Redleg's Rides

Help a fellow moto-blogger help others.....

2012-01-31T13:34:00.000-07:00

Murph, who writes about his moto-journalistic travels onboard his trusty BMW 1150 GS motorcycle, is currently trying to raise money to help a worthy cause: Team Red, White and Blue.

Murph, as some of you might recall, stayed with me a couple of days last year as he was riding from Steamboat Springs to Boulder, CO. The posting about this is here: Riding with Murph. Murph also came out with me to play on last year's Elephant Ride and we all had a great time: Uralist at the 2011 Elephant Ride.

Murph is truly a year-round rider and a man after my own heart when it comes to motorcycling and photography. He leaves soon for Europe in continuation of his Ride-The-World plans, and I believe a sidecar rig is in the cards as he is tired of letting snow stop him at times. :)

Please take a look at Murph's web posting on this worthy cause, the financing of which he is enabling through the sale of very cool looking stickers. I've already ordered mine!

The cost is $10 or more if you can swing it, so come on, it's less than a tank of gas for your motorcycle these days and the cause is very worthy of your help.

The 2012 Elephant Ride is less than two weeks away.....

2012-01-30T14:58:00.000-07:00

Do you ride in Winter when conditions are snowy? Are you within striking distance of the town of Grant, CO?

If so, why not join me and whatever Uralisti I can convince, to try and see how far you can ride up Guanella Pass Road from Grant in this year's Elephant Ride?

More details on the ride here: LINK

From my first Elephant Ride in 2010

Service Note: Chain adjustment

2012-01-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

This being a web log after all, this post is just to record a 3/4 turn chain tightening adjustment on the Krause 530 Chain on Yoshie. This is the third adjustment I've done in over 6200 miles, so not bad. Hopefully, this is it in terms of the stretch all motorcycle chains apparently go through before "settling in" for the duration.

Note: Last adjustment done after getting stuck in snow and thinking I'd "stressed" the chain a bit getting the rig unstuck.

Mileage on Yoshie, 35,735. Chain initially installed at 29,486 miles.

The chain has lasted longer than the stock chain on Vikki did, so things are looking hopeful.

Any experienced chain-driven motorcycle riders out there looking at the video below, your feedback would be appreciated as to how the chain looks while in motion.

Squaw Pass Road in Winter

2012-01-23T05:50:00.004-07:00

Sunday, we woke to overcast and gloomy skies here in the Denver Metro Area, I decided to ride up to CO 103 or Squaw Pass Road in the hopes that the sun would clear out or break through the clouds at altitude. You see, Squaw Pass is at 9847 feet altitude and the clouds over Denver seemed lower than that.

It was a mild 40°F and very windy as I transited the metro area via I-25 to the US6 super slab heading west. I then took a short portion of C-470 south to the exit for the town of Morrison and the beginning of the Bear Creek Canyon Road. This is a very twisty road, with high rocky canyon walls and I motored through the small towns of Idledale, Kittredge and finally Evergreen with no incident and very little traffic.

The temperature had dropped by a few degrees now that I was past the foothills but it was still not bad at near freezing temperatures. I continued heading west out of the town of Evergreen, riding on Upper Bear Creek rode past the McMansions bordering Bear Creek. Soon enough, I'd twisted my way through that development and stopped Yoshie a little bit past the turnoff for Witter Gulch Road.

Near Upper Bear Creek Road

Windblown mountain peaks in the distance

The strong winds continued to howl down from the mountains, and you could see the snow being blown about on the distant mountain peaks. This wind added that much more "effect" to the cold temperatures as I returned to Witter Gulch Road and started ascending on it towards CO103. The road becomes a dirt trail but it was clear of ice and snow and I made good time on it till I reached Squaw Pass Road.

From there its about ten miles to Echo Lake and the entrance to the Mount Evans Road (which is closed for the season). The road slowly became more and more ice and snow-covered as I gained altitude but nothing of concern for good old Yoshie, my sidecar rig.

The thermometer I'd mounted earlier in the month said I hit a low of 13°F as I got near Echo Lake and let me tell you, it felt like it! I was regretting not wearing my thermal underwear but once I donned my snow helmet's breathing mask and my heavy gloves at a stop, it was all good.

Views of the peaks near Mount Evans as I approached Echo Lake

This was the best view I got of Mount Evans today

I got to Echo Lake with no issues, just in time to watch a couple of out-of-town tourists from Illinois trying hard to set up a wind shelter out on the frozen lake. Never mind the sign that said: "Keep off the Lake". I watched them flounder in the high winds with some satisfaction and then I took a picture of the lake.

Echo Lake

It was close to 11:30 by this point so I started retracing my steps back towards Evergreen. The sun had indeed broken free of the overcast skies as you saw in the pictures and temperatures soared into the low 20s! After the hour or so I'd spent in the teens, it felt positively "balmy".

Here's a video to give you an idea of the road conditions on the higher portions of Squaw Pass Road. There were spots were it was just dry pavement but it was not a good day for two-wheeled motorcycles on the mountain today.

I made it back to the turnoff for Witter Gulch Road after a brief detour to ride up and down Squaw Mountain Road. It led to some telecom antenna farm facility which was a secured facility so I was not able to go all the way to the top. The sign that said: "Patrolled by attack dogs" and no sign of fences kind of dissuades the curious from going much further, shall we say.

The rest of the ride home was pretty smooth and slightly monotonous as temperatures soared once again back into the mid-40s once I entered the metro area once again. Not a very long ride but hopefully you'll like the photos and video I took.

Hope you got a ride in today.

Note: my previous post: My first work of fiction. Give it a read if you've the time, let me know what you think.

A little mid-Winter fiction

2012-01-21T18:02:00.005-07:00

The streets of Salzburg were quiet as the rider steered his motorcycle sidecar rig through the three inches of snow which had fallen in the early evening. The frigid weather coupled with strong winds whipping down from the heights dominated by the Salzburg castle had driven all the regular pedestrians into the nearest inn or restaurant and the rider had the streets to himself.

The gas lit streetlights cast his helmeted visage briefly in a yellow ghostly light as he transited the intervening pools of darkness towards his destination. The strong headlamps on his motorcycle appeared as glowing eyes of some mystical monster in the darkness and the rig's engine sound reverberated as a muted example of a dragon's rumblings on the walls of the old buildings in the town.

The rider's garb was all black with muted insignia on each shoulder, his only concession to being visible being the reflective striping on the outside legs of his riding pants and a narrow strip of the same material laid horizontally across his broad back. His helmet also was black with a black visor which was down in spite of the limited visibility caused by the falling snow and the late hour.

Headed towards the town's landmark castle, the rider felt the repeated blows from strong winds descending from on high. Each gust driving sharp icy particles into his outer riding gear, but not affecting him in terms of cold or impact. He did note that the snow was building up on his jacket and riding pants and welcomed it for the upcoming task. Every few hundred feet, he wiped his left hand across his helmet to wipe off the snow and ice which built up on his visor, threatening to blind him as he started riding up the narrow one lane road to the castle.

His motorcycle's narrow beams of light highlighted the ruts in the snowy road ahead, illuminating the tight switchbacks that allowed one to gain altitude and intimating as to deep dark heights should one miss
a turn this night. The snow level appeared to lessen as he gained altitude, most likely due to the strong winds which continued to assault him now from all directions as his rig twisted this way and that to follow the narrow road.

The rider stopped his sidecar rig a few feet off the narrow road, in a thick copse of pine trees thickly laden with snow and shut off the engine. As he listened to the sound of the engine's ticking as hot metal cooled; snowflakes started to cover the rig. He looked ahead and saw the glow of the light from the small structure guarding the final approach to the castle, just around the next bend in the road.

He dragged his rig further into the copse of trees, positioning the rig so that he could just drive straight out upon his return. A few more minutes passed as he watched the heavy snow fall almost completely cover his rig in white camouflage. He listened to his breath within the warm helmet, his visor now cracked slightly to prevent being blinded by fog.

He used this time to remove the velcro-backed reflective strips from his riding gear, rendering him a black shape in the falling snow.

Shouldering a small pack he'd withdrawn from the sidecar's trunk, he walked swiftly but quietly along the bordering trees of the narrow road. Soon he was within earshot of the lone sentry in the guard house.
He could see the man huddled over a tiny stove, holding his hands out for the meager warmth it offered, his attention solely on staying warm that cold and wind blown night.

The rider saw that the guardhouse watched over a closed wrought iron fence ten feet high and as wide as the narrow lane he'd been riding. Thick rock walls, perhaps eight feet in height stretched out from the gate into the darkness and thick snow drifts topped and hugged the walls making them an even more challenging obstacle.

Beyond the gate, he could see the castle lay just a hundred meters ahead, floodlit with lights and the parking area in front of the castle choked with Mercedes Gelandewagens and Range Rovers, with a mix of more mundane 4x4 SUVs and Hummers filling up the available spaces. There was music and laughter softly reaching the ears of the rider and he smiled, knowing his target was holding court in the castle.

After making his way past the guardhouse unseen, the rider positioned himself along the wall on the perhaps 100 feet from the guard house. The rider removed from his pack the gear which would allow him to pass through the closed gate undetected by the sentry. His target, he knew, was highly selective of whom he invited to his parties.

A few minutes work as he deployed the gear between a couple of pine trees and he set the timer. Stealthily, he retraced his footsteps in the snow and he returned to his sidecar rig. As he waited, he mounted his trusty sidecar rig, after engaging the headlight and driving light cutouts. Now his rig idled strongly but quietly in the falling snow, a snow-covered mass in the dark night.

Though he was expecting it, the sudden show of lights and loud conversation noises bursting from the area near the sentry box took him by surprise. It seemed like a whole host of people were walking along the bordering walls to the castle! The rider heard the door to the guardhouse burst open, the sentry rushing out in response to the hue and cry of his planted device. The rider knew the guard's eyes would be fixated by the many lights that now seemed to bob along the wall of the castle.

Trusting on the distraction provided, he gunned the engine of his rig, freeing it smoothly from the accumulated snow and he raced towards the gate. He stopped at the gate and as he worked it open, he could see the flashlight beam of the sentry shining in the trees as the poor man sought the source of all the lights and sound.

Riding his rig through, the rider secured the gate once more, erasing any evidence another vehicle had driven through.

He slowly made his way closer to the castle, the flickering light from the flame-topped torches mounted along the wall the only illumination into the parking lot. The windows of the castle spilled light into the night but failed to reflect onto him and give his presence away to anyone who might have been looking outside.

He briefly glimpsed elegantly dressed women and men thronging about, drinks in their hands as they moved about socializing with each other.

The rider parked his rig in a dark corner of the parking area, squeezing in between two dark SUVs, once again ensuring he'd be able to drive out quickly if need be. The cold winds and snow stung briefly as he removed his protective riding gear and helmet revealing a man in a tuxedo. His riding gear stashed away in the sidecar, now looking for all the world like a party-goer, he strode confidently up to the main door and let himself in quietly.

He was immediately bathed in the noise and light of a full-blown party. The few people who glanced his way as he walked in noted a handsome man, fittingly dressed as they were, and they briefly wondered who he was as they became re-engaged in nearby conversation.

Brushing off the flakes of snow which had landed on his shoulders, the rider deftly lifted a glass of champagne off the tray of a passing white-coated waiter and slowly made his way to the center of the main hall. His confident brown eyes scanned the room and its occupants. He nodded as if in quiet acknowledgement when he met a man's eyes, his eyes lingering a bit longer on the curves and shapes of the women in the room as he passed them by.

The rider took care to not linger in one place too long, always moving, as if seeking some lost companion in the crowd. The sea of tuxedos and low cut clinging dresses was like an obstacle course as he neared the large roaring fireplace where his target sat entertaining his guests.

The heat of the fire was like a blast from a furnace but it paled when compared to the obvious heat and energy projected by his target as he held enthralled the nearest of his guests in some intricately described tale of adventure and romance. His target was a large man, with short white hair and the world-weary eyes of what the rider knew as a fellow motorcycle rider.

Above, the fireplace mantle, hung in the place of honor was an oil painting. The rider recognized the fire red BMW K75 motorcycle pictured in the painting but was unable to fully count the number of scantily clad women pictured clustered about it before he stepped in front of the target.

The target looked upon the rider in surprise as he sensed his nearby presence. His blue eyes widened in happy surprise and recognition as the rider thrust out his hand and said: "Mr Riepe I presume?"

Author's note: Just a little fictional frippery for those of you locked in PMS mode due to weather and road conditions. Hope you liked it.

Snowy Sunday Riding

2012-01-08T13:22:00.000-07:00

Our weather guessers predicted correctly that we'd get a couple of inches of snow overnight. I left the house shortly after 8:00AM, the sun bright in the sky already, and a brisk 15°F keeping the snow dry and crunchy underneath Yoshie's wheels.

I first wandered down towards Grandview High School hoping for a nice show of snow-laden trees but it was not to be today. There was however a nicely lit gazebo amidst a few trees in a field near the roadside.

I next rode back up north towards Quincy Road and took it east towards the Aurora Reservoir and Aurora Park Horse Racing Track. The place was deserted of course, it being a Sunday morning after all. I was able to pose Yoshie with Mount Evans in the background:

The shooting angle kind of makes it like Yoshie is in the middle

of nowhere, doesn't it?

Heading southwards once again, I rode into the Antelope Neighborhood, got onto Ireland Way and this time continued onwards as the road became Travois Trail, leading to the Travois Neighborhood. The road eventually dumps one onto Inspiration Drive.

I wandered south of this road along its dirt neighborhood roads, and came upon this nice view of a tree-framed snowy trail:

Piney Creek Road

As I was riding along, I spotted where someone had located an old fashioned horse drawn wagon, the sun was hitting it just right:

My camera's battery was nearing empty at this point so I made my way back to Inspiration Drive which I rode back towards County Line Road which I used to ride along the border trail belonging to the Blackstone Country Club. I found the spot where I'd posed Stewie, my loving wife's scooter just shy of 24 hours ago and shot today's final shot:

Prairie near the Blackstone Country Club

The little amount of snow we got was already melting away on the main roads, I am pretty sure the roads will be dry by this afternoon. I'd say we got just about the right amount of snow, wouldn't you?

Exercising Stewie

2012-01-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Martha, does not seem to have caught the penchant to ride in the cold or iffy traction conditions that I tend to prefer riding in. Go figure.

Alas, it's been a while since Stewart, or Stewie as she calls him, her 125cc Genuine Buddy scooter had gotten some exercise. So after cleanup chores were done in the garage this morning, I took Stewie out for a ride in brisk low 30s temperature. I did find its battery completely dead, apparently the key had been left in the "on" position. This is actually something very easy to do, bad design on the part of Genuine's ignition keylock supplier in my opinion. No problem though, I deployed the scoot's kick-starter and after a few kicks, was off and running.

I buzzed around the neighborhood roads, past the 1 mile mark where her high school is located where she works as the school nurse. I continued northward on Picadilly, past the open fields and subsequent neighboring housing developments until I reached the Plains Conservation Center where I posed Stewie:

There's predictions of snow for the metro area by tomorrow,

here you can see the incoming weather.

At the Plains Conservation Center

I then headed east towards Gun Club Road and took it past the Southlands Mall area to Smoky Hill Road which I took west towards the Blackstone Country Club area. Stewie got a little taste of dirt trail riding as he somewhat bumpily (not much suspension on scooters) but we got to my usual picture taking spot with no issues.

Near the Blackstone Country Club

The incoming weather's clouds had by now completely obscured the view one can get of Mount Evans so I headed on home by back roads instead of Smoky Hill Road. Even through the thick gloves I was wearing, I was starting to feel the cold in my fingers and so I only rode about 20 miles.

Still, that's about 10% of the total mileage on this scoot, so good exercise, and no need to put Stabil in the gas tank. I'll just make it part of the monthly maintenance routine to ensure Stewie gets a few miles of riding in.

Brigitta's first ride of 2012 and a milestone for her.

2012-01-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

Those of you who viewed my "year in pictures" movie in my last posting of the year might have gotten the impression I was riding my sidecar rig far more often than my '87 Beemer R80 Airhead Brigitta. The mileage figures sure point to it but in my defense, I did ride her a lot while commuting to/from work!

Today, it was sunny and "warmish" here in Colorado and there was enough pavement visible on the road out of the neighborhood so I could take Brigitta out for a ride. The idea was to get in at least 50 miles or more in order to warm up the transmission enough to "boil off" any water that might have collected in the gearbox due to condensation.

I set off from home and headed towards the towns of Elizabeth and Kiowa to re-acquaint myself with riding on two wheels. It felt a bit strange yet good at first, having more acceleration and nimbleness than when on a sidecar rig!

The miles rolled by as Brigitta and I got used to each again, settling into a familiar and comfortable riding experience.

Near Elizabeth, CO, I brought Brigitta to a stop by the side of the

road as her odometer roller over to 94,000 miles!

(I put about 43,000 of those miles myself)

Past Kiowa and its water tower, I turned off onto Freese Road, a county dirt road to do some exploring. I would end up meandering hither and yon on diverse county roads which bordered what were mostly horse and cattle ranches. I couldn't, go faster than 35mph, but it was fast enough to allow an enjoyable exploration of these county roads.

Rode over a hill's crest and found a small herd of Buffalo just grazing

by the side of the road!

