I didn't get the feeling that this ticket occured because the bike was on private property, however, I just checked both the Ca. Driver's Handbook and the CA Motorcycle Handbook and there is nothing in either that would prevent this type of parking. And I have never heard of CHP enforcing parking. What is the violation shown on the ticket? I don't think Julian is incorporated so you would be under the County of San Diego's jurisdiction.
The laws related to parking deal with not blocking driveways, walkways or parking in front of colored curbs. There is no mention of triangular striped areas etc. Probably because the lawmakers are cage oriented. If a car attempted to park in one of these areas it would likely trigger one of the violation categories because these end areas are adjacent to driveways, etc, and the car would overhang the triangle and block the drive. The motorcycle does not.
After reading this, I think I would definitely contest the ticket, especially since you can do so in writing without appearing. These tickets are big revenue items, not safety, and the cities rely on the fact that most people just pay up to avoid the hassle.
If I was doing this, I would describe the circumstances (i.e. the crowded nature of Julian during Octoberfest) and point out that you parked in this space to avoid taking up needed automobile parking and I would draw a sketch showing where I was parked. So you will admit to parking where the officer said you were parked. However, you can offer up an affirmative defense, which basically says that if there was a violation (and you do not believe there was) there is no such parking law identified in either the California Driver's Handbook or the California Motorcycle Handbook. Further, there was not sign in Julian indicating that parking within this space was no permitted.
Therefore, you request the charge be dismissed. Even if the judge does not dismiss it, he can still reduce the fine and you have nothing to lose. Let us know if there is a violation number.
On a similar note, as the Calfornia riders know, lane sharing is legal here. However, there are no laws specifying the details of how, when and where to lane share. This is left up to law enforcement. It is just supposed to be done in a safe manner. It appears that LEOs will not ticket bikes for splitting the lanes between cars, but yet will ticket you if you lane split to the right of the car in the right lane. They will ticket you for illegally passing on the right. However, the code is specific concerning passing on the right. It reads that the vehicle passes outside the normal area of the lane onto the shoulder or the area to the outside of the solid white line.
Yet, when one splits between cars, one is passing the left vehicle on the right and the right vehicle on the left. Now, if one is passing on the shoulder they clearly have you. But, if there is room on the right between the line of vehicles and the shoulder I could not find anything in the vehicle code which would make this any more illegal than lane sharing between cars.
The conditions for such are usually bumper to bumper traffic which varies from a dead stop to 15 mph, so if there is room these cars can easily and safely be passed on the right while remaining in the lane.
Is anyone aware of a California law that I may have overlooked on this?