San Bernardino and Inland Empire Routes

[SUCATI]

I'm in San Dimas now. 5:30am I'm heading for the Rim of the World. Then on up18 to 247. Then I'm angling down to 247 to 62 and into 29 Palms. Then north from 29 Palms (on a road that isn't marked with a number) to Bristol Lake. Then across I-40 and up through the Mohave National Forest. I'm heading toward St. George, Utah without getting on the interstate.

Is this a scenic type way to go?

Any advice is appreciated.

Mike

[slopoke-sv]

Yes. Very scenic. Especially 247. Try to get there early.

[jasinner]

My :ass: is still on fire. If only the seats on the ninjette were as soft as the mediocre suspension...

Anyways, If you any of you are in the area, I highly suggest taking highway 38 up to Big Bear as opposed to the primary route up there.

Here is a map:
http://www.socalsvriders.org/maps/hwy38.gif
MS Streets and Trips 2002 map file (http://www.socalsvriders.org/maps/hwy38.est)

Rode out from Hemet, Took the 10 West. That freeway is messed up. My father and brother couldn't feel anything on their zzr-600 but they have the pavement dug up, you know, like what dirt looks like when you rake it. Felt terrible on my little bike.

Took the 215 N. to Chaparral. I'm glad we stopped, thought my bike was going to explode. Tried on various leathers so we can find them way cheaper on some webpage.

Doubled back, took the 10 into Redlands. Got onto Mentone (I think?) which turns into the 38. The awesome thing is that the road splits and gives you the choice of two fun destinations, Big Bear and Oak Glen. If you are feeling really zealous (like we did) you can do both.

38 was perfect today (May 30). There was no debris in the road. There was one accident on the way and it was *gasp* a motorcycle accident. It looked like a '04 yellow gixxer 600 lowsided it into a hill. The guy was okay but they had the fire truck / ambulance, the whole deal.

Most of the really twisty stuff is at the bottom (where the guy crashed) there is some higher speed stuff more towards big bear. Yes, my little ninja made it all the way up past the summit at 8,900 ft above the level of the sea. I was in first gear doing 16,000 rpms but I made it! Nah, actually my bike stuck in there like a trooper but if you don't have FI, you'll notice that its harder to start your bike.

Big Bear was extremely crowded today, tons of bikes. There was a classic auto show that we check out. After this we went back down 38.

I was following my father (and my brother who was riding pillion with him) but gave up after a while. My dad has 2,000,000 miles plus on bikes and trying to keep up with him only makes me risk an accident. So I just chilled behind a car travelling at a decent speed and enjoyed the scenery (and the smell, there is some plant that smells really good on the 38, its not pine but it smells really good).

There are lots of turnouts and only four bicyclists (I was doing like 60 and they were riding right next me me! And people call me crazy for riding a motorcycle! At least I had pants on!)

Met my family at the fork heading towards oak glen. They had been waiting a good while for me, *shrug*

Did Oak Glen. I wanted to do Big Bear, Oak Glen, and Idyllwild all in one day but I got looked at like I was insane. So we went to Olive Garden instead.

So, um, yeah. The point of this post is if you plan to be in the area in the near future, the 38 is ready and waiting for you!

[SUCATI]

I had a great time. On the way back I did Mt. Palomar and the Ortega Highway. All great roads.

I ran into a lot of drizzle and fog the 1st day out up 38 to Big Bear. Once I got to Big Bear it was beautiful! I gassed up and ate breakfast at the IHOP. I made it to Vegas the back way that day.
Vegas was hot and I lost all $15 I bet in the slot machines!

Lake Mead was nice. I ended up driving down a boat ramp and parking in the lake. I'll have to send a photo when I get a chance.

Y'all be thankful you have such easy access to this state and all of the other western states with great scenic roads. I'm thankful I'm getting the chance to fly out here twice a year and tour around.

Take care,
Mike

Mike

[Tillers_Rule]

Cool, Id like to do one of those long rides one day. For now its just the 86 mile(one way) to SD commuting that killin me:((

[jasinner]

My dad asked if I wanted to go out for a ride. I said yeah. Got stuck behind a huge line of slow trucks on a road. He cracked open his throttle passed everybody doing a wheelie with one hand on his handle bars or something like that and thats the last I saw of him. :squid:

Ahh well, for this reason among others, he sucks to ride with so I decided to blaze my own trail.

I took highway 79 North from Beaumont. Its a really short ride from the city and I'm going to say not really worth it except to go on through to Highway 38 and Big Bear.

Oak Glen is a sleeply little town. I think the road crew is sleeping too road is extremely narrow at some points and pretty narrow at all the others. It camber is the wrong way for almost all the road as if they want you to fall off the cliff and die.

