Cct Report April 24-26, 2015

So a while back member 'wgregt' created a post 'Getting That Ca Road Trip Feeling...' http://www.vfrdiscus...ad-trip-feeling, which got the gears turning for fellow member 'Rogue_Biker' to create his annual CCT ride (Central Coast Tour), which got my attention, as the last one I rode was just awesome. Similar to last year, Rogue opened up the ride to invite those from our local forum, OCMoto, which is a "general" motorcycle site great for knowing what's happening in Orange County California. Much like last year as well, the attendance from OCM was nothing less than impressive, 10 riders immediately signed up to go but like many ride post a few dropped out last minute, actually only 2 dropped out last minute! Ironically 'wgregt' had to drop out as he had a friend coming into town that weekend the ride was scheduled for (April 24-26, 2015).

For me though, it couldn't have been planned at a better time, as the Saturday of that weekend was going to be my birthday! But before I get to it, a few weeks prior, in fact almost a month prior, I came down with something call 'Eustachian Tube Dysfunction'. If you're not familiar with what that is or how it affects you, I'll fill you in...Basically these tubes in the inner ear are you're balancing points and when they do not function correctly, you can get dizzy, nauseous, and basically make sitting, standing or doing anything that requires balance nearly impossible!

At the first sign of the symptoms, the ride was already set and my initial reaction was, "Wow, I hope this is only temporary!" Well after the first weekend where the symptoms would come and go, the following week, became a constant flux of off and on and started to have me worry. So like any normal person would do, I ignored it, hoping it would go away (Ah, just kidding and seeing if you were paying attention), of course I went to the doctor and was basically given the news of what I was suffering with and along with that a trip to the pharmacy to pick up some meds. After the first day of medication (Basically Sudafed and aspirin) I started to feel a little better but nowhere near riding condition!

Now, with the clock ticking and the symptoms getting less but not gone completely, I started to get the feeling that I would be left out of this year's CCT, I had to miss last year's due to a huge project at work. I digress, I was convinced that I would be better in time and still be able to go and as luck would have it, the last weekend before the trip, almost all my "dysfunction" issues went away. Mind you not completely but enough to at least drive and/or (The best part) ride again! So, luckily I had a project down in San Marcos California on that Thursday before the ride so I decided to do a test ride and use the motorcycle to get there. Thursday came and went and all was good, "HELLO CCT, HERE I COME!"

So Friday April 24, 2015, ten of us (2 VFRD members and 8 OCM members) met in Westminster California at a spot that Rogue and I like to meet at and gathered up our troops and hit the road at around 9:30AM. Although not the ideal time to leave but one that would have us in less traffic but enough time to get to San Simeon (our base in Central California) and still have enough daylight to get settled in, unpacked an grab dinner before it got too late.

We made our way up the San Diego freeway (405) and then transitioned to the "infamous" 'Ventura Freeway (101) and stopped in Aguroa for a fill up and to meet our final attendee, my and Rogue's friend Matt, the third VFR rider in our group (1995 VFR750). Rogue rode his beautiful 2007 RWB and I rode my ever faithful and lovely 2009 VFR800. Although the trip had a plethora of bikes, BMW, Suzuki, Ducati and Yamaha, the pride of the bunch was of course the VFRs!

After getting back on the 101 and up the coast, we took a favorite route of ours, Highway 33, which is a nice and twisty route that takes us to a junction in a town called New Cuyama, and a stop before hand at 'The Place' for lunch, from here we head to Highway 166 East into Taft where we gas up and head North again on Highway 58 West toward the coast.

However, before we even got too far, we almost suffered our first casualty...Somewhere on 58, there was a brick sized rock that one of the riders didn't see, at least in time to prevent what happened. The rider (on a 696 Monster) hit the rock, which got thrown in the air and ended up hitting the calf of one of the riders behind him. That in turn gave him cause to stop and check out his leg and vehicle, just in case. Although nobody suffered any vehicle damage, the event did cause us to have to stop and make sure everything’s was alright, the rider wh o was hit was starting to feel the pain and ended up with a pretty sizable bruise. Once we gathered everybody up, we then headed to our next intersection and twisty road...are you sensing a theme here?

Once the twisty parts were done and we got to the more straighter sections of Highway 58, our faster riders decided to get ahead of the pack a little and gave cause to some of us to pick up the pace a little, nothing too over the top though, as Rogue, the one with the radar detector was keeping it within reason, no need to get a performance award before we even hit our destination. From Highway 58 we took a little side road, La Panza Road to Highway 41 and then Highway 41 straight to Highway 1 (PCH) then North to San Simeon, where we checked in and got a nice steak dinner at the San Simeon Lodge restaurant and planned for the next day.

To be continued...

Gassing up on Highway 33.

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Having lunch at 'The Place'.

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Our noble steeds taking a rest while we have our break and lunch.

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Am I the only one that sees "CCT" and thinks this is a Cam Chain Tensioner thread? Looks like a good turn out none the less!

