Archive for the ‘Colorado motorcycle rides’ Category

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Mapping Software for Your Motorcycle Trip

Monday, August 8th, 2011

Microsoft Streets & Trips mapping software

OK, I’m going to shill a bit here but it’s a product I use and believe in and I’ll make it worth your while to read this.

I was contacted the other day by a fellow working with Microsoft to market their Streets & Trips application. He offered me a free 2011 version and also offered to provide free copies to a few of the folks who read this blog.

Now, the fact is, I’ve been using Streets & Trips ever since I starting building the www.MotorcycleColorado.com website back in 2005. Every map on the site was created using Streets & Trips. And when I got a new computer I bought a new version of the application because the old version wouldn’t run on the 64-bit processor in the new machine.

That’s all to say, I like it, it’s easy to use, and it does everything I need it to do. In fact, it does a lot I don’t even use it for. I don’t have a GPS unit but if you do you can use Streets & Trips to generate files for your GPS. Don’t ask me to explain what it does or how because, as I said, it’s not a feature I use, but it’s there. And honestly, the 2011 version is not a lot different from the 2009 version I’ve been running. But if you don’t have any version, getting your hands on the latest could be very cool.

So here’s the deal. As part of this marketing campaign, Microsoft is running a “Cruisin’ the National Parks Trivia Sweepstakes” through the end of this month. Visit the site, answer the trivia question put up each week, and you could wina $50 Visa gift card. On that same page there’s a button to “like” Streets & Trips on Facebook and for everyone who does Microsoft will be giving $1 to the National Parks Foundation.

And here’s your chance to pick up a free copy of the software. Leave a comment at the bottom of this blog post telling about the most amazing thing you’ve seen riding your motorcycle through a national park. Three of the best stories will be selected and you’ll get a copy. When posting your comment be sure to leave your valid email address because I’ll need to contact you to tell you you’ve won and get mailing info to provide to Microsoft so they can send it to you. Ready? Set? Go!

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Biker Quote for Today

Any adventure journey has secret destinations unknown to the traveler.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, motorcycle touring | 3 Comments »

Reconsidering North Cochetopa Pass

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

This whole thing is a little confusing. I’ve always known the pass on CO 114 between Gunnison and Saguache as North Pass, but my friend John calls it North Cochetopa Pass. On top of the pass it uses that name on the sign. But I find it called by both names in various places. Go figure.

North Cochetopa PassEither way, I had been over it but when we rode over it yesterday I was very surprised to find it much nicer than I remember. Just as I remembered, it was a gentle climb through pine forests from Saguach, and no spectacular views. Nice, but I’ve never considered it worthy of giving it its own page here on this website.

What I had forgotten was going down on the Gunnison side. The road quickly descends from the heights and exits the pine forest to wind its way down a ranching canyon. You have brown hills rising on both sides and the bottom land is covered in meadows, hay fields, and pasture. The home of many happy horses and cows.

Then the canyon narrows. All of a sudden you’re riding some great twisties between towering rock canyon walls, with the narrow canyon bottom taken up equally by the river and the road. The canyon then opens up again, and later it gets tight and steep. One road sign tells it all: Trucker beware–tight turns next 8 miles.

The bottom line is that if you’re out this way it’s worth riding this pass. It’s an alternative to Monarch Pass, and while Monarch is more spectacular, if you’ve been over Monarch before and haven’t been on North Cochetopa, and particularly if you’re coming up from Alamosa, you can go wrong taking this road. Enjoy.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, motorcycle training | No Comments »

Exploring More Colorado Dirt

Monday, July 18th, 2011

Once again, Judy and I were up in the mountains this past weekend, in her new Subaru Forester, checking out some dirt roads. A dual-sport bike is really high on my wish list but until that happens we’re using her high-clearance, all-wheel-drive vehicle to scout out some roads that might make for some good riding eventually.

Dirt bike on Weston PassWe knew we were going to be coming from Aspen over Independence Pass, so looking at the map, Weston Pass presented itself as something to consider. This road runs over from a little south of Leadville to just a little south of Fairplay. It’s a short-cut that eliminates the drive down to Buena Vista and then back up over Antero Pass on U.S. 285. Of course, with roads like this one, the short-cut takes about twice as much time as the long way around, even though it’s probably one-quarter the distance.

So let me tell you now, Weston Pass would be great on a dual-sport bike. The ruts and potholes and rocks and all the rough stuff that held our speed down much of the time to around 5 mph would just be fun on a proper dirt bike or dual-sport. And in fact, we did see and talk with one guy going over the pass on his bike. That’s him in the picture. I didn’t get his name but it was good to talk with him because he reassured us our car would get over the pass OK. The eastern side of Weston Pass is easy but the western side, which is the side we went up, was very rough. We saw a sign down on the eastern side warning that the western side of the pass road was not maintained for low-clearance vehicles. They weren’t kidding about that.

In the meantime, if you do have a dual-sport, it’s a nice road, going through some terrific country. I have a strong feeling that the more we go out on these roads in this Subaru the more my “need” for a dual-sport is going to increase. And I know that a bike will go on roads that we wouldn’t dream of taking the Forester on, so that will open up even more possibilities. In the meantime, I’m going to have to depend on getting off in the dirt with my friends Ron Coleman, of Western Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventures, and Kevin Smith of Colorado Mountain Moto. They rent dual-sport bikes so if you’re like me and don’t have your own that is an option.

