Archive for the ‘Day Rides’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Skyline Drive Photo Makes EagleRider Finals — Please Vote

Thursday, May 31st, 2012
motorcycles on Skyline Drive in Colorado

The OFMC rides Skyline Drive.

I mentioned recently that I had entered the photo above in a contest EagleRider is having and now, of the 63 photos entered, they have selected 20 for the run-off. My photo is one of those 20 and I would appreciate your votes.

Here’s the scoop. EagleRider, the groundbreaking company that opened up the concept of motorcycle rentals, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. They ran this contest asking people to offer photos for their 20 Years on the Highway contest, with the winner to receive an all-expense-paid trip for two to Los Angeles for the celebration.

The winner will be decided by votes. The way I see it, at this point it becomes a matter of who can work their social network the best. Each person can vote once a day, every day from now until midnight on June 29. To see the finalist photos, go here and scroll through the entries. Whichever one you like the most, click the “Like” link. Of course, I’d be very pleased if you vote for my photo but if you like something else better you really should vote for it.

Then, bookmark the link and go back every day until June 29 and vote again. Please be advised that the page loads a bit slowly, so be patient. Thanks.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Call made to push Congress on motorcycle-only stops

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you almost crash your car in a turn because you were trying to counter-steer and lean rather than turn the wheel.

Tags:
Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides, Miscellaneous, Suggested Rides | 1 Comment »

A Nice Memorial Day Weekend Ride and Hike

Tuesday, May 29th, 2012
Alderfer Three Sisters Open Space Park

A map showing where Alderfer Three Sisters Open Space Park is in relation to Evergreen.

Judy wanted to do something different over the holiday weekend so I asked her what she had in mind. She said she wanted to take a motorcycle ride to somewhere where we could hike and have a picnic. Sounded good to me so I did some research.

What many people may not be aware of is that Jefferson Country has a sizeable number of open space parks in the mountains. We’ve been to a few but there are a lot of them we’ve never seen, so that seemed like the smart bet.

And it was. I ended up selecting Alderfer/Three Sisters Park, which is up by Evergreen. We headed out U.S. 285 and then north on C-470 to the Morrison exit, through Morrison and up to Evergreen. At Evergreen we took the County Road 73 fork south about half a mile and turned west on Buffalo Park Road. Then it was just over a mile to the park.

The three sisters are three knobs of rock sticking up from a ridge. There is a fourth set apart from the others and it is called the brother, so you’ve got three sisters and a brother. You can hike up and around them all of course the view is great. So we did. And up near the top of the sisters we ate our lunch.

Then we hiked back down, got on the bike and rejoined County Road 73, continuing south to the intersection of North Turkey Creek Road, which we took down to me U.S. 285, and then back down to the flatlands. Altogether, nothing spectacular but a really nice way to spend an afternoon.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Bullet points sum up sessions at Overland Expo

Biker Quote for Today

Never getting lost is fascist.

Tags:
Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides | No Comments »

Interesting Dirt Route Como to Salida

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

This is not the first time I’ve said this but I’ll repeat myself: I’ve got to get a dual-sport motorcycle.

Riding dirt from Como to Salida

  Riding dirt from Como to Salida

The trigger this time is a ride I didn’t do, because I didn’t have a dual-sport. I was contacted on Monday by a guy named Milan, who heard of me through Ben at House of Motorrad. Milan told me he works as a ski guide in winter and wants to start doing Colorado motorcycle guiding in the summer. He asked if he could get a link to his site on my site and, by the way, wanna go for a ride?

Milan lives in Telluride and was headed back that way from Golden and proposed taking some dirt from Como to Salida. I said I’d love to, but not on one of my street bikes. He replied, “You could probably take a street bike on the Hartsel dirt- very easy.”

As for me, I replied, “I know better than to take my Concours on anything rougher than hard-packed gravel.”

Milan nudged, “I’ll be leaving Golden area about 9 am. It is a hardpacked gravel.”

I demurred. My Connie does not like gravel, even hard-packed, for very long. So I didn’t go.

Good choice. I heard from Milan today, saying, “You made the right choice by not coming, there was a stream crossing (about 6″ deep) and some ruts in another part of the ride.”

But I was curious what route he took. That’s it there on the map, although there’s no detail at this scale, though it gives you an idea. According to Milan, “I rode 285 to Como, took a right on Elkhorn Road (F.R. 15) to Hartsel. Then took County Road 53 to Forest Road 175 – that dropped me right into Salida.”

So OK, if I ever get that dual-sport I have another route to check out. Some day.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Indiana governor offers motorcycle-buying advice

Biker Quote for Today

After riding in the rain thru Bosnia, I think this newfangled front fender idea wasn’t so bad. I’m not as covered in mud as I usually am. That’s an idea that may just take off in popularity. My chopper still ain’t gonna get one tho.


