Moto-Rama Road Alert : Mt Hamilton

Just a heads up

Someone emailed me this warning about Mt Hamilton

I visited your site on Thursday, great site. I got a destination

from it, Mt. Hamilton to Hwy 130 toward Livermore from San Jose.

The Quimby to Mt. Hamilton was great, then hwy 130 to Livermore was
dangerous as hell. Apparently, they'd re-surfaced the road recently, which
most of the gravel resides in a constant 3" deep line along the edge of the
pavement - where dirt usually is. This road is extremely slippery, the
gravel is difficult to see, and one of our riders low sided.

Furthermore, we sought help at a Aprilia Dealership in Livermore (Speed
something), where they refused to help period. We needed only an allen
wrench or a zip tie for securing a broken shifting lever for safety
(obviously right next to chain). Oh well, good karma usually begets good
karma, same for Bad, they'll get theirs.

 

This sort of thing happens all too often, IMHO. The road is enticing,
inviting a pretty aggressive approach in places, but one which it
won't always tolerate. Mines Rd, between Livermore and the Junction
is particularly bad in this regard, as the gravel (which is
continually replenished from the hillsides) is visually
indistinguishable from the pavement.

Probably an insurance requirement. If they don't help you, they aren't
liable. Solution: Carry the tools and stuff you're likely to need.
Of course, that's easy for me to say, I ride a sport-tourer with
plenty of capacity...

Al Moore
DoD 734