V12 Day Trip with the Akro installed (pics and audio ...lots of pics!)

ZenMoto · Mar 13, 2011

Well, I picked the V12 up from Bazzaz Friday, though it won't actually have any of the Bazzaz farkles on it until they get production parts in a few weeks. So Satruday I took the wife for a bimble out through Ojai (prn. Oh-High) and out to lunch in Santa Barbara, but that's not the same as a real day-trip kinda' ride.

Sunday is my church day, and I worship at the "1st Motorist's Church of the Tilting Horizon". ...today was my day to play. After an aborted attempt to ride locally, when my buddy's tire decided to eat a nail and he decided to call it quits, I felt it was an omen that I should get out of the area and REALLY ride!

So leaving a bit late (noon) I headed out for points north. I ended up taking more slab than usual due to the late start, but that's ok, the ride was worth it.

My route, which was a kind of work in progress, was basically this:
Google Map...

Except I didn't take the 33/166 north through Taft, instead I hit one of my favorite (and less traveled) roads, Soda Lake Rd. ...Google Maps won't even let me route through it, probably because about 25 miles of it isn't paved. ...but I'll get to that.

Leaving Moorpark by the "back way" I made my way down Grimes Canyon to be greeted by weather like this:

...and the creative work of our local stoner kids who love to carve in the sandstone along the road; some of it is actually quite good!

From there I took another back way vs. the length of hwy 126 just for the scenery. From then it was 126 to the 5 fwy up over the grapevine to Frazier Park. At Frazier Mountain Park Rd. I headed west with a slight detour up Mt. Pinos. ...it was a little chilly, but otherwise beautiful!

Then it was back down to lower elevations, and higher temps, through Pine Mountain Club and onto a great stretch of road, Cerro Noroeste (or as I call it, Cerro No-Arresta); this road used to be amazing, now it has the peculiar ability to make you positive you have a flat front tire! ...still a great road though, and the views are awesome.

As this is the order I took the photos in, I'll mention that I mounted an Axio tail bag to the passenger portion of the seat. It's the V.2 of their tail bag, and hard to find, but I like the way it looks and fits, and it proved really handy as a place to stash my crap without having to mount any of the hard cases.

It was about this time that I rolled 2000 miles on the Odometer, so I took a photo to show tire wear for future comparison with other brands.

At the bottom of Cerro, you make a right onto 33, then an immediate left onto Soda Lake Rd. ...for some reason none of my friends ever want to go riding with me!

...but I love this road! I've taken every bike I've owned (since living in California, anyway) out here for some photos; once I've put a bike through this loop, I feel she really belongs to me. The V12 handled the dirt, rocks and sand beautifully. ...it doesn't hurt that they must've plowed this season as there was almost no washboard anywhere!

Brace yourselves for my photo-masturbation now! :redface:

Here's a good shot of how the Axio tail bag and the Akro look in profile:

And here's a pano view of Soda Lake Rd.

...I can't stop!!!

The build quality and sound of the Akro are both top notch!

And here's a sound clip of me running Mulholland from Cornell Rd. to Malibu Canyon Rd. recorded on my Tascam DR-07, wrapped in a towel and shoved in the tail-bag.
Uncorked Akropovic on Mulholland.

At the west end of Soda Lake it meets up with one of my all time favorite motorcycling roads, hwy 58. ...this road has everything from tight, banked twisties, to open sweepers, to loooong straights, and even some house sized whoops that you can get air on if you're too close to the ton!

...but the views make it that much sweeter!

Hwy 58 dumps you off in Santa Margarita, a very small town that may be one of the last places in SoCal you actually pump your gas before you pay!!!

They only sell diesel and regular, but the VFR didn't seem to care; and since I'd been on a blinking bar for 20 some miles I didn't care either!!! :mellow:

My turning around point was Morrow Bay:

Which is just down the 101 fwy, then up the 1 (Pacific Coast Hwy), so it adds about 30 miles of going out of the way all said, but it's worth it to get off the beaten path.

Beauty and the Beast?

How about just beauty???

From Morro Bay to my home in Moorpark is about 175 miles and it was already getting dark, so it was the slab home on the 101 / PCH (not too shabby). I did stop off at the last minute for a sunset pano though.

...then home!