Judy and I figure the next dirt road we want to check out is Boreas Pass, from Como there in South Park over to Breckenridge. Again, I doubt it’s particularly challenging on a bike, but we’ve never been over it so we’re going to go. And some day I will get that bike.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Dual sport bikes | 1 Comment »

All Motorcycle Maps Are Not Created Equal

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

It was not a motorcycle trip but my wife, Judy, and I were out running around the mountains last weekend and had a chance to really compare some maps I had brought along. We were in her new Subaru Forester, which is an all-wheel-drive vehicle with high clearance, so we wanted to do some dirt, and take some roads we hadn’t been on before.

Motorcycle mapsI brought along three maps that I figured would be useful. One is the Colorado Motorcycle Skill Rating Map that was put together largely by ABATE of Colorado and the Motorcycle Roadracing Association for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Another was the Colorado Bicycling and Scenic Byways Map, also produced by CDOT. The third was the Butler Motorcycle Maps Colorado map.

With Judy playing navigator, I drove. We went over Ripple Creek Pass, on the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway, which runs from Yampa over to Meeker. Later we went partway back along that road to Buford and took the Buford to Newcastle Road. Then we drove the Colorado River Road from Dotsero to a little north of State Bridge on CO 131, and finally over the Trough Road, which runs from State Bridge to Kremmling. The first two are rough roads that you would not want to take a street bike on (though we have in fact ridden the Flat Tops Byway on street bikes–bad idea!), while the other two are just fine for street bikes.

All in all, we had a great time, saw some great scenery, and gathered a lot of information that will eventually end up in the Dirt Roads section of this website. What I hadn’t really thought about, though, was what a good test this was for the maps. They all three were helpful in their way, but the word from the navigator is very clear: The Butler Maps Colorado map is the best.

What that means, very simply, is that the one you pay money for is better than the two free ones. That stands to reason, and is appropriate, but of course was not something you could just assume. But we put them to the test and that’s the verdict. And let me make the point here as well that this is not a verdict biased by the fact that Butler advertises on this site. I’m not sure Judy is even aware of that. She just switched back and forth between the three again and again and at one point told me in no uncertain terms that I should tell everyone that the the Butler map was the best. So there you go. I’ve passed the word along.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, motorcycle training, Suggested Rides | 2 Comments »

A Cruise Up Mount Evans

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Atop Mount Evans

On a beautiful day like today I had to get out and ride. Plus, I owed an article to one of my editors and figured a piece about riding up Mount Evans would work just fine.

I know it can get cold up there, even when it’s warm down here in the city, so I put on long underwear and a turtleneck shirt. I also put on my electric vest but waited to turn it on until I needed it. Then I had other warm clothes in my bags.

Man, was I roasting before I got out of town. Getting up onto CO 103 over Squaw Pass it finally started getting cool and that was a welcome relief. I reached the turn-off to the mountain, up by Echo Lake, and wondered if I would hear what my friend Dom was told when he was up there just two days earlier, which was that it was so windy they didn’t recommend riding a bike to the top.

Nope, no such warning, and clearly none was needed. They did warn me about frost heaves at the 9-mile marker, near Summit Lake, but I know about those. Just think of them as whoops and you’ll be fine.

So I cruised on up and it was a glorious day. Sunny and warm, I never turned on the electric vest. The view of the Sangre de Cristos from the top was unbeatable. They just went on forever.

Of course, I don’t think you can ride this road without seeing at least one person going down so scared of the sheer drop-off on the edge that they straddle the center line. And I will note that there was one place where the asphalt was just dropping away over the side. Even I stayed close to the middle along that stretch.

And then it was home again. Nothing much, I just rode to the top of the world and back home, all in about five hours. What did you do with your day?

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Any motorcyclist caught holding up automobiles on a winding road will be forced to sell all fringed accessories, buy plaid pants and take up golf. — Peter Egan

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides | 2 Comments »

CDOT Motorcycle Skills Rating Map Points Out Roads

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

I recently acquired a copy of a “Colorado Motorcycle Skill Rating Map,” put out by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). It’s a concept taken from a similar map that is intended to give riders in South Dakota’s Black Hills an idea of how challenging those roads are. Whereas that map covers just the Black Hills, the CDOT map covers the whole state of Colorado.

Motorcycle Skills Map of ColoradoCDOT called on ABATE of Colorado to help put the map together, and ABATE pulled in the Colorado Sportbike Club so as to include that group’s perspective as well.

Unlike so many other state maps where the roads have different colors depending on whether they’re interstate, U.S. highway, state highways, unpaved, or whatever, this map shows all roads as either green (easy), orange (moderate), or red (difficult). Not surprisingly, the entire eastern part of the state is green. From the Front Range west it’s a mix of colors.

The truth of the matter is that for those of us who live here, the map offers little we didn’t already know. The main quibble we might have is that, accustomed as we are to riding in the mountains, for us, marking almost any road red is a stretch. That’s not the point, though. This is a map aimed at tourists, the people who don’t live here. And for many of them, the roads we whip around with confidence may be challenging indeed.

So the real benefit of a map like this for us is that if there are any red roads on the map that we haven’t been on, this is a heads-up that we need to head that direction. Beyond that, I’d love to have maps like this of every other state. I don’t care if a road is rated “difficult” or not. I just have a strong hunch that any road with that rating is likely to be a good motorcycle road and one I’d like to ride. And as well as I know Colorado and many of our neighboring states, there are a lot more states where I wouldn’t have any idea which roads are the best. Maps of this sort can provide that information.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides, motorcycle touring, Suggested Rides | 1 Comment »

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