Meandering about NW Denver Metro

I was running errands Saturday morning, ended up near downtown Denver with time to kill before I was to meet a friend near Invesco Field at Mile High; home of the Denver Broncos.

It was bright and sunny but with high winds throughout the whole day.  Heck, it was 73°F at around 8:00 AM when I left the house, it would get warmer throughout the day.

I'd meant to drop by VintageMotos to say hi to the guys there but 10:00AM came and went and the door remained locked.  Oh well.  I cruised north until I got to I-70 which I used to rapidly get to Sheridan Boulevard, exiting there and heading south to where I'd seen an eye-catching tower and a wooden roller coaster park.

Now, I am sure, back in the day, that Lakeside Park was quite the attraction.  I am even sure that its claim to having the "Greatest Roller Coaster in North America" might have held true in its heyday.  Nowadays though, the park is bit delapidated looking and I really wonder about "The Cyclone" wooden roller coaster.

The entrance to Lakeside Park, it must be quite the sight at night with all the lights lit up

I circled the park, which is amidst a pretty worn down neighborhood, and got as close as I could to the roller coaster for some pictures:

The wooden supports for the roller coaster's tracks looked pretty worn out.

I left Lakeside Park, cruising east along side streets, trying to find the route to the large tower one can see while heading west on I-70 and just before Sheridan Boulevard.  I'd been there before on a previous ride but this time I went further into the office complex owned by Qwest and AT&T apparently.

Large panoramic shot of the tower, you cans see it from quite a ways away

I continued cruising the side streets and soon found myself just west of the I-25 slab, working my way southward towards Mile High Stadium.  Traffic was light and the bright sun had folks out walking their pets and riding their bikes.  I was going to Parking Lot M at Mile High Stadium to meet up with Jay, a co-worker, who'd told me of a company called Zero Motorcycles who were letting folks do demo rides on their electric motorcycles.  Watch for an upcoming post on that event.

The wind never did let up, getting quite strong and gusty at times.  It made my front wheel feel a bit wobbly when on the slab running for home.  Made me almost wish that I'd chosen to ride Natasha, my Ural sidecar rig, but the day was just too nice not to have Brigitta with me.

Got home, de-rigged all the cold weather shielding off of Natasha and got her ready for tomorrow's ride.  The DAU (Denver Area Uralisti) ride to admire the vintage motorcycles that will be showing up for Bob Ohman's Old Bike Ride #8.  Watch for that posting as well.

Exploring county roads near Squaw Pass Road

A beautifully sunny but cool Sunday for motorcyclists here in Colorado.  I think I saw the most motorcycles today than I have since the start of Spring.  The weather was truly nice and warm in the front range and cool but not cold up in the mountains.  In other words, perfect for motorcycle riding.  It was a bit sad to see the large numbers of riders out without helmets on though, oh well.

Today the objective was to check out County Road 475 off of Upper Bear Creek Rd to the west of the small mountain town of Evergreen.  I was expecting dirt and mud what with the melting snows and all so I rode Natasha up into the foothills.

I spied this set of rock formations just north of The Fort Restaurant, located near the junction of CO8 and US285.  Though I've never eaten there, its where folks usually take visitors for some western fare and I hear some unusual dishes such as Elk, Buffalo, Bison's Tongue, Rocky Mountain Oysters and Rattlesnake Cake....yum?

On CO8 just north of "The Fort"

By 10:00 AM I was past the gateway town of Morrison and making my way through the curves of Bear Creek Canyon Road.  Traffic was light and the roads were nice and clean.  There remains some sandy gravel on the pavement so it will behoove all two wheeled riders to be careful for the next month or so.  For those folks fortunate enough to be on Urals, no worries of course.  : )

My favorite stopping point on Bear Creek Canyon Rd

I continued on past the small settlements of Idledale and Kittredge where folks seemed to be just relaxing or making their way to and from church.  I was in church, the church of the curvy road and mountain scenery.

Soon I was crossing through Evergreen and going past the lake there.  I turned off onto Upper Bear Creek rd where most everyone else turned right to continue on CO74 towards Bergen Park and points north.  Upper Bear Creek road is, I believe, where the rich people who live near Evergreen, have their mansions.  Lots of fancy gated entrances block the small bridges built over Bear Creek and one can see large and magnificent houses nestled along the rocky canyon walls.

