Left the house at 0730 and arrived in time for the 0830 weekly breakfast at the Red Rocks Grill in Morrison, CO. This is where the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado, aka the Colorado Beemers, meets every saturday for breakfast and pickup rides. I got there around 0815 and was warmly greeted by the folks already there. Everyone was really friendly and conversation flowed over some good breakfast food. I ended up joining the club at the end of breakfast!
I met Gary who travels to Europe yearly and keeps a motorcycle in Heidelburg to do his touring. I met Gray, the president of the club, quite a funny guy. Another Gary who told me of his experiences with the annual rally on the western side of the state. Tom, ex-marine, who's got a cool looking GS 1150 with an Area51 sticker on it. Mike who works for the state's regulatory office and the final guy at the table was Wayne who'd also done some european traveling and was planning a trip to Rumania!
After breakfast, the 14 or so who'd shown up moved to the sidewalk in front of the restaurant where people continued to chat. One guy even had a rig on the back of his beemer so he could carry his dog around with him! A group of us, five in all, decided to head down to Deckers by way of 285 to 67 and from there head towards Woodland Park where they'd break off for some dirt riding near Westboro. They were all riding GS's with me being the sole RT rider.
Siggy, one of the guys I met during breakfast, who is the Ride Captain, pointed out an older gentleman on an immaculate white 1200GS and said to beware....there was a true rider, very fast, who'd been around the world on that particular motorcycle. Well, let me tell ya, Siggy was not kidding when he said that guy was fast. Holy cow! It took all my skill and concentration to barely keep up with him and his partner all the way to Deckers! We started with five of us and near the end of the ride I noticed we'd lost one, turned out to be the older gentleman's son! Guess he decided to break off earlier on while my concentration was to the front, and trying not to lag too far behind the leaders.
I believe the gentleman's name was Jim, his partner was Terry and one other guy who was also going dirt riding on his GS was Dave. Friendly group of guys and it sure was a "brisk and spirited" ride to the point where we parted ways. Truly do I have much to learn about the twistys at speed. I take solace in that I've only been on a motorcycle for less than a little more six months whereas these guys have been biking for years! Jim told me he'd racked up over 144k miles on his world-traveling GS, his partner Terry told me he'd racked up over 34k miles already for 2006 alone! Wow.
The trio went off to do some dirt riding, I said my goodbyes and kept heading East on 67 to Woodland Park and got on US24 at that point, taking the Garden of the Gods park exit. I cruised around the park for a good hour or so and go the following pics.
Above: My best shot of the day
Balancing Rock
I took a different exit out of the Garden of the Gods and somehow ended up in downtown Colorado City, very quaint and touristy. Once I got my bearings, got on I-25 and headed north and to home. What a day of riding, a total of 211 miles and about 52mpg! I guess the RT loves to be ridden hard and fast! My knees were feeling a bit sore by the end of the riding. I had tried riding with the seat in the middle position and although I am not sure yet, it seemed to help a bit.
Here's the route I rode today:
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