Pashnit's "Top 5 California Roads" Published

[al_roethlisberger]

After much conversation and debate on Sport Touring.Net, and his own thoughts after reviewing just about every great road in California... "Pashnit" was asked to submit his own list of the "Top 5" motorcyling roads in California for Friction Zone Magazine. Well, it looks like they went ahead and published his story

 

Tim!

 

 

From Sport Touring.Net - Top 5 California Roads

 

 

Pashnit.com

 

Pashnit's California Motorcycle Roads

 

 

 

 

Check out the latest issue of Friction Zone Magazine!! Got asked to write this some time ago, and finally went to press. While I was writing the article, I posted the same question some time ago here at STN- many asked to be let known when the article hit the stands...

 

...And they finally published the article!! Friction Zone is available at your favorite Moto-Supplier. I'll see if I can get a scan of the article to post here for those that don't have access to the mag.

 

Many people asked what I picked, so here was my top five.

 

5. Highway 74 - Palms to Pines Highway -(& Highway 243)

 

4. Highway 58 - McKittrick to Santa Margarita - Central Cal

 

3. Angeles Crest Highway - Highway 2 - SoCal

 

2. Highway 1 - Big Sur & NorCal

 

1. Highway 36 - Red Bluff to Fortuna

 

[Lex]

Al,

 

FWIW, I think the ratings are a lot like the one in Scuba magazines that rate Florida as the best dive area. It is not that it is that good, it is that lot of people go to there and many haven't been to better sites. This bias the voting toward places with large populations or to places that are well known like Highway One.

 

Any "best roads in California" list that doesn't include one of the high passes (Tioga, Sonora, Ebbetts, Monitor, Carson) in the central Sierras is, IMHO, pretty suspect. My favorite is Sonora but another rider might like the higher speeds of Carson or the jaw dropping beauty of Tioga but, in my opinion, any of them beat 74, 36 or 58 without a fight. Angels Crest and Highway 1 depend on when you ride them, if you catch them on a low traffic day they are great, much of the time they are not.

 

I guess this just shows everyone has an opinion.

 

Lex

[al_roethlisberger]

Absolutely

 

 

...however, if one takes the link to the thread on Sport-Touring.Net above, it will take you to the thread where Tim asked the community for their opinions on the subject as well. They were varied of course, but many helped him verify the "Top 5" based on general consensus

 

 

Here is the direct link: http://www.sport-touring.net/cgi-bin/msgbo...=ST;f=5;t=10864

 

al

[Mark in Hollister]

I don't understand Hwy 1 being considered one of the best motorcylcle roads. Unless you get out there as the sun is coming up, chances are you'll just be spending all your time passing groups of cars. I haven't been on Angeles Crest Hwy in many years, but I suspect it is similar.

 

Best RV road, yes, but not motorcycle.

[callison]

Fortunately, he left out some of the other really good ones, so at least they won't be over-squidded.

[tomsp]

On my last ride to Cedarville, CA, I met up with those 3 guys riding around the country using their hauler to get to a place and then ride. THEY said hwy 36 (on Pashnit's list) as being the BEST road they've been on. I have'nt been on that one but I'd like to

[callison]

Why limit it to California? Of all of the western states in the USA, California has the worst road maintenance. Marcial and I have fond memories of the blast down Hwy 138 in Oregon going from Crater Lake to Roseburg. We rode Hwy 36 in California the day before that. No comparison. 36 was great, but 138 was nothing short of fantastic. I have ridden other roads in California that I consider to be equivalent to Hwy 36, but not as lengthy. BTW, Hwy 36 has exactly ONE gas station at about 2/3rd's of the way from I5 to the coast. And that is just about at the fumes stage on a V11 Sport. It is a really good ride though, once you're past the logging trucks and the occasional road construction.

[al_roethlisberger]

Why limit it to California? Of all of the western states in the USA, California has the worst road maintenance. Marcial and I have fond memories of the blast down Hwy 138 in Oregon going from Crater Lake to Roseburg. We rode Hwy 36 in California the day before that. No comparison. 36 was great, but 138 was nothing short of fantastic. I have ridden other roads in California that I consider to be equivalent to Hwy 36, but not as lengthy. BTW, Hwy 36 has exactly ONE gas station at about 2/3rd's of the way from I5 to the coast. And that is just about at the fumes stage on a V11 Sport. It is a really good ride though, once you're past the logging trucks and the occasional road construction.

