Archive for the ‘Colorado motorcycle rides’ Category

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Exit Tours M/C Does Off-Road Tours

Thursday, October 24th, 2013
V-Strom On Phantom Canyon Road

Phantom Canyon Road appears to be one part of one of these tours.

This post has been updated as of January 2022.

There’s no way I can keep up with the magazines I subscribe to when I’m working a full-time job–which I am now–so I’m always way behind. I just read the May issue of American Motorcyclist and was very interested to find a cover piece about a tour outfit here in Colorado. Got to check these guys out.

It’s an operation named Exit Tours M/C and it took some reading and some looking at their website to figure out that–at least as far as I can tell–they are a nonprofit organization that puts on three or more rides a year. Not that they’re a bunch of do-gooders; my take is that folks from three motor sports dealerships in the Buena Vista area put this thing together to offer these rides and they presumably benefit by sales of gear and bikes. Nevertheless, as a nonprofit, their prices for their tours are pretty reasonable.

As a nonprofit, or club, annual membership is now $425. For this membership fee you get one club ride per year at no additional cost and then second and subsequent rides are $299. Also, family members can come on ride at the discounted price of $249.

Here’s what Mike Brown, the honcho of the group, had to say about the outfit:

Attempting to define our Niche.

  • Club Rides for Adventure, Dual Sport motorcycles and plated dirt bikes.
  • Club Rides in the Heart of the Rockies, Northern New Mexico, Central California and the Las Vegas Valley Loop.
  • Any competent motorcycle enthusiast can join the club without an invitation, and come enjoy the camaraderie of like-minded enthusiasts.
  • Our Club rides are for competent Riders. We do not offer training, classes or play games.
  • Exit Tours club rides start and stage on private property, and either loop back to the staging area or travel to an overnight destination with luggage portage. We portage your gear so you may ride unencumbered.
  • Most Club rides include camping and some meals.
  • Our club rides are not ‘guided’, we use Ride With GPS which is cell phone compatible and easy to use and understand.
  • Ride With GPS works without a cell signal.
  • Club membership includes Ride With Membership for said event(s).
  • You must have either a cell phone or GPS unit to navigate our routes. A mount and a way to charge said phone or unit.

Back to our Niche of riders:

  • Competent Riders who want to share the camaraderie of riding and camping, bonfires and bench racing.
  • But don’t know where to ride or how to tie trails together for a cohesive ride in outstanding, often remote locales.
  • Exit Tours sets up camping and meals, bonfires, supplies a T shirt and porta potties.
  • The Club supplies GPS tracks mapped by our local experts.
  • Multiple Loops for A&B riders and some C loops with GPS tracks of your choice for Dual Sport & ADV rides.
  • Trail rides and exclusive Adventure rides are generally one route, but we do not encourage riding in large groups.
  • We generally do not suggest riding in groups larger than 6 riders.
  • We do not cater to ADV riders who like to ride alone or carry all their camping gear.
  • Generally club ADV riders will transport their motorcycle in a truck to save their tires for the dirt.
  • We do not tailor our routes to smaller foo foo Dual sport motorcycles. Most Club Dual Sport Routes are challenging, with as little pavement as possible, and best ridden on Plated Dirt Bikes or 250 to 700cc Factory Dual Sport Models.
  • If you like challenging 2 track and singletrack you will love Exit Tours Dual Sport Routes.
  • The Adventure loops use more dirt roads and jeep trails, some paved passes and are Adventure bike friendly.
  • Club Trail rides are just that. Trailrides with as little pavement as possible. Using pavement only to access amenities and lodging or camping locales.
  • On all our rides we encourage the use of the Buddy System. Team up with others who have mutual talent and desires for the ride. How often to stop to rest, take photos…
  • Buddies wait at intersections until the next rider acknowledges they are coming the correct direction, and if buddies get lost or don’t show up, go back to the last place they saw each other.
  • With the multiple loops on offer, generally Exit Tours Club Rides do not have sweep riders.

So this is just an FYI. If you or anyone you know is looking for this sort of thing, guess what, here it is. Maybe next year I’ll try to wangle a free trip in exchange for writing about it. You’ll see it here if I do.

