Too windy to ride for long

The weather guessers were wrong with the forecast for today. We were supposed to get from 6-11 inches of snow depending on which guesser you listened to.

We awoke to wet looking streets and a dusting of snow on the grassy areas. Not that I minded of course, as I hoped to ride later in the afternoon.

I left the house around 3:30PM, the sun was shining though it was a mostly cloudy sky. The roads were dry and it was a bit windy in my neighborhood.

As I road out of the neighborhood, northbound on Himalaya Road, the sun went away and it got windier. It was a wind that gusted strongly from the North but it didn't feel too bad.

I headed over to the Plains Conservation Center to see if some interesting cloud formations might be had, nothing. Nothing but stronger winds!

I then foolishly turned East onto Hampden Road and really got slammed as I rode along towards Gun Club road. I was having to steer slightly to the left just to maintain a straight line as the wind tried to push me to the right. Yeah, death grip time.

I made it to the junction with Gun Club Road and thankfully turned South to have the winds at my back. It got real quiet as I rode then, as it usually does when one has the wind at one's back.

The winds were not too bad by the time I turned back West onto Quincy Road and from there to my home neighborhood roads. There were moments when frozen ice particles blew about the pavement like little wind dervishes.....of course by the time I stopped and got the camera, they were gone.


The above shows the stats for the nearest weather station for the stretch of Hampden road from the Plains Conservation center to the junction with Gun Club Road.

Only a max of 45 mph in terms of wind as you can see, felt much stronger though when it was hitting me broadside!

Friday Afternoon near Red Rocks Park

I'd managed to rack up enough hours by early this morning, what with all the nighttime changes and long days this week, to take most of today off. Needless to say, I went riding.

The temperatures were in the mid to high 50s when I started out shortly after noon, overcast skies for the most part though there was occasional sunshine here and there. I took the E470/C470 slabs over to the vicinity of Morrison, Colorado. The town lies to the immediate west of the Denver Metro area and southwest of Golden.

Near Morrison itself is Denver's Red Rocks Park. Home to an amphitheater carved out of gigantic red rock formations, and a favorite place for me in terms of posing my motorcycles for pictures. I was riding Maria today, my 2004 R1150RT Beemer. I am currently running some fuel injector cleaner through the next couple of tankfuls to help with the mild surging. The injector cleaner fluid seems to be helping, along with adjusting the pre-load on my rear shock absorber.

Here's a link to the history and geology of Red Rocks: LINK

Anyways, here's some pictures I took of Maria as I slowly rode through Red Rocks Park. Not many cagers visiting and viewing, I even ran into a young fellow on a new Ducati motorcycle.

You can see the park's Trading Post just past the large rock formations

Sorry about the water drops on the lens, I was briefly rained on while in the park and didn't notice it had hit the lens

Built during the Great Depression by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

Once I left Red Rocks Park, I headed to the nearby town of Morrison where I rode about looking for interesting sights. It's a small town, full of tourist traps and restaurants. However, it does have this unique display of a vintage Fire Engine from yesteryear:

I had to shed a layer before I left Morrison as the temperatures were now high 50s to low 60s! I headed South on C-470 until I got to the Wadsworth Boulevard exit. I'd been watching these storm clouds as I rode south and found a good spot near Deer Creek Canyon Road to take this pano shot:

Looks pretty wicked doesn't it? However, it did not last long. It had become nice white fluffy clouds by the time I returned from riding the twisty turns on Deer Creek Canyon Road. Lots of gravel on the road so caution was the word of the day. I took this road all the way to the fire station at Fenders, then took South Turkey Creek Road to what I thought was the really small town of "Lost and Found".

I'd ridden past this "town" many times on my way towards US285 on past rides. Today though, after some googling, I found out it's a Substance Abuse Treatment Facility. Oh well.

I rode back the way I came on S. Turkey Creek Road, back through the twists of Deer Creek Canyon Road and back onto the C-470 slab which I took all the way home. 121 miles in about 4 hours of riding.

Snow storm is forecasted for tonight through tomorrow. Hopefully its not as bad as they're predicting.

A Quick Ride after Work

Today's forecast was for snow, starting to fall on the Denver Metro area by late morning with 1-6 inches of accumulation. I type this at 6PM and there's just now starting to snow, very little accumulation so far but that should change as the evening turns to night and the temperatures plummet.

So, with the above forecast in mind, I wussed out and took the 560SL cage to Denver International Airport where I was to spend the day in meetings and walk-throughs for a project.

Around 4pm, I was done with the work, it was snowing lightly at DIA but not sticking to the pavement yet. I was congratulating myself for having taken the cage as it would have been an "interesting" ride home in that stuff. Mind you, it was doable, just nerve-wracking.

Wouldn't you know though, a few miles outside the airport, the roads were dry and just an occasional snowflake was seen as I drove home! You know where this is going right?

I got home at around 430PM, dashed in to let my loving wife know I was going to get a quick ride in. She looked out the window and said: "you better hurry or you're going to be mad at yourself". What a great wife eh?

Got geared up, took Maria out as the temperatures were in the low to mid 30s with heavily overcast skies. I headed towards Picadilly and Hampden where the Plains Conservation Center is located. Here I posed Maria just inside the facility's main gate:

The skies were ominous looking eh?

I rode out heading east on Hampden Rd, the winds were blowing pretty strongly by now from the North but I had enough time to take this shot of the front range:

Looking west towards the Front Range Mountains

As you can see, the inbound snowstorm completely obscured one's view of the mountains visible from Denver.

I turned south on Gun Club Road which I took back to Quincy Road and my home neighborhoods. As long as I was out, I went to fill up Maria's gas tank so I can add some fuel injector cleaner to her. Got home, still no real snow and still on dry pavement.

Switching to Harley Davidson

OK, I can't take not being part of the "cool" crowd anymore when it comes to motorcycles!

Today I traded in both my Beemers for this cool looking cruiser from Harley Davidson!


As you can see, I got myself some biker leathers, some tattoos for the arms and I'll be putting all my former ATGATT protective gear up on Ebay for disposal.

No more riding hundreds of miles a day, I'll have all the time I need to polish up all the chrome on my hog.

Since there's no need for helmets now, got to blend in you know with the rest of the herd, I can work on my tan, as you can see my face needs a bit of sun. Too much time under a helmet!

My wife was quite shocked when I brought Bertha home, that's what I am calling my Hog but I think she'll get used to the idea.

So? What do you think?

Maybe I'll get one of those cool bandannas that make you look like a skull, that'll complete the look.

Sturgis, here I come! Soon as I find a trailer of course.

Oh, and one more thing....April Fool!