On Friday I started the ride back to Orange County from the San Francisco Bay Area to take the Concors 14 back to Kawasaki headquarters. The highlight of the trip was hitting the SoCal coasts with the wide, white, and nearly empty beaches under a sunny autumn sky. My first stop to enjoy the scene was in Malibu's Neptune's Net, a seafood joint on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) across the street from the beach. Sunday's there are a riot. There are surfers, all crossing the four-lane highway barefoot with their longboards, bikers on Harleys and sport bikes and every imaginable thing in between, bicyclists (both local and those on the Highway 1 tour from B.C. to Tijuana), and families driving up in cars.
There's more motorcycle parking there than anyplace I've ever seen. They even have two attendants to direct you into a spot. I talked with one of the attendants, Michael, who is originally from Cameroon. I told him about my travels in West Africa in 1993/4, and he said, yes, that was the year that Boigny, the president of the Ivory Coast died, and everything became a mess.
I parked next to James, a guy with a big Kawasaki Vulcan 900 cruiser. Lower slung than the C14 (26.8" seat height) of course, and less power to pull the same weight. "This thing is 1400 cc's!?" was the first thing he said to me when I took off my helmet. I smiled… it seems like overkill — okay, it is overkill, but that's part of the attraction, isn't it? I mean, just the knowledge that you CAN go 200 mph if you WANTED to… kind of empowering, no?
Actually, I find it kind of scary, I told him. And if I was going to keep this bike, I'd definitely need to take it to the track.
I made my way through the fray and ordered a cappuccino–I'd been craving a coffee for miles and miles–and then walked across the PCH to the beach: a feat easier said than done. They actually have a Cross the PCH video game on the Neptune's Net website. Play it. It's a reality game!
But when you do get across, you're rewarded with white sands and, at this time of year, you've got most of it to yourself:
Pretty much the rest of my trip was like this, until I turned up into a canyon to make my way up to Irvine. Not a bad way to spend a weekend!
Read the full review of the C14 in Women Riders Now.
