Archive for the ‘Colorado motorcycle rides’ Category

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This Is Not Where I Was Going

Monday, December 15th, 2025

Blue sky, sunny day–a great day for a December ride.

Have you ever started out heading to a particular place and found yourself somewhere else, asking, “How the heck did I get here?”

That was me on Sunday.

Sunday was sunny and warm and there was no way I was not going out on the V-Strom. A lot of other people had the same idea. I saw you out there.

I was very uncertain which way to go other than I clearly was not heading into the hills. That’s over for this season.

So I concocted a route, a pretty standard route. I would go out Parker Road to Parker and the go west on Main Street. At Motsenbacher Road I would go south and follow it to Crowfoot Valley Road, to Castle Rock, and then get on US 85 (Santa Fe) going north until I reached Sedalia. Then some route home. Simple.

Except one thing. As many times as I’ve been on the Crowfoot Valley Road I still have trouble finding it on the Parker end. It’s easy on the Castle Rock end but trickier up in Parker. But I figured now I had finally got it clear in my head.

I did what I planned. I got to Parker, turned onto Main Street, and then turned south on Motsenbacher. Nothing to it.

But then Motsenbacher ran out at a T intersection at Todd Drive, a street I was not familiar with. I took the turn to the west and soon ended up on Jordan Road. Fine. I turned south again on Jordan Road.

And then Jordan ended at a T with Hess Road. I turned west again and found myself a bit later at Hess Road and I-25. What?

It’s only now, looking at the map, that I see where I went wrong. I knew I wanted Motsenbacher but that road is one of those that stops and then picks up again later. I needed to pick it up further south than Main Street. If I had it would have simply flowed into and become Crowfoot Valley Road. Or I could have gone east on Hess and gotten back to Motsenbacher that way.

Anyway, no matter. Once I got to I-25 I crossed it and was on Castle Pines Parkway, which I followed to Daniels Park, then I turned north to home. It was a really nice ride.

There’s a quote I’ve seen, I believe it’s from The Lord of the Rings, that says “All who wander are not lost.” Nope. But sometimes they’re sure as heck turned around.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is an art; every twist and turn is a brushstroke.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

Ride Before The Snow Falls

Thursday, December 4th, 2025

If I had waited a day this is what I would have been faced with.

Tuesday was sunny and nice. Snow was forecast for Wednesday. It’s a new month: December. With the stage set like that how could I not go for a ride. The only gear I didn’t wear was my heated gloves. I figured my fingers might get chilly but they’d be OK.

I had no idea where I was going. I headed south to start with and got to where I thought I might go east but didn’t. On further south and I got to Arapahoe Road. Here I turned east. Going west is out of the question now till next spring, except if I just want to stay in town.

I knew I had been out as far east on Arapahoe as you can go but I didn’t remember where it ends up. Guess I’ll find out again and decide where to go after that when I get there. So. Cross Parker Road, on past E-470, and then I remembered this was going to bring me up onto Smoky Hill Road. OK.

When I left home the thermometer out front, in the sun, had read 60. The one in back, in the shade, had read 50. That’s a fair representation of how much effect sunshine offers. And it was sunny when I left. By the time I reached Smoky Hill Road the sky had totally changed. It was fully clouded over and not a bit of blue sky to be seen. And the temperature had dropped. OK, I had never expected to take a long ride and this seemed like good spot to turn toward home.

As I’ve been out riding lately I have noticed again and again road work aimed at installing medians on major streets. I had just gone past some on Arapahoe Road but now, heading west on Smoky Hill Road I saw some of the strangest medians I’ve ever seen. Usually they put in planters and vegetation or else just some smooth concrete or concrete stamped to look like brick. Not on Smoky Hill.

In these new medians they’re putting in it is all rough, sharp, loose rock. Sharp, jagged rock about the size of a football and just spread out thickly on the dirt. This is the kind of thing that would eat your tires almost instantly. Nobody is going to willingly drive onto these medians. But I bet this is a heck of a lot cheaper than even the simplest concrete. Is that all it is, a cost-saving matter? It’s definitely not aesthetically pleasing.

