Jump to content

HispanicSlammer

Forum CEO
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    6,954

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    61

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by HispanicSlammer

  1. HispanicSlammer
    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/pigchasingpirates.mp4
     

    I was itching for another out of state ride, the NY ride was going on around the same time up in the Catskills but boy I just could not swing that much time off it takes 4 days just to get there reasonably and no way I am gonna ride interstate the whole way out there! I decided I wanted to ride the Ozarks again. So I contacted a bunch of vfrd people who live relatively close to the Ozarks and a few who live close to me and low and behold found out that a bunch of Texans lead by Dutchintercepter where already going. Turns out they were all from around the Tyler Texas area and have known each other for years. I have known and ridden with Dutch for a few years myself so I asked if I could tag along. "Sure" he said and soon I was on my way to Arkansas.

    It was a bit of a gamble since I would work the night before leaving, I asked my boss if I could leave at 4am so I could get in a nap and he agreed it was OK, so I would be somewhat awake. I found out from an email list that one of my favorite musicians was playing in Lawrence KS so I bought tickets and headed for Lawrence Thursday morning, I skipped my nap and headed strait for KS in the pre dawn moonlight. I was excited I would get the chance to see Pat Metheny play again - I have seen him once before in Denver 15 years ago and was delighted. I was going to head into Oklahoma and pick up gswanson and then head to the Ozarks but the Pat Mentheny gig was too tempting. Lawrence KS is the home of KU the Jayhawks and its not too far from Topeka KS where Lee2002 lives and he asked me more then once to come and stay with him. I thought a good deal about it but did not think it was fair to show up at 3 in the afternoon and then go strait to bed for 3 hours! So I headed to a motel in Lawrence and did exactly that. The trip out to Lawrence was rather windy and well crazy. I was blowing gusts of 50 mph in Colorado as the sun came up, and cold about 40 degrees on the plains near Kit Carson Colorado I was freaking cold I ended up stopping to put on a layer of clothes under my transit suit and thicker gloves.

    Colorado was the worst part since the road was 2 lanes and bumpy, bumpy and windy is a sucky combination and will it plays havoc with your gas mileage! 130 miles and my tank gage was flashing already! Good thing there was a solitary gas pump in Kit Carson, I filled it up and was rather amazed at the amount of traffic there was at 4 and 5 am in the morning on the way of of Colorado springs, lines of cars rolling into the Shriver air base and into Colorado Springs it was crazy, folks live out in the sticks and a whole bunch of them, commuting every day from out there must be a real chore!

    I made my way strait east to Oakley KS for another fill up since well the wind was still blowing 30mph but more steady and not so gusty and the smooth interstate made for a much nicer ride to be honest, the wind wasn't so bad anymore and I could cruise and listen to music for the rest of the day. Only my ear buds stopped working! Jeez, I pulled them out and stuck in foam ear plugs and boy everything got quiet and serene - even the 30 mph wind was quiet and I just cruised down the interstate with 50 miles more per tank then I got in Colorado! All damn day long the wind was relentless! I stopped again in Hays for a burger at a steak burger place called Freddie's good stuff! I like that place, not so much Hays but the burger made for a nice meal. Then I put my head down and settled in for the rest of the ride, the further east I went the less windy it got, so much so that each town would get a little less brown and a little more green, more trees popped up and the moisture in air became noticeable, still windy mind you it did not go away but it wasn't killing me anymore!

    I could see signs up for places like Abilene KS - good place to live and have a career? What? OK good for you Abilene, I suppose it goes along with the Abortion is a sin signs on hwy 50 - Kansas is a conflicted state, strait up bible thumping fire and brimstone side by side with heartland hospitality? I guess the further west and windier it gets the crazier it is! By the time I made Topeka I waved at Lee thinking "well hello sorry I will see you come next summer summit", I really wanted him to come along on the trip but hes only go so much time off and family matters pressed the weekend out. So I rolled into Lawrence on some back road to avoid the toll on I-70 and had to stop for a crazy accident , a car had gone off the road and over an embankment cops everywhere! I finally rolled into the hotel and got my key then laid down and set the alarm for 6pm and dosed off for a nap, up for 24 hours is not good! But I think I could have rode another 300 miles if there were some twisties to keep me awake!

    I woke up and headed for the Theater and was surprised to see Lee standing on the corner waving at me to park his bike next to his! Wow I did and walked up to him in disbelief I was not expecting to see him there? He chastised me for not staying at his place and I explained myself and well it worked out - turns out Lawrence has a first rate brewpub its right next door to the Liberty Hall theater where Pat was playing so we stopped in and got a brew and talked for a bit, Lee just sort of had a little did not even have a drink really handed me his beer after I finished mine, he had to go to work at 11pm so he was just being nice. I was glad he stopped over, way way out of his way to come meet me. Lawrence is a nice place, and there was a very large group of folks at the show, it was amazing, I said goodbye to Lee and walked in sat down and 2 seconds later Pat came out and started playing a whole list of my favorites and a few new ones, just a duet and a scaled down version of his Orchestron, a one man band computerized synthesizer that he did some amazing music with. Just him his guitar and a bass player, and the Orchestron. He is a very gifted musician. He even played my favorite tune of his.

    Great show and afterward I walked next door and sampled another beer from the Free State Brewery again, and listened to the local conversation about meth labs from a biker dude out on the patio, bantering back and forth with a lady about the state of the justice system and drug policy in the USA. In any case I had enough and went back and finished off the night with a big mac and fell asleep with the tv on back at the hotel.

    Up early in the morning surprised to see the parking lot mostly empty - boy these Kansas people get up early in the morning! I took off south and looked for back roads into Missouri apparently another vfrd member from Kansas saw the veefalo as she headed out of Lawrence while he was on his way to work at KU, Huskysooner saw me leaving and pm'ed me asking if that was really me! YUP! I met him a few years ago at Lees Kansas meet in Topeka.

    I stopped in Baldwin City KS for breakfast knowing I was gonna be alright speeding when I left cause just about every cop in the county was having coffee in the restaurant in the next room over from mine, I had some eggs and listened to the locals joke - some guy comes in he says "hello darling" to the lady at the table next to mine and she says "well if you call me darling what do you call your wife"? He says back "old bag"! Then he says "maybe thats why I have been married four times"?

    Like I said all the cops were still drinking coffee so I made my escape from Kansas in a big hurry doing some good time on the back roads trying for Harrissonville MO - but somehow I got ahead of myself and had already turned off just blindly following the gps route I made the night before and passed right through it without even knowing it! I was gonna look for a new set of ear buds since my singing to myself was getting tiresome! That area of Missouri is a bit flat, but allot of trees and the further east you go the more the roads get like roller coasters, not many turns just a lot of undulating up and down and some of it quite dramatic you can catch some air if you are going fast! And I was - and I did! Thrills come cheap on a motorcycle! I just kept on going and going and going then I turned on a familiar road I have been one 3 times before or so I thought I did? I ended up taking a frontage road and not the main road and had to double back, strange place called Tightwad MO! Lakes around there are nice, and further up the road I missed the turn, and ended up going through Warsaw a couple of times cause I missed the right turn on hwy 65. Then I turned off that road again onto hwy 7 another road I know from before - this one still is a roller coaster but it has some turns in it. Unfortunately the locals like to think they can race you when you get behind them and proceed to make their vehicles go faster then they are capable of safely driving! Dude in a beat up Chevy pickup tried to hold me off as long as he could and the oncoming traffic is the only reason I waited patiently behind him as he drover over the double yellow a number of times and then onto the dirt shoulder in the right turns, what an idiot. I saw a dotted line and clear lane and was past him so fast he had no idea - then he disappeared in the mirrors just as fast!

