A few things to add if it helps anyone else on a trip like this.
Eagle Rider was a pleasure to deal with. Checking in and out was super fast and painless. Everything was ready for us when we arrived and the bike was a 2023 Yamaha Tenere 1200 with only 9000miles. Because we were doing a 2-up trip, I knew I would be riding the bike gently and not hitting up a lot of mountain roads. If this was a solo trip, I would have asked for fresh rubber on front and rear and told them my anticipated mileage, only because the front tire had about 20% tread, while the rear was closer to a new tire. It was totally fine for what we were planning on doing, but on a solo week of spirited riding, I would have burned through that front tire in a few days. We rode around 2000km over 6 days of 2up riding, while solo I would do that in 2-3 days tops and riding the tires a lot harder.
Another thing is insurance. I was hoping that my credit card would cover the moto insurance, but they had an exclusion for motorcycles. My regular moto insurance does not cover rental bikes, so if I had more time to spend planning this trip, it was something I would have looked into a bit more before leaving to see what I could have purchased from home. So while I was well covered for the emergency medical through my credit card, I would have had no insurance for the bike, accidents, liability, etc. Eagle Rider sells a roadside assistance and moto insurance plan which cost around $400 for the 8 days, so I bought it. All in all, the bike rental was around $2200 for the 8 days, which was well worth it in my opinion, since $500 is for the one-way rental and $400 was insurance. There were lot's of people just coming in for a day to rent a bike to hit up local roads and fly out the same night.
The bike itself had 32L side cases, which are smaller than I'm used to. We brought a 55L dry bag which I just kept strapped to the rear top plate and it served well as a backrest for my wife.
Lastly, I was going to hardwire my Zumo XT to the bike, but instead they gave me a usb/cigarette lighter adapter, which was perfect and saved me the time and hassle of hardwiring it.
The steed:
Because this was a 2up trip, we would only be riding max 6hrs a day and primarily sticking to the coast. Anytime I'm planning a ride along the water, I plan my route so that the water is on my right, so that I can easily pull off anytime for a picture. For his trip we flew in LA, rode south to San Diego and then rode north past San Fran. So for most of this ride, the water was on our left, which made it it more difficult to stop for pics at some spots. Next time I come down here, I'll start in Seattle and ride south.
Even still, there were lot's of opportunities to stop by the water and enjoy the moment.
We stayed a night in Venice Beach which was awesome. The beaches here are great and we just really liked it overall.
Since we were signed up to run the Big Sur marathon, we headed out almost every day for a short run to keep our legs fresh. There were always so many people running, biking, rollerblading, swimming, surfing, working out, playing sports or whatever than people just walking around. I love that kind of life. And lots of the beaches are really long and deep, so plenty of room for just relaxing on the beach too.
We start making our way north after San Diego and it goes without saying that there is crazy money along the coast. Every now and then we would get off the PCH and ride through the smaller neighbourhoods and just enjoy the diversity of architecture from one house to the next. Riding through Laguna Beach or Malibu and you lose count of the number of supercars. I saw several Cybertrucks, a range of Rivian's and electric cars everywhere, definitely much more than I see at home. Lane splitting and filtering is so nice to do. I was a bit limited due to the side cases, but still managed to save countless hours. In a car, I'd go nuts at some of the traffic in the larger areas or during the rush hour periods. If I had more time on this trip, I would have checked out Mulholland Drive, but this photo is as close as I would get...
Due to a washout at Big Sur, we could not ride that portion of the PCH. To get to Monterey from the south, you had to head inland instead. If there is one added thing I love about riding 2up with my wife, is that she will happily take the longer, twisty scenic route rather than taking the highways. So here we had to go inland and take the 101 which is nowhere near a scenic, but this meant that later on in the trip, we would avoid the 101 every chance we got. We also stopped in to a really nice winery on our way to Monterey for lunch and some drink for my wife!
So our race route was also changed due to the washout and would no longer run along Big Sur. This kinda worked out good for us, because of injuries we both sustained while training, so we were happy to find out they would allow us to shorten up our distances. Instead of running the 42k and 34k we downgraded to a 12k each and stopped constantly to take pics because it was so beautiful. We'd both come back next year and do the proper full course.
After the run, we heard about checking out Pebble Beach, so we rented his and hers Interceptors and rode up and down the 17mile Drive. These things wheelie really easy - highly recommended! I also loved riding these bikes and blowing past the spandex wearing cyclists while pedalling backwards.
Next we head north.
