Only getting tire wear on the bottom of the tires!! ;)

The weather has kept us home bound for most of the month, did manage to get in 110 miles on the "battery charging" Loop Run on Tuesday! The temps don't look good for this upcoming weekend, down in the 20-30 F range. Since we can't afford "electric" vest's and gloves, that's just TOO COLD get out and ride, RATS!! :(  We've got 19,300 miles on the Odo, seems like a lot for all the short rides we do, alas Too many Roads, Too little MONEY, LOL! ;)  Time to start planning next years overnighters and hopefully a vacation ride or two, ah dreams, the only thing that's still FREE in this world. Have a merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a awesome New Years!

Just charging the battery!

Not much going on this time of year, mainly doing our "battery charge" rides and getting in whatever miles possible between snow and cold!  Took a ride on Weds. just a nice 130 miler, it was cloudy put the temps were close to 60 F so I actually had on "too many" layers, LOL!  This time of year we mostly do either south or east runs and after awhile you run out of new roads and have to just do a lot of the same old ride.

That's fine with me, ANYTIME I'm on the bike and riding the road, it's what really makes me happy! There's just nothing like it and I sure hope I can continue doing it till I'm 80 or so, (at least another 20 years!), that would be as close to heaven on earth as this old fat guy is gona get! ;)  Time to start planning (hoping) on where our two-wheel'd magic carpet is going to take us in 2016. Hope your able to get a ride in between the storms! :)

Be careful out there!!!!!

We've been mainly doing our "battery charger" runs lately, putting on between 100 and 150 miles a mix of Interstate and high speed highways. We've notice a lot of "stupid" cage drivers out their, that can't seem to keep their minds on driving!! That and even mother nature seems to be gunning for us, we just got into the hamlet of, Florence, CO. and a deer popped up right in front of us, lucky I saw the first "leg" and got hard on the brakes!  We got hauled down fast enough to let him go by but it was kinda close.

As we continued on CO 67 S. we had another "deer" episode with a small family of deer trying to cross the highway but we had a lot more time to stop. It's really amazing how easy they can jump a fence, with hardly any running room!!  So as the days grow short, watch out for both the two and four legged crazies out there!  Doesn't look like were going to get in a Thanksgiving day ride as the weather guesser's are talking snow or freezing drizzle and low temps to boot. RATS.

Took the Sporty out on Tuesday, since the upcoming weekend looks really COLD and crummy and was greeted by hellish WINDS, heading down I-25 S. to Pueblo and then west on CO. Hwy. 50 to Penrose, CO. I bet it was doing 60 mph. or better and I decided to cut the ride short and head home via CO. Hwy. 115 N., it wasn't quite as windy due to the rolling hills on that road! Hope the weather is better where you are and you can RIDE! :)

A sweet ride to Bent's Old Fort

We had the most excellent almost 300 mile ride out on the eastern half of Southern CO. There is a adobe replica Fort/Trading Post just outside of La Junta, CO. Called "Bent's Old Fort". They have guided tours or you can just walk around and check out the fort. We started out from Colorado Springs, headed east on Hwy. 24, picked up CO. Hwy. 94 and headed out into the flatlands and prairies of Colorado.

It's 62 miles of open country two lane road, with hardly any traffic and vast views. Headed for Pumkin Center, which use to be a cafe/gas station/post office but is now just a private home at the corner of Hwy. 94 and Hwy. 71, we headed South on Hwy. 71 which is more open prairie heading to Rocky Ford, CO. to pick up CO. Hwy. 50 E. into the town of La Junta. The fort is about 10 miles outside of La Junta, just look for the signs, which takes you on a back hwy. The Fort parking lot is a ways from the fort itself, if you need a ride (golf cart), one of the rangers will come get you. We enjoyed the walk down the path, past a couple of wild donky's and were greeted by a lady ranger in "period costume" .  Since we've been here before we didn't take the tour, just took a few photo's, then headed back into La Junta for some lunch. After a quick Micky D's burger we headed back on CO. Hwy. 50 W. towards Pueblo, CO. it's 60 miles and we were running out of daylight as we turned onto I-25 N. back to the Springs!. A warm sunny, November day, just totally awesome!! :)
 

The fort cemetery with the only headstone left after a flood

The path to the fort

Jo in the General Store with period items

The Fur Press, Bent's Fort was a military and a trading post, with the closest town being "600 miles" away in MO. 

A view from the Stables up to the 2nd. floor of the Fort.

One of the two Canon implacements to ward off the bad guys! ;)

The Rec Room with the Pool Table that also was an operating table if needed, it's HUGE!

