Honda VFR1200F DCT Tour Test / Sport Touring 101

On Hwy. 1 at Sonoma Coast State Beach

For the October 2010 issue of Rider, I wrote a test of the 2010 Honda VFR1200F DCT. We’ve reported on the VFR several times this year, first from the bike’s press introduction in Japan, then a test of the standard model and finally a test of the dual-clutch transmission (DCT) model, outfitted with accessories saddlebags, top trunk, windscreen deflector, heated grips and centerstand. As is often the case, particularly when we take a bike on the road for several days, we end up with extra photos that don’t make it into the magazine. With only a few pages to work with, we’ve got to include images of the entire motorcycle from different angles as well as close-ups of details such as the engine, front brake/wheel and instrument panel. Except for our tour stories, scenic photos are often a luxury we don’t have space for.

National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California, birthplace of John Steinbeck.

Since I had the good fortune of spending the better part of a week riding the Candy Red VFR from Ventura, California to Portland, Oregon and back, I thought I’d share some more details and photos from my 2,500-mile journey. Visible from Rider‘s editorial offices is U.S. Highway 101, 1,540-mile route that travels north from downtown Los Angeles to Olympia, Washington. I travel the 50-odd miles of U.S. 101 from Ventura to L.A. at least a couple times a month, back and forth to LAX airport. On my trip to Portland, I traveled along U.S. 101 all the way to the Oregon border.

Drivers and riders traveling north on the 101 catch their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean in Ventura, where they can see the Ventura Pier, the famous C-Street surf spot, and the Channel Islands. U.S. 101 stays near the coast until Gaviota State Beach, just north of Santa Barbara, where it turns inland. The highway stays east of the coastal range until San Francisco, where the road ceases to be a freeway and navigates the crowded city streets and passes in front of City Hall. The most famous part of U.S. 101 is the 1.7-mile stretch that crosses the Golden Gate Bridge. North of San Francisco, the 101 is referred to as the “Redwood Highway” since the road passes through Humboldt State Redwood Park and Redwood National and State Parks.

The farthest north I had been on U.S. 101 is Petaluma, in Sonoma County north of San Franscisco. I had never seen the coastal redwoods, nor had I ever been to my uncle Lanny’s off-the-grid house in the mountains of Mendocino County. Other than my near-miss with a deer (hit by a mini-van in front of me and knocked into the air over my head), the only problem I had on this trip was the corruption of an 8GB SD card that wiped out dozens of photos and video clips. Fortunately, all was not lost. Enjoy!

U.S. 101 in San Francisco, in front of City Hall.

View of San Francisco from Potrero Hill.

View of Golden Gate Bridge from Marin Headlands.

Vineyards in Mendocino County, California.

Drive-thru Chandelier Tree, a 315-foot redwood in Leggett, California.

Carson Mansion in Eureka, California.

Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, Redwood National Park.

Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway, Redwood National Park.

Paul Bunyan and Babe at Trees of Mystery, Klamath, California.

U.S. 101 near Wilson Creek, Redwood National Park.

U.S. 101 near Wilson Creek, Redwood National Park.

Pier and eerie marine layer in Crescent City, California.

Adventure GearLab 10: Giant Loop Fandango Tank Bag

In the June issue of Rider, Arden “Knobbie” Kysely gave a rave review to a set of Giant Loop Great Basin Saddlebags. As luck would have it, a set of those saddlebags showed up at our office along with a Giant Loop Fandango Tank Bag. I had just exhausted the possibilities of lashing various non-dual-sport-oriented saddlebags and tank bags to my Kawasaki KLR650 for a 3-day ride in the Mojave Desert (click here to see photo gallery). The Great Basin Saddlebags and Fandango Tank Bag were a cinch to install, and they fit perfectly. And their bright yellow color matched a traffic warning sticker that I had just pasted on the KLR’s front fairing that says “student driver” in Thai! [Read more]

Rider Alaska and Yukon Tour, The Last Frontier

Final Cell Phone Blog

Most photos by Genie Tuttle

Penultimate evening, Talkeetna, Alaska.
Denali’s ulu-knife top is sheathed in ever-present clouds, then clears suddenly and slices the red-orange skin of sunset, opening a stream of darker shadowy blood across the sky. It’s only the second clear day in this part of Alaska after raining for 32 straight. We are blessed, amazed and humbled. The locals seem to exhale.

We all started the trip as riders, now we are more. Certainly not Sourdoughs, but no longer just Southerners. Alaska and the Yukon get into your bones, like the chance of finding the yellow metal here that forever changed so many so long ago…and still does.

The highways of the last frontier were our lure, shooting and winding like the silvery rivers do through corridors of snowcapped Kodachrome mountains and endless rainbow forests cradled in a huge fisheye sky.

