to end the trip than on my favorite road!  Latigo Canyon is filled with bunch of tight twisties, the kind of twisties that I like, where you get to use the upper bands of your second gear while constantly throwing your bike around; just none-stop turns.

We eventually ended up on Highway 1 again, and after another photo op of Adam and his bike with the Santa Monica pier, we ended our journey at my apartment in West Los Angeles.

What a great trip; the two events went extremely well, met some new friends, got to see some old friends, had some great meals, and got some great riding in.  When it's all said and done, over 3,300 miles, over 59 hours of riding time, hundreds of turns, countless memories, and... still no ticket!

2010 SML Radar Detector Shootout

We were back in Texas last weekend again for the 2010 Radar Detector Shootout, conducted by Speed Measurement Laboratories.


As with years past, I rode the bike out there from LA.  I left on Wednesday afternoon around 3, which was a couple of hours later than I wanted to.  I ended up fighting LA traffic for the first couple of hours just to get out of town.  Thankfully we are allowed to split lanes here in California or else it would've put me way behind the schedule that I had in mind.  After getting out of town, I was able to open up the throttle a bit.  As always, CHP was out in force, but I was on good behavior and didn't encounter any real threats.  The cops were also out and about in Arizona, as the state is notorious for dishing out speeding tickets.  Again, I didn't encounter any real threats, although I did notice a significant drop in their mobile radar camera units on the side of the road.  It probably has something to do with the fact that the entire radar camera program is going to go away comes middle of July.  The ride through Arizona was a scorcher and I ended the day in Chandler, AZ.  When I got off the bike at 9PM, it was at a balmy 105 degrees!


I left early next morning, trying to avoid some of the heat... but to no avail.  It was pretty damn hot at 7AM already.  I made my way through Arizona into New Mexico, and finally, arrived in El Paso in mid afternoon.  Again, didn't encounter any real threats along the way.


We spent the next 3 days testing a few prototypes under the blazing Texas sun.  I'm happy to report that overall, the testing went well.  I don't have the official results to share, as they won't be ready for another couple of weeks or so, but I will reveal this: the much asked Laser Jammer tested very well, and looks like we can finally put the final touches on it and finally move into production phase.


After the last test finished up on the third day, I hopped back on the bike to head back to California.  Nothing too eventful for the first hour or so, but the TPX once again proved its worth going through New Mexico in the next few hours.


If you read my blog entry from my trip back from last year's SML, you'll remember that the TPX saved my butt a few times in NM on the way back.  I definitely remember them on the ride and I was being careful while speeding through the state.  The first save took place right outside Las Cruces.  I was approaching town, and was on a long incline on the interstate.  As I got close to the crest, the TPX started going off with a weak K band.  Immediately, I backed off on the throttle and let my speed drop down to the posted speed limit of 75.  I got to the top of the crest and the K band grew to 3 bars.  On the other side of the crest was a downhill bend, which I couldn't see much past the bend because of the trees lining along the side of the road.  As I started to go into the bend, what do I see on the side of the road hidden behind the trees?  A New Mexico state trooper waiting for speedsters.  Count that as a definite save.


As I went along, maybe an hour later, in the middle of nowhere, K band went off again, and it started weak but got to full tilt very quickly.  Again, I backed off on the throttle immediately and sure enough, a few seconds later, a cop hiding behind some overgrown bushes in the median was catching speedsters going in the other direction.  How do I know that he was catching speedsters going in the opposite direction?  The fact that I had a relatively short warning and I was able to pick up the signal as I headed away from the cop for the next mile showed that the cop had his radar pointed at the opposite direction.  Not a save, but it's always good to slow down in the presence of cops.


The same scenario would play out two more times before I crossed into Arizona.  I guess the cops were just focused on traffic going east in NM on that particular day.  I finished off the day in Goodyear, AZ.


Since I was pretty tired from 3 days of testing and the ride from the day before, I slept in a bit and left for the road a bit before 9 the next day.  Going through AZ I encountered a couple of mobile radar camera units and Arizona troopers, but no real threats.  In California, the TPX came through again.  I had just crossed into California and was going at a pretty good pace, when all of a sudden the TPX went off again.  It started as a weak Ka and stayed there for a while.  As always, I backed off on the throttle.  After receiving the weak signal for a bit, the signal quickly ramped up and I could see a CHP coming from the opposite direction.  I'm not sure if the CHP was catching people going in his direction or my direction, but I've seen cops making a quick U turn across the median to pull people over for speeding, so I would consider this as a save as well.


I made it back to the office in the mid afternoon safe and sound, and after over 1,800 miles, still no ticket!  And the best part is we are that much closer to having the Jammer available!

A Very Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Man oh man, what a Memorial Day Weekend I had.  Definitely one of the most interesting and memorable weekends in recent years.  Riding from LA to Tooele, UT for the SBK races and back, a lot of time on two wheels!

I left on Saturday morning and took the boring route of I-15.  Before I even got to my first gas break I saw 6 CHP's.  I knew it was going to be a tough weekend, police wise, as cops are usually out in force on Memorial Day weekend, but 6 in less than 125 miles?

