Eagle Rider is good and you could drop the bike off at Eagle Rider in San Francisco. I've rented from them and their bikes are in A1 shape. As someone mentioned, Gary Bang is a good dealer in Atascadero if you want to get in closer. Another alternative if you want to start further north is the Harley dealer in Salinas or House of Thunder in Morgan Hill.

I was just on CA 1 two weeks ago riding up from San Luis Obispo up through Big Sur. Try to do it during the week and traffic won't be as thick. Not that you're going to go that fast anyway. You do so at your peril. The ride is stupendous. U.S. 101 to the east is also a beautiful highway especially from Santa Barbara to Salinas, so it's a good alternative if weather turns bad on the coast and faster than CA 1.

 

Hey Mentor,
You must live in LA. You need to install some quieter mufflers and get outside of town because Calif. is one of the best places to ride in the world. The area north of Santa Barbara to Salinas doesn't have many cars and the roads are fantastic. You can just pick one and sometimes ride for miles without seeing a car (make sure you fill up every time you see a station.) Then there's the 400 mile long Sierra Nevada chain and the deserts from Palm Springs out eastward, Joshua Tree National Park, Death Valley, etc., etc. Then there's all that country north of San Francisco going up to Eureka. I've traveled all of it from Oregon down to San Diego and except for LA and parts of the Bay Area and San Diego I've seen more empty space than I've seen traffic.

 

I appreciate all of the responses. I am probably going to go with Gary Bang. I am trying to avoid LA as much as possible. Hopefully the weather will be good at the end of March.

 

Have fun on your trip. Calling the weather is relatively easy in March. When rain comes in at that time of the year 90 percent of the time it's coming northwest off the Pacific. We usually get several days of on and off rain from a storm punctuated by brilliantly clear weather windows. You can see the patterns developing by looking at the satellite photos. If your timing is right, you can squeeze into these windows. Overall, the windowstays open for three or four days. When a storm is coming, the wind begins from the south. YOu usually have about a day to ride during that time before the storm actually arrives. We hit such a window two weeks ago and had 75 degree weather for our ride down through San Luis Obispo and back up to San Francisco via Ca. 1. It got a little chilly by the second day as a front, with very little moisture, moved through.

The 100-mile ride from Cambria to Monterey is one stunning journey. The Hearst Castle in San Simeon is worth a stop if you're impressed with that sort of thing, but you'll spend at least a half day there if you go. A 'must' stop is the the elephant seal hauloutjust north of San Simeon. They're right next to the highway at a special observation point. Watch for the signs.A good place to stay overnight before going north is the Creekside Inn or the Bluebird Hotel in Cambria. Reasonable rates and biker friendly. Good food up and down the street.

Hope you have good weather.