HadesOmega VS The Snake x3! TOUGE HUNTER!

[HadesOmega]

So one of things on my bucket list was to ride "The Snake" you see all those videos of cars and motorcycle riding Edward's Corner. It's ridiculously popular, world renowned. Jay Leno shoots a lot of videos there too. So pretty much whenever I was in that neck of the woods I hit up The Snake. So here is my drive and ride reports for every time I challenged The Snake!

So for those that don't know The Snake is a stretch of twisties or mountain pass or touge road that is along the Mulholland Highway in the Los Angeles area. Its tucked away in the Santa Monica mountains. It's a 21 turn section of the Mulholland Highway starting from the Rock Store diner going up to Edward's Corner the famous hairpin turn where lots of crashes occur. It really popular for it's crashes and the gallery. It's short but technical and fairly steep hillclimb. It's not the most epic stretch of road but it has that how you say pizzazz to it. To date I have visited The Snake on 3 separate occasions on a Mitsubishi Eclipse, Suzuki DR650, and Kawasaki KLR650. Here's my story for each!

 

[HadesOmega]

I know this is suppose to be a motorcycle ride report but the first time I drove the snake in my 1998 Mitsubishi Eclipse GST. I attended MOD2016 which is Mitsubishi Owners Day. It's an event held at Mitsubishi's North American Headquarters in Cypress California. On the way home from that event I hit up The Snake.

There's my car surrounded by Evos

Really nice old school Mitsubishi's the Colt and Galant VR4 (I own a Galant VR4 also)

 

[HadesOmega]

So time to head home and drive The Snake. So the interesting thing about this trip to The Snake is I think it had the MOST traffic that day. It was the busiest I've ever seen it out of the 3 times I went. The good thing about that is that I got my picture taken on The Snake. There is a dude that posts up at the the top at Edward's Corner and he take photos of the cars and motorcycles that pass through and sells them. There's a couple people that do it because the 2nd time someone else got my picture, but more on that later. Normally you'd get your photo from the Rockstore Photos.

So here's the story, I hit up Mullholland Highway and I try to drive The Snake but it's closed off because some riders crashed in the middle section. So for maybe like an hour you couldn't get through. I tried probably like 3 times. It's a freakin circus out here today, lots of riders and drivers. Here's some picture at the Rock Store.

Rockstore

Nice ThruxtonR

Inside the Rockstore diner

Also don't let just The Snake stop you from enjoying the rest of Mulholland Highway. From the section past The Snake is also very fun twisties to ride and it'll take you all the way to Highway 1 which is what I wound up doing after driving The Snake.

 

[HadesOmega]

So like I mentioned I tried to go up it about 3 times and the 3rd time it was clear. I wound up hanging out for like an hour it was so annoying and hot. It gets pretty warm in the canyon. I wound up driving all the canyons around Mulholland Hwy and they didn't disapoint.

 

[HadesOmega]

And here's my Snake picture

HadesOmega x Eclipse GST vs The Snake

youtu.be/qHBBZ4O5Gpw

 

[Maddevill]

Love this. Tell me, in your opinion, what is so different about that last corner that so many bikes lose the rear end at the exit ? I've seen tons of videos that show the bike, almost out of the corner just slide it's ass away for no apparent reason.

Mad

 

[bcj]

There's a hump across the road at the top of the corner.
Right where the rubber burns go all waggly.
Upsets the suspension enormously right where you need traction most.

Took this shot on a road trip in '13.

 

[HadesOmega]

Love this. Tell me, in your opinion, what is so different about that last corner that so many bikes lose the rear end at the exit ? I've seen tons of videos that show the bike, almost out of the corner just slide it's ass away for no apparent reason.

Mad

Yeah I don't know I've ridden/drove it 3 times, it looks a lot faster in real life than video =P It's like any other hairpin, it banked a bit also. But I think most of the reason people crash there is because they're trying to do some showboating and pushing their bike or skills to far. There is a corner that freaks me out everytime and it's midway through the snake. It's it's a like a 90 degree right hander that's banked, it's like your riding up onto a wall makes me panic everytime. You'll see it when I post the riding vids =P

Oh yeah also there is the thing about crossing lines. Supposedly if you cross the line the snake will bite you and you'll go down. And it probably because your pushing the limits of your tires and the line is slippery.


youtu.be/d-7XlHRG0KA


youtu.be/MRYb0vGW8AQ

 

[HadesOmega]

My second encounter with The Snake was on the Cactus Puncher DR650. It was just after LAB2V 2016. I rode back to Palmdale through Route66. I was going to trailer my bike to San Diego for something and before leaving LA I unloaded the DR650 near Mulholland Highway. Since I had my van with me I could leave all my adventure riding gear behind and ride with the DR in the lightest configuration. There also apparently was not much fuel in the bike also so perfect conditions to attack The Snake!

Here is the track for The Snake. Instead of driving all the way through I just stopped at Edward's Corner or the carspot every time. I went up twice and down twice then returned to base.

Here is the Cactus Puncher after conquering The Snake.

Edward's Corner

Looking out towards the bottom of The Snake

Lovely day for a ride on Mulholland Highway

Also here's a bonus picture I took in the morning before I left Palmdale I went to Blackbird Park and there they had not 1 but 2 SR-71 Blackbirds on display unfortunately they were closed but I got this picture over the fence.

 

[HadesOmega]

Picture of the information placard at the carspot

Panoramics

GPS

 

[HadesOmega]

So here's where I got VERY LUCKY riding The Snake today. Today was an off day at The Snake. Remember how last time I was able to get a picture because it was a busy day on The Snake. Well today there wasn't much of a gallery but I got very lucky as this dude in a Honda Goldwing was at Edward's corner getting pictures of a Nissan GTR driving The Snake. Well as I rode through Edward's Corner that dude shot a picture of me. So when I got home I remembered he did that and I did some internet searching and I actually FOUND the dude that took that picture. He's one of the guys that does The Snake photography and I bought my picture! Also I tried to chase the Goldwing and GTR down The Snake but I couldn't catch them =P

 

[HadesOmega]

Here's my Snake picture!

HadesOmega x CactusPuncher DR650 vs The Snake

youtu.be/Bz3TnDUlh-A

 

[HadesOmega]

I also got a quite a few action shots of me that trip but LAB2V photos cost $$$$ I take a lotta pictures but I rarely get pictures of myself in action. The Snake picture was bargain if I remember correctly. :thumbup The cheapest option for those LAB2V pictures was to buy a small print and scan it myself which is what I did. To actually download the picture costs more!

Couldn't they have used a better background for this one also =(

This ones my treasure

 

[HadesOmega]

The 3rd time I visited The Snake was after Anime Expo 2017 (July 2017) pretty much right after I returned from the TAT. I rode my 1992 Kawsaki KLR650 supermoto. I have to say the supermoto KLR rips going up and down The Snake! I headed up after riding the Angeles Crest Highway and after I headed to PCH. That day was definitely a quiet day on The Snake no picture for me today but a sweet ride it was. The KLR did great, before the trip I had just installed a new Shinko 705 in the rear. Why I can't seem to get rid of this bike it's just a joy to ride. Also the trunk and panniers were loaded up!

Edward's Corner

The corner before Edward's Corner

Looks like they were restocking the Rock Store that day

Pacific Ocean

 

[HadesOmega]

HadesOmega x Barbie's Supermoto KLR650 vs The Snake


youtu.be/06SipaF4t28