You live in the Bay Area, ride a motorcycle and have a collection of AAA maps. You know the squiggly lines are the good roads. So who needs a guided tour?? Certainly not you. Right?

The unfortunate many who don't live in California are different - those who can visit our riding paradise should be much more likely to seek out a tour company with a guide to show them all the special places the locals know. With this in mind I signed up for a Pashnit motorcycle tour - I wanted to experience our roads through the eyes of visitors. They would tell me how lucky I am to live here. And if I had to ride in a line for a couple of days to do this, well, so be it.

The tour was the last of the season, a Friday-through-Sunday ride focused on the central coast area. Mid October is a good time for this region, with mildly warm days and still little chance of rain. The riders met early Friday morning in Saratoga and headed south via Big Sur. Chained to my desk in Berkeley until one pm, I arrived separately in San Luis Obispo around six pm, where a cluster of sport bikes in the motel parking lot told me I'd found the right place. Since this was the first time I'd ever taken a commercial, professionally guided tour I was, I'll admit, curious to see just how they'd manage a bunch of riders they hadn't known before, with different riding abilities, and keep us all together and happy all the time. I wasn't sure it could be done.

Tim Mayhew and Tim Regehr lead Pashnit Motorcycle Tours. Mayhew is "the Pashnit guy," the developer of the now-famous website with photos and descriptions of all the good roads in California. The license plate on his Hayabusa reads PASHNIT, vanity-plate-ese for "passionate," as in "attitude toward motorcycling." Regehr rides an FJR 1300, which serves as beast of burden for the tour. His tool kit and supply of emergency road repair gadgets must weigh thirty pounds. Regehr's hi-tech white suit (white gloves, too) contrasted starkly with Mayhew's traditional black leathers.

My fear of the "ducks in a row" syndrome, that mode of riding so loved by our Harley brethren, vanished well before noon. Throughout the tour I was able to ride at my pace (not the fastest in the group, not the slowest) where it really mattered - in the twisties and on the straights. In general, the pace up front was brisk and toward the rear was moderate to moderately slow. The group would spread out where the riding was challenging and then coalesce naturally on the sections of road following these extremes by the front riders slowing a little and the ones in the rear picking up the pace a bit. Tim and Tim have this down to a science. You don't realize it's happening until you think about it. Regrouping at vistas and major stop signs also happens in a way that's natural to the tour participants, but is planned carefully in advance by the leaders. At these stops we'd get tips on the road ahead. "Watch out for the 90-degree turn at the end of the long straight section." "Careful -there's dirt in the curves on the way up." The bottom line on a Pashnit tour: you can really enjoy the riding experience, which includes wicking it up a little where it's safe to do so.

But where were those starry-eyed out-of-state riders who would gush over Highway 58 and tell me that Route 33 is the best road they've ever seen? They weren't on this ride. Although one Australian has appeared, most of Pashnit's clientele is California local and tends to be from the Bay Area, where all of the rides originate. I asked my riding colleagues why they were here. Frank, who likes to take his Yamaha R1 to track days at Thunderhill and does solo day rides over a hundred mile radius around Palo Alto, was on his third tour this season. He'd done the Northern California and Sierra rides earlier this summer. It's the roads and scenery, the people and the bikes, he told me.

On each ride, he has met a new set of people from different backgrounds, with varied interests but compatible in spirit. Bikes of all flavors make the Pashnit tour more interesting for him than a mono-brand club ride. In fact, before the end of the day we would see a Kawasaki 250 Ninja and DRZ400 on the lower end and two Yamaha FJR 1300's at the other extreme. Sport bikes and sport-tourers were the norm. (We all regretted that the Rune rider had cancelled at the last minute.) Patrick from San Bruno has a Honda 954 and says he likes riding fast and with a group. Both desires are satisfied here.

Ayumi is a re-entry rider now returning, after a fifteen-year hiatus, with a GSXR-1000. She values meeting other riders, learning new routes, and the relative security of a group ride. After all, she pointed out, motorcycling takes her to places where there's no cell phone reception and where a mishap while riding alone could be downright unpleasant. Something everybody liked was the convenience of just showing up for the ride and having all the other arrangements taken care of by the tour leaders.

On Saturday we took Highway 58 east to 33, 33 back to Ojai and on to 154 north, whence to Solvang, Foxen Canyon Road and 166 back over to 101 and up to San Luis Obispo. It's a classic and wonderful route. Over the course of the day the number of riders grew from four to a full count of thirteen for the group photo at the vista point on 33, just west of Pine Mountain Summit. These additions came from the area between Los Angeles and Morro Bay and ranged from college students to retirees, with widely varied riding experience.

Take Alex and Blake, for example, both college-age. Alex on his Ninja 250 was a new rider and took things appropriately slowly, getting plenty of support and encouragement from both Tims as well as the rest of us. Blake and the DRZ400, which looked more than a bit out of place among the big sport bikes, was as fast a combination as any, particularly on the downhill stretches where he didn't have to flog the little motor to keep up.

