Me, a blonde, 2 Ducati's....3,000 miles (and then some)

Looks like it's time for another short trip. Heading down to the Corbin factory to have a seat fitted for the new SF-848, so we're gonna make a trip out of it. After finishing up with the seat at Corbin, we're headed to Cambria for the night then make our way south through big sur and on to Monterey. Pics and report to come. Should be a really nice weekend too:

Yay!

Looking forward to a good story and some photos!!

Have a safe trip.

JG

Leaving. Sometimes good. Sometimes bad. In the case of our trips, it's usually not the smoothest (see previous details of 3,000 mile trip departure). In this case, it involved my significant other having worked the night shift the night before this particular departure. In other words….She'd be coming home from working all night only to get on the Ducati to ride the short stint to the Corbin seat factory, where we were headed to have a lower seat made for her new Streetfighter 848. Just a few days before she insisted she'd be fine. What can I say, she's a trooper.
So gist of this trip: Go to the Corbin factory in Hollister (about 90 miles from us) to have a seat made and make a road trip out of it. The weather was supposed to be nice out and we had a few days to do it in. This would be a good time to go to Cambria, a small seaside town we drove through on our drive/move here from Florida just a few years ago. With that as our destination and turn-around point the next stop after that would be on the way back, to Monterey, staying the night there and riding home the following day. So enough of that. Off we go…..

We left at noon. The ride to Hollister would take about an hour and a half and was pretty straight forward (boring). Mainly stupor-highway, which we rarely take on our trips. Didn't really have much choice though. I knew we'd have to get there pretty quick to get started on the seat. The seat fitting process they said usually takes about 4 hours from the fitting and forming to the upholstery. They knew we were going to be arriving late and that we would likely have to come back to finish the next morning. No problem. We were staying down the road so we'd just stop there on our way out towards Cambria the next morning.
After Garmina took me to what it THOUGHT was the hotel (where I planned to stop real quick to check in and drop off our bags) but was actually a fence-post along side some farm-land, I punched in the address to Corbin instead. That, it didn't screw up. We got to Corbin right around 1:30 or so and when we pulled up they opened the garage door for us in order to bring both bikes inside:




Let me back-track for just a second: A few weeks back we installed a fender eliminator on each of our bikes. When we did so we somehow shorted out the rear license plate light on her bike. Fast forward to the trip down the highway towards Hollister, where I noticed Stephanie's headlight wasn't working either. Makes sense. It never even occurred to me at the time, but the tail-light and headlight….you get the picture. So back to the Corbin factory and the seat fitting process. While they had the seat off we figured we'd look into the fuse for the Headlight. The fuse which was labeled as the headlight seemed fine, so we wondered if it might be something else. Guess we'll have to look into it later tonight back at the hotel.

The guy helping us at Corbin was helpful and as I would think would be a necessity for this kind of work, patient. There was a lot of back and forth, some laughs and ultimately, a comfy/lower seat shaped for her. I'll spare you the back and forth involved in picking the materials used to cover it, but if any of you are married or live with someone…..you know how that went.

At least OUR seat was moving along quicker than the other poor basted that was there. He had been sent by the motorcycle shop he works for to get a seat done the previous day and had also spent the night. When he was looking it over he turned to me and said they had gotten the stitching wrong…..oops. guess he was going to be there a bit longer. Then, after going out to his truck, he locked his keys in it. Poor guy had stayed the night and just wanted to get back home to his wife and kids.

So at this point it's almost 4 o'clock and neither one of us had had lunch and Stephanie needed some sleep. They close at 4:30, so the plan was to get out of there, go to the hotel, check-in and leave in search of food. The hotel was only 2 miles down the road so that shouldn't take too long. We were pretty hungry AND Stephanie was without a functioning headlight so we went looking for the sushi place Stephanie found on Yelp which was just a block or so away from the hotel. Unfortunately though, it wouldn't open for another 20 minutes. So back towards the hotel to check in and drop our stuff off.

Our home for the night:




The hotel was decent for what we needed. The lady that checked us in was nice enough and pointed me in the direction of the first floor room I requested, with parking in front of it.





After a few minutes and with bags in the room, we left to get food.



Hollister isn't the most sophisticated place in the world, so I was somewhat surprised at the prices of the sushi in this place. It' wasn't cheap!! And yet, after a while the place was pretty packed. Who knew?? Maybe it was because we were so hungry, but the food was good. The service was good and the staff was friendly. All in all…a good experience. Good job again, Yelp.

