San Diego Mt. Palomar Warning

[jlburgess]

If you like to ride the switchbacks up Mt. Palomar be warned the CHP has been sitting there for at least two days ticketing everyone with non-stock exhaust.  My bike has a Zard pipe with the db killer installed and I was pulled over and given a fix it ticket.  Glad I didn't sell my stock pipe last week!
Admittedly the pipe is ready for a repack of the baffle but it isn't super loud unlike the Sportster I saw in Julian with no mufflers at all!  The guy just had open head pipes.  That's probably why they are doing extra patrols there but I got caught turning the loud handle extra hard running up the mountain.  Beats the hell out of a speeding ticket though!

[Chuck in Indiana]

Glad I was there with no po leece presence. 

[rodekyll]

Good!  We're always whining about how we don't need new laws -- just enforcement of existing ones.  There you go!

[radguzzi]

Be careful up there lads...




free image host no sign up

[ohiorider]

It's been 18 years since I've ridden up Palomar Mt to the observatory.  Your post brought back old memories.  I'd picked up a rental BMW from Don Picker at CA Rentals.  Plan was to ride directly from San Diego to Barstow to meet up with a couple of good friends.  We were headed to Death Valley.  On my way north, I couldn't help but notice that Palomar was only slightly off my route.  So I had to see it.  This was in December of 1999, and it wasn't super warm.  Got much cooler as I rode to the observatory.

I had the top of the mountain to myself.  The treetops were covered in snow.  There was a small restaurant named "Mother's Kitchen," but there were no customers ...... way too cool .... restaurant was closed.  The observatory itself looked otherworldly all by itself in the mist of snowfall.

Thanks for posting and reminding me of my trip from nearly 20 years ago.

Bob

[jlburgess]

Glad I was there with no po leece presence. 

He said they were looking for a black Guzzi since around October.  Any one will do.  Didn't borrow a Scura Chuck? 

He actually had to ask me three times what kind of bike it was then just put moto on the ticket.  It's totally cool to ride someone's ass at 80 mph on the freeway but you move to Mt. Palomar as a retired police officer you should get a million dollars worth of quiet and the sting is on.  He basically told me that.  Meh!

[rodekyll]

But they could have made it the unsavory "revenue enhancement" routine and even confiscated the bike.  As it was, you got a fixit ticket and well wishes for the rest of your trip.  Your attitude may have helped you.

My Palomar story is that I started from WA once to see the observatory and didn't make it.  I was 17 and on a '49 BSA Za10GF.  That's a 650 pre-unit "Golden Flash" twin in an awful frame with a plunger rear suspension.  I'd made it way-cool with a tiny solo saddle, a big-assed chrome springer, spool front wheel, and no concept of steering geometry.  To be even more cool, I lashed my duffel bag to the forks.  Luckily, all my British bikes had a deadman's switch that was attached to the Washington state line.  It tossed the left side exhaust valve about 20 miles into Oregon on old US99 about a mile before the horrible front end could kill me.  To give you an idea of how completely awful this bike was, I pushed it into the bushes after it exploded and hitchhiked home.  I got a friend and a truck back to the spot about 4 weeks later, and it was still there.

[Scud]

Loud pipes save lives.

Quiet pipes save money. My Scura, which has been up Palomar a few times recently, still has the stock, stealthy, quiet cans.

There are a lot of people up there running what sounds like full race pipes on sport bikes. I support the sound enforcement and am glad to hear they are doing it. I can think of a few other worthwhile places, such as busy sections of Highway 1 through small coastal towns.

[jlburgess]

Scud, you would have been pulled over too unless you like to ride at 30 mph but would have been able to point out the EPA stamp.  Even the stock pipes on a V11 Sport would have alerted him.  He was sitting at the top on the mountain with his window open and echoing sound off of the canyon.  The ticket says 50 in a 55 to boot.  I have tons of Harleys ride by my house at 10 mph with no exhaust at all setting off car alarms.  That's who they are looking for which I totally agree with.

On the bright side it only cost me $25 to test out those new roller tappets!   

And holy shit balls.  The bike is banging into the rev limiter in the lower 3 gears before I can get my foot under the lever to upshift.  It feels like it wants to pull to 9K rpm easily but the limiter kicks in so you have to think fast.  I think there is untapped potential there?

[cruzziguzzi]

I figure I'd ghost by on my Borlas&Spot but might get scarfed fro my Sportster & Screamin' Eagle and ya know what?


I'd deserve it!

That said, several hundred miles up&down Palomar and I've never seen them enforce noise before. Something stimulated that.





Todd.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Something stimulated that.

Yeah. I got busted for "riding on the sidewalk" at Daytona bike week one time.  The officer apologized, but said the mayor told them to go hassle some bikers. Any infraction gets a ticket.
I went to "traffic school" so it didn't go on my license. Met the Kid there. 

