BackROADS California: A Spring Pashnit Tour

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That time of year again. Ready to ride? Hop on.

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A new season begins and the changing of daylight savings time is the official start of the year for me. The very next weekend is time to ride, The still new BackROADS California Pashnit Motorcycle Tour.

Meeting our participants in Sausalito, just across the bay from San Francisco at the break of dawn.



The City of San Franciso just across the bay, Alcatraz on the left, and the Bay Bridge. The pointy building in the city is the TransAmerica Building.



Main street in Sausalito, not a bad view from those houses I'd imagine

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This new season marks a fresh chapter in fiddling with shooting video.

The entire trunk on the K1200R is filled with various mounts and bits. Ready to experiment with what works.

See those RAM mounts at right?



Tim checking out the new GoPro Hero video camera



Atop Mount Tamalpias, See that lookout? Never been up there, but looking interesting on a clear day!



fog is normal this time of year, but I was still hoping for a clear day. In the distance you can see Mount Diablo at middle left

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The bikes below Bolinas Ridge at Lake Alpine

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Tim on Fairfax-Bolinas Rd



Billy



Bob



And the K1200R



This is the new GoPro Hero Video Camera with some RAM mounts. Looks as though I'll get some interesting video, eh?
The camera is called the WIDE version as it has a 170 degree lens.

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Headed out to Point Reyes. It's a 22 mile ride that looks much like this. The cattle ranches out on the pennisula date to the 1850's.



Tim's Hypermotard... We've teased Tim about his affinity for coffee for some years. Well, see that yellow cap thingy. That's his Expresso Machine (yes, really). Ready for that coffee Tim.



Sporting some mods...

My header wrap story goes like this: Some years back (15?) I wrapped the exhaust header on my Triumph Spitfire with header wrap. Bit more horsepower out of the 1500cc engine? The engine leaked a bit of oil, got onto the wrap material, and started on fire as I was driving, top down, merrily down the boulevard. I had my handy fire extinguisher strategically placed in front of the seat. Got out of the car, pop open the hood (the entire thing fenders & all rotated forward), put the fire out and continued on my way. Just another day of British sportscar ownership.



Where are we?

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The Pacific Ocean, looking down from 400 feet up, we could see some whales under the water. Neat!




Point Reyes Lighthouse & its 300 steps to get there






Love the color this new camera can do.

Simple addition of polarizing filter and you just rotate the bezel and the color of the water changes. Neat!

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Person for scale




Fog horns

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Picture of a picture. Very cool.

See where we are? Very southern tip of the peninsula at bottom. See the seashore at left, that's what you're seeing in the pics, that long beach. Interesting factoid to mention is the pennisuala & mainland, although attached, are on two separate plates on the earth's crust and moving opposite directions. Gotta love that science stuff.



Birds eye view of California. How much do you recognize?

See the white band up top? That's the Sierra Nevada Mountains. And San Francsico Bay at right. The lake in the middle I think is Lake Berryessa. The ridgeline at right along the ocean, that's Bolinas Ridge which we just rode atop that. Look closely at right, you can see the Golden Gate Bridge- and even the curvature of the earth.

The beach at right is where dear old Sir Francis Drake alledgedly 'discovered' California in 1579.



Time to walk back up, steps are numbered in a countdown to the top.

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Beautiful, eh!





And more bike pics






This thing would look good with some wave rotors