A view looking north from the south upper level

a view looking west from the eastside upper level

That time of year!

It's getting to the time of year we do a lot of the "same" local area rides, the days are shorter and there's a lot colder starts! Last Sunday we put on 150 miles just putt'in on local roads, one of our favorite is CO. Hwy. 50, thru Big Horn Sheep Canyon.  The road winds along the Arkansas River and with the lower sun, it really makes the river "shine" in the open places. It was a sweet sunny day, in the middle 60 degree F, temps. and we just enjoyed being out on the Sporty.

We stopped at Micky D's for lunch as we were a bit POOR, money wise, we picked up a "Roofing Staple" in our rear tire and had to come up with almost $200 for the tire and $100 for the labor to put it on and that really KILLED the budget for any longer rides, RATS! :(  Still we enjoy any miles we can put on the machine, that let's us "Get out of Dodge" for a spell, LOL! ;)

CO. Hwy. 50 rides right along the Arkansas River, between Canon City and Salida, CO.

One last Color Ride!

Jo and I headed south on I-25 to Colorado City, picked up CO. Hwy. 165 N. up to San Isabel and San Isabel Lake on Saturday, Oct. 10th. Most of the Aspens have lost their color in the higher mountains but there is still some decent color in the lower mnts. We really enjoy the ride on 165 it's twisty and very scenic. 

 

 

The lake has a walking trail all the way around it and lot of folks were doing their best to catch a fish or two. Just up the road is the hamlet of San Isabel with a decent cafe and you can rent paddle boats too! From there we continued on 165 N. to the 165/96 Junction at the top of Hardscrabble Pass, turned left and headed to Westcliffe, CO.  At the end of the main drag is the new community center and bowling alley with Rustler's Cafe. They make a excellent Red Chilli and Cheese Fries, add a rootbeer and we are in heaven! After than we pick up CO. Hwy. 69 to Texas Creek, then 50 E. into Canon City. Finally 115 N. back into Colorado Springs! It was great to get up and see some color before old man winter makes it impossible! :)

High Country Toy Run: CANCELLED, we gave anyway! :)

We headed out in the FOG for Pikes Peak Harley-Davidson, which with the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum, lends it's parking lot for the yearly, High Country Toy Run, which sponsors the "Toys For Tot's" program put on by the US Marines. Usually there is a "ride" from PPHD to downtown Colorado Springs, CO. where the toys are collected and a really good $7 lunch is provided by Cowboy's Night Club and all the monies go to buying "More Toys"!

This is normally a "Police" escorted run but the City of Colorado Springs decided it wanted to change the status of the event to a "City Wide Event", which cost's DOUBLE and requires a long paperwork process. The organizers couldn't afford the cost's so the Toy Run was cancelled! Still the Toy's For Tot's program, went ahead and did their set up at PPHD and hundred's of riders showed up with "TOY's" for local area needy kids, even in the FOG! It's a great feeling to give back and know that some child will have something under their tree for Christmas Day! :)

After dropping off the toys we headed out north on Hwy. 83 and 105 to Monument but the weather got worse so we headed south to pick up Hwy. 115 towards Penrose and Canon City. The sunshine finally come out and we enjoyed our kickbacked ride. Had a Meatball sub in Florence, rode into Canon City and then back home to the Springs. Hopefully next year the City will decide to "support" the Charity Toy Run, if not we will be there and give anyway! :) Below is a link to Channel 13 News broadcast for Toys for Tot's 2015!
Channel 13 News Toys For Tot's 2015

Color Ride thru Breckenridge

We decided it was time to get up into the real mountains and see what color was left before the snow starts flying up at 10,000ft. +. We headed out Hwy. 24 over Ute and Wilkerson Passes, then up CO. Hwy. 9N. to Breckenridge over the wild and wholly Hoosier Pass, with it's 10 mph. twisty turns for several miles!! It was a perfect day, just cool enough to need the liners in our summer jackets and leather "non-vented" gloves.  There was some good color left but all the pull off's to take pictures where sandy, dirt and we didn't want to take the chance of dumping the bike! We got to Breckenridge which you can tell is a SKI town as the trails are very visible from anywhere in the town. We stopped at a 7-11 for gas and took a couple of photos from the parking lot.

