Afternoon Colorado Ride

[Tanno]

Who's up for a ride this afternoon? It's 2:00 now, the sooner the better.

[Tanno]

I guess not....I'm taking off. :(

[h2olawyer]

I was supposed to meet kwells & Alewulf sometime around noon up the St. Vrain Canyon.  Never heard from them about when they left Littleton.  I went up to Estes Park - where the heavens opened up on me for about 5 minutes.  Had some light rain back down to around Drake.  then it got HOT.  The thermometer on my dash showed 105.   ::)  Just got home and I'm major dehydrated.  That's about the hottest I've ever been on a bike.

Wish I'd seen your post before I left - we could have met in Lyons & gone from there.  Oh well - there's lots of riding left before it's time to get the skis out again.

H₂O

[inanecathode]

Hey! I saw you guys! I heard visions coming up 119 through black hawk, looked to the road and theres a couple Vs, one with a shark fairing i think, and one had a red jacketed rider.
Yall just trying to make me jealous ><

[kwells]

yo, innane ...that was us...stopped by buy didnt see ya.  H20....tried to call you a few times...hung out at the 72 and 7 intersection before and after lunch and then went on to lyons from there.  Aelwulf is here hangin out for a min then back off to his southern domain.  It was damn hot coming back on 93 south from boulder...I got vapor lock while riding and had to pull over....

[h2olawyer]

If you tried my cell #, I'm currently without.  Figuring out what I want to do.  Called you on my land line & left a message before I left.  Thought you were going to post before you left your place.  I had absolutely no idea when you left your place, so I didn't know when to leave home.  By the time I decided to leave, it was about 1PM.  Figured you would be elsewhere by then. 

I just went up to Estes Park via the back roads.  Nice & cool (relatively) up there especially with the rainstorm I hit.

H₂O

[kwells]

yah, it did cool off...Aelwulf was running late this morn so we just took off...he just took off from my place and I think he got drenched by a monsoon that hit about 5 mins after...
just ran out and got some 1/4 fuel injector line hoping that fixes my prob. That stuff was almost $5/foot!   It has an extra(blue) layer on the inside as well as the normal reinforced black outer line.  I will also try to get the line as short as possible.

[h2olawyer]

Great minds think alike.  I got some fuel injection line a couple days ago.  Replaced my line from petcock to fuel filter.  Had absolutely no vapor lock / fuel starvation issues at all today.  Guess my theory of the fuel line getting soft in the heat & crimping must have been most - if not all - the problem.  The 'Vision stumble' had been getting worse over time lately & that's about cleared up as well!   ;D

I made the new section of line a little longer and there's a little less angle than there was.  If this fix gets soft & crimps again, I have another idea - but I'll need to take the tank off to run the new line between the filter & fuel pump.  With the 90 degree filter, I can run a straight line from petcock to filter, then the filter makes the sharp bend.  The section from the filter to the pump will be a more gentle curve.

My tank was really hissing when I got home.  The pressure buildup in there was intense today!

Worked on some curve techniques today.  Entered corners a bit faster than my comfort level and learned a few things.  The chicken strips are now a bit narrower!  I took the Devil's Gulch Road from Drake to Estes Park.  It has lots of twisty bits & four tight switchbacks that rival some of those on Mt. Evans.  Also much less traffic than Big Thompson Canyon.  Caught two guys on BMW R bikes and hung with them for a while - 'til they turned off.  Know I can still ride corners faster, but I made a decent leap forward today.

With me at the North end & Alewulf at the South, we have Tanno, Inanecathode, kwells & comatt all within the front range.  We need to get together for a Lookout Mountain ride before Alewulf leaves to join those left coasters!  If not Lookout, then some of the roads heading out to the base of Mt. Evans.  Or we could all meet at Inanecathode's and decide where to go from there.  Would be nice to have the current 6 CoROVers all together for a ride.

H₂O

[kwells]

Here's what I ended up using


It isnt all that much thicker but I think it is much stronger.

My old routing I think left something to be desired


But I remembered that H20 gave me a 90 degree sintered brass filter so I put it to work


No more bends necessary and it no longer is zip tied to the frame where it can get even hotter.  Plus it is so much shorter that I think there is simply less area exposed to the heat.  I ran the new line all the way to the fuel pump just in case that was the culprit. 

[h2olawyer]

If mine starts to give troubles again, that's the same routing I was planning to use.  For now, I have the filter up higher & the line to the fuel pump ends right at the hose bracket on the carb frame.  The section from the filter to the petcock makes close to a 90 degree bend.  That's where I was getting the crimp problem.  The fuel injection line stays open better than standard fuel line.

I found my fuel injection line at Auto Zone.  18 inches made by GoodYear & about $7.  I have plenty to use on the 83 carbs when I finish that project.

H₂O

[kwells]

I'm thinking about doing some ride tomorrow but I have no idea where.  Anyone (COROV) have any thoughts?
Wanna test out my new set of tubes

[h2olawyer]

Don't you want to wait for those amazing carbs you recently got?   :D

Today was just too hot for me & Sunday is supposed to be even hotter.  Will get out during the week in the early morning hours for a couple rides.  See if I can beat both the heat & the traffic.

Besides, there's F1, the British Open and MotoGP on the tube in air conditioned comfort on Sunday.