I managed to charm the tar snakes (which the road has in over-abundance). There are some extremely blind turns/hills on this road also. I was stuck behind a car that was going slow but I was kind of glad of this. I figured if they disappeared around one of the blind hills and I head an explosion, I would make sure and stay on the road.

There are no really high speed corners either. You can never see much from the entrance or exit of the turns.

On the plus side, There are two nice turns that almost merit a second or third pass. Of these two, one is a very slow hair-ping (20 mph the sign says). The camber is actually decent in this turn and allows some knee-dragging if you are so inclined.

So yeah, if you are really desperate for some riding time, go to Oak Glen and check out this turn.

Think thats the one. Um, the restaurants aren't that great and either are the shops. They have some good pies and pancakes during apple season though.

[TheCopperOne]

Those of us who don't live next door to places like Ortega...(props to Setter ;) )...have to take what we can get. Usually once a week I take a jaunt up to Oak Glen and back.

Like jasinner says, its not really a fast ride: narrow, lots of blind turns, and bumpy as hell.

All in all, I'll take it.

:D

[TheCopperOne]

Another ride is San Timoteo Canyon between Beaumont and Redlands. It's my commute when I'm on the SV. It has three sections. (They are described heading west from Beaumont).

The first section (approx 5 or 6 miles) is straight, and I mean STRAIGHT. There is a slight curve half way through, but other than that you can open 'er up. The section has the occasional drag race at night....

The second section begins after the railroad tracks. This section has some pretty good...fast turns, nothing tight, but still fun.

The third section begins after the first stop sign. There are some fun curves, but usually this stretch is full of cars and has more stop signs. You can head south at this first stop sign and drop in on the 60 and head to Moreno Valley.

If you're in the area and heading in the general area, its worth a once over.

[jasinner]

I am truly blessed, I live next to some awesome motorcycle roads! I rode Highway 74 the other day and here is my report.

First here is some misc info. http://www.ca.blm.gov/caso/wf-palmpine.html

And here is a map (it probably won't work for anybody else but oh well) http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?ovi=1&mqmap.x=376&mqmap.y=332&mapdata=OE4WNszgW9y7lO%252fiwxmyAGGgVpm3I7CF8rVaMo g90t7SaVmJGEdrbh8RO1Sco4DQxJaoNNY1OS1%252bxsYRp9iN F0vgJP7iLf38bAMOpIPMNvycpV%252fDqQ%252bZTKvzvMKhIV 1UngcCVXsSUf3%252fv7cxFVHQ0GRDWoy2jz0BKZvIOZZWWb%2 52fy3GKUCrMze%252bnROAMCEfM3fvbEaUlq88Bajuc1QdQNJC ED3aiCgejcSV6POW7j5zpwCjC9fwtijb0MG2kQhpsE7Km1XfHT 89rVU7ohLxQlc4gYvC4kmaZitJHdmOsIOnBkAXKlgMfZyQZzY8 tncol%252fpOClpUUZBAQDN4tJs%252fDsnhS680%252bCEC0K

I started from the "Pines" part so actually I did Pines to Palms, haha. I know quite a few of you are in the San Diego area so you there are a couple ways that you can reach this road.

One route (coming from the south) is to take the 79 to the 371 then make a right onto Highway 74. This is kind of the way that the group used for the Idyllwild run except they turned left.

Another way is to take the 79 to Sage Road and use Hemet as a staging point.
If you do this, you can stop at Lake Hemet for a picnic or something.

If you are going to the Palms to Pines in that order, you would probably be coming up on the 86 into Palm Desert.

Anyways, I took Highway 74 east up out of Hemet. You pass Lake Hemet and then some nice ranch-land. Once you pass the 371 thats where the road starts. It has signs everywhere tha say "scenic route" because, well, its scenic.

The great thing about this road is that you go though Palms, Pines, and all the biomes inbetween.

The road itself? Towards the "palms" part there are lots of rocks but miraciously, none in the road (at least when we went!). No gravel either. The camber is perfect all the way down, props to the roat crews.

Its a two lane road and there are no passing lanes that I remember. There are very few pull-outs. This can be a problem if you are slow like me because you will have some speedy VIP's from Palm Springs riding your ass the entire way up or down in their Lincolns and Jaguars. There is one rather large pull-off area halfway down the hill where you have an asesome view of the desert. Bring your cameras. So yeah, don't try to pass on this road.

The road is wide enough. There are some corners that you can take going fast but where you probably shouldn't because the cliff limits visibility. I would say that this is a problem for 3 or 4 of the turns. Thats another thing. There are guard rails a plenty but its just cliff on one side, cliff on another. Nothing soft to lowside or high-side into.

I read somewhere that this road is fun for high-displacement bikes. I don't really know about that. When all was said and done, I think that Idyllwild itself had more straights for bigger bikes to show their stuff.

