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Back Down Memory Lane - Hwy 9

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that girl is fast!!!
 
On a tangent, whatever happened to the Sunday Ride up in Marin out of Tam Junction? I recall back in the 90s that was a wild affair. Haven't heard anything about it in years.

Definately still going on. I make that ride once a year, on the weekend I meet up with family in Bolinas.

I learned to ride on San Gregorio Road and Skyline blvd.
Used to try to keep up with the fast guys up there on my Yamaha YDS3, later it got a bit easier when I bought a Royal Enfield Interceptor, and in 1975, it got a lot easier when I bought a new Kawasaki H1 500 triple from Jackson Motors in Half Moon Bay. Didn't handle worth shit, but I could make up for it on the straightaways.
I often wondered whatever happened to David Jackson. He closed the place around 1977 when Kawasaki began demanding that he stock more bikes than the place could hold. He was also a Laverda dealer, and had one Munch Mammut (google it) for sale for way more money than anyone was willing to shell out.
He used to ride it up to Alice's and toot the horn at everyone he passed, hoping to find an interested buyer.
That was a different world.
 
I've met my best friends out in those hills and a few gems on the Sunday Morning Ride. I've seen people go down, been down myself, and watched a man breath his last breath in those same hills. I've rode with a lot of different riders and have learned a ton about why people ride. It has been such a great expireance. I hope nothing changes good or bad and I have a chance to ride my Ducati 1698s and vintage Kawasaki zx10 in thirty years out there. It has been a great place for me to grow and listen to amazing stories. I've done a century run a couple times and I get it. But on my bike I think it would be comparable to a century and a half to the OG's. Bench Racing FTW :thumbup
 
Wow... cool article..

I first started riding those roads in 73.. silent.. friendly for the most part.. times change.. homes all over.. commuters needing their scrilla from Silicon Valley.. and tourist too..

The unknown has become known... and to the known.. hard time await.. for the foolish.

:smoking
 
Wow... cool article..

I first started riding those roads in 73.. silent.. friendly for the most part.. times change.. homes all over.. commuters needing their scrilla from Silicon Valley.. and tourist too..

The unknown has become known... and to the known.. hard time await.. for the foolish.

:smoking

what'd you ride back then? I had a funky looking 1966 Royal Enfield Interceptor with an blue Triumph "parcel rack" gas tank on it.
My Kawasaki was dark aquamarine blue. I was up there nearly every Sunday for breakfast at Alices.

Snapped this B-W pic with my Minox camera at the intersection of 9 and 35. There was a "roach coach" that used to park there on Sunday mornings for bikers who wanted a break.
That's my H1 in the middle of the pic that they guy with the sleeveless shirt is looking at.
 

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She had an operation. Her new name is "Ernie." :laughing


That's WRONG!!!!! , but Funny!!!:laughing

Do any of you old timers remeber my friend; John Accinelli? He used to be one of the 'fast guys' up there. He had a shop in EPA.

I miss John. He was a great guy.
 
Wow... cool article..

I first started riding those roads in 73.. silent.. friendly for the most part.. times change.. homes all over.. commuters needing their scrilla from Silicon Valley.. and tourist too..

The unknown has become known... and to the known.. hard time await.. for the foolish.

:smoking

'73? Phew, pst, that's nuthin,' i was a punk twelve year old in Oakland on my schwinn stingray throwin' palmpalms at the older pricks....seriously, wish i grew up riding over there then, closest i ever got in '73 would have been the boardwalk. With real wood, and lots of sexy women!:cool And obviously not on a moto.

Half moon bay in the 70's was just the closest coast not anything like it is now. But i still like it. Here's to anybody growing up and riding those hills, :Port
 
I rode an RD400 up and down Hwys 35 and 9 in late 70s early 80s while in high school. Seized the engine in front of the X-mas tree farm south of Page Mill one time. Hid it in the bushes and hitched back to Santa Clara with some beer-swiggen-pot-smoken-can-shooting-on-the-side-of-the-road types. Gave them 3 dollars and change for gas. That bike felt like it was going 120 but it was really doing 85ish. I've pedaled those roads a bunch too. Thanks for triggering the great memories. Been lucky to get this far.
 
NOT lame, just a different perspective.