    I stopped in Lebanon MO at the walmart and was back in business with tunes when I picked up some JVC mushroom buds, the fit just right and isolate the sound just as good as the foam earplugs I was using, best of all my rendition of "landslide" by Fleetwood Mac in my head was finally over - why do I torture myself with the same tune over and over again, who knew you can make that song last 3 hours if you sing it half assed half remembered lyrics and made up lyrics to fill in the parts I did not remember! Thank goodness for walmart!

    Well I have had just about enough of the up and down roller coaster shit of Missouri and well almost 1 mile into Arkansas the road started to turn RIGHT AND THEN LEFT - oh yea I forgot what that was! TURNS THESE ARE TURNS and good ones too! I turned off at hwy 178 to follow along Bull Shoals Damn and ran smack into a nightmare of traffic? I don't know why all the businesses were closed and 80% of the buildings were shuttered? It was depressing but I did get to see the Bull Shoals Damn! I am sorry for the bad pics the camera was set to low resolution quite by accident.
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     

    The road got interesting after I got past the lake, and the traffic thinned down, I got behind a caddy of all things that was keeping a very good pace in the turns, I got around him soon enough and he stayed with me a bit until the turns got tighter and tighter then I was gone, and there was Yellville up ahead - I pulled into the Carlton Motel and saw a bunch of bikes from Dutch's Tyler Texas group and talked with the guys, then about an hour later Gswanson pulled in with 2lthr (Gary and Steve) and then Dutch himself pulled in on a KLR? I see he tells me hes parting out the black viffer cause he cant deal with all the electrical issues and wont sell it outright cause he does not want to pass that mess on to somebody else? Rumor has it hes gonna pick up Gswansons old Betty? Gary got a RWB vtec last year but still has his 5th gen in the garage. Its already black!

    Then here comes flavadave and his girl on the back 2up, we walked over to the bbq joint down the road and had some grub. Dutch joined us, it was good, the food in Yellville is OK but not great, but the BBQ was the right price (CHEAP).

    The next day the Texas crew took off onto destinations their own and I had prepared a route for the viffer group, down the fast sweepers on MO 14 and over to Push Mountain for an early morning romp - we actually ended up behind one of the Texas guys Dutch's buddy on his Bandit, he lead us up to Push mountain and said he was just going to run it a few times and go back. I was rocking it pretty good on the veefalo when all of a sudden a fast moving red blur went by and I could swear it was another vfr1200! sure enough it was but he did not stop. Everybody thought I had turned around and was coming back since I was leading and got ahead just 2 of use alone for a while me and Steve.
     
     
     
     

     

    Then we headed over to North Fork and took in the sights at the North Fork Damn
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     

    Then we settled in to some great roads all day long for 350 or so miles of Ozark bliss! I call it the Ozark lullaby since some of the roads just sweep back in forth like a waltz, and you just get a great rhythm going, then we came up on hwy 16 and then the fun started it was more challenging and technical, I did not remember it being so much fun I love that road, one of my favorites and I think I like it best of all of them personally, Pulled in for a stop at Pelsor and then we hit hwy 123 as seen in the video above, those pirates would not get out of the way! I had to pass the whole group on a long bowl between two hills with a mile long passing lane at full speed, full speed cause the lead pirate tried to speed up his HD to hold me off? I guess 110 hp and 170hp v4 is a big mismatch! He got small in the mirrors too! The only thing in them anymore after the next few turns was 3 vfrs behind me they all made it safe around the pirates!

    Douche bags on Harley's think they own the road? Why not just let the faster bikes pass and be done with it? Jeez? Back to the motel and more food at the café down the road it wasn't bad - it was a buffet! Then beer and sleep! Most of the Texas crew was already back so it was an all night party and BS session! Good folks these Tyler riders, most of them are on two wheeled Texans a bigger site then vfrd and they all know each other!
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     

    The next day I found out that the pirates were a small percentage of the Harley's in Arkansas that weekend - Blues Bikes and BBQ was in Fayetteville for the weekend rally some 10000 cruisers in the Western Ozarks - good thing they limit themselves to 200 miles or less cause we were far enough east to avoid them for the most part except that group on hwy 123, its a famous road and is featured on most sites and motorcycle maps as a destination, the 10mph hairpins on Mount Judea are the attraction. I personally like the sweepers better especially when there are no Pirates on them!

    Too bad we had to go west past that bunch of vagabonds! I decided to head into Oklahoma with Gary and Steve the next morning and stay in OKC with Gary - hes always such a good host. We took 100 across, and I made a route full of back roads and side trips off the main drags and for the most part we missed the horde! But it added an hour or two to our ride some 500 miles back to OKC! I lead from Yellville into Oklahoma and then Gary took over from there, and took me past Tinkiller Lake and cool side track with hills and turns in Oklahoma I was not expecting, good to know! Then 200 miles of strait boring road into Edmond, then Steve cut out for home and Gary and I made our way to his house and I got a great home cooked meal of beef stroganoff - Garys wife Cathy is a great cook, and a dog lover, they have so many dogs I cant remember how many there are, she liked the tee shirt I was wearing of my local brewpub cause it has a picture of a Lab on front! Laughing Lab the beer is called and so I told her when I got home I would get her one and send it in the mail!

    Gary had to work in the morning and always commutes on the bike when the weather allows so we were up before sunrise and I was off on the road myself back to Colorado, and sure enough the further west I got the more the wind started blowing soon it was like Kansas all over again! I headed across the Pan handle and that bumpy mess - budump..badump..budump..bang (a big pot hole) badump.. for about 2 hours strait! I was relieved to be back across the boarder and into Colorado but the very south eastern tip of it, meaning another 2 hours to go at least. I found a road that skirts along the Comanche National Grasslands into into the Northern tip of Pinion Canyon and enjoyed a western change of scenery after 6 hours of plains plains and more plains, but then I was back onto the plains when I came out of it.

    I stopped in Rocky Ford for a cold drink and was sitting in the shade by the side of the gas station, on a milk crate when an old Hispanic man came up and walked past, then a few minutes later he came out of the store and stopped to talk to me.

    He says "did you see that couple arguing at the gas pump"?
    Me "No sir"?
    He says " the woman was yelling at him.. its your baby I know it is yours"!
    Then he says "the guy was yelling back.. its not mine.. no its not"!
    Then he hits me again "the woman yelled and said I know for a fact its yours...the other 3 I am not so sure about"?

    He completely blind sided me with a joke and so I must have laughed for an hour strait! Old fart sucked me in, and got me! What a way to end an out of state ride.... come back home to jokes!
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
    pig chase.gpx
  2. HispanicSlammer
    Arapaho Peak Peak to Peak Highway w/ a new video
    Monday NOV 19th, yea thats right November its 72 degrees in the mountains and I was riding. Gotta save that for posterity, because tomorrow it is supposed to snow, and all this great riding weather will be gone. Back to cold days and tons of gravel in the corners. I was on the bike by 9am and heading up Ute pass, slowly since I wasn't sure what the roads would be like. It was like riding in summer, though I took all my cold weather gear and stowed it in the Givi trunk. I never needed it. It was like riding in the late afternoon all day cause the sun was so low in the sky, long shadows all day long. I gassed up in Woodland park after crawling up Ute Pass, I was soon on Deckers road heading west. I love this road but it sometimes scares me cause it was the scene of my first crash. So I always take it easy there, and it was a good thing, there was gravel in all the hard turns. Seems the Rednecks with dual wheels cant stay off the shoulder and they always kick gravel into the turns.
    Its always like that but today with the long shadows it was difficult to see so I took it slow, I was following a guy on a K1200S he was riding rather conservative - which was fine for a while, but once he saw me he waved me on by. It wasnt long before Horsepower hill was comming around the corner, where I would rev it up to top speed for the climb. Deckers road is really strange, its a fairly tight mountain road, and smack in the middle of it is a wide three lane highway that has been knicknamed Horsepower Hill by the locals. its a 5 mile climb up the mountain with fast sweepers all along the way, then up and over and back down the other side the fast sweepers continue. You can do the whole thing at triple digits if you have the nerve. Today I did and dropped mister Beemer in no time, at the top the road goes from 3 lanes back to 2 but the speed is the same and you end up in a curvy valley called "the bowl" you can really top it out there and then there is a long strait at the top of that that you can see for 2 miles. More top speed but I always slow down there - no more turns till you get to the bottom so whats the point? I didnt see the Beemer again till I stopped a half an hour later and he finally went by at Pine Junction. I had to get a drink of Red Bull to keep me alert. Working nights messes up my inner clock ya know.
    I tossed around hwy 285 for a bit, doing a nice back road called North Turkey Creek road and ended up in Morrison a half an hour later. I was stopped at the stop light pondering to turn left and head up Bear Creek Canyon or turn right and go into town. The light took for ever so I backed up a bit and headed into town - here I got the notion to do a loop up Golden Gate Canyon and back into Central City and do the Central City Parkway to I-70. It was only 1pm but I knew I only had a few more hours of daylight left to ride. I did end up doing Bear Creek Canyon 2 hours later after I finished the Denver loop, that was fun, lots of traffic as usual, but I had the tight parts to myself for a while. There was a guy riding an old Honda race bike, it looked like a small cc, not sure what year, it had dual shocks and it looked like a Cafe racer. He was riding slow so I passed him and waved as I went by and dissapeared into the next turn. Those skinny tires looked like mountain bike tires.
    GOLDEN GATE CANYON