They all kept a wary eye on me as I took photos but stayed

basically within 25 feet of me the whole time.

Above and below, some of the lonely prairie scenery one can

enjoy while riding the eastern plains of Colorado.

I finally meandered enough and found my way back to Kiowa by spotting it's water tower in the far distance and using it as a guide to get me back onto CO86.

I motored along at a much faster and easier rate now that I was back on pavement and was soon nearing my home neighborhoods. It was then that I noticed my turn signals were not working anymore. I pulled over at a housing development and found that not only were my turn signals out but so was my brake light! Not good.

I checked the two fuses located on the frame to the rear of the gas tank and found one was blown. No problem, I replaced it with a spare and continued onwards.

Less than a mile later while signaling left and making a turn, I noted I lost the turn signals again. Dammit.

Again I pulled over, and again I put in a new fuse to replace the one that had blown. This second fuse lasted me a bit longer but still it blew within blocks of home. I noted it seemed to be related to me using the left turn signal. I got her home without incident and some troubleshooting later, found a loose electrical coupler!

Its purpose is to link the wiring from the headlight bucket and turn signals to the main wiring harness of the Beemer. It had probably vibrated loose in all the washboarded dirt roads I'd been riding on. I secured it back into position, made sure I have all the lights I need to ride safely and buttoned her up.

Not bad for a first ride of the year wouldn't you say? Some good picture opportunities, nice weather to ride in and just a little taste of electrical gremlins by Brigitta to remind me to ride her more often!

First Ride of 2012

2012-01-01T18:00:00.000-07:00

This morning I met up with fellow Uralisti John S. aka Spat who rode his immaculately white Ural Patrol and Julie and Craig H on their Winter Camo Arctic Patrol. We had a leisurely breakfast at the Red Rock Grille in Morrison and caught up on things as it had been a while since we'd all ridden together.

After breakfast, we left the Morrison area and planned to ride to Sphinx Park and the Bucksnort Saloon area just to get in a short but quick first day of the year ride. They all had social commitments this afternoon so we chose a nearby destination.

At the Red Rock Grille, getting ready to ride in the cold.

The temperature was around 32°F at this point.

We rode west out of Morrison along Bear Creek Canyon Road heading towards Evergreen. The small towns of Idledale and Kittredge were transited with no issues and in very light traffic. The sun was out and painting the rocky canyon walls along the way very nicely.

Once in Evergreen, we turned south along CO73 heading towards it's junction with US285 in Conifer. After a brief stint on US285, we arrived at Pine Junction and from there took CO126 southwards towards Sphinx Park.

CO126 is a downward trending, twisty as heck road at times, two lane highway that lets one plunge down towards the South Platte River valley area. It was quite enjoyable as traffic was pretty much non-existent and we could cruise at our pace without worrying about cagers piling up too much behind us.

From Sphinx Park, we took the South Elk Creek Rd which winds you through thick pine forests and eventually drops you off back at US285 somewhere east of Pine Junction. It's a nice little twisty loop for those so inclined.

Here's where we parted ways with Craig and Julie, they were going to

go home via Deer Creek Canyon road.

Now, even with all the gear on, don't they look like a happy couple?

Spat and I went our own way on US285 back towards Conifer and its junction with CO73. We were retracing the route out as I'd seen a possible location for some photos. I stopped at the Flying J Ranch Open Space Park and we got a few photos and the short movie.

The road looks clear here but behind us were large patches of

ice covering the road.

Close to the park's parking lot, the road was, as you can see,

covered in hard-packed snow.

John and I parted ways at the intersection of CO73 and North Turkey Creek Road. I continued wandering about at bit, eventually taking this last picture of the day from a road called Skyline Drive.

That's Mount Evans in the distance

I got back to Evergreen and took CO74 back towards Kittredge. It was there that I took the Parmalee Gulch Rd southwards once more. This is another nice little twisty two lane road in the mountains which links CO74 with US285.

Once I was back on US285, I took it homewards. First ride of the year is in the books so to speak, I hope you got a chance to ride today!

Happy New Year! - Redleg's Rides 2011 Year in Pictures

2011-12-31T18:00:00.001-07:00

Happy New Year one and all, I gathered pictures of riding from all the preceding months into one YouTube movie, hope you like it.

The movie seems to show I spent more time on three wheels than I did on two, but all the commuting miles don't show up in the photos, do they?

A tumultuous and stressful year for me in terms of having motorcycles go in and out of my life, hopefully things are now stabilized in this regard for the foreseeable future. I got to meet some fellow bloggers, got in a long trip or two, got my wife into scooting, changed jobs for the better, and assuming the Mayan's prediction is not correct, looking forward to posting about my rides all the way to 2013!

For the record, and a sad one it is in terms of miles ridden when compare to yesteryear.

Brigitta - 4,123 miles 1987 BMW R80
Natasha - 1,374 miles 1996 Ural Sportsman
Vikki - 5,946 miles 2004 Suzuki V-Strom with Dauntless Sidecar
Yoshie - 5,917 miles 2006 Suzuki V-Strom with Dauntless Sidecar

Total: 17,360 miles ridden for 2011.

Total ridden on all motorcycles owned since 13AUG2006: 114653 miles. ( I know, I'm slacking)

Wishing you all a safe and enjoyable 2012 riding year!

Loveland Pass on New Year's Eve's Eve

2011-12-30T21:55:00.019-07:00

Nice and sunny weather today here in Colorado, though with a high winds advisory in effect. It is supposed to be even worse in terms of wind conditions tomorrow so I elected to check out the area around Loveland Pass today.

Note: This was first published under my examiner.com byline, if you'd care to add a few pennies to the fuel budget, please click on the following link to read the post there: LINK, thanks!

The day's first pictures were at the Buffalo Herd Overlook exit on I-70 before Bergen Park. As you can see, the buffalo herd was in evidence and the view one gets of the mountains was spectacular!

panoramic closeup of the above mountain range view

"large file"

I left home at 10:33AM and by 12:25 PM I was climbing on US6, away from the I-70 Super Slab and heading towards the summit two miles away. It was a bit chilly in the mountains but nothing significant to report, it was only noticeable when in the shadows of mountains and when flanked by pine forests. In the sunlight, more than a mile closer to the sun than you folks at sea level, it felt like a perfect day for riding.

Here's Yoshie at the first hairpin turn on the way up to the summit

of Loveland Pass

I was shooting the same shot, first in "snow" mode, then dynamic ratio then

in auto mode. Snow mode was the clear winner today when it came to shooting

stuff with a lot of snow in the picture!

Above and below, Yoshie looks towards the summit

Above, Yoshie is past the summit of the pass, and using

the mountain range to the west of the Divide as background

The sky was a gorgeous color of blue today, don't you think?

A zoom view of distant peaks from the second to last hairpin one can

park at before arriving at the Arapahoe Basin Ski Resort

The view from the second to last hairpin before A-Basin

After I descended past the A-Basin Ski Resort and the full up parking lots, I soon arrived at the Keystone Ski Resort and after a bit of wandering, found the road to the town of Montezuma.

From Wikipedia: The town, which is named for Montezuma, the Emperor of the Aztecs, consists largely of historical buildings and houses lining unpaved streets at the end of the paved county road that ascends the Snake River from Keystone near the west side of Loveland Pass. The town sits in a high steep valley surrounded by forested peaks offering good access to higher national forest land destinations. The paved road up from Keystone leads mainly through national forest right up to the entrance of town, which is marked by a sign over the county road.

The town retains many older structures, some of them dating from the late 19th century, such as the picturesque school house dating from the 1880s, now a State of Colorado Historical Site. The town is often included in lists of ghost towns in the Colorado Rockies, but it nevertheless retains a small population of full-time residents, as well as many absentee homeowners.

Montezuma has some of the most popular backcountry skiing, biking, snowmobiling, snowshoeing and hiking trails in Summit County. Montezuma is listed as one of Colorado's top scenic places in John Fielder's Best of Colorado

LINK to more info about the town of Montezuma

The above entry from wikipedia had lured me to try and ride to Montezuma and see what John Fielder meant in terms of it being one of the top scenic places in Colorado.
I found the town to be quaint, quiet and pretty but I'm not sure I'd put it in the top ten of scenic places I've ridden to in Colorado. I rode through the town, all the way to the trailhead parking area leading towards Webster's Pass and had to turn around at that point.

Looking towards the direction of Webster's Pass from the

middle of Montezuma town

I retraced my route back to Keystone (no real choice, there's only one road in and out) and before I started heading back up to the summit of Loveland Pass, I mounted the GoPro camera onto the sidecar. Check out the youtube video at the end of this posting. Here's some more pictures I took of Yoshie and the surrounding scenery as we made our way back towards the summit and eventually the I-70 Super Slab.

One last shot of the mountain peaks near Loveland Pass

The rest of the ride was just making my way home, at which I arrived around 3:30PM. A pretty enjoyable ride in spite of the unexpectedly heavy traffic both going up and down the mountains. I saw about a handful of motorcycle riders enjoying the "warmish" weather today, hope you got a ride in as well!

Longs Peak in the evening

2011-12-28T16:47:00.000-07:00

Short ride in the eastern prairies, not much presented itself for photographing.

So I give you a briefly sunlit view of Long's Peak, one of the larger mountains visible along the Front Range:

Castlewood Canyon and Perry Park after Christmas Ride

2011-12-26T20:59:00.001-07:00

A mostly sunny and somewhat "warm" day here in Colorado. My family was meeting with a friend of Martha's from college and so I went off to ride part of what I call the "Southern Loop" of motorcycle friendly roads.

Note: this article was first published under my examiner.com byline. If you'd like to help contribute a few pennies to the gas fund, it would be much appreciated: LINK

My first stop was Castlewood Canyon which is located south of the towns of Parker and Franktown respectively. As I was near the spot for an overlook of Pikes Peak, it was here that I stopped first before going into the state park.

Pikes Peak Overlook from CO83

I then returned to Franktown and took the main road west to the next turn which allows one to enter Castlewood Canyon State Park by way of a county road. First though I detoured onto Willow Lake Drive to peruse the offerings in terms of scenery provided by the ranches and valley views.

A view to the east along Willow Lake Drive

Still along Willow Lake Drive, this time with the canyon walls as backdrop

The road into Castlewood Canyon State Park

I went all the way past the failed Castlewood Canyon Dam of yesteryear, turned around and exited the park the same way I'd come in. The dirt road was snow-covered mostly but not much in terms of ice, just had to take it easy on the inclined portions.

Arriving once again in the outskirts of Franktown, I continued heading east on CO86 to the town of Castle Rock. I saw the town's namesake soon enough and found a spot at a local elementary school at which to pose Yoshie:

Castle Rock

A view of a neighboring hillside, near the base of Castle Rock

I left Castle Rock by way of US85, crossing over the I-25 Super Slab and getting onto Wolfenberger Road which winds its way to the valley which is traversed by CO105, a favorite of motorcycle riders during the warmer months.

I rode all the way down to the Perry Park area and got onto Red Rock road to go see the small version of the "Garden of the Gods" that John Sanoke had first shown to me so many years ago. There was much more snow on the trails this time than the last time I was there with the Uralisti seeking snow to play in.

One's first view of the rock formations in Perry Park

from the entry point on Country Club Drive

I only got stuck once in the snow, when I got a bit too close to the edge of the road and the sidecar got sucked in by the snowbank. No worries though, I was out within minutes with no real effort.

The above picture shows where I got "stuck", so

I got a picture of Camel Rock first, then got unstuck.

That hill behind Yoshie would prove a tiny bit of a challenge

on the way back out.

This is as far as I got within Perry Park, the snow got too deep

at this point. Just behind Yoshie and out of camera range, was a stuck

4WD truck which had been left abandoned in the snow.

The signature rock formation for which the Perry Park Golf Course

is known for.

Once I left the golf course area, I took a slight detour onto Echo Valley Road to get a picture of the ridgeline on top of which is built the Perry Park Country Club.

Echo Valley Road

As one reaches the junction of Perry Park Boulevard and Red Rock Road, two big rock formations draw one's eye to their rich colors and majestic size:

Lovely red rock formations

Heading back out of the Perry Park area by way of Red Rock Road, you can position your ride along Red Rock Circle for this nice view of the richly colored rock formations that line Red Rock Road. One can see why the folks who built along this line of rock formations chose that location!

Red Rock Road, from Red Rock Circle.

It was mid-afternoon by now and I motored on home, basically retracing my path back to Castle Rock by way of Sedalia. I then took the Crowfoot Parkway to Parker town and headed up Inspiration Drive to get back to Centennial. The deer were already out, I must have seen at least a dozen deer, in clumps of 3-4, feeding near the road side.

Got home with no incident and ready for some warmth and food. About six hours out in the 40s in terms of temperature so the cold was starting to seep in a bit. Still, a great ride and got some nice pics thanks to lighting provided by the motorcycling gods. Here's hoping you got a ride in today.

Christmas Day ride by some snow-clad prairies of Colorado

2011-12-25T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here's hoping you all had a very Merry Christmas Day!

The Chang family had a great and yet calm Christmas Day, a sumptuous feast the night before provided by my loving wife and everyone was happy with their presents from Santa this morning.

The temperature had soared to 45°F and sunny so I went for a short ride in the prairies just a few minutes east of my home neighborhood. The air felt downright balmy with a slightly chilly wind helping to remind one that it was Winter in Colorado.

Lonely county road, bisecting large prairie grass fields

My route entailed a small loop of county roads as I rode about enjoying the calming effect of the snow-clad prairies and the feel of being alone with my trusty steed purring smoothly underneath me.

As I was heading home, I spotted what looked like huge flocks of geese just walking about in a farmer's field bordering the county road I was riding on. There must have been hundreds if not thousands of these geese just loitering about!

I got perhaps as close as 300 feet, this is shot with my Panasonic

Lumix at full optical zoom.

I passed the largest flock and parked Yoshie by the side of the road and slowly walked closer and closer to the the nearest flock of geese. They were a bit skittish so my progress was slow but steady. I hope you enjoy the film below, I found their site and actions quite calming and realized that they were a Christmas gift from the motorcycling gods.

See? It pays to ride when there's snow on the ground!

Christmas Eve Ride to Lookout Mountain and Red Rocks Park

2011-12-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

A gloriously sunny day here in the Denver Metro Area where we continue to deal with the heavy snowfall that blanketed the area a couple of days ago.

My Cul-de-Sac, which I "tilt-shifted" using an online app,

trying to make my neighborhood look like a toy model

The birds roosting in the tree behind my house reminded

me of a Christmas Tree with the birds as decorations.

Closeup view of one of the birds....weathering the 23°F cold

The neighborhood streets are still snow-covered and slick to negotiate but I rode out easily on Yoshie, my V-Strom/Dauntless Sidecar Rig to run an errand and see what I could see....

I headed west through Denver using I-25 to US6 and made it to Golden with no issues and in good time. The highways were nice and dry by the way so getting to the west side of town did not involve "adventure".

Once in Golden's outskirts, I took the turn to get on Lookout Mountain Road and started riding up this twisty and steep road towards the top of the mountain. There were many stretches of ice-covered road and despite the liberally strewn sand and gravel, no place for a two-wheeled motorcycle!

More tilt-shifted images: Above is the city of Golden, with the Coors

Brewery holding the state between the two mesas.

Golden neighborhood at the foot of the Lookout Mountain

South Table Mountain

I made my way to the top of Lookout Mountain with no issues to speak of, lots of ice and loose snow but nothing Yoshie couldn't handle with her pusher snow tire.

Descending from Lookout Mountain, I turned back eastward on US40 heading towards the town of Morrison, with a final destination of Red Rocks Park.

Red Rocks Park was pretty with its own snow cover. The roads through the park were pretty clear mostly and there were several cars moving about taking in the sights as I was.

Creation Rock, this shot would end up costing me a lot of energy and effort.

After taking the above shot, I thought I'd exit the snow-covered parking lot by following ruts that had been created by cars before me. It was shorter to try and exit by the entrance near Creation Rock than to turn the rig around I thought. Yep, there I go, thinking again.

I made it to within perhaps 200 feet of the entrance and then got bogged down in some deep snow. There followed first several attempts to make it out the desired entrance and failing. Then I got Yoshie turned around since going back the way I came was somewhat downhill vice the uphill way I was previously attempting.

The going was slow and hard, I would gain a few feet then get bogged down. Then there would be more digging her out, pulling her out of the deep snow that the sidecar kept dragging me into, then gain a few more feet.

Repeat the above, many, many, many times.....

Over an hour and a half later, I was getting close to where the snow was not so deep. I had made a couple of good long runs but the last one ended with me in some deep stuff that took a while for me to dig the rig out of by myself. Of course, none of the cagers cruising by stopped to offer assistance. In a way though, that was good as I wanted to "self-recover".

Finally, got Yoshie dug out for the final time, aimed the right way through some pulling and pushing and gunned the engine. Some initial spinning and then the motorcycling gods finally took pity on me and allowed Yoshie to gain enough traction to build enough momentum for me to force my way through the snow and reach the other parking lot entrance and clear roads! Yay.

A couple of families who had parked nearby as I went for the final push had offered to help but I declined. They all cheered as Yoshie and I motored out of the deep snow....a very satisfying feeling I might add.

