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A Writers Tour
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Big Sur
Jeff Buchanan
05/01/2006
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Photography by Don Williams
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Traveling the Central Coast during the
off-season, we were unexpectedly rewarded with sunny weather completely devoid
of the famous soupy gray fog that can shroud the cliffs with dense moisture. The
sun greeted us early the next day and toasted away the morning chill in time for
our 25-mile dash up the coast to Carmel to visit the renowned home of poet
Robinson Jeffers.
 This road was made for riding. (Click image to enlarge)
Pushing north up Highway 1, we quickly found a rhythm
befitting the two sport touring machines. Both possess softly sprung but
well-damped suspension, and that translates into wonderful, neutral handling
with effortless, predictable turn-in manners. More sport than touring really,
both are equally stable in corners, as well as providing relatively upright
riding positions, plush rides, and comfortable seats for the long
haul.
Continuing our notion of contrasting styles, our two test motorcycles
represented some of the options available today with regard to brakes. Both can
be fitted with optional ABS (anti-lock braking systems), as was the case with
our Triumph Sprint ST, whereas this particular Honda came sans ABS, but was
equipped with Honda’s patented linked braking system (the rear pedal actuates
both the front and rear calipers).
The Interceptor took the honors for sheer
stopping power; the linked brakes proving to be a sure-footed, controlled
system. The Triumph brakes are certainly adequate, but possess a slightly spongy
feel in the front lever. The Triumph’s ABS system, however, renders a phenomenal
level of braking performance without any of the strange, disconcerting
oscillation that plagued the operation of early ABS systems. The benefits of
this option on a touring machine—which will most likely collect many of its
miles on unfamiliar routes, in adverse weather conditions and loaded with the
additional weight of luggage and passenger—make it a sensible decision and a
justifiable expense.
 Pacific Coast Highway requires frequent stops, if only to gaze. (Click image to enlarge)
The Honda Interceptor is available in Pearl Black as
well as a complementary Pearl White. The Triumph Sprint ST is available in
Aluminum Silver, Caspian Blue, and Sunset Red. The Honda has a 5.8-gallon fuel
capacity, compared to the Triumph’s 5.2, which, in either case, renders enough
range that you’ll most likely be stopping to stretch your legs long before
either fuel tank is exhausted.
When modern American poet, Pennsylvania-born
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) and his wife, Una, first saw Carmel and the Big Sur
coast in 1914, they knew they had found their “inevitable place.” Jeffers wrote
of the area that it was “the greatest meeting of land and sea in the
world.”
Having decided to stay in Carmel, Jeffers apprenticed himself to a
stone layer to learn how to make “stone love stone.” Over the next decade,
laboriously transporting granite boulders up from Carmel Bay, he built, by hand,
the famous Tor House and Hawk Tower, where all of his major poetical works were
created.
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