    Video Preview
    :media: - Golden Gate Canyon Video
    I took my camera along not knowing what to film, I should have filmed Horsepower Hill cause I was really going fast on that, but instead I did half of Golden Gate Canyon. I started out going 7/10ths but upped it to 8 when I realized the road was good. You have to be careful this time of year. I stopped half way cause the bike was whobbling like it had a flat tire or somthing, I got off and looked at the tires and concluded the road was just bumpy like that. I then caught and passed the fella on the Norton a minute later - if you want to know. The video is the tight parts, no music just the V4, I cut out all the parts where I got stuck behind a car, or had to tiptoe through some slow gravel strewn road. 7 minutes long wmv format - I will upload it to youtube later if you dont like wmv movies.
    I saw about 20 bikes out and about - mostly Harleys and I waved at every one. There were lots of guys riding slow, but not me, I wanted to go go go. So I went alone today. I pretty much passed them all and waved at the ones going by. I only stopped for gas twice and once for a drink, the rest of the time I was rolling. I have done this double loop a number of times - it is really two loops combined, one out of Denver and one out of Colorado Springs and they intersect. Here are some map files below. It felt so good to be railing corners this late in the year!

  3. HispanicSlammer
    Every year I take at least two long out of state trips - usually associated with vfrd in some fashion or another, this last year 2011 was no exception. August is usually the time sombody organizes a PNW rally, usually in Canada or in Oregon - Superfunk, Choco, or Didit being the characters most involved with that in the last 3 years. I try to come when I can, time and money are the only thing holding me back, and usually those things are not so bad. I am thankful to have a decent job with lots of Personal Time (PTO) as they call it - I usually dont take time off for other things at all so it accrues rather generously for me for the most part, and I love my motorcycle adventures across the USA and Canada - perhaps in the future that will expand to other places as well, I have still a lot of the USA to explore, and Northern California was on that list for this trip.

    I decided in this blog entry to just write about the "getting there" part and include the video above of the Old Spiral Highway to show you all why I wanted to go! The roads in the Pacific North West are simply superb - and along the way too. The company I keep is second to none - most of this is true about VFRD members I have met, but this group is special to me since we have one hell of a good time together.
     
     
     
    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/osh11.mp4
     

    I did all my usual getting ready to ride stuff, oil change, new tires, check over the bike, do any scheduled maintenance, and pack - then unpack and remove any crap I don't really need and then do it again, (because most of the time you don't need half the stuff you bring). I remember meeting a guy on an Aprillia a few years back, stock seat, full leathers, did not even bring a back pack, just stuffed some underwear under his seat and brought his phone - he borrowed my charger even - NOW THAT IS SPARTEN sport touring. I have not yet come to that - no I bring at least 3 changes of clothes, cameras, mini lap top, phone, extra gas - (veefalo she has such a small tank), walking shoes, and shaving kit - OH AND TOOLS. So well I have not made that jump just yet! However I have come along way! He was riding from Oregon to Laguna Seca with lots of places to get stuff along the way, me I usually have to travel across some great expanse to get to where I am going with hundreds of miles between gas stations.

    Well anyway back to the story - I called my buddy Jack, a guy I met in the winter who rides a Connie 1998 vintage and hes a real character, perhaps not the fastest guy around but fun to hang out with for sure, and long in the tooth and gray as hair can get. I like him. He tells me meet up in Cripple Creek so we can take advantage of the $2 casino breakfast - Cripple Creek Colorado is about an hour away from my house in the mountains behind Pikes Peak and its a gambling town.
     
     
     
     

     

    So Jack and I sit down and bullshit over ham and eggs and an orange juice from a can (hey it was $2!) and then we take off toward hwy 50 to go ride the Black Canyon. Its an easy day, nice and sunny and a bit hot actually, Jack is riding close enough and I am not pushing it so we are having a good time, up and over Monarch Pass - its a good thing we were going slow cause a rare state patrol officer was on the pass in full patrol mode. My radar went off just as I had slowed down to get behind a car, I was ready to pass at the first opportunity so I got lucky. I did not say I was riding like a saint, I just said I was not riding as fast as I normally do, I had a bit of fun going up and down the pass. The thought of Jack behind me rolling along kept me from really burning it up and perhaps getting a ticket, I am not used to seeing State Patrol on the pass, usually they are in the plains down below and close to Gunnison.
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     

    We stopped in Gunnison for a sample of brew at the Gunnison Brewery (eww not so good) and a bite to eat and took off cause it was so so to not so good! Cant say I enjoyed that meal but Jack kept me entertained as usual with his stories. Hes got a lot of them and they are pretty good ones, the dude knows motorcycles thats for sure. Then we hit the Black Canyon and had an awful time there too cause well they just chip sealed the damn thing and left all this loose chip all over the place and so it was more like a dirt bike ride then a sport ride. Oh well we decided to forgo the Grand Mesa when we got to the stop at the half way point and just turn around and make up some time, the road was not much fun in that condition and to keep on going at that pace would have had us in Grand Junction at 9pm. The first 3 miles of the Canyon were good but after that NO.
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     

    So we just slabbed it from the Black Canyon on over to Grand Junction, we found a cheap motel and Jack talked the guy into $25 bucks apiece, and it was worth about that HEH. Oh who cares I slept good, and we went and got a great steak at wwpeppers, it was incredible - my boss told me about that place and it was worth the $$!

    Cheap room = good meal money!
     
     
     
     

     

    Then we walked over to the local brewery and had some excellent beers and talked up the sassy bartender, she was a hoot. Jack was in his element, funny as usual.
     
     
     
     
     

     

    In the Morning we took off early, I split with Jack and headed to Utah, I decided to make a morning trip into the Colorado National Monument right there on the west side of Grand Junction
     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     

    I thought I had gotten there early enough not to pay but they got me on the other side! Then speeding over the Interstate to get off and do Douglas Pass at incredible speed, I was having fun, but boy there was a lot of cars on it? One every minute it seemed but no cops! Most going the other way, so I did not have to pass too many cars. Into Utah I grabbed some lunch in Vernal and enjoyed the stuff on the walls, some really nice guns on display. Then I took off over the Flaming Gorge and had some fun riding up and down that, its really pretty the sand stone rocks and the cool blue water.
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     

    I shot over the pass and around that road all mired in RV's and Harleys. Shot past so fast those RV's with that big 12k cc engine pounding out the miles one by one - passing was just a matter of rolling on the throttle in 6th gear even up hill it was more then enough torque to get around those RV beasts, but the HD took a shift down to do that. It is mostly slab from then on, until I got to the Sawatch mountains, I was rolling into Mountain View Wyoming, just in the Utah notch there coming in and out of Utah, you got to go through Wyoming a bit - anyway the Radar was blasting so I slowed it down to a crawl and sure enough the local sherrif deputy was sitting in a ditch were you cant see him and hitting everything - he pulled out and followed me till I pulled in for gas and and just wanted to see the bike. Turns out he owns a 2006 vfr and wanted to see the new one, never heard of vfrd though? Jeez the word is not spreading! I dont think he is an internet type of guy anyway.

