Hey Mick, do you ever make it out to Santa Paula? My dad lives there...I ride over Hwy 150 and visit him on the weekends and then continue on through Ventura and up to Carp around Lake Casitas or wherever I decide to go at the time.
Yes, we get out there a couple times a year, I keep my BMW K-Bike out there so I always have a bike to ride and don't have to cross that miserable
Mojave desert. I'll give you a shout when we get there around Thanksgiving.
Another good ride is over 33 to Cerro Noroeste and then back to Lockwood
Valley road or into Frazier Park.
http://lateralg.org/roads/sbarbara/12.htmNo traffic and great corners. I used to have Fridays off and rode from Simi Valley to Pine Mtn Inn for breakfast almost every Friday morning. Some mornings I'd have to break the ice in the toilet to use it at the restaurant. (the toilets were out back and not heated). My kid and I rode up there last year about this time and ran into the owner (Tom Wolf), who told us he hoped to be open again this year some time. He was closed by the county after they had a wild fire a few years ago.
That ride up 33 and left on 166 to Santa Maria is pretty good when trying to escape the heat. You can feel the sea breeze about halfway to Santa Maria and then coastal weather all the way down to 246, left to Solvang (my wife was born there) and then right on 154 to 192 Cathedral Oaks Rd to 150 and back to Ojai and down through Santa Paula.
Mick