New Mirrors and a ride along the South Platte River

So the USPS somehow managed to take six days to move my new clutch lever from Arkansas to Colorado. Once it hit the Aurora, CO facility, I had it delivered to me six hours later! So why did it take six days? Oh well.

I installed it Monday night, that went fine. However, the new mirror mount that is part of the new clutch perch is 10mm and it doesn't work with my existing mirrors! Arrrgggh.

Much trial and error, couldn't get the existing mirrors or the old POS ones to work. Sigh.

Tuesday morning I headed to the motorcycle accessory shop and tried to find an adapter. Nope, nada.

So I ended up with two new $12 EMGO mirrors, plus two $7 handlebar brackets for them. Mounted them in the parking lot and I could see behind me again! Very unnerving, riding without being able to see behind you.

That little chore done, it was time to continue giving the new clutch lever/perch a workout. I headed south on Broadway from the store, and then headed west on E-470 to the Wadsworth Blvd exit. Soon I was riding on Deer Creek Canyon Rd and the clutch lever action was doing fine and I was getting used to it. I'll apologize now for the quality of the pictures, managed to forget my camera and I had to make do with my 1.3 megapixel camera in my cellphone.

On Deer Creek Canyon Road, as you can see, roads were clear

A view of the curves on Pleasant Park Road on the way to Conifer

I used Pleasant Park Rd from Deer Creek Canyon and soon was in the outskirts of the town of Conifer where I tanked up. A short spring on south US285 to the next exit and I was at the northern end of Foxton Road.

Landmark Barn at the northern end of Foxton Road

A stop to get a picture of the red star on this barn, this is along Foxton Road

The pavement was mostly clear on Foxton Road, just a lot of sand and gravel. I got to where it becomes dirt and turned left onto South Platte River Road.

Near the junction of S. Platte River Rd and Foxton Road, lots of ice on the river

All these times I must have ridden right past this stone monument, first time I saw it was Tuesday...must be because the brush is all gone this time of year.

Rock Domes along the river

What remains of the South Platte Hotel

Natasha on the small bridge over the S. Platte River, near the South Platte Hotel

The boulders in the river, they're always there for a photo op

Going up the 15% grade dirt road on County Rd 67 towards Sedalia

Made a foray into Rampart Range Rd, but found it closed to vehicles. In a nearby parking lot there were several trucks with trailers carrying ATVs there, some curious looks were sent my way.

A snow covered valley and treeline as one rides on CO67 towards Sedalia

Not much else to report or picture once I left the area of Rampart Range Road. I got to Sedalia without incident and took US85 south towards Castle Rock. The usual roads to the town of Parker and from there it was a straight shot home going north on Parker Rd.

About 90 miles of riding today under overcast skies and temperatures in the mid-40s. Natasha did pretty good though I noticed late in the ride that the brake lever at the handlebar was not activating the brake lights when engaged. The rear brake was doing fine so no danger. Turns out I managed to knock a wire loose while mounting the new bracket for the right hand side mirror.

Got home, finally got around to adjusting the idle so it would not idle in the 1800 rpm range when the engine was hot. Fixed the brake light circuit and moved the brake lever a bit outward to make the right mirror stick out further.

I checked the idle again by firing up the engine and it would not stay running! I thought moving the brake lever had somehow upset the idle setting on the cables but it was me forgetting to put the plugs back onto the vacuum fittings on the carburetors. So I dinked with the throttle screws stupidly and I had to redo the idle settings again once I realized my mistake. Sigh.