Just a note about the 17 mile drive. It is a private closed community so they set their own rules. One of which is that motorcycles are forbidden unless they can verify you are visiting someone there. Another angle is to make a reservation at a restrarant.
I grew up on the California coast at Morro Bay. I would start your coast ride on Highway 1 at Leggett and finish at Morro Bay, Guadalupe or Lompoc, depending on what your schedule will allow.
After you cross the Golden Gate bridge, highway 1 will be congested until you get past Daly City. At that point, take I-280 and follow the signs for Monterey. At that point you can join back up with highway 1 and the fun stuff. I-280 gets you out of the SF **** traffic as quickly as possible but I would still try to time it so you are not taking that section during afternoon rush (3pm-7pm). If you have to be there at that time, plan on going to a restarant and having a good meal while the crazys thin out. My favorite is the Cliff House at Point Lobos. :eat1: If the fog is not in, you can see the Golden Gate bridge to the North North East. Their prices are not outrageous and the quality of their seafood is outstanding, even better than the Embarcadero without the crowd hassles.
For the route back North, I would try to hit all the high Sierra passes that you can. Start at Bakersfield, go through Lake Isabella, North Kern River via Kernville, Johnsonville, and Springville (before you get to Porterville). At the East end of Springville take the road North through Milo to Lemon Cove. From there go through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and eventually through Yosemite and Tioga Pass to the Eastern side of the Sierras. From there you can pick the Sonora, Ebbits, Carson, and Luther Passes before you reach Lake Tahoe. At Reno you can jump on I-80 East to get on your way home.
PM me if you want a Microsoft Street and Trips routes that I have made up for shooting high Sierra mountain passes. I can put them in HTML format so you can read them with your IE web browser or keep then in native S&T so you can modify them to your liking. Hope this helps.
