Riding Azusa Canyon with Roland Sands

The need to Escape

Long Beach to Azusa Canyons and back – Los Angeles, California
Distance: 160 miles Approx

Roland Sands – Ducati Desmosedici
Jamie Robinson – Honda Fireblade 1000RR

Don’t ask me how or why but I found myself at Roland Sands place after my so called brilliant LA vacation plans with my now ex girl friend took a huge turn for the worst and the only other person I knew in LA apart from ‘Neil’s the Wheels’ was Roland and Hodgson was out of town, or that is what he told me anyway.

So, being a cheeky Yorkshireman I picked up the phone and prayed Roland would answer. When he did I and told him to put the kettle on as I was down on my luck and needed a bed for a day or two until I got myself sorted out, thankfully he said that was fine and to come on over.

$107 later in a Yellow Taxi cab and I finally arrived in Long Beach and the first thing I saw when I walked in through the front door of Roland’s awesome home was a Ducati Desmosedici RR, just sat there in his front room. You can always tell a true bike nut as he’ll have a least a bike part in his front room, at best a full bike. “That yours?” I asked. “She’s super cool eh? Yeah, it’s mine, not had it long or been out on her much through” said Roland.

My first thought was how could I get my grubby little paws on the Desmo? How can I possibly get Roland to give me a go and get him to think it was his idea? As asking him up front when I’d just appeared on the poor fella’s door step almost unannounced might seem a bit pushy even for me….

As I stood there admiring the Ducati beauty, it was Roland who came up with the plan. “Tell you what, why don’t we take her out in the morning for a blast? I know this awesome road about 45 minutes from here and I’ve got a new Fireblade we are about to do a custom job on, you can ride if you fancy it?”

Oh yes, boys and girls, this was true music to my ears and I could hardly believe it the words came out of Roland’s mouth. Maybe he wanted to show me just how good the Desmosedici is or maybe it was the pool of drool I’d left on his carpet which gave my intentions away, but who cares, I was going for a blast regardless.

The next morning we put on our biking gear and I thought Roland was over doing it a bit much by putting on his full factory Alpinestars race suit, knee sliders and boots. He looked more like a Moto GP rider but as we were riding in a built up area he looked a bit daft. I felt right at home on the Fire Blade wearing a Spidi leather jacket, jean-biker trousers and short summer biking ankle boots.

We headed North East for a while and I was just enjoying playing follow my leader on the 4 or 5 laned Highway and the empty carpool lanes (2 or more persons per vehicle) which you can also ride in if you are on a motorbike. I had to look down at the rev-counter of the Honda on several occasions just to check it was still running as the super quiet Honda was drowned out by the super aggressive snarl of the Moto GP road bike ripping ahead just 30 yards away.

We finally pulled off the Highway and in for gas where a copper was waiting, thankfully not for us. He did ask if we were going to the Canyons and I said I didn’t know… which was in fact the truth as Roland was keeping this road top secret but he did point out just after that we were close.

A few more miles down the road the scenery completely changed from this built up town to a mountainous landscape, it was impressive and I was starting to get excited.

The area Roland brought us too is called Azusa Canyons and the road starts you off right at the base. It sweeps beautifully from left to right, again and again with good vision of the road ahead usually in 4th and 5th gear. There was virtually nothing on the road, the scenery striking and most important the bends just flowed beautifully around the Canyons.

The Fireblade loved it and with such smooth power delivery and awesome chassis, so did I. Roland had finally unleashed the beast and blasted off into the distance but even though I couldn’t see it, I could still hear the Ducati roaring from corner to corner.

After a while we came to a bridge and it was here we turned off the main drag, crossed it and once on the other side of the river, the road started to change and get even better. Suddenly the corners were getting tighter and even though we were still at the base of the Canyon, you could tell we weren’t going to be for much longer.

A tight 1st gear hairpin bend was the start of the climb and the next corner was only a short distance away. Roland nailed the Ducati; I did the same on the Honda and tried to do a better job of keeping him in my sights this time.

The corners were coming at you like Manny Pacquiao in a bad mood, left, right, right, left, left, right, right, right, left, right, left, left, right… it was almost too much but you had to stand your ground and fight back. From one side to another, back and forth, the corners kept coming at you and just when you thought you couldn’t take much more you’d get a few kicker jumps and bumps thrown in to keep you on your toes.

The road just carved its way to the top of the Mountain and the corners just kept on coming. It felt like it was never going to end and I didn’t want it too. High rocky banking on one side, long drop down a cliff on the other, some of the corners were banked, some had debris, other seemed to have kerbs like on a race track my favourites had high blades of grass sticking over the edge which you hit with your visor at the apex, bloody awesome.

The last thing I saw of Mr Sands was him flicking the Desmosedici on his knee going from one side to the other and leaving dark lines going into and out of the corners…. Now it was me who felt daft and unprotected in my Urban motorcycle gear and wished I’d gone for the full leathers as I couldn’t even get my knee down.

When I finally reached the top knee’s up 60’s style, Roland was already parked, helmet off and beaming from ear to ear. “Holly Sh*t! That was amazing” we both agreed.

We had to then decide which road to take next as we had two choices. One took us across the mountain ridge and was fast and following, the other went down the other side of the mountain and apparently had even more corners than the one we’d just come up…. tough choice but we decided to do both and go down the other side, fill up with gas again at the bottom and then come back up and across the ridge.

It was a good decision as the road down the other side was truly amazing and quite an experience going downhill compared to the blast up.

Both bikes were awesome and handled the twists and turns impressively well. The standard Fireblade was no match for the light and powerful Desmosedici as the Ducati’s stiff suspension and road race tyres stuck to the road like glue, but at least the Honda’s indicators didn’t vibrate off and it stuck with the Moto GP road bike for a while at least.

The reason the road is so quiet is it’s the fire road built for the Canyons and nobody uses them as they really go nowhere. They do have villages/towns in the bottom but why would you want to go all the way up and down a mountain with a load of mind blowing corners just to go from one town to another when you can just jump on the Highway and be there in 10 minutes? … Of course, unless you’re on a bike that is.

Hand on heart we saw about two cars on the road and came across 1 biker while riding. A few came past us at the top, usually in pairs as they too were out having fun. There were no Police in the Canyon’s, only in the built up areas in the bottom and apparently they only come up if someone calls them and they pop up to pick up the pieces.

The corners to watch are the ones with skid marks left by other victims and as hard as it is, you can’t get too giddy as no two corners are the same and some really do tighten up on you and it’s a long way down if you do make a mistake.

After running the bottom road, climbing to the top some 100 corners later, going back down the other side, back up and then across the ridge, I have to wonder, could this possibly be the best public motorcycle road in California?

If you like corners (lots), getting your knee down (or not in my case), riding smooth and safe amongst the most incredible views, then you have to experience Azusa Canyons.

As Roland and I sat there in the sun after the trip sipping a cold beer we did definitely agree on two things. The Desmosedici and Fireblade are very impressive motorcycles and whoever designed the Azusa Canyon road was without a doubt a motorcycle rider…. How lucky was I that the Hodge was out of town!

THE END

JAMIE ROBINSON