San Francisco Motorcycle Tour - 2

Northern California rewards riders who go north as well as south, and this self-guided loop out of San Francisco does both. Seven nights, around 1,015 miles, and a route that reaches the Mendocino coast, crosses the wine country, climbs to Lake Tahoe and comes back through Yosemite and Monterey.

It starts over the Golden Gate Bridge and keeps going, out to the wild headlands of Point Reyes and up the coast to Fort Bragg, where the Pacific is rougher and emptier than it is further south. The road then turns inland through Jackson State Park to Napa and Santa Rosa, swapping sea fog for vineyards in the space of a single morning.

The middle of the week goes high. South Lake Tahoe sits at the top of the route, then the road drops past Mono Lake and climbs Tioga Pass into Yosemite Valley, which is as good an entrance as any park offers. From El Portal the route runs back to the coast at Monterey, then follows Santa Cruz and Skyline Boulevard into San Francisco.

EAGLERIDER supplies the motorcycle and books each night’s accommodation, with Harley-Davidson touring models and Triumph and BMW sport machines available. Fuel, meals and insurance are separate. Daily distances hold between 120 and 190 miles, which is a sensible size for roads with this many corners. Wild coast, vineyards, an alpine lake and a granite valley, all inside a week, and all within a day’s ride of the same city. For riders who have already done the run south to Big Sur, this is the other half of California.