Colorado Grand Tour

[h2olawyer]

Well, I'm finally sure enough of my stator to head out on a long ride.  Left Ft. Collins on Sunday morning and rode I-25 to Denver, then I-70 to Loveland Pass.  Then back to I-70 for Vail Pass and turning south for Tennessee Pass.  Into Leadville, then over Independence Pass and down near Aspen for a campsite.  End of day 1.

Today, we left Aspen, traveled through Carbondale and headed south over McClure Pass.  Then over Grand Mesa and I'm now typing this at the Grand Junction KOA, where we rented a Kabin for the night.  Interesting day today.  We saw a whole ton of vintage Ferraris, Jags, some Mercedes 300 Gullwings and a plethora of fantastic rides.  Great seeing all those cars out on the roads!

Tomorrow, we head to Durango, via the Dolores River Canyon and Lizard Head Pass.  A day @ Mesa Verde and a day riding the narrow gauge train from Durango to Silverton and back.  Head back north on Friday over Red Mountain, North, Poncha and Kenosha passes.  Only 2 days getting home - fewer miles and straighter roads.

I've been dragging toes on corners this trip.  Guess I need to change my foot position a little, but I'm pretty well trapped in one position because of all the stuff.

Photos below are of the bikes @ Camp Hale - where the 10th Mountain Division trained during WWII.  Also the pass sign specially taken for Lucky & YellowJacket!





Hope y'all are having as much fun as I am!  Developed a starter issue yesterday.  Won't spin when hot, but does fine after it cools for about 10 minutes.  Oh well, at least it push starts really easy!

H₂O

[Raj1988]

Yay, Starter issues... Don't turn of the ignition in a valley

[Raj1988]

Also would love to hear your thoughts on the VFR as a touring bike as compared to the V

[don_vanecek]

Wow buddy, that's quite a load you carried on this trip, I don't think I've ever had mine loaded that much although weight wise the wife and I together (at least on what few trips she has gone with me in the last three years) would compress that rear tire more I'm sure then all your bags and other equipment.

Sounds like you had quite a trip!

[h2olawyer]

Well, it has been bump starting really easily.  Found a loose ground cable today - maybe that has been part of the issue.  Stuck the battery on a charger (I brought my good one) for a couple hours, then hooked it all back up.  Cranked slowly at first, then picked up speed & sounded better than it has all trip.  Hope we've got it somewhat fixed.

The load looks like a lot, but it isn't real heavy.  The down sleeping bag takes up most of the top load, along with my laptop and the tail trunk with my sweatpants, sweatshirt, fleece cap, warm gloves and camera kit.  One side bag has my clothes and the other has my tennis shoes, charger, belt, toiletry kit and first aid kit.  Tank bag has 100oz water bag, tons of earplugs, keys, stove, spare face shield, food, etc.

today's ride was FANTASTIC!!!  We left Grand Junction and headed south through the Unaweep / Tabaguache canyon.  Half way along is the town of Gateway.  The founder of The Discovery Channel built a nice resort there and has a fine auto museum.  Anyone watching the Barrett Jackson Auction a few years ago might remember the prototype Oldsmobile F-88 that sold for $3 million.  That car is the centerpiece of the display.  We only spent an hour there because of the long ride ahead.  I could waste a couple days in that museum!  They have Auburns, Cords, early Cadillacs, lots of really nice Fords, Lincolns and a couple Mercurys.  Just too much to list, really.

The road through that canyon is all fast sweepers.  speed limit varies between 45 & 65 but we spent most of our time well over those numbers.  Feeling more comfortable & confident with every mile.  Still tend to slow a bit much heading into blind corners, but that's improving as well.  Following a good, smooth rider like Jim on his VFR really helps.

The VFR makes a fine sport tourer.  This one is an '04.  He put modified cartridges in the forks and a better rear shock on it and it rides like a dream.  However, we both had really tired butts about an hour from our stopping point - the KOA in Durango.

Tomorrow, we head for Mesa Verde in the AM and some hot springs in the PM.  Not a ton of riding - around 120 miles round trip to Mesa Verde and another 50 or so for the hot springs.  I'll remember to take the SD card out of the computer and put it in my snapshot camera tomorrow.  Forgot today, so I only have the huge pix from my DSLR (12.1MP).  Need to have time to work with those before I can post them.  Jim took lots of pix today, so I'll have many to post when the trip ends on Saturday.  I'll try to get them up on Sunday.