My first gas break came at Barstow, CA.  After a quick fill up, I got back onto I-15.  Traffic was a bit on the heavy side, but still flowing pretty well.  As soon as I merged onto the freeway, I made my way over to the leftmost lane and just as I was about to open up the throttle a bit, my trusty TPX went off.  Ka band, about two bars.  Immediately I backed off on the throttle and settled into the same pace as the surrounding traffic.  In less than a couple of seconds, the two bars quickly jumped to full six bars and sure enough, there was a CHP parked underneath an overpass just ahead, hunting for speedsters.  Count that as a save.

I would see two more CHP's before I cross the state line into Nevada, where I took a quick lunch in Las Vegas before hitting the road again.  It was pretty uneventful riding through Nevada, Arizona, and Utah on the interstate, and the cops were not as abundant in those states as in California; I only saw one cop in each of the three states.

I finished the day in Draper, UT after about 700 miles.  I could have made it into Salt Lake City, but decided to stop a bit earlier so that I could catch the last few minutes of the Stanley Cup game.

The next day I headed over to Tooele for the SBK races.  It was a gorgeous day with some awesome racing.  During the down times between the races, I would venture out to the parking lot to see other people's bikes.  I'm particularly interested in seeing what other gadgets people put on their bikes and how they do it; it's where I get some of my inspirations.  Anyway, while I was checking out the bikes, I met Mark from Washington, who rides a FJR1300.  He had just got to the track after leaving the Seattle area earlier in the day, and he went on to show me one of the most ingenious radar detector mounting methods I've ever seen:

Yes, that's right, he strapped his cordless radar detector to his forearm and would "wear" his radar detector on his rides.  He runs earphones up to his ears so that he could hear the detector going off.  Pretty clever!  While clever, I still think the TPX set up is much better than his!

After the race was over, I hit the road again.  My original plan was to take the back roads back to LA, but after a few hours of riding, I had to change my plan.  I was filling up in the town of Ely, NV and getting ready to cut across the state on US6.  Just as I got out of town, a sign posted on the side of the road said the next gas station is 167 miles away.  Crap.  Time for a detour because my Gixxer Wannabe can go about 145 miles or so on a full tank.  167 is a bit out of reach.  Oh well, I guess I'll just have to take US93 instead.  Oh, and by the way, as I was leaving town on US6, my TPX went off.  I wasn't speeding at all as I knew full well to always obey the posted speed limit in little towns, and sure enough, right up the road was a cop trying to catch people speeding through town.

US93 is literally in the middle of no where.  It runs north and south along eastern Nevada and it's both scenic and desolate.  Traffic was extremely light, and I decided to take the opportunity to find out the top speed of my Gixxer Wannabe.  As it turned out, the Gixxer Wannabe's top speed is 129 mph according to the Zumo, and I've tried several times to verify it.  On the speedometer, the top speed registered 142... how generous.

Right before it got dark, I ended up in the town of Pioche, NV for a gas break.  I had thought about calling it a day since it was starting to get dark, but I was feeling good and figured there's still some daylight left, so I decided to trek on to the next town of Caliente.  By the time I got to Caliente, it was dark and I'm starting to get tired and hungry.  I decided to look for a place to stay.  First motel that I rode by was closed.  Next one, no vacancy.  Third and last one, same thing, no vacancy.  With no vacancy at all the motels, I had no choice but to ride on.  Now, the speed limit in Caliente is 25 mph and I was going pretty much at 25 or maybe just a tad faster.  As I approached the end of town, I see two sets of headlights coming from the opposite direction.  First vehicle went by me... and as the second vehicle got pretty close to me, my TPX went off with Ka on full tilt.  That's gotta be a cop, I thought to myself.  Sure enough, it was.  Since I thought I was going right around 30, I didn't think I would be in trouble at all.  Wrong!  The cop flipped on his lights and made an U-turn.  I thought to myself there is no way that the cop was pulling me over for speeding; I wasn't going fast enough!  Plus, I was close enough to the edge of the town that the next posted speed limit sign of 40 is only about 20 yards in front of me!  Maybe the cop just want to run my plate and make sure I'm not trouble.

I pulled over, the cop came up to me and asked me for my license.  He asked me if I knew how fast I was going and I told him I was probably going around 30 or 35, admitting that I was going faster than the posted speed limit of 25.  He said he got me at 42!  I was shocked, but I didn't argue with him, I was just being polite and told him that I'm really surprised that I was going that fast.  He asked for my license and I gave it to him, he then asked me if all my paperwork is underneath my seat.  I said "yes", and he told me to sit tight while he runs my license.  A few moments later he came back, handed my license back to me and asked me to ride careful in the dark.  I was thrilled.  On one hand, I couldn't believe that he didn't give me a ticket, on the other, I figured that he couldn't have possibly issued me a ticket because I wasn't going that fast and even if I was going at 42, the speed limit sign of 40 is just in front of me and I was probably close enough to be justified for going at my speed.  Plus, being polite to the cop probably had something to do with it also.

Regardless, this just shows that no matter if you have a radar detector or not, there isn't much you can do if the cop uses instant on and you are the only vehicle on the road.  Three years of riding with the TPX with thousands of miles underneath my belt, it finally happened... me getting pulled over.  But still no ticket yet!

I ended up spending that night in Las Vegas, and for the day, spotted 6 cops, with one memorable encounter.

The following day I had the pleasure of splitting lanes for a good part of the ride getting back to LA from Las Vegas, but made it safe and sound.

For the weekend, 1,588 miles, close to 24 hours on the bike, 23 cops spotted, getting pulled over once, and still no ticket!