Biker Quote for Today

Serious. Just like that scene from the matrix, except the chick was me and the ducati was a klr. — DirtyDog

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

Not a Day for a Mountain Ride

Monday, October 21st, 2013

OK, I admit it, I am just as curious as anyone else to see an area I’m familiar with after disaster has struck it. I had been thinking for a while that I’d like to see the aftermath of flooding in Boulder Canyon, and that didn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to do considering that they got the canyon completely open again pretty quickly.

Coal Creek Canyon Roadblock

Who knew Coal Creek Canyon was not open? Not me.

It was Saturday and I got on the V-Strom to go have a look. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny, and I figured I wouldn’t need the electric vest. I don’t yet have a hook-up for the vest on the V-Strom, so if I wanted to use the vest I would have needed to have taken a different bike. I wanted to ride the V-Strom.

Blasting out 285 it started getting chilly with the high-speed breeze but I knew I was only going to be going fast for a short while. It also started getting quite windy. I turned north on C-470 and cruised up through Golden and onto Rocky Flats on CO 93. I had decided I would run up Coal Creek Canyon and catch the Peak-to-Peak to Nederland and then come down Boulder Canyon to Boulder. Didn’t happen.

As I turned off 93 at the road to Coal Creek Canyon there was a sign flashing that said “Highway 72 closed to Blue Mountain.” Say what? Where the heck is Blue Mountain? Is that a mountain, a town, a road, . . . ? So I decided to ignore the sign.

There was obviously something going on because all along the road there was a pipeline that had been laid aboveground–presumably temporary–carrying who knows what into the canyon. And there were trucks. And then there was that roadblock in the photo above. Figuring on pleading that I had no idea where the road was blocked to because I don’t know where Blue Mountain is, I went past the roadblock.

Not far beyond, however, there was another roadblock, this one manned by a state trooper. No skipping past this one. The guy I spoke to said Coal Creek got a lot worse flood damage than Boulder Canyon or several others. Really? I told him honestly that I had had no idea that was the case. And I said I guessed I’d take a different route.

So back to 93 and on up to Boulder I went. From there I headed up Boulder Canyon, figuring to just run up to Nederland and then back down. It was right near the mouth of the canyon that I saw some evident flood damage and repair. At about five bends the water wanted to go straight and when the bank interfered it ate away the bank. And the road. But fill had been brought in, the banks restored, new pavement laid, and a temporary guard rail set up. In truth, it was not all that bad and not all that big a deal.

I thought surely there must be worse upstream, but as I continued up the canyon I came upon a bunch of small houses and buildings right next to the water that appeared completely undamaged. How could that be? I would have thought they would have been swept away if there was serious flooding. Best I can tell, the creek was raging but the banks were enough to contain it for the most part. And it must have only gotten concentrated down near the mouth of the canyon, maybe from adjoining canyons adding their flow to the total. In other words, nothing at all like what happened in the Big Thompson.

By now the sun had gone into heavy clouds, the wind was whistling down the canyon, and the temperature was dropping as I climbed. I was wishing I had my electric vest and thinking maybe I wouldn’t go all the way to Nederland. Then traffic came to a complete stop. We all sat there for quite a while as probably 200 vehicles came by the other direction. Obviously there was something big up ahead that forced everyone to take turns using a single lane. That must be what I want to see, I thought.

Eventually we started moving and less than a mile further on we came to the delay: a traffic accident that was in the final stages of getting cleaned up. Wonderful. And now I had to keep going and oh me, what a long line of traffic was backed up heading down the canyon. When I finally reached a place where I could turn around and get into the line I was a long way past the accident site. And we didn’t move for 10 minutes or more. Maybe 15. You better believe I wished while sitting there that I had my electric vest.

Finally we started to move, went past the accident site where things were completely cleaned up, and crept en masse back down to Boulder. And then I headed home. Back in Boulder the sun was shining and the temperature was a lot higher than up in the canyon. I guess this was not a day to plan a ride in the hills.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you make your passengers sit behind you in the rear seat instead of beside you.

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Checking for Color in the High Country

Monday, October 7th, 2013
CB750 on Squaw Pass

I took the Honda up on Squaw Pass on Sunday. What a great day to ride!

