did an overnight loop to check out some roads for upcoming tours. i'd scoped out a motel online the year before, but when i got there it had turned all boutiquey and jumped from $70 to $180 per night. the whole 101 corridor from SLO to Ventura is now endless BMW dealerships and Wine Country monster homes.
found some nice roads though and this trip informed the Fool's Errand drive in June.
the "tune" part was me battlign the new Weber IDF 44 carburetor, that ended up being untunable simply because it was too large; at 70 mph light cruise i was still driving on the low-speed jets. i later bought another smalle r(32mm) choke but ended up adapting the smaller Weber 38/38 DGV and it's about perfect.
ran into some of the SoCal sports car crowd at random on highway 166.
there had been a lot of winter rain and the desert flowers were out and turned up to 11. it also meant there were a lot of poor SUV appliance operaters ogling their phones on desert highways.
much of what i drove wasn't that notable, simply because "we" drive them relatively often: Lockwood Valley road, 33, 166, highway 58; a measure of how spoiled we are here in SoCal, all beautiful roads and great driving. here's first part of the return home from Lompoc.
i drove over one road i truly regret not having the Xiomi Yi actiona camera on: Pozo Road. it's a freakin' 4WD jeep trail! that 20 miles took me four hours, i cut a sidewall climbing up what must have been a 25% grade of washed out mud and rocks; i was re-stacking rocks in the gulleys that previous jeep-ers had stacked. the roadster has stock ground clearance, which is Jeep-like only by present passenger car standards (about 7", i can just slide under the car) but the air springs have short travel. what saved me is a low first gear and 50's inline ix low-end torque. it worked because i could crawl at 2, 3, 5 mph in first, with the clutch fully engaged right off, and that engine will grunt and pull at 800, 1200 rpm. the driving started out just dirt, then rutted, and all the bad shit was the last two miles (of course). i don't have a jack, nor spare tire (i carry a compressor and tire plug kit). i passed no cars on the road. more than 10 water crossings. it was stoo-pid. dumbest driving i ever did and nearly zero photo evidence that i did it. which, if you're gonna be stupid, you might as well post a youtube video of it and be famously stupid.
