Bill Muneio

Headed North this weekend with some friends to ride Nacimiento Fergusson Road. We made our way up to Pozo Saloon for lunch then headed towards Fort Hunter Liggett stopping in Paso Robles for ice, beer & food. Then it was off to enjoy some of the roads around Lake Nacimiento. Eventually arriving at Fort Hunter Liggett I was surprised that you no longer need to check in at the gate, you can just ride on through? We checked out the Old Mission San Antonio de Padua founded back in 1771 pretty cool. Then took Nacimiento Fergusson a short distance to our campsite for the night getting there around 7pm. The next morning we continued on to the coast and Hwy1 What a great road, nice and twisty with some great views! It’s narrow though so be careful on those tight blind corners and watch for loose dirt/gravel. And what a temperature change, hot and dry inland then when we dropped down to the coast it was cold, foggy and wet. Had breakfast in Cambria and continued towards home. I made a small detour to the 166 to Tepusquet rd to Foxen cyn and back to Santa Barbara. Great weekend with lots of good roads and great friends!

Trip to Nacimiento Fergusson Rd Day 1

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Nacimiento Fergusson Rd Day 2

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Went for a quick ride yesterday to Pine Mt campground. I have ridden past the turn off many times and decided it was time to see where it went. The road is partially paved and in pretty bad shape but the views were nice and the campground itself looked pretty cool. It’s nestled in amongest the pine trees and theres a total of 6 sites. Theres no water and 1 pit toilet all the sites had a picnic table and a fire pit. There wasn’t a soul around when I was there.

Pine Mountain

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Ok so Spring is here and Summer is just around the corner and if your like me that means it’s time to start planning some longer multi-day rides. Fortunately finding time to take off work is relatively easy right now because work is painfully slow, unfortunately this means that the cash flow is also extremely slow. But there is hope and it’s called “Moto Camping”. To be honest I almost prefer camping to motels and what I’ve found works really well is sprinkling a few motel nights into the camping mix. By allowing myself a nice hot shower and a real bed every once in awhile I can stay on the road for quite some time and the longer on the road the more I get to ride and the more I get to ride the more I get to see. It’s a win win. So the planning has already begun with a spring trip to Death Valley then a group trip with Cal Coast Riders up the western side of the Sierra’s following some of Hwy 49 then there’s the BMW rally in Oregon and at least one more trip to Big Sur and further exploration of the Bay area and of course I have got to fit in Sonora, Ebbetts ands Monitor passes in. There’s a lot to do and see! And I’ve got to keep this blog current for both people that read it. You may have noticed I have added another page category on the blog here “Moto Camping” and to start it’s got all the different campgrounds I’ve been with some pics and information about them as well as a short review. I plan on expanding this area so stay tuned for that. Your comments are always appreciated.

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Everytrail is a site where you combine your GPS tracklog and your digital photos to share with friends. The site is free; and the process of creating trips and personalizing them with your photos is simple. Used in conjunction with the iPhone (yes there’s an app for that) it’s a great way to share your rides. You will see a few of my rides that I’ve recorded with Everytrail right here on my blog. The best thing about using EveryTrail with the iPhone is just how easy it makes it, you simply open the app on your iPhone and hit the start tracking button. (You can also upload your routes directly from your gps no iPhone required.) Within the app, there’s a photo option so you can record all those great moments of your ride and Everytrail will actually place them on the map where they were taken. When you’re done you name the ride and enter a description/story then upload it, that’s it. You can also post it to your facebook and twitter accounts at the same time. This is usually a pretty quick affair depending on how many pictures you’ve taken and how long the route is. Also new for version 3 is the ability to find trips based on your location and download them to your iPhone. The trips are all categorized by activity such as motorcycling, biking, hiking, sking etc. Also stats are presented on a graph for distance, speed and elevation. The one thing you should be aware of is it sucks up your phones battery power pretty quickly so you might want to do as I have and plug your phone into an accessory outlet on your bike.

EveryTrail website and demo video (opens a new window)
Here’s a good example of an EveryTrail trip and how it might be used.

The weather couldn’t have been better. Today’s ride with the Cal Coast Motorsports Riding group was great fun. We headed up to Avila Beach which is about 100 miles North of Santa Barbara and enjoyed lunch at Fat Cats Cafe. The roads were in great condition for the most part and the hills were vivid green after all the recent rains. There was a little holiday traffic but we managed to stay on some of the more scenic secondary roads of the area for a good portion of the ride. Thanks to everyone who went for making it a great day! Check out the route and pictures below. And don’t forget to sign up for my news letter to stay informed of upcoming rides, trips and events.

Cal Coast Avila Beach

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Dual-Sport: A Path to Adventure

After recently joining the quickly growing “dual sport” aficionados with the purchase of my 1150GS I ran across this article and thought it was pretty good. I’m totally hooked on the dual sport bikes now and will soon be selling my beloved 1150 RT(let me know if your interested).

Written by J.C. Current
Tuesday, 02 February 2010 02:42

Taken on my New Zealand trip in December. Click on the pic to read about it.