    So I pushed on over I-80 into Utah again and turned off Evaston to go ride the Sawatch. I took no pictures from here on to Ogden UT cause I was pushing for time and really really enjoyed coming down why 39 it is a fun road in the mountains east of Salt Lake, mostly nice sweepers and good chip seal. I like chip seal when its done right - its grippy as all get out when done right.

    Ogden is not my favorite place, big bad uncle sams bankers work there and its sort of just a strip mall with no so great resturants, well I haven't found any yet to put it more accurately, I found a decent motel and camped out for the night. I was on my way to Boise, and to spend a day with my Uncle Lonnie there, but on the way I would stop in Albion Idaho to my favorite resturant in Idaho - the Sage Brush Inn
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     

     

    It was a slow day so the owner came over and sat with me for a half an hour and shot the breeze very nice guy and he told me about this place called the city of rocks about 10 miles south of Albion I should go an visit, it is a rock climbers dream, world class climbers come from all over the world to scale the rocks there he said so I went and took a look!
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
     
     
     
     

     

    It was mostly hard packed dirt road - that is untill I climbed out of the park and into the valley below then it was chipped rock spread out over hard packed dirt road and slippery and slidy for 20 miles. I had a death grip on the bars cause it would slide out way too easy - but after 10 miles I relaxed and got used to the loose feeling a bit but damn dont let off the gas or use the brakes cause then you were tank slapping your way though 2 inches of loose rocks! I was glad to be back on the interstate after that and just cruised up to Boise and there my I met my uncle at his door, he let me in and we spent a good day catching up on things. The next part I will continue later, the ride to meet my Canadian riding buddies!
     
     
     
     
     

     
     
  4. HispanicSlammer
    Hwy 50 Ride with video
    A buddy of mine from work bought a brand new Bandit 1250 a couple of months ago, he has been comparing magazine articles and specs for over a year and every time having something disparaging to say about the vfr, displacements too low, no torque, quarter mile times. Anybody can read an article and make comparisons on paper, and as an engineer hes good at it, but how do you quantify reliability, or suspension, handling, all around good marks on a chart? So me and Craig decided to take him into the mountains for a 200 mile ride, just a bit of tight stuff but mostly sweepers where it is said "the Bandit rocks" as put it by "Mr Dude" other wise known as our friend Mark. He can talk, talk is what he is good at - and hear it you must cause it don't stop - Dude. However nothing talks like taking the walk! HEH
    So we met Mr Dude in Penrose and slowly headed up Hwy 50 to the Arkansas River Canyon and let it loose a bit. I had just replaced my fork seal and fork oil and made a few adjustments so I was feeling it out, no out and out full blast. As such Mr Dude still got a lesson on the vfr and its abilities. What can I say after a year of hearing about how inferior my bike is it was time to take a tally - real time! All I can say is Mr Dude was converted from dismissive to respectful of the vfr, calling it "A real sport bike" and in his own words - no coaching. Don't get me wrong we were not out to embarrass Mr Dude, just show him there is more to Motorcycling than what some Magazine has to say!

    Two vfrs waiting on a Bandit Penrose Colorado

    Sangre De Christo Mountains 40 miles away

    Downtown Salida Sunny blue skies and a good lunch and a snowcapped Mount Princeton

    Lunch at the 1st Street Café The owner herself served us then we got an unexpected surprise
    After riding through Salida we stopped for lunch downtown and had a good meal, a bit more expensive than I was expecting (might not visit again) but it was good none the less. The lady serving us was very good - cause as it turned out she owns the place. I could see her pictures on the wall with all sorts of celebrities, and locals. It is a very Homey restaurant I liked it! Just a bit on the pricey side.
    It was after lunch we met a lady who was telling us about her son, he too owns a vfr, and rides it all over the place. We asked her where she was from, somewhere back south, she told us about how her boy had taken a trip to Colorado and was a bit disappointed with the place, the guys he rode with where intimidating or something some such thing - he didn't like em I gathered. Then she started talking more about him and I realized it was us (those evil Colorado bastards) and I started laughing and asked her if her son was named Kevin. Then all of a sudden she realized it was us too - heh that was funny! I know it was our very own KPerham whom was her son. We talked some more and I asked her for her picture, and we parted ways - as friends she was a nice lady.

    Kperhams mom Met her in Salida - she was having lunch at the café in Salida small world

    The Royal Gorge Bridge as seen from Hwy 9

    Mark relaxing at the top of Skyline drive

    Canon City from above Skyline Drive

    Hwy 50 along Skyline Drive

    Stultz Tanner Trail a great dirt bike trail just across the valley from Canon City climbs 7k feet for what seems like forever
    We took off up to Johnson's Village along hwy 285, I told the guys to slow down cause for 5 years I drove that way to get home and I know its Cop city for those 12 miles, but no Mr Dude took off (he was on Craig's bike and Craig on his) and of course I caught site of Brake lights cause sure enough the place was crawling with cops - Like I said it would be! He must have slowed down enough cause we were not stopped, after passing 2 Sheriff and 2 State Troopers. It was nice to turn off on hwy 24 and get away from the fuzz as it where. There the road is pretty much strait and we all opened it up a bit, and to my surprise the Bandit wasn't pulling away!! Wow its got 400 more cc's why wha whe why?? I guess its because the vfr is a good bike, like I know it is! It was fun going fast for a while, then we turned at Hartsel and I just decided to whip it up some more on the tighter turns and I was gone. Whew that was fun but I did not have enough rebound damping cause I was getting all kinds of chatter in the forks, I had to stop and crank it a few clicks to get it to settle down. It wasn't long before we where in Canon City again and I took the guys up Skyline Drive for some fun and a rest Mr Dude had to go home and be a domestic Dad so we said goodbye and Craig and I turned back up Hwy 9 and went over to Guffy for a drink and some snack. Adding another 100 miles to the day on High Park Road into Woodland Park and on home down Ute Pass.


