California Ride Recommendations out of San Diego

[The ModFather]

I'm flying in to San Diego in Sept with a Buddy and we're renting a MultiStrada and a Diavel for 3 days. The original plan was to take ride up the pacific coast maybe as far as Monterey or Big Sur. Right now there is no real route plan so I wanted to see if there were any recommendations on a good scenic ride. Not looking for high skill level riding as my buddy is more of a cruiser. Just beautiful scenery, good and interesting roads, minimal traffic. I was also contemplating a jaunt in to the desert (Joshua Tree?). Coming from the Midwest the riding here in the Great Plains is pretty plain. All the roads are straight, all you see is flat farmland and there's no elevations or curvy roads. So that's what  I'd like to do some ocean side riding, maybe some desert and maybe some forest or mountains. We're wide open at this point. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[Dirty Duc]

I don't think 3 days will really be enough to get to Big Sur/Monterey without some pretty unfortunate route choices.  Freeway traffic is something special in Southern California, and you won't have any good road scenery until you are on 1 north of San Luis Obispo.

This looks do-able, but is about 1200 miles round trip: https://goo.gl/maps/iZ65o

That bit out in the desert will be pretty flat and straight, too.

[Speeddog]

Several excellent options.

Do you have 3 *whole* days?

The first route below isn't necessarily 3 days, but should give you some ideas.

The second route can be done in 3 days, first day would be a bit long.

I'd head northeast out of San Diego:
67
78
Julian
Borrego Springs
S22
79
371
74
243
Idyllwild
Banning
10
62
Joshua Tree

Salton Sea
86
78
San Diego

There's a bunch more cool riding out East of San Diego.

If you want to do Monterey:

Leave SanDiego
North on 5/405/101 freeways through LA (that's the sucky part)
23 north to Fillmore
126 west to Santa Paula
150 to Ojai
33 all the way up through Taft
58 west
La Panza Road
Creston Road
Stay overnight in Paso Robles
up 101
G14 to King City
A bit of 101
G16 into Monterey
Down 1 along coast to San Luis Obispo
continue 1 and 101
405/5 back to San Diego

[manwithgun]

Here is an excellent route map of the San Diego area as it pertains to motorcycles.  It's put out by The BMW Owners Club of San Diego.  Speeddog covered these routes but this gives you a visual.   Perfect for a day trip.   

http://www.bmwocsd.org

   For mountains, forests and lakes, farther out, there's the 38 up to Big Bear which can be linked to 18 and 138 which gets you to HWY 2, the well known Angeles Crest Highway.  There's a bar and grill at the midway point (Newcombs Ranch, closed Tuesday), then Hwy 2 drops into Pasadena/LA county. 

There are the canyons around Malibu and the route through Ojai (33) that was mentioned that can also be looped through Frazier Park to get back to a major interstate.

[muskrat]

We rode around Cuyamaca forest and surrounding.  Spent 3 days and never hit the 101.....I hate the 101 anything South of San Fran.  I'll grab the details and reply when I'm back in town.

[SDRider]

So many fantastic roads here in San Diego...

Speeddog covered most of them.  It is motorcycling nirvana here IMO. 

The trouble is the distance between here and Santa Barbara is that basically Orange County and the entire Los Angeles/Valley area is between us.  You can map out a nice route through the mountains but it would take you an entire day of riding just to get to Santa Barbara.  Or 3 hours of concrete jungle.

[Speeddog]

~~~SNIP~~ 
You can map out a nice route through the mountains but it would take you an entire day of riding just to get to Santa Barbara. 
~~~SNIP~~

Don't say it like it's a bad thing....

[The ModFather]

We rode around Cuyamaca forest and surrounding.  Spent 3 days and never hit the 101.....I hate the 101 anything South of San Fran.  I'll grab the details and reply when I'm back in town.

Muskrat any more deets you can provide? Sounds interesting.

[muskrat]

Not home yet.  I'll be back Thursday.   Remind me. 

[muskrat]

I lost the exact route but if you start near Alpine, CA, West of San Diego.  The roads ingrained in my head are:
hwy 78, 79, 76, 67
Sunshine hwy
Great Southern Overland Stage
Honey Springs road
Japatul Valley road that turns into just Japatul road
Skyline truck trail

I meandered for 3 days out W and NW of San Diego and had a great time. 

[Blackout]

Get on 5 and pin it. Don't forget to hold your breath as you pass by the Harris Ranch stock yards.

[The ModFather]

Well now my plans have changed and I'm flying in Sunday Morning which means I'm going to do a 24 hour rental instead of a multi-day rental. Trying to decide between a Monster 821 for $250 (plus an extra $50 for sunday pick up  ) from Rent a Ducati or a Triumph Tiger 800 for $189.

I'm thinking of doing an inland route on Sunday making a big circle using 94 and 79 up to Julian and then head back via 78 and 67. Says it's about 4 hour total. Depending on how I'm feeling I might try and keep going west from Julian to Oceanside or Carlsbad via 78 then come down the coast. This ride will be after taking a 7am 4 hour flight from Chicago so not sure if I'm going to be up for a 6 hour ride that day but we'll see.
If I dont do the coastal route on sunday I might try and squeeze it in early (up and back from Oceanside) on Monday morning before I return the bike.

My question is this. Is there a usable road closer to the Ocean between San Diego and Oceanside outside of Hwy 5 ?
Is there phone service on the inland route or do I need to rent a GPS?


Below are the route maps I'm considering. I'm totally open to suggestions here.

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/San+Diego,+CA/32.629136,-116.4726126/32.813144,-116.5098718/32.8529908,-116.594731/Julian,+CA/Ramona,+CA/El+Cajon,+CA+92020/Hilton+San+Diego+Bayfront,+Park+Boulevard,+San+Diego,+CA/@32.818409,-117.2108502,13z/data=!4m39!4m38!1m5!1m1!1s0x80d9530fad921e4b:0xd3a21fdfd15df79!2m2!1d-117.1610838!2d32.715738!1m0!1m0!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x80da2cca8a2814c1:0x447cb9659af83140!2m2!1d-116.6019637!2d33.0786552!1m5!1m1!1s0x80dbe8a05684e87f:0x6413d7d9e2449758!2m2!1d-116.8765386!2d33.0376384!1m5!1m1!1s0x80d958331d2c3ef3:0xe6afd6242cd0efeb!2m2!1d-116.9703706!2d32.8028471!1m5!1m1!1s0x80d95345315f460b:0xd669cb6fe6a09fd7!2m2!1d-117.15861!2d32.703245!2m2!1b1!2b1!3e0!4e1

http://www.sundaymorningrides.com/road/4012218/detail

[muskrat]

dam that's expensive.  look into http://www.eaglerider.com/motorcycle-rental or something similar
they have a multitude of brands

[The ModFather]

Yeah Im considering them. All they got that Id want to ride though is a Triumph Tiger 800 for $200. Im not happy about the extra $50 for Sunday pickup at Rent A Ducati. If theyd waive that I'd pay $250 for the Monster 821 but $100 more??? I haven't ridden the Tiger but its a 2014 and the reviews are good! I may end up just doing the Tiger. For me the Monster 821 isnt $100 better for one day. If it was a 1200S or S4R then maybe.

[muskrat]

Agreed