1000 miles of heat and dust - A motorcycle loop through North East California.

[Christian P.]

Some of you may remember our tentative a couple weeks ago to drive up to Alturas and do the Discovery trail...which resulted in a failure.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46545

This last weekend we tried again with a different approach and succeeded by removing all the factors that created problem last time...the trailer and the Audi Q7...

My friend Bing and I took our KTM950 and drove straight from San Francisco. We left straight from the office downtown, just in time to say hi to the local Chinese cooks.

Since we would have to make our way through traffic (read split lane from SF to near Sacramento on a Friday evening...), we decided not bring our side panniers.
No camping either, this was just about riding. So we packed super light, hence the not-so-pretty but efficient ratchet straps and the "throw after you're done" old computer bag...




As I fully expected, the first evening was miserable. We took highway 80 and 5 all the way to Redding, 217 miles of 105F heat in Central Valley.

But the next morning, we were on the road at 6:45am. Our first stop was Dunsmuir for a delicious breakfast.

We then drove across the Shasta forest until we reached the beginning of the trail.

My KTM hit its first milestone in the process...

We then starting riding East, heading for our next stop, Tionesta. The kind of place you would see in a Tarantino movie and don't believe it really exists...

 

[Christian P.]

We refueled the bike there and kept pushing on.

After my friend started having issue with his clutch (which turned out to be nothing, just needed more mineral oil), and starting to be late in the day, we decided to skip the last portion of the Discovery trail.
We reached Alturas around 5pm, just in time for a great dinner. After dinner, we headed South to Susanville through a very scenic route with non-existent traffic. I don't know what the Dunlop/Karoo knobby tires are rated for, but I can tell you they handle fine at 94mph...

We spent the night in Susanville, which seems more like a service town than anything else.

Sunday was probably the best day of all. We rode from Susanville to near Truckee, then hit the trails again to cross over the Sierra.
70 miles of pure bliss and we ended up on the other side in Grass Valley.

The ride back through the Valley was as bad as Friday night, except that this time going West the sun was straight in front of us. I wouldn't wish this to my worst enemy.
We finally reached San Francisco around 9pm, exactly 1000 miles later. And 55 degree cooler.

Once again, the KTM has been perfect. It is sometimes said that a dual-purpose bike gives you the worst of both world. Well, not the KTM.
I seriously think that it is one of the best all around bike on the market and that it is overlooked by most people.
You can cruise at 80 mph all day long on any kind of road effortless. It is basic enough to be easy to fix, yet very powerful. The suspension is incredible and the bike is well balanced.
It is at ease on the freeway at high speed, able to follow/lead any sport bike on twisted road, and will go on any trail for as fast and as long as you want....

can you tell how much I like mine...



Here a really approximative view of the route:

 

[bdbecker]

Looks like you had fun! I totally agree with you on the KTM front, I've been debating on what I want my next bike to be, and I'm starting to lean towards a DP instead of a long haul cruiser or a hooligan bike.

 

[Cabrito]

Great trip report.

I think that ride would have really hurt on my KLR, but now that I just picked up a Corbin seat I might be better prepared for a longer ride like that.

Looks fun!



:victory:

 

[GTKrockeTT]

nice trip report, sounds like a great getaway...aside from the traffic.

 

[Scott Brady]

Well done Christian!

I am missing the KTM on many of these roads.

 

[Moody]

Good times. I think I need to start considering a bike...