Larry Hale and I took a nice ride today. This was my first trip since I got the bike back out of the shop after having the connection with the TPI repaired. It had done fine riding home from the shop last week, and it did fine today for 169 miles. The bike runs like it did when it was new and sure doesn't feel like a 10-year-old with 135K miles on it. It ran and handled perfectly.
Some of you have met Larry at the Spearfish Rally -- he came on an NC700X and then on something else; he's moved back to Greeley from near Sturgis and is now riding a Kawasaki Vulcan 900. We went up Big Thompson Canyon to Estes after it warmed up some this morning. At 6AM, it was 23F in Greeley and 40F in Estes, but by the time we left here at 11AM, Greeley was up to about 45 or so and I'd guess it was still around 40 in Estes. We grabbed lunch and conversation at McDonald's and then headed south on CO-7. 7 climbs up out of the Estes Valley and runs just east of Rocky Mountain National Park, Long's Peak and Meeker Peak. After passing by Allen's Park, 7 goes down the hill towards Lyons. Larry and I stayed on the Peak-to-Peak, which turns into CO-72 and keeps trending south toward the town of Nederland.
After Nederland, we took CO-119 down Boulder Canyon. We had seen a sign right before we took the turn onto 72 that Boulder Canyon highway was "closed Mon-Thur from ???? to ????." Those flashing signs always flash faster then I can read when I'm busy riding! I decided we'd keep going and, if 119 was closed when we got to Nederland, we'd just come back north on 72 and then take 7 down to Lyons. Turns out the time of closure was 0945 to 1400. We got to Nederland at 1430, so we were OK. There were a couple of places where the road was one-lane but we only had to stop for one of those places. After threading our way through Boulder's barely pre-rush-hour traffic, we rode north to Lyons and then took county roads to Carter Lake. The north side of Carter Lake has a serious descent with curves that keep your attention. Back when I lived in Loveland in the early '90s, I'd ride to Carter Lake on my bicycle. That downhill from the north end of the lake is one of the places where I've gotten my bicycle maxed out. For me, terminal velocity on a bicycle has never exceeded 56mph. I didn't get that fast today on my NT!
It was a good day -- spectacular scenery (sorry I'm not as good as Chuck Henderson about stopping and taking pictures! Today I didn't even remember to take my camera :-( )
168 miles with a bike that ran flawlessly! That felt great and made me excited for 2020 and the rides I'll take next year. BTW, I finally got over 4,000 miles for the year today. It's the fewest miles I've ridden in a year since 1997. That year I didn't start riding till August and all my miles were on a borrowed bike. It was in '98 that I bought my Silverwing -- I rode it 19,000+ miles in 13 months before buying '99 Concours #1. I had 115K on it when I totaled it one night (on CO-72, the road Larry and I rode today). '99 Connie # got 60K before I bought Dudley in March of 2010. When I add up those miles, I've got about 320K total since '97, so I've averaged between 14 and 15K miles a year. I'm fairly confident I'll get back up over 10K for 2020.
spotwalla.com
Some of you have met Larry at the Spearfish Rally -- he came on an NC700X and then on something else; he's moved back to Greeley from near Sturgis and is now riding a Kawasaki Vulcan 900. We went up Big Thompson Canyon to Estes after it warmed up some this morning. At 6AM, it was 23F in Greeley and 40F in Estes, but by the time we left here at 11AM, Greeley was up to about 45 or so and I'd guess it was still around 40 in Estes. We grabbed lunch and conversation at McDonald's and then headed south on CO-7. 7 climbs up out of the Estes Valley and runs just east of Rocky Mountain National Park, Long's Peak and Meeker Peak. After passing by Allen's Park, 7 goes down the hill towards Lyons. Larry and I stayed on the Peak-to-Peak, which turns into CO-72 and keeps trending south toward the town of Nederland.
After Nederland, we took CO-119 down Boulder Canyon. We had seen a sign right before we took the turn onto 72 that Boulder Canyon highway was "closed Mon-Thur from ???? to ????." Those flashing signs always flash faster then I can read when I'm busy riding! I decided we'd keep going and, if 119 was closed when we got to Nederland, we'd just come back north on 72 and then take 7 down to Lyons. Turns out the time of closure was 0945 to 1400. We got to Nederland at 1430, so we were OK. There were a couple of places where the road was one-lane but we only had to stop for one of those places. After threading our way through Boulder's barely pre-rush-hour traffic, we rode north to Lyons and then took county roads to Carter Lake. The north side of Carter Lake has a serious descent with curves that keep your attention. Back when I lived in Loveland in the early '90s, I'd ride to Carter Lake on my bicycle. That downhill from the north end of the lake is one of the places where I've gotten my bicycle maxed out. For me, terminal velocity on a bicycle has never exceeded 56mph. I didn't get that fast today on my NT!
It was a good day -- spectacular scenery (sorry I'm not as good as Chuck Henderson about stopping and taking pictures! Today I didn't even remember to take my camera :-( )
168 miles with a bike that ran flawlessly! That felt great and made me excited for 2020 and the rides I'll take next year. BTW, I finally got over 4,000 miles for the year today. It's the fewest miles I've ridden in a year since 1997. That year I didn't start riding till August and all my miles were on a borrowed bike. It was in '98 that I bought my Silverwing -- I rode it 19,000+ miles in 13 months before buying '99 Concours #1. I had 115K on it when I totaled it one night (on CO-72, the road Larry and I rode today). '99 Connie # got 60K before I bought Dudley in March of 2010. When I add up those miles, I've got about 320K total since '97, so I've averaged between 14 and 15K miles a year. I'm fairly confident I'll get back up over 10K for 2020.
SpotWalla.com - Trip Viewer Password Required
SpotWalla.com - Trip Viewer Password Required
spotwalla.com
