I bought some Darla lights, from Clearwater Lights, to improve the visibility of my FJR-1300ES motorcycle on the road1. I spent quite a bit of time seeking advice on which lights to get, how easy the Darlas were to install, etc., over on FJRForum.com. Thanx to all the people who
The horn on my FJR-1300 recently failed and had to be replaced. In a way that was a good thing, as I never really liked the stock horn. It sounded too dinky and was often ignored by car drivers. After doing some research I settled on the PIAA dual-tone horn.
The other day I was repairing some stuff on my motorcycle which had been damaged during a recent big service. Nothing serious, but it required I reroute some cables going to the battery. When I was preparing to take the bike in to get the clutch replaced (again, nothing serious,
Click on any of the icons or links to go to my trip report for that pass. In temporal order: In north to south order
Beckwourth Pass (Day 4) The ride home from Antioch/Bridgehead was beautiful! Pleasant temperatures throughout. Plus, I managed to miss all the traffic. Starting out I realized I’d forgotten to turn on my Google Maps navigation for the route. “No problem!”, I thought. “I know this route well and studied it
Beckwourth Pass (Day 3) The place I was staying at in Bucks Lake — Haskins Valley Inn — is owned and operated by two very entertaining women. Each of the bedrooms is beautifully decorated and very comfortable. I don’t normally eat breakfast — have to reserve calories for all the
On the way to Beckwourth Pass (Day 1) The ride up to Auburn by way of Stockton was, as usual, fun! Better yet, it wasn’t unusually windy in the Altamount Pass area north of Livermore. Although the wind turbines were sure spinning! At one point it looked like they were
After years of toil and trouble — not really, it was all a blast! — I finally completed a multi-year plan to ride my motorcycle over every one of the major Sierra Nevada passes that have paved roads. Those are, in the order in which I rode them: From north
I’ve had a goal, for years, of riding all the Sierra passes. Why? I’m not sure, although every one I’ve done so far — Ebbetts, Sonora, Tioga, Carson, and Sherman — has been an amazing and beautiful ride. But for whatever reason I hadn’t done the most famous one, the
After a fun and exciting day exploring the Lost Coast I left Real Northern California to return home to Supposedly Northern California. Rather than retrace my route down US 101 I opted to take Highway 1 most of the way and split the ride into two days. The first stretch,