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Originally Posted by Moedad
Was it smokey coming back into town?
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Not really. Except for the heat, the rest of the trip conditions were pretty decent overall. I had a smidgen of traffic outside Santa Barbara, did a little bit of lane splitting for a few minutes but it cleared right up. (There was a contingent from the fire battalion [Cal Fire?] staying at my hotel in Salinas.) I also ran into a little bit of traffic going up the Newhall pass, but it was shortlived (looky-loos at a grounded RV on the shoulder.)
Right at about Lake Hughes road or therein, I did see the smoke from several different fires in the Angeles National Forest. But it was not blowing towards the road. Looked like quite a bit of the forest was on fire and, of course, it was hot as hell to boot. There was a good stiff wind blowing through Newhall and Grapevine (I could feel it even on the Strat) so if the fire gets over that far, look out!
Overall I was pretty fortunate that there were no serious traffic delays. The Strat has a huge air cooled V Twin and, let's just say there wasn't much air cooling going on this weekend in CA. If I had to start and stop in traffic, things could have got ugly (and hot!) One thing the big bike does not do well is traffic. Not the greatest bike for lane splitting either.
On Sunday I did a lot of miles at 75-80 under pretty good conditions. My biggest problem is the heat makes my nose and the areas around it itch like a mf. Anybody else have this problem? Had the full face on with the flip up face shield.