Been through lots of really pretty country and over some gnarly passes.  On the open roads, the V is running awesome.  Now, if we have the starter improved, the rest of the trip should go even better!

Will post a couple more pix tomorrow.  Just too wiped out to do any more computer stuff tonight.

H₂O

[h2olawyer]

Another day & more adventure.

We explored some 900+ year old ruins at Mesa Verde National Park today.  Got up with the sun and made a mad dash 40 miles west to get through before the heat set in.  I was at Mesa Verde in the early 1980s and had seen Cliff Palace - the most famous ruin.  Today, we chose to see Balcony House.  Since my last visit, they now require tickets for ranger guided tours of the ruins.  You used to be able to just go and explore on your own.

Anyway, Balcony House is the most difficult ruin to access - at least of those open to the public.  You start out by going down a trail and some stairs - about 150 feet below the rim of the canyon.  No big deal here.  Next, you need to climb a 30 foot ladder to get to the ruin.  Lots of great stories about why they built in the alcoves of the cliffs and what some of the architectural details may have been used for.

Having difficulties uploading the pix to Photobucket - I'll try again later.  The WiFi here @ KOA is PAINFULLY slow!









No bike pix today.  Stator is still stating.  Starter is still SNAFU.  Works fine when cold.  Draws too much current when hot.  Even a starter rock is no help.

H₂O

[Tiger]

 :) That looks like a great ride vacation your having there h2o...enjoy  8)

          8).......TIGER....... 8)
ps Keep the reports coming... ;)

[Cdnlouie]

Nice pics...got to come down the way soon.  Maybe next summer...I'm gearing up for a western tour, just need to get enough vacation time to do it.  I think I'll take a sabbatical.

Ride on...and always park on a hill!

[h2olawyer]

Only about 20 minutes of bike seat time today!  I was ready for a break.  We've covered about 700 miles since we left Ft. Collins last Sunday morning.  Today, we  rode into Durango and got on the narrow gauge train for the 3 hour ride up to Silverton - about 45 miles away.  Took lots of pix & video.  The little Aiptek 1080p HD camera is fantastic for these types of trips.  The section of the ride that is cut into the cliff and about 450 feet above the Las Animas River is amazing.  Only took video of that section.

Bummed around Silverton for a couple hours, ate lunch at the Shady Lady Saloon.  It was the last "House of Ill Repute" operating in Silverton.  Madam Jew Fannie closed the doors for the last time in 1947.

Pix from today and the final 2 trip days between here & Ft. Collins tomorrow & Saturday will have to wait for me to get home.  Starter totally gave up today.  So, I scope out hills to park at the top of everywhere we stop.  When Jim wants to stop for photos, I typically ride ahead slowly (closer to speed limit) and let him take the pix then catch up.  We hope to do a couple video passes on Red Mountain Pass tomorrow morning.  I'll see if I can take one in You Tube format for public posting.  No promises . . .

The V is amazing.  4 straight days of being rode hard & put away wet and other than the starter, she's running beautifully!  Yesterday, I made it 150 miles between fill-ups and didn't hit reserve.  Don't like to push it that far, but at least I know I can if necessary.  Tomorrow, we head for Gunnison via Molas Divide & Red Mountain Pass (aka The Million Dollar Highway), through Ouray (where parts of True Grit were filmed) up to Montrose, then east past Blue Mesa Reservoir to Gunnison and then toward Crested Butte for a campsite.  Saturday takes us over North Pass, Poncha Pass & Kenosha Pass.  None are really demanding like Red Mountain or Independence, but they are there, so we sill ride them.

Best road so far - Whitewater to Naturita, through Gateway.  Full of really fast sweepers and a few tight, technical sections to keep you on your toes.  We typically rode @ speed limit + 20.   ;D  100 miles and the longest straight might have been 1/2 mile.  I had a two day perma-grin from that experience.

Tomorrow should be the most spectacular - Red Mountain Pass is one of the national gems.  Not a fast road, but the scenery is awesome.  Through the heart of the San Juan Mountains.  Surrounded by many peaks over 14,000 feet.  The area is also known as the Rooftop of America.

All for now.  Gotta catch some ZZZZZZZZZZs.

H₂O 

[h2olawyer]

Made it home, safe & sound!

Fast riding for 1.5 days got me home before 2PM today.  Over 1500 miles total.  Stator still stating, flux capacitor . . .fluxing.  Definitely need to order & install a starter rebuild kit.