    :media: VFRD Rides Hwy 50 video - high resolution wmv 5 minutes runtime and music by Peter Gabriel
    The Map
    [map=AARTsJqtdztj9i2J3kMs3giW4b4utQT-hw]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=18086752673308926071,38.435390,-105.023940%3B2304405068511368783,38.456538,-105.250283%3B1004940598312102110,38.535369,-105.990338%3B11052650537941785435,39.021161,-105.799748&saddr=CO-115+%4038.435390,+-105.023940&daddr=Skyline+Dr+%4038.456538,+-105.250283+to:E+1st+St+%4038.535369,+-105.990338+to:US-24+%4039.021161,+-105.799748+to:38.456277,-105.251083&mra=mi&mrcr=3&mrsp=4&sz=11&sll=38.459503,-105.182419&sspn=0.311313,0.749817&ie=UTF8&ll=38.668356,-105.751648&spn=1.241617,2.999268&t=p&z=9[/map]
  5. HispanicSlammer
    Lake Isabel
    The Greenhorn Highway has always been one of my favorite Rides, also known as Bishops Castle ride, since the road takes you to ....Bishops Castle. Lately its been the site of much sorrow. A few crusier riders have gone off the road these last few months in some rather tricky turns, one fellow losing his life trying to turn a HD around a 30mph turn at 80mph going off into the rocks. At this same turn a coworker of mine from work - her husband lowsided his brand new Yamaha roadstar doing the same damn thing trying to stay in contact with his sport bime buddies and spend a couple of weeks in the ICU. ME? I take that same turn all the time without a worry in the world, but I know I can lean it over at say 90mph and not lose it, cause I know it is has a slight decrease of radius at the bottom and you have to tighten up your line slightly to stay in your lane. That is where the problem is, it suckers you into going off into the other lane and people panic and stand the bike up. Of course these wrecks where all in May before they swept off all the winter gravel and so there was an added danger factor of loose gravel as well - folks just not riding for the conditions is what caused most of these problems, not knowing the roads and going too fast!
    I like to go fast but today the wind was blustering at 30mph gusts in places and it seemed the narrow canyons around McKenzi Junction where funneling the wind rigth into me - so I slowed down, part of my new "dont force it" riding philosophy, ride naturally and my instincts where telling me to drop a few mph in favor of a safer ride. Of course I was still going faster than most cause I know this road like the back of my hand, so I went around a few other bikes - with plenty of room and way over in the passing lane (again not forcing it but passing naturally) and it just seemed to flow nicely. SO I turned on my camera at McKenzi Junction and left it on all they way past Bishops Castle on the way to Lake Isabel. I like to take a sandwitch and Picnic at the Lake.

    10 years 100000 miles!

    The Greenhorn Highway This is at the bottom of the road near wetmore
    The Map
    [map=AARTsJqK5x_99pbKTVWvmaGYpVqFVMAJoA]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=13023472482596864890,38.237460,-105.087020%3B16012930406249089554,38.164734,-105.190090%3B12961183773227682459,38.063890,-105.094550&saddr=CO-96+%4038.237460,+-105.087020&daddr=CO-96+%4038.164734,+-105.190090+to:CO-165+%4038.063890,+-105.094550+to:37.983987,-105.050583&mra=mi&mrcr=2&mrsp=3&sz=12&sll=37.980469,-104.956856&sspn=0.151003,0.354309&ie=UTF8&ll=38.136717,-105.096588&spn=0.602721,1.417236&t=p&z=10[/map]
    If map is blank right click and "refresh"

    Wetmore
    Mckenzi Junction
    Bishop's Castle
    Lake Isabel

    THE VIDEO

    :media: Riding the Greenhorn Highway Video - High Resolution wmv format - music by Urge Overkill
  6. HispanicSlammer
    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/1236161198_stove08.wmv.flv


    One of the great things about having a video camera is reliving the rides you did over the summer, and watching them again when winter time rolls around. This video I took after riding some 4000 miles up to Canada to attend the Kootenay Hootenanny. I had just rolled through Laramie Wyoming and stopped for lunch at some small chinese joint - sat down and looked at the map for somthing that could perk me up after having ridden much too much slab in Wyoming. I headed to Ted's Place, turned right and made my way up the Cache La Poudre till I found the turn off for Stove Prairie Road. I have only been on this road 3 times since its some 200 miles to the north of where I live and getting to it involves crossing the Denver Metro area or going WAY around on the Peak to Peak Highway, suffice it to say its not easy to get there from home.

    I gotta say I was not too thrilled about the dark clouds gathered in front of me as I set up my video camera but as usual Colorado weather is rather fickle in the summer and it only lasted a few miles before clear skies opened up again. I really enjoyed the road this time around, with all my touring gear strapped on for a long ride, and already spending 14 days in the saddle it was a welcome sight to see a nice clean twisty road after so much slab during the rest of the day. I did get a good scare, a long strait on the top of the Prairie invited me to open up the motor a bit only to find a whole heard of Cattle in the middle of the road not 200 feet from a blind rise. I crested it at some 70mph and hauled it down to 15mph just in time to weave my way past the Black Angus that where grazing on the weeds along the side of the road. You would think that Cows dont make good road signs , and that perhaps in order to save your investment it might be prudent to let them graze somewhere out of sight of the road? Thats the realitity of riding in the west, you have to watch for animals in the road!




    Full Size
  7. HispanicSlammer

    Jim Dillard's Vintage Motos Vintage Motorcycle Museum and Restoration
    I had the opportunity to visit my old college friend in Denver Tuesday - he suggested we go visit this vintage motorcycle museum in Lo-Do down by Coors Field. We jumped on his two scooters and headed across Capital Hill and made our way across downtown Denver on two vintage Italian scooters. I couldnt remeber what they were called if you tourchered me about it? All I know is it shifted funny, and I kept honking the horn every time I tried to use the turn signals. Anyway I had a lot of fun riding that little thing with its left hand shifter (on the left handle bar, it rotates as it shifts). Andy says it gets 100mpg where abouts on a full tank of about a gallon and a half. It was rather large for a scooter and it had a spare tire bolted to the back, Andy says he sunk about 3k into it all together with a chrome frame protector and rack. I usually don't like motorcycling in a large city but dadgum it if that wasn't a hoot riding that scooter. Andy was riding 2up with his Girl Friend Joann on the back. She was visiting from L.A. out for a ski trip to Vail, Steamboat and Winter Park. Andy had her whole 2 week vacation all planned out for her in advance, she said she was so busy doing stuff she hadn't had a chance to sleep! He also had our day planned out as well.
    So the three of us headed downtown and met Jim Dillard and looked over his collection of vintage euro bikes and scooters.
    Vintage Motos
    2762 Walnut St
    Denver CO 80205
    (303) 993-7693
    jeducati@vintagemotos.com
    http://www.vintagemotos.com

    Parts shelves Carbs, magetos, suspension components

    Jims Cleaning area

    Ducati Scooter Hybrid

    Looking east

    Jim Dillard's Vintage Motos Vintage Motorcycle Museum and Restoration

    Bennelli Being restored

    1955 BSA Bantum

    Morini 500 SEI-V

    Mondial 175

    Bianchi Aquilleto Motorized bicycle again notice the dual lever front suspension - BMW did not invent this technology with the k1200

    Bennelli

    Bianchi notice the Springer dual lever front end - Hossack like

    Moto Guzzi Scooter Jim called it a toaster motor

    1938 AJ's Identical to the Matchless

    Little Ant 1956 Moto Rumi Formichino

    Parrila Scooter circa 1950

    Ace Marchi Scooter

    1972 Moto Guzzi Facon Sport

    Ducati Desmo

    Cagiva 750 by Ferrachi circa 90's Center Research Ducati (crd)

    1984 Bennelli 900 SCI

    Honda Dream 50 I beleive these were sold as collectors items as late as 2006 by Honda