I went past the the turn for County Rd 475, today's objective, to pose Natasha at another favorite spot along Upper Bear Creek Rd.  I was UDF'ed for about five minutes by a bicyclist who said he had a black and smoke colored R90S back at the house.  I asked him why he was on a bicycle instead of riding the Beemer and he said he was trying to keep in shape.  He also mentioned he'd been T-boned twice while riding motorcycles, hard core guy, to be still riding with a fused ankle joint!

On Upper Bear Creek Rd, near the junction of it and CR 475

The bicyclist and his friend said that CR475 was mostly a dirt road, with some pretty tight switchbacks along the way to the top where it junctions with Squaw Pass Rd, aka CO103.  I left them to their riding and I turned back less than a mile to take CR475 upwards.

The road soon turned to dirt, heavily washboarded in some areas but overall not too bad.  It was also mostly dry and gravelly so mud was not an issue.  I made my way past the eight hairpin turns or so and encountered a herd of small deer just munching away at one of the hairpin turns.  The folks around there must feed the darn things because they really showed no real fear of me.  

Making my way slowly past the herd of 8 or so deer, I continued on until finally making it to CO103.  CR475 is also known as Witter Gulch Road by the way.  It comes out on Squaw Pass Rd at the trailhead parking lot where I recently lent a tow cable to a couple of cars to get one of the unstuck.

I turned east on CO103, looking for what I thought would be a return path on CR470 back to Evergreen.  It turned out to be just a muddy and winding dirt road leading past many small mountain homes.  

The snow covered entrance to Bergen Peak Wilderness Area, a promising spot to bring the rest of the DAU

I reached a point where snow remained on the ground and here I stopped for pictures and to talk to a passerby walking his dog:

I was told the road ended just a few more feet past the curve, dead ending at a couple of houses.

So I turned Natasha around, waved goodbye to the man and his dog and made my way back to CO103.  I figured since I was within ten miles of Echo Lake, I might as well ride over there to see how road conditions were.

I saw many motorcycles of different marques going to and from Echo Lake, so you can safely surmise the road conditions are pretty good.  Still a few small patches of ice in the shady areas so keep a good eye on the road.

The nearby snow-covered mountain ranges were quite beautiful today, it looks cold but I was quite comfortable riding with just a wind shirt on top of a t-shirt, with just jeans under my riding gear.  I soon came to Echo Lake, which remains snow-covered and quite the sight with Mount Evans in the background:

 I turned back towards the Echo Lake Lodge and saw, while riding by, that there remains about a foot of snow or so leading past the barriers to CO5 or Mount Evans Road.  Hopefully conditions will be warm enough for the road to be opened all the way to the top.

I retraced my path on CO103 back to its junction with Witter Gulch Rd or CR 475.  I twisted my down down the hairpin turns and damned if I didn't come upon that same herd of deer near some houses about two thirds of the way down.  

Nonchalantly crossing the road, never minding the big black motorcycle coming at it!

This cheeky bastard was less than ten feet away from me when I stopped.  Just looked at me for a while as if expecting me to give him a food handout or something. 

As I did not offer food, they moved away to go crop some guys front lawn.  I continued on, making sure I'd cleared the rest of the herd before I picked up some more speed.  Soon enough I was back on Upper Bear Creek Rd and making way way back through Evergreen, Kittredge and Idledale.  My knees were beginning to feel quite sore with all the "hanging off" I was doing on the curves.  

Once I was past Morrison, it was boring city street driving back towards the home neighborhoods.  I covered about 215 Km today, roughly 129 miles in about six hours in the saddle.  That can be a long day when on a Ural!

Natasha did great, didn't give me a lick of trouble.  Hope you got a ride in today, there really was no excuse if you were in Colorado!

Kerthunk! What the heck was that ?!?

In the riding to and from work since my first DAU Tech Day, I had heard and "felt" a pretty noticeable metallic banging noise.  I always felt it at the forward edge of my seat and it was quite disconcerting as you can imagine.