Just to give you and idea of the conditions Yoshie and I dealt with....

I drove along the road next to the snow-covered parking lot and parked Yoshie to retrieve all my riding gear I'd shed in the efforts to dig her out. You can build up a lot of heat, I am here to tell you, when wresting a 900+ lbs rig out of deep snow.

I made my way out of Red Rocks Park, too tired now for more pictures and not wanting to get stuck again while doing so. Made my way homewards, ran my errand, and got home shortly after 1:00PM. Washed Yoshie down to get rid of all the magnesium chloride that the city coats the streets with; the pavement was wet with melting snow you see and Yoshie was covered in this stuff and the dirt I dug up at Red Rocks.

So, a great ride, a little bit of adventure, a chance to try rig-recovery techniques, some lessons learned and a few pictures.

One final picture for you, my readers, courtesy of Photoshop to be sure but still, with heartfelt wishes from the Chang family.

Miscellaneous Snow Riding Pictures

2011-12-23T11:31:00.000-07:00

Rather than disturb my readers with my smiling face in the last posting about my new helmet; I thought I'd post some pictures I've taken the last few days as snow has covered the Front Range.

We're definitely going to be having a White Christmas here in the Denver Metro area. I get enough snow to go riding/playing in with Yoshie, my V-Strom/Dauntless Sidecar Rig, and there's not too much that the snow plows can't keep the streets plowed.

Taken on 19DEC as I was doing some work at one of eCollege's

data center locations. The snow fall total was perhaps two inches.

On 20DEC, I rode into work (of course) and play around a bit on

the roof of the parking garage next to the building I work in.

Mount Evans

The Chang BBQ Snow measurement device

showing snow accumulation from the 21-22DEC snow storm.

Today's morning ride in search of snow-clad trees before the sun

melts it all off.

New Helmet: Skidoo Modular 2 Megatron

2011-12-18T12:24:00.001-07:00

Mostly due to Chris Luhman's excellent review of the Skidoo Snow helmet he'd bought last year, and his continued enjoyment of this helmet this year....I went ahead and ordered me a similar one.

I received it a bit over two weeks ago and got a good initial workout with it during my snow riding the next day.

Here's pictures, from the vendor website, of the helmet itself: LINK

Here's a series of shots, showing off the helmet in its

several modular positions.

The facemask makes one feel like a fighter jet pilot. You are

however, completely incomprehensible if you try speaking with it on.

I was, initially, not that wild about the yellow color scheme but it's

starting to grow on me.

Double-walled visor down

The sun visor is actually part of the clear visor, so you can't ride

with the visor up and the sun shield down. Then again, it's a snow helmet!
Still, being able to drop down the sun visor without engaging the main visor would be nice!

Initial impressions: Very snug fit, some pressure on the lower cheek bones after an hour of wearing it but I pressed in some of the foam and it should be OK. Two weeks later, the fit's fit is nice and snug, no pressure points anymore.

I am sure it'll be easier with time and wear, but raising the visor does take distinct effort, as does closing the modular portion of the helmet and locking it into place. This is especially true when wearing the rubber face mask, you learn to ensure the outlets are lined up correctly and use the thumbs to push them in slightly to ensure a smooth lock down with the chin bar.

It takes a little practice but unlocking the front chin bar is easy enough. The chin strap ratcheting mechanism is a dream to use!

Once the chin bar is down, you do feel it putting pressure on the face mask, I guess it helps seal it to your face but it is taking some getting used to. I tried riding in the cold without the face mask and the helmet does pretty good actually.

With my small nose, I was having some leakage in terms of warm breath up into my glasses which was causing some fogging on my glasses. To ensure good seal, I always push down a bit on the face mask. I also added a little bit of weather-stripping foam material around the nose area. Now, I can ride in sub-freezing temperatures and both the visor and eyeglass lenses remain fog-free.

So, pretty happy with the new helmet so far. One thing I do different from Chris L is that I didn't bother to replace the paper filter that seats within the mask, I just let the breath condensation drip out of the mask when I arrive at my destination before I put the helmet away.

A Sunset and a Moonrise with Yoshie

2011-12-10T18:37:00.005-07:00

I'm always looking for good spots near home where one can pose a motorcycle and capture the many beautiful Colorado Sunsets and Sunrises. Tonight, the moon phase was in the full stage and I hoped to capture it as well as moonrise was scheduled shortly after sunset.

The location is near the Ireland Way overpass that crosses over the E-470 super slab. My loving wife Martha had spotted the location as it was on the way to the tutor which our youngest son Miles has started working with in terms of schoolwork.

I'd scouted the location in the morning to see if it would work as a "view of the front range" type of location:

Using Mount Evans as the background, here's Yoshie

under a bright sunny sky

A view of another portion of the Front Range Mountains

from a nearby road.

I returned to the location of the first photo above and waited for the sun to set behind Yoshie:

About 25 minutes after the sun fully set into the western sky, I spotted the full moon rising on the eastern horizon. It was a beautiful full moon but unfortunately, it was also so bright that it fooled my camera's light sensor and my pitiful attempts to compensate. Still, the shots of Yoshie came out pretty good and I'll figure out eventually how to get more detail on the moon itself.

Classic example of "blooming" or overexposing the Moon

20:07hrs: Update: Did a bit of googling, a little experimentation, figured out how to shoot the moon without "blooming it" by overexposing the picture.

A little editing with photoshop, and voila! I am pleased with the Photoshop results but could have done better with the manipulation of the colors. Still, it's progress.

Which is better, the colorized Moon or the original version?

Delivering Santa

2011-12-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

Monday night was the neighborhood Christmas party for the little ones to meet with Santa and let him know their Christmas wishes.

As Natasha, the Ural did before her, so did Yoshie get a chance to deliver Santa to the waiting kids gathered at the local elementary school.

The young man (high school student) who'd volunteered to be Santa showed up at my driveway promptly at 6:30PM as I waited with Yoshie's engine warming up and the lights already blinking on the sidecar.

Santa

Ready to go!

I returned home after delivering Santa. You should have seen the look on the little kids' faces as we pulled up to the school! After about 45 minutes, Santa's business was done and I returned to pick him up. The kids waved at both of us and we took off into the night.

Here's Yoshie, almost back to normal running condition.

I think I'll leave Rudolf on the nose of the sidecar for a day or two.

A Snow Tire for Yoshie

2011-12-05T03:25:00.000-07:00

My last couple of postings have dealt with my attempts to gain traction on the M/S rated pusher tire I'd recently mounted as the pusher tire on my V-Strom sidecar rig: Yoshie.

Traction had been achieved but mounting options and results of test rides had been mixed at first with a possible solution close at hand by the end of riding yesterday. Still, it involved rope and chains and straps, which if you're into that sort of thing, would have been fine. : )

I had an overnight maintenance change at the data center, and rode Yoshie in at 11PM last night. The night was crisply cold at 9°F but no issues were encountered by me on the way to and from work. The M/S tire did fine as the streets were pretty much clear, just wet-looking and probably icy in spots.

Yoshie at the Data Center

I got home by 4:35 AM and promptly fell asleep. I woke less than three hours later as I had an appointment with fellow Uralista Craig Heitman. He once again was generously letting me borrow his tire changer equipment so that I could swap out the pusher tire with a dedicated snow tire. Both tires are made by General Tires, a German company. The snow tire has a slightly shorter profile than the M/S tire but the loss of .4" clearance would prove worth it.

I arrived at Craig's house before 9:00AM and by 10:30 we'd done the swap, done test riding around his neighborhood's snow choked roads and let me tell you, the difference was night and day!

Where my M/S tire had slipped and slid its way up a small inclined street near Craig's house, the snow tire just took it on and allowed me to steadily ride up the street as if the pusher tire had chains on it! I then proceeded to plow into any area where snow had not been plowed, such as alongside sidewalks and Yoshie cruised through the loose tire with ease. Truly amazing the difference I was experiencing with the snow tire!

After thanks Craig, I took my leave and went to the parking garage near work where I'd taken Yoshie before and failed to negotiate the inclined corridors leading up to the top level of the parking garage. The top level is open to the sky you see and snow collects there nicely.

Yoshie just motored onto the 4-5 inches of snow on top of the parking garage, again like she was wearing chains on the pusher! It was glorious. I did manage to get her into some deeper snow and briefly stuck. The pusher dug its way down to a layer of thick ice and from there I had no traction. I pushed her off the ice patch and motored her into position for this picture:

A view of the Front Range Mountains

It was still early so I decided to get on the C-470 slab to see how the new tire felt. I am happy to report it felt rock solid even at 80mph, at this is before I add the dynabeads for balance! I made my way to the town of Morrison and the Red Rocks Park for pictures.

Creation Valley

The Red Rocks Amphitheater

Creation Rock, you'll note the deep snow on the side of the road.

Almost got stuck, but placing my feet on the passenger pegs

applied enough weight to the pusher to motor its way out!

The tunnel through Lizard Head Rock

Creation Rock Parking Lot

Ship Rock, it forms the southern half of the amphitheater

I believe these are Sinking Titanic and Sphinx Rocks

A view of the lightly snow-covered valley to the south

of Red Rocks Park.

Throughout my riding in Red Rocks Park, I didn't have any significant traction issues. The loose snow in the gravel parking lots was child's play, and the patches of ice on the roadways were inconsequential for the most part. I am loving the traction that the new snow tire is providing me. Now I just have to figure out a way to get the front tire to "bite" more so I can do donuts in the snow. : )

I made it home safely by 1:00PM, tired from little sleep but happy with the new tire. The Elephant Ride in February of next year is now looking doable for Yoshie, I had been thinking she'd have to sit it out.

My thanks again to Craig for his help and use of tools and tire changer!

Working out the "kinks" with the Tire Chains on the Tug's Pusher

2011-12-03T18:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday, December 3, we woke again to about four inches of pristine and fluffy snow. The best kind of snow for snow-blowing and it turns out, for riding a sidecar!

The temperature was a bit "brisk", hovering in the mid to low 20s farenheit but after breakfast, it was time to go out with my youngest son Miles riding Monkey and see how the rig behaved.

I used thick rubber pads to provide friction points to try and stop the chain link straps

from moving laterally.

The chains were positioned so that only the strap passed by the drive chain.

Miles and I pushed Yoshie into position as we had to back her

out of the garage. I sure miss the reverse gear on the Ural!

Miles and I mostly wandered about the snow-covered neighborhood roads as you can see in the below video. We only got stuck once and some easy pushing got us off the curb and back on the road.

After we returned home, I examined the tire chains and found that the ones not next to one of the wheel spokes had shifted under pressure to be next to the ones at the spokes. The rope didn't break as you can see but it failed to keep three of the straps from shifting forward.

While warming up, I made some modifications to the rigging used to apply tension to the straps holding the chain links. I introduced a knot and secured the end link of each chain set so it would not slide forwards or backwards:

Yeah, it looks messy and knots are not my specialty but since all this is
proof of concept, I was going for function, not form for now.

I ranged farther afield on the second ride, achieving speeds almost up to 30mph and the chains seemed to be doing fine. Lots of noise but I believe now that's expected noises, as I could see the chains were not moving laterally and hitting the drive chain every time I stopped.

The one photo I took during all the riding today.

I got her home safely as you can see in the video above and examined the tire chains again:

One of the middle links had shifted forward a bit but nothing broke. Key improvement in performance was that the chain links did not shift laterally! They were all "clearing" the drive chain which is highly important.

So, I think I am 95% close to an approved solution for tire chains. I get the snow tire mounted tomorrow hopefully at a fellow Uralista's house and we'll see how THAT tire does on snow. Hope you liked the videos.

Snow Day Riding

2011-12-01T20:30:00.001-07:00

We woke, here in the Denver Metro Area, to about two inches of slushy snow. I had been up since 4AM due to a work crisis call so was in no shape to commute into work at the regular time.

By lunch however, the work crisis resolved and mostly behind me, I decided to take Yoshie, my V-Strom Sidecar Rig out for a ride in the snow.

For starters, I mounted six of the chain links I'd cut from an old tire chain, bound by straps and buckles, in a somewhat even order on the rear "pusher" tire of the tug. I'm still working out the kinks on this system and was using rope to act as a tensioning device. This didn't work so well but well enough for a short while.

I meandered about the neighborhood, delighting in the traction provided by the chain links on the rear tire. I was able to go up small inclined portions of streets with no fishtailing or slipping. Too soon though, I had to stop at a local park and "adjust" the chains as some part of them was striking some part of the motorcycle. Not good.

Here's Yoshie at the first "adjustment" stop at the local park.

The pictures above and below should give you an idea of

how I fastened six link chains to the tire with straps.

The rope you see was supposed to provide tension against

the nylon straps, it did this OK but not great and the

straps kept moving about.

Two more adjustment stops later, it was plain that they were not secure enough to prevent their movement. I didn't want to risk damaging the drive chain or the swingarm so off came the chain links and straps.

The rest of the riding, during the 1.5 hours that I rode about, was with just the M/S rated rear pusher tire providing most of the traction. This tire did just fine on level roads, some minor slippage on any sort of inclined streets but not too bad so long as I maintained decent momentum.

The furthest point of my ride was the nearby Plains Conservation Center

I like to pose my motorcycles here, with the plains in the background

The rest of the riding was up and down neighborhood streets that remained mostly covered in snow and ice.
I am pleased to report Yoshie did well under that type of snow condition.

I really am looking forward to the arrival of my snow tire, to be installed Sunday.

Here's a youtube video of portions of the riding I did today around the neighborhood. I couldn't range far and wide as I still had some work to do once I returned.

2DEC11 Update:

Found where the metallic noise was coming from, the center portion of the thicker chain links were striking the center crossbar of the centerstand! I just have to lower it a tiny bit and no more clearance issues visible. Now for some more snow so I can put the chains back on for more testing! Going to try different type of rope for tensioning next time!

Ride to Red Cliff

2011-11-25T19:41:00.000-07:00

The forecast was for mid-50s for the Denver Metro Area today, Black Friday 2011. I fled into the mountains to avoid the ravening hordes that merchants hoped would assault their stores today.

Riding Yoshie, I crossed the Continental Divide using the I-70/Eisenhower Tunnel route around 10:30 AM and by 11:00 I was starting to warm up from "feeling the cold" as I cruised up and over the summit of Vail Pass.

My objective today was to get a nice shot or two of the bridge near the entrance to the town of Red Cliff which lies south of Minturn, CO on US24. I was also going to test the rear tire's snow traction and the makeshift tire chains I'd cobbled together a week or so ago. The town of Red Cliff, is the entry point for the Shrine Pass Road on which I hoped to ride to the overlook for the Mount Holy Cross mountain peak.

Eagle River Bridge near Red Cliff, CO

Along US24 on the overlook one can use to take the above picture of the bridge

Here Yoshie poses on Water Street, which crosses under the bridge

and leads one into the small town of Red Cliff

After the bridge pictures, I cruised through Red Cliffe and turned onto the Shrine Pass Road. The roads through town were clear of snow but Shrine Road itself was covered with about 1-2 inches of packed snow immediately after the town limits.

Yoshie and I rode along just fine for almost 3 miles I think. Then we encountered a small hill where the snow was no longer packed down. Yoshie came to a stop and proceeded to dig the rear tire into the snow. No traction.

I tried attaching three chain links onto the pusher tire, tensioning them with a rubber bungee cord. This setup failed almost immediately I regret to report. One of the hooks on the bungee failed and came off and one of the three sets of chain links failed in that a chain link came apart!

No reverse on Yoshie, so I pushed her down and towards the right. After that, it was a matter of muscling the front wheel around so it pointed downhill. No big deal and it helped "warm me up" in the bitter cold of the snow-covered trail.

Once I got Yoshie pointed in the right direction, I attached a spare set of chain links with a nylon strap securing it to the wheel. I used a length of rope as a tensioning device and with this setup rode all the way back to Red Cliff with no issues. I'll have to "tweak the design" a bit I guess, or get a full-up knobby tire for the pusher on Yoshie.

I got back on US24, after removing the chain links from the pusher tire at Red Cliff, heading back towards Minturn. I cruised through Minturn and headed for the entrance ramp to I-70 to head East towards Vail.

I'd heard some car honking while in town and as I stopped at the left turn lane to get on I-70, who of all people pulls up on my right in a blue SUV but fellow Uralistas John and Dana! They'd spotted me riding through town and had given chase.

We pulled over, and they invited me for lunch at the "Sticky Fingers" diner in Minturn. Off we went and I enjoyed a nice lunch in the company of John, his lovely wife Cookie and Dana. Heck, Dana even paid for my lunch! : )

The "Mountain Man"

Pastrami on Rye with "Fire Colesaw", and yes, it had a kick to it.

Lunch over, I parted ways with them as they were retrieving John's trailer from their recent ride to Griffith Park near Los Angeles, CA where they'd attended a sidecar rally.

I headed towards Vail, watching the tops of the mountain peaks in the area covered with low-flying clouds. Snow began falling as I neared the summit of Vail Pass, no big deal as it wasn't sticking on the pavement.

It was "brisk" at the summit.

Above and below are some of the mountain peaks visible from I-70 as

one descends from the summit of Vail Pass, heading East towards Copper Mountain.

