We have been having bizarre weather here in Colorado. Last winter was one of the coldest winters ever in Denver. This summer was one of the wettest. And now, the end of October, the weather has been in the 70's (and even touched 80 twice) this whole week! So my friends Paul and Caleb and myself set out yesterday to soak in all this amazing weather on 2 wheels. And this trip was epic in so many ways! Good friends are always a plus, but when you throw in beautiful scenery and mechanical mishaps in the mix, it makes things even more exciting.
I went for a shake down run Friday evening to make sure the bike was up for the task, and everything seemed well other than the timing being a little too retarded, but was running fine. Even stopped at Sonic for Hot Rod Night and she fired on the 1st kick when I left. Saturday morning I do my pre trip inspection and wiped down the bike quick. I'm getting ready to leave and say to my wife "You know what? I built that luggage rack on my bike, and the last big ride I went on I got stranded over silly simple stuff and had no tools to do anything about it. This time I'm bringing
ALLLL my tools." So I did, pretty much all my tools I keep at home in my tool pouch plus my cordless impact. And I'll be damned if I didn't need them, but more on that later.
I met Caleb and Paul for breakfast at Village Inn and we discussed out route and stops. By the time we finally got seated, served, eat our food, then stop and top off our tanks, it was about noon. Much later than we normally set out on a ride, but it is late fall and still very chilly in the mornings, so it was actually quite fine. We decided to take the freeways to and from the mountains, and so we headed down E470 west until we got to Morrison, where we got off and started making our way up Hwy 8. As we get to the end of the exit ramp, my bike dies. 2 kicks later I'm running again and we continue thru Morrison and up to Evergreen. The scenery is amazing!
When we got to Evergreen we went into a local winery that Paul and Caleb really like. We all got a flight of wine and then the owner/wine maker came over and gave us a small glass of 6 year aged Merlot Port. It was all fantastic!
After the stop, I went back to the bike to see why it wouldn't stay running. Turns out the manifold and carb bolts had loosened a little. Tightened them up and made an A/F adjustment and bike was running fine again. So we start heading up 74 to Squaw Pass Rd, which turns into 103 and takes you to Mt Evans Rd and Echo Lake. Bike was acting really sluggish and lacking power, but overall was fine and not backfiring or missing. But when we got to about 10-11,000' the Blackhawk could barely make it up the hills and was constantly shifting down into 2nd. So we pulled over at a scenic spot, took a few pics and I started to rejet my bike. Only problem is, when I started digging thru my tools, I realized I left my jets sitting on the kitchen table!
So I did literally the only thing I
COULD do and lowered my needle one notch. Got the bike running again and started the final ascend to the top and back down the other side.
My bike was now running to where I could at least accelerate in all 4 gears, but was weak overall, but not that big of a deal. It was running and not dying. As we start heading towards the top and back down, the ride started to get spirited.
Caleb was in lead, me in the middle and Paul at the tail. Paul and Caleb both ride 100hp new BMW R1200GS adventure bikes, so Caleb was kicking my butt in the straights, but I know the road much better than him and also have the more agile bike. So he would pull on me in the straights, but I was railing the corners
HARD! I was ALL into it! I seriously wish Paul had been filming too because I was getting my entire body to the inside of the bike! It was awesome fun. No BS, I damn near wore a hole right thru both toes of my shoes! I don't have pegs feelers so I use my toes as feelers and adjust my speed and lean angle according to how much toe I have rubbing. But this was most certainly the most aggressive I have ever ridden my bike. I usually will move my body on the seat in just about all turns, but this was the 1st time I ever completely hung my body off of the side of the bike Moto GP style. Here's a 4 minute video of the way back down to Echo Lake, which is still at 10,600'. And just so you know, I ended up with over an hour of awesome footage. I believe the video this clip came from is probably the
BEST footage I have filmed to date on The Blackhawk.
Video of Squaw Pass Rdhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLZJt5gLwZQ&feature=youtu.beA few more pics from Squaw Pass.
When we got to Idaho Springs, the bike seemed to still be fairly happy, so we jumped onto I-70 East for a couple of miles and then took Hwy 6 thru Clear Creek Canyon. This is one of my favorite roads because there are 5 different tunnels where you drive right thru the mountains. It's good fun dropping a gear and rip full throttle, but unfortunately, tho I had thought the camera was going it wasn't.
Once we got out of the mountains the bike started backfiring really bad so I had to stop a 4th time to raise the needle back up.
All said done, about 140 miles and 4.5 hours of seat time. And just to iterate how badly the bike was running, I normally get about 200-240 miles per tank. I hit reserve about 5 miles from home.
And to make an awesome day even better, my wife sends a text while we're riding and says to meet her at the bar at 6:30. I show up at about 7pm and my wife had thrown a surprise birthday party for me! She even went onto facebook and invited a few of my riding buddies that she doesn't even know! Here, all week, I thought she was just being a bitch to me, but it turns out that she kept thinking I was overhearing her talking to others about the party and she thought the surprise was ruined. It was priceless when I walked into the bar, because I was just looking for my wife and Paul and Caleb. Then I see her sitting at this huge table of people with balloons and everything, and I was completely confused. I totally walked over to the table like "Umm, what's going on?" and everyone yells "Happy Birthday!" It was so awesome! That's the 1st time anyone has ever thrown a surprise party for me. I don't have a whole lot of friends in Colorado, but almost
ALL of them were there. And we actually celebrated Paul and Caleb's birthdays as well as their birthdays were last week. So, the three of us all enjoyed an awesome day together celebrating our birthdays together. And because my wife is awesome, she totally made me this birthday cake.
Yesterday was a truly amazing day that I will remember for many years to come.
Topic: Late Fall Paved Adventure (Read 2223 times)