What ride do you have planned for tomorrow?

[kwells]

Just occured to me that I dont have to work tomorrow... I should probably go ride somewhere.

[h2olawyer]

I'm taking a short ride to the Loveland - Ft. Collins Airport.  The "Wings Of Freedom" aircraft display is in town.  Tours of a B-17, a B-24 & a B-25.  Also offering rides ($325 - $400 for 1/2 hour - out of my price range).  There's also an airport open house & car show going on.  Might go on a short tour of the foothills as well, but the traffic will be fairly heavy.

H₂O

[Night Vision]

I'm going on a 25th. anniversary ride tomorrow.... with our without the bride

[Aelwulf]

I'll probably drop by to visit samsr if he's avaiable for the replacement license light (gotta remember to call and find out when I get up lol) then just bum around somewhere.  I've got plans from about 3 on so won't be too long.

[inanecathode]

F**king hell i need to get my bike fixed ><

[Coil Coyle]

I have an address now. I'm riding the "Flying Pig" to the Oregon DMV to pick up a Drivers Manual and then home to study for my license change. Then I can start registering the Visions.
;)
Coil

[Night Vision]

gahh... rained out today in the 'nor east, so I did two things I don't do very often....

washed and waxed SmokeBomb and
got driving lessons from the wife   >:(  went shopping with the wife  :P

[Aelwulf]

Didn't get to ride it yesterday, wound up being pretty cruddy in the PM anyway.  Rode it to work this morning, bit cool after all the rain last night but other'n that nice so far.  Hopefully ride home will be too. :)

[kwells]

man o man did I go for a ride yesterday.
I decided to take the sprint yesterday since it is built a bit more for longer distances and handled highways better.  I left out around noon from Lakewood(Denver) and headed south down 285 which is miles and miles of high speed sweepers as it winds through the foothills and then the turns tighten up some as the road yields to the canyons about 45 miles out.  I started to get rained on around this point but I kept going since it wasnt that bad and my tires still seems to be holding so long as I didn't touch the painted lines (that is a no-no!).  I got to Fairplay which is about 75 miles down 285 and I stopped for some lunch at Pizza Hut for about 30 mins.  After I ate I got back on and headed toward Buena Vista (where most of the rafting companies operate from).  I saw that I was driving right into a coal black rain storm and decided to put the rain gear on.  Of course it started to rain again but I was
After I got back moving again and about 3 miles up the road I noticed cars flashing me and waving their arms out the window at me. I kept going.  Then the hail came.  It was probably only pea-sized so I just ducked behind the windshield and kept going.  Then the next hill revealed an all white hail covered road.  I pulled over to what little shoulder there was and contemplated my next move.  As I sat there my instruments started getting covered in ice chunks and the water started running down the back of my neck. So once again I decided to keep moving since I was pretty exposed and I know from living in Chicago that hail is a  sign of tornado potential.   So now I'm driving back on 285 and the cars coming back the other way were covered in ice...I'm thinking to myself 'this is crazy'.  Then the hail turned to about the size of the big marble in the marble bag you got when you were a kid.  That made a loud thunk on the helmet when it hit and hurt when it hit my wrists.  I wish I could have gotten pictures but I was under heavy fire and had to preserve my neck first.  After about 15 mins of riding through hail it turned back to rain and then subsided as I came into Buena Vista. 
I managed to snap a pic of the rafting company we were thinking about doing in a couple weekends but the storm was chasing me down pretty fast so I got going quick.
Then I broke off toward Salida and onto the Royal Gorge area. It was a cool ride along the Arkansas river and through the canyon all the way to Salida.  The looming storm I just went through kept me moving at a good pace through the terrain.  I turned onto what would soon become a dirt road toward the South Rim of the Royal Gorge but I was basically lost and running low on fuel, and it looked really nasty ahead, so I stopped after about 15 miles and snapped  a few pics.






I turned around and headed back to where I broke off from the main road (50) and then got the main Royal Gorge entrance at the north Rim.  Once there I paid my 13 bucks and went across the bridge and snapped some more pics. 











Turns out the Royal Gorge Bridge puts you 1053 ft above the river.  That's pretty high up there. I did get to catch a cool sunset from there.