Once past Copper Mountain and the town of Frisco, I got on US6 to get across the Continental Divide using that route instead of the I-70 slab and Eisenhower Tunnel. The weather continued gray and cold but still was quite bearable with the gear I had on.

My first stop as I headed up towards the summit of Loveland Pass.

Turns out, I parked her on top of an ice field, thinly covered by a smattering of snow.

I ended up walking along Yoshie, helping move her along as her pusher tire slipped and slid along.

A nice view of the mountain peaks on the west side of Loveland Pass

You'll note I didn't stray too far from the pavement this time!

You can just see the summit parking area for the pass up ahead.

The requisite sign of the pass with Yoshie nearby.

The roads were pretty clear on US6, all the way down towards the I-70 super slab. The rest of the almost 300 miles I covered today were pretty much without incident. I was home a little after 5:00 PM as daylight faded over the Front Range Mountains. A good day's riding, a bit cold at times I'll admit but filled with great scenery, a happy meet up with fellow Uralisti, and while the pusher is not great on snow, it does fine on the packed stuff.

Guanella Pass in mid-November

2011-11-13T08:24:00.002-07:00

The Denver Metro area got its first big snow storm of the season about two weeks ago, and had enjoyed pretty dry and clear weather since. Yesterday, fellow Uralistas Jay and Deana in their Ural Patrol, GS Rig rider Greg P aka Cesspool, Mike H (fellow airhead rider) and I decided to see how far we could get up to on Guanella Pass.

The road up to Guanella Pass is the scene of a yearly event in February called the Elephant Ride. It's held after the winter snows have thoroughly blanketed the road leading up to the pass. I'd attempted this ride twice now in the last two years, both times riding Natasha, my Ural Sportsman Sidecar Rig which I've since sold to a fellow named Mike in Michigan. LINK to 2010 ride. LINK to 2011 Ride.

I was curious to see how much snow remained on the road to the top of Guanella Pass and convinced the folks I mentioned to come along for the fun. Mike H, hereafter to be known as Fearless Mike H, elected to ride with us astride his 1985 Kawasaki KLR 250 Dual Sport motorcycle.

We arranged to meet at the gas station just east of Morrison, CO at 10:00 AM. Introductions over with and layers donned, we set off for the small settlement of Grant, CO by 10:21 AM. In less than an hour, we pulled into Grant and soon Mike has his KLR off the back of his truck and was geared up and ready to go.

Mike Fearless H.

The road up to the top of the pass proved to be quite navigable by sidecar rig. There were extensive portions though covered in compacted snow/ice which slowed but did not stop Mike on his KLR 250. He did admit to a couple of close calls and one minor fall but no injuries so it was all good.

The sun was out for the most part and the snow was melting where it was exposed to the sun. The sidecar rigs had really no issues with the conditions as I'd mentioned and we only had to stop and wait a couple of times for Mike as he picked his way carefully through some of the iffier parts of the ride. I sure wouldn't have taken a two-wheeled motorcycle down some of the ice covered stretches that we passed!

At a rest break while nearing the summit of Guanella Pass

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Greg's GS/Dauntless Rig

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Deana and Jay's Ural Patrol

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Still, there was really no snow accumulation on the road and there were long stretches of dry pavement. Soon enough we were at the top of the pass and pulling into the scenic overlook parking lot.

The magnificent view of nearby mountain peaks from

the scenic overlook parking lot on top of Guanella Pass

Yoshie on Guanella Pass

That's Deana on the left, then Mike and Jay holding the coffee thermos.

It was a tad brisk up there as you can imagine.

Here's the group with the requisite shot of the pass sign.

Jay shoots the group at the Summit Sign

We then proceeded down from the pass in the direction of Georgetown, CO. Guanella Pass Road you see, links Georgetown on the I-70 Super Slab with Grant on US285 to the south.

On the way to Georgetown

We had a late lunch at the Raven Restaurant in Georgetown, eating and chatting as we warmed ourselves from the morning's riding. By 2:30PM, we'd noted that some snow flakes were coming down from above and geared up for the return trip up to Guanella Pass and back to Grant where Fearless Mike's truck was parked.

Note the snow flakes falling as the group geared up.

I was a tad bit worried about Mike on his KLR but it was all wasted worry. As we ascended towards the pass from Georgetown, the skies cleared up and the snow stopped. It was an easy ride to the top and then straight down towards Grant.

In case you ever wondered what Yoshie looks like from the back

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

The last one of these was scampering off the road as I

rounded the curve!

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Riding along the summit of the pass

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Not so much snow as compacted ice!

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

We made it to Grant with no incidents. It was there we said our goodbyes to Mike H. It was also here that Mike gave me one of his old sawzalls! He's a construction contractor you see and had read my previous blog posting about wanting a swazall for times when metal cutting is required! He'd offered it to me earlier in the week and brought it along for today's ride. Thanks very much Mike!

We left Mike loading his truck and us three sidecar rigs headed east on US285 towards the town of Bailey, CO where we tanked up at the gas station. It was here that Greg (Cesspool) told me it was the first time he'd had his GS Rig on snow and that he'd had a blast!

All fueled up, we motored towards the Denver Metro area in late evening traffic. We waved at each other goodbye near the C-470 intersection with US285, each splitting off in different directions. I was home by 5:20PM, in near dark conditions, tired but happy with today's riding and camaraderie.

Here's a youtube movie of portions of the ride up to the top of Guanella Pass, down towards Georgetown and then finally the interesting icy portions heading back towards Grant.

Here's another youtube video, shot by Deana:

The above and below videos courtesy of Jay and Deana

Past rides to Guanella Pass:

Guanella Pass on my R80 Beemer

Georgetown and Guanella Pass

Fall Colors on Guanella Pass

Back to the Dark Side and modifying the centerstand

2011-11-05T12:58:00.000-06:00

Today, I rode Yoshie, my V-Strom Sidecar Rig over to fellow Uralista Craig H.'s home to borrow the use of his Harbor Freight tire changer.

You see, the Metzeler Tourance pusher tire that had come with the V-Strom when I bought it had worn down quite a bit as expected and had performed very poorly in snow during the recent snow storm. Not a big surprise of course but still, a bit disappointing nonetheless.

I had ordered a General Exclaim 205/55R17 M/S rated car tire shortly after I'd purchased Yoshie and today was the day to swap tires on the rear wheel before the next snow fall.

No pictures of the tire changing procedure itself, those are available to you from the posting I wrote when I first had the use of Craig's tire changer: LINK

The removal of the old tire and installation of the new one went without a problem. It's quite easy actually with two people and the tire changer itself of course. We did however, discover a fitment issue when I went to install the rear wheel/tire back onto the tug.

Turns out, the right leg of the center stand contacted/dug into the right sidewall of the tire! This had not been an issue when I had Vikki since I'd removed the centerstand from here on the advice of Dauntless Motors, the makers of the sidecar. (Turns out, you don't have to uninstall the center stand).

Craig suggested cutting off a little bit of the right leg, to gain clearance. I agreed, as removing the center stand would be a huge PITA and I didn't have the time or inclination.

Craig broke out his grinder, and in a few minutes had the flat portion of the right center stand leg off:

Once the leg was cut, we then tried putting back into place. It still touched the side of the tire!

We then decided to quit kidding around, and we decided to cut the portion of the leg down from the center brace. This time, Craig broke out his Dewalt Saws All tool, that thing cut through the tough steel of the center stand leg like it was butter! I've really got to get myself one of them saws alls!

Now, there was plenty of clearance for the new tire. My only concern now is if there's enough clearance between the drive chain and the tire wall once I install the snow chains I ordered last week. They're supposed to be here in the next day or two so I guess I'll find out then huh?

Got everything put back together, had some nice conversations with Craig about this and that and then I departed for home.

Here's the new tire, I hope it does well on mud and snow.

Note the small shiny donut, that the cutoff end of the right

center stand leg. A little paint on the exposed metal is now in order.

So, the whole thing took a couple of hours, but we weren't moving fast and there were lots of chat breaks....pretty good way to change a tire eh?

First real snow fall

2011-11-02T18:30:00.000-06:00

Today we woke to about 4-6 inches of soft, wet snow.

I eagerly donned my snow riding gear and set off before dawn to see how Yoshie, my V-Strom Sidecar Rig would do in this snow fall.

Man, the stuff was sticky and wet, I struggled to even push her out of the garage and into the snow drifts which had piled up to about 6-8 inches in front of the garage door!

Finally got her turned around in the driveway and by a combination of pushing and using the engine, I got her pointed into the cul-de-sac and ready to go. All the pushing I had to do should have been my first clue that things were a bit too slick.

I set off and Yoshie was slipping and sliding but making headway out of the cul-de-sac. I could feel the real wheel aka pusher tire slipping a lot, failing to gain traction but I continued onwards to the feeder road out of the neighborhood.

Got all the way to Himalaya Road which is the main street out of the suburb I live in and turned Yoshie south towards the first major intersection with Smoky Hill Road.

I never made it that far. The roads were not plowed of course and while cars had plowed tracks ahead of me, I was not able to gain speed enough to take advantage of the "semi-cleared" path. I could barely maintain headway as it was so chose to ride on the right-hand lane which was not so clear.

At points, I was having flashbacks to my participation in this past February's Elephant Ride up snowy Guanella Pass Road! The snow was really deep and slick!

Slowly I made my way up to the first turn for the shopping mall and I got Yoshie up a bit and got her turned around when she could not go further forward due to the incline of that sloping drive! The pusher tire just wasn't getting traction so any kind of incline prevented progress!

Going back downhill towards Himalaya was fine, though a bit slick still. I turned Yoshie back towards home as there was no way I was going to get to work with the snow conditions being what they were.

Got her home, slowly but surely. The pusher tire slipping in the snow and not allowing me to gain much speed to maintain good momentum. I left the rig in the driveway where she got stuck and went in to await daylight.

Here's a picture of poor Yoshie, waiting for me to dig her out.

I worked from home the rest of the morning, managing to snow-blow the snow off the driveway during breaks and freeing Yoshie so she could rest inside the garage.

At noon, I figured I'd do a proof of concept using the old time trick of wrapping rope around the pusher tire to provide traction aids. I anchored three separate lengths of rope around each of the three wheel spokes and set off into the neighborhood streets.

The snow conditions had improved markedly with the sunshine beating down on the snow and cars having churned up the snow into tracks of sorts. The snow had also turned to slush and ice instead of sticky snow so traction was much improved anyways.

Still, the ropes on the pusher tire did great! I was able to ride my way with only minor slipping issues all the way to the local high school. Heck, once I was out of the neighborhood streets, the roads were clear! Of course, clear roads meant the ropes were rubbing straight into the pavement and getting worn down.

I lost one of the ropes while riding to the school but the two remaining ones provided plenty of traction in the snowy/icy parking lots of the school.

Here's Yoshie, happy once again to be able to negotiate snowy/icy conditions.

She's sitting on about an inch of slushy ice.

Above is a view of the rope arrangement I was field-testing.

The rope was not exactly the right kind but it worked good enough to prove the concept.

Another shot of Yoshie in the local high school's parking lot.

It being a snow day for the students, I had the place to myself.

I tried to execute some donuts but Yoshie was having none of that. I figured between the rope traction aids and her wider stance, donuts would have to wait for the powdery stuff to come back. We're supposed to get some more snow on Friday, so maybe it'll be donuts then.

I spent the lunch hour cruising through the neighborhood streets which remained choked with slushy ice and snow; effortlessly cruising by folks as they dug themselves out from the snow on their own driveways.

Alas, the hour was up and I motored on home. I would go out one more time after work in the late afternoon, this time field testing the use of chain links secured to the spokes with ropes. They worked fine in terms of ride and security of the rope but by then the main roads were pretty much clear. The neighborhood roads still had long stretches of ice and slush but there were wide tracks available if one wanted clear pavement.

A disappointing start but a good ending to today's riding. I'll be ready next time.

Sunrise after our first snow fall

2011-10-27T09:22:00.000-06:00

We've had, right on schedule, our first snow fall for the incoming winter of 2011. It was much-overhyped as usual by the local weather guessers and the National Weather Service. Winter Warning....be scared, panic!

As it is, it hit in the northern part of the state, caused power outages and some accidents but hardly lived up to the dire warnings issued beforehand.

Heck, I rode Yoshie to work yesterday, all geared up and ready for bad road conditions and traffic. All I got was basically "fat rain" on the way to work, with snow falling nicely but melting instantly upon hitting the roadway. The snow was sticking to non-road surfaces and the falling snowflakes glittered quite nicely in one's headlights as I rode along but that's about it.

Riding home yesterday from work, I was struck by how nice the fallen snow had made the trees along the route home. It was a wet snow and it clung to the leaves and branches quite nicely. Probably what caused all the power outages further north as power lines went down.

So this morning I set off as dawn broke to try and get some pictures of snow-laden trees. Didn't really have much luck either due to the light angles or the fact the trees I sought had already shed the snow they'd accumulated!

I went down towards the Blackstone Country Club and posed Yoshie instead at the spot where one can see Mount Evans way in the background:

As you can see the roads are dry and clear, a few ice patches here and there where melting snow had re-frozen overnight. Temperatures during the ride were in the high teens, so my heated grips were running and my grip covers allowed me to ride with summer gloves on.

We'll lose all the snow in the city by the weekend, so folks around here should be able to get some riding in.

More riding on the Switzerland Trail

2011-10-23T18:12:00.000-06:00

When I rode the Switzerland Trail the first time at the beginning of October, I failed to do realized at the time that I had ridden but a small portion of this trail.

Today, I set out to remedy that situation. Got a late start but by 11:30 or so I had traversed the Denver Metro Area using the I-25 and US36 Slabs, getting on CO 119 as I exited the SW portion of the PRB or People's Republic of Boulder as it is locally known. I took this to the turnoff for Sugar Loaf Mountain Road and soon found the next turnoff that would put me on the southern end of the Switzerland Trail.

The trail is an old narrow-gauge railroad bed I am told. The condition of the trail is very rocky on long stretches, with lots of loose fist-sized sharp-edged rocks to make one's transit through them "interesting". I only grounded the rig once since I was taking it easy. Not much in the way of views as one is bordered by pine forests on both sides of the trail. The trail is cut on the side of the mountains and it winds it's way northwards towards Left Hand Canyon Road or Boulder County Rd 118.

On the Switzerland Trail

I still managed to miss a small portion of the trail darn it. At its junction with Boulder County Rd 118, it splits off and heads northwards to CO 52 or Gold Hill Road. I turned westwards without noticing I'd left the Switzerland Trail and getting onto Left Hand Canyon Drive. I ended up shortly at the old mining town of Wall Street.

The Assay Office in the small settlement of Wall Street

A bit of history on the town.

Soon after Wall Street, I came to the junction of the road and Four Mile Canyon Road. I turned left onto Four Mile Canyon Road and soon I was nearing the town of Gold Hill.

Fall Colors are still quite beautiful in spots all along the Front Range

These two were of a spot just south of Gold Hill, CO

At Gold Hill, I kept on going north on CO Hwy 89 or Lickskillet Road. This is a very steep dirt road leading one down (swiftly) towards its junction with Left Hand Canyon Road. I turned towards Boulder at this point as I thought I'd completely covered the Switzerland Trail.

I transited the PRB and took CO93 south towards Denver. Just past the junction of CO93 and CO72 (Coal Creek Canyon Road), one can see a remarkable looking ridgeline of exposed rocks. I've tried several times to capture a good view of it and today was the day. I found a small driveway just off CO93 and ventured a bit into someone's driveway to get these shots.

Pano version of the first shot of Yoshie and the Ridgeline

Got home by 3:30 PM, Yoshie continues to do great on these rides with no perceivable chain-stretching issues.

Snow is expected on Wednesday of this week, so if my fellow inhabitants of the Denver Metro Area didn't go riding this weekend, they might be out of luck for the near future.

Riding Trail Ridge Road, with Cesspool

2011-10-16T22:33:00.000-06:00

I recently met a fellow sidecar rider, Cesspool is his username on advrider.com, and he rides a beautiful BMW R1200GS mated to the same Dauntless M72D Dual Sport Sidecar that Yoshie has.

Cesspool has been working diligently to "dial in" his rig so that it rides correct and with least amount of effort. The first time I saw his rig, something just didn't look right in the way it had been set up.

Note: This posting was first published in my examiner.com byline, if you'd like to help my fuel budget, please go HERE and read the story there. Then come back here for the additional videos. Thanks.

Much work since then, Cesspool aka Greg thought he had it pretty close. We arranged to meet in the town of Dumont, CO and from there ride out to the Rocky Mountain National Park on our rigs to see how his behaved.

We met up around 9:30AM and after a brief chat, we moved on over to the nearby truck weigh station as Greg was curious to see what the weight readings were for his rig. He talked to the operator and he agreed to let us put our rigs through, no charge! Such a deal.

A shot of the "the rigs", as Greg was inside smooth-talking the weigh

station operator into letting us go through the scale.

Between trucks, here's Greg easing his GS Rig onto the scale.

His rig came out at 1160 lbs. Yoshie and I came in at 1020 lbs.

Note: Greg was carrying 100lbs of ballast for this ride, I was not carrying ballast.

Weighing operations done with, we headed west on the I-70 Slab until we got to the Empire/US 40 exit. Turning north on this road, we climbed upwards towards Berthoud Pass. Soon enough we were in the parking lot where the visitor center is for the pass and posed our rigs accordingly.

