Short ride near Elkhorn Ranch

To the east of where I live, there are rolling, windswept grassy plains which pretty much describes eastern Colorado's terrain features.

Straight county roads, allow one to ride along with minimal steering attention required, and allow one's mind to unwind from the weekly issues.  Nothing to think about but the purring of one's motorcycle engine, feeling the wind hitting you gently and enjoying the smoothness of the road.

I saw a sign for a housing development called Elkhorn Ranch and turned onto the paved road leading into it in a winding manner which motorcyclists find attractive.

The houses are of the McMansion size and the signs said they came with five acres of land.  No trees mind you as these are the eastern plains but if windswept grassy plains are your thing, you should check it out.

I wandered about, letting the road take me where it would, just enjoying the views of the distant front range mountains and the warm temperatures brought along by the gentle winds.   I spotted a grove of trees at one point which were in the process of changing into their fall colors and stopped Brigitta for pictures.

I am on call for work this weekend, so this was a short ride.  Too soon, I was back home.  Hopefully, I'll be able to arrange for a co-worker to "cover for me" tomorrow for a longer ride.

The Switzerland Trail and Fall Colors on the Peak to Peak Highway

Earlier this week, fellow Uralista John S has suggested we take a ride on Switzerland Trail.  It used to be the roadbed for a narrow gauge railroad line, which went through several owners before "progress" made it obsolete.  Please follow the link for more information: LINK

Image Source: LINK

Original photo: WH Jackson

I left the house by 9:00 AM and by 10:30 I was cruising slowly through the historic town of Gold Hill, near the city of Boulder.  You get to the town by way of Four Mile Canyon and turn off on Gold Hill Road to access this old but yet populated town.

A nice view of cloud-topped Sugar Loaf Mountain and

the Flat Irons near Boulder

I rode out of town, heading west looking for the turnoff to the Switzerland Trail.  The fall colors, though not as amazing as the stuff I saw when riding Independence Pass, still showed itself in spots:

Just west of the town of Gold Hill, on Gold Hill Road

After a few miles, I was at the turnoff for the Switzerland Trail.  It looked a bit ominous with snow covering its surface but I saw tire tracks on it so figured if a car could go across, so could my rig!

Less than 1 mile into the trail, the car tracks stopped at this 

muddy clearing. 

I will admit, once I saw the car tracks dissapear, there was some "trepidation" on my part as to continuing onwards without a Uralista or two going along for "backup".  I decided to chance it and motored on.

 There were some iffy moments but traversing the snow-covered

portions of the trail proved quite doable so long as one didn't "gun" 

the engine too much or lose forward momentum.

There were several views such as the one above that almost made up

for the fish-tailing moments on snow when the rear tire on

the tug would break loose and swing left.

I had thought, at the start of this trail, that it would junction with CO72, the Peak to Peak Highway and not force me to backtrack.  Well, this was not to be as you can see in the video.  I hit a dead-end and the only other path was up a very steep hill with an outlet in doubt even if I got up to the top.

So, I ended up backtracking the way I came.  Made it through with no incident as you can see in the video and I continued on Gold Hill Road.  I detoured onto Sawmill Road hoping to see Forest Road 461 junction with it, proving to me there'd been a way through on Switzerland Trail  No such luck, but the road did deliver me to Left Hand Canyon Road:

Sawmill Road, overlooking the paved Left Hand Canyon Road

I rode northwards on Left Hand Canyon Road until it delivered me into the small mountain town of Ward and its junction with CO Highway 72, aka the Peak to Peak Highway.

I rode north from Ward on CO Highway 72, heading towards Raymond hoping for a shot of distant snow-covered mountain peaks.  Heavy overcast skies and low hanging clouds would preclude such desired shots, and this was as close as I got to one:

 Heading north on CO72, somewhere between Ward and Raymond

I rode until I got to the hairpin turn area near Peaceful Valley, turning around at the large rock formation just north of the Peaceful Valley Ranch.  A quick consult of the map led me to turn Yoshie around and head instead south towards the town of Nederland.

Rock formation near Peaceful Valley Ranch

On the way south towards Nederland, I spied a nice photo op location for Yoshie, and got her turned around and posed:

 The large S turn near Peaceful Valley Ranch

My favorite shot of the day, my camera does not do justice

to the Fall Colors in the trees down in the valley.  I

also liked the "threatening" look in the clouds above.

I continued riding on CO72 towards Nederland, every once in a while spotting a small clump of Fall Color among the dense green pine tree growth on both sides of the highway:

Fall Colors along the Peak to Peak Highway

The rest of the ride was pretty unremarkable, not too chilly but I was ready to head back down into the warmer Front Range area.  I must have seen a handful of motorcyclists enjoying the views with me in the mountains.  There were more riders in the metro area of course, out enjoying a warmish day before the next snow storm I guess.

I got home around 3:30 PM, and happy once more to report Yoshie and her drive chain did just fine.  Highway speeds, dirt roads, canyon twists and turns, and it was all good.

Early Snow

We, in my experience, here in the Denver Metro Area, don't usually get our first snow fall till about the third week in October.

Today we woke to rain which turned to wet snow.  It was melting almost immediately as it hit the streets of my neighborhood but in areas with heavier snow fall, it was collecting on the road, as slush.

Needless to say, I rode out on Yoshie, my Suzuki V-Strom/Dauntless Sidecar Rig to see how she'd do in the stuff!

I layered up and rode into pretty heavy snow falling, it was melting fast but still caused me vision issues as I'd forgotten to swap in my visor with the fog shield.

Still, quite the enjoyable ride.  I got onto Quincy Road and rode it out east to the road which leads one to the Youth Correctional Facility.

As you can see, not much accumulation so not much of a test of the tires and the rig itself.  I am hoping more snow will come throughout the day and actually build up as snow, not slush.

I now have the fogshield visor on my helmet, a fresh coat of pledge on the outside of said visor.  My cold weather gloves are drying and it's 34°F outside.  Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Aligning a Sidecar

I've done my share of research on the proper way to mate and then align a sidecar onto one's tug.  Today though I found a video link on advrider.com produced by adventuresidecar.  They're a training outfit in Oregon who provide training and tours for sidecar riders.

I'd recently replaced my sidecar tire with a slightly thinner Kinsho 705 110/80R19 tire.  The OEM one has been a Shinko Tourmaster 110/90R19.

After viewing the video this evening, I re-measured my sidecar's lean-out and toe-in again and found that my lean-in was fine but my toe-in was too much!  Figure some error on my part last time I did things and a thinner tire and I was at 1.5" toe-in.  Too much, the guideline is 1/2 to 5/8 inch toe-in.

12 turns out later on the front lower A-arm support and I got it down to 5/8" toe-in as recommended.  A short test drive later, she felt great in terms of handling and I think there was less effort in terms of keeping her going straight when at speeds above 60 mph.  Before, I would have to push slightly to compensate for what I thought was wind drag on the sidecar, now am pretty sure the toe-in was "off".

We'll see, need to give it some time to ride some more, get some extended time at the controls, and check the wear pattern on the tires.  I recently also had to "adjust" the new chain by turning the tensioner screws out by 1/2 turn as the chain has loosened a "tad".  Hopefully, that's the last adjustment for a long while.  I am thinking this is the "initial stretch" new chains go through when first installed.

Anyways, here's the video from adventure sidecar that I found so helpful, it sure explains how to do the alignment in an easy manner.

Sidecar Alignment from Adventure Sidecar on Vimeo.

I hope fellow sidecarists find the above video as helpful as I did.  Check your alignment!