Friday evening and while the group was eating dinner and looking at every weather site we can get on our phones, we saw that the inevitable was to happen, RAIN on Saturday. In fact the only the day of our 3 day trip that had any hint of wet weather was going to be Saturday! Friday, gorgeous, Sunday expected to be the same, but Saturday our only FULL day of riding, was not going to be rain free.

So the plan was to delay our start time as close to the expected end of showers that the weather reports said. This meant we could be riding home in the dark, if the end of the rain was going to be in the afternoon. With everyone in agreement on this, we decided that breakfast at 9AM and anticipated departure of 10AM. Crossing our fingers!

GOOOOD MORNING, meetup and breakfast time comes and everyone is still in street clothes, if they had them, others in their riding gear and everyone anticipating the rain stopping soon. During breakfast, everyone is talking about whether or not we just kick back at the hotel and enjoy the amenities or take the chance of wet slippery roads and/or getting cold and wet. Well not more than a few minutes to our departure time, the rain stops! Everyone quickly pays their bill and heads back to their room to get dressed and ready to ride.

Not knowing what we were in store for, some of us got ready for a down pour and others were going to grin and bear it, as they either didn’t have rain gear or thought it wasn’t worth the effort to get dressed for what was supposed to be light wet weather. I decided that I would put on the rain gear, considering I spent money to have it and figured this would be a good day to test it. Better with light or moderate rain, than a torrential down pour. Turns out it fits well but does not stay put at higher speeds, my sleeves came up my arms a bit but figuring I wouldn't doing these speeds if it was really coming down, so I call it a successfult test.

After most of us gathered up and ready to roll, we had one straggler delaying us, so we waited a few minutes and just about when everyone turned their engines to save fuel, the rider shows up! OK Let’s roll! As predicted the rain had totally stopped at this point, but needless to say the roads were still a bit wet, we carefully headed South on Highway 1 to Highway 46 East to the 101 for a ~47 mile ride to Highway 198.

Either it being a little early for most folks, or maybe everyone was waiting for the sun to come out our route was pretty much empty. That is until we hit Highway 46 and ran into a few cars, but they were easy to pass as most of them either pulled to the side of the road or we had sections of road that was safe and legal to pass on. Most of us were able to stay close to one another but the “straggler” ended up being a little further behind. Maybe because passing wasn’t as easy when you had to wait for 10 other riders to safely pass as well.

Since it was Rogue’s ride, so to speak, he was leading the fray, plus it didn’t hurt that he had his radar detector with him…I left mine back at the hotel. We were going at a good pace but not exceeding the limits by leaps and bounds and as we come up over a rise, we see a CHP on the opposite side of the road, we let off the gas a little and he must have sensed that someone would be going above the speed limit in our group, as he lit up his radar as to expect to catch somebody. By this time we were all going at or below the speed limit, or so we thought. It seems that the straggler, was playing a little catch up and did not get his Chatterbox message of “CHP just over the next rise”, or he got it too late, regardless, the CHP ended up pulling him over and handing him a performance award for going 85MPH. Much to his disliking, he was happy he didn’t catch him a bit earlier as 85 was a bit slow for how fast he was travelling to try and catch up.Bitter sweet I guess you could say.

Other than the rider who was pulled over, we all ended up heading to the next gas station and meeting point, at least for those who might have gotten a late start…or delayed! Everyone topped off their tanks and we waited for the other rider to finish up his discussion with the CHP and most took off their rain gear as by this time the rain clouds were behind us and it looked like sun and blue skies ahead of us! After our rider shows, he wasn’t in the best of moods (can you blame him?) so he decided it would be better if he went back and just cruised the coast. No one could blame him but at the same time we felt bad that he wasn’t going to join us.

So North on to the 101 and to 198, then off to Highway 25 to Hollister for lunch and another fill up, before heading to the Coast for our final leg down PCH back to San Simeon. Single file down 198 and left on 25 and a quick stop to rest and time for the rest of us to change out of our rain gear. Blue skies and sunny days are upon us! A few of the riders who have liter bikes, decided that this was their cue to take point and lead the way. I, having a GoPro decided to let them get ahead of me and I would follow and capture any shenanigans that should occur. This was a good plan until the BMW S1000RR hit a patch of racks right in front of me, spraying me with little rock bullets! Then one hit my left pinky, OUCH! At first I was more concerned about damage to my bike than myself. So I backed off a little and then the Yamaha R1 passed me and then the Hero of our story, Matt on his VFR750. Hero? What are you talking about? (More on this later)

Queueing up on 198

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After Matt passed me one of the BMW S1000R riders made his move so I let them get some distance while I tried to get ignore the pain in my pinky finger and to get my rhythm. So I cruised it for a while and then got on the gas, reeling in the pavement mile by mile until I could see the 4 of them ahead of me. I then pulled by best Valentino Rossi and caught the S1000R rider and stayed on his tail until I could find a good place to pass. A little history on this rider, he has a tendency to pour on the gas in the straight sections and then apply heavy braking before the turns. Not that the VFR800 is a slouch, it just didn’t seem to have the oomph I needed in the shorter straights so I had to bide my time and find the perfect spot to pass.

