2026 - Our Rides in Words, Photos, Maps and Videos
- Thread starter RabH
- Start date
DaveMatthews
Dave's not here. Cheating since 2018
- Region
- Canada
Perfect mate!The wait is finally over, my Yamaha motor was shipped today!It will be good to get my trusty old steed back on the road in time for winter!
It'll be interesting to see if you can perceive any differences after the re-build.
RabH
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't envisage any difference Dave but time will tell...
DaveMatthews
Dave's not here. Cheating since 2018
- Region
- Canada
Yeah, was thinking perhaps audibly, but you are probably right.
Jeremy McCreary
Bought it anyway
- Region
- USA
- City
- Carlsbad, CA
Morro Bay ride
You're a bicycle addict on a long car trip with no bike along and in bad need of a fix. Then, as you pull up to the place you'll be staying for the next 3 nights, a miracle appears — a bike rental shop right next door! And a good one at that!
Well, that was me arriving in Morro Bay, CA 2 days ago. And yesterday, I walked out of the shop with an unmotorized Specialized Stumpjumper MTB. Was sorely tempted to take a Specialized Como ebike instead, but the old mountain biker in me won.
So here's the 12 mi cycling fix I got in Morro Bay. Not long, but it's all my failing right knee could handle.
Okay, EBR's an ebike forum — says so right in the name. Just pretend I took the Como. The knee would've been happier with the 50 ft/mi of climbing if I had, but the route would've been pretty much the same.
Tidelands Park
First segment from the shop hugged the east bay shore, taking me past this cool city park.
How many places give you a giant octopus to play on?
Morro Bay has a long and storied maritime history. Work boats still outnumber pleasure boats. Most seem to be commercial fishing boats.
Back in the park the next morning, the dog and I encountered an odd gathering of birds — 1 pelican, 1 gull, and 13 vultures.
Why do the vultures remind of an 80s rock band like Kiss?
Morro Bay State Park
Next up was Morro Bay State Park, where the south end of Morro Bay (B on map above) meets the vast Las Osos Estuary (E) to its east.
Great south bay vistas with the San Luis Range in the distance.
Riding this soft muddy bay beach on 29 x 2.3" MTB tires was slow but doable. The 700x40 mm gravel tires on my Vado SL wouldn't have had a chance. Morro Rock loomed in the background.
This parking lot sticker pretty much summed up the ride, a bicycle being the only drug required.
Lots of tempting trails through and across the estuary, but I had to save them for another day.
Morro Rock
At 581 ft, Morro Rock dominates the coastal scenery here.
It's the westernmost in a line of 23 long-extinct volcanic plugs known as the Morro-Islay volcanic chain. This geologic map shows 19 of the 23 known plugs in red.
All 23 have the same age of 26.7 million years, and together, they have a very interesting plate tectonic story to tell (see bottom).
Being much more resistant to erosion than the older rocks they punched through when still molten, the larger plugs tend to form prominent hills called "morros". The most prominent of these are lumped as the Nine Sisters, with Bishop Peak (foreground above) the highest at 1,559 ft.
The Google Earth image above seems to show lots of gravel roads through the Sisters. Next time I'll explore them on an e-gravel bike.
Got a good look at the next few morros east as I climbed out of the state park above the estuary on my way north to Morro Rock. Thank goodness for the MTB's granny gears!
A very nice paved bike path on the causeway from town to Morro Rock continues along the rock's south side. It also provides access to the long wide ocean beach on the north side. No luck riding the deep soft sand there.
The path ends at this immense jetty projecting south from Morro Rock to protect the heavily used bay from ocean swell.
When we were here some 20 years ago, this bolder field below the south face of Morro Rock was packed with sophisticated stacked-rock artworks — the most creative I've ever seen. Now only a few simple rock stacks remain.
Looking back toward town with several other morros of the volcanic chain behind.
Knocking around town
The last part of the ride explored downtown Morro Bay.
The highlight was the Maritime Museum. Here we see the Avalon, one of 2 submersibles built to rescue the crews of drowned submarines after the USS Thresher tragedy. It could take 24 sailors at a time in water up to 5,000 ft deep.
Morro Bay's bike infrastructure left a lot to be desired. Shared car+bike lanes marked with sharrows were the norm.
This reminder to give bikes at least 3 ft of clearance reflects pre-2026 California law. Drivers must now give a full lane whenever safe to do so, but few seem to know (or care) about the new law.
Bike thoughts
This Stumpjumper — a modern full-suspension 29er MTB — was the first MTB I'd been on since the rigid 1985 Stumpjumper I rode for 20+ years. My how things have changed!
It was fun for a day, but my Vado SL 1-based gravel bike is a much better machine for the mix of road and gravel riding I do at home — and that's not even counting the 240W and 35 Nm of pedal assist.
The MTB's mushy suspension was probably underpressured for my weight but absorbed too much rider power for my taste. The SL's rigid aluminum frame with carbon fork, Future Shock 1.1 stem, and 40 mm tires has all the compliance I want or need in my home terrain.
Sure missed my kickstand. Many cyclists go without, but a kickstand's a must-have for the way I ride. Guess that means no carbon frames in my future.
The MTB did have one feature I'd LOVE to put on my SL — a cable-actuated dropper seat post. This turns out to be impossible on the SL 1 for various technical reasons, and I'm too cheap to buy a wireless dropper.
