Researching
DH SoCal
PDF
JPEG
DH
NorCal
Diary
"Why motorcyclists can't
live in Oregon"
PDF
JPEG
Why we ride VFRs:
(Warning: Coarse Language) |
Check back here for
discounted pre-order pricing on DH SoCal
(Coming when
publication date is closer)
Want to be notified when we start taking pre-sale orders
for DH SoCal or
when it is released?
And maybe win
one of 5 free copies?
Give us your email address at the bottom of
this page.
What our motto means:
"Stop riding like a tourist and start riding like a
local!"
You
gotta love a jurisdiction where every second road has the
appellation "Cyn" (Canyon) as part of its name. Where once
you ride about 60 miles inland from the coast there ain't no one
around. Where the riding season outside the high country is pretty
much all year round. Did we mention that it never rains in
Southern California and most every day consistently dawns cerulean
blue? (Researching DH SoCal: PDF
JPEG )
We started in the area east between Fresno and Bakersfield
into the Sierra Nevada
approaches, and did we pick a good
area to begin! We've also ridden the area east of San Diego along
the Mexican border up to Borrego Springs, including the great stuff
around Julian. (Hello, Palomar Observatory DH. And hello, CHP officer
who pulled a Tazer on me on the Sunrise Hwy DH!). From the Salton Sea out to
Joshua Tree and the Mojave Desert was ridden, as well as the Palm
Spring and San Jacinto Mtns DHs. The San Bernadino Mountains and some of
the San Gabriel Mountains was also done. On a subsequent trip, we scoped out the whole area
between Ventura and the southern boundary of DH NorCal
west of the Central Valley all the way up to Hollister and Monterey.
On another trip, we started by sussing out the San
Gabriel Mtns northwest of the Angeles Crest Hwy which, by the
way, stands a damn fine chance of being DH1 in SoCal, based on the
half of it we were able to ride to the closed part. I mean, you gotta
love a DH with a corner the locals call "Squids Leap",
right?
We also managed to pick up the rest of the Sierra Nevada high
country before the snow came, including spectacular Kings Cyn, the Hwy
190/Western Divide Hwy curvefest out of Springville and the little 9 Mi Cyn
Rd gem at the end of the Sherman Pass Rd/Kennedy Meadows Rd TE (the
latter not
for the faint of heart). Then east to knock off
Death Valley before streaking west to Monterey and down Hwy 1 (two
DHs to Hearst Castle at San Simeon, avoid the rest of Hwy 1) and back to LA. We lucked out on
these two sometimes insanely traffic-infested DHs, when a photo shoot shutdown of the road
for a half hour had us at
the front of the line and gave us a 10 mile (16 km) shot at the best
piece of the southern DH with no cars ahead of us. Hwy 1 heaven!
On our most
recent DH SoCal research trip, we finished researching the
DHs and TEs between our Woodland Hills base (thanks Iris & John)
and Ojai, then wended our way west and north to finish off
everything worth riding between the San Rafael and Sierra Madre Mtns
and the coast all the way up to Santa Maria (including that nice
little DH Los Olivos - Sisquoc (Santa Maria) Foxen Cyn Rd).
Then freeway lane splitting east through the great urban
conglomeration to pick up the southern San Gabriel Mtns DH loop
between Glendora and Azuza and its affiliated nice-and-cool-up-there
Mt Baldy TEs. Still unable to ride the still-closed Angeles Crest
Hwy, we motored south to clean up those TEs not yet destroyed by
suburban sprawl lying east and west of I-15 between Irvine and San
Diego. Back to Woodland Hills and then, last but certainly not
least, two days to ride all the Malibu area canyon roads carved into
the Santa Monica Mtns including Las Flores Cyn Rd where the local
fastboys hang. Once we get Angeles Crest ridden (which will be done
on our way up to delectable northeast Oregon to continue the
research begun for DHOR) our SoCal riding will be done. After some
25,000 miles.
Thanks to your
enthusiastic response (and to
our participating dealers, linked above, where you can
actually see and buy DH NorCal and its Companion Map), we've now
sold over 27,000 copies of our three books in total). And we've
also sold thousands of the new
Companion
Maps to
the books.
And for those who haven't bought yet, consider that the faster we sell a shitload of DH
NorCal and it's Companion Map, the sooner our muse will inspire us to come out with
DH SoCal and other jurisdictions (yes, we feel your pain,
DH riders waiting for
DH
Oregon). Also in this regard, please note that when you get DH
NorCal and want to proselytize to other riders who express
interest, the last four
pages of the book are meant to be ripped out to "share the
love". (Our latest editions of DHBC and DHWA also
have "share the
love" pages at the back.)
And hey–once
you've discovered
what DH NorCal does for you–consider
DHWA & DHBC. It's not as far as you might
think: WA is less than an I-5 blitz day across OR from Northern
California's great roads (281 mi from Portland to NorCal's first
DH). If you buy them, you will
ride WA & BC for sure ('cause once you get your hands on 'em you
won't be able to stay away). If you don't get 'em, you might
not ride the great northwest. Trust
us, your life will be immeasurably
improved by riding in BC and WA–with our books. And so will
ours.
|