[Scud]

Something stimulated that.

Agreed. I noticed one of the pro photographers up there recently... and riders trying to get knee-down pics. I think (and hope) they want to stop it from becoming a spectacle like "The Snake" in the Santa Monica Mountains. I generally avoid Palomar on the weekends because there are too many "racers" (cars and bikes) who can't hold their lines. I've heard people talking about their "lap-times" up there. You can do a big triangle up South Grade, down East Grade and the West on 76 back to South Grade road. IMO, when people know their lap times on public roads, they've crossed the line and deserve a citation.

[normzone]

I think it's all [Chuck in Indiana]'s and "Speedy" Rodriguez fault.

The LEOs couldn't catch them during the rally, but the net has been laid ...

 

[fatbob]

The astronomers must have seen a decline in stars, scared off by the loud pipes!

[Tusayan]

Agreed. I noticed one of the pro photographers up there recently... and riders trying to get knee-down pics. I think (and hope) they want to stop it from becoming a spectacle like "The Snake" in the Santa Monica Mountains.

That opportunity passed by the early 90s, although the Palomar photographers didn't seem to show up until maybe 2005 - Rick Clemson the one armed guy was first.  There were a few motorcyclists up there starting in the 70s or so, but not many.  In the late 80s and before Palomar was a relatively quiet place to 'stretch your legs' on a motorcycle, but by the 90s it was a place to be careful for one reason or another - including occasional CHP campaigns of various sorts.

There is one interesting story about the late 70s go-fast group (mostly on home built Superbike replica Japanese bikes with some bevel Ducatis etc mixed in) racing down the hill from Julian to Santa Ysabel (I mean racing, literally) at which point there was a CHP road block.  They handcuffed them and threw them into police cars without taking their helmets off... and a night in jail followed.  Things went in a slow downhill progression from there, including the Officer Oatum escapades of the 80s - he apparently lived in Borrego and had what you might call a hazardous attitude. I saw him do several fairly insane things chasing bikes in his CHP Mustang.  He's long since retired.  Anyway, none of this is really new.

There are other places to go than Palomar on a weekend morning. Going really far (!) there are some advantages in going to the Alps periodically for the same kind of entertainment...  The passes are pretty much wide open, and fast riding is expected there even if the villages are strictly policed. If you do manage to collect a fine in the Alps, there are no points on your US license and no affect on your insurance either there or in the US.  It's not a bad thing 

[Arizona Wayne]

This is the results of U-tube videos on the internet of weekend ricky racers in specific locations being broadcast. Police are not blind.   You reap what you sow.  Now if you did it during the week you probably wouldn't have anything to worry about. But if you get off on the attention.........

[Dragonknee]

I cut my teeth back in the late 70's and early 80's up on Palomar.... I loved that road... I have a story about riding the tight side with twistys... I had a 1985 Yamaha FJ1100 dialed with suspension and Supertrapp and braided lines... it was a great bike and fun to ride. I was going up one morning and I saw a light in my mirror about 1/4 of the way up...I wicked it up a notch and the light got smaller...took it down a notch and saw the light but instead of being smaller...it was getting bigger.... I thought "What the hey" and dialed it up 2 notches...Now back then I didn't have much finesse but I did know how to ride fairly well....Moto Cross and fast bikes what a life right?...Anyway long story short about 3/4 the way up the light caught me and then passed me..I was shocked...Here I was on my uber fast FJ1100 how dare a guy pass me on a Yamaha SRX600 single.... I chased him up and at the store we sat and chatted... He laugh when I told him I was trying to put some distance on him....He said they all do... Turns out he had been riding that rode a very long time and knew it like the back of his hand...The thumper was the right bike for that road.... He built the heck out of it and it was fast.... I miss those days, Started on a 1980 Honda 750... Good times.. Like all old guys say "I miss those days"

[Tusayan]

Anyway long story short about 3/4 the way up the light caught me and then passed me..I was shocked...Here I was on my uber fast FJ1100 how dare a guy pass me on a Yamaha SRX600 single.... I chased him up and at the store we sat and chatted... He laugh when I told him I was trying to put some distance on him....He said they all do... Turns out he had been riding that rode a very long time and knew it like the back of his hand...The thumper was the right bike for that road.... He built the heck out of it and it was fast....

Archie, he was good and loved old Yamahas.  Many people only had a first name 

[Scud]

I started riding up there on a Yamaha FJ1100 and an airhead BMW in the mid/late 80s when I lived in Orange County. It was a long haul on the 15 to get there, but worth it. Now that I live closer, I ride it on weekdays when I can - or super early on weekends. I guess I've been avoiding the peak times for a while so hadn't noticed the photographers until recently.  So many other great roads in the area, let's not publish a list. 

[Chuck in Indiana]

So many other great roads in the area, let's not publish a list. 

Good plan.