All right, we had some snow, a hard frost, and now the weather has warmed back up. This is Indian summer, and yesterday (Sunday) was an absolutely perfect day for a ride in the hills. I figured I’d ride the Honda, partly because it gets the least use of my three bikes but also because those tires are getting old and ought to be replaced. Let’s wear them out!

I headed out to Morrison, where the bikes were thick as flies on something rotten, and cruised on up Bear Creek Road to Evergreen. Evergreen was the same as Morrison, bikes everywhere you looked. I wasn’t the only one who concluded it was a perfect day to ride. A time and temperature clock in Evergreen read 61 degrees and you couldn’t have asked for a nicer day.

I turned north on Evergreen Parkway to the left turn onto Squaw Pass Road. I was wanting to either find some fall color or see how far away we were from having the aspen leaves turn golden. I had seen a little color coming up the canyon but it seemed I needed to go higher. But the higher I went all I saw was aspen tress with their leaves already gone or else just brown. I’ve heard that moisture can affect the change of color so maybe we’re just not going to get a gorgeous fall this year.

Cruising up Squaw Pass Road I still didn’t see much color, but I did see some major work on the road. A lengthy stretch was brand new asphalt, so new it isn’t even striped yet. I had one particular spot in mind where I wanted to stop and shoot a picture but when I got there they were working on the road, despite it being Sunday. In fact, they were laying asphalt at the exact spot I planned to stop at the moment I got there so I kept going and got the shot above a little further down the road.

I didn’t go all the way over and down to Idaho Springs because I didn’t want to get stuck in the Sunday afternoon mess on I-70 coming back to town. Instead, I went on a ways and then turned back. That way I saw the road in both directions and can give you this report in case you’re up there soon.

The road work starts once you enter Clear Creek County. The road surface is smooth and perfect, unstriped as I said, but also with no shoulder in place yet. What that means is that if you wanted to pull off you’d be looking at a sheer drop-off from the asphalt of four to six inches. Not too many people are going to want to try that.

Going west, which puts you in the north lane, the lane is clear and perfect. Heading back east however, in the south lane, there is still some snow and ice on the road. Off the road, in the shadows, there was a good bit of snow. While the road has been cleared, there were just a few small patches where not all the snow was cleared off the pavement. Plus, there are some spots where melting snow flows onto the pavement and then freezes. When I came over around 2 p.m. this was mostly melted and the road was just wet, but earlier or later in the day it could be a different story. And there was still some ice in a couple spots even at that time.

I’m presuming this is indicative of other roads in the high country at this point. If this government shutdown continues and I continue to not be working I plan to check out a few more in the next few days. Hey, it’s a great opportunity to ride and it gives me something to write about here. I will make the point, by the way, that while Congress is planning to pay federal workers for their time off from work, I am not a federal employee, I’m a contractor. For me it’s unpaid time off. But I still get to go out and ride during this perfect weather.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
AIMExpo will debut in Orlando Oct. 16-20

Biker Quote for Today

Two roads diverged in a wood, and / I took the one less traveled by, and / now where the hell am I?

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No Riding in the Big Thompson Canyon Any Time Soon

Thursday, September 19th, 2013

If you live in Colorado this is not news, but if you live elsewhere and have plans to come ride in Colorado it’s important news. No one is going to be doing much riding in the Big Thompson Canyon any time soon.

Big Thompson Canyon

An elevated portion of the road down the Big Thompson Canyon before the recent flooding.

Probably everyone across the country knows we’ve have major flooding here in Colorado recently but what has happened in the Big Thompson may have escaped your attention. I knew it got hit pretty hard but it wasn’t until I watched this TV news video that I realized just how bad it was.

Let’s get some history. Back in 1976 there was a huge flood in the Big Thompson that killed more than 150 people. When they rebuilt the highway they built it to prevent that sort of devastation again. Or so they thought.

In places in the narrow parts of the canyon where the road used to run right alongside the river, the new construction raised the roadway 20 feet or more above the previous level. Watching that video you can see that a large part of that raised construction got washed away. It’s an aerial view so it’s hard to see for sure, but the walls of the elevated portion seem to have come through reasonably well. Nevertheless, the decking, i.e., the road surface, is totally washed away in some places and substantially missing in others. Not quite sure how that happened but it did. So much for the best laid plans of highway engineers.