A segment in motorcycling which is still growing slightly, even in these sad economic times, is what is known as dual-sport riding. In fact, it may be because of the economy that the number of dual-sport motorcycles being purchased is an increasing percentage of overall motorcycle sales. Dual-sport motorcycles are built to ride on paved streets and also designed to handle well in the dirt; at least a majority of them do (some are more street-oriented than others).

The appeal is rather simple; no loading up your truck and driving out to a remote area – or your local MX track – unloading it and riding, and then packing it all up when you are tired and dirty. It would seem obvious how advantageous it would be to ride to that remote area instead. The bonus is that you get to enjoy the roads both to and from your off-road playground location; and these are often down long sinuous asphalt which is fun to even drive on. And, bonus, most dual sport motorcycles are rather inexpensive – read: CHEAP.

Read the rest of the article here

No work today so I took the GS out for a ride in the mountains behind Santa Barbara. We had gotten a little rain last night but that was all cleared up by this morning and now the sun was out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky although the wind was kicking up pretty good. Between the 154, where it crosses the San Marcos Pass, and Refugio Road, where it rises to the ridge out of Santa Ynez, there is a section of West Camino Cielo Road that is dirt.  You’re on a sharp high ridge with the sea on one side and Lake Cachuma down in the valley on the other. It eventually terminates into numerous dirt roads which descend either to Gaviota or the Santa Ynez Valley .or a paved road down to   The road provides access to locations such as the popular climbing area Lizard’s Mouth, the Winchester Gun Club, and most notably Ronald Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo.

West Camino Cielo

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It’s been a week now since I got back from New Zealand and it’s good to be home with family and friends. But I have to be honest I really miss New Zealand, life there seems just a little simpler,(ok a lot simpler) granted I was on vacation so everything was simpler but still when you consider that the entire country of New zealand has only a slightly higher population then the city of Los Angeles and that their unemployment rate is almost half of California’s it’s easy to see why life might be a little simpler. Traffic over there is when you see 3 other cars and or sheep on the road. And the people really don’t seem to care about their material possessions like we do here. Read that as there’s not a lot of people (actually I didn’t see anybody) driving fancy cars and ridiculously over sized SUV’s while talking on their cell phones, drinking their Iced Single Vente, 7 pump Peppermint, Caramel Sauce Top and Bottom, Light Ice, No whip, Mocha beverage and making an appointment for their dog’s aromatherapy massage. None the less I’m not moving quite yet, I still have $10 left on my Starbucks card. But I do miss the New Zealand life. When I got off work today I went for a short ride in the mountains behind Santa Barbara and was reminded of one of the benefits of living here, the weather! So I guess if anyone want’s to get me another Starbucks gift card for Christmas I’ll be around here for awhile to enjoy it. Although I did see a Starbucks in Christchurch hmm.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE

The end is near! Actually the end is here, I got home today before I even left (departed Christchurch Friday @ 10:30am and got to Los Angeles on Friday @ 6:30am ). Thursday was my last riding day and I left Lake Tekapo in the morning under sunny skies but they were short lived. I had rain pretty much all the way into Christchurch and the scenic inland route 72  through the Canterbury Plains is primarily flat and straight. I passed through  a number of small towns in route thinking of all that I had experienced in that last 12 days  not ready for it to end. By the time I got to Christchurch the rain had stopped and I found some lunch and had a nice time walking around the city center.  Then it was time to get back to South Pacific Motorbike Tours to return the bike. It was like leaving an old friend turning in the keys. I thoroughly enjoyed New Zealand and highly recommend the good folks at South Pacific Motorbike Tours. I hope to get back soon as 13 days was not nearly enough time to cover the South island and I have yet to ride any of the North island!
Cheers Bill

Was awakened this morning by massive thunder. A large storm had rolled in during the evening and it is now pissing down rain. A guy in the hostel tells me the TV weather report is calling for “violent thunderstorms” and up to 100mm of rain! Now of course I really have no idea how much 100mm is but it sounds like a lot. The fun is about to begin, but first I have a chain to replace. I made my way over to the mechanic’s after breakfast and both he and the chain were there waiting for me. He assured me that by the time he was done the sun would be out and all would be good. About an hour later the chain was on and the rain was still pouring down, oh well what ya gonna do hard to find a good mechanic and miracle worker. My plan had changed once again as I had little hope of actually being able to see Aoraki / Mt Cook the satellite images on the internet showed the center of the storm basically directly over it. So the new destination was Lake Tekapo just West of Mt Cook. After a couple of hours of riding in the pouring rain I arrived at the Aoraki / Mt Cook turn off but there was no way in hell I was going to be able to see the mountain today I was lucky to see the sign. I choose to keep going about 10 minutes later is when the gale force winds kicked in just to make the riding a little bit more challenging as it gotten so mundane earlier going over Lindis pass in the pouring rain I arrived safely in Lake Tekapo just as the sun broke through, some sort of sign I guess if you believe in that stuff. All the cheap sleeps were booked solid so I’m in a real motel tonight with an awesome lake view. Christchurch tomorrow.