Scouting Ride for Fall Colors

In order to give Brigitta, my '87 BMW R80 Airhead Beemer some exercise and also check out the conditions for Fall Colors in the DTC and South Denver area, we rode out a bit after 9AM into some cool and sunny riding conditions.

Fall riding can be quite nice, it's not hot, it's not cold and when the sun is out, it's almost as great as riding in snowy conditions with the sun out.

The leaves on the deciduous trees are starting to turn with the incoming Fall weather but they weren't quite there yet for pictures.  The peak should happen in the next week or so I think.

Here's a couple of pics of the entrance to Westlands Park in the DTC (Denver Tech Center).

 That's Mount Evans in the distance.

About 55 miles of city driving, and only one dumb cager not paying attention to her lane positioning.

Got home before lunch, hopefully we'll have better Fall coloring by next weekend.

Scarlett has two new shoes.

Spent the morning replacing the worn out tire on the sidecar wheel with a new Heidenau K37.  Got a total of 10,949 Km on that tire, not too shabby since it did both SC duty and Pusher duty.

The old pusher tire still has some "meat" left on it so I'll keep it as the standby spare as I am not going to replace the new Duro 308 that's presently on the spare wheel today.

Replaced both pusher and SC tires at mileage: 25433.

Front tire still has over 1/4 thread on it, will leave it for now as it's not really great for traction as opposed to the pusher and SC tires when on slippery stuff like snow and such.

Couple of fellow Uralisti came by to kibitz, get a part that I no longer need and to borrow the use of the Harmonizer to check the balance of his M70's carburetors.  They were a tad "off" at idle but still within specs, he also borrowed the use of my timing light to check his timing, which was spot on.

Done by noon, would have been done sooner but there was a bit of BS'ing done while Steffen and Dan were around.  Go figure.  :)

Winter is Coming, Scarlett is ready.

Measuring the temperature on Scarlett's heads.

Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar, has what is commonly referred to as a Boxer engine.  The formal description is "Horizontally Opposed Pistons Engine" I believe.

These pistons, function inside what is known as the cylinder heads, or "heads" for short.

During the last long set of riding days down in southwest Colorado for the Fall Colors, there had been a time or two where I'd smelled the distinctive smell of burnt engine oil.  Usually that's either a sign of leaking oil falling on some hot surface or an engine that's running hot.

I recalled seeing a set of engine heat sensor gauges on a fellow Uralista's rig during the last group ride.  Tim L. had installed digital sensors from TTO which used as a sensing device a brass ring which is mounted under the spark plug used in each engine cylinder head.

The price was right, less than $40 each and I got two of them yesterday from Amazon.  Installation was easy and the only real complaint so far is the length of the wiring is a bit short, forcing one to use the leg shields as a mounting point, and not the handlebar.

 Left cylinder's sensor, mounted near top edge of leg guard
LINK to product on Amazon

 My view of the sensors while riding.

 views of the sensor cable at each spark plug

As I had already suspected from comparison to other thermometer readings I'd seen while riding, the aquarium thermometer I use to measure ambient temperature on my handlebar reads two degrees warmer than actual air temperature:

Tim L. reports his cylinder heads run in the 300s Farenheit when riding, I'll be tracking my own to see how hot the heads on an EFI rig run.

Once I have a baseline, I'll be in a better position to judge whether the engine might be overheating on the hotter days of riding.

First ride with sensors: Ambient temp 54F, heads ran in the 330s Farenheit.  High was 369F on left head and 368F on right head.

Uraling along Squaw Pass Road

Another beautiful and warm Fall day here in Colorado.

Scarlett, my 2014 URAL Patrol Sidecar rig and I rode out of our home neighborhoods shortly before 9:00 and spend the next hour or so dodging church-goer traffic frantic to make what I must assume was the 9 O'Clock show at their church.

Once free of the metro area, I headed west into the foothills using Bear Creek Canyon Road out of Morrison, winding and climbing my way past the little mountain towns of Idledale, Kittredge (where I spotted a URAL rib parked by a restaurant; turned out to be Steve and his daughter out for breakfast).

After chatting with Steve for a bit, continued motoring on CO74 and ended up at Evergreen where I stayed on CO74 and headed north out of town towards the turn for Squaw Pass Road aka CO 103, the road that leads to CO5, the Mount Evans Road.

Mount Evans has been closed for the season, though I doubt its because of snow, more likely because a date on some bureaucrat's calendar in the CO DOT had been reached.

Very windy today, what Fall Colors I did find will not last much more as the winds had pretty much picked clean the Aspen Trees in the usual spots for pictures.

 Just a few miles west of Echo Lake, a view of the top of 

Mount Evans, snow-free as you can see.

 At the scenic overlook less than a mile from Echo Lake, where

one can "see forever" on a clear day.

Got to Echo Lake and found it swarming with cagers, so elected to not even stop and get a picture of the Mount Evans Peak before making a U-turn and starting back down the way I'd come on Squaw Pass Road.

 There really isn't much fall color left on the Aspens along the road

but here's a spot for you.

I decided to ride down Old Squaw Pass Road for a change, found it to be bordered by many homes now although there were more groupings of Aspen trees to delight the eye with their Fall Colors.

I left Old Squaw Pass road soon after the above pictures, rejoining Squaw Pass Road which I took back to the town of Evergreen and basically retraced my route back towards the Denver Metro area.

Got home safely shortly before 2:00 PM after covering perhaps a bit over 120 miles or 200 Kilometers of rather meandering riding.  It was close to 87F when I got home, a warm day indeed.

The snow, cannot come, soon enough.