Rudy's Road Rankings - How the best roads in the Bay stack up to each other

clutchslip

clutchslip

Not as fast as I look.
Nice job. :ride

I think it would be even better if you could add another rating criteria so people could vote. Perhaps a one to ten on quality of the road. Not all the other detail, but just a simple opinion. Of course you would have to collect that data.
 
Izzy_C

Izzy_C

Well-known member
bradlys said:
Still haven't done kings mountain? It's how you get from Woodside to skyline very quickly. Jump over skyline and get to another decent road from there too.

Best midweek during midday. Weekdays gets some commuters. Weekends gets morons and lots of raging cyclists.

I think it's a crap road for motorcycling tho. Even for sporty cars, it's a bit sketchy. Some of the turns corkscrew so fast that you'll scrape violently on the way up or down at speed. Same with the bumps... Not an issue on a bike so far.

Just be wary of the bumps. The shade hides them well and that road changes every year with new bumps. Going modest speed, not an issue. It's when you're going fast that you'll lose some teeth.

Great to hill climb or smoke your brakes on the way down! I've definitely come down with my brakes smoking all over the place. Thought they caught fire! ��
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Weekends its alright, it's got the same benefit as all the other 1.5 lane or dotted line-the-entire-way roads... you can pass whenever you want :)

Get by folks before the first few corners and then you'll probably not see someone till the park... and then you've got dotted yellows so just :ride crack that throttle open. The bumps aren't that bad, even on my Beemer, just stand up on the pegs, some of them will get you a little airborne.

Cyclists are out on weekends but the road is usually so quiet its no issue to enter the oncoming lane so you are ways away from them... I got passed by someone on a KTM sumo who was FLYING... I thought I was fast :teeth
 
rudolfs001

rudolfs001

Booty Hunter
Underdog said:
Meh.
We don’t ride short segments and then teleport.
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Good thing this isn't a route planner, but a tool to help you plan routes!

clutchslip said:
Nice job. :ride

I think it would be even better if you could add another rating criteria so people could vote. Perhaps a one to ten on quality of the road. Not all the other detail, but just a simple opinion. Of course you would have to collect that data.
Click to expand...

I thought about doing so, but it's more complicated than it seems with Google Sheets. If I ever get around to making a proper website for this, then that would be part of it.
 
Maddevill

Maddevill

KNGKAW
rudolfs001 said:
Living in the Bay it's not exactly possible to scrimp and save, because of the cost of housing alone.

How did you finally get on top of things?

I've been through southern Idaho, and it's...ok, not bad, not great, and I've heard norther Idaho is gorgeous.
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It is possible to find an affordable home in California, just not in the Bay Area. We bought a house in Shingletown up near Lassen. 1 acre, 3 bd 2 ba, oversize 2 car garage. Can ride dirt bike right out of the garage. Near highways 36, 299, 55, 89 3. It needed some work, almost all cosmetic. I paid $116k

Mad
 
rudolfs001

rudolfs001

Booty Hunter
Maddevill said:
It is possible to find an affordable home in California, just not in the Bay Area. We bought a house in Shingletown up near Lassen. 1 acre, 3 bd 2 ba, oversize 2 car garage. Can ride dirt bike right out of the garage. Near highways 36, 299, 55, 89 3. It needed some work, almost all cosmetic. I paid $116k

Mad
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The one big issue with that is...how on earth will I have an income living somewhere so remote?

Also, I'm single, and really don't want to move to the sticks while single, because I'm not too fond of living out my days single.
 
R

rhdsmnd

Member
One rec: I did highway 1 from Santa Rosa to SF on a random Sunday at sunset, and it was one of the most beautiful stretches of scenery I have ever seen. I'll never forget how the dark misty forest finally gave way to the wide-open Bolinas Lagoon, and the way the sunlight shimmered off the water, and colored the hills with a golden-reddish brown. After that segment, you climbed the side of Mount Tam with the Pacific Ocean on your right, along with an array of nice parked cars and people glowing with happiness as they laughed and took pictures with their friends. The last rays of sun brought an extra sparkle to their eyes and a calm serenity to the ride. It was a quintessential California moment. Def recommend riding it again if it wasn't that good the first time you evaluated it
 