The requisite shot of the Pass Sign at

the Continental Divide

Motoring onwards, we headed north to and through Winter Park and the towns of Fraser, Tabernash and Granby. At Granby, we turned off of US40 and headed now northwards on US34 past Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain Lake and finally to the Grand Lake.

Soon after Grand Lake, one enters the Rocky Mountain National Park limits. We each paid our fee of $10 for our motorcycles and headed on towards the nearby mountain peaks.

Not sure what was going on with my camera but several shots I thought I took, didn't appear on the SD card in the camera. Rather disturbing that. I made poor Greg stop all those times, and not much to show for it! Weird.

We rode the five hairpin turns and reached Milner Pass where once again we posed our rigs by the pass sign.

Milner Pass and the Continental Divide

The ride up to the top of Trail Ridge Road was smooth and dry for the most part. Some snow has already started to accumulate alongside the road but not to any great extent.

We stopped at the Alpine Visitor Center and I mounted the GoPro camera pointed rearwards so I could capture Greg and his rig as we rode on Trail Ridge Road. The weather was heavily overcast and gray. The wind was up and blowing but it was not very cold. Good riding weather, really.

Posing the rigs at the Gore Range Overlook, just east of the

Alpine Visitors Center.

The above gives you an idea of the awesome spectacle that is the Gore Range

A video of Greg's rig and the surrounding views of the mountains visible from

Trail Ridge Road.

Pretty soon, we came to my favorite stopping point on Trail Ridge Road. The "Rock Cut" is a parking area with great overlooks of the nearby mountain peaks.

Panoramic shot of part of the views visible from

the Rock Cut Overlook

We continued eastwards on Trail Ridge Road, again I was shooting video of Greg as he rode along behind me on his rig.

Too soon, we had ridden downwards enough that the scenery was mostly obscured by dense pine forests. You can see the ravages of the Pine Beetle though throughout the park, quite a shame really. The beetle infestation has really taken a toll on the forests of Colorado.

Once we were at the valley floor, Greg and I switched rigs so we each could get a taste of the other guy's rig and how they handled. I must say, Greg's GS is quite smooth and nice to ride. The muffler emitted a wonderful sound as I rode behind Greg on Yoshie. This was only for a very short ride and we ended up parking at the Beaver Meadows visitor center to exchange notes on the rigs.

It was time to head home now and Greg led the way through the town of Estes Park which was crawling with tourists! We took US36 back towards Lyons, CO. It was a nice and mellow ride on US36, both our rigs taking its twists and turns with no issues and easily keeping up with traffic for the most part.

I turned south at the junction with where US66 and US36 separate in Lyons, I beeped my horn and waved goodbye to Greg as he continued on US66 towards Longmont, his home. I transited through the usual traffic jam that is Boulder and soon enough I was heading towards home. I experienced some delay as US270 was having construction work done and we had to take detours, but not a big deal. I sure am glad though, I don't work in that part of town!

Got Yoshie home after 280 miles on her odometer, no mechanical issues and the chain seemed just fine when I checked it. Greg emailed me earlier this evening and told me he'd adjusted what we both thought was excessive toe-in on his rig. Sounds like more riding is in store to further "sort out" his rig. It rides fine, both of us thought so, but there was some effort involved when turning her to the right, this toe-in adjustment should do the trick.

Note: Just got an email from CDOT, Trail Ridge Road is closed due to adverse weather conditions. I guess those clouds you see on the videos weren't kidding huh?

Short ride near Elkhorn Ranch

2011-10-15T18:10:00.000-06:00

To the east of where I live, there are rolling, windswept grassy plains which pretty much describes eastern Colorado's terrain features.

Straight county roads, allow one to ride along with minimal steering attention required, and allow one's mind to unwind from the weekly issues. Nothing to think about but the purring of one's motorcycle engine, feeling the wind hitting you gently and enjoying the smoothness of the road.

I saw a sign for a housing development called Elkhorn Ranch and turned onto the paved road leading into it in a winding manner which motorcyclists find attractive.

The houses are of the McMansion size and the signs said they came with five acres of land. No trees mind you as these are the eastern plains but if windswept grassy plains are your thing, you should check it out.

I wandered about, letting the road take me where it would, just enjoying the views of the distant front range mountains and the warm temperatures brought along by the gentle winds. I spotted a grove of trees at one point which were in the process of changing into their fall colors and stopped Brigitta for pictures.

I am on call for work this weekend, so this was a short ride. Too soon, I was back home. Hopefully, I'll be able to arrange for a co-worker to "cover for me" tomorrow for a longer ride.

The Switzerland Trail and Fall Colors on the Peak to Peak Highway

2011-10-10T00:23:00.001-06:00

Earlier this week, fellow Uralista John S has suggested we take a ride on Switzerland Trail. It used to be the roadbed for a narrow gauge railroad line, which went through several owners before "progress" made it obsolete. Please follow the link for more information: LINK

Note: This is a slightly modified version of the posting I have under my examiner.com byline, if you've the time read the article HERE, it helps add a few pennies to the fuel budget. Thanks!

Image Source: LINK

Original photo: WH Jackson

I left the house by 9:00 AM and by 10:30 I was cruising slowly through the historic town of Gold Hill, near the city of Boulder. You get to the town by way of Four Mile Canyon and turn off on Gold Hill Road to access this old but yet populated town.

A nice view of cloud-topped Sugar Loaf Mountain and

the Flat Irons near Boulder

I rode out of town, heading west looking for the turnoff to the Switzerland Trail. The fall colors, though not as amazing as the stuff I saw when riding Independence Pass, still showed itself in spots:

Just west of the town of Gold Hill, on Gold Hill Road

After a few miles, I was at the turnoff for the Switzerland Trail. It looked a bit ominous with snow covering its surface but I saw tire tracks on it so figured if a car could go across, so could my rig!

Less than 1 mile into the trail, the car tracks stopped at this

muddy clearing.

I will admit, once I saw the car tracks dissapear, there was some "trepidation" on my part as to continuing onwards without a Uralista or two going along for "backup". I decided to chance it and motored on.

There were some iffy moments but traversing the snow-covered

portions of the trail proved quite doable so long as one didn't "gun"

the engine too much or lose forward momentum.

There were several views such as the one above that almost made up

for the fish-tailing moments on snow when the rear tire on

the tug would break loose and swing left.

I had thought, at the start of this trail, that it would junction with CO72, the Peak to Peak Highway and not force me to backtrack. Well, this was not to be as you can see in the video. I hit a dead-end and the only other path was up a very steep hill with an outlet in doubt even if I got up to the top.

So, I ended up backtracking the way I came. Made it through with no incident as you can see in the video and I continued on Gold Hill Road. I detoured onto Sawmill Road hoping to see Forest Road 461 junction with it, proving to me there'd been a way through on Switzerland Trail No such luck, but the road did deliver me to Left Hand Canyon Road:

Sawmill Road, overlooking the paved Left Hand Canyon Road

I rode northwards on Left Hand Canyon Road until it delivered me into the small mountain town of Ward and its junction with CO Highway 72, aka the Peak to Peak Highway.

I rode north from Ward on CO Highway 72, heading towards Raymond hoping for a shot of distant snow-covered mountain peaks. Heavy overcast skies and low hanging clouds would preclude such desired shots, and this was as close as I got to one:

Heading north on CO72, somewhere between Ward and Raymond

I rode until I got to the hairpin turn area near Peaceful Valley, turning around at the large rock formation just north of the Peaceful Valley Ranch. A quick consult of the map led me to turn Yoshie around and head instead south towards the town of Nederland.

Rock formation near Peaceful Valley Ranch

On the way south towards Nederland, I spied a nice photo op location for Yoshie, and got her turned around and posed:

The large S turn near Peaceful Valley Ranch

My favorite shot of the day, my camera does not do justice

to the Fall Colors in the trees down in the valley. I

also liked the "threatening" look in the clouds above.

I continued riding on CO72 towards Nederland, every once in a while spotting a small clump of Fall Color among the dense green pine tree growth on both sides of the highway:

Fall Colors along the Peak to Peak Highway

The rest of the ride was pretty unremarkable, not too chilly but I was ready to head back down into the warmer Front Range area. I must have seen a handful of motorcyclists enjoying the views with me in the mountains. There were more riders in the metro area of course, out enjoying a warmish day before the next snow storm I guess.

I got home around 3:30 PM, and happy once more to report Yoshie and her drive chain did just fine. Highway speeds, dirt roads, canyon twists and turns, and it was all good.

Early Snow

2011-10-08T10:29:00.001-06:00

We, in my experience, here in the Denver Metro Area, don't usually get our first snow fall till about the third week in October.

Today we woke to rain which turned to wet snow. It was melting almost immediately as it hit the streets of my neighborhood but in areas with heavier snow fall, it was collecting on the road, as slush.

Needless to say, I rode out on Yoshie, my Suzuki V-Strom/Dauntless Sidecar Rig to see how she'd do in the stuff!

I layered up and rode into pretty heavy snow falling, it was melting fast but still caused me vision issues as I'd forgotten to swap in my visor with the fog shield.

Still, quite the enjoyable ride. I got onto Quincy Road and rode it out east to the road which leads one to the Youth Correctional Facility.

As you can see, not much accumulation so not much of a test of the tires and the rig itself. I am hoping more snow will come throughout the day and actually build up as snow, not slush.

I now have the fogshield visor on my helmet, a fresh coat of pledge on the outside of said visor. My cold weather gloves are drying and it's 34°F outside. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Aligning a Sidecar

2011-10-04T21:18:00.000-06:00

I've done my share of research on the proper way to mate and then align a sidecar onto one's tug. Today though I found a video link on advrider.com produced by adventuresidecar. They're a training outfit in Oregon who provide training and tours for sidecar riders.

I'd recently replaced my sidecar tire with a slightly thinner Kinsho 705 110/80R19 tire. The OEM one has been a Shinko Tourmaster 110/90R19.

After viewing the video this evening, I re-measured my sidecar's lean-out and toe-in again and found that my lean-in was fine but my toe-in was too much! Figure some error on my part last time I did things and a thinner tire and I was at 1.5" toe-in. Too much, the guideline is 1/2 to 5/8 inch toe-in.

12 turns out later on the front lower A-arm support and I got it down to 5/8" toe-in as recommended. A short test drive later, she felt great in terms of handling and I think there was less effort in terms of keeping her going straight when at speeds above 60 mph. Before, I would have to push slightly to compensate for what I thought was wind drag on the sidecar, now am pretty sure the toe-in was "off".

We'll see, need to give it some time to ride some more, get some extended time at the controls, and check the wear pattern on the tires. I recently also had to "adjust" the new chain by turning the tensioner screws out by 1/2 turn as the chain has loosened a "tad". Hopefully, that's the last adjustment for a long while. I am thinking this is the "initial stretch" new chains go through when first installed.

Anyways, here's the video from adventure sidecar that I found so helpful, it sure explains how to do the alignment in an easy manner.

Sidecar Alignment from Adventure Sidecar on Vimeo.

I hope fellow sidecarists find the above video as helpful as I did. Check your alignment!

The Fall Colors on Independence Pass

2011-09-28T16:34:00.000-06:00

Coming back from the Colorado National Monument this past Sunday, my route took me towards Aspen from the small town of Hotchkiss, CO where I had stayed overnight.

The weather was warm, the sun was out and the skies were partly cloudy....in other words perfect riding weather. To top it all off, there was a brilliant amount of color in the forests of Colorado, what with the advent of Fall and all. Tourists tend to flock to the mountains to see the Aspens change color and this weekend showed them in full color change mode!

The motel I stayed at, was a bit rustic but homey and inexpensive.

A bit of an unusual combination though, service station and motel.

Still, it beats camping!

I said my goodbyes to my fellow Uralisti who'd invited me to the rally, had a couple cups of coffee and a donut courtesy of the BMW Club of Western Colorado and I was on the road by 8:00AM, heading east on CO 133.

Coming down from McClure Pass

Did I mention the hillsides were bright with fall colors?

Still on CO 133, the mountains spanned by McClure Pass

now behind me. This road is part of the West Elk Loop Scenic Byway.

I liked the way the sun was shining through the leaves of these Aspen

Sights on CO 133, while heading towards Carbondale

from Hotchkiss

After arriving at Carbondale, I turned south on CO 82 heading towards the ski resort of Aspen. Once you get across this tourist trap of a town, you follow the signs for CO 82 and soon you're on Independence Pass Road.

A view of the road I just rode over, looking in the direction of Aspen.

The pass summit is just a few miles from this point.

The requisite picture of the pass with one's rig near it.

I did ride across McClure and Fremont Passes this day, just didn't stop

for pictures as the scenery was "lacking" at those passes.

Here's Yoshie sitting pretty at Twin Lakes, with the nearby

mountains as backdrops with their patches of Fall Color
I believe that's either Quail Mountain or Mount Hope in the far background.

After pictures at Twin Lakes, I continued east until I got to the junction with US24. Here I turned north and made for the I-70 super slab and the Copper Mountain Ski Resort. On the way there though, I rode on part of the Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway, through Leadville, onto CO 91 and eventually to one of my favorite stopping points for picture taking, the Clinton Gulch Dam Reservoir.

The rest of the ride home was just I-70 superslab riding. Yoshie continued pulling strongly on the inclines and keeping up with the majority of the traffic with no issues, I am happy to report. Got home after 765 miles or so of riding over the last two days, no mechanical issues or injuries, participated in my first small BMW rally, saw some great sights....a good weekend's worth of riding.

If you've a few minutes to kill, please take a look at the video I shot while riding up to and down from Independence Pass. Long video (it was much longer before I edited it) but it shows the large extent of Fall Colors in evidence along the ride and surrounding mountain sides.

The Colorado National Monument and a Beemer Rally

2011-09-25T21:21:00.003-06:00

O'Dark Thirty - what folks who've served in the military know as a really early hour in the morning.

It was truly O'Dark Thirty, in my case 3:45 AM yesterday when I set out from my home en route to the other side of the state, the city of Grand Junction, CO. Why? I was going to check out the Colorado National Monument. I'd seen its rock formations from a distance as I rode home from Montana, all the way from I-70, and it had become a destination in my mind.

In a happy coincidence, the BMW Club of Western Colorado was hosting its annual Thunder Mountain Rally in the small town of Hotchkiss, CO and I'd been invited by fellow Uralisti Dana and John to come by and visit.

It took me 5.5 hours to get to the park, riding on Yoshie, my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom Dauntless Sidecar Rig. She did great, I had a "re-introduction to bitter cold" experience as I rode through the Continental Divide and Vail Pass in the dark. The temperatures were in the low 40s but with the wind chill and my lack of a big windshield on Yoshie, it was "brisk". I was so glad I'd mounted the Oxford heated grips, they helped me bear the cold as I motored on towards the dawn and the welcome heat from the sun.

Once the sun came out in force, things were "warm" enough to not notice anymore as Yoshie and I cruised along steadily along I-70.

The rock formation just east of Grand Junction's eastern limit.

You see this, you're almost at the exit for Horizon Road

which is the road you take south towards the monument.

I arrived at the eastern end of the park and found out it was "National Parks Day" or something like that so all entrance fees were waved! It was only $5 but hey...

The main venue is Rimrock Road which spans the park and allows visitors a paved road that borders all the main canyons within the park. The temperature rose as the morning went on, so by the time I'd ridden and photographed my way through to the western end of the park, it was hot! Frozen in the morning, bathed in sweat by noon.

You gain a bit of altitude as you enter the park

That's Grand Junction down there

I think this was Red Canyon

Pano of one of the park's many canyons

Pano of Independence Monument

Panoramic view of the above closeup

Pano view of the above closeups

After a quick lunch at the town of Fruita, I retraced my ride through the monument, this time going from west to east.

I got on I-70 after getting a bit mis-oriented in Grand Junction and I found my way east towards the exit towards Grand Mesa. Turns out, this is a scenic byway, quite twisty and very scenic with the fall colors coloring the countryside and hillsides.

The view from "Skyway" along the Grand Mesa Scenic Byway

I motored on through the Grand Mesa Byway until it plunges you down into the valley south of it and soon I was at the town of Hotchkiss. It is a small town and it didn't take me long to find the city park where the BMW Thunder Mountain Rally was being held.

I couldn't find sight of John or Dana, or their motorcycles. Especially Dana's since he'd told me he was going to ride his GS Sidecar Rig to the even. However, I did spot another GS Sidecar Rig and I parked next to it. I took off my helmet and asked the folks next to it if they happened to know Dana. Before they could answer, I heard a loud "no!" behind me and there were John and his wife Cookie smiling at me!

Dana, it turns out, was out riding somewhere in town getting supplies. The owner of the other sidecar rig was Greg and with him was his wife, Cathy. Turns out, Greg has been "lurking" on this blog for a while and my "adventures" with Natasha and Vikki had partly motivated him to get himself his own rig!

The above rig is Greg's, sweet isn't it?

He's got the same dualsport sidecar model that

I bought from Dauntless.

That's Dana and his yellow GS Rig on the right

Quite a disreputable looking trio aren't we?

