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Above is the route I ended up taking. The 1st thing I need to say is I had never been on a ride more than 40-50 miles
just tooling around the Bay Area. This was my first ride anywhere that I had to actually get another tank of gas and keep going.
I had a function to go to in Reno and used it as an excuse to go see what riding was all about (I've also only been riding a year)
Saturday morning at 7:00am is when I pulled out.
I had wanted to get a Throttlemeister Cramp Buster for my bike and my local Cycle Gear didn't have one
so as a dual purpose visit, point B on the map was the brand new HUGE Cycle Gear in Sacramento.
(I picked up my Cramp Buster (well worth all of the 12 bucks!) and a small can of chain lube.)
I'm getting ahead of myself though.
I started off going out 4 from Antioch and went over the Antioch bridge. (I've driven this many times and even rode it a couple)
Where I started to vary though was instead of cutting over on 12 to get to 5 or 99 as I have many times in the car, I just
went straight out 160 toward Isleton and rode 160 for a good while. (Very beautiful out there) Here's a pic of a bridge I went over....
After the scenic ride out 160, I hopped on 5 for a short blast to Cycle Gear. I got up there a little before
they opened, so I stopped at a Starbucks right down the street for a donut and some lemonade to wait
the 15 minutes for them to open. The new Cycle Gear up there is HUGE compared to my local stores.
If you are in the area, definitely drop by and check it out. (If anyone does, they didn't have much signage,
go into the deadend at the end of Date and go over to the left, it sits along the freeway side)
After picking up the Cramp Buster and chain lube, I spent the next 7 miles going down Madison to catch Hwy 50
to head into the mountains trying to get used to holding the throttle.
(At first, it's a little strange riding in traffic trying to avoid pushing it down. After you get used to it though it's very nice)
Started heading up 50 and it was just gorgeous....
I stopped in Pollock Pines to fuel up and get harassed by the locals to put the bike
through their "car wash". Um no, and I continued up 50....
I did NOT gas here, but it was the most expensive place I saw on my route.
For you non-Californians...yes it sucks!
Continuing on 50 I started getting closer to Lake Tahoe....
Upon arriving in Lake Tahoe, I made a stop for some quick Mclunch and took some
more pics. This pic was right as I was crossing the state line. I was thinking, "crap, I can't split lanes anymore"
So for good measure, I split traffic right before taking this picture
A picture at the lake...they just don't do it justice....this was at a little rest area for a bathroom stop.
After meandering around the lake, I cut over on 28 (which they were doing construction
and had it down to 1 shared lane) Luckily I hit it right when my way was allowed to go
as the sign said to expect delays up to 20 minutes. YIKES!
28 is a connector to 431 which comes into Reno called the Mt. Rose Hwy.
What's that white stuff called??? Just kidding of course....
Anybody that loves twisties will LOVE 431 coming in to Reno. I unfortunately like
to just cruise slow mountain curves and not quick turn backs.
Had a good time at my function and rode home Sunday morning for time rather than
views so I took 80 to 5 back home. Stopped once at the Foresthill exit and made it
in less than 4 hours. I only took one picture of the ride home.....
If you've come this far and want to see all the pictures I took the link is:
http://jeff.alfordcomputers.com/ridepics/index.htm
All in all I had a really good time and am looking VERY forward to the next adventure.
I highly recommend the Throttlemeister Cramp Buster as it helped my hand immensely.
Here is a link to it for sale at Cycle Gear:
http://www.cyclegear.com/spgm.cfm?L1=&L2=&L3=&L4=&item=CRB_07-4071&tier2=3092
The other thing I can recommend is some headphones I got at Target, they are the
soft earbud style and have noise cancelling built into them.
(the noise cancel unit takes 1 AAA battery) Music and earplugs in 1!
Some people will probably NOT recommend using these, but I loved them.
Thanks all!
Jeff
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