Had some issues on the ride home.  Engine started cutting out when it got thoroughly heat soaked.  stop, wait about 10 minutes and it was good for another 60 - 70 miles.  Figured i'd try running with the choke on a little bit & that helped some.  No low end power, but no top end cutout either.  That experiment yielded another unexpected result.  The bike ran cooler.  Looks like there might be some gunk in some passages in the carbs.

We left Durango around 9AM Friday.  Headed up Coal Bank Hill, Molas Divide and Red Mountain Pass.  Incredible roads.  Lots of tight turns and often no guard rails between the road and precipitous drops of over 1000 feet.  At the bottom of Red Mountain Pass - on the north end is Ouray.  They filmed some of True Grit there.  We rode through and stopped a little farther down the road, in Ridgeway.  Had a gatorade and some jerky then headed for Montrose.  Filled the tank there and headed east to Gunnison.  More miles of fast sweepers and skirting around Blue Mesa Reservoir.  Lunch in Gunnison, then we skipped Monarch Pass and went over North Cochetopa Pass into Saguache, 70 miles of curvy roads in 65 minutes.  Then north to Buena Vista for the night.

Left Buena Vista around 9 this morning and rode the final passes - Red Dirt hill and Kenosha Pass.  We rode through Fairplay, but didn't see Kenny, Kyle, Stan, Cartman or even Butters.  Fairplay is the only real town in the South Park (yes, it REALLY exists) area.  Rode on down into Denver on US285, through Pine, Bailey & Morrison.  Hopped onto I-70 to I-76 to I-25 and came north.  Stopped near Dacono for the final fuel stop - 140 miles from Buena Vista.  As we dropped into Denver, we came into a cloud bank.  First clouds of any type since we left last Sunday.  It was misting a bit all the way north on I-25 but no real problem.  Twice, I went over 140 miles on a tank & never hit reserve.  Haven't done a careful analysis of my figures, but I seem to have averaged about 44 - 45 MPG.  Just a bit better than the historical average for my V.

Have a ton of photos to sort through and post to Photobucket tonight / tomorrow.  Will post the best of what I have in the next few days.

Thought the V might do a "Bluesmobile" when I pulled into the driveway today, but it just shut down normally and seemed nearly as content to be home as I am.

H₂O

[Brian Moffet]

That experiment yielded another unexpected result.  The bike ran cooler.  Looks like there might be some gunk in some passages in the carbs.

If you run rich you will run cooler.  Your exhaust gas temps will be lower, and your head temps will be lower.  The problem is that you'll tend to go through plugs faster and you will use more fuel.

Congrats on what looks like a good trip!

FYI,
Brian

[h2olawyer]

Thanks, Brian.  I knew about cooler running when set richer, but the only time I tried using the V's choke to see if it would run cooler, it hardly ran at all.  This time, it ran better and cooler as well.  Thus my inkling that the carbs have some sort of issue.  For years, my V's temp gauge has stayed near the top of the green - just below the fan turning on.  I typically run with the fan on to help keep things cooler, but I have a choice of either the fan or the aux. lights.  Preferring safety on this trip, I had the lights on most of the time.

I'll be tearing the V down quite a ways this winter and 'reinstalling' the good I've taken out of it over the last 10,000+ miles since I did most of the upgrades & refurbishing.  It needs enough work now that I might just let it sit for a while.  I've got a week long Star Party in Oklahoma the first week of October and need to get stuff together for that trip.  So, the earliest I can get to anything bike related at this point is mid October.  Figure at least a week of working on various systems and I'm nearing the end of October.  Pretty much the end of riding season here.

So, I'll take some time, gradually amass the parts I need, take some stuff to the paint folks to get spruced up, replace the fairing screen, fix the exhaust leak, adjust the valves, rebuild the starter, install new fork seals and have a nearly new V next spring.  Might even finally complete the swap to the 83 fuel system!  Still contemplating that idea.

H₂O

[Cdnlouie]

Congratulations on a great trip...enjoyed the reports and hope to use some of the info on a trip of my own out west in the near future.

I am curious whether you have checked out your thermostat? You should not be running so hot.  I would pull that thermostat (perhaps completely in hot weather) to see if it makes a difference and just how much difference.  This is a very easy thing to do (a few minutes of work).  Or I would definitely replace it with something that opens at a cooler temperature and see how that works out.  Or the original thermostats have a screw that allows adjustments which should be set to open ASAP.

Heat is a killer of you know what....that dreaded "S" word, and we don't want to talk about that ancient memory.  I would take a very close look at this heat issue...right away H2o.  I would be doing something to knock that needle back...way back.