One not so encouraging thing from dinner was when one of the waiters, who had come over to ask about the bikes, mentioned how bikes were being stolen so often in that area. THANKS for the words of encouragement buddy. No really, not the words you want to hear when traveling. And yeah, they're insured, but that would really out a damper on any trip, wouldn't it?

We finished up dinner and made our way back to the hotel. It was dark already and Stephanie would be riding behind me with no headlight. Good thing it was only just a few blocks away. I couldn't see her at all until she switched on her turn signal and used it as a marker of sorts. We made it back and parked in front of the room. A lot of trucks in the lot. Apparently theres a good bit of workers in town for this reason or the other.

Time to unpack and shower and of course, order more food. It was a damn early dinner for me so I would need more food before going to sleep. Some steamed chicken and broccoli would be delivered to us right around 9 o'clock, then some TV and off to bed. Tomorrow we'd pick up the seat and head towards Cambria, along HWY-1.

Keep it coming

DAY 2

Morning came soon enough and for Stephanie, WAY too soon. She had fallen asleep pretty early, but for someone like her, who can sleep competitively at a high level, it wasn't enough. But then again, that free breakfast she loves so much was calling her name. That breakfast would be ending at 9 o'clock so time to get going.

So thats where we found ourselves at just about 8:50…at breakfast:




While at breakfast, a man, his son and a friend of theirs came inside to have breakfast. They noticed us in our gear and asked about the bikes, which they had seen parked in the lot. They asked about our trip, where we were headed, etc, etc. They themselves were heading home from southern California where they had two entries in a classic car show: the first being a classic 1952 Ford truck with a dodge viper motor in it and the second being a Cadillac inspired scooter. You can see both HERE (http://www.americandreamcars.ca/html/1952_fiper__srt10_viper.html).



We talked for a bit and found that they too had ridden motorcycles (motocross) competitively when they were younger and were looking to get new, more "adult" bikes. We continued our conversation while finishing up breakfast they then invited us to take a look at the truck and scooter, which were outside in the trailer they were hauling. It's amazing to see the close to 6,000 hours of work that had gone into this truck project. Even better was the bond this father and son had created while working on these vehicles together. Again, you meet the nicest people on a while traveling on a Ducati

Time to pack up the bikes and head out. By now the process is one we can do without too much thought. First stop: Corbin. It was just past 10 o'clock and the seat should be done but now. The previous day we were able to see how the whole process of the seat manufacturing process took place. The whole experience was definitely a positive one. The people were very great and the facility is top notch. This morning would hopefully just involve checking to make sure the seat was ok and mounting it to the bike.

It was cold out that previous night, but not THAT cold. With this in mind, it was surprising that my bike had some trouble starting. Maybe time for a new battery? Will have to keep an eye on that. I try and be so prepared for everything else (GPS, tire repair kit, tools) that when something like this happens all I can think of is, "if the bike doesn't start I'm F#$%!D" and so is this trip".

On the way to Corbin, which again, is just a few miles down the road, we stopped at the gas station across the street fem the hotel. I was reluctant to even shut down the bike so quick, but figured it was probably fine. It was.

At corbin we pulled the bikes in once again. The guy that helped us the previous day saw us and went to go get the seat. While we waited we met another gentlemen that was there getting his seat done. Really nice guy that as it turns out is one of the people that runs the Pashnit website (from norcal).We traded stories back and forth a bit. In between the conversation our in-house seat expert came over with the seat and it looked great. Stephanie of course was happy with it and relieved that her "difficult" decision on the materials panned out.


(also of note, we (or Stephanie) researched the headlight problem a bit and found that others with the same problem had checked the 15 amp fuse under the seat instead of the 5 amp fuse that was marked as "light". That one we had checked the previous day and it was fine. Sure enough, we pulled it out while waiting at Corbin and it was burnt out. I installed the replacement fuse that was in there and all was good)

It was time to go. We said our goodbyes, I mounted Stephanie's tail bag and set out towards Cambria. The weather this morning here couldn't have been better. It was about 60 degrees out and sunny. I could only hope that it would stay this way. And it did….right up until we started to get close to the coast. Little by little the fog started to get heavier and heavier and the temperature, colder at about 50 degrees. We've gotten fog like this during previous rides down this way, but it's always cleared up as we'd get close to Rocky Point Restaurant, where we planned to stop as usual or at a minimum, when we got to Big Sur. This time, not only did the fog not clear up, but the restaurant was CLOSED for the following:




This was the view we had most of the way:



Don't get me wrong, it still beats the sh#! out of working, but if you've ever been in the area when it is nice, you know what you're missing out on. So at this point we need food. There was a place coming up not too far down the road that we have yet to eat at, The Big Sur RIver Inn. This place is actually the furthest point south we had ever reached on the bikes (We turned around there on our last ride down this way). The fog persisted for the short ride there, but subsided just a few miles from the Inn. I hoped this was a good sign of things to come. We'll see. For now, it was time to eat and take a break. The ride from Corbin to Rocky point restaurant is just about 60 miles, so just a tad over the 50 miles leg we would usually do. Adding the distance to the Big Sur River Inn made it about 75 miles.

