Bite-Sized: Week of July 10, 2023
Lunch in Guerneville & electric BMWs.
“Wanna ride up to Rio Nido tomorrow morning?” Brain asked in a text sent at 1:59 p.m. on July 3. In my semi-retired state of mind where the days, weeks and months spill into each other seamlessly, I thought Brian had a rare Tuesday off from work.
“Tomorrow is the Fourth of July,” Jean said from the porch chair.
“Which route are you thinkin’?” I replied to Brian. “Cruisers? Been neglecting the Black Eagle lately.”
“Coastal on the hog,” he answered. “Chez Boulanger at 8 a.m.?”
“Oui.”
“Planning on lunch at Stumptown Brewery in Guerneville.”
And so set in motion a 245-mile adventure up the Bay Area peninsula on CA-280, over the Golden Gate Bridge where we met two wandering Canadian riders at the Vista Point with the fogged-in San Francisco skyline as the backdrop.
They just crossed the country via Route 66. After a solid 30 minutes of conversation where strangers became compadres, we departed up the 101 while they mosied up the foggy coast through Mill Valley, Stinson Beach, Olema, and Point Reyes to Tomales. I was in the mood for clearer skies, so we rolled westward on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard through Kentfield, Ross, and Fairfax before turning right on Nicasio Valley Road.
I knew these roads well from participating in Tom Hardy’s (the SF architect, not British actor) annual Dino Ride, a bicycle gathering of older American national and regional road and track champions with the occasional participation of Tour de France veterans like Greg LeMond and Jock Boyer. With these memories still clear as day, I led Brian to Hicks Valley Road off Point Reyes-Petaluma Road, where the mighty Marshall Wall was the highlight of those bicycle rides for me. Rolling alongside Joe Breeze, Gary Fisher and Otis Guy – mountain bike history’s Three Musketeers – always filled my soul and memory bank for future articles. That, and the steep pitch and West Marin County landscape which filled my legs with lactic acid.
What I didn’t remember was how lumpy, bumpy and neglected that road to CA-1 outside the oyster-producing village of Marshall on the shores of Tomales Bay was. We soldiered on, with our first destination the Route One Bakery & Kitchen for coffee and a cookie. Turns out even a coastal business like theirs needs a day off now and then, so with the CLOSED sign hanging in the shop window we grabbed snacks from our saddlebag and enjoyed the solitude.
Lo and behold, our Canadian friends rolled up a few minutes later having completed their coastal tour along the Pacific from the Golden Gate Bridge overlook. They were bound for Oregon, and that night’s destination was most likely Mendocino (I asked where they planned to stop for the night and the answer was ‘dang I don’t know; it’s programmed into my GPS…’). They needed gas, and the 76 station was 15 miles up the road in Bodega Bay. We invited them to join us for lunch in Rio Nido, but they needed to munch miles north and couldn’t afford the 26-mile round trip inland.
We said our goodbyes for real this time and enjoyed some sunshine through the trees on Route 116 along the Russian River to Stumptown Brewery.
BMW Motorrad: Now & Then
Henri and I took delivery of a 2023 BMW CE-04 electric scooter last Friday, a loaner from Page One Automotive, a vehicle placement agency based in nearby Brisbane. I’ve reviewed the R 18 heritage cruiser and the K 1600 bagger, so it was natural to see what the Bavarian manufacturer has in mind for the future of mobility.
In February we bought a barn-found 1962 BMW R 60/2 made road ready by Scottie’s Workshop in Murphys, California. The machine oozes Bayerische Motoren Werke charm, and it’s my go-to bike for visiting Jean at Red Rock Coffee. This came 90 days after buying a restored 1973 BMW R 75/5 from a retired Army colonel in Aromas, California, scratching my other vintage motorcycle itch. To make room for these German brothers we sold the 2003 BMW R 1150 RT we bought in January 2016 with 42,000 miles. After racking up another 61,000 the bike needed another garage and rider to call home, and nice guy Stephen from Richmond scored it for $1,000.
My first bike was a 1975 BMW R 90/6, purchased from the original owner in Dayton, Ohio 23 years ago. I held onto it for eight years, and revisited my interest in classic Beemers after working for Scottie in the fall of 2017. I’ve also tested several electric bikes since 2016, so the CE-04 scooter was intriguing.
Weighing 509 pounds with an MSRP hovering around $12,000 with an 80-mile range, I go into this experience with open eyes and an open mind, knowing full well the hurdles major manufacturers face to appease the political EV gods.
I hear this is a top seller in France. Stay tuned for a complete review.