I too, often think about how different the roads/traffic was in the Bay Area years ago. The things we did back in the 70's just aren't possible anymore, unless you have a death wish for yourself and others.

O I get it, its ok to ride like a mad man back then but its not ok now! :thumbup
 
O I get it, its ok to ride like a mad man back then but its not ok now! :thumbup

Apparently you're NOT getting it.

Back "then", when dinosaurs ruled the world, there were significantly LESS peoples that there are "today".

LESS peoples sharing the same roads = moar road per people

SO,

young peoples acting like fucktarded twatcanoes had LESS chance of:
A) Running into another peoples
B) Having a wreck trying to avoid other peoples
C) Endangering other peoples
D) running out of room to manuver when having an "oh shit" moment
E) Being busted by the po po
F) Operating motorvehicles with technology so advanced that utlizing it was beyond 80% of it's operators capabilities (I'm being generous here)
G) traffic


But hey, I'm sure you know FAR more about this than me....right ?
 
Recall few stretches could do a hundred. Heh the rest of it, must be they measured miles differently back when :D
Hwy9CenturyClub.jpg
 
O I get it, its ok to ride like a mad man back then but its not ok now!

There's also the fact that the best of the bikes we had available back then were lucky to hit 120 mph on a good day.
The Kawasaki Z1 was king of the hill in terms of speed and accelleration with all of 83 crankshaft HP. My H1 had 60 HP, and it was one of the quicker bikes at the time, being only a little over 400 lbs to the Z1's 500 or so.
Today, my Caponord, not a particularly fast bike for 1000cc, would leave behind anything we had back then, in accelleration, top speed, and cornering speed.
That equates to way less time to see and react to hazards.
 
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Heh it would have to be a closed course to pull it off. No doubt one would have to use entire road width both lanes.
Traffic was less is a fair assumption. Still Lucy and Ricardo had to be roaming the hills with their RV back when. Better name would be the Luck Club, cause it took allot of it.
 
Great question, but I don't have an answer. What I do know is that today's Hwy 9 rider is dying at a much, much higher rate then those guys ever were. They were fast, but rarely deadly.

In fact, I don't recall any them dying up there during that time, I'm sure it happened, but just don't recall. The first death that I saw up on Hwy 9 was in 1992.

Michael

Is it possible that it's just a lot easier to hear about the incidents now? If I weren't a BARF member, I really would have no idea that so many people crash on those roads, despite the fact that I'm on those roads almost every day.
 
Apparently you're NOT getting it.

Back "then", when dinosaurs ruled the world, there were significantly LESS peoples that there are "today".

LESS peoples sharing the same roads = moar road per people

SO,

young peoples acting like fucktarded twatcanoes had LESS chance of:
A) Running into another peoples
B) Having a wreck trying to avoid other peoples
C) Endangering other peoples
D) running out of room to manuver when having an "oh shit" moment
E) Being busted by the po po
F) Operating motorvehicles with technology so advanced that utlizing it was beyond 80% of it's operators capabilities (I'm being generous here)
G) traffic


But hey, I'm sure you know FAR more about this than me....right ?

Great explanation without getting worked up over. :thumbup

I like how you break it all down to! Makes young people like myself see why its safer to speed back then, than it is today. :thumbup
 
Is it possible that it's just a lot easier to hear about the incidents now? If I weren't a BARF member, I really would have no idea that so many people crash on those roads, despite the fact that I'm on those roads almost every day.

I listen to the radio allot. Seems they like to announce motorcycle accidents the most. They announce accidents that occur on the Santa Cruz Mountain roads. From the reports can tell if their serious or just a rough up. It would be nice if the accidents reported on BARF is all there was, but theres a allot more reported on the radio.
 
Great explanation without getting worked up over. :thumbup

I like how you break it all down to! Makes young people like myself see why its safer to speed back then, than it is today. :thumbup

Someone's got a daddy complex. :twofinger
 

Wow, thanks for the memories -- 9 years sure flew by fast! :cool

Yes, I was ushered to the front of the pack for that pic (followed by 2 AFM racers and a multi-year AFM Champion, hehe :laughing).

We came around the corner to find the Metro photographer lying flat by the double-yellow :wow for that pic!!! :wtf :loco (backside of 9 just north of 236)

Yana:banana
 
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