Now this is where some of you guys will use words like "posh" or whatever, but if it's accessible, then why not, right? This place was perfect for a stop and actually, it is one of the few gas stops along the way so we were definitely not alone there. Now that we were here and had premium, visible parking, we were ready to go inside.




Inside we were greeted by a mexican gentlemen whom was somewhat surprised when I responded to him in Spanish. Hey I'm from Miami and it's always nice to be able to use it around here. We talked a bit more as he showed us to our table by the window:







The menu had a little bit of everything, but we settled on a few appetizers (Seared tuna & a avocado/crab something-rather) and burgers (forgot to take a picture of the burger, but trust me it was pretty good):



Overall, we felt we scored with this place. The food was good, the place fit the bill perfectly and the waitress was very nice as well. Love it when a stop like this has a favorable outcome. Time to go though…….next stop, Cambria. (more to come)

The new motorcycle its awesome and of course the riders too, I hope you both guys have a great trip and enjoy these beautiful roads, we are all waiting for yours reports, along with you to enjoy your excellent trips.

:

That new seat must be horrible looking, since there are no pics.

lol, I actually realized I hadn't posted any. I'll do so later. Seat turned out really nice btw

Continuing southbound on Hwy-1, I hoped the weather going forward would stay this nice. I had almost forgotten about the fog until about 1 mile down the road when the fog reared it's ugly head again. Two positive things about the fog at least: A) it was a weekday and traffic was light. The fog I think only made the even more so. B) I realized Stephanie's not being able to see over the side of the steep, cliff-type ledges was actually a good thing (she gets a bit hesitant around those). On that trip here from Florida, in the car, we couldn't believe at out exposed some of the roads were. Some literally have NOTHING to keep you from going over and if you did then next thing that would stop you was the ocean a couple hundred feet below you. Guess that's what makes the view so good, right?



The downside to the heavy fog were slick roads. Add to that the fact that some sections of this road have been recently paved and you get a nice, slick gravel-ly mess (in only some sections at least). And even though there was little traffic that doesn't mean you're not going to get some moron, like the guy we came up on driving a white mercedes, that will make your life miserable through a nice twisty section. we got around him eventually and all was good. Excuse the lack of too many pictures through all this, but the view was somewhat limited.



The temperature was still hovering right around 50 degrees and although I on had the snazzy heated vest Stephanie got me for christmas , I was still a bit on the cold side. Time for a short break. The next stop was at the Whale Watchers cafe. To you it might sounds like a weight loss program for our mammal friends in the sea, but to me it sounded like a great idea at the time. It's actually one of the few stops along the way…..



Hand warmer:





We pulled up to the gas pumps but decided against gas since we really only had about 30 miles left to Cambria AND when we saw the gas prices. Yeah it's not a big deal when you're only getting a few gallons, but that doesnt mean you still don't feel somewhat stupid for paying it if you don't have too (say the people on the expensive italian motorcycles).

As we were gathering our things a couple pulled up to the pump in a ford escape SUV. They looked over obviously wanting to ask a question. I walked over and they asked which gas they should use. I was a bit confused, but then saw their car was a rental and was one of these e85 flex fuel cars. They were middle-eastern so it makes sense that they only spoke regular octane. I asked them if they were headed south. They were, so I encouraged them that if they didn't need gas right now, to keep going until Cambria where they could get gas without having to bend over a oil barrel to get it. They jumped in the car and took off. I looked at Stephanie and said, "they actually might not make it if he plans to drive like that the whole way there".

We went inside and got our warm beverages. Inside only a few of the tables occupied and the counter that (normally) overlooks the ocean had a family of four sitting at it. I swear they were either extremely tired of talking to each other or MUTE. The people didn't say a word the entire time we were there. Our waitress was latin, but either didn't want to be there or wasn't thrilled that we were only there for coffee and tea. No matter, life is still good.

