# Too Fast Too Furious on Calaveras



## bubbha70 (Aug 8, 2004)

I just completed The Wall and was making my way to Sunol. 
I was about 100 yards from a blind turn.

Suddenly, a pack of three cars comes speeding out of the blind turn. I kinda flinched cause they were driving towards me pretty aggressively.

A few seconds later another pack of three cars comes screaming out of the same blind turn.

I nervously make my way to the turn (trying to stay as far to right as I could), and another three cars comes blazing out of the turn. The first two see me and don't try anything stupid, although they were still driving pretty fast. But the third guy doesn't see me and tries to pull a drift.

All I know is, time stood still, literally. I saw the beginning of a fishtail and I saw him turning into the drift. I don't know what happened, but I yelled. I thought I was gonna be wiped clean off the road. But some how he straightened out.

At that moment, I realized that there really isn't anything you can do when an idiot is driving a car straight at you.

After that, all I wanted to do was get off that hill. That's a pretty sucky feeling.


----------



## singlespeed.org (Feb 14, 2006)

With the packs of cars you describe, sounds like some sort of informal car race going on. May be worth a call to the local police about this.


----------



## Number9 (Nov 28, 2004)

Actually, various car clubs or members of auto bulletin boards frequently do group drives out on the same roads that we cycle (e.g., Mt. Hamilton, Calavaras, HW 35, HW84, etc.). They vary from kids in tuner cars to rich folks in exotics. Not usually a race, but so-called "spirited" drives. Unfortunately, the drive participants tend to drive faster than they can see and/or above their talent level. Give them a wide berth if you can.

I've seen a BMW group drive so badly that I had to wait until the entire group had gone past before I could safely navigate around a blind turn where I was headed in the other direcction (because several of them had drifted out into the wrong lane, so it wouldn't have been advisable to proceed just then). I've also seen a member of a Subaru WRX group botch a turn and fall off the side of Mt. Hamilton road (no serious injury, but the car was seriously damaged). And a couple of years ago, a guy in a Porsche bought the farm by hitting a tree out on near Pescadero Road on a Saturday morning group drive following the weekly exotic meet at Santana Row.

Which is to say that when you're out cycling, you need to be careful of the various cars and motorcycles buzzing by. Usually you can hear them coming though.


----------



## jasonwells4 (Aug 7, 2006)

What kind of cars were they?

Yeah, your ears are useful in this situation.

This is why I don't do S2000 group drives. It always turns into a dick measuring contest.


----------



## ryans (Jul 10, 2009)

I'm guilty as charged! I used to haul ass out on those roads. One morning I was hauling ass through Palomares taking a long sweeper turn and next thing I know I see like 30-40 bikers on the side yelling a me. Of course I slowed down and took it slow the rest of the way. My buddy in his Lotus drove off the side of Hamilton and one of my other buddies spun out taking a slight turn on Angel Camp Road.

I really don't drive like that anymore, but I feel it's a catch 22 situation. When I'm in my car I want to do some spirited driving and when I'm on my bike I feel like I own the road.


----------



## Leopold Porkstacker (Jul 15, 2005)

Back in the early 1990s I used to drive my SCCA GT3-prepped 1963 Volvo up Moody Road to Page Mill Road and up 35, back down to Highway 9 as fast as I could. I would generally do it around noontime on weekdays, and there was rarely any traffic, including cyclists. Now that I am much older and wiser, I would opt to just stick with closed course driving, since it seems that more cyclists are on the roads these days.

But the ones to look out for, so I am told, are the Nissan 240SX drivers, since they all think they are Keiichi Tsuchiya. Apparently they give all car clubs bad names, at least here in the Bay Area.

Oh yeah, and back in the day, I lost a guy in a Porsche 911 going up Moody (he spun out and almost went off the road), and a guy in a Supra ended up packing it into the side of a cliff. Apparently the 1.125" diameter front swaybar and 1" rear swaybar coupled with 2" lower coils and Bilsteins (with 2.5° negative camber at the front) was too much for them… let alone a 4-cylinder 1963 car.


