Last Snowy Ride of the Year for Scarlett

We finally got some snow today!  Not much but enough to ride out with Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol sidecar rig.

I went back to the Rocking Horse Neighborhood that I had ridden to on Thursday to show you the difference a little snow makes.

As you can see, very little snow in my area and it was mostly gone by Noon.  I headed out in 18° F temperatures which soared to 24° by the time I made it back home.

Almost didn't make it back home, I had been finding it hard to shift gears on Scarlett during the latter half of the ride.  Didn't want to stop and check out in the cold so I rode home thinking I'd have to adjust the clutch cable.

Well, it was a bit more than that...

There was but one strand left intact on the end that goes into the clutch lever!

No problem I said to myself, I've got a spare cable!  Well, it turned out to be not the right cable.  It was close, damn close, but the protective sheathing/ housing for the wire was 1.5" too long and wouldn't fit.  Tried for hours till I realized this and gave up.

Monday, December 29

I went to Golden Colorado to have lunch with fellow Uralisti Dan K. And John (spat) S.  Dan had a spare clutch cable from a 2003 Ural Solo that he bought a while ago in the hopes of rebuilding the engine. He said now that he's retired he might actually have time to do it! 

John S. was the only one who rode in the brisk temperatures we had today.

Lunch was at Woody's Pizza and the food and conversation went great.  A neighbor friend of John, Guy, joined us as well.

Once I got back from Golden, it was less than an hour before I had the correct clutch cable installed and all was good after a short test ride!  Though I doubt there will be any before the end of the year, Scarlett will be ready.

Presently toying with the idea of buying a clutch cable repair kit to fix the old cable, we'll see.  If anyone can recommend one, I'm open to suggestions!  A new cable is around $55 before shipping!

In the meantime, I found this on Amazon....might try it on the old cable And carry it for emergency use when on the road :

https://amzn.to/4b90cYS

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Usually, I'd post a snowy Christmas Eve series of riding pics featuring my sidecar rig.

Alas, unseasonably warm weather holds Colorado in its thrall this year....though there's still hope for some snowy riding before years end.

So, here's a compilation of snowy December riding, 2006-2023...some years of course are missing as I was in Arizona those Decembers.

Lookout Mountain and Red Rocks rides, 14 Years Apart

Today, I basically replicated a ride I did back on Christmas Eve, 2011.

The weather was radically different from the previous ride, as was the choice of motorcycle.  14 years ago, it was on Yoshi, my Suzuki DL1000 with a sidecar, today it was a vintage BMW R80 Airhead: Brigitta.

Lookout Mountain Road is a steep, windy road rising out from nearby Golden, CO.  At the top is Buffalo Bill's gravesite and museum.  Here's a link for the museum:  LINK.

The weather has been unseasonably warm here in the Stoner State.  The road up to the top wasn't crowded at all, being a weekday.  Turns out, they now close the road at night.  Not sure why or when that started.

Gateway Towers at bottom of Lookout Mountain Road.

Golden with South Tabletop Mesa in background 

Christmas Eve 2011

2011

Yoshi, 2011

Now folks are barred from walking out onto 

the outcropping known as Wildcat Point 

Martha on Wildcat Point 

You can see North and South 

Tabletop Mesas

View from museum parking lot 

As I rode back down the mountain, I stopped at Windy Saddle Park to hike up the 305 steps on the Mount Zion Trail.  The recent flu had robbed me of wind and stamina and it was a bit of a struggle for me to do this little climb!

You can see the top of the tabletop mesas 

from the top of the trail.

Next, as I did 14 years before, it was a ride to the Red Rocks Amphitheatre area.  No snow this time so I didn't get stuck as I did with the sidecar rig back then.

The below pic actually had swarms of parked cars....I edited them out 

There's some kind of drive thru Christmas Lights setup in one of the parking lots.  I'm sure it looks great at night but it looked like crap in the daytime.  I can't even imagine the crowded chaos it must be at night.

Construction work shown above prevented me from accessing the area where I got stuck 14 years ago:

2011

I drove through the town of Morrison and had a near incident with a clueless cager while on the main street.  This was my cue that it was time to go home, all the ass wipes were leaving their late breakfast and desperate for tourist attractions such as Red Rocks 

Made it home with no further issues, a 110 mile roundtrip fore Brigitta, likely closing out the riding for her this year.  She did great.

Finally over "the crud".... I hope

Finally thinking I'm going to survive "the crud".  It was, to me anyways, a severe head cold virus...lots of coughing fits, some fever, nasal drainage and just an all around miserable experience.

It took about 14 days and at the end, some antibiotics to finally enable to sleep through the night (mostly).

There'd be periods, in the latter half of the sickness, where I managed some short rides on both Brigitta, my BMW R80 and Scarlett, my Ural Patrol.  Just local stuff to give them some exercise. No picture opportunities, just me seeing the ever increasing infestation of housing and apartment complexes blotting the landscape.

Lot of house time as you can imagine.  The leak from the master bedroom shower continued to be elusive despite initial success reports.  It would take the complete decaulking and recaulking of the whole shower enclosure to stop the leak.  (So far, anyways).

An investigation into strange noises from the rear of the Honda Ridgeline revealed a failed lock mechanism actuator.  It looks like whoever wired up in the aftermarket Pop&Lock for the tailgate did it incorrectly.  Sure, it worked when the car engine was not running to prove the concept but if you turned the left turn signal while driving, it would also try to unlock the tailgate!  After a while, all that pulsing of the actuator burned it up and caused all the noises we were hearing. 

Along the way, I learned, that Honda had not included a lock for the tailgate.  After all, the pickup portion is open right? Perhaps that is why they incorporated that locking trunk in the bed of the pickup truck? Anyways, I'd never thought about that in terms of pickup trucks since I've never really owned one.

I replace the actuator but could not get the wiring right, so I just gave up on it and disabled the whole thing. If there is stuff to be locked up, it'll go in the trunk or in the passenger compartment. 

All the above chores, were done while I was going through the crud so my patience level and the enjoyment we're not very high as you might imagine. 

Anyways, still alive and feebly kicking.  The weather is supposed to warm into the 60s the next few days so perhaps some more riding before year's end.