Passes & Canyons Blog

Some top bags have better mounts than others. Apparently, this one is not so good.

If, by the time you read this, it is cold and snowy outside you’ll know why we went riding yesterday. The forecast high was in the 60s and a day later we are supposed to be looking at nasty stuff. Five RMMRC riders answered the call.

Stepping outside in the morning it was warm but quite breezy. I knew this would be an all-the-winter-gear-day. It was definitely brisk riding over to the meeting spot, and nobody took their helmets off while we waited to see who else would arrive.

The route was simple enough: down Parker Road, turn off onto Russellville Road and do that loop, then back to CO83, south to CO105 over to Monument, for lunch at Rosie’s. The ride was uneventful except when Charlie pulled over because his top bag, which he had strapped onto the seat behind him rather than on its mount, started coming loose. OK, that didn’t work. But the dang thing is kind of wobbly on its actual mount so he figured it was worth trying something different.

Rosie’s was busy so we had to wait a bit and then got seated and ordered. The food is always good at Rosie’s, and the staff is always overworked, but the waitresses we have had have all been extremely nice. It probably doesn’t hurt that Roy goes out of his way to be friendly and nice with them, figuring their job is plenty hard, let’s try to make it a little nicer.

As expected, by the time we came out the temperature was up another 10 degrees or so and there were no clouds. A gorgeous day to ride. And we were not the only ones who thought so. As we headed north out of Monument toward Sedalia on CO105 I counted no fewer than 50 other bikes heading south. Not a big pack, just a lot of twos and threes and fours. This was a day to ride.

Now tomorrow can come as nasty as it likes, we got in a really good December ride.

Biker Quote for Today

No road is too long as long as you have good riding companions.

Roy (at right) had warned our very cute waitress that she was going to be dealing with a bunch of ugly old men. Look at those guys!

We knew Saturday was going to be a cold day to ride but, as Roy said, you just need the right gear. And apparently nine of us in the RMMRC felt we had the right gear because there we were out riding on this very cold morning.

Judy, who had gotten up before me, warned me that the temperature was having a hard time breaking 40 and I checked the RMMRC Meetup site to see if perhaps the ride had been canceled. Nope. In fact, messages on the site within the last couple hours made it clear it was still on. OK, this would be a day to wear all my cold weather gear. Good thing I had just recharged the batteries for my heated gloves.

And it was cold. At first my Honda CB750 Custom didn’t seem to want to turn over but then it caught and fired up. I got over to where we were meeting and it was a good crowd. And by the time I got there it was clear that while it was darn cold, my electric vest and my riding pants with the liner in, and everything else I wore for warmth would do just fine. All right! Great day for a ride!

We were headed for lunch at Rosie’s Diner in Monument so of course we headed . . . southeast. We went out Parker Road and just south of the Pinery turned east on Bayou Gulch Road to Flintwood Road. From there we followed a circuitous route that I quickly recognized as having been the route we first rode the last time Tim had planned a Mystery Ride. (It was called “Roy’s Mystery Ride” but Tim was the one who actually mapped it out.)

This route led us to Elizabeth and then further south on another circuitous route through Elbert. We were headed for the Palmer Divide and gaining elevation, so it was getting cooler and cooler. I had my heated gloves on the lowest setting so as to extend the battery life as much as possible. My hands were a bit cool but that was fine; they would have been ice cubes otherwise.

A little south of Elbert I was a bit surprised to encounter another sizeable group of bikers going the other direction on this cold day and way off the usual beaten track country road. Good for you guys. Guess we’re not the only ones.

We did finally turn west and then a little later cut back north. It was at this point that the question I had had was answered: where are the high winds that had been predicted? Apparently they had been at our back all this time. Now they were in our face.

We cut on west again and came to Monument. Time for lunch. Ride to eat, eat to ride, you know. We had a super cute waitress who did a great job and we had a good meal. John, on his first time riding with the group, kept everyone interested showing us pictures of his numerous very old motorcycles. There was probably a lot of motorcycle envy going on at that table.

By the time we were ready to roll again the weather had done a significant change. It had to be 15 degrees warmer and full sunshine. Fabulous day for a motorcycle ride! We headed north on CO105 up to Sedalia, at which point the group started to splinter as each rider chose his own route home. I got home with a new 130 miles on my odometer. Now if we can only do this a few more times before the year is out.

Biker Quote for Today

No such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.