Despite its size modern man must concentrate in the more hospitable southeast part of the state. Fewer than 700,000 live here, and almost half are in Anchorage. The pipeline reaching down from no-man’s land is the cartoid artery, the means for those on the grid to have something like a normal life…if they want it. Even then there’s plenty of eccentricity to go around in places like Skagway, mostly show for the cruise ships and tourists who are otherwise barely noticed by locals quietly but frantically preparing for winter.

We enjoyed the comfort and convenience of good to great weather every day of the August ride, and luxury hotels when available or good route location and simple quarters if not. Even the lumpiest bed felt heavenly, though, compared to the life the locals must lead in the winter, clues to which our modest new friend Ed shared in the lovely rural home he and his wife built themselves outside Fairbanks. The oil heaters and hand-skinned birch planks separating inside from out seem like fine protection from the -40F, mainly because Ed finished and placed each one by hand.

Big kudos and thanks to guides John and Nuno, our lean, sharp-eyed Ayres Adventures lead dogs, who showed us Alaska’s heart, bones and muscle–virtually every major paved road–and most of the Yukon’s, too. They dealt with bugs, flats, stragglers, and road construction, yet dearly wanted to show us more. To Genie and me, though, washed-out Top of the World Highway was just a possibility before all of our eventual victories. It may be closed; now it’s another reason to come back.

And we will; we must….

Tuttle Out.

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Rider Alaska & Yukon Tour Part II

Cell Phone Blog

Day 10

Miles: 1900-plus (Dawson City Group, 2600; Roger, lost count)

New friends: 10

Border crossings: 4

Rain riding: 8-10 min.

Amazing sunrises: 4 (asleep for sunsets so far)

Mosquito Bites: 11

Belly laughs: 1298

Wasp stings: 1

Bear sightings: 2

Caribou: 1

Wolf: 1

Porcupine: 1

Tipovers: 1

2010 R 1200 GS MPG: 45.0

My 07 GS: 40.5

Squared rear tires: 1 (Roger)

Replaced rear tires: 1

Punctures repaired: 1

Ferry rides: 1 (on it now)

Pints Alaskan Amber Ale: 99

Salmon filets: 14

Potholes: Yes

Knock Wood Dept.

Crashes: 0

Tickets: 0

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Adventure GearLab 9: Klim Stow Away Jacket

There’s nothing like a chilly downpour to dampen your spirits, especially when you’ve planned and dressed for a sun-soaked ride. The folks at Klīm, the dual-sport clothing specialists, have a solution to the sudden shower – their compact Stow Away jacket. It lets you dress for the sun but defend against the afternoon gully washer. [Read more]

Rider Alaska and Yukon Tour with Ayres Adventures

Taking a break on the Glenn Highway.

“The last foreign country still friendly to Americans,” read the first, but far from last, hand-scrawled sign we would see expressing the many interesting sentiments Alaskans have for their state and visitors to it. These are independent folk up here, rugged individuals who are not a little suspicious of the “southerners” who come callin’ every summer. Motorcyclists on big, fancy and electronically festooned BMW motorcycles dressed like textile astronauts tend to loosen up the locals’ attitudes, though, and after the first six days of the Rider Alaska and Yukon Tour with Ayres Adventures, August 9-21, to a man (and two women), for the most part our group of 12 has been received with open arms.

[Read more]

Vintage Motorcycles at the Reagan Library

I recently visited the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, to see its “Born to be Wild” collection of 40 vintage and celebrity motorcycles. This display is definitely worth checking out, and runs through November 9, 2010. The exhibit chronicles the history and culture of motorcycling, and there’s a wide variety of motorcycles to view. Curator Andrew Wulf gave me a tour of the exhibit, which will be in an upcoming video on www.ridermagazine.com.

The exhibit is separated into three sections: Harley-Davidson, vintage, and celebrity/movies bikes, and spans two floors of the Air Force One Pavilion. So while you’re checking out all these cool motorcycles you can look up at “The Flying Whitehouse” in all its glory—and take a tour of it, too. This Boeing 747 has served seven U.S. presidents, and is on loan from the U.S. Air Force.
The oldest bike on display is a three-wheeled 1899 De Dion-Bouton from France. Some of the other bikes on display are a 1914 single-cylinder Pierce; a 1920 Henderson Model K (that offered an optional reverse gear for use with sidecars); a BMW R75/5 which was one of the fastest production motorcycles of its time, reaching a top speed of 110 mph; and a 1979 CBX1000, Honda’s first six-cylinder motorcycle.
On the lower level are celebrity and movie bikes with some one-of-a-kind bikes like the dragon-headed motorcycle from the movie A.I. Artificial Intelligence (which I haven’t seen) and two bikes from 1997’s Batman and Robin (big B&R fan; I’ve seen that!). There’s auto racing legend Dan Gurney’s Alligator, his sportbike crossed with a cruiser crossed with an I don’t know what. The seat dips down so far that I’d feel like my butt was dragging along the pavement, but I understand it handles very well. Talk about a step-through; you wouldn’t have to swing a leg over this one to get on! And there’s Captain Kirk’s motorcycle and police hovering bike from Star Trek.
The most colorful is the Jelly Belly bike and sidecar designed and built by bike designer Arlen Ness. The sidecar is shaped like a jelly bean and even the bike’s rims are jelly-bean shaped! The Harley exhibit includes a 1903 replica of the first H-D built and a 1919 J Model with sidecar.
Here are some photos from the exhibit. But go check it out yourself; visit www.reaganlibrary.com for hours and more information.