I managed to snag a room at a local "motel" and so was able to register with the rally for dinner. It was a delicious gumbo (sorry, forgot my camera, so no food porn). The BMW Club of Western Colorado also arranged for a singing duo called "Honey Don't" and they entertained us with bluegrass type music that was actually quite good. I highly recommend you visit their website and sample their music.

Bill Powers and Shelly Gray

"Honey Don't"

We listened to them sing till 9PM and after the club gave out door prizes and the grand prize of $300 from the BMW of Denver dealer, everyone retired to either their tents or in my case the hotel room and crashed. It was a small rally, perhaps 90 riders in attendance, and I liked it a lot. Not very crowded, everyone was pretty friendly. I even ran into Dick Paschen and Nick who'd hosted the Airhead Tech event earlier this year. It was quite the good time and I am glad I attended.

Maintenance Notes

2011-09-21T20:10:00.001-06:00

This "blog" or weblog having started life partly as a record for logging maintenance, repairs and services on my motorcycle; here's a posting with such information.

Today I received the Shinko 705 Dualsport 110/80R19 tire from the local Suzuki dealer who'd offered the best price (savings on shipping basically, $75 out the door). Got it home and in about an hour got the old Shinko Tour Master 110/90R19 tire off and the new one on with 30,600 miles on the tug's odometer. How many miles did I get from the Tour Master? I am unsure as I neglected to get the final mileage on Vikki when last I saw her at the salvage yard, I am estimating less than 7000 miles.

The Shinko tires side by side

As you can see, not much left on the old one.

The tug has Metzeler Tourances and there's plenty of "meat" left in the threads so no plans on changing them out any time soon. I do have a new General Exclaim 205/55 R17 read to take the place of the pusher tire already, it's the same one that was on the previous tug, Vikki.

I also took receipt of the wiring harness to hook up the Oxford Heated grips. The harness is from Eastern Beaver, purveyor of fine wiring adapters and such items that make the electrical farkling of one's motorcycle that much easier. This adapter, along with the headlight cutout switch for the low beam lamp, will probably be installed tomorrow night. The adapter hooks up to the stock coupler for Suzuki heated grips but allows easy connection to non-OEM grips like the Oxfords I like.

Oxford Heated Grip Controller, the 40% setting was plenty this past winter on Natasha

Heated Grip Adapter from easternbeaver.com

The headlight cutout? To allow me to shut off one of the two headlights that are always on with the tug, to save on current draw if adding more electrical farkles causes too much drain. Not sure I'll need it but if I do, I'll need it badly.

Headlight cutout adapter from easternbeaver.com

The front brake pads were replaced 1200 miles ago at 29400 miles, the rear brake pads will be changed out by next month as they've still some wear left on them.

Last note is the oil and filter on the tug having been changed out at 30,125 miles. She'll be "due" again at 34000 miles.

Update: 22SEP11: Installed the Oxford Heated Grips, see picture below as to mounting location for the heat controller.

The Mount Lindo Cross

2011-09-17T21:09:00.000-06:00

There's a lighted cross on the west side of the Denver Metro Area, near the exit for the town of Morrison on US285. The last time I'd spotted it, I had been riding in the pre-dawn hours headed out of town and trying for New Mexico at the end of 2010.

The image of that huge cross, illuminated on the dark hillside as I rode south on US285 stayed on my mind off and on in the last year and a half and today I rode to capture its image.

Here's some more information about the Mount Lindo Cross from the blog: Cemeteries and Cemetery Symbols: LINK

I rode out of the neighborhood under a very light rain, riding on Yoshie, my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom Dauntless Sidecar Rig. The rain became heavier as I rode into the city but was never too bad. You'd have thought it was the prelude to the second flood of biblical proportions they way some of the clueless cagers reacted to it though.

A little splash? Hit the brakes. Ride 5-10 miles under the speed limit if your windshield wipers are on and by all means, tap your brakes for no apparently reason. Even had one guy come to an almost complete stop because he realized too late he was on an on-ramp to I-225. Traffic was dodging this stupid idiot as he "waited" for a gap in traffic to get off the on-ramp; truly amazing he wasn't killed.

I made it safely across the city as the rain passed overhead and arrived at the western edge of town with just wet streets to deal with. As I approached the exit of US285 to go to Morrison, I spotted the perfect spot to pose Yoshie at with the cross in the background:

This is about 15 minutes before sunset, the can you see the cross on the hillside

Here's the "overall" view of the area, you can just make out the cross

The sun has now set and you can see the cross much easier

against the dark hillside

I rode eastward to the Simms Blvd exit and posed Yoshie on

a sidewalk near the freeway exit

The last shot of the evening that turned out

Photogrammetry and Old Photos....cool video

2011-09-15T14:27:00.000-06:00

Spotted this on a website I tend to visit now and then. I keyed in on the sidecars displayed within the montage of vintage photographs of an old Petrol Station. Very Cool.

From the posting:

Using the incredible visual trickery of 3D camera mapping (Photogrammetry), Miklós Falvay was able to create a virtual step inside these timeworn photos of Hungary’s first gas station — the subject of an upcoming documentary. The photos, beautiful in of themselves become utterly mesmerizing as they take motion.

ARCHIVE PHOTO INSERTS FROM MOTALKO from Miklós Falvay on Vimeo.

9/11 - The Tenth Anniversary

2011-09-11T08:15:00.000-06:00

Never Forget, Never Forgive

image source: link

It's been ten years since the murdering cowards of al-qaeda killed thousands of Americans in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I still see in my mind's eye where I was when I first heard of the first jet liner hitting the the North Tower of the WTC.

The ongoing news reports today, along with the discussions and reviews of the footage and recordings and memories of the families affected are something worth watching and hearing.

The anger I felt ten years ago has not abated and likely will never go away.

I rejoiced in the killing of osama bin laden, may he burn in hell along with the cowardly bastards that hijacked the planes ten years ago.

I salute the men and women of our armed forces who served then, the ones who joined up since then because of 9/11 and the ones who continue to serve today.

I hope the families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks find some comfort today, and I hope that this great nation never forgets.

Sidecaring to the top of Jones Pass

2011-09-10T19:11:00.001-06:00

Another gorgeous Fall day here in the great state of Colorado. Before Noon I would ride up to above 12,000 feet, cross patches of snow, dare precipices and finally achieve the top of Jones Pass near Berthoud Falls, Colorado.

I rode Yoshie, my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom Dauntless Sidecar Rig, and the weather was in the low 50's as she cruised effortlessly on the I-70 Superslab, rising out of the Denver Metro Area and into brisker temperatures under partly cloudy, intensely blue skies over the Rocky Mountains.

I turned off at the Empire, CO exit and made a short detour to introduce my rig to the beginning of Empire Pass.

Start of Empire Pass with Georgetown's Lake in the background

I made a half-hearted attempt to go all the way pass the start of Empire Pass but after stalling Yoshie out twice, decided to try it again another day, perhaps in the company of some Uralisti for support. I am still testing out the drive chain on Yoshie you see, so it doesn't have my full trust yet in such conditions.

I backed down and headed back towards Empire, feeling a little bit like a quitter but this feeling soon dissipated as I approached the entrance to Jones Pass Road near Berthoud Falls, CO. You see, I'd attempted to ride to this pass about three times before, each time when snow was on the ground and had been turned back each time.

Now, it was early Fall and I was certain I would not find any snow on the ground. I would be wrong about that, but more later about this. The Jones Pass road is packed dirt with long stretches filled with small rocks and boulders protruding from the ground. There's also patches of loose dirt/sand which make things interesting when on a motorcycle, though on a sidecar rig, not so scary.

Sample view of Jones Pass Road

As I climbed higher and higher on this dirt road, the air became crisper and colder, causing me to have to breathe harder each time I dismounted and walked around to take pictures. The road gets steeper of course as you approached the top of the pass and the switchbacks and hairpin turns come at you more frequently.

Yoshie took all these conditions on with aplomb and no complaints. I did have to feather the clutch a bit on the hairpin turns to keep the engine from lugging and stalling but overall, she did great. Soon I passed through a small stretch of ice/snow with ruts cut into it by cars who'd preceded me and came upon the top of Jones Pass!

The initial view one has of the mountains visible from the top of Jones Pass

Gorgeous!

Yoshie waits for me to take pictures as we descend down into the valley

from the top of Jones Pass

I didn't have time today to descend fully into the valley on the

other side of Jones Pass, so once I found a good spot to

turn around, I took it.

Yoshie waits for me once again to take pictures as we ascend back

up towards the top of Jones Pass

Above and below, shots of the little bit of snow and ice I managed

to find and traverse with Yoshie. There was of course larger patches

of frozen snow on the side of the mountain I was riding on.

The last shot while on Jones Pass Road

You can see the buildings comprising the Henderson Mine

down below.

Once I got back down to the valley where the Henderson Mine is located, I found myself riding down the nicely groomed dirt road that leads one to the URAD Mine and Water Treatment Facility. They used to mine Uranium around there and are presently engaged in cleaning things up apparently.

I'd last been in this area while riding with fellow Uralista Jay and his lovely bride Deana. LINK This had been the last attempt at getting to Jones Pass by yours truly. The snow stopped us quite easily that time.

I liked the shades of red on the hillside above

One of the more unusual animal crossing signs I've seen in my

time as a motorcyclist. Boreal Frogs? Must be some

migration when it happens, and why here?

Colorado's Alpine Boreal Frog, looks familiar doesn't he? : )

Link to more information on the Boreal Frog

I made my way down towards the town of Berthoud Fall and cruised on the US40 Frontage road back towards the Denver Metro Area. I passed and stopped briefly by the spot near Downieville where Vikki, my previous V-Strom Tug had met her end.

Yoshie and I stayed on frontage roads all the way into Idaho Springs where I tanked her up. We then headed into the mountains which are spanned by CO Highway 103 as I didn't want to just ride back to Denver on the I-70 Slab.

Conditions were nice and smooth on CO103, with very light traffic and only slightly cool conditions given the altitudes involved. Soon I passed by Echo Lake which was crammed with cagers, blocking all the spots where I could have posed Yoshie with the peak of Mount Evans in the background. I kept on riding and elected not to go into the fee portion of the Mount Evans Road as the road all the way to the top of Mount Evans has already been closed for the season. You can only get to Summit Lake, and while that's a nice ride, the lack of snow at those altitudes didn't make it picture-worthy to me today.

I kept on going on CO103 and soon enough I was parking at the usual spot where one "can see forever" on a clear day. Things weren't quite that clear due to some haze on the horizon but I think you'll agree it was a great background at which to pose one's motorcycle?

Homeward bound, the twists and turns of CO103 as one descends down towards Bergen Park wore me out and I turned towards the I-70 Slab once I reached its junction with Bergen Park.

The rest of the ride home was boring slab riding, no incidents really to speak off and the traffic was medium heavy at its worst. A good day's worth of riding, probably 200 miles or so only but quite enjoyable. I continue to be happy to report Yoshie's new chain remains up to the job as well.

Previous rides/attempts at Jones Pass:

Uraling to Berthoud Pass, Winter Park and Loveland Pass

Jones Pass, snowy and unconquered still by some Uralisti

Seeking snow at Berthoud Pass

Sidecaring on the Shelf Road

2011-09-08T07:58:00.001-06:00

This past weekend, I had been riding on Skyline Drive, near Cañon City, Colorado.

To return home that day, I chose to head out of town along Raynold's Avenue which leads one North out of the city and after a few miles past Red Canyon Park and eventually, onto the Shelf Road.

This road, back in the mining days, served as a stage coach road between Cañon City and Cripple Creek. It's rated as a 4WD road and while some portions are a bit rough, it's still quite doable by most motorcycles with a bit of ground clearance.

The road is packed dirt, lots of loose gravel and rocks abound and of course, there's the stretches of road with a high precipitous drop into the canyon floor below!

The southern half, closes to Cañon City, has the best views of precipices and you can see how the road was carved out of the side of the mountain. The northern half is a narrow roadway through the canyon walls, and is the site of Window Rock (pictured below) among many other cool rock formations.

Quite the road to ride on a motorcycle, not a big deal on a sidecar rig as expected. I've ridden this road before on my 1987 R80 Beemer, so use that as a gauge as to whether your motorcycle can handle it.

Riding the southern half of the Shelf Road

The above video was "stabilized" using youtube's utility, made the captions behave

a bit weird but helped with the shakiness of my camera mount.

You can't miss the welcome center for Cañon City, just look for this fellow
in the above picture.

Here's Yoshie at the start of the northern half of the Shelf Road

Yoshie near Window Rock

A closeup view of Window Rock

Heading towards the backside of Window Rock

Pretty rugged terrain eh?

Eventually, the Shelf Road takes you to the outskirts of Cripple Creek. I got onto CO67 and headed through town and ended up in the overlook above the town where I took the below shot:

The rest of the ride was just slabbing it on CO67, negotiating the traffic jams in Woodland Park and Colorado Springs. I-25 northbound was really jammed up so I bailed at the North Gate exit and used CO83 or Parker Road to get me home.

I am happy to report Yoshie did great, no issues with the new chain or sprockets. A total of about 282 miles ridden that one Labor Day.

Hope you got some riding in.

Note: yep, noticed that dust spot in the upper corner of the pictures, thought I'd gotten rid of it but menu display items obscured it. It is more pronounced when zoom is engaged. Just used a vacuum cleaner to get the dust out. Must be more careful how I carry the camera I guess.

Skyline Drive - Revisited

2011-09-06T16:48:00.000-06:00

It was time to introduce Yoshie, my new tug, to the epic riding views of Skyline Drive.

Sunday was a gorgeously sunny day here in Colorado and the temperatures were nicely cool in the morning as I rode down the I-25 slab on Yoshie, my V-Strom Sidecar Rig, towards the Cañon City's Skyline Drive.

Yoshie's powerful 1 liter motor, coupled to the strongest drive chain that I could find, hummed along without protests at speeds reaching 80 MPH at times. In less than two hours, I made it down to Cañon City and tanked up again.

Things had heated up a bit in terms of ambient temperatures but still, not so forbidding as to detract from what would be a great riding day.

Below are two videos I shot with my GoPro camera, the first one with the standard forward-looking perspective but from higher up than usual. I'd cobbled together a camera perch of sorts for the occasion as I wanted you to get a good view of the narrow road that is Skyline Drive.

The second video is of the same road, but this time the GoPro camera was pointed backwards showing the view of the road I'd just ridden.

I was done with the filming shortly after lunch, and the temperatures had gotten a bit warm as I rode onwards to the Shelf Road. This is a dirt road cut out of the side of the mountains that form the walls of a canyon. It was the route between the mining in the Cripple Creek area to the railroad in Cañon City back in the day.

More on the Shelf Road in the next posting.

Yoshie continues to do fine as I test out the ability of the new chain and sprockets to bear the loads imposed by side car duties.

Roxborough Park with my family and Guanella Pass with Yoshie

2011-09-04T17:40:00.001-06:00

A beautifully sunny yet cool day here in the great state of Colorado. My family and I headed out towards Roxborough State Park, located on the SW side of the Denver Metro Area for a little bit of hiking.

Temperatures were in the mid 50s on the ride out to the park, it was quite brisk but bearable. I'd neglected to put on my jacket liner you see, when we'd stopped for gas for both Yoshie and my wife's SUV.

We got some good parking at the park and we set off for the Fountain Valley Trail, which was rated the easiest hike of the trails open to the public.

One of the rock formations visible from the park's visitor center

Martha and the boys, at the start of the hiking

Above and below, some of the more interesting rock formations

visible from Lyon's Overlook

On the return portion of the Fountain Valley Loop, these standalone rock

columns caught my eye, below you can see the boys

"enjoying" the hike

We were done with the hiking just short of Noon and I took my leave of the family, they headed home and I headed towards US 285 via the C-470 slab towards the settlement of Grant and the southern end of the Guanella Pass Road.

Yoshie rode along just fine, at or above traffic speed with no issues; her driveline thrumming smoothly below me as we climbed and descended the hilly portions of US285. She powered up the inclined portions of the highway with just a slight twist of the throttle and it was quite the pleasure to have that ability once again.

The beginning of the Guanella Pass Road near Grant is packed dirt with stretches of washboarded dirt and clusters of small rocks poking out from the dirt surface. Yoshie settled into a brisk but not fast pace as traffic was light and she make light work of the uneven terrain, potholes and loose sand and gravel accumulations.

After a few miles, the road becomes nicely paved with some rough spots all the way to the top of Guanella Pass. I made it to the top of the pass on or about 1:30 PM and parked Yoshie by the side of the road near the summit parking lot. There were a lot of people at the summit, all doing some hiking and generally enjoying the good weather. It was perhaps a bit "cool" at the top but nothing remarkably cold.

The requisite picture of the pass sign

Note: that dark blot was some debris on the lens which I didn't notice at the time.

A view of the nearby mountain peaks from Guanella Pass Summit Parking Lot

Far off views to the North I think

Yoshie waits, patiently, to resume her effortless riding

I retraced my route back down the mountain towards Grant, not much to report except how effortlessly she handled the occasional rough terrain and how she drew every cager's eye that we passed along the way.

I took US285 all the way into the Denver Metro Area and soon was home without incident. I am happy to report that in over 350 miles of riding since I installed the new chain and sprockets, there has been zero detectable chain stretch, no klunking noises endemic of said stretching and just mile after mile of riding smoothness. Oh, and 42MPG!