But after this MTB ride, I have to agree with the rental shop owner: After the ebike, the dropper could be the greatest invention since the wheel.
;^}
The Morro-Islay volcanic chain
The plate tectonics you may have been taught in Geology 101 dealt with only the simplest of plate interactions. The interactions responsible for building the modern California coast were much more complicated, and the unusual Morro-Islay volcanic chain tells an important part of that story.
I'll let the good professor explain:
You're a bicycle addict on a long car trip with no bike along and in bad need of a fix. Then, as you pull up to the place you'll be staying for the next 3 nights, a miracle appears — a bike rental shop right next door! And a good one at that!
Well, that was me arriving in Morro Bay, CA 2 days ago. And yesterday, I walked out of the shop with an unmotorized Specialized Stumpjumper MTB. Was sorely tempted to take a Specialized Como ebike instead, but the old mountain biker in me won.
So here's the 12 mi cycling fix I got in Morro Bay. Not long, but it's all my failing right knee could handle.
Okay, EBR's an ebike forum — says so right in the name. Just pretend I took the Como. The knee would've been happier with the 50 ft/mi of climbing if I had, but the route would've been pretty much the same.
Tidelands Park
First segment from the shop hugged the east bay shore, taking me past this cool city park.
Morro Bay has a long and storied maritime history. Work boats still outnumber pleasure boats. Most seem to be commercial fishing boats.
Back in the park the next morning, the dog and I encountered an odd gathering of birds — 1 pelican, 1 gull, and 13 vultures.
Why do the vultures remind of an 80s rock band like Kiss?
Morro Bay State Park
Next up was Morro Bay State Park, where the south end of Morro Bay (B on map above) meets the vast Las Osos Estuary (E) to its east.
Great south bay vistas with the San Luis Range in the distance.
Riding this soft muddy bay beach on 29 x 2.3" MTB tires was slow but doable. The 700x40 mm gravel tires on my Vado SL wouldn't have had a chance. Morro Rock loomed in the background.
This parking lot sticker pretty much summed up the ride, a bicycle being the only drug required.
Lots of tempting trails through and across the estuary, but I had to save them for another day.
Morro Rock
At 581 ft, Morro Rock dominates the coastal scenery here.
It's the westernmost in a line of 23 long-extinct volcanic plugs known as the Morro-Islay volcanic chain. This geologic map shows 19 of the 23 known plugs in red.
All 23 have the same age of 26.7 million years, and together, they have a very interesting plate tectonic story to tell (see bottom).
Being much more resistant to erosion than the older rocks they punched through when still molten, the larger plugs tend to form prominent hills called "morros". The most prominent of these are lumped as the Nine Sisters, with Bishop Peak (foreground above) the highest at 1,559 ft.
The Google Earth image above seems to show lots of gravel roads through the Sisters. Next time I'll explore them on an e-gravel bike.
Got a good look at the next few morros east as I climbed out of the state park above the estuary on my way north to Morro Rock. Thank goodness for the MTB's granny gears!
A very nice paved bike path on the causeway from town to Morro Rock continues along the rock's south side. It also provides access to the long wide ocean beach on the north side. No luck riding the deep soft sand there.
The path ends at this immense jetty projecting south from Morro Rock to protect the heavily used bay from ocean swell.
When we were here some 20 years ago, this bolder field below the south face of Morro Rock was packed with sophisticated stacked-rock artworks — the most creative I've ever seen. Now only a few simple rock stacks remain.
Looking back toward town with several other morros of the volcanic chain behind.
Knocking around town
The last part of the ride explored downtown Morro Bay.
The highlight was the Maritime Museum. Here we see the Avalon, one of 2 submersibles built to rescue the crews of drowned submarines after the USS Thresher tragedy. It could take 24 sailors at a time in water up to 5,000 ft deep.
Morro Bay's bike infrastructure left a lot to be desired. Shared car+bike lanes marked with sharrows were the norm.
This reminder to give bikes at least 3 ft of clearance reflects pre-2026 California law. Drivers must now give a full lane whenever safe to do so, but few seem to know (or care) about the new law.
Bike thoughts
This Stumpjumper — a modern full-suspension 29er MTB — was the first MTB I'd been on since the rigid 1985 Stumpjumper I rode for 20+ years. My how things have changed!
It was fun for a day, but my Vado SL 1-based gravel bike is a much better machine for the mix of road and gravel riding I do at home — and that's not even counting the 240W and 35 Nm of pedal assist.
The MTB's mushy suspension was probably underpressured for my weight but absorbed too much rider power for my taste. The SL's rigid aluminum frame with carbon fork, Future Shock 1.1 stem, and 40 mm tires has all the compliance I want or need in my home terrain.
Sure missed my kickstand. Many cyclists go without, but a kickstand's a must-have for the way I ride. Guess that means no carbon frames in my future.
The MTB did have one feature I'd LOVE to put on my SL — a cable-actuated dropper seat post. This turns out to be impossible on the SL 1 for various technical reasons, and I'm too cheap to buy a wireless dropper.
But after this MTB ride, I have to agree with the rental shop owner: After the ebike, the dropper could be the greatest invention since the wheel.
;^}
The Morro-Islay volcanic chain
The plate tectonics you may have been taught in Geology 101 dealt with only the simplest of plate interactions. The interactions responsible for building the modern California coast were much more complicated, and the unusual Morro-Islay volcanic chain tells an important part of that story.
I'll let the good professor explain:
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