Adventure GearLab 8: Giant Loop MoJavi Saddlebag

Carrying stuff on a dual-sport day ride is easy, right? You toss it in a backpack or bum bag and head for the hills. Or maybe you bungee it to the back or drop it into saddlebags. These conventional methods have worked for years, so why change? Comfort and performance come immediately to mind. I don’t like a big load on my back when I’m riding and don’t want to land on a fat fanny pack positioned to bruise my spine. Having gear strapped on behind hampers my movements and the bike’s handling. Saddlebags aren’t bad, but they also position the load behind the rider. [Read more]

Dual-Sport Riding in Big Sur

It is curious how dual-sport riders are willing to ride for an hour or two on good pavement just to get to a couple dozen miles of bad dirt road. A couple of friends had never had the dubious pleasure of riding up the old South Coast Ridge Road–a rare opportunity for dual-sport riding in Big Sur, so Kurt and I decided we would take them up one summer morning. As Mark Twain once observed, “The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco.” And Big Sur has the same foggy climate.

Counting heads at Gorda; last chance for gas.

We met up in Cambria, at the south end of Big Sur, with two Suzuki DR650s, a Kawasaki KLR650 and a BMW R100GS…average age of the four bikes was over 15 years. Which is quite suitable, as no one sensible wants to bang up something new and shiny. It was overcast, the fog about 1,000 feet above our heads. And downright chilly, in the 50s.

We rode 40 miles north to the gas station/restaurant/motel complex at Gorda, then another mile to the turn-off for Los Burros Road and 23 miles of dirt, mostly in pretty acceptable shape. This was built long ago to haul supplies from where ships would off-load them at Cape San Martin to the mining town of Manchester. That town was the center of the Big Sur gold rush back in the 1880s, played out by 1900, the remnants destroyed in a forest fire in the 1970s. After a couple of steep miles we got into the fog, and after another two miles had risen above it. We passed the turn-off for Alder Creek campground, a steep downhill road going to the few remains of the old Manchester.

Coming out of the fog on Los Burros Road at about 2,000 feet.

A couple more miles and Los Burros Road turned into South Coast Ridge Road, built to supply the miners from the Salinas Valley – it would have been a long haul in an ox-powered wagon. The ridge road twists up and down and around, a delight to ride. We arrived at the turn to Prewitt Ridge, where the Los Padres forest service has a campground – no facilities, but at 3,300 feet right above the Pacific Ocean it is a wonderful place to spend the night. Though all we could see that morning was fog.

Another five miles along the ridge road, and we were on the pavement of the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road, which connects the coast with the Salinas Valley. This road goes through Fort Hunter Liggett, a 165,000-acre US Army training site, and then comes out on County Road G14, which led us to Lockwood township and the Lockwood Diner. The temperature was now in the 80s, and the lunch and iced tea was well-appreciated.

Where Los Burros Road ends, butting into South Coast Ridge Road.

Standing atop Prewitt Ridge at 3,300 feet.

Fording the Nacimiento River in Fort Hunter Liggett.

The Lockwood Diner, at the intersection of Monterey County roads G14 and G18.

Scotland by Scoot: Days 2-3

A581 on the Isle of Skye

Groggy and foggy on an Isle of Skye morning, after Day 1 of Scotland by Scoot. I failed to take notes during our post-survival-beer, post-wine-with-dinner Scotch tasting, but then again I wasn’t there to do a review for Whisky magazine. No better way to clear out the cobwebs than a hearty breakfast, and the Brits have it covered. My complete breakfast had something from every food group. After strong coffee and toast (served in a very sensible “filing” caddy that looked as though it should hold the day’s mail), my glass of juice was accompanied by a plate burgeoning with patties of haggis and black pudding (blood sausage), a slice of fatty bacon, a link of sausage, an egg and a grilled tomato…burp. [Read more]

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