Anyway, I got home and was not too chilled and I had gotten my December ride in, in case the bad weather persists. Not a day too soon.

Biker Quote for Today

Make noise with your Harley Davidson bike and work in silence to achieve it.

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First Cold Ride Of The Season

Monday, November 24th, 2025

Not the nicest day to ride but a good day on the bike just the same.

I wanted to ride Sunday but by the time I got stuff done that needed doing I had missed the window of warmth. The sky had clouded over and the temperature was dropping. So I got on the V-Strom and headed out. I’m no fair-weather rider.

I didn’t turn on the electric vest immediately but by the time I’d gone about two miles I did. Yep, gonna be a chilly one. Hope I don’t regret not having my heated gloves.

I had no idea where I was going. I’ve been heading to the hills as often as I could knowing the weather had to change soon, but this day the clouds over the mountains were looking threatening and I figured that was not a good idea. Instead of west I went south.

I still had no idea where I was going, though. On an impulse, I turned east on Belleview, through the south end of Cherry Creek State Park and it bends south to become Peoria. I went around Centennial Airport and to regain Peoria but hadn’t gone far when I concluded that yeah, it’s darn chilly. Maybe I don’t want to go too far from home. I turned west on Liberty Boulevard, which runs around the south end of the airport and over into the Inverness area.

Stopping to get a quick photo with the airport and mountains in the background I did see the only other biker I would see on this day.

Inverness Parkway took me north to County Line Road and I went west on County Line. Just because I didn’t want to get much further from home didn’t mean I wanted to head home. By now I was used to the cold and finding it brisk but pleasant. Thank you to the electric vest for that. Without it I would have been pretty uncomfortable.

I followed County Line all the way to Broadway and then turned north. What a lot of construction there is at the moment on County Line Road. I guess they’re expanding from two lanes to four in a long stretch of it. That’s probably overdue. Then going north on Broadway I hit a bunch more construction. These guys must be rushing to finish the work before bad weather sets in.

From Broadway I turned east on Belleview and headed back home. Not the longest or most scenic ride ever but it was good to be out on the bike for about an hour and a half. I still have a lot of making up to do from having missed the whole summer and I want to get out as much as I can, even when the weather is not the best. Sunday was one of those days.

Biker Quote for Today

The road is my stage, and my bike is my dance partner.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

Last 2025 Ride In The Hills?

Monday, November 17th, 2025

One of the many rock formations along South Valley Road.

With a near-record high temperature and forecasts for snow–finally–in just a couple days I wanted to get into the hills for perhaps the last time this year. And gosh, I never have to decide what bike to ride anymore, it’s always the V-Strom.

The quickest, most direct route is to get on Hampden (also known as US 285) just a couple blocks north of home and heat straight west. But I’ve been that route a thousand times so I often look for something else. I didn’t really know just where I was headed so I went south on Yosemite to Arapahoe and then west. Yeah, I’ve been that route plenty, too, but not as much as Hampden. Then Arapahoe ends at Broadway so I turned south on Broadway.

My thought was to get onto C-470 and go west but when I got to Mineral I realized that if I have ever been on that particular stretch of Mineral it was only once and I have forgotten it. So great! A new road to ride. And no, it did not look at all familiar. With a metropolitan area as large as Denver’s, you can be surprised to find how many roads you’ve never been on. You get to explore in town.

I got past Santa Fe and crossed the Platte and it was all undeveloped and really pretty. I guess this must be floodplain and will never get built on. We can hope. By the time I reached Kipling I was back on a portion of Mineral I have been on. I pushed on west all the way over to C-470 as it comes north now and expected to have to take it north or south but found that Mineral feeds directly into the mouth of a small canyon. Great, I’ll keep going.

Then I recognized it. This is part of Ken Caryl Ranch and we have family living out here. I took the road going south a little past C-470–South Valley Road–and realized I had accidentally done a great job of navigating. As I had been cruising along Mineral I had figured out a tentative route and that included going up Deer Creek Canyon Road. Well, South Valley Road goes south through a beautiful valley with lots of gorgeous rock formations and open space and meets up with Deer Creek Canyon Road. Couldn’t have done better if I’d planned it that way.