Follwing the RR and R1 at first

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Letting Matt and the S100R rider get ahead a little..

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Maybe because after a few miles of following and watching the brake light go on and off, I was really hoping for that opportunity to come soon and low and behold a 90 turn with a long straight following it. Here’s my chance…down shift, down shift, brake, down shift, lean right gas on and upshift, gas, upshift move out of his draft, upshift and voila! I pass him and then either he had enough or he decided the pass was too much to overcome because he became a dot in the mirror really quickly. Now to stay with the front runners and capture more action.

Making my move on the S1000R rider.

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So after a few miles I guess Matt noticed I was behind him riding his draft as he decided to up the ante on the two liter bikes in front of him. So wham! He crouches down behind the windscreen and passed the R1 and then zoom! Passes the S1000RR and takes the lead. At this point I really wanted to catch the RR try and keep up with Matt, hey liter bike vs 750, no contest right? So I thought, Matt ends up leaving both of us behind and we actually lost sight of him at one point. I think this put that zap on the RR rider's head as he started to make mistakes and slow down and although I wanted to go after Matt I felt comfortable riding at the RR’s pace.

Matt starting to pick up the pace a little...

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...and making his move on the R1

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Me too...

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I think Matt knew that he was getting too far ahead as we slowly started to catch up to him even though our pace has slowed quite a bit. We had gone through just about all of the twisty sections of the road and all three of us looked like we used more gas than planned so pulled over and let the others catch up. I have to say that Matt’s riding for a 22 year old with about 2 years riding experience was real impressive! Having ridden with him before I knew he was good, but he really showed how much better he has gotten in the short time I’ve been riding with him. I think that and the fact he was riding a 20 year old VFR is why I say he’s the hero of the story.

Following the RR for a while. Just at the right turn ahead you might be able to spot Matt leaving us behind!

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From here on to Hollister it was really uneventful, we stopped once more for gas and then off to the ‘Running Rooster’ for lunch. Nice place for lunch BTW. Some had suggested going to the restaurant at the Corbin seat company, but ultimately everyone chose the Running Rooster instead. While we were here I checked my pinky and it was bruised! It hurt but wasn't enough to distract me.

Next round, PCH and the ride to San Simeon.

To be continued…

Am I the only one that sees "CCT" and thinks this is a Cam Chain Tensioner thread?

Me too! 

Great report - looks like a fun ride.  Nice photos! 

Maybe I should have called it the CCCT, California Central Coast Tour!

Yeah that red 4th gen is the star of the show!!   :goofy:

VFR  proud !!!

So after lunch it was time to head West to Highway 1 (PCH) and then back down to San Simeon. For the most part this was really mostly slabbing it until we hit the coast and of course one last gas stop as there are not many choices on Highway 1. Once we got to the gas station, there was a discussion of taking the “quick” route or the original proposed route, which since we left later, would have a good portion of our ride at dusk and early evening nightfall. As you can imagine, there was a split amongst the group where some wanted to make their way back with little to no darkness and few who were feeling more “adventurous” and were pushing to take the original route, route G16 I believe. Well since the majority was for the quick route and not enough time to debate it further we went the quick route and made our way down Highway 1.

For those who have never travelled Highway 1, it is a gorgeous route, beautiful scenery and plenty of curves and bridges to traverse. Not to mention many places to stop for pics and resting at various turnouts along the way. The drawback is that not everyone who travels this road are cognizant of those behind them and have a tendency to hold up traffic. Many times it will be several miles before a turnout and even then, being oblivious to others, many do not use the turn outs to let others by. Being on a motorcycle is definitely the ticket here. I’m saying that one should openly break the law, but if one should find the opportunity to pass several vehicles, albeit by crossing the double yellow lines, one could make much better progress than those cagers stuck behind captain oblivious!

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Although I had my GoPro, I did not have enough battery to capture filming Highway 1, so sorry for the lack of pictures here, but I did take a few at our rest stops. Funny, while at one rest stop, there was a small group of tourist that for some reason wanted to take their picture with me. Maybe because I was in my leathers, and maybe they just thought it would be cheeky to have a picture with a “stormtrooper”, who knows, but I indulged them none the less. At one point the few riders who had not been up there before started to do the typical sight see mission and stop quite more frequently than me, Rogue and Matt would have liked so the three of us just bee lined it back to San Simeon. For one, we wanted to be riding in the daylight and two it was my birthday and we wanted to celebrate with a nice steak dinner, or at least I did, so we left the others to their sightseeing and would then see them later at the hotel.

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For the most part we had very light traffic and most of the cars would pull over and let us by, but there were a few that insisted that they were going to be leading the way down Highway 1 and nobody, car or motorcycle was going to take that away from them. Needless to say, we made quick work of these drivers, and showed them how fast one can really take a curve and not have to ride the brakes all the way through the corner! Before we made it all the way back to San Simeon we stopped one last time to check out a spot that Rogue wanted to show us. So at the last stop before San Simeon, we grabbed our last photos and then headed to a nice celebratory steak dinner!

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