Yoshie is on the road again.......

2011-09-01T16:46:00.002-06:00

The stronger type 530 (16,000 lbs Tensile Strength) chain from Sidewindersprockets arrived (finally!) yesterday.

I set about installing it as soon as I got home and got a verbal run-through the procedure from my Rounder friend in Texas, Ken Phenix. I would be calling him several times during the process to "make sure" I wasn't about to bugger up this expensive new chain, his patience and sage advice are most appreciated. Thanks Ken!

The first step was to remove the old stock chain (with a mere 8800 lbs tensile strength). I used my brand new angle grinder (how did I get along without this tool, I don't know). Below you can see the first rivet ground almost flush. I picked a random link to break the chain at:

Below is the result of less than 1 minute of grinding, did I mention I love this angle grinder?

Next, I broke out the chain breaker tool I got from HarborFreight, I had also bought a combo

chain breaker/chain riveter from elsewhere but figured for the price, have a dedicated tool

I positioned the tool's working end on the now rivet and just simply turned the

hex shaped cap with a 17mm wrench, presto, the chain was apart.

With both chains cut, I laid them next to each other to measure chain stretch

on the stock chain (lower one in the picture above). As you can see, it had stretched by one

link length apparently. Each rivet is a link. The new chain was 120 links from the supplier.
Note how much "beefier" the new chain is compared to the 525 chain.

Next, I threaded the new chain above and below the swing arm and loosely around

the front sprocket.

Chain threaded, it was time to remount the rear wheel with its new

sprocket (purty ain't it?), above you can see the start of the

axle insertion.

With the axle fully forward (I had previously retracted fully the chain tension

adjustment screws), I took the ends of the new chain and hung them on the

rear sprocket to check link counts.

I would end up cutting off the excess at link 8 from the end of the chain.

To hold things in place while I used my spiffy grinder again,

I used a simple zip tie as you can see above.

I also used a sharpie pen to outline the rivet

to cut off .

Again, using the harborfreight chain breaker above, it was simple

to "cut" the new chain's excess links off. It was a lot harder to take

the rivet off the new chain, much tougher construction I guess.

Above you can see the chain ready to receive the master link

I made sure at this point the chain was as tight as I could get it by hand.

I also made sure it was routed onto the front sprocket!

You have to grease the masterlink's rivets for proper lubrication

Also make sure you've the included o-rings in place before riveting!

Took me a few minutes to line up the outside plate. Had to use vise

grips to get the rivets to "hold" enough to allow me to position the

chain riveting tool without the outside plate falling off the rivet ends.

As you can see above, a few turns and the chain was "whole" once again.

The chain riveting tool has the above component to ensure when you

apply pressure you spread the top end of the rivet by "dimpling" it

Here's the masterlink, I made sure the plates were lined up

and that things still moved freely.

As the chain was complete again, I used it along with the big screwdriver blocking the rear wheel spokes, to secure the front sprocket mounting nut with a little bit of blue Loctite and a big wrench. Torqued it down to specs and proceeded to the rest of the components.

I started re-assembling the front sprocket cover and the slave clutch cylinder back onto their locations on the tug. Things went in too easy. You see, I forgot to release the clutch lever which I'd bound (per the service manual) in the "engaged" position prior to initially removing the clutch slave cylinder. This is done to prevent pressure from pushing out the clutch cylinder's piston over time.

Turns out, you don't have to bind the clutch lever, you use zip ties or a small c-clamp to keep the piston from coming out. I know now, dammit.

Anyways. I forgot to release the clutch lever before re-installing the slave clutch cylinder, so when I tightened things down, it caused the actuator rod to move and mis-align the clutch plates! Aaaarrrrgggghhhh.

I didn't know what I'd done at this point of course, just that the transmission was stuck in neutral. Bled the clutch circuit thinking perhaps air had gotten into the system, no joy. I went online to the stromtrooper's forum and after some searching found that this was a pretty common occurrence for wrenchers who a. forget to free the clutch lever or b. insert the actuator rod at an angle.

Fortunately, there was a posting with instructions on how to realign things. You access the clutch plate through the oil fill hole on the right side engine cover. Carefully, you insert a large flat screwdriver between the outer clutch basket wall and the clutch plate, engage the clutch lever which allows the screwdriver to go down a bit further, repeat until you see the clutch basket wall and clutch plate "engage". Work the screwdriver blade free and this will allow the "self-adjusting" clutch to mate up once more. Victory!

I took Yoshie, now with engageable gears, out for a quick test ride around the block. Gears worked fine all the way to third gear (couldn't go faster in the neighborhood), no klunking

It was quite late 10:30 PM or so by now, so I just left things as they were in the garage and went in to get some late dinner and rest a bit before hitting the rack.

This morning, I checked and secured all related bolts and nuts. Put away my tools and after a quick crossing of the fingers, headed out for a longer test ride. I had her up to 85 mph for a few miles on the expressway and she did great!

What a learning experience, I really hope this chain and sprockets hold up to the strains of sidecaring. If not, Yoshie will continue under my care as a two-wheeled steed.

Today's Sunset, a reward for my efforts from the Motorcycling gods

Changing the drive sprockets on Yoshie

2011-08-27T20:01:00.002-06:00

Though I am still waiting on the Type 530 Chain with the 16,000 lb tensile strength from sidewinder sprockets. The stock chain that came with Yoshie, is an EK525 SRX chain with a tensile strength of 8800 lbs and it had already started exhibiting signs of "stretching" under sidecar loads.

The "performance" replacement sprockets from Supersprox had arrived earlier this week and I decided to install them while waiting for the chain to arrive, probably early this coming week. I hope.

I'd done my research online, asked question of fellow V-Strom riders on advrider, stromtroopers and vrsi discussion forums and had a fellow named Chris aka Bluebye on advrider who lives in Castle Rock just a phone call away. Thanks Chris!

Took me a few hours, as I was documenting with pictures as I went, being very methodical and cleaning things as they became available to me. I also ran into a stuck mounting nut on the rear sprocket that caused me to invoke the Oscar factor, more on that later.

First thing you have to do is remove the Slave Clutch Cylinder that is held on

by two 6mm Allen Head Screw

The clutch cylinder screws are not the same length, the one to the left goes in the

upper mounting hole and goes inside a metal tube insert

Above is the inside portion of the clutch cylinder, I would of course be cleaning it

up before re-installing it

Above you can see the circular cavity where the clutch cylinder was mounted.

That's the clutch actuator rod in the middle, note the donut shape tube end at 11 O'clock

Here's the clutch cylinder moved out of the way of things,

I would end up zip tying it into this position

Above I am removing the tube insert for the upper mounting screw

for the clutch cylinder

Removing the clutch actuator rod, it was quite longer than what

I remembered from when the same type rod broke on Vikki

Above, the sprocket cover housing is removed and zip tied out of the way

revealing the front sprocket and chain

It was a bit "gunky" above, with accumulations of flung off chain lube and dirt

Here's the area again, after some initial cleanup work

Now, for a 6mm Allen Head wrench to remove the speed sensor

mounting screw.

Before you can remove the speed sensor mounting screw, you have to have the transmission

in Neutral. You then block forward movement by the rear wheel by either using a 2x4 block of wood

or what I found easier, I used a really long flat tip screwdriver resting on

top of the swing arms.

With the rear wheel blocked, the chain then held the front sprocket in position and

I was able to apply the loosening torque against the sensor mounting screw and remove it.

Here's the speed sensor plate coming off, revealing the 32mm nut which

secures the front sprocket to the transmission spline hub.

The nut above comes from the factory with red Loctite. I worried that it would be a bugger

to remove but apparently the previous owner had changed sprockets at least once

before, and I didn't have to struggle much with the cheater bar I used.

Front sprocket nut removed, the front sprocket can now be removed

from the transmission splines but first I must remove tension on the chain.

Here's the right side swing arm tension adjuster screw before I loosened them up.

The tension adjuster screws fully retracted, did the same on both sides.

At this point, with the axle nut loosened beforehand, I was able to push the rear

tire forward, releasing tension on the old drive chain.

As you can see below, I took the chain off the rear sprocket, which allowed me

to take the chain off the teeth on the front sprocket above.

The old front sprocket came off easy enough at this point

you can see the washer below which makes contact with both the sprocket

and the sprocket nut.

Above is a shot of the transmission input spline hub on which the sprocket rides.

Above is a comparison shot of the old front sprocket (left) and the new

front sprocket from Supersprox. Note, the new one is a type

530 sprocket.

I placed the two sprockets together, note how the teeth on the old

sprocket were starting to "hook" due to chain wear.

A top down view of the sprockets, note how much bigger the new sprocket teeth

are and how thicker the sprocket itself is. Note, the old front sprocket comes from

Suzuki with a rubber "damper" to lessen noise. It's not necessary for the new sprocket.

Here I am starting on the 14mm mounting nuts (five of them) that hold the rear sprocket

onto the rear carrier assembly of the rear wheel. I used the cheater bar again and thought I had

easily loosened all five screws. Turns out, I missed one.

At this point it was time to remove the rear wheel to get at the rear sprocket.

Above is a view of the mounting hardware for the axle on the right side swing arm.

I gently tapped the axle out towards the left side swing arm, above you can

see it start to come out, displaying the tension adjuster metal block.

Above is the wheel spacer that goes between the left side swing arm and the wheel.

Below is a view of the spacer between the right side of the wheel and the

right swing arm.

Above is a view of the wheel, free of the tug, sitting on top of the new car tire

that I will be mounting later on this summer. This way, the brake disk on the underside is

protected from contact with the floor. It was at this point that I realized one of the five

mounting nuts was "stuck" and the edges starting to "wear".

Before I caused more damage, I took a break from removing the old rear sprocket from the carrier and instead lifted the sprocket and the carrier off of the wheel to reveal the cush drive.

Above is a view of the spacer which sits under the rear sprocket carrier assembly

which at this point has been pulled off the cush drive rubber pieces which "hold"

the carrier in place. The fact that the carrier assembly came off easy told me the old cush drive

pieces were worn and needed replacing.

Above is a view of the old cush drive rubber pieces, note the worn spots

on top of each. The underside of the sprocket carrier assembly also showed

spots where the rubber had rubbed off onto the carrier assembly.

Here's the cush drive housing, after it was cleaned up.

I now returned to the stuck mounting nut on the rear sprocket carrier. I tried for quite some time to free it, using lubricating oil, wrenches, sockets and even a propane torch. All I succeeded in doing was stripping the edges of the nut even further. Dammit.

I now invoked the Oscar factor. He was out with his family but we arranged for me to go to his place later where he'd take a crack at things. In the meantime, I went and secured some nylon self locking nuts (M10 x 1.25) which would have to do until the replacement mounting nuts with metal self locking tabs I ordered through the dealer arrived sometime this coming week.

I got to Oscar's place and he tried something called a Gator Socket and some specialized sockets designed for stripped nuts. No luck. We just succeeded in rounding things off even further! At this point, Oscar broke out his die grinder and introduced me to the grinding wonders of this tool. He made it look easy though a bit dangerous as he ground two flat edges back onto the sides of the stuck nut.

A midway shot of the grinding down of the stuck mounting nut.
Oscar kept saying "Dude, I've never seen

anything like this before". I always bring Oscar "interesting" problems.

So, once he got the two flat sides ground into place, he got this big pipe wrench and while I held the sprocket carrier in place with a different socket wrench, he applied his considerable strength at the stuck nut.

Pretty soon we heard a "crack" and the stupid stuck nut finally came off! See below.

Above is a closeup view of the destroyed mounting nut, we suspect the previous owner or whomever

did the last sprocket replacement used red loctite on the damn thing

causing us to go through the struggle we did.

Here's the sprocket carrier, free of the old sprocket, yay!

Above is the cleaned up sprocket carrier, mounted onto the newly installed cush

drive rubber pieces. Below is the new rear sprocket ( 43 Tooth Type 530)

mounted onto the carrier assembly.

So, some more cleanup work here and there, now I get to wait for the new chain's arrival. This posting is both a record for me as to how things came apart so I can put them back together. Hope it helps someone else take on what was really a pretty simple task, the replacement of the drive sprockets. I hope swapping out the chain is as easy.

Wanted: Chained Drive Guru in Denver Metro Area

2011-08-21T19:01:00.003-06:00

Hoping to have all the parts on hand this upcoming weekend to change out the sprockets and chain on my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom.

If there's someone in or near the Denver metro area, who has done chain swaps and sprocket swaps, especially on a Suzuki V-Strom, I request your expertise and presence as I try my first swap.

The task itself does not appear complicated but someone overwatching me as I do it would be most welcome, especially if you see me about to do something stupid. : )

Yoshie at the Rampart Range Revival

2011-08-14T17:55:00.000-06:00

Apparently quite the long running event, the RRR or Rampart Range Revival is set in the forested hills that border Rampart Range Road. Rampart Range links CO67 and the town of Sedalia through portions of the Pikes National Forest, to the town of Woodland Park near Colorado Springs.

This forested area is a mecca for dirt bike riders from the Denver Metro Area and points beyond. Easy access through Rampart Range Rd is provided to many campsites and nearby dirt bike trails.

I rode out today shortly before 8:00AM to meet with Dana, John and his wife Cookie and whomever was still around at the tail end of the event, the event spans four days you see. I motored down CO 105, transiting through Parker and Castle Rock and eventually finding Mount Herman Road in Monument, Colorado.

The road quickly becomes a gravelly dirt road with many wasboarded sections to keep life interesting and put one's suspension to the test. You climb up into the hills of the Pike National Forest on narrow gravel/dirt roads with many blind curves. Keep a sharp eye out for 4x4s careening their way down the trail as you go up.

It was about 22 miles of this kind of terrain, with Yoshie pulling strongly in first and sometimes second gear when the road leveled out for a bit. A bit on the warm side but with mostly overcast skies, it was not too hot for riding.

A couple of the more interesting roadside rock formations

along Rampart Range Road

Looks like a future road block to me....

I made it to the RRR site, located on Forest Rd 324, courtesy of a couple of paper signs they'd posted. I parked Yoshie and was greeted by John S and his lovely wife Cookie, they'd brought along their white Ural Patrol sidecar rig and trailered a small Suzuki dirt bike for the festivities.

Spat's Patrol

Dana, another fellow Uralista who lives near Vail, CO was there as well and he'd brought along not only his tested Ural Patrol but also his almost unstoppable Rokon motorcycle:

Dana's Rokon

Dana's winter ride

Sitting with Dana was this older gentleman by the name of Walt whom I next had the pleasure to meet. He'd brought along his own 2003 Ural which as you can see, he's modified to avoid the "floating on snow" issue with the stock exhaust pipes.

The exhaust pipe had Aprilia stamped on it.

I spent the rest of the morning BS'ing with these folks, they'd tell me of past Revivals where some interesting activities had occurred. Activities such as riding the dirt trails at night, and Dana being woken up and brought along because his bike was the only one with a headlight! Did I mention this festival occurs during the Full Moon, I guess it's bright enough to ride by at night!

Soon though, everyone finished packing up their stuff and we all departed together out of the camping area. When we reached Rampart Range Rd again, I turned north and they went south towards Woodland Park.

I had turned north so that I could finally say I'd ridden the length of Rampart Range Rd. The other times I'd been on this road, I'd either been turned back due to snow or turned elsewhere and not continued all the way to the end.

The main portions of Rampart Range Rd are not bad at all, packed dirt and gravel with the occasional big hole or rut caused by running water on the road. There were a couple of corners where you have to watch your speed or you'll slide right off the edge the small cliff.

The road is bordered on both sides by pine forests so the views of the surrounding areas were a bit hard to get at for pictures.

The view from one of the several parking spots right on the road

This pano shot should give you an idea of the twists and turns Rampart Range Rd

offers to the rider.

I made it back onto pavement on CO67 where Rampart Range Rd ends and turned east towards Jarre Canyon and Sedalia. Before going to Sedalia though, I decided to introduce Yoshie to one of my favorite nearby rock formations: Bee Rock.

Bee Rock

I got home just fine after less than 120 miles of riding and about perhaps 4 hours of saddle time. Nothing fell off of Yoshie and the chain appeared to be just right in terms of adjustment when I got her home. The chain was covered in dust though so I cleaned it off and re-lubed it.

I'll be replacing the chain that came with the tug soon enough, thinking of going with type 530 chain and sprockets for their added durability.

A Sidecar Rig in the garage, once again....

2011-08-08T20:35:00.000-06:00

She who remains to be named, though I am leaning towards Yoshie which means "Beautiful Stream" in Japanese, has been mated to the hack.

For you who don't know, Suzuki named this model motorcycle the V-Strom. V is the V Twin Engine type and Strom is German for Stream. Why a Japanese company elected a German name for its motorcycle, I have no idea.

I finished mating her to the Dauntless sidecar this evening, took me less time in terms of the mounting hardware, the hard part ironically was the electrical connections between the sidecar and the tug. Note to self, if you don't have a good ground, you are going to have weird symptoms and stuff won't work right.

The present chain on the tug is an RK 525 with a tensile strength of 8800 lbs. I ordered a Sidewinder 525 chain, their "Extreme Performance" model which has a tensile strength of 16000 lbs, it's twice the price of a regular chain but I think it'll be worth it. It should be here at the end of the week, I'll put it on this weekend and keep the present chain as an emergency spare I guess.