I turned up Deer Creek Canyon Road and a lot of other bikers had chosen this same road. No matter whether they were going the same direction I was or the other direction, they all blasted past me. I was just not in a hurry. I was interested in savoring this gorgeous day. Unlike when I’d been up this way last week, this time I did not take the turn onto South Deer Creek Road but kept going on Deer Creek Canyon Road up and over the top and down to South Turkey Creek Road. I went east a short distance till I made the turn onto North Turkey Creek Road, headed toward Evergreen.

Then again, unlike my other ride last week, I did not turn up High Drive but stayed on the Turkey Creek road, all the way up to CR 73, which runs between Conifer and Evergreen. At this point in the day, deep in the canyon there were a lot of places with bright sunshine followed by deep shade. You can’t see a thing in the shaded area so as you approach it you hope there is no sharp turn as soon as you get into what you cannot now see. On top of that, on the right-handers there is a lot of gravel thrown up onto the road by cars that cut the corner a bit too tight. So the real nightmare is plunging into the shadows and finding yourself faced with a sharp right turn and a lot of gravel on the road.

Fortunately that was not the case usually but in at least one spot that was exactly what I encountered, and this particular spot had more gravel than any other place I saw. It’s times like that when you really ought to be taking it easy. I was, but boy did I see a lot of guys–on sportbikes mostly–who were riding pretty aggressively. Not for me, thanks.

So I made it on up to Evergreen and turned down Bear Creek Canyon to Morrison. Then I cut over to US 285 and turned east for home. Wow, did I have a nice ride! And now the weather is already turning colder and we’ll see if this snow arrives as predicted.

Biker Quote for Today

Bikers don’t follow the crowd; they make their own path.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | No Comments »

What’s Bugging Me

Thursday, November 6th, 2025

I mentioned that we are looking at our latest first snow of the season ever–sooner or later–and here is an indication of what it’s like. I went riding Tuesday, November 4, starting out with a clean visor. By the time I got home I needed to clean the visor because it was all smeared with bug guts. That’s right. I hit not one but a whole bunch of bugs . . . in November. And the biggest and fattest one was less than a mile from the highest point I got to on this ride. Crazy.

 No sun to stop in in Clear Creek Canyon, the walls are too  steep.

Tuesday was supposed to be quite warm but cloudy, while Wednesday was to be a bit cooler but sunny and clear. I figured Wednesday might be the better day to ride but when my Tuesday appointment got canceled I figured I might as well ride both days. So I set out and got about half a block when I realized I had intended to clean my visor. Oh well, I’ll do that some time when I stop. But then I realized I also had intended to check my air pressure. Fine, I was just half a block from home, I turned around.

I definitely needed air, as I was sure I would, and it was nice to have a clean visor. Because I was heading straight on into the mountains, I blasted west on Hampden/US 285, and went up past the Tiny Town exit to the North Turkey Creek Road turn-off. The idea was to complete the ride I started the day before, the route I plan to lead an RMMRC ride on.

Only a short way up Turkey Creek I came to High Drive and made the right. With some very tight turns on the way up (10 mph recommended), this road goes up into an area of woods, lined with houses, many quite large. The road goes up and over and then comes down just outside of Evergreen, where it meets CR 73 coming up from Conifer. It was great. From the moment I got off US 285 till the time I came down into Evergreen I never had a single other vehicle in front or in back of me. And just a few going the other direction. Nice, leisurely riding.

So that completed my planned route, except that I’m figuring to take the group down from Evergreen to a restaurant in Kittredge for lunch. But I didn’t want to go that way this day so I hooked a left and took Evergreen Parkway over to Bergen Park and then went left on CR 45, which brings you out to I-70 up near the top of Floyd Hill. I didn’t want to get on the interstate so I stayed on old US 40, which is essentially a frontage road for the interstate along this stretch, and then down the steep back side of Floyd Hill into Clear Creek Canyon and US 6.