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rudolfs001

rudolfs001

Booty Hunter
rhdsmnd said:
One rec: I did highway 1 from Santa Rosa to SF on a random Sunday at sunset, and it was one of the most beautiful stretches of scenery I have ever seen. I'll never forget how the dark misty forest finally gave way to the wide-open Bolinas Lagoon, and the way the sunlight shimmered off the water, and colored the hills with a golden-reddish brown. After that segment, you climbed the side of Mount Tam with the Pacific Ocean on your right, along with an array of nice parked cars and people glowing with happiness as they laughed and took pictures with their friends. The last rays of sun brought an extra sparkle to their eyes and a calm serenity to the ride. It was a quintessential California moment. Def recommend riding it again if it wasn't that good the first time you evaluated it
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Thanks for the tip! That sounds like a great riding memory :)

I do have the southern half of that stretch of CA 1 on my list, labeled as "CA 1 (Tamalpais to Olema)"

I'll add the bit from Olema to Jenner, which I managed to overlook.
 
moto-rama

moto-rama

Well-known member
.#discoganya

Fish Rock Road is OK for dirt riding, but a street bike.....nope. I tested it out on a 2003 R1, and not so great, especially the steep downhill in to Gualala.

And the first thing that came to mind when I read "Sumo" as a kind of bike, instead of SuperMoto....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtbE3tZLkCs
 
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rudolfs001

rudolfs001

Booty Hunter
moto-rama said:
Fish Rock Road is OK for dirt riding, but a street bike.....nope.
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Agreed. It's on there because it's a renowned road. I suspect it'll get a relatively low overall rating with an ADV only recommendation. I still wanted to list it, because of its reputation.
 
budman

budman

General Menace
Staff member
Rudy... good stuff.

I have this book and have found its ranking system pretty solid.

When I looked at a couple of my fav's on your list they were not ranked as I high as I would rank.

Mt. Hamilton for one. The reason I give it such a high ranking in my head is because.....
Low traffic, curves for days, challenging, lack of driveways and cross streets. I like a lot of the SC Mountain Roads, but the density of the population has affected how often I will choose them vs. Hammie.

You recommend a Sumo... that is solid. I have done that. I love it on my Mulitstrada too and see real sport bikes on it all the time. Still good for them too.

I got to get into my garage and pull out the book to confirm.
 
FreeRyde

FreeRyde

The Curmudgeon
budman said:
You recommend a Sumo... that is solid. I have done that. I love it on my Mulitstrada too and see real sport bikes on it all the time. Still good for them too.
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This.

I sat here scratching my head... Hammy is more fun on bigger bikes. Most supermoto's don't have the beans to really rip up the mountain. :x
 
rudolfs001

rudolfs001

Booty Hunter
FreeRyde said:
This.

I sat here scratching my head... Hammy is more fun on bigger bikes. Most supermoto's don't have the beans to really rip up the mountain. :x
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Really? Hammy is very tight, and very narrow. On my sport bikes I don't even get out of first or second gear most of the time, barely having time to crack the throttle before braking for the next turn.

The tight back and forths are ideal for a sumo.

Sport bikes are better suited to higher speed turns (at least 60 mph cornering speed). On Hammy, you're not touching that on most turns.

Also, there is a lot of traffic on weekends (when most people can go riding). There are cars, cyclists, and cars going around cyclists into your lane.

With the narrow lanes, steep drop-offs, blind turns, and traffic, it's more nerve-wracking than fun. There are certainly a lot of curves, but it takes more than curves to make a good road.

Even so, 7 might be a bit too low for the Fun rating. I'll re-rate it next time I'm out that way.
 
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budman

budman

General Menace
Staff member
I have more fun on my multi than the motard by a bit in general. For sure the 50 miles of slabbing to get there is way better. :laughing

Motard is a hoot for sure. On the Multi I only touch first gear 3 times unless I am chasing someone fast.. then maybe 9 or 10.

While most of it is 2nd or 3rd gear I still love it. There are plenty of areas to apply the legal speed limit of 55. :teeth

I went up and back yesterday. Once passed the Grandview we had Zero cars on the way up (because the one we did see pulled over into the park before we caught him). Coming down we had 3 and two pulled over for us).

Someday's there are more, but compared to most of the roads on your list that are close for me (PageMill etc) and fun you will find more than that per mile ridden.

No doubt the road is bumpy here and there and narrow here and there and dirty here or there, but for me it is always fun here and there.

They just dropped new asphalt on the first 6 miles. It was still dirty and fresh, but it will set soon. Wonder how much further they are going??

Keep up the good work Rudy!
 
Climber

Climber

Well-known member
Wow Rudy!

That is an impressive list! :thumbup

Now, like everything else, there will be other opinions. It'd be cool if there was a way for others to add comments.
 
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