If your carbs are a bit rich then iridium plugs are a great option and cover a multitude of sin (things that are not necessarily good for the V) and help with starting too.

Glad you made it home with a great biking memory!  Thanks for sharing it!

[h2olawyer]

Here are a few more pix -

From the road:


The Road going up the west side of Tennessee Pass


A view of Mount Massive and the road up the east side of Independence Pass


Riding buddy (and friend since grade school) Jim on top of Independence Pass


View from the top of Molas Divide (also a pass @ over 11,000 feet)

H₂O

[h2olawyer]

Photos from the rail excursion -


Our vintage coach


The train chugging along the Animas River


And one in front of the Kabin in Durango

[Cdnlouie]

Ok...I'm in for next summer! That's my kind of country.  If I can arrange enough holiday time I'm in for a western trip.  I have some friends in Denver that I would love to see and I'm an east coast mountain guy so time to visit the west!

Very nice!

[h2olawyer]

Congratulations on a great trip...enjoyed the reports and hope to use some of the info on a trip of my own out west in the near future.

I am curious whether you have checked out your thermostat? You should not be running so hot.

If your carbs are a bit rich then iridium plugs are a great option and cover a multitude of sin (things that are not necessarily good for the V) and help with starting too.

Glad you made it home with a great biking memory!  Thanks for sharing it!

Thanks for the hints!  Let me know when you are headed out - I know most of the mountain areas in Colorado fairly well.  Can also provide helpful hints for Wyoming & Utah.

I adjusted the thermostat years ago - but may have gone the wrong way with the screw.  I'll look into it when I do the refurbishing this winter.  I might just replace it with a 160F unit.  It's been a hot running bike since I bought it.

The carbs are actually a bit lean - as Brian pointed out, that also leads to warmer running temps.  When I pulled the plugs for a look this Spring, they were a really nice light brown.  Only problem starting is when its been sitting for a while (multiple days).

I put the stator through a real torture test this trip.  1500+ miles & lots of heat - the day through the Dolores River Canyon was around 90F.  A hundred miles of fast sweepers with a section of tight twisties tossed in - all uphill.  That stator now has 2500 miles on it and is still charging strong (knocking heavily on wood).

We rode a total of 13 summits exceeding 10,000 feet in elevation.  Longest section of straight road (excluding the Interstates) was about 1.5 miles.  Many, many miles @ around 80MPH.  Most technical roads were Independence Pass and Red Mountain Pass.  Most beautiful - for fall color - US285 through South Park this morning.  For awe inspiring mountains - Coal Bank Hill / Molas Divide / Red Mountain Pass.  Smiles per mile - Dolores River Canyon.

Jim's VFR is a tremendous sport tourer.  Just kept running like John Cameron Swayze's Timex.  The only thing I can find wrong with it is the manufacturer - most Hondas don't seem to have much soul, but the VFR is different.  That V4 has a distinctive sound and plenty of power.  For more 'civilized' touring, the newer ST looks pretty good, too.  (Just my opinion.)

The V is serviceable for a sport tourer, but I don't really want to put a whole ton more miles on mine.  Keep it for the fun roads around home and get something newer & larger for extended trips.  Not ready for the Gold Wing set (or any other 'full tourer') yet.  The V still had decent power at higher elevations, but I could have used more in a few places to get around slower traffic.  (insert Tim Taylor grunt here)  Guess it's approaching time to join the modern era.

H₂O

[Brian Moffet]

Thanks, Brian.  I knew about cooler running when set richer, but the only time I tried using the V's choke to see if it would run cooler, it hardly ran at all.  This time, it ran better and cooler as well.  Thus my inkling that the carbs have some sort of issue.

Ah, my bike will run with the choke on a little bit, even when hot.  It certainly runs better without it though. I thought you were talking about something along those lines.  Of course, if I thought about it, given your altitude you would normally be running rich anyway...

Brian

[h2olawyer]

Got the starter rebuild kit ordered this morning - it has already shipped!  Considered finding a local starter rebuilder but decided to go with the kit since it comes with the large, external "O" rings and was under $30 with free shipping.  Should be here by the weekend & I will do that job and look into the thermostat at the same time.  There is also a small exhaust leak @ the rear cylinder / "Y" pipe connection.  Not sure whether to tackle that now or wait until I tear deeper into it over the winter.  Also need to check valve clearances.  Might just be easiest to drop the front of the engine for that job and do the exhaust at the same time.

H₂O