Saturday July 30th, 2016 - Malibu
July?!? But its January?!? Yeah I know, but this is how it's happening so deal with it. Besides, this is just one of those things that you do whenever. Just like, 'Hey, let's go to a swap meet' or 'I have an idea, lets go to the beach.' No biggie man. HOWEVER, riding the canyon road of Los Angeles is a pretty special thing. Whether its the Malibu Hills, Angeles Crest Highway, or Ortega Highway. All of it is curvy goodness. I have stopped riding these roads several years ago because I started doing track days on the motorcycle. But then I started with 24 Hours of Lemons car racing and stopped doing motorcycle track days. THEN, I stopped doing that and was doing nothing again. Luckily, there are plenty of people who still want to ride these mountain roads; enter Steven.
Steven has asked to go on a motorcycle ride for months and months. Finally we just picked a weekend and scheduled it. Unfortunately I double booked with Holly's visit. But like I always do, I made lemonade out of country time powdered lemonade. Just add water! Holly has never been on the back of a motorcycle, I haven't ridden in over 6 months, I haven't ridden a canyon road in over 3 years; the logical solution? Take Holly "2 up" on a ride through the Malibu canyons with Steven! And that is just what we did.
All these canyon road have some iconic restaurant along or at the midpoint of the ride. Ortega highway has Lookout Roadhouse, Angeles Crest has Newman's, and Malibu has The Rock Store. On any given beautiful weekend, these restaurants have dozens and dozens to over a hundred bikes and cars parked out front. Almost always there is some super sexy bike or something really rare or something really tricked out. The Rock Store is known for having Jay Leno drive some motorcycle or car from his giant collection out there frequently. I haven't run into him yet, but I've been practicing my impersonation just to be ready.
On the way back we rode through a stretch of highway that usually has a couple of photographers in specific corners. This weekend was no different, except for the fact that I dropped Holly off to take some pictures of Steven and I dragging some serious knee through these corners. Unfortunately, Holly is still learning how to use my camera and totally missed all those shots so you'll just have to take my word for it! I'm kidding; we're both wimps and scared. We barely got our butts off the seat. It's funny, when you're riding, you think that you are hanging way off the bike. When you look at the pictures, you can see that this is totally not the case.
We finish the mountain road portion of the ride and take PCH from Malibu through Santa Monica and into Marina Del Rey. Gorgeous views, fancy cars, the Getty Villa, Duke's Malibu; this stretch of road has been used in hundreds of tv shows, movies, and commercials. Here is our little slice of fame; this stretch of road has now been featured in Rob's Photo Blog! That pretty much makes it more famous than Bruno Mars.
No accidents, no tickets, no engine problems. Rubber on the road 100% of the time, a great ride. Next time, Angeles Crest!
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