Quite a view from the town and the Easter Egg Blue Sky was beautiful, we got a "Big Bite" hotdog and root beer and just enjoyed the view. If your into bicycling they have a wonderful long trail from Leadville to Breckenridge, totally off the roadway!!  We headed on 9 N. up to Dillion, CO. and picked up I-70 E. back to C470 S. into Littleton, then headed for Selida to pick up CO. 105 S. into Palmer Lake, CO. and back home to the Springs!. Almost 300 miles double up on the Sportster but it was a GREAT RIDE! :)

Solder's Suicide Awareness Run

On Sunday we rode in the Fort Carson Solder's Suicide Awareness Run, the run started at Fort Carson just outside Gate 1, which has the Solder's Museum and several tanks, ect. on display so Jo and I got our photo's with a couple of unit's. The day was awesome mid70's and lot's of sunshine, the Poker Run headed south, then east thru a lot of Southern CO. on a mix of interstate and back country highways.  We added a bit of great sweepers by choosing to pick up CO. Hwy. 120, thru Portland, it's always FUN, with very little if any traffic and ends up back on CO. Hwy. 50 E. as we headed to Pueblo and Outpost H-D for our third stop.

The idea of the run is to show support for active duty and Vet's that are really having problems with suicide and to make more "aware" and give support! The run was FREE, and it was really set up excellently. After we headed back to the last stop in Fountain, So. CO. American Legion Riders Post, held a lunch and even had a rocking band called the "Geezers", LOL. They had prize drawings and free cake and pie! We've been to many expensive Poker Runs, that weren't anywhere as good as this run! Pls. think about riding with the Run next year, it will be the 3rd. annual and it's so very important to show our support! 

A rare photo of us together, this tank looks serious even setting still!

This is the starting point at Gate 1 at Fort Carson, CO. 

Senior Enlisted person, explaining the purpose for the RUN

Second Poker Run stop in Florence, CO.

Up on Cripple Creek

We headed out of C. Springs, up Ute Pass (Hwy. 24 W.) to Divide to pick up CO. 72 S. heading to Cripple Creek. This is a very scenic route with lot's of 30 mph. twisty's that comes into a mountain valley, where we picked up Teller Co. Rd. 81 into Goldfield and Victor, CO. This road is almost void of traffic and is constant sweeper, filled with mountain views and aspens just starting to turn colors for fall!  If your heading to Cripple Creek, take the road into Victor first and then go to Cripple Creek from there.

One of the few Paved pullover's on Hwy. 67 to Cripple Creek

Lot's of these 30 mph curves on both CO. 72 and Teller Co. Rd. 81, FUN! :)

We headed out of Victor to Cripple Creek on more twisty roads and since they were having a big custom car shop downtown we took a back street and headed out of town on Teller Co. Rd. 1 and a stop at the Cripple Creek General Store for a snack and water. Continued on Teller Co. Rd. 1 to Evergreen and picked up Teller Co. Rd. 11 heading west. This is a very open road full of sweepers and some twisty stuff to keep you awake! ;)  the road finally ends a CO. Hwy. 9, we headed south to pick up CO. Hwy. 50 E. into Canon City for a stop a dairy queen for a dip cone. LOL, it's easy to see why we don't call ourselves BIKERS isn't it! ;) Afte that it was head for home back in the Springs, 160 miles of mostly twisty roads, can't beat that! Soon the fall colors will be glowing on these roads!

The Highway of Legends, CO Hwy. 12

Last Sunday we headed way down south in So. CO. to ride CO. Hwy. 12, "The highway of legends". This is a excellent almost 70 miles of back country road that goes from La Veta, CO. to Trinidad, CO. The only bad thing is that you have to ride 60 miles of Interstate, I-25 S. from our home in the Springs but it's not a bad ride.

From C. Springs, you ride to Walsenburg, CO. to pick up CO. 160 W. to CO. 12, it's got awesome mountain views and every type of road from open, to sweepers to 20 mph. twisty's! About half way there is a beautiful mountain Lake, called Monument Lake so we stopped to enjoy the "very" blue water and take a break!

Monument Lake is very BLUE!

After the Lake we headed into the tiny hamlet of "Stonewall, CO." and had a GREAT Club sandwich at the cafe in the back of the General Store:

The food is GREAT!

We rode the rest of the way into Trinidad and picked up I-25 N. and headed back to Walsenburg for a pit stop and gas and I had to take a photo of this custom H-D, check out the 30 inch front wheel on this bagger!

The young lady rider who own's it was really proud of it and it's not a show bike, they were on their way to Taos, NM. for a overnight stay! Now that both us and the bike were refreshed we again headed up I-25 N. back to Home! A little over 300 miles for the day and some big smiles! :)

Just riding around

Due to lack of funds we just did a 100 mile ride on Saturday and decided to stop at Pikes Peak Motorsports, here in Co. Springs to check out a different trike. The new Spyder F3, they call a "sport cruiser", it's very different than the Spyder RT/RS/ST models and has really excellent adjust ability for different sizes of riders!