Each time, I'd pull over and look for loose items directly below the seat area since that's where I'd feel the impact.  Nothing found.  My mind would then race through all the possibilities, usually involving a failing gear train or engine parts slowly tearing the whole thing apart perhaps.

First time, I found the lid to the small ammo can I use as a wiring junction box to be loose, wheeeew I said to myself, it was just the lid bouncing up and down.  (though even then I wondered why I felt the impact under my seat".

Next time I rode Natasha, it happened a couple more times and it was starting to really worry and annoy me.  More close inspection of the area below the seat and behind the engine.  Nothing!  I convinced myself that it was the center stand legs being bounced loose during travel and the return spring on them banging it back onto the motorcycle frame.  To prove the theory, I zip tied the center stand to the frame and went for a test ride, no banging noises! 

The next day, however, proved me wrong.  Natasha exhibited two quick loud mechanical banging noises in a row as I was making a right turn and at the same time I started losing power; I could not go faster than about 35 mph!   I found a place to pull over but no obvious signs of damage once again.  I didn't want to be late for work so I continued on.   Engine performance was OK for a bit but less than 2 minutes later I started losing power again.

I then looked down at the trip meter and realized I had gone over 250km since the last fill up!  Dumb ass, I had forgotten to engage the fuel lever into the Reserve position!  Once that was done, I had good power once again and I pulled into the nearest gas station and filled up.   The good thing was that the loss of power thing was NOT associated with the loud metallic klunking noises!

I sent out a help message to the DAU and responses came quickly back suggesting things to check.  One of them struck a chord with me, when Craig suggest back-tracking on what I'd done during Tech Day.

Once I got home, I started on the front wheel and damn if it did not exhibit a very noticeable metallic rubbing sound when I spun the tire!  I dismounted the tire and was shocked to see one of the brake pads hanging only by one of two tension springs!

 The end of the spring is embedded into the braking material, not resting on top

I know Urals are tough but for the front wheel to be able to roll without noticeable problems and STILL brake is amazing.

Yep, it was the loose brake pad, probably getting moved by forces while I rode that would once in a while get free enough to klunk around inside the wheel hub.  This would cause the loud klunking noise and the it would just settle for a while until next set of right forces got it loose again.  Damn.

I called around the nearby area Ural dealers with no luck.  One didn't return my calls and the other did not have it in stock!  It was a $5 item and my Ural couldn't be ridden safely without it.  Craig, a fellow Uralisti then emails me and says to go down to the BMW dealer and ask for a brake pad spring for a /5 motorcycle!  He'd heard that they worked just fine.

What the heck I said to myself, the Russians copied the Germans as it was back before WWII, it should work.  I called the dealer and had them set aside a spring for a 1975 R75 Airhead Beemer.

I picked up the part after work on Thursday and it was BMW PN 34-21-1-457-091.  It was slightly shorter in length than the Ural OEM spring but it worked just fine.  In a matter of minutes, my front brake assembly was back together, wheel on and mounted securely.  Not only that, but the part was only $3!  Yep, amazingly a BMW part was cheaper than a URAL part.

I rode to work yesterday, Friday, and no loud metallic klunking sounds!  I was a happy Uralist once again.  My thanks my fellow members of the DAU who offered advice and suggestions.  Big thanks to Craig for getting me to retrace my steps and mentioning the bit about a BMW /5's motorcycle's spring working as well for the Ural!

Today was maintenance day again for Natasha.  She's a bit over 19,000 Km's, so I changed out her oil filter and engine oil, gearbox oil and final drive oil.  About an hour's worth of work.  Then I placed 2 ounces of Dynabeads in each of her new tires to balance them out and hopefully get them to wear evenly.  I must say, it was easier to put the dynabeads into the new inner tubes than the Russian one that came with the Uralshina tire on the front wheel!

Later on in the afternoon, I had an eye appointment for computer reading glasses.  Afterward, I headed to nearby culdesac hill (that's my name for it anyways).  There were tornado warnings to the east of us and there were some interesting cloud formations in our vicinity.

The ground conditions were good, not muddy at all off pavement, so I was able to ride Natasha up a very small hill nearby to pose her thus:

Natasha out in the wilds of Arapahoe County's suburbia

A song about Uraling....

And now a brief musical interlude featuring Austin Vince's ditty about Uraling on America's roads: