Hail and a Day Ride on Rampart Range Road

 Sunday, June 9

We got a severe thunderstorm warning and shortly afterwards got hit by heavy rain and marble-sized hail (some almost golf ball-sized)!

Buildup from the gutter drain pipe out front

During the peak of the hail storm:

Thing 2's Toyota Pickup Truck got lots of hail damage on its horizontal surfaces.  I'm presently waiting to see how a neighbor's damage survey goes with USAA, an insurance company we both use, to see if I should ask for an inspection as well.

The roof tiles are less than six months old so hoping they withstood the hail's impacts.

Update: July 3.  Roof Inspector checked out our roof and declared it good.  Some minor damage and definitely some dents on the roof vents but nothing to cause me to file an insurance claim!

Wednesday, Jun 12

No chores, so went for a day ride on Scarlett to check out road conditions and campsite availability on Rampart Range Road in the Pike National Forest.  It's about a 2 hour ride each way which highlighted to me how out of shape I've gotten in terms of long hours in the saddle!

Lots of campsites in the Fee Area and also in the dispersed camping area closer to Woodland Park.  Road conditions were dry, a lot of washboard and some gravel in spots.  I did find a couple of new sites and recorded them accordingly on Google Maps.

Some views of Pikes Peak and road conditions:

Topaz Point

As you can see, things clouded up pretty good as the afternoon wore on.  I would end up getting sporadically rained on as I rode home via Colorado Springs and CO Hwy 83.

The winds got really strong and gusty as I neared Parker, CO and it felt like I was getting sand blasted when it picked up the road dirt!

Got home just fine, Scarlett did great and she went over 75,000 km during this ride.  So I changed out her engine, transmission and final drive oils before dinner.  The next day, checked Scarlett's valve clearances - AOK.

Also checked Yagi, TW200's valve clearances, found intake too tight for .003/.004, loosened and adjusted to loose for .003 and very snug for .004.  Exhaust was fine.