Your Local Guides

• Carla King, Editor, Point Richmond, Contra Costa County
• Lisa Alpine, Correspondent, Mill Valley, Marin County
• Sandy Borden, Correspondent, Davis, Yolo County
• Kathy Hensley, Correspondent, Aptos, Santa Cruz County
• Koi, Correspondent, Napa Wine Country
• Anna MacKinnon, Correspondent, Sausalito, Marin County
• Cat Macleod, Correspondent, El Sobrante, Contra Costa County
• Liz Petersen, Correspondent, Mendocino County
• Carl Ribaudo, Correspondent, South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County
• Cindy Servante, Correspondent, Novato, Marin County
• Guest Bloggers
• Become a MotoSFO Correspondent

Carla King, Point Richmond, Marin, San Francisco

Carla King is an adventure travel writer who has lived in San Jose, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, and is now in her fifth year living in "The Hidden City" of Point Richmond across the bay from Larkspur and San Quentin. She thinks the best way to see the world is on a motorcycle, and thus rides rather more slowly than most, on bikes that let her sit upright. You can read about these adventures in her books and blogs. She currently owns a Royal Enfield Bullet 500 and a Moto Guzzi California Stone 1100, but as a motorcycle reviewer, she has enjoyed the Kawasaki Concors 14, Vulcan 1100, KLR650, ER-n, and Versys, as well as the Suzuki M90, Harley VRod, Moto Guzzi Breva 650 IE, and Ural and Chang Jiang sidecar rigs. See Carla's blog posts. Find out more about Carla.

Correspondents

Lisa Alpine is an ocassional scooter rider and an enthusiastic pillion rider in San Francisco, Marin, Hawaii, and around the world. She is the author of Exotic Life: Laughing Rivers, Dancing Drums and Tangled Hearts and co-author of Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel. She is also an acclaimed teacher and coach, and leads workshops on travel writing and dance as a healing art form. Her travel stories have been widely anthologized. See Lisa's blog posts. Find out more about Lisa.

Sandy Borden, Davis, Sonoma, Napa

Sandy Borden and her husband Terry have motorcycled with their son Jack since he was a toddler cushioned on Terry's tank bag. This Adventure Trio camps a lot, and inspire many families to adventure together, by motorcycle or on four wheels. Their home and hub for exploration is the city of Davis, just south of Sacramento but in Yolo County wonderfully central to Solano County's Bay-Delta Region, Wine Country, and to Lake County's wild hills and hot springs. See Sandy's blog posts. Find out more about Sandy.

Kathy has spent the last 25 years exploring the nooks and crannies of the San Francisco and Santa Cruz areas. Her home is now in the small community of Aptos, set along the beautiful Pacific Ocean in southern Santa Cruz County. Not only can she help you discover the fun roads and hidden treasures around here, but she is constantly seeking out new places and events to share. Her travel planning service is Winding Path Travel and she blogs about her travel experiences at One Journey at a Time. See Kathy's blog posts Find out more about Kathy.

Koi was born and raised in the wine capital of the United States, the Napa Valley, is an ex-professional Italian chef and works in hospitality, making his living helping fellow travelers enjoy the most that the Napa area has to offer. He is a active member of Bay Area Riders Forum and posts frequent ride reports on that site. He started riding in October of 2010 and has since put 20,000 miles on a $700 1993 Yamaha Seca. With a half-mile commute, most of that has been "fun" riding. See Koi's blog posts.

Anna would travel exclusively by horseback if it were fast enough but, due to time restrictions, she frequently resorts to motorcycle travel. Since 2000 when she began riding, Anna has worked her way up to long distance touring on five different motorcycles, the current BMW R1200GS being her favorite. A California native and resident of Sausalito since 1983, she gets out to enjoy the state whenever possible. During the week she is trapped in a San Francisco corporate office but, saving her vacation, endeavors to make road trips to Canada whenever possible. Her It's All Good blog keeps her creative mind sharp and doubles as a travelogue while on the road. She occasionally contributes to BMW Owners Magazine, with her first published article in 2007 about a solo trip to Vancover making the cover.

Cat MacLeod is the Tourmaster for Leod Escapes, a motorcycle touring company based in San Francisco. Before Cat began his long tenure in the motorcycle industry he worked in the travel industry, but he’s been riding since he was ten years old. After motorcycle touring all around Europe, New Zealand, and the USA he’s picked up a few tricks. He knows there’s no better way to see the world than on a motorcycle and he knows there’s no better place to ride in the USA than Northern California. See Cat's blog posts. Find out more about Cat.

Liz Petersen is a graphic designer, working for herself in a small California town on the rural north coast. She is working toward becoming a personal fitness trainer, writing a video script, juggling motherhood with life and riding, attempting to keep up with tweets and twitters and all the other “new stuff” on the Internet, writing, and is passionate—and excited—about riding. You can catch her on her blog Lil Red's Riding Blog target="_blank". See Liz's blog posts.

Carl Ribaudo is a consultant, writer and public speaker who lives in South Lake Tahoe. He is also one of the founders of the Lake Tahoe Adventure Motorcycle Ride and Rendezvous. Carl got his riding start on a Honda 50 Mini Trail and later raced the Southern California moto cross circuit. Today he does a lot of solo touring on his BMW 1200GS, exploring two-lane highways of the west. He rides a BMW GS to explore the most excellent mountainous and well-paved roads in the Tahoe area where he lives. See Carl's blog posts. Find out more about Carl.

Cindi Servante lives in Novato, in northern Marin County, and is a rider, photographer, and reporter for Girlracer.co.uk. A hairdresser by trade, she is also the inventor of StyleSaverScarves, a very fashionable accessory designed to save the dreaded helmet hair. Most weekends she is zipping in and around the backroads of her native Marin County on her BMW ST. See Cindi's blog posts. Find out more about Cindi.

Issa Breibish is a motorcycle adventurer, lover of coffee and one-half of We Love Motogeo, a website created to document his travels around the world with his wife Nita. He's also co-founder of the Lost for Good Project, a cool little non-profit whose primary purpose is to promote small, positive contributions by overland travelers within the communities they visit. The organization believes that even the smallest acts of kindness can resonate and create ripples that bring change to the world around us. Currently he's selling everything in preparation for a multiyear RTW starting July 2012. View all posts by Issa Breibish

Christopher Gil lives and works in San Francisco for MAD Maps. View all posts by Christopher Gil

Become a MotoSFO Correspondent

Are you a rider/writer who would like to contribute to motoSFO? Please contact Carla via the contact form on this site.

Have you ridden here and want to share a story? Here's where to submit it. I will respond to every query. Thank you! - Carla