If we shoot for next weekend, maybe Tanno, Inanecathode & comatt can hook up with us.  Hopefully this heat wave will subside a bit by then as well.

H₂O

[kwells]

yeah I cant wait to get those carbs.
I dont know if I can sit around for long...Most likely I'll be doing something above 7k so the temps should be much nicer.  I actually got cold today doing peak to peak.  We got rained on about 4 times but it kept the temps down.
No matter what I think I'll avoid the morrison and clear creek area to escape the cagers.  Maybe mt. evans or berthoud pass will do.  I've yet to hit up independence pass though....hmmmm

[Tanno]

I'm definately up for a ride next weekend. I'm game for Friday and/or Saturday.

I'm sorry I posted so late, but I do work night shift and I was just up early and wanted to ride.

2pm may not be early for you dayshifters, but I don't normally get up until 2:30-3pm.

I will get up earlier when/if there is an appointment to meet.  ;D ;D

[Aelwulf]

Yeah, I got a l'il doused just after leaving your place.  It was a bit heavy for a minute but goin' up to Alameda it slacked off.  Note: Alameda from your side seems to dead-end at Colorado but there's another on the other side, not sure where it picks up again.  Jewell also seems to run all the way over there to Peoria and possibly the 225 area.  While trying to get my bearings again around Cherry Creek I got rained on a l'il more, then another small sprinkle just before I reached the place I was goin' to.  That makes seven showers for yesterday's 10% chance of rain. :P And my gear is not waterproof, although the core body part of the jacket might be as that seemed to stay pretty dry.  Just my sleeves and pants got soaked through (dang rain gear's in Cali already).

I had an odd issue this morning.  I finished last night around 3am, crashed on a friend's couch.  Parked the Vision and the fan went for a few seconds then shut off as normal.  Went to bed around 5 and got up heading out to warm it up around 9:30.  When I get out there the fan's running for no reason.  The system isn't drained too much yet so probably hadn't been going for long but it wouldn't start.  By the time Rob got up so I could borrow his jumper cables and truck battery it'd gone dead.  It started right up with the cavles, idled it with the throttle a smidge for 5-10 minutes which charged it enough to idle on its own again.  Then I got my gear on and headed to the Springs (with just enough gas to make it back without stopping).

Is there a switch or solenoid on the fan?  That might be going bad and somehow stuck open while sitting there.  That or maybe a shorted wire?  Any other ideas?  I could still ride it but if it dies I'm hosed so waiting until it's fixed.

If it's done by next week I might be up for something on Sunday.  Friday I have to work and Saturday I'm likely going to the Ren Faire as it's the last weekend.

Good job on the fix.  I did like that glass filter but it looks a lot cleaner now, should help a lot :)

[Tanno]

What do you guys think about coal creek canyon road? Is it a good ride or not?

[kwells]

which one is coal creek canyon? 

Today's ride was a friggin long one. I started off by hitting the duo of Lookout Mtn and the buffalo bill section and then jumped on to I-70W til I got the the Blackhawk exit and then cruised up 119 til I got to Innane's work. I stopped off and distracted him for a few mins and then headed on to do Peak-to-Peak.  After some tasty bbq I went through Rocky Mtn National Park and then toward Winter Park.  Berthoud pass was a supreme blast as always.  Then going down the backside of Berthoud pass was the usual dull cager traffic and aroma of burning brakes.  Just when Im ready to head home I got back on I-70E to Denver but alas it wasn't meant to be and there was miles of brake lights.   I hung on until the next exit and took the adjacent service road until I got to Idaho Springs....oh yeah baby....Mt. Evans(rt 103).  So another gas stop got me primed for another round of edge leaning curves.  By now it was actually sunset so most of the daytrippers were already stuck on I-70...more for me! I was actually pretty tired so I was sorta racing through the course compared to normal.  Once I got to Bergen Park I headed off to Evergreen and then through Morrison.  All in all I did 267 miles and it took me about 8 hours to do the loop.  My arse is pretty sore.  That was a good ride but I didn't stop to snap even one photo.

[h2olawyer]

Coal Creek Canyon runs from Arvada to just South of Nederland.  I've never even seen it.  Looking at the map, it looks like a ton of fun if the surface is any good.  It is a State Hwy, so it shouldn't be too bad.  Maybe lots of tar snakes.

Sounds like a good ride today!  How is the construction over the top of Trail Ridge Road these days?

H₂O

[kwells]

Well I lucked out and got the light in my direction when I got up to it.  It was down to one lane for about 1/2 mile.  The cars in the other direction were backed up about 3/4 mile and most were out of their vehicles or off their bikes.  Wasn't too bad driving on it...some patches of gravel but no worse than any other bad road I've been on.

Coal Creek canyon looks like it would be a much better way to do peak to peak.  Rt 6 and 119 seems to be where new harley riders and cagers like to gander at the canyons.

[Tanno]

I don't know if CCC would be a better way, but probably a less traveled way. Not as congested as hwy 6.

Kwells, I'm going to have to ride w/ you someday. ;D You go on the longest rides. :o I don't know enough of the back country roads to know what goes where. I hate getting to deadends. >:( I like going and going and still able to get back without taking the same road if at all possible. You do just about that. 8) But, hell... I haven't had to fill up again while on a ride yet. :) That is some ridin'.  ;D