    1950 IMME R100 100cc

    1974 Ducati sport Bevel Drive

    1938 Binelli 250cc sport Race bike

    1933 Puch 250L featuring direct oil injection

    KTM 80 Pro Lever

    1974 Laverda 750 SFC Twin Jim's most expensive bike
    I was talking to Jim about a number of motorcycle news items, the way AMA has squadered the American series - how the 600 class has changed into the premier class and the relative ease these bikes are to ride compared to the bigger more powerful bikes. He gave me a bit of a tour of the bikes talked about how he started collecting, side stepped a question about the value of his collection (understandable) and then he had to work on a photo backdrop for his website, photographing his collection. The museum is relatively new having opened this last September. It is not hard to find, if your in Denver, its about 1 block south of Erico Motorsports where he has even more bikes on display. Take Park Avenue to Walnut and head north about 5 blocks and turn east on 28th is on the side street, with a ducati sign in the door window, go down the stairs.
  8. HispanicSlammer
    Kootenay National Park Calagary Crew fall in behind me
    It occurs to me I never posted the second half of my trip to Canada from 2008? Sheer tiredness prevented me from finishing it up last year, so many picture so many stories. Stories I can't remember anymore, but I still have the pictures, the wonderful ride pictures from that trip home. If you bear with me I will show you the best of the best pictures, and try to remember the good things that happened on the road.
    It all was part of the Kootenay Hottenanny 2008 in Nelson British Columbia, a wonderful place that reminded me a bit of Colorado, yet it had a very european feel to it and definitly foriegn to me, loonies and all ya know. Still I can understand english rather fluently so it was not that much of a stretch. Sort of like visiting a cousin who lives all they way across the map. You can see somthing familiar in the eyes and ears, the funny walk and yet you know they have different parents. That was Canada to me like visiting cousins, beautiful cousins in fact. I was amazed at the all the pretty people there, everywhere we went pretty people. The few fat ones like me unmistakenly had tags from the USA? Heh - I come expecting biting wind and fuzzy hats and I find a heat wave and beautiful pretty people? Go figure - I like pleasant surprises so I was pleased. It just seemed to be a really laid back place to be, much more easy going and a somewhat slower pace of life, yet not without sophistication at all. Canadians are certainly a complex sort, more than willing to give you an educated opionion about what they think of you or what your doing. It all seems very much like a perpetual small town. Even complete strangers seem to settle into a familiar ease of live and let live. The money thing though is a bit steeper then I was ready for, who would have thought the land of Aspen and the Home of Broncos would have a lower cost of living? There we go with that cousins thing again, you cant help but compare hands and feet, counting toes and fingers and such, it seems to be the natural thing to do.
    [vid]67[/vid]

    Kootenay National Park

    Near the boader Banff National Park
    After the wonderful gathering in Nelson - a large contingent of us gathered together to ride to Calgary, well mostly to Calgary anway, Craig and I would be stopping in Canmore for the night then heading back into the USA the next morning. The ride across British Columbia was fun, the trip across lake was fun too, never been a boat that big before. I am land locked you know, I know mountains but I dont know water.

    Me

    The Moxie Kaslo BC

    Kaslo

    On the Ferry Lake Kootenay

    Kootenay Bay

    Kootenay Bay

    Craig Soaks in the scenery
    I might have some of the pictures out of order, in any case I can vouch that the real thing is much more scenic than what any camera can capture. The pristine lakes against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains is somthing to behold, It takes your breath away at the incredible beauty of it. The Crew, that is to say the "Calgary Crew" chose me to lead the way, which of course for a guy with a gps is not too difficult but it sure was odd. I did the best I could and passed cars that were annoyingly slow, and they all followed gulping up the miles with ease. I tend to be a bit of an Iron butt so I may have gone on a bit far in places without rest - and yes I heard about it later when we did stop. Hey I was drafted, you cant complain about that now.

    Calgary Crew Fueling up in Creston

    Bicyclist seeking refuge from rain Near Fairmont Hotsprings

    Near Canal Flats
    The day was over and our party of motorcycles disbanded, it was just Craig and I headed back to the USA now, we took a road that Superfunk recommended to us and bypassed Calgary, it was not all that twisty but boy it was scenic.

    Canadian Rockies knife edge rocks

    Banff National Park

    One of the most photographed mountains in Banff Mt Rundle

    The View from the Lodge in Canmore Alberta

    The Worldmark Lodge In Canmore My uncle is a member he let me use his points.

    The Incredible Canadian Rockies at the Seebe Junction of Canada transhighway 1 and Alberta Highway 40

    Craig dusts off his camera for a shot

    Alberta Highway 40 I enjoyed this road more than hwy 93 through the Kootnays there was hardly no traffic at all.

    Hwy 40 Alberta this view topping the crest of the hill took my breath away

    I was going gagga over the view I did not notice the deer on the right side of the road getting ready to cross right in front of us a car flashed me and thats when I snapped out of it and slowed down for them (Cagers helping motorcyclist wow)

    Not very twisty at all but your too busy looking around to care

    Each turn brought more incredible scenes

    Peter Lougheed Provincial Park

    Craig in tow

    look this way somthing cool - look thatway somthing else

    Alberta hwy 40 has got to be one of the prettiest the scenery was spectacular

    Craig takes over lead duty after scurrying off into woods for a rest

    Longview Alberta stopped to stretch our legs
    It did not take long to get out of the mountains and onto the grasslands and farms of southern Alberta, where it seems it was just like Montana, and in return not that much different that the farm land in Colorado, it all seemed to be familiar to me.

    Pastures haybales and the Rockies

    Sharp as a razors edge

    Rockies haybales and pastures this time

    Haybales Rockies and Pastures

    Its hard for a typical American who has never been to Canada not to imagine a snowbound scene, its not much different than Montana really

    hwy 22 seemed to go on forever reading off the Kilometers instead of miles I had no idea just how far left to go.
    We crossed the border into the USA at the Peace Park, the woman did not even ask us to open up the bags it was clear that 911 had subsided in these parts - not that I was all that concerened, but then again we had passports and they had a computer and must have figured out we were not Taliban - no sooner than a bottle of water was downed we were back on the road and riding again. Honestly the stop on the way into Canada was more rigerous.

    Back in the USA Chief Mountain Glacier National Park

    Dupuyer Montana Nothin absolutly nothing open for a drink
    The Second half day of riding in Montana was all plains, all the way into indian country of the Blackfoot Nation, and into Great Falls. The town was dull and we had a fast food dinner, and my riding partner Craig was I think overwhelmed with the trip at this point. He miss judged the sturdyness of his rear tire and was worried he wasnt going to make it home, in need of a new tire. We scoured the internet for a place to change his tire, on my netbook. He looked to no avail and wasnt interested in my plans to find him a tire, so we settled on a parting of ways at this point and I left early in the morning to ride more twisties and he off on his own to get a new tire. Too bad it went this way but I was not about to miss out on Bear Tooth Pass, not a second time. (my first time I could only ride half of it since it was washed out on the Montana side 2 years earlier). I said goodby to Craig and left before sun up to ride as much of Montana and Wyoming as I could in one day.

    Sluce Boxes State Park Montana 5am

    Montana Hwy 427

    Montana Sunrise

    Rosco Montana

    Roscoe Montana I had to pull off and take a moment, after narrowally missing both a deer and a wild turkey in less than a quarter mile up the hill

    Bear Tooth Pass Beckens

    Montana Rockies

    Red Lodge Monatana

    Entering Bear Tooth Pass

    Bear Tooth Pass

    Bear Tooth Pass a popular motorcycle route

    First Leg Bear Tooth Pass completed

    Top of Bear Tooth Pass Wyoming and Yellowstone ahead

    I followed a 929 most of the way up thats him ahead

    One Last Look at Montana

    Montana Side Bear Tooth Pass

    A bumpy and challenging road down Wyoming

    Bear Tooth Pass more motorcycles ahead

    Wyoming vista From Bear Tooth Pass

    Cheif Josheph Highway Wyoming

    View from the summit Chief Josheph Highway

    Entrance to Shell Canyon Big Horn Mountains Wyoming

    Shell Canyon Incredible road here

    Top of Shell Canyon
    I actually ran into Craig again on I-25 in Sheridan, at the gas station the next day. I was still trying to ride more scenery and he was not trusting his new tire he got from Billings so he stayed on the interstate, me interstate? No way I have too many lonely roads yet to ride. Lonely for sure, scenic? well ok my route was not so scenic after doing Beartooth the day before. I spent that night in Ranchester a small ranch community just north of Sheridan, just at the bottom of the hill from an awsome road comming out of the Big Horn Moutains. I stopped at a little dive of a hotel and walked to the liquer store across the road and found it was a bar and grill. It seemed most the town was there for supper. It was steak night and so I shared in the beer and steak night with the local folks and watched the Olympics on the TV with them, I had a great time and a great supper. I wont soon forget the fun and freindly folks of Ranchester Wyoming. Too bad the ride across Wyoming the next day was so forgetable, I cant really recommend any roads south of Casper as I have yet to find anything worth riding. North Wyoming is a hoot though, just watch out for the small towns - they take the speed limits very seriously.