At lunch around a big table in a Harley hangout in Ojai we got to hear stories of how and why these motorcyclists were coming to join in for the day or even just part of a day. Many of them had already been on previous Pashnit tours, others were complete newcomers, but they all discovered Pashnit the same way.

From the website emerged a touring service: first it was preparing itineraries for groups, and soon thereafter guided tours were added. It's no surprise, then, that practically everyone at the table on Saturday in Ojai was there because he or she had discovered Pashnit through the Internet. (If you want to see how easy and quick this process is, just Google some combination containing the words 'California,' 'motorcycle,' and 'tour.')

The Pashnit website also promotes people-to-people connections through an e-mail forum where riders can compare notes, post photos, and announce their own trips. The post "Oct. 22/23 S. Sierra B4_the_snow_flies_ride - let me know if you're interested," which I found on the Pashnit forum is good example.

Pashnit M/C's staple is the three-day tour, typically 800-1000 miles, built around two nights in a hot-tub-equipped motel, inexpensive eating, and costing $260 to $280. In addition, you bring your own bike and pay for your lodging and meals. This weekend combination is ideal for local riders, who typically number from five to seven on a tour. There are a few longer rides, such as a four-day fourth-of-July tour, interspersed throughout the season.

Next year there will be a multi-day tour ending at Laguna Seca for the GP race. Just how fast their business will grow is hard to predict, says Mayhew. But it's easy to see plenty of potential for growth because these tours fill a local need and, at some point, Pashnit may reach out to riders from Europe and Japan. In order for this all to succeed in the long run it has to be financially self-sustaining, and hence it becomes "commercial" with an attendant need for sound business practices. But it's clear that the reason Tim Mayhew and Tim Regehr are doing these tours is because they thoroughly enjoy motorcycling in California and they take pleasure in making it possible for others to have the same enjoyment.

Hopefully in the future Pashnit tours will decide to expand their offerings to include some of the easier dual-sport routes in California. If they do, I'll bet growth will be unstoppable. There is also a natural path for this joining of asphalt and earth, and that is at the other half of the Mayhew-Regehr partnership, a motorcycle campground and park at Sopiago Springs, which Tim Regehr is building in the Sierra off Highway 88. Here, dual sport, off road, and street bike riders can all enjoy their own turf and try out each other's.

Tepusquet Road crosses a range of hills from Foxen Canyon Road to Highway 166, just outside the Los Padres National Forest. I'd never been on it before because it requires a detour from the usual loop route. We arrived at dusk and a large full moon was still low on the horizon. As we headed up the canyon, the road got better and better. The right and left curves blended into each other with little or no straight sections in between.

The pavement was smooth but grippy. Winding our way up and then down the other side, with the full moon visible in the notch of the canyon, I suddenly sensed that perfect moment, the high of motorcycling. And that moment stretched on and on until we finally intersected with Highway 166. Then the high was over and it was back to normal (which is still pretty damn good). It didn't matter what might happen on the rest of the tour - this was the time to remember.

So, who needs a guided tour?? When they're this good, we all do.

Text & Photos by Bob Stokstad
© Published City Bike Magazine
(End City Bike Article)

About the Tour Guides

Tim Mayhew has devoted over a decade to photographing and writing about California roads. His tireless efforts on the California Motorcycle Roads web site have spread across the globe becoming the definitive guidebook about motorcycle travel in California. Tim's text and photographs have gained an audience of nearly two million visitors per year and has often been called one of the best motorcycling sites on the web. Feature articles about Tim have appeared in Cycle World Magazine, City Bike, Motorcycle Tour & Travel and the latest in the debut issue of Road Trip Magazine .

Tim's motorcycle travels have gotten the attention of National Geographic, Rider Magazine, Motorcyclist Magazine, Motorcycle Tour & Travel,  American Motorcyclist, BMW North America, Honda Riders Association of America, numerous newspapers and even the cable channel Outdoor Life Network. Tim has been interviewed on FOX40 Television, Cycle Talk Radio and requested as a speaker by motorcycling clubs. Pashnit Photography has been published in Motorcyclist, Cycle World & Friction Zone.  

The noted author and photographer has designed and led tours for the staff of Cycle World Magazine plus written articles for Friction Zone Magazine and Cycle World.. With Pashnit Motorcycle Tours , Tim now offers his enthusiasm and fascination for California Motorcycle Roads to you in person.

Tim Regehr is the owner of Northern California's only motorcycle campground, Sopiago Springs Resort, located in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Tim created the campground to give motorcyclists the world over a high quality recreational haven to call their own. His 152 acre property borders the Gold Note OHV Trail System in the El Dorado National Forest. The on-site dirt track built into the side of a mountain is the envy of dirt riders for hundreds of miles. Tim's love of motorcycles has progressed into sharing over 40 years of riding experience with other riders. "Nothing's as good as riding with other enthusiasts on bikes,” Tim is fond of saying,” whether that's on the dirt track or the street.” And that's what Tim enjoys the most, sharing with other riders this motorcycle wonderland of California as well as seeing motorcyclist's enjoy the splendor of his motorcycle resort.

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