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Dragonhawk
Sat 6/3/06, 8:40PM
Is it possible to do a 125 mile ride without leaving the Santa Monica Mountains and almost never repeating a road?

I found a way ...

After the long ride up north to Ojai, it got me thinking about making a long route on the traditional Mulholland rides we've done. So, I plotted the "Ultimate Mulholland Route" which goes over almost every inch of Mulholland (and almost ever other great road in the Santa Monica Mountains).

Here is a map. Click on it to see a bigger version. It's a heck of an amazing ride...

http://www.socalsvriders.org/albums/albur35/AllOfSantaMonica.thumb.gif (http://www.socalsvriders.org/albums/albur35/AllOfSantaMonica.gif)

This route would start at 9:00am at the old starting-point from our original "M" rides in Studio City, here:

Starbucks
10965 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA
(818) 762-9121
(http://snipurl.com/rb8k)

The ride would end here:

Neptune's Net Seafood
42505 Pacific Coast Hwy, Malibu, CA
(310) 457-3095
(http://snipurl.com/rb8i)

From looking over the busy streets of Hollywood, out to the far reaches of the coast, along the infamous Mulholland Drive, Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway ... This is the ultimate "we're definitely in Los Angeles" ride. From main streets to the most deserted mountain routes ... all on the same ride. I mapped it out and it literally would be 125 miles from start to finish. No exaggeration.

(And no need to worry about finding gas stations!)

Anybody game for the idea of this one? ...

This is the full route: Ventura Boulevard south to Mulholland Drive (You can get gas at the 76 Station at the corner of Vineland and Ventura.)
Right on Mulholland Drive to Skirball Center Drive
Left on Skirball Center Drive to Sepulveda Boulevard
Left on Sepulveda Boulevard to North Church Lane
Right on North Church Lane to Sunset Boulevard
Right on Sunset Boulevard to Pacific Coast Highway (You can get gas here at the Chevron on the corner if you forgot to gas-up at the start of the ride.)
Right on Pacific Coast Highway to Topanga Canyon Boulevard
Right on Topanga Canyon Boulevard to Old Topanga Canyon
Left on Old Topanga Canyon to Mulholland Highway
Left on Mulholland Highway to Stunt Road
Left on Stunt Road to Saddle Peak Road
Left on Saddle Peak Road to Tuna Canyon Road
Right on Tuna Canyon Road to Pacific Coast Highway
Right on Pacific Coast Highway to Las Flores Canyon
Right on Las Flores Canyon to Rambla Pacifico Street (Piuma)
Right on Rambla Pacifico Street (Piuma) to Cold Canyon Road
Right on Cold Canyon Road to Mulholland Highway
Left on Mulholland Highway to Kanan Dume
Left on Kanan Dume to Latigo Canyon
Left on Latigo Canyon to Pacific Coast Highway
DO A 180 DEGREE U-TURN AT PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY AND TAKE LATIGO CANYON BACK THE WAY YOU CAME (If you need more gas at this point, you can make a left on Pacific Coast Highway and go down a mile or two to the 76 Station on your lefthand side.)
Latigo Canyon to Kanan Dume
Right on Kanan Dume to Mulholland Highway
Left on Mulholland Highway to Decker Canyon Road
Right on Decker Canyon Road to East Potrero Road
DO A 180 DEGREE U-TURN AT EAST POTRERO ROAD AND TAKE DECKER CANYON BACK THE WAY YOU CAME
Decker Canyon to Pacific Coast Highway
Right on Pacific Coast Highway to Mulholland Highway
Right on Mulholland Highway to Little Sycamore Canyon Road (Yerba Buena)
Left on Little Sycamore Canyon Road (Yerba Buena) to Pacific Coast Highway
Right on Pacific Coast Highway to Neptune's Net
(I keep routes that like in my head, and then I wonder why people get lost...) :D

If you want to print all of that, I suggest you go here:
Click here for a map and directions (http://www.californiabikenights.com/pdf/24June2006.pdf) you can download as a .PDF of the route...

smokescreen
Sat 6/3/06, 8:44PM
That sounds sick!!

Savage
Sat 6/3/06, 9:49PM
I dub this ride 'M squared'

smokescreen
Sat 6/3/06, 9:49PM
Sweet name!!

Kyoseki
Sat 6/3/06, 10:27PM
Yerba Buena is a nice road but the last time I rode it it was covered in gravel, so you might want to double check it before the ride :)

slowpoke
Sat 6/3/06, 10:45PM
Sweet.

Had the fog not messed us up on Mother's Day, that was most of the route I was trying to lead us on!