 

 

.... I don't think Tim(Pashnit) intentionally 'limits' his reviews to California, other than perhaps for the fact that he lives in San Francisco, and his riding adventures and subsequent reviews 'radiated' from there

 

Keep in mind too that he totally supports the site himself, other than recently setting up a donation system, and it simply started out basically as a blog for him to record his motorcyling adventures.... and grew wildly in popularity in the last few years as "Sport Touring" has come into it's own.

 

In fact though, he has several good reviews of roads outside of California(such as his review of Hwy50 in AZ), and actively solicits contributions from other writers, especially for roads outside of CA.

 

After all, Tim can only physically personally cover and review so many roads a year, and within a reasonable distance.... so it's just logical that since he lives here, that most of his reviews focus on the area

 

If anyone has some good write-ups, along with photos, of other roads.... I'm sure Tim would love to hear from you. Feel free to drop him a line. He's a super nice guy.

 

http://www.pashnit.com

 

al

[flying_hun]

Al, I think Tim lives in Sacramento, not SF. Minor point.

 

Next minor point is that since Friction Zone is somewhat SoCal biased in its distribution, it *may* be the case that the balance of the roads selected favor that readership. Speculation on my part.

 

Highway One is a great road for scenery and great places to stop to eat or spend the night. Yes, the traffic can be heavy. It's worse south of SF (e.g. Big Sur) than it is north of SF. I rode it (PCH) last October from LA to SF and got held up occasionally, but not for long. Off season is definitely better. It may not be a 'best' road in all aspects, but it would be a mistake to not try it at least once.

 

Where the real sectarian violence begins is with Hwy 36. IMHO, Tim would have been greatly remiss to not include it. It's a fabulous road. It's true, there's very little gasoline out there (I always top off my tank in Platina!), but I find that the number of gas stations varies from year to year. The moral of the story is to top it off when you can. All that said, there is little traffic, I've never seen a cop on it, the scenery is great, the road favors - no, make that encourages - smooth, fast riding and it is a blast. For hours!!!!

 

I will grant that the high passes are wonderful, and that there are other roads with *sections* that are superior to 36. The Oroville - Quincy road comes to mind as one of those. However, if you were to choose a road based on factors that include duration of the experience and potential of not getting nicked along with the other usual factors, I think 36 comes out pretty well.

 

There, I've made my case. Others may disagree, but if those of you reading don't at least try 36 you'll be missing out.

 

One more thing. Since I'm not a native of CA, I am not ignorant of the charms of roads in other states. I've held motorcycle endorsements in Washington and Connecticut as well as CA, and I've toured quite a bit. Other states, particularly mountainous ones, all have charming roads. Other states, and Connecticut comes immediately to mind, also have problems with road maintenance. Have you ever ridden/driven I91 in CT? Even 101 in the Bay Area is not that rough (no, I don't work for Caltrans)! When you consider the traffic volume that uses roads in CA, it's amazing they're as good as they are. Tim Mayhew lives in CA, and writes about CA (reprising Al's point), and Friction Zone is published in CA for a primarily CA audience. I don't think anyone is saying there aren't good roads elsewhere.

 

Cheers,

 

Kurt

[al_roethlisberger]

Heya Kurt,

 

WRT to where Tim lives, you may be correct.... I really can't recall for certain

 

Although he rides with some of the guys down here on the BARF(Bay Area Riders Forum) and SBR(South Bay Riders) quite often, is the Sport Touring forum moderator on BARF, and works up in SF.... sooo, dunno.

 

Well, he makes it down here quite often regardless

 

 

 

Also, although there will always be debate and opinion with regard to things like the "10 best", "Top 5", etc... anything, Tim made an effort to review this list with the members of the whole "Region 1" forum on Sport-Touring.net before committing to the list. So I think he tried to get a statewide consensus, and even if FZ is SoCal focused(is it?), Tim certainly isn't

 

 

He's got a great site never-the-less

 

http://www.pashnit.com

 

al

[flying_hun]

Hi Al,

 

I admit that I have a NorCal bias, so from where I sit FZ appears to have a (slight) SoCal bias . Certainly, they publish ride reports from all areas of the state, so they don't pursue that bias. I'm sure Tim did a good job of identifying the best roads across the state, it's just that I believe they're all north of SLO!

 

Okay, enough goofing around, let's ride!

 

Kurt

[Guest davidb]

Hwy 4 from Lake alpine to ebbitts pass for tight twisties and hwy 108 to sonora pass for fast sweepers. Try it, you wont regret it. Note... there is a chp sitting on a side road all the time between hells kitchen and bear valley resort.After that. you can spank that trottle hard.

[al_roethlisberger]

....BTW, just did read that Tim is indeed from Sacramento, so you are correcto-mundo

 

al