----------



## ryans (Jul 10, 2009)

It's all about tires. I had my 93 Sentra with some Yokohama A008's on 13 inch steelies and I was hauling ass back on Calaveras against all types of cars. I remember when I'd run Calaveras I'd always start honking before the blind turns. As I got older and wiser I'd just go at night. Now that I got kids I don't go at all. 

The 240 guys I always went with just did their thing at night and at least one car would get totaled a night. As for craziest drivers I'd have to say the BMW clubs. I have an NSX and it keeps up with almost anything I've seen back there, but when I went out with the BMW crowd I left because I figured someone was going to kill themselves.


----------



## shibaman (May 2, 2008)

When I was a member of the local Miata club we used to do spirited drives on all the same roads I now ride with the Sacramento Wheelman. The Miata people were actually pretty good about looking for cyclists. The lead driver, and then the others behind him would raise their right arm out the top to warn the people behind them about road hazards.


----------



## Leopold Porkstacker (Jul 15, 2005)

ryans said:


> It's all about tires.


Hmmm... Yeah... So, I’m going to have to sort of disagree with you on that... Yeah... Good tires aren’t as important as the suspension geometry, and the integrity of the suspension bushings (taking deflection coefficients into consideration). But of course you’ve never been involved with motorsports, so I guess maybe I’m just sounding like your dad telling you that you cannot live out your dreams. Or something.


----------



## ryans (Jul 10, 2009)

I guess you just sort of disagree and not fully disagree with me . Most cars days have decent suspension and what I was saying is if you put some race tires on a decent car your going to be shaving some seconds off your time.


----------



## makeitso (Sep 20, 2008)

Most of the people who do these runs are those who don't know how to drive well. Mainly people who think sliding around w/ screeching tires make them fast. Especially in club drives though these areas. For these variable uncontrolled conditions ultra high performance tires are the worst things you can slap on the car as the area between the tire complaining point and the breakaway point becomes closer and that much more abrupt, throw in a random object (cyclist) on the road and high performance tires very well might end badly. Learn how to drive via autocross or track racing schools and it'll take seconds off your time. As for the type of people who are the worst marketing plays a HUGE role in that. BMW = "Ultimate driving machine" thus you can't do any wrong as a driver right?? 

Either way on Calaveras there's plenty of fools that fly though but luckily there's still enough 'traffic' that's slow sunday drivers that make it okay for the most part. Though I wouldn't target going though there around dusk on trhe weekends. If you go though during the morning usually you can miss most of these kids.


----------



## lvh831 (Aug 30, 2013)

Calaveras would be a nice road for biking if only cars drive at the safe speed. Today as I climbed up a hill toward Ed Levin park, a fancy sport car zoom by at 50 speed passing me. I climbed at 7mph on a mountain bike, got scared and drove back to Alviso trail instead. Speed limits on these uphill curves are like 20 or something and what's the rush of driving 50mph? If you need to get A->B fast, might as well take I-680 instead of this tiny winding road. btw, this was at noon. Maybe some dude got yelled by his boss and took the anger on the road during lunch break or something. It sucks! After thinking of this I think from now on I don't risk my life on these roads. Your life depends on these irrational drivers. I had a friend lived on Felton near a winding road. He said there is at least one car felt off a ditch near his curvy road every month. All most of those cars are nice and fast sporty too. He would hear a loud squeeeeeeeezz then skidded into the ditch, kaboom. Is there any car has falled off Calaveras? I really wish there are. If not, hopefully the ghost from Marsh Road moves to here and push them off the hill.

Just Googled Calaveras accidents and you'll find few people actually flew off the road. Great. There should be signs on both end of Calaveras warn drivers to slow down or fly off the road for speeding.

Milpitas man, 18, identified as victim in fatal crash south of Calaveras Road - San Jose Mercury News

Accident in Milpitas - Page 2 - MX-5 Miata Forum


----------