Let me pause for a second to say again that, long or short, I absolutely live for these trips. The planning, the anticipation of riding and getting to your next destination. Even the f%#$^*g packing and unpacking I love. It's just awesome. It's something that I never take for granted. I know that we are lucky to do these things.

Anyway, back to our warm seat next alongside HWY-1 or better yet, our departure from said establishment:

As I just mentioned, we didn't have much left in terms of miles to get there. The weather continued the same, but hey, we're riding/traveling and no matter what it's still better than working!!

Along the way things started to clear up a bit. It was still overcast but the fog was pretty much gone as we got closer to Cambria. Cambria is just a few miles down the road from Hearst Castle. We didn't stop there the last time we rolled through here in the car and it didn't look like we would have much time to stop this trip either. Maybe a good excuse to come back?? We'll see.

We rolled into Cambria right around 4:30. We were staying at the Blue Dolphin Inn. It's one of several Inns in Cambria that are owned by the same company. I had originally wanted to stay at one of the cottages at Moonstone Cottages, but they were all booked. This apparently was the next best thing. And, it was. It's kind of a boutique hotel with big hotel amenities in a small Inn. It was perfect. We were greeted by the lady at the front desk and she showed us to the room. The room had a great view that paralleled one of the oceanfront rooms (also all booked). I'm definitely noting the room number (210) for a future stay:




A walk outside just before dark:





Next up, dinner. We wanted something within walking distance and asked the lady at the front desk for a recommendation. She recommended a place that was 6 doors down called the Sea Chest. She also recommended we walk over to get our name on the list since it gets pretty busy, so while stephanie got ready I walked over. I guess the fog kept more people away than I thought because there was only about a 5 minute wait. I walked back, got Stephanie and walked over with her. I forgot, as is usually the case, to take pictures of the food. But it was good. We got a few oyster dishes to start, some salad and shared a swordfish entree. The fish was a bit on the bland side, but everything else did the job. Dessert was a chocolate cake (had to). At dinner we reflected on this trip and on some of the past trips, mainly the ones we did when we lived back east. It's incredible;e some of the details that stand out over time. Overall great experiences that we'll carry with us always.

It's funny, all night I kept hearing this dinging sound. I figured it was the register or something, but when the waitress brought the bill I then saw what it actually was. I put down my credit card and the waitress says they only accept cash. My initial thought, other than "Steph, RUN!!", was "crap, I'm gonna have to leave and go get money". Before the words could even come out of my mouth the waitress says "there's an ATM machine right there if you need it". Of COURSE there is!!! That's the dinging sound I was hearing all night. What a racket!! Kind of smart though. Instead of paying the 2%-3% to the credit card companies they're making $1.50 on every credit card transaction. Capitalism at it's best. I succumbed to the ATM gods, paid the bill and we walked back along the boardwalk to the hotel. It was a good day. Now time for some sleep. Tomorrow we head back north towards home, stopping for the night in Monterey.....

(Sea Chest Restaurant after dinner)

Almost forgot, here's a picture of the seat:

Looks good. Typically Corbin seats aren't the best looking.

I like the look of that seat. Seems everybody goes for colored welting. But, that just makes them stand out. I'd rather have subtlety. What seat are you running?

Yeah I think they carry that stigma of being a seat for Harley's. In the end though, if they're making a custom seat they can make it look however you want. I know most people would go with the Sergeant seat, but I wouldn't hesitate to go to Corbin again. They did a great job and the "ride in service" (to have the seat shaped just for you) is great.

Can't really tell from the picture but it does have red stitching. Looks great. I have the Ducati Performance seat. She tried to get me to do a seat for mine at Corbin but I'm fine with what I have. Here's a picture of mine which I've posted here before:





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I knew it was lighter, but, thought it to be yellow. The bits of red she's added look cool!

Now that you've lived with both sets of pipes for a while, which do you prefer?

I really like the Akropovic exhaust. The 848 sounds great with it. Thinking of maybe selling mine and getting that for mine. The finish is 100 times nicer as well.


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I know Termis are the "traditional" Ducati exhaust, but, I've never seen anything nicer than Akropovic. They make nice automotive stuff, too. Though, it seems almost criminal to hide such craftsmanship under a car.

Agreed. A friend of mine had the Akropovic exhaust on his car and it was pretty sweet. It had these gorgeous matte/carbon tips that really stood out. Nice stuff.


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Gus, another great RR. Muy Bueno from the 305!

lol, yes sir. How's OUR hometown treating you?


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