Engine Guards for Brigitta

I had signed up for the Airhead Beemers mailing list shortly after acquiring Brigitta as part of my efforts to learn as much as I could about my new to me airhead. Part of the offerings of the list is listings of stuff for sale or wanted that is sent to all subscribers.

Well, on Friday I spotted this ad from Patrick of Aspen, CO offering up free to a good home several items he did not have a use for that he'd gotten for his own airhead. He's moving and instead of just chucking the parts, he offered them up to the airhead community. One of the items was a set of engine guards/crash guards! The price was right, free! All I had to do was go to Aspen to pick them up as he did not want to hassle with boxing things up and shipping them.

I called Patrick up and he said he'd be back from the Paonia Beemer Rally by 1300 on Sunday and so we made plans to meet.

I left the house around 0915 and arrived at Patrick's place in Aspen, CO by 1250 or so. I took the I-70 super slab out of Denver, then CO 91 down to Leadville and south of there went on CO82 towards Twin Lakes and Independence pass. LINK to last years ride through Independence Pass: LINK

Aspen is not a nice town in terms of traffic control it seems, obeying stop signs is apparently optional and the pedestrians dart out in front on you at will. Oh, and gas prices, holy cow....I paid $5.34/gallon for the premium stuff on the way back, I had tanked up in Centennial for $4.19/gallon at the start of the trip! Wow.

So my GPS got me to Patrick's apartment complex with minor issues. He gave the the engine guards right away and then we whiled away about two hours chatting about his R100 motorcycle, the rally, my Maria which I'd ridden to Aspen, his plans for the future in Trinidad, CO and he imparted some mechanical tips to me. For all this I was very grateful, thanks again Patrick!

Patrick and his R100

Patrick's cool vintage Jeep

The top end of a R100/7, without the tank.

ATE Brakes, less effective than later Brembo's

It was a long ride back to my house so I had to leave what had been a rather enjoyable conversation with Patrick. I headed out of Aspen, and saw this on the way back up to Independence Pass which I had traversed earlier in the day on the way to Aspen:

Looking back towards Aspen

Oh yeah, that's rain

I put on my rain jacket but elected to forego the pants, I should have put them on as the rest of the trip I got to enjoy the feel of wet underwear. My cycleport jacket and pants are very well vented and of course that means water comes through just fine. Oh well.

It rained on me and a whole bunch of cagers as we slowly snaked our way to and through Independence Pass. The lightning bolts I saw lit up the mountainsides and the ensuing thunder echoed impressively amongst the mountain peaks. The rain was not too bad, and road conditions were fine though I did keep a close eye on the thermometer! The coldest it got was at the top of the pass, 48 degrees farenheit. It would slowly increase as I neared the front range to 88 degrees. Quite a temperature differential eh? Never did get the shivers but I will admit to turning on the heated grips on Maria on the "low" setting.

I elected to forego the I-70 super slab on the way back and instead went by way of Buena Vista on US24 and from there caught the US285 highway back towards Denver. Traffic was heavy and passing cars did not really help much as there was always yet another slow moving clump a mile down the road. I got home shortly after 1900 hrs an I was tired!

Here's the object of todays' almost 400 miles of riding:


I am going to have to clean them up and get them repainted again but hey, the price was right. Got a long ride in on Maria, engine guards for Brigitta and crossed the continental divide three times today, not too bad of a riding day.