Cold and Twisty Riding with Fellow Uralisti

Ah, riding on the 13th in 2013, starting in sub-zero temperatures and ending in the single digits by 12:30, talk about tempting the motorcycling gods.  We rode up and down mountain trails and roads, the roads were sometimes covered in snow and ice, sometimes clear, sometimes we raised a dust storm while snow flakes fell, winding our way through steep hairpin turns and steep uphill climbs and seemingly steeper descents.  In other words, a great day of riding, in spite of a slight "sidecar bender" between my rig and Darrell's.

We all met up around 8:00AM at the Red Rocks Grill in the small town of Morrison, CO.  Temperatures were below zero throughout the front range and all six riders who showed up for breakfast commented on the cold.

Breakfast was leisurely and we didn't manage to leave till around 9:40AM.  John S. aka Spat, had been the last Uralista to arrive and he had stuff to do so he didn't join us for the day's riding.

John S. aka Spat and his very clean Arctic White Patrol

Getting ready for riding after breakfast.

The "ride captain" today was Dan K, from Blackhawk.  He'd proposed the route and knew it well.  We would end up covering roads I'd not ridden on before so it was all good.  He took us through some back roads that spanned a big part of the front range between Morrison and Boulder and we avoided a lot of the main roads which was good as road conditions at times could be iffy.

Here's our route today: Link to Google Maps

It never got above 5°F during the entire morning as we rode from Morrison to Boulder.  All the rigs did great up the steep inclines we encountered and even the heavy gravel concentrations didn't cause more than the slight "wake up" call when one of us would have a front or back wheel slide due to injudicious braking or downshifting.

Now, as to the minor "fender bender".  At the junction of Gap Road and CO Highway 72.  Darrell was riding sweep with me in the #4 position.  The first three rigs moved out from the stop sign and as I started to accelerate into the left turn to join them.  As I was starting out, I spotted a white car coming from the right where there was a blind curve!  No way I had the clearance so I stopped, Darrell who was behind me, saw the car as well and  made to stop but he didn't realized that I'd stopped.  He spotted me too late and I believe he slid into me at less than 5MPH so both our rigs' sidecars sustained some damage.

No harm to either of us personally, no foul.  A brief inspection was made and we believe the damage can be pounded out (mostly).  The problem will be, in both our cases, getting the right paint to match up once we got the metal more or less back in its original shape.

Dan K. had circled back to find out what had happened to us and all three of use rejoined up with Tim L. and Jay M. further up the road.  We all motored on, once more following Dan K. to even more twisty and climbing gulch roads with equally plunging downhill portions.  We ended up near the top of Flagstaff Mountain near Boulder, the descent of which had to be done slowly and carefully due to snow and icy conditions on the road.

Although it had felt like we'd been riding for hours and hours, it was only about 2.5 hours of riding that took us from Morrison to Boulder!  We were all ready for some warmth and a meal once we got to Boulder and Dan led us to a nearby Denny's.

From left to right:

Dan K., Tim L., Darrell S. and Jay M.

After lunch at Denny's in Boulder.

We all split up, going our separate ways after a brief lunch.  Darrell and I stopped by the Harbor Freight store on Sheridan Blvd on the way home and he bought a set of dent repair tools.  I'll be using it first and then he'll use the tools to fix his sidecar's nose.  After the purchase, we went our separate ways, he back to Northglenn and I went back to Centennial.

Good day of riding, the accident was the only slight mar to the whole day.  Everyone survived the cold conditions plus the challenging terrain and made it home safe.  A good day's ride overall!

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