    Medicine Bow Wyoming

    Full Size
  9. HispanicSlammer
    Yep, I am keeping her! I ordered a few items to freshen up the old girl for another great season of motorcycle riding.
    2 sets of ebc hh pads for the front
    1 set of honda pads for the rear complete with anti heat transfer asbestos pad
    2 sets of honda fork seals and dust covers
    2 bottles of race tech US1 fork oil, I tried other 5w oil this stuff seems to work better for my race tech valves
    1 D.I.D. 530VM X'ring Chain & Steel Sprocket Kit - HONDA VFR 800F1 98-01
    1 - Front Sprocket Size: 16
    1 - Rear Sprocket Size: 45
    Synthetic brake fluid - to bleed the brakes and clutch lines
    So I have my work cut out for me come January, also going to remove my Ohlins shock to send out for repairs. Repairing the remote preload, and rebuild the seals change the oil, nitrogen charge. I should get some new plastics too and get my tank painted, rebuild the worn out foam on my seat and have it recovered by a professional ulpolstry shop. I need to have my Kanadian Ken 5th gen rack repaired too, its cracked and needs to be reinforced, great little rack!
  10. HispanicSlammer

    Oh Woe Is Me!

    By HispanicSlammer,

    Bad Karma is Kicking My Ass as usual! I have never been one to live my life by a set of unbreakable rules, nor am I paticularlly Pious by any means, however I do have a stong sense of right and wrong and knowingly once in a while, I take advantage of the situation. It never seems to pay off since Karma comes back into play to make things more interesting. Such as my Helibar procurement - of which I am sorry for, read thread if you havent a clue - on "Throttlemisters and Helibars"
    I took the low road on that one! And It surely was strewn with mud, and a lot of members more than willing to sling some in my direction! I know I know! I was wrong, I confess I did it, I regret it but I needed those bars, as I am begining to suffer from riding, some new discomfort did not have before. After riding Baileyrocks bro's bike with the bars I saw that there was somthing I could do about it, and not loose too much sportyness but at the tune of $200 dollars plus?
    Then I saw an ad in the classifieds for them at a substantial discount, albiet used! I had to get them!
    So I emaild the guy from Cali and asked if they were still availible, - waited till he wrote back then pounced! Not thinking I deleted the thread, I guess I just assumed it was a done deal, clicked the delete button and poof no more classified! OPPS! Wait I did not read that all the way, his reply he did not say SOLD!??
    Aw crap what did I just do? Oh well too late now! and for a couple of weeks it nagged me, then having completed the deal with the bars in my hands I realized wait I cant use my throttle miesters with these?? Payback for being greedy from the Karma police? Yea it was greedy and well Karma strikes again, but I still feel guilty for what I did! Bad Karma was not enough to repent!
    So I posted a question and just sort of tacked on a confession of what I had done and wow I feel way better! Half arsed too, Of course it got back to my detractors, the same ones who always seem to pounce on every oversight, or any mistake, any thing that I should be doing with VFRD that I am not doing now that they could do better! Those who see themselves as doing my vfrd job better than me and make every effort to let me know that! More smilies man more smilies!
    If I wasnt using this POS Invisionboard but instead boardIneverheardoff.com nobody uses we would not have been hacked! I am btw the reason that hackers exist, without me there are no hackers they have no reason to hack without me right there is no challenge in not hacking a board without Miguel to spit on!
    Yea right hmm perhaps If I bought out microsoft tommorow and replaced it with firefox all the hackers would just dissapear never to be seen from again, never mind that you have to download 400 plugins to see a webpage now!
    OPPS off on a tangent there! Back to cleansing my soul!
    AHEM clearing my throat!
    Its winter time here and I am bored, tired from long hours at work, and working nights, seems that days of sunshine just dont exist anymore!
    I know there is sunshine I saw the pictures! I remember it riding my vfr, and while blowing up my xr on Rampart Range road! Damn my wrist hurt! My back is killing me and My knees hurt, my butt is a bit sore too! Hey look there are some Heli Bars on VFRD! Hey its not too late either I will just dash off a quick email to the guy and see whats up home! - I work with young folks I pick up slang
    Hmm I dont know why I added that quote - it was a suggestion from one of my detractors, a long standing one who I happen to actually like but hes a ball buster none the less! hes funny so I am amused by the guy even though I know he doesnt like me much! I guess I am just a whore for my fans! More smilies man more smilies! Miguel you suck theres not enough smilies! Why wont you post that video of me at the Texasmac ride last year - but your other videos suck! How do you mount your camera btw I have some videos I can post there are way better? Some member here posted a how to on how to fix your chain can you fix his pictures? (what that was you oh never mind?) I forgot my log in password. Hey you passed that car on a double yellow in that video you give all motorcyclist a bad name! HMM even the ones named Michele Dumbas Dicoff? Shoot a boy named Sue, we already have girl named Martin and guy Named Stephane! You mind if I give you a bad name? I passed on a double yellow so here you go your now named Jabbadodeeddeeee!! (With 6 E's) Barf! gagged on that suggestion post haste! Ignore that one at all cost! Bad name giver that I am, so you see there is no Karma that isnt bad Karma - as I understand it the road to Nervana has no Karma! I expell you Bad Karma! Go git! I confess I suck!!
  11. HispanicSlammer

    Why I Ride

    By HispanicSlammer,

    Mountain Road
    I was clearing out some old data CD's from my shelf and ran across a sort of poem I wrote while VFRD was still part of Delphi Forums, way way way back in the day.
    Why I Ride
    Riding my motorbike
    Down a swift road
    Leaning into a turn,
    And then another
    Kicking the gear
    Dropping into third
    Grabbing the throttle,
    Looking down the road
    To where I really want to be
    Humming song of my motor
    Piercing a silent hollow in the forest trees
    Stuttering rays of sunlight and shadow
    Drum my heartbeat
    Thumping as my motor does
    Leaning further into that turn
    With a hint of fear of exhilaration
    Where the scent of Vanilla Ponderosas live
    Strengthened by
    Raindrops on dry asphalt
    I have come on my motorbike
    To steal the rainbows
    From your twisted curves
    I am alive on my
    Mountain Road
  12. HispanicSlammer
    Ohlins reinstalled, powdercoated pieces installed worked overnight to reassemble the bike
    I spent most the night and last night istalling new bearing on the swingarm and beginning the reinstall of all the parts. I installed the swingarm last night and rebuilt Ohlins shock, put the subframe into position and put in the plastic undertray. I had to make some repairs to the undertray since it had alot of holes drilled in it over the years for various parts. I filled them all in and smoothed it out with my pastic welder. Keep the dirt and rain out.

    My wheels still need shoes! 83° Aluminum Racing Angled Valve Stem Ariete from Kurvygirl.com

    Different Angle
    I installed new LED lights in the dash - all from superbriteled.com there is a thread on it in the forum by veefer800canuke I opted for white for a brighter dash and to save on wattage over bulbs.