There are a couple roads that intersect the highway so watch out for cars there. There is also a miniature down consisting of a fire station and a bar or some kind, watch for traffic here too. Immediately after the small fire station down (going east) there is a good 1 mile section that is covered with tar snakes. They were enough of a problem to make me nervious a couple times but I survived.

After that its all downhill. We went on a friday so I don't know how busy it is on the weekends. Only saw a couple other bikes.

Have you ever noticed how everything is "VIP" in Palm Springs. I saw those there letters used in that order a couple dozen times. One that stands out was VIP Urgent Care. Like if you are dying they will ask you who you are related to or something.

We took the 10 home. There was a Uhaul towing an f350 by the big white windmills and the truck was swinging back and forth across three lanes of traffic. Scary stuff.

Anyways, have fun.

[Tillers_Rule]

jasineer, that is a very nice route yo live next to. Lucky you

[jasinner]

My father and I went by there today and here are my thoughts now that I have a little more experience under my belt:

There are two cafe's heading east. One is where the 371 intersects the 74. There is another one called the "Sugar Loaf" in a small little town about ten miles east of there. Neither of them looked like places that I would want to eat at.

We went on a Monday but there was still some traffic. A bunch of Lookie-Loos. The road is scenic and everything but the real fun begins at the second lookout point you come to.

There is like "Cahuilla Lookout Point" and a few miles later there is a sign that just says "Lookout Point" or something. Stop there and admire the view. You can see the roads that you are about to tear up.

The nice thing about stopping at the lookout is that you can actually "lookout" for stuff. See what kind of traffic is coming up. You might even see a CHP coming up the hill. After you have seen the sights, head on down the hill. Try to time it so that when you leave you are either in front of cars going down or far enough behind so that you can have some fun. Common sense stuff.

What can I say about the trip down. You can pretty much open it and go to town. I was kinda scared the first time so I actually had fun this time. Going down my dad led and he was kinda slow. It took like five minutes to get to the bottom.

At the bottom there is a tourist center and a bunch of golf courses. Palm Desert is boring and hot. The only reason to enter the town proper is that you can find some fine dining. Turn around and go back up that baby. On the way back up I led. It probably took about 2.5 minutes to reach the lookout point. Maybe less. You can pretty much do this all day. They do have a CHP assigned to the hill at all times though, watch out.

[sr9004u]

Well I hope they make it through the desert...there was some unbelievable thunderstorms across almost every route they mentioned well except for the 210.

[sv-riva]

I'm just glad to see that their are other SV's out here in the Inland Empire.:D

[TheCopperOne]

Steve (sr9004u) has been bugging me about riding the roads in the Inland Empire. There is not a date for this tour, but I figured I'd post up a potential route and see what happens.

I have been on all of these roads in the cage, and almost all of it on my sv. The start and finish is in Loma Linda, primarily because Steve is coming from Fontana and the route will then make a nice little loop (plus I get some warm-up riding Timoteo Canyon in ;) )

Anyway, I also figured Dru (Pennyracer) would meet us near Yucaipa and Jason (jasinner) might be up to meeting us in Hemet.

I'm gonna go check out some additional roads that could be fun, but I want to check 'em before I post them.

The route as shown is approx 190 miles. It shouldn't be hot (a la the Motokatz ride @-) ), but I don't know much about traffic patterns. I might give it a test run!

Anyway, here is the route..... let me know what y'all think.

greg

[TheCopperOne]

Merged.....:mad:

Just because one part of the route goes through San Bernardino, does not make it a San Beranardino route OR a Palm Springs route....


moderatin bastards.......



How about changin it to Inland Empire Routes.....













:D

[Pennyracer]

The Inland Empire Tour route looks good. I can meet you all at the Big Boy right off the Calimesa exit. Let me know the day and time.

Dru

[TheCopperOne]

If anybody's up for some ridin on Friday (8/27) in the afternoon...post up! I'll be out so if you want to go somewhere in the IE, let's do it!

:D

[Pennyracer]

What time and where?

[TheCopperOne]

Around 2 or 3? We can go up through Oak Glen or do Banning to Idyllwild.

[TheCopperOne]

Hey everybody! I'm going in for surgery on Tuesday and won't be able to ride for a while so I'm gonna ride the inland empire on Sunday. If anyone is up for a ride and would like to join me....post up! I'm in Beaumont, but am willing to meet you anywhere along the route. I'm not an early morning person, but depending on when ya'll want to ride...I can be flexible!

Here is the route I'm doing....
clicky (http://www.socalsvriders.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=145951#post145951)

[jasinner]

Hmm, I'll have to see how I feel after Saturday.

[TheCopperOne]

Let me know jason.... As of now, not a lot of takers. Guess I'll just go myself!

[-(