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 :)