So of course you have to wonder what they’ll do this time to rebuild the road and make it last. The one thing you don’t have to wonder about at all is whether there will be any riding in that canyon in the next six months or more. If they just put things back the way they were it would probably take that long. If they try something new it will first take time to come up with ideas and develop those ideas and then put them into place.

The Big Thompson is a beautiful canyon and it’s a great place to ride. Just don’t plan on doing that till next year some time.

Biker Quote for Today

Half the adventure is trying to figure out when and where to stop for a photo.

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Two Motorcycle Events You May Want to Attend

Monday, September 16th, 2013
Civilian Top Gun competition

The Civilian Top Gun competition a couple years ago.

There are a couple things coming up very soon that I want to direct your attention to.

First is the 5th annual Civilian Top Gun Rider Competition. The non-civilian Top Gun competition is for motorcycle cops. That’s an annual exhibition that is really good, with those guys putting their big cruiser bikes through tight turns that most people can’t even do on a small bike.

So this other event is for the rest of us, but don’t think for a minute that that means the riding you’ll see is second-rate. You don’t have to be a cop to know how to ride really, really well.

This thing will be taking place this coming weekend, Sept. 20-21, at Fay Myers Motorcycle World, 9700 E. Arapahoe. And it’s free–no admission charge. Apparently it will be going on both days so cruise on down, and prepare to feel like you really aren’t that good a rider after all, no matter what your ego would like you to believe.

The other event is a week later, Saturday, Sept. 28. This is the Small Bike Ride.

Todd Wallis is the organizer of this event, which is in its fourth year. Todd is a guy who likes to restore old bikes, and he particularly likes the smaller ones. So he put together this event–it’s just a ride; go have fun–for old bikes with engines 250cc or smaller. Or, if you ride a pre-WWII bike of any size you’re welcome, too.

Riders will be starting out from a spot in Deer Creek Canyon, 9880 West Deer Creek Canyon Road, to be exact. The ride starts at 9 a.m. and will be cruising–rather slowly–through the hills, for about 100 miles.

So go have fun.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #28

Biker Quote for Today

Think of your thumper as a big pump, happily sucking and blowing down the road.

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

The Road to Silt

Monday, August 5th, 2013
The road to Silt.

The road as it descends to the north, toward Silt and New Castle.

OK now, before I was so rudely interrupted by this OFMC motorcycle trip I was going to tell you about the road to Silt from down around Vega State Park. Back to where we left off.

As I had described, we had turned off the McClure Pass road (CO 133) to cruise a gravel road that runs over to Collbran, with Vega State Park on the way. After camping overnight at the park we were planning to backtrack a few miles and take the road that runs north to Silt.

In the morning, though, before heading out, we went around Vega Lake and stopped at the Vega Lodge to check it out as a potential overnight destination for the OFMC. It was a nice place with good rates so I have since told John that he ought to consider adding it as a stop on some future trip.

While talking with the lady who runs the place we mentioned we were planning to go back east a bit and take the road to Silt.

“Oh, we hate that road,” she said. “We go to Collbran and take the Debeque cut-off.” She told us it was a bad road in good weather and in bad weather it gets “really greasy.”

But the weather was good and we were not planning on being in any kind of hurry so off we went.

For quite a ways the road was not bad at all. It climbed a bit and we got up fairly high, and then came over the crest and started down. (You can see what I mean in the photo.) That was where things got quite a bit worse. It was obvious that cars and trucks going the other way had had struggles getting up this hill in the wet. In places there were ruts in the road dug by four-wheel-drive tires in mud and the going was pretty rough. Still, there was plenty of smooth road surface if you took your time and avoided the ruts. I definitely would not want to be on this road going either direction is a rainstorm, though. You could really see what she meant by “greasy.” Slick road surface that would give no traction at all when wet. Bad news.

But the weather was good and we had a nice trip. The road went down quite a ways and then we started running into farmland. The road was paved as we got further north and we reached a T intersection. Go left and it took you to Silt. Go right and it took you to New Castle. It’s called the road to Silt but there’s really no reason to go to Silt unless you plan to head west on I-70. If you were going east, as we were, you might as well turn right. We did and it was a nice run to New Castle.

And then it was time to do some slabbing. All good things do come to an end.

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OFMC dips into New Mexico

Biker Quote for Today

The destination is not important, only the ride there…

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