    LED Dash Lighting I had to get the correct polarity but they all work by turning a few around.

    knobs and switches Left Lamp turn off switch, HI LO Double Burn switch, Heated Seat, Heated Grips

    Powdercoated swingarm Passenger Hanger and footpegs, powelet panel

    Reoganized accessory wireing moved all the boxes forward and some by the fuse box, moved the accessory fuse box on top of the battery lid, to make more underseat space for tools
    I rewired the whole accessory area, rerouting the wires to the front of the bike better and added a powerlet on the front and side for my Zumo GPS and the side for my heated vest. Rerouted the autocom wires and moved the autocom forward. Changed the battery leads with less leads and changed the switching power from the plate light to a soldier job from the headlight relay wires, less wires to deal with 3inchs vs 2 feet of switching wire. I wired in LED indicator on the dash for my heated grips its blue on the top right, the top left is the voltmeter from signal dynamics, its red in the dash shot above. I added a heattroller for the heated seat I built, I could never quite it right before using resisters either too hot or not hot enough, now it can dial it in just right. I heated seat is great when I get out of work at 7am and there is frost all over the seat, it clears it off in moments and is comfy in minutes.
    So far I have done tons of work
    New Chain New Sprockets New Fork Oil New Fork Seals Rebuilt the Ohlins Shock Powdercoated swingarm, footpegs, rearsets, hub, and passenger hangers Installed new bearings, rubber dampers, and seals in the eccentric hub rewired the accessories added 2 new powerlets repaired plastic damage from a couple of getoffs that resulted in deep scratches, 8 years of roadblast. sanded and sanded and sanded getting ready to paint Primed all the body pieces Sanded off scratches on the Staintune polished and cleaned Repaired a broken header stud replaced and put in new seals on the rear cylinders and headers New Wheels powdercoated installed trick valve stems New bearings on the wheels, swingarm, rearhubs, along with new dustseals New bolts and nuts all over - cleaned up most though Rebuilt the rear brake caliper new seals and polished the pistons, new bolts Bled the rear caliper Bought new graphics for a VFRD inspired paint job - even made my own font to use for the project availible in the site comments forum
  13. HispanicSlammer
    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/black2011.mp4
     

    Most of the time I have known him Reddog and I have taken off on a run to the Black Canyon around fathers day, now that hes got an empty nest it seems we were on again for our annual 500 miler to the Black Canyon. This year we did it counter clockwise and headed up to Independence pass. I invited a number of folks but only three of us made it. Millertm my old buddy from work who now lives in New Mexico came up for the ride and to spend some time with his Dad who lives on the other side of Colorado Springs from me. Of course Reddog and I also.


    Breakfast at the Hungry Bear Woodland Park


    My server I work with her sister

    I met Mark (Millertm otherwise known as Mr Dude to the folks at work) and we had a scrumptious breakfast Eggs Benedict for me with Hollandaise sauce on top of ham eggs on a bed of toasted English muffins. It was good but rich very rich I finished it off in good style I don't normally eat breakfast but I was hungry. I work with a lady who sister works at the Hungry Bear and she always lambastes me for not stopping at the Hungry Bear when I am in Woodland Park.

    We had an uneventful ride up hwy 24 just some construction a the top near Wilkerson Pass nothing too crazy - lead duties switched up quite a bit everybody lead today and it was great it just sort of happened. The construction bunched up a huge line of cars and we had to endure the slow pace all the way down Wilkerson Pass to the flat valley below then we blasted them 2 at a time till we had open road. We stopped in Buena Vista for some Gas then again in Twin Lakes to pile on a few layers for the ride up Independence Pass its at 11k in elevation and already in Twin Lakes it was 50 degrees Bill said his temp gage was at 32f at the top. Mark lead the whole way up to the top and down. Bumpy but for the most part the pass was very clean it was nice.


    Twin Lakes nice little village


    Twin Lakes


    Twin Lakes Lake to the east


    Funny Sign Twin Lakes General Store


    Millertime La Plata Peak in the background

    Then I got waved ahead in Aspen, no stopping in Aspen and then we slabbed it over to Carbondale for gas and some lunch it took us a long time to get over to Aspen over the pass and we did stop at the top


    Reddog


    Millertm



    32 degrees at the top freaking cold up there


    Independence Pass


    Aspen to the west


    Reddog with the mountains in view


    Millertm and Reddog at the top of Independence Pass


    Independence Pass looking South

    We saw a few cops but none of them took any interest in us thank goodness, lunch was good Bill wanted to find a new place this year so we decided on Carbondale and it did not disappoint


    Lunch In Carbondale


    Red Rock Diner cool little joint in Carbondale CO

    Fat and Happy I was ready to rail McClure pass and the sweepers at the bottom to Paonia Reservoir they have a great road along the lake its nice and tight I was enjoying the pace and I had found a nice rhythm. Lots of gas stops cause Mark and I have small gas tanks. We could have gone further but the stops were welcome and it staved off any butt aches. It was funny cause I thought I was being a bit too cautious about my gas mileage but I was averaging 43mpg! It was a nice pace anyway but in the station at Crawford we saw a long line of cruisers pass on the way to the Black Canyon and I said to Bill "hey looks like we will have to pass some rolling pylons" we hung out longer and had something to drink hoping to get some distance between us and them but sure enough as we rolled to the start of the Black Canyon we caught them so I pulled off and put on my contour camera and we waited again. It was a good ride right up to Hermit Point where it really starts to get good them BAM smack into fresh chip seal! It was packed down but lots of loose chip floating around still and not swept off? So we pulled into the over look at Hermit Point and took pictures.


    Hermit Point taken with my droid


    San Juan Range


    San Juan Range


    Marrow Point Reservoir on the Gunnison River


    Millertm


    Hermit Point Hwy 92 on the Black Canyon of the Gunnison


    Reddog at Hermit Point


    Lots of bikes at Hermit Point too bad it was all new chip seal for the next 8 miles loose chip seal


    Hermit Point look at the paint shine on my veefalo


    We must have passed this goldwing 5 times stop start go again


    Hermit Point taken with my droid

    We caught and passed a Goldwing then we would stop and he would pass us, all the way from Carbondale we must have passed that guy 5 times! We waved and he was always good about letting us through.

    So Bill takes off into the loose chip seal and I am following Mark and we are both going slow so Bill gets ahead one turn, then 2 then soon hes a good half mile ahead and a dot, then he disappears. Then the chip seal clears and Mark is still in chip seal mode a bit so I passed him and railed the twisties trying to catch Bill, 8 miles of trying I finally catch him at the very end only cause he had slowed down. Man that was fun! I really enjoyed the Canyon even though they ruined 8 miles of it with half done chip seal, and too bad to cause there was a huge pile on the side of the road at the end too so its not done yet, maybe I will visit again in August but not till then its just a bit dangerous on that loose stuff. They should at minimum at least sweep the loose stuff, Ideal would be another layer of tar over the top but thats expensive. I hope they sweep it at least! Chip seal in the rain is great though!


    Hwy 92 in the process of chip sealing the entire length of the good stuff - might wait a couple of months to run this again


    Blue Mesa Damn


    Blue Mesa Reservoir

    Then we slabbed it over to Gunnison and had a few turns along the Blue Mesa that were fun, we were saving a run up Monarch Pass. Mark and I switched bikes up to Monarch cause he wanted to ride the veefalo - his bandit has an upgraded suspension and I had ridden it before, much tighter then before and more compliant, lots of power but the veefalo is faster and well just better in my opinion but I am biased, I am really starting to love my bike.

    Well anyway Mark got tired of getting passed by me and thought that if he got way ahead on Monarch he could hold us off, but Bill and I had other ideas and well it turned into a squid fest up the pass sort of half ass-ed racing, half pace since we were not really pinning the throttle much but it was a bit stupid. I had hella fun myself but thats me, I love to rail Monarch pass Bill said we were morons or some such thing when we stopped at the bottom "F'n crazy" he said. With a big smile! He has been trying to change his ways and well he got sucked into that. So we split off at Salida and Reddog went home to Woodland Park and Mark and I stopped for a steak at Quncys in Salida. I have been wanting to try this place forever but never had the chance and it did not disappoint it was great.


    Steaks in Salida! it was very good


    Dinner at Quincy's Salida Colorado we rode for 12 hrs 7am to 7pm when I got home

    Then Mark lead us home and slowed the pace way down cause was getting to be critter time, and we found them for sure. Deer on the side of the road, when the sun gets low in the sky the deer start moving and often times right into the road. It was relaxed but smart and Mark has much better eye site then me so he lead. Great Ride, Videos to follow later.


    