At the junction I went right, to go down Clear Creek to meet up with the Peak to Peak Highway. It had been quite warm all this while, with no sign of the clouds that had been predicted, but down in the bottom of this steep canyon it quickly got very cold. Time to flip on the electric vest.

At the Peak to Peak I went left, toward Black Hawk. Considered stopping for lunch but didn’t. Oh, and so, all this way I had periodically been wiping smeared bugs off my visor. Weird.

I cruised up through Black Hawk and kept going, on up to the turn-off from the Peak to Peak down Golden Gate Canyon. And it was along here I hit the big guy. Now I really needed to clean my visor. The ride down Golden Gate Canyon was pretty much as it always is. Some traffic but not a lot, and several nice stretches with lots of small curves that you can easily straighten out with a bike. That’s always fun.

Then I hit Golden, turned south on CO 93 down to 285 and then east to home. I’m loving this. After being off the bike for so long this is just sweet.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 74. Doubling the speed limit ain’t no thing.

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Terrific Early November Ride

Monday, November 3rd, 2025

Stopped briefly at Tiny Town. It was such a warm day I shed a layer here.

With temps in the 70s there was no question of riding or not, it was just: Where to?

There comes a time each year when you can simply no longer go into the hills but at the moment Denver is a few days away from setting a new record for the latest first snow of the season. I figured I’d take advantage of it.

That only narrowed the question somewhat. But I guess I’m a bit stubborn. When I took off on my fateful ride on June 29 it was my intention to go over the route I intended to lead the RMMRC on soon after. On my first ride after the crash, but before surgery, I rode to the place on that planned route where the crash occurred. Now, on only my third ride since the crash I wanted to do what I set out to do that day. Who knows, if the weather holds I might yet lead that ride in the next week or two.

The day was warm, skies were blue, and I headed out. Great day to be on the bike. I went down to Belleview and turned west. When I came to Santa Fe, where the crash had occurred, I could have gone south on Santa Fe as I intended that day, but the thought of getting into that left turn lane and just sitting there again somehow did not appeal to me so I continued west on Belleview. At Lowell I turned south.

At Mineral I turned west again to Wadsworth and then south. Stopped at a red light at Ken Caryl Avenue I saw on the other side, headed north of Wadsworth, a guy on a Honda about as old as my bike. No jacket, no gloves, no helmet. OK, I hope you got home safely and do so again and again.

South of C-470 I made the right turn to go up Deer Creek Canyon. Lots of guys on bikes but many, many people on bicycles. That kind of day. I’m not a go-fast kind of guy so I took my time winding up the canyon on Deer Creek Canyon Road and then made the left onto South Deer Creek Road. This road winds around and climbs, ultimately coming out to US 285 at Conifer, changing names a couple times along the way.

After a short while I spotted three guys on Harleys behind me. I figured I was slowing them down but I had no inclination to speed up because, for one thing, this stretch was newly repaved and there was a good bit of loose gravel on the road, especially on the curves. They’re just going to have to be patient. They were, but the first open stretch we got to they blasted past. And in just another couple minutes two guys on Beemers came blasting past me too. Have fun; I’m just not in a hurry.

I wasn’t headed to Conifer; I turned north at Oehlmann Park Road. This road goes up and over a hill with a lot of homes, with terrific views in some places. Steep road going up and going down on the other side. Great riding. I’d hate to live there in the winter.

It comes out on the other side at South Turkey Creek Road, which runs parallel to US 285 between Tiny Town and just east of Conifer. I turned toward Tiny Town. A bit before Tiny Town there is a place where you can go left onto North Turkey Creek Road. That’s my route for this planned ride but for this day I decided I’d had enough and continued on to Tiny Town, got on US 285, and headed home. It’s supposed to cool off Monday but then be warm again all week. I figure I’ll just come back and do the second half in a few days.

You’ve got to love this weather. And considering that I missed the whole summer you can believe I am.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you try to act like a biker.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, motorcycle clubs, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club | 1 Comment »

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