Stock Can-AM F3 Spyder

This is what we'd like to make it perfect for US!

 We really like the F3, it's got a more mellow feel and has better seating for the passenger. Alas their not cheap, you looking at $22,500 with all the accessories, that we would like to have but still it's cheaper than the H-D Freewheeler, which starts at almost $26,000 without any accessories! LOL, we will be riding the H-D Sportster for at least "two" more years, I gota wait for my Social Security to start before we could afford a larger montly payment. Still it's FUN checking out all the "3-wheel'ed" rides! :)

Overnight ride to Estes Park, CO.

We took a ride up to Estes Park, CO. on Weds., August 19th. and stayed over night. We really love the the town of Estes Park, it's just a cool place to walk around, with lot's of babbling brooks, fountains and even a old fashion "water wheel"!

Jo next to the wooden water wheel!

The town is in a mountain valley and the river runs right thru it, it's got lot's of shops of all kinds and many great places to eat! We stopped for dinner at a little Pizza and sandwich place that has the patio seat on the river!

A view from our patio table! 

We walked the whole town and came back via a "free shuttle bus" from our motel, that was just across from Lake Estes. Wish we had lot's of bucks as there were a lot of neat things we'd have liked to buy, although we'd have to have all shipped home, LOL! :)  The ride up started on I-25N out of Co. Springs up to Castle Rock, CO. and Hwy. CO. 86 to C-470 bypass up to I-70 west. Then we got into the mountains via CO. Hwy. 119, then CO. 72 thru Central City and Blackhawk, (Gambling Towns!), the roads were filled with 30 mph corners and great views, even though it was pretty hazy due to the BIG FIRES north of Colorado! It was a fun ride flowing with the river up to Hwy. CO. 7 that takes you the back way into Estes Park.

After dinner we walked the river trail back to the Visitor Center to pick up our shuttle back to the motel. We stopped for a nice waterfall and then LOL, tried to play a tune on the "chimes" by the river.

The night was COLD and rainy but the next day dawned sunny and chilly we headed back towards home on CO. Hwy. 36 a very sweet set of mellow twistys for 20 miles. Then CO. Hwy. 66 thru the fields and on to I-25 S. for the quick ride home to Co. Springs. Over 300 miles total and a very good time! :)

Just catching up!

Well it's been awhile since I've posted so here's what's been happening! LOL, not much, we've been out on several short rides lately as we had to come up with $500+ dollars for new tires ft. and rear and the "labor" to have them installed, YIKES! We really like our Sporty Super Low but the tires SUCK as they are really sportbike tires and just don't last very long when you use the bike for mostly highway riding.

The real bummer is that NO tire mfg'er. except the OEM Michelin tires the MotorCompany had made with properly fit the the 883 Super Low model, arrugh!! This might be the "one" reason that we may be forced to go to a different Harley-Davidson machine or even a different brand of machine in the future!!! We will be doing a overnight run up to Estes Park, CO. on August 18th. it will be great to get up into the REAL mountains even if it's only for a couple of days! It's been so rainy this summer that we haven't done a lot of longer rides, well that and the having to come up with "hundreds" of dollars for TIRES that wear out wayyyy to fast, jmho!

We really do enjoy the way our local H-D dealership has event's going on all year and really like the way the dealership treats us, just with the Harley-Davidson Motor Corp. would be more inclined to listening to our request for a "longer" lasting "dual-compound" tread type distance tire for the Super Low model, but that has been a total waste of my time, basically they don't give a DAMN! I'm just supposed to "TRADE UP" and we just don't have the funds to do that! Maybe in 2 to 2.5 years when I get my Social Security, we MIGHT be able to afford a higher monthly payment for a more "touring" machine!  LOL, ok, I'll quit my rant, as stated, really looking forward to getting up in the Rockies next week! Have a most excellent day!

BJ :)

A short ride and then some unexpected Demo Rides!

We headed out for short ride as we had monthly "Game Night" with friends on this Saturday, we put on 120 miles on one of our normal northern routes and ended back a Pikes Peak Harley-Davidson for a burger and dog hot off the grill! We were getting ready to leave and Pat, the Gen. Mgr. of PPHD, told us he saw me getting a Demo Ride on a Can-Am Spyder RT touring trike at their "non-Harely-Davidson" dealership, Pikes Peak Motorsports (Can-Am, BMW, Triumph) and asked us to "Demo" both the Harley-Davidson Trikes, (Tri-Glide and Freewheeler) and give him our opinion of the differences both Pro and Con so we headed out lst. on the Tri-Glide:

This is H-D's Touring Trike, it's got all the bells and whistles and is between $33 and 36,000 dollars MSRP!

