Renting for a day in SF - what to ride to see?

[jwhite518]

Though, I might have to shorten the loop slightly.

Plenty of chances to bail on that route. You could skip the Napa Valley and just take 101 south to SF. Or if you don't want to go as far up the coast as Stewarts Point, you can head east at Jenner, go through Guerneville, and then do the Wine Country bit. You should call dubbelju and ask if they sell Mad Maps. There's a good one that covers the area. It's also at bookstores.

[Nny]

If you get hungry in Valley Ford and you (and your pillion) like diner food, check out the Route 1 diner.  

Nice people and yummy sandwiches..

[Lon]

Well, we got back in one piece (and with no new scratches)  .  We shortened the route some, so it was 197 miles in total.  I think we did okay, given it was 2-up on new roads and on a bike I'd never ridden before.

We took a fair amount of pictures on the PCH, but not much apart from that.

Thanks for the advice on route planning and dubbelju.

I'll try to remember to write up a ride report.  One thing that was crazy for me was the traverse over the mountains on Rt. 1 from Miur Woods to the coast.  Gad zooks, that was a lot of work on the RT 2-up...  

Stuff I noticed about the RT:
 * Good lord, that thing's big.
 * It wheelies just fine.
 * It handles great in fast sweepers  (above ~35mph or so), but feels a bit nervous in slow/tight stuff compared to my R1100S (Note: might just be... well, having 70x as much road experience on the R1100S).
 * Good lord, that thing's big.
 * The digital cruise control rocked, for the 8 seconds I got to use it.
 * The RT is not for people like me.  I had the lowest-available seat on, and didn't flat foot ... ever ... even with the wife on to help squash it down.

I loved CA1.  I'll have to ride it end-to-end someday, but probably on a lighter/smaller bike.  The girl at dubbelju had a KTM690SM   - and she's never ridden it north of the city.