Easter ride in Marin County, CA for the sunrise

[kbasa]

Here in the Bay Area, more specifically, here in Marin County, we have a ride every Easter morning to the top of Mt. Tamalpais. I think Mt. Tam is 2900 feet or so, with a road all the way to the top. It's a wonderful ride; the road is twisty and the view from the top is magnificent.

It's a pre-dawn event, so folks start to gather at an Arco station on Hwy. 1 at about 5am. On some unknown signal, everybody puts their helmet on and it's a brisk ride to the top, about 10 or 15 miles of very, very twisty roads.

I've been going pretty regularly for the last 6 years, through pouring rain (last year) and fog and the like. This year, the weather was pretty nice and we had a regular crowd.

At the ARCO station, bikes began arriving in earnest a bit after 5.

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[kbasa]

This may look like a standard GS, but it's littered with HPN parts. Check the forks. The guy that owns it, R-Dubb, has gone through the motor. It's pretty well hotrodded and is making just over 70hp at the rear wheel. Balanced crank, rods, pistons. Venolia HiComp pistons. Sport cam. Lightened flywheel and crank.

Oh yeah.

I shot these using available light, so the blurs you see are the result of people walking by while the camera was open.

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[kbasa]

Bikes kept coming, sometimes in ones and twos, sometimes in larger groups. It's pretty common for folks to meet somewhere in SF or Oakland and ride up together. The SF Motorcycle Club (over 100 years old now) showed up with a group of about 15 or 20. Same with the East Bay Rats and other Bay Area groups.

We may be our own tribes the rest of the year, but this day, we're all brothers and sisters on a ride together.

Surprisingly, there aren't many HDs on this ride.

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[kbasa]

Run what ya brung, brotha.

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[kbasa]

Out here, we've got tons of BMWs. GSs seem to rule the roost and R12GSs are very common. Old airheads? Check. Old Kbikes with Rhinocoated tanks? Check. HP2s? Check.

But I still don't see all that many R11Ss. I spotted these two waiting to head up.

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[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

And they just kept coming. All kinds of bikes, all kinds of riders. Japanese bikes. Italian bikes. American bikes.

German bikes.

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[kbasa]

And then, folks started putting their helmets on. Clusters of people started to break up and head back to their bikes. It's time.

Get your game on. It's time to ride.

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[kbasa]

A bit later, we were at the top. It was foggy on the west side of the mountain, still. Cool air from the ocean gets pushed up the side of the mountain and condenses into fog at the top.

Our parking lot was partially covered and spectral riders poured into the lot from the ride up.

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[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

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[mandypants]

These are some really cool pictures, KBasa...me likes!
I'm not sure I'm hard core enough to be getting up that early to go ride, though. You have my respect!:thumb

[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

These are some really cool pictures, KBasa...me likes!
I'm not sure I'm hard core enough to be getting up that early to go ride, though. You have my respect!:thumb

Thanks, Mandy. By any conventional measurement, they're out of focus, the subject isn't plain and details are lost. But I think they capture the moment.

[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

Modern bikes. Old bikes. Everything in between was there.

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[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

And then we waited. From Mt. Tam, you have an unobstructed view east and south. Actually, you pretty much have an unobstructed view in all directions.

So we waited. Across the bay, over on the Oakland side, low clouds and fog held on. Directly underneath us, Corte Madera and San Quentin prison lit up like sparks.

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[kbasa]

Some brought thermoses of coffee. And we stood in the breeze, waiting.

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[kbasa]

Slowly at first. The sky turned gold. It lit the scene so nicely.

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[kbasa]

And, finally, it was up.

I'm not a religious man. I don't begrudge those that believe. But at times like this, you feel so small, so inconsequential in the scheme of the universe that you think there might be a force that runs the show, or has at least put it together so we can enjoy it.

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[kbasa]

Mt. Tam sees another sunrise with a veil of lingering fog on her shoulders. How many have gone before?

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[kbasa]

Some folks had to head home.

Do you think they had a good time?

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[kbasa]

I've got to go to a meeting. I'll be back in a couple hours.

[mandypants]

Thanks, Mandy. By any conventional measurement, they're out of focus, the subject isn't plain and details are lost. But I think they capture the moment.

Well, sure, but doesn't that make them even more artsy and interesting?:wave

[kbasa]

I'm not sure how it is in the rest of the country, but out here, this is what the fast guys are riding on the gnarly mountain roads. Lots of suspension travel, as much power as you need and ample brakes and suspension have made motards the way to go.