We "really" liked this machine, it's got full 6 in. digital dash with multi-functions a sweet stereo system and both a large trunk and a top trunk! It was very comfortable and has great looks. The problem for us is the "PRICE", ouch! If we ever hit the loto this would be the H-D trike we'd buy!

The other is new for 2015 is called the "Freewheeler", it's more of a "bobed" style and only has the one trunk and not anywhere near the "overall Room" for "riding TWO-UP". Since it's MUCH lighter than the Tri-Glide the 103CI motor really makes this trike haul-bunns at a twist of the throttle! The passenger part of the seat is kinda DUMB, it "slants" downward at the rear which would "force" you to buy the "backrest" as an expensive accessory. IMHO, the Freewheeler is a FUN machine for a "Single" rider but for double up, the Tri-Glide wins, hands down!

This is the "FUN" trike, called the Freewheeler, kinda a bare bones trike platform that starts at $25,000 dollars MSRP!

The "trike" we were comparing these two Harley-Davidson's against is a Can-Am RT, which is the full touring version of the Can-Am family of trikes and it's starter MSRP is $25,000:

 It's got a front trunk and smaller trunk in the passenger backrest and is nicely equipped for the the same MSRP as the totally "stock" H-D Freewheeler. In the end, for the $25,000 we'd probably purchase the Can-Am Spyder RT but as the RT-S model is around 30,000+ we'd probably suck up the extra cost's and get the "Harley-Davidson Tri-Glide"!

The Sporty really likes this kinda RIDE!

On Sunday we headed out to get in a ride and decided to just stay on the highways, both 2 and 4 lanes instead of ridding "twisty" back roads. We found that our 2014 Harely-Davidson 883 Sportster, Super Low doesn't really like "hardcore twisty" roads as much as it seems to be made for "2 lane highway" riding. That's ok with us, we did a LOT of twisty roads riding on our sport tourer's we've owned in the past. The H-D loves the open road, not interstate, which it does well but the 2 lane back country highways!

We headed up the pass, (Ute Pass) thru Woodland Park and Divide, CO. on Hwy. 24 West. Our first stop was going to be the Ranger Station at Wilkerson Pass but sadly it was closed so we headed into Hartsel, CO. to get a drink and snack at the tiny hamlet's general store! Headed back a bit to pick up CO. Hwy. 9 S that is 60 miles of open two lane highway with great views and ends on CO. 50, where we headed east into Canon City, CO. (pronounced: Canyon), then continuing on Hwy. 50 we picked up CO. Hwy. 115 N. out of Penrose and back to the home front in Colorado Springs. Close to 200 miles and a very enjoyable ride! :)

Harley-Davidson Worldwide RIDE weekend!

We rode with a group out of Pikes Peak H-D, here in Colorado Springs on a "Conservation Ride" on Saturday! For $10, H-D corporate is buying "trees" to plant to maintain forest areas so we payed up and go a nice 100 mile ride, free pancake breakfast and then their was a "live" band and a after party back at the dealership after the ride!

Rest stop for the group in Salida, CO. The flag is on a local eatery!

The BAND was jam'in! :)

Just a view from our chairs in the shade!

On Sunday we added to our "Worldwide RIDE" mileage count by putting on 180 miles in the Southern CO. mountains. We headed down  to Florence to pick up CO. Hwy. 67 S. and then headed west on CO. Hwy. 69 W. on some excellent twisty roads over "Hardscrabble Pass" and into the hamlet of Westcliffe, CO. for one of the best "mountain views" you'll see and a great plate of "Chili-cheese fries" at the cafe inside the local bowling alley/Meeting hall!

This is at the end of the main drag in Westcliffe, CO. just across from the cafe, the view is almost 180 degree peaks of the San Juan Mountain Range! After lunch we headed back South on CO. Hwy. 69 (not 96!!) to Texas Creek and CO. Hwy. 50 E. for a great run through the "Big Horn Sheep Canyon" along the fast flowing Arkansas River. As we glided on the road, we watched rafters challenging the river, personally I'd rather be on the road as the water is bit mean looking this year! :O Into Canon City and back to CO. Hwy. 115 N. into Colorado Springs and home and NO RAIN!!! YEA!! We did a total of 300 miles to add to the Harley-Davidson Worldwide RIDE total for the USA riders, it was excellent ! :)