Tags:,
Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides, Dual sport bikes | No Comments »

Get the Buck Off the Road

Monday, April 16th, 2012
Deer on the road

One of motorcycling's deadliest foes. (Photo by Florian Boyd)

I had the opportunity last week to get acquainted with Lisa Price Waltman, of Colorado Springs, who told me of a fun ride she has organized and will be holding for the second time this year. She calls it the 2nd Annual Running of the Deer Ride – “Get the Buck Off the Road” and, as you might suspect, there is a story behind it.

Lisa had grown up riding dirt bikes but had never had a street bike of her own, so she rode pillion for a number of years. Then, in 2009, the bike she was a passenger on hit a deer, they went down, and Lisa was badly injured.

Not one to give up, however, Lisa was back on a bike six months later, and though she says the first 10 minutes were terrifying, after that all was good. So good, in fact, that soon afterward she bought her own bike, a 2010 Harley Softail Deluxe.

Taking lemons and making lemonade, Lisa decided to put together a run on the anniversary of her crash along much of the same route. There’s no sign-up fee, no beneficiary charity. It’s just a ride for fun, and to make a statement of defiance. I’ve listed her run on my Rides and Rallies page; it’s in October, currently the last event listed. You might want to mark it on your calendar.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Michigan governor signs helmet repeal

Biker Quote for Today

Tuck in behind me, I’ll show you where to crash.


Tags:
Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides, motorcycle events | No Comments »

A Day Like Yesterday

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Concours with mountains

Snow is on its way. By the time it stops, sometime tomorrow, we could have as much as a foot. Is it any surprise I was out riding yesterday?

Never mind my commitment to riding both of my bikes at least once every single month, though that was a factor as well. When I have a great day on the first day of a winter month I’d better ride, because how wretched would I feel if I didn’t and it snowed the next day . . . and I never got a chance the rest of the month.

But the bigger factor was just that it was a gorgeous February day, and who wouldn’t want to go riding on a day that? I’ve been keeping the Honda on the battery tender, so it fired right up. The Kawi took a bit to get going, so I went for an extra long ride with it to get a bit more juice into that battery.

A good bit of that was on the highway, too, where I could get up some speed. At a motorcycle mechanics 101 session Alan and Dan and I went to last fall the guy said you really only start charging your battery once revs get up over a certain level, so just cruising around on city streets probably doesn’t do a lot for it. I wonder, though, if that means that if you deliberately stayed in a lower gear so you’d get higher revs you would get more charging. I tried at one point last year to get some definitive information on this whole matter but found that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of definitive info out there. Which means that I have to wonder where this guy was getting his information and how reliable it was.

But hey, charging the battery was a secondary concern. Riding was number one. And I had one of those odd experiences I have from time to time. I took off and was out for awhile and then at one point it hit me, “Wow, it’s really good to be on a bike!” This is a winter thing, when we don’t get to ride so much. You get away from it for a few weeks and you start forgetting how great it feels. Then you get on and go and it’s a surprise: Oh yeah, I forgot how much I enjoy doing this.

I have a friend who tells me his wife is like that in regard to sex. Whenever they do it she loves it but in between times she seems to forget how much she enjoys it. He figures if she remembered she’d want to do it more often, but she doesn’t. Then she’s surprised every time.

So I felt that surprise again yesterday. It makes me wonder how people get by living in places where you have to put your bike away for the entire winter. ‘Tis a privilege to live in Colorado.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
‘Sturgis’ name ownership battle escalates

Biker Quote for Today

Warning: If you value your life as much as I value this motorcycle, don’t fuck with it!

Tags:,
Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides | No Comments »

Elephant Ride Is On For Feb. 11-12

Monday, January 30th, 2012

The Elephant Ride in 2010

PsychoSteve has come through again. The Elephant Ride is on for the second weekend in February, but the gathering point has moved a short distance.

There was initially some concern because PsychoSteve no longer lives in the house in Grant that has been the starting point of this winter ride up Guanella Pass. Veterans of the ride offered assurances that if nothing else the plan would be to camp up the Guanella Pass road a bit as has been done before, but that won’t be necessary.

PsychoSteve announced on Jan. 15 on Adventure Rider that he had arranged with the new owner of the Grant Motel to use that property for camp-out, bonfire, launch point–everything. At this point all of the five rooms in the motel are rented but Elephant Riders traditionally pitch tents or sleep in their vehicles, as I done the last two years.

To really take part in the adventure you need to show up on Saturday night (Feb. 11) for the bonfire, the eating, the drinking . . . the fun. Then on Sunday morning at around 10 a.m. or so the assault on the pass will begin. While there hasn’t been a huge amount of snow this year, PsychoSteve and a buddy went up there a couple weeks ago and report that there are indeed spots with serious ice and deeply drifted snow.

In other words, it’s a normal Elephant Ride. So drill those screws into your tires and get out your warmest winter riding gear. The fun is about to begin.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Bikers relate their Oops! moments

Biker Quote for Today

Bikers are a rare breed…Harley riders are a dime a dozen.

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

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »