Road Man

Road Man

UP FRONT

David Edwards

NORMAL ENOUGH GUY, TIM MAYHEW. Family man, 32 years old, a loan officer. In the garage, though, is a hint that all is not white bread and mayonnaise. There, you’ll find his Suzuki Hayabusa (and before that a Kawasaki ZX-11), usually in need of new tires.

Mayhew’s afterhours pastime, see, is to track down every motorcycle-worthy road in California, region by region, county by county if necessary, then ride it.

Fine. We all need a hobby. But here’s where Tim gets a little wacky. Rather than simply regale riding buddies with his asphalt explorations, Mayhew has fired up a website-and not just some amateurish “blog” (web log, for those of you not yet up to race pace on the Internet), but a huge, full-featured site that shames many professional setups.

Named after his bike’s personalized license plate, PASHNIT (say it fast and you’ll get it), the web address is www.pashnit.com, and contains some 300 pages with information on more than 250 roads.

“I’m just a guy whose life revolves around motorcycling,” he offers. “A guy with a tremendous love of photography, of writing and, most of all, of motorcycles. The website is a way of combining all three loves.”

When a new job took him to Sacramento in 1993, Mayhew, then single and without a network of friends, needed to fill empty hours. He hit the backroads every chance he got. “The only thing to do was ride,” he says, “so I opened a map, highlighted an interesting-looking road and went.” Soon he was logging up to 25,000 miles a year, one interesting-looking road at a time.

Self-taught as a photographer and writer (not to mention rider-“At 18, I bought a $600 junker and took off for 5000 miles.”), Tim soon amassed quite a collection of snapshots and notes. Three years ago, again with no formal training, he added webmaster to his list of skills, and uploaded his thoughts and photos.

All kinds of roads are included, everything from classic sportbike fare like Ortega Highway and the Angeles Crest to bumpy, barely-there one-laners, “where men are men and the road signs

are riddled with bullet holes,” Mayhew says. He carries off the narration in a folksy, easy-to-read manner, casually working in asides about each region’s history and topography, noting waypoints worth stopping for, and handing out advice about gas stations, road conditions, speed traps, etc. Using old-fashioned, non-digital cameras (“My Minolta panoramic is made of solid brass-they don’t make ’em like that anymore!”), Mayhew has turned himself into a very good shooter, and accompanying the text are his evocative images of roadways and vistas and curbside attractions. In total, the site showcases almost 1500 photos, all individually scanned and cropped.

Each road listing includes a map, and recently Mayhew has added 3-D terrain mapping, highlighting a route’s elevation changes. Also included are links to related websites. And taking advantage of the web’s interactivity, Tim puts up other riders’ opinions of the road.

This is a tremendous amount of work. Each listing requires 10-15 hours at the keyboard, and he spends a couple of hours each day on site upkeep. And Mayhew is not getting rich at it. Amazingly, his site has no ads, no banners, no corporate sponsors, no annoying pop-ups, pop-unders or those

dreaded eye-blasters.

“So many people-even my motherhave scolded me for not trying to make money with the site,” Mayhew says. “I guess I can’t say I’ll never accept ads, but for now I want to keep it pure.” He does take in small donations through an online payment service, but these barely keep his ’Busa in rubber and knock the edge off film costs, software upgrades, site maintenance, etc.

“It’s an obsessive labor of love,” Mayhew admits, “a mere thought at first, then a spare-time hobby, then something that begins to define your daily life.”

And don’t bother asking him why he’s doing this.

“To me, that seems like a silly question,” he shoots back. “It didn’t exist; there was no place for a motorcyclist to go. Most travel guidebooks and sites are automobile-oriented-go here, turn there, ho-hum, very disappointing. Where’s the sense of adventure, the sense of curiosity, what does it feel like to ride the road?”

Tim’s passionate online answer to those questions seems to have struck a chord. What began as a simple posting of favorite roads now sees 75,000 distinct users sign on each month. Not all that traffic comes from motorcycle riders, either. Bicyclists and sports-car clubs have discovered the site.

“I had no idea it would get this big,” he says. “The response has been overwhelming.”

He’s even achieved minor celebrity status. At a recent race, standing in line to buy lunch, Mayhew and his wife were discussing the website-apparently at some volume. People in front, behind and at adjacent tables all chimed in, “That’s your site?!” and began heaping on the praise. “It’s like I’m the Road Guru,” he says.

So, where is all this leading, what’s next for Mayhew?

Well, first he points out that his collection of California motorcycle roads is a work in progress, not yet finished. But a book has been discussed, and a CDROM. His wife thinks a touring company is a good idea. Or maybe they’ll move to Oregon and repeat the process. All in good time, though.

As Tim is fond of saying, “The roads aren’t going anywhere.” □