Then realized it was the 4th of July and I was supposed to go to fireworks back in Denver.  What I didnt realize is that I had ventured something like 160 miles away of Denver and I had said I'd be back in about an hour.....ha.  It took me two.  I-25 is notoriously fast and you can cover some distance when doing 120mph.  Don't worry I did slow down to 100 when I had to.  Hope it was as good a read as it was a ride. 

[Aelwulf]

Dang. lol You probably got caught in the same hailstorm that hit central Springs.  There was a swirling cloud over Peterson apparently as well but never became a tornado.

[h2olawyer]

Nice write & ride!  Fairplay is where Matt Stone & Trey Parker grew up.  They are the guys responsible for "South Park".

I've never seen the Royal 'Gouge' bridge from above.  Just looking up from the river (which is some pretty hairy whitewater).  Can't believe it's 13 bucks to cross a bridge that doesn't go anywhere.  There's also an incline railroad that goes between the top of the gorge & the river.  That might be interesting.  Also, they have helicopter rides through the gorge.  Probably several other tourist trap shops up on the rim - just haven't been to that spot.

Hail is brutal to ride in.  I've done marble size once.  NEVER again!  I'll find a place to hide and wait for the storm to pass.  You look for a yellow to green tint to the clouds.  Those are the ones to avoid!  If the hail is pea sized or smaller, it isn't quite so bad.  Kind of like riding through a swarm of June Bugs.

I'll bet the road along the Arkansas river is pretty fun as well.  There's lots of sweepers in the section of canyon between Salida and Royal Gorge.  I knew I-25 was fast - didn't know it was that fast!

Good pix - added to the story well.

H2O

[Aelwulf]

I knew I-25 was fast - didn't know it was that fast!

Only if it's not rush hour and you can avoid the cops in the construction areas. ;)

[kwells]

Most people seemed to get over really quick when they saw the light getting larger in their mirrors.  I would ride on the left side as I approached to announce myself.  It was an effective tactic and only had to pass on the right twice in the 104 mile stretch of i-25.  All in all I logged 398 miles on my journey.   I was tired when I got home and enjoyed my beer thoroughly.

[h2olawyer]

I knew I-25 was fast - didn't know it was that fast!

Only if it's not rush hour and you can avoid the cops in the construction areas. ;)

The construction & LEO concentration is heavier in the Colorado Springs area.  Most of the construction is finished north of Denver.  Still some major enforcement activities - but only sporadically.  I've gone from Ft. Collins to Denver without seeing any State Patrol & other trips, I see them every few miles.  Haven't found any real reasons for the difference in enforcement levels.  Probably somewhat random so the regular commuters don't catch on to any set schedule or special circumstances.

I was coming back to Ft. Collins last Summer, while the T-Rex project was still going.  I didn't hear about the lane constriction until it was too late.  They had I-25 down to 1 lane (Northbound) at the Broadway exit.  Traffic came to a crawl - too slow to coast with an automatic transmission - at Colorado Boulevard.  Three hours later, I made it through the jam.  Distance between those spots is about 2 miles.  Saw several cars run out of gas or overrheat which clogged things up even more.  Radio said to expect a half hour to 45 minute delay.  Then they started getting phone calls & quickly amended their reports.  At 5.5 hours, it was the second slowest trip I've made between the Springs & Ft. Collins.

The worst was the 6.5 hours it took a few years ago.  The CSU - CU game was at Mile High stadium in Denver.  The traffic back-up started near Loveland (about 10 miles South of Ft. Collins).  It cleared up after I passed the stadium.  The trip through Denver was the fastest part of the trip.  When I got to the Tech Center area, traffic was backed up for all the people headed to the Air Force - Oklahoma game.  Again, it cleared up after I passed the Northern exits for the Air Force Academy.  In normal traffic, it takes about 2.5 hours to make the trip.  I should have headed East & just driven the State & US highways East of the Denver area.  Would have taken 3.5 or 4 hours, but the traffic wouldn't have been bad.

H₂O

[Tanno]

Just occured to me that I dont have to work tomorrow... I should probably go ride somewhere.

So, let me know the next time you go. I've never been to the Royal Gorge. I'd love to ride out there.

I went riding yesterday over trail ridge to Grand Lake. Ate there, then on down to Burthoud Pass and through the Golden exit off I-70 down to Boulder and back to Longmont. A friend (non Vision) went along - as he hasn't seen much of Colorado.

Can we do a Sunday sometime?