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[kbasa]

You don't get tires that have a 1/4" chicken strip on them by riding down the highway, that's for sure.

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[kbasa]

I'll take one of each, please. Here are two of Hans Muth's finest works. The R65LS and the R100RS. In addition to these two lovelies, he penned the Suzuki Katana series back in the 80s and the R100RT and R90S.

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[kbasa]

Here's an interesting collection. In the front, we've got your basic 1982 or so GPz550, the bike that started the middleweight sporting trend we see exhibited in today's modern 600cc sportbikes. It was a revelation. Single shock. Light weight. Decent power. It was the David to the Goliath superbikes of the time.

Right behind it is a Honda HawkGT 647. It was about a decade ahead of its time. Spar chassis. Pro-arm single sided swingarm. Vtwin motor, but only making about 40hp. These bikes were back road wonders, easily trouncing bikes with twice the horsepower and displacement. Introduced in 1989 and selling for about $5K new, clean ones still fetch $4K on the used market. The SV650, which Suzuki has sold by the boatload, is a direct result of this bike. Introduced later, the market was finally ready. The HawkGT never sold well, as is the case with many bikes that arrive ahead of their time.

In the back is an MuZ Baghira. Built by the former East German manufacturer, they're even rare here in bike crazy California. MuZ stands for Motorrad und Zweirad, since they made motorcycles and bicycles behind the iron curtain.

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[kbasa]

Here's another Japanese rarity from the same period as the HawkGT. The CB-1. It carries the designation CB400F, the same as it's predecessor in the mid70s. 14K redline, water cooled, 4 into 1 factory pipe and a wonderful chassis weren't enough to make this bike a big seller in the US. Like the HawkGT, clean examples sell almost for what they did when they were new.

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[kbasa]

Oh. Yes. This is the elemental motorcycle.

A chassis to get you down the road and a motor to make you go. This one is done up like a flat tracker. At one time, the US supported a terrific racing series that was run in county fairs and anywhere a dirt track was available. It later morphed into Grand National racing, but at one time, on just about any Saturday night you could think of, bikes like these got brought out of the barn and got ridden hard.

Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, and many of the American racing greats got their start on bikes just like these.

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[kbasa]

If you thought California was all tofu and artichoke hearts, think again.

We love a donut as much as the next guy. And not those Dunkin' Donut or Krispy Kreme or Tim Horton kind of donuts. We want Cop Donuts. The good ones made by the guy that's been making them for twenty years and knows every one of his customers by name.

And don't forget your Peeps. It's Easter.

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[kbasa]

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[kbasa]

Here's an old warrior, 27 years on. In 1980, Kawasaki introduced the Z1R. It was a revelation, even though it had a hinge under the seat. It had more motor than anybody thought they'd ever need and, I think, really incited the chassis development that resulted in the advent of bikes like the VF750F a few years later. Those bikes did away with the traditional double downtube, full cradle chassis and introduced the perimeter framed, square tube chassis. The GSX-R of 1986, took it to the next level.

This one has period Raask cast rear sets. Very rare and extraordinarily desirable on the collector market.

For a short time, Kawasaki, in conjunction with Russ Collins, a drag racer of the day, sold a Z1R-TC, which was turbocharged. I've seen a half dozen in the intervening 25 years since they were sold. I'd imagine they're rare and expensive now.

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[kbasa]

In 1979, Honda moved away from the SOHC CB750 and introduced the DOHC CB series. There were three bikes in the lineup, the 750, a 900 and, for one year an 1100. I have a bike almost exactly like this one, taken apart in my garage. This is a 1982 CB750F. This particular one has had the 1100F wheels and swingarm added, which sets the bike somewhat lower and allows for the use of slightly wider tires. I think this has 18" front a rear.

This was the pinnacle of Honda's development of the sporting, aircooled 750, a direct descendant of the 1969 CB750K0 that revolutionized performance motorcycling. The one in my garage has the Honda factory Sport Control Kit and an ATK fork brace. If you look at this one, he's got an airhead style fork brace. Don't the fork legs look impossibly small for a 550 pound motorcycle?

I don't see many of these that haven't been mangled in one way or another. This one, in addition to the sensible chassis upgrades, still sports the factory mirrors and exhaust.

I miss mine and one day, when I've got some kind of time available, it'll ride again. If you wanted the Easter tie in, this is it.

We all seek to resurrect our past. Sometimes it's to atone for the wrongs we did, the opportunities we wasted or the good times we let slip away under appreciated.

But sometimes, we want to do it simply because it's fun.

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[kbasa]

Thanks for riding along.

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