SCVTalk reader and cyclist Chris Castallo rolled up on a sad scene in Bouquet Canyon earlier today:
I was doing the the San Francisquito-Spunky Canyon-Bouquet Canyon loop this morning, and came across this scene around noon. Coroner had just gotten there. About 2 miles north of the cafe @ route marker 9.95. Guy with a house there said there had been a ton of sport bikes all morning, and that he’d guessed they were doing in the 80s.
The CHP tweeted a few hours ago that there was a possible fatality on Bouquet Canyon.
In September, I wrote about sport motorcyclists using the Canyon as their own private race track. Groups of them would shoot up and down the canyon at very high speeds, often times using the entire roadway as they turned into and came out of a corner in the picturesque canyon north of Santa Clarita. They drove their bikes so fast that a friend of mine and I pulled off the road to let them pass (video of them flying through the canyon is at the link above).
Unfortunately it looks like someone has paid the ultimate price for the joyriding. I hope no innocent drivers or other road users were injured.
Chris says he’s no longer going to ride his bike on Bouquet. I agree, I stopped riding that road after the September incident. What a shame.
They have a similar problem with speeding bikers on Sand Canyon, but a heavier law enforcement presence due, no doubt, to the number of influential people living in Sand Canyon.
Sad that people can’t get their thrills in ways that don’t endanger other people’s lives.
My motorized excitement is on 4 wheels, but I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed Soledad, Bouquet, San Francisquito, et al at times.
However, my “spirited” driving doesn’t come near to what these mad individuals do on their bikes. I’ll be rounding a corner, and I never know what I will find.
Unfortunately, with the LASD and CHP being short on the budget this year, I doubt that there will be any chance at seeing increased enforcement.
I saw a scene up there just like that about a month ago. WTF?
***I hear those sports bikes are driven by illegal aliens!***
Now go get them!
(It’s safer stopping a family in a Plymouth doing 10 over the limit!)
Sad and unnecessary.
Did anybody catch the homemade moped/scooter mini-convention Sunday afternoon, converging at the Semco building off Rye & Old Rd?
Strangest (and possibly one of the more awesome) things I’ve seen in a long time.
Those bikes didn’t look fast, but they didn’t exactly look safe either.
Confirmed fatality, a 47 yo man.
Speed on brothers, hell ain’t half full yet!
The tone would be much different if this guy was riding a bicycle on the roadway designed for motorized vehicles.
I agree with the commentary that these riders are riding way too fast through the canyon. I have seen them for my self and I avoid driving through the canyon.
you’re right, cash, next time i break 80mph going uphill on my bicycle, i’ll take all the heat you wanna give. In the meantime, the DA should consider whether the people he was riding with were potential accesories.