Cycle of the seasons

THE days of high sun in Southern California offer many pleasant idylls, many fine, relaxing and trivial ways to scatter the hours. This isn’t one of them.

To plunder one of the region’s famous mountain roads on a sport bike is to tease the fates. Out here among the wheeling blacktop carousels, yes, good things happen, and for those who ride, there are moments when -- the bike heeled over, the throttle rolled on and your plastic knee slider skimming the asphalt -- you are your own celestial hero.

But the bogies are many: fallen rocks, gravel gathered in blind sections of switchback, cops, jackass drivers and, of course, the perilous overestimation of your own talent. No one looks good with a sheet over them. So whatever you do, don’t relax.

Most of the best riding roads, like the Angeles Crest Highway starting in La Canada Flintridge, rise and snare over the local mountains, which means at the higher elevations the roads can freeze over. Ice is very disagreeable to motorcycles. That’s why, even though SoCal has moderate temperatures year-round, sport-bike riders crave summer.

Fame has been hard on Angeles Crest, and particularly on the weekends the road is crowded with cars, law enforcement and other bikers with their own karma to work out. For me, the absolute best riding road in the region is Highway 33, a 56-mile stretch of lightly traveled sport-bike nirvana cutting north-northwest across Los Padres National Forest between Ojai and Highway 166 in Ventura County.

This is the sort of Ultimate California road you see in Honda and Yamaha ads: stunning red-rock cornices and forested canyons, valleys of patchwork-green geometries, trees grown together like vaulted ceilings, and through it all an undulating seam of asphalt (and recently paved too) -- high-speed straights, hold-your-breath hairpins, perfect sweepers and roller-coaster elevation changes. I am firmly convinced God rides a BMW K1200R.

Highway 33 is not exactly a secret, as the crowd of glittering bikes around the Deer Lodge in Ojai attests. But it’s a big, empty road to nowhere, with almost no four-wheeled traffic. The cars and trucks you do see are manned by folks who know how to share the road.

Beginning in Ojai, heading north, the road is fairly tame as it runs along the valley floor. There are two tunnels as the road ascends into the hills, the first of which is dark and curved to the left. Coming out of bright sunlight and wearing sunglasses, you can experience momentary blindness. Slow down. Also in the first stretch, the road has been washed out in places, and the state Department of Transportation has put up one-lane gates with timed stoplights while repairs are made. Heads up.

After that the road gains elevation, clinging to the alluvial contours of the mountains as it cuts northward across Ventura County, offering a few hundred long, carving, epic corners where you can challenge yourself and contend with your better angels. This is the sort of road that makes people better riders; though, again, the margin of error can close in a blink.

Perhaps the most technical part of the road is the fiercely convoluted section of downhill asphalt just south of the Lockwood Valley Road intersection -- a stretch of blind corners and switchbacks that will make your arms and wrists burn with the effort. Beyond that, going north, Highway 33 picks up the meander of the river and finally becomes a string-straight road until the intersection of Highway 166. This 20-mile stretch is obviously a very fast piece of tarmac and exactly the sort of place where driver’s licenses meet their grisly end. Avoid that if you can.

I prefer to turn east onto Lockwood Valley Road, which is even less traveled and, in places, more demanding than Highway 33. The former courses and dives through some of the most enviable ranchland in Southern California, but be aware that small creeks cross the road and sometimes the road turns to chalky powder and gravel.

After such a ride on a summer day, your leathers will be heavy with sweat, your ears will ring from the wind’s roar in your helmet, you arms and shoulders will ache like a woodcutter’s. And your hair? Don’t even think about it.

Will you be relaxed? No. But happy.

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Automotive critic Dan Neil admits to having a thing for tight leather outfits.

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Rim of the World Scenic Byway: This nearly century-old route cavorts across the mountains from San Bernardino to Big Bear Lake, threading through some of the most picturesquely named places ever: Skyforest, Big Air Green Valley....

Angeles Forest Highway: On weekends, the more famous Angeles Crest Highway gets crowded and -- how to put this? -- well-supervised. But the Angeles Forest Highway sees its traffic drop. Heading north on Angeles Crest, take a left five miles north of La Canada Flintridge. Great views and, in places, the asphalt is snared like a fishing reel backlash.

Glendora Mountain Road: Hard to get to, harder to leave. Take San Gabriel Canyon Road north from Azusa, following the San Gabriel Reservoir, then a right on East Fork Road, which ends with a hairpin right, and you’re there. The first section wriggles up the mountain until it intersects with Glendora Ridge Road. Take a right to find a new wonderland.

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Note: Check www.dot.ca.gov for current conditions. And for more great roads: www.lateralg.org/roads.htm.