I may buy new sprockets as well if the dealer has them though to my amateur drive-chain bike eyes, the ones that came with the new tug look pretty good. I am trying to find out when the previous owner last changed sprockets, if recently, then maybe I won't swap them out when I swap the chain.

Here she is, sorry but it was late when I took the picture and the light in the garage sucks for photographs.

Goodbye Vikki, Hello ???

2011-08-06T17:25:00.000-06:00

This past Friday, I took time from work and headed down to the salvage yard where Vikki, my 2004 Suzuki V-Strom, ended up after being evaluated a "total loss" by the insurance company.

A bit sad that she was not worth repairing but it was good to get the decision from them which allowed me to move on.

Anyways, I went to the salvage yard to recover some items that didn't come with the motorcycle. Got there, got the insurance rep to clear me in with the salvage yard security folks and with tools that I brought with me I reclaimed:

The Dauntless Sub-Frame Mount hardware, the Datel Voltmeter, the mounting adapter plate for the Bestem Top Case and the custom seat, which I will replace with a stock seat.

Here's how Vikki looked, leaning on wooden blocks and looking quite forlorn. I felt quite guilty but then moved briskly to get things done so I could get back to work.

Picture of Vikki taken Thursday afternoon when I got there without the right tools,

I am so stupid sometimes.

Vikki, without her subframe mounting hardware so her sidestand was usable

and with her seat removed.

She looks almost rideable, doesn't she?

A view of the motorcycle portion of the salvage yard, it was quite the

large operation, lots of wrecked cars and such

Lots of wrecked bikes of all makes, a very sad scene to me

Vikki's tenure with me was unfortunately short-lived but they were great times for the most part. She didn't deserve the fate she got but in the end, it was the decision that was made for me.

Now, as to the title of this posting. I saw on craigslist a dealer ad for a 2006 V-Strom DL1000 with 29K miles on it being sold in Loveland, CO. Tricity Cycles is the name of the place and all they do is resell pre-owned motorcycles and some provide repair and accessory services to the local area.

Some text messages exchanged with Stu, the salesman, and we drove up before lunch to Loveland. It took us an hour and while Martha and the boys wandered about the store, I had my first look at this V-Strom and she looked pretty good!

Took her out for a 15 minute test ride and she ran fine and felt a bit more "planted" than Vikki had been. Apparently one of the things Suzuki's worked on since they made the 2004 model was a stronger suspension system.

We then left the dealership, telling Stu we needed to feed the kids (which we did) but really to discuss things over some food. We went to a local BBQ joint called Norbys and had some pretty good food. Sorry, too wrapped up discussing the motorcycle to take food porn shots.

Martha and I concluded it was a good deal and returned me to the dealership to complete the deal. Not much haggling involved, basically got them to throw in a year's warranty under an outside company called Edge Service Company. It wasn't a no-cost upgrade by using the insurance money but I figured the out-of -pocket expense would have been comparable to getting Vikki repaired; had the engine casing not been compromised of course.

Rode it home in stifling humid heat (it had briefly showered rain while I completed the paperwork and called the insurance company to put the new to me V-Strom under coverage) and got her home safe and sound.

"She who must be named" sitting on her new home driveway

So, gentle readers, what shall I name her? She's a darker silver color than Vikki was, kind of reminds me of the color of storm clounds. Stormy or Stromy is out, and so is Velma. Perhaps something Japanese? I am open to suggestions.

Vikki is toast

2011-08-03T19:11:00.001-06:00

I got a call from the insurance rep this afternoon. They've declared Vikki, my 2004 V-Strom a total loss and I am to meet with them tomorrow to give them her title in exchange for the value of the motorcycle.

I've decided to see about buying one of two used V-Strom DL1000s that are within reasonable distance of me.

Why continue with a V-Strom sidecar rig?

1. Not giving up on being a sidecarist. I like it too much and when the snow returns to Colorado.....

2. Economics: Getting another V-Strom tug is the only option not involving more money out of pocket. I don't want to incur more debt than what I have now. A new Ural, with what I expect I'd get from the sale of the Dauntless sidecar rig and subframe to another V-Strom rider, would require an estimated $6000 additional out of pocket. No used Urals that are year model 2008 or later anywhere near me right now or within foreseeable budget.

The lower-priced one of the two looks like this and is located in Pueblo, CO:

Image source: Craiglist ad

more details on above V-Strom here: LINK

The second V-Strom is located in Longmont, CO which is north of Denver.

Image source: Craiglist ad

more details on above V-Strom here: LINK

The first V-Strom has less miles on her than the one in Longmont, but has not been ridden at all this year. The second V-Strom has double the miles that Vikki had but comes with more "stuff".

I go tomorrow afternoon, hopefully, to recover the sub-frame mount hardware from Vikki. I'll try and remember to take a last picture of her.

What do you think?

So, Vikki is probably history.....

2011-07-31T08:01:00.000-06:00

Bobskoot had emailed me a link to a posting which turned out very apropos as to why I've been so quiet lately in the blogosphere.

BLUF: (Bottom Line Up Front)

Vikki, my 2004 Suzuki V-Strom tug is more than likely, toast.

The V-Strom's drive chain coming off the rear sprocket two weekends ago at the end of my trip to Montana had apparently flailed about while wrapping itself around the front sprocket. The end result was not only a busted clutch actuator rod, damaged drive chain, but small holes carved into the left side engine casing and some other associated damage.

The dealer where I took her for repairs said it would take around $3700 in parts (apparently the engine casing's replacement involves also all sort of bearings and other internal parts which are a mandatory and or best practice replacement). Tack on another estimated $1500 in labor (the engine has to be removed to remove and replace the casing) and you can do the math.

I am waiting for the insurance company's own evaluation as to the motorcycle's repairability before they decide what to do with her. Vikki was picked up from the dealer this past Thursday afternoon I found so they'll hopefully evaluate her tomorrow, Monday.

------

My options, as I see them, are as follows and will be driven by whatever amount the insurance company deems Vikki is worth.

Option 1:
Replace the tug (that's Vikki in sidecarist lingo) with another used V-Strom, put the sidecar back on and carry on riding. This is the least cost option as I have all the mounting hardware.

Option 2:
Find a new tug, a used BMW Oilhead GS perhaps and use that as a tug. This option will cost me an additional $1500 or more due to having to purchase a GS-specific sub-frame mount to use to attach it to the sidecar; not to mention also, the cost of a good used GS is higher than a good used V-Strom! An older airhead tug, is not an option with the Dauntless sidecar I have according the the manufacturer as my sidecar is a "high end" dualsport sidecar, the A-arms on the sidecar would have to be "custom made" with the tug at ther facility, more money.

Option 3:
Take the insurance money and put in bank. Then sell the Dauntless sidecar and put proceeds in bank. Cut my losses and ride Brigitta, my dependable R80 Airhead Beemer while we see what the future brings. Perhaps a 2007 or newer Ural sidecar rig which are more mechanically dependable, or perhaps a R90/6 with sidecar. Both of these would cost more money than the proceeds above would generate I fear.

More to follow.

No sidestand? No Problem!

2011-07-21T20:46:00.000-06:00

When I dropped Vikki off at the Suzuki dealer to get her fixed up, she had still been separated from the sidecar and hence, unable to hold herself up without assistance.

The sidestand that is built onto her is blocked by the Dauntless subframe mount and unable to be deployed. The lack of a sidestand had not been an issue before as she'd been attached to the sidecar.

I'd brought a stack of small wooden blocks I'd cut from a 2x4 piece of lumber but they failed miserably at holding her steady; we ended up leaning her against the side of the building, her right side mirror bearing all the weight!

Today, while surfing the usual motorcycle-content sites, I came across this picture:

Image source: Bikes in the Fast Lane

I'm thinking this will be "just the thing" to help prop Vikki up once I go to get her back from the dealer once she's repaired.

No word yet from the dealer on the damages and costs to fix her up.

The Montana Trip - Last Day

2011-07-18T18:27:00.006-06:00

I had a bit over 500 miles to do today to get from Sandy, UT to Centennial, CO with a stop in Edwards, CO for lunch with a fellow Uralista. So I left before dawn at 05:00AM, rode and froze through the mountain pass that is US6 from Provo, UT to it's junction with I-70.

I was glad when the sun finally came out and I was out of the shadows of the canyon walls that border both sides of US6, makes for some nice sweeping curves with some twists and turns thrown in for good measure but I was just feeling the chill.

As I got into the flatter portion of US6, I tanked up at the Green River exit on I-70 and posed Vikki against this large rock formation nearby:

Near the Green River exit, off of I-70 in Utah.

I met with Dana, a fellow Uralista, in Edwards, CO at around 12:30PM and we had a nice lunch. He lent me a chain breaker tool so that I would be able to swap out the chain for the new one I'd bought in Boise, ID.

Heading home after lunch, I ran into atypical stop/go traffic eastbound as folks were coming down off the mountains into the Denver Metro area. It was heavier than usual, with the backups going all the way past Bakerville!

I started working my way down using frontage roads but these were full of traffic as well, resulting in a lot of stop and go traffic. Then, it started to rain to top it all off.

As I went past the town of Downieville, and turned onto the overpass over I-70 (Stanley Rd). I had myself a near-miss with a SUV who'd started crossing over the middle of the road, while swerving hard right to avoid, I heard a big metallic bang and lost all power on the motorcycle, and the ignition cut out. I coasted to a stop past the overpass and onto the side of the road.

The damn chain had come off the rear sprocket and jammed itself up in the front sprocket area! Dammit! Still, I thought I could self recover if I could free up the damaged old chain and put on the new chain.

Initially, it looked repairable....

As I removed the front sprocket cover to try and unjam the old chain, I found more damage caused by the flailing chain. It had broken off at the mounting holes where the engine side cover mates to the engine. I also found a sheared metal tube which acts as the clutch actuator so there went my plans to self-recover.

The ignition had cut out because the flailing chain had cut the wires leading to the sidestand switch which checks to see if its up or down before allowing a rider to turn on the engine.

The wires are for the sidestand safety switch, I had thought I could "link them" together

to regain ignition, that was before I found the busted clutch actuator rod and knew

I could not repair with what I had with me.

The hole above is where the rod that acts as clutch actuator goes into the transmission case

You can see where the side cover has broken away from the lower mounting holes

I am really hoping there was no internal damage to the transmission, just to the actuator bolt.

I called my insurance company and due to the weather and accidents closer to Denver, was told an ETA of 3-4 hours before a tow truck could come get me! So I called my friend Oscar, who true to form, dropped everything, got his trailer hooked up and was standing by me around 6:15PM or so.

His trailer was too narrow though to take on the sidecar rig so we had to separate the sidecar from the tug, which while not complicated, took some additional time. We then muscled Vikki onto the trailer, and then put the sidecar on backwards and Oscar tied everything down tightly.

A long ride into the evening, traffic was still crap, we finally made it to his home at around 9:15 PM. He generously loaned me his truck with trailer still attached so I could take it home and await the dealership's opening on Tuesday this week.

Dammit, an over 3000 mile trip and I almost made it home without major issues! Still, I guess I should be thankful the accident happened close to home and ready help and that I was going slow at the time the chain came loose!

The Montana Trip - Day 8 & 9: A Long Day

2011-07-17T21:08:00.000-06:00

At my loving wife's suggestion (a fortunate one it turns out) I left the family on Friday in order to have three traveling days to get back to the Denver Metro area in time for work on Monday, the 18th.

A scan of the maps showed that I could "work in" the states of Washington and Oregon onto the list of states that I've ridden my motorcycle in.

Here's the route I ended up taking:

I mainly stayed on US2 until I got to US95, using it to make my way southwards towards both Moscow and Lewiston which are close to or right on the border with Washington State and Oregon.

First though, I transited on US2 through the towns of Libby, Eagle and Troy, where they've taken to decorating their streets with large art objects of sorts.

Kind of looks like the eagle is trying to snatch Vikki up, doesn't it?

Can you guess that Montana is apparently known for its fishing?

Soon after the town of Troy, I came across my first border crossing sign of the day:

US95 is quite a nice two laned road, with farms and ranches bordering its length as it travels south on the western border of Idaho. I came to Moscow, the home of the University of Idaho and used ID8 road to "cross" the border into Washington:

At this point, all I did was cross over and ride right back into Idaho. I would spend more time on Washington soil later.

Took a while but finally I came to Lewiston, ID where after some convolute turns within the town, I finally found myself heading south along the Snake River on WA12. Before I left Lewiston though, I found this cool old fashioned train bridge which is now an exhibit:

This shot is for you Jack

WA129 is one twisty road! It hugs the mountainsides of the canyons and took me

quite a while to negotiate. A sidecar is not really great for canyon carving, at least, the way

my rig is set up and my limited skills!

Climbing out of a valley which apparently separates the states, I found myself at the border of Oregon

The temperature would cool perceptibly soon after this sign, curious.

One last look at the hilly canyon walls on the Washington side

Did I mention this was a very twisty road?

Once I climbed out of the canyon area on now Oregon State Rd 3, it soon broke into

farming and ranches and then along came these mountains which are near the town of Enterprise, OR

which is near Joseph, OR on which WA82 routes one to the Hells Canyon Overlook

In the time of Joseph, OR, if you blink you'll miss the sign that sends you to the Hells Canyon

Overlook and you end up at the lake that is part of Wallowa Lake State Park. Still, it was a

very scenic park, though it did cost me time to retrace my steps.

Now, in all the turning around and taking of pictures at Enterprise and Joseph, I managed to forget to tank up on gas. So I started on the 37 mile route to the Hells Canyon Overlook with about a half of tank of gas, I wasn't too worried though as I had my spare gas can and figured I'd fill up in the town of Halfway, on the other side of the overlook.

The road to the overlook is one of the most twisting set of curves I've ridden in a very long time. I believe it would give the Tail of the Dragon a run for its money in terms of how many curves are involved. The road is narrow, barely enough for two cars, filled with blind curves due to the thick forest which borders it on both side and many steep drop offs as well. Oh, and to make things interesting, there's potholes and patches of loose gravel here and there to make sure you're paying attention!

Here's Vikki at the Hells Canyon Overlook, frankly I was quite disappointed with the view, I found it "not worthy" of the name "Hells Canyon".

Another 30 miles of only mildly less twisty roads later, I was at the town of Halfway, OR and the light was failing as it was close to 8:30PM by now. Guess what? Turns out in Oregon, one can't fill up their own car with gas, it has to be done by an attendant. The gas station was closed as the town had already rolled up its sidewalks.

I had used up my spare gas can at the Hells Canyon Overlook and now had no spare gas, and about 46 miles to go to the nearest city: Baker City. Damn. The stress level was now on the rise.

Night fell as I rode on OR86, looking in vain for an open gas station in the small towns along the way. It was after 10PM mountain time and I made it into Baker City with the "low fuel" indicator having been blinking at me for the last 20 miles or so. I had all kinds of visions of being stuck in that solitary road, no one in sight, trying to flag someone down for a ride to a gas station, not good.

Even had one close call of riding up on a small deer that had been standing in the middle of the road in the dark....luckily, I saw it in time and braked hard to allow it to scamper off.

Once I filled up, I realized I'd made it to the gas station with less than two tenths of a gallon left in gas.....the motorcycling gods, having first seen fit to teach me a lesson in filling up when possible, had given me a reprieve!

Of course, it was late and once I found the super slab, I have over 120 miles to go to Boise, ID and the motel I'd booked for the night. Damn.

It was a long, long, long and sore from overworked hand and arm muscles from over 18 hours of being in the saddle. Yes, 18 hrs, and 728 miles covered under various stress conditions and overall disappointment over the sights at Hells Canyon.

Oh, and to top it off, as I approached Boise around 12:30 AM, it started to rain and then pea-sized hail started pelting me, forcing me onto the nearest exit from the I-84 slab and under the cover of a gas station's overhang!

Waiting for the rain to stop, caused me to not get to the hotel till about 01:30 AM, eighteen hours from when I'd left the cabin in Montana. What a long day.

I woke at around 07:00 this morning and after retightening the chain on the tug, and lubing it, spent the rest of the day slabbing it on I-84 towards Ogden, UT. I did make a stop at a local motosports dealer to pick up a new chain and had been hoping to pick up the tools needed to install it in Ogden.

In the middle of nowhere

The riding down to Utah was pretty much boring slab riding, nursing my chain by keeping the rig at or below 70MPH, in heat and very very strong headwinds. In fact, the area where the above sign is, has warning signs of dust storms being a regular feature. Very much no fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't get into Ogden till 4:30PM due to a late start of 11:30AM. No one had the tools in stock and no one had time to "fit me in" to have their mechanics do the job. I even tried, at one guy's suggestion, the tool rental shops at the autoparts stores and even Harbor Freight! No luck.

It was a balmy 95°F in the Utah towns I tried to find the tool or mechanical help in, finally gave up and headed towards my hotel in Sandy, UT. As a final gift, the motorcycling gods arranged for two lanes of the I-15 expressway leading towards Salt Lake City to be closed for construction which added to the travel time.

Only 350 miles or so today but it was part of a long set of two days. In the last todays, have covered a bit over 1000 miles, I could have done the base "ironbutt" challenge!

Got another 500+ miles to go to get home tomorrow.