A couple of notes, when I enter from Valley Cirlce, and only go one way on Latigo and one way on Westlake Blvd, my odometer says it is 100 miles (this is not counting Topanga or anything East of it), so it would seem that your mapping program may not include the round trip milage on those roads (Latigo and Westlake). That or motorcycles travel a greater distance as they use the entire road.

Some of the non SV riders will need a gas break. (might be gas near the 101.) There definately is on PCH at Trancas market (between Kanan and Decker at the North end of Zuma beach).

Neptune's Net is PACKED on Sundays. Just so you're forewarned.

Without street names, it's kinda difficult to picture the entire route, but if you're planning on turning right from Mulholland onto Westlake Blvd (to go north towards the 101), that right turn can be nasty - stop sign, off camber hill and less than a 90 degree angle.

Originally posted by Kyoseki
Yerba Buena is a nice road but the last time I rode it it was covered in gravel, so you might want to double check it before the ride :)

There is always gravel on it (the pavement is disintergrating).

Last week, it was a normal amount of gravel.

Did you notice an excessive amount?

That road, you need to back off the lean angle and throttle a bit, unless you want to practice breaking the rear loose! Absolulety no ridable shoulder there, so mistakes are severely punnished. Kind of like Tuna.

Novices should be warned.

Dragonhawk
Mon 6/5/06, 12:52AM
Originally posted by slowpoke
Without street names, it's kinda difficult to picture the entire route, but if you're planning on turning right from Mulholland onto Westlake Blvd (to go north towards the 101), that right turn can be nasty - stop sign, off camber hill and less than a 90 degree angle.

The street names have been added to the original post.

I suggest printing those directions for anyone who wants to come on the ride. A ride with this many turns means riders will really need to pay attention - we can't stop at every single intersection or the ride will take twice as long. So, if everyone has the directions, everyone should be able to do the route without a guide at every cross-street. And if someone gets lost, they can find their way back again.

AngellofFyre
Mon 6/5/06, 4:42AM
Considering that I am still new to all this, is this the sort of ride you'd recommend i come on? (dragonhawk, you've seen me ride). I'm not that used to winding roads.

Dragonhawk
Mon 6/5/06, 8:44AM
Originally posted by AngellofFyre
Considering that I am still new to all this, is this the sort of ride you'd recommend i come on? (dragonhawk, you've seen me ride). I'm not that used to winding roads.
Dork. You're an excellent rider but do you really think I'd leave you all alone on ANY ride? If you come along, I'll stick with you the whole time and help you out. We can easily keep a pace that would be slow enough to be safe, brisk enough to learn something, and 100% fun the whole time.

sandie
Mon 6/5/06, 10:19AM
Originally posted by slowpoke
Neptune's Net is PACKED on Sundays. Just so you're forewarned.


good thing 6/24 is a saturday ;)

mother
Mon 6/5/06, 11:58AM
why always saturday?

Dragonhawk
Tue 6/6/06, 1:36PM
Originally posted by mother
why always saturday?
I dunno.

Psychological compensation for my lack of Saturday Morning Cartoons?

spindarubber
Tue 6/6/06, 2:02PM
Cool ride...

Kinda makes me pine for the SV, cause the 636 will not be forgiving in the least for a ride like this.

Dragonhawk
Tue 6/6/06, 11:28PM
Click here for a map and directions (http://www.californiabikenights.com/pdf/24June2006.pdf) you can download as a .PDF of the route...

triplet_2004
Wed 6/7/06, 8:38PM
Just wanna make sure this ride is still a go with the MSF thing going on? My class is on Sunday just so I could do this one too! :D

Dragonhawk
Wed 6/7/06, 9:51PM
Originally posted by triplet_2004
Just wanna make sure this ride is still a go with the MSF thing going on? My class is on Sunday just so I could do this one too! :D
I'm doing the MSF class on Sunday too. I'd still like to do this ride even if I'm the only one on it.

So, yeah, at this point, I still plan to do it.

After 3 years, I'm still utterly thrilled that I actually live in Los Angeles. While a lot of people don't like riding on busy streets like Sunset Boulevard or Mulholland Drive, I absolutely LOVE them. Because those are quintessential Hollywood roads. I've yet to become jaded to the joy of fulfilling a lifelong dream of living in Southern California. That's why rides like this are still cool to me.

