Pashnit & Cycle World Magazine - 1000 Mile Journey to NorCal

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And check out the view this big fella has !!



Alright, back to the twisties.



Since I'm bringing up the rear, I come upon this. Mathew Miles is loading up the Chinese Trailmaster 250 bike into the chase van.

Seems the motor ceased up. Did I mention it was brand new!? The theory was this was a brand new bike and we didn't do any of the break in. Just ran it flat out for day.

Notice off-road editor Ryan Dudek's Yamaha YSR50 in the background. Guess what bike was to break down next?

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My partner Tim (the other Tim ) helping to load the bike in.




Tim's FJR & my Venture. Old & way better new. Here's where we switched bikes. Kinda liken' this nifty FJR.



Of course, what ride would it be without a little hooliganism.

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Mark and the XR



Although I have to admit, following Mark was not very exciting. I think it topped out at about 55mph though.





I had wanted them all to stop at the Point Arena Lighthouse, but.... they all rode right past it. What happens when you're bringing up the rear doin' the sweepin'.



It's quite a view from the top!

[pashnit]

Okay, making your way through those chips?



Time for some more drooling.



Playing with the angles... Very typical for me to shoot quite a few at different heights and angles. One always seems to be best. On a different thread we deduced which corner of Highway 1 this was btw in case you're wondering.



Just the road. More sighing.

[pashnit]

The turn at Highway 128 & Hwy 1.



Bringing up the rear as the sweeper always produces more stories.

So there I come up on Ryan Dudek on the YSR50. Seems the motor had lost power, so Ryan decided to give the 50cc motor a little break.

Ryan when I asked him how in the world did you end up working at Cycle World, and the Off-Road Editor no less. His answer seemed to hinge on he didn't know either. He used to work with Jimmy Lewis (former off-road editor) and maybe was just grand-fathered in?

Did he have any formal training in writing? After all, he was the editor of 'all things off-road'. Not really was the reply. That I found interesting too, especially from the perspective of someone who's been writing for 20 years.



Soon, it was off again, following Ryan and Mark at breakneck speeds. I think the rest of the crew were already checked into the hotel and suckin' down some brewskis by now.

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Gotta get in that tuck position you know for that max speed. You might have noticed Ryan is not the smallest guy on that tiny bike.



But alas, the lil YRS50 was only miles from Fort Bragg when it finally called it quits. That made us down two bikes just in the first day on our 1000 mile ride on $1000 bikes.



I was starting to get used to the FJR though. Me likey!

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So we finally made it. Took all day to go from Sausalito to Fort Bragg. For you non-locals, it's not all that far.

View from the hotel balcony in Fort Bragg.





Lot of good eats down there. We like to stop down there for lunch of the NorCal Pashnit Tour. http://www.pashnittours.com/tour_1.html

[pashnit]

Day 2 of the Cycle World Pashnit Tour dawned and the first order of the day was to get the photo shoot out of the way.

This is our hotel btw - The North Cliff. Wanna guess where it's located? On the north side of the river, edge of the big bridge, on a cliff no less.

Rooms were the usual good stuff, pretty reasonable as this was the off season (april), mainly it was all about location, location.



What it looks like in the daylight, as opposed to the shot at night above.



Here's where it gets interesting. Have you ever wondering how they get all those great photos in the magazines? I do.

You can learn a lot when you hang around someone who knows a lot more than you do. So I thought I'd give this idea a whirl.

Jay McNally, this guy is one of the professional photographers for Cycle World, and I thought I might follow him around like a little puppy dog here and there. Mainly, when we took a shot, I'd trot over and take the shot. Seemed like a good plan.

Mark Hoyer positioning the RD350

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You'll see the photos Jay took in the Cycle World August 2005 issue- but here's the photo shoot through the Pashnit camera lens.

The overpowering Yamaha Venture



The RD350



The classic GSXR1000 & the also classic XR250 that Allan Girdler rode the entire time. All stock!

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Don Canet's GSXR & the David's beemer



David Edward's BMW against the crashing surf



I think I want one of these!