That's also why rides in the San Gabriel Mountains are so wonderful too. I've wanted to see real mountains all my life. And now that I can be among them, it never gets old.

triplet_2004
Wed 6/21/06, 11:17AM
DAMN!!! I just found out I gotsta work on Saturday mornin'!!! :mad: I've been planning on going on this friggin' ride ever since it was first posted! Oh well, I'm still goin' on the Exp MSF course on Sunday morning. So, I guess the weekend isn't COMPLETELY screwed. :grin:

Dragonhawk
Wed 6/21/06, 6:21PM
Originally posted by triplet_2004
DAMN!!! I just found out I gotsta work on Saturday mornin'!!! :mad: I've been planning on going on this friggin' ride ever since it was first posted! Oh well, I'm still goin' on the Exp MSF course on Sunday morning. So, I guess the weekend isn't COMPLETELY screwed. :grin:
Seems a lot of people on the board work on the weekends.

Then you have others who want to do rides at 7 in the morning.

Doesn't anyone on this site have a real job where they work 9-5 M-F and sleep-in on weekends? :p

Well, sorry you won't make it. I have a feeling it will be a small ride. Not many folks have posted an interest. We'll see what happens...

ronnie
Wed 6/21/06, 9:07PM
I keep an eye on it Dragon, and might be able to do it. Thanks for such a great prep job!;-)

NukleoN
Thu 6/22/06, 10:35PM
I'm in! I'll be riding a Kawasaki 650R....breaking it in for a new rider friend!

mother
Fri 6/23/06, 7:13PM
this would put us about where at like 10:00am?

NukleoN
Fri 6/23/06, 10:50PM
Is this still happening? Meeting at 9am, I take it? I'll be there at the M meet place.

Dragonhawk
Fri 6/23/06, 11:54PM
Originally posted by NukleoN
Is this still happening? Meeting at 9am, I take it? I'll be there at the M meet place.
Yes. Still happening. But it's midnight. So I should get my ass to bed so I can actually be awake and conscious for it.

Savage
Sat 6/24/06, 11:54AM
This sounds like one helluva cool ride, hope it all turns out well for you guys. Depending how it turns out for you guys, I'd be interested in setting up this ride again for next month.

I'm with you Eric when it comes to those LA moments where you're riding around and it just kind of hits you...

'Holy shit...that's right, I live in Los Angeles'

mother
Sat 6/24/06, 6:29PM
on a sunday?

NukleoN
Sat 6/24/06, 6:38PM
Hey guys...

Wow....the group was huuuuuuuuge....I mean, the sheer organizational power required to pull this off was insane...you guys, this was the most organized ride ever...nobody got lost...all of us stuck in a tight group, passing info along at lights, and nobody got held up....

Ok, there were 3 of us....and it was good fun. I was riding the new Kawasaki 650R which I am breaking in for a friend at work at his request..well twist my arm! Ok! It's got 400 miles on it and wow...the engine is coming in nicely...it's got some good midrange grunt to it...lot like an SV. Once I trusted it and the Bridgestone B020's I was going pretty good...great little bike (see my review later on).

We went over a ton of cool roads in Malibu....I really like the clean uphill twisties....Tuna canyon was fun too but it's steep and downhill in places...but the one way thing is hella fun.

Good ride..thanks for setting it up Eric!

bristolbird
Sun 6/25/06, 2:55PM
Originally posted by NukleoN
....Tuna canyon was fun too but it's steep and downhill in places...but the one way thing is hella fun.

Did you turn off your engine and coast down? That is fun too, it's so peaceful and beautiful.

Buellba Fett
Sun 6/25/06, 4:57PM
Originally posted by bristolbird
Did you turn off your engine and coast down? That is fun too, it's so peaceful and beautiful.

Sooo,... that would be like...umm, ... riding a bicycle?...

bristolbird
Sun 6/25/06, 5:05PM
Originally posted by Buellba Fett
Sooo,... that would be like...umm, ... riding a bicycle?...

Err, kind of..... what's your point?

:D

No photos Eric?

Buellba Fett
Sun 6/25/06, 5:06PM
Just an observation. Yes, it would be peaceful to "hear" the "quiet." :)

Dragonhawk
Sun 6/25/06, 7:31PM
Originally posted by bristolbird
No photos Eric?
I need to get around to that. I'll post some eventually.

But Nukleon wasn't kidding. There were only 3 of us. So I took about 2 or 3 pictures and didn't bother with trying to "group shot" three of us.

The ride is LONG. In fact, we wimped-out and didn't do the whole thing because by the time we reached the bottom of Latigo, we had done 90 miles and it was after noon and we just wanted to go grab some food.

quiklids
Mon 6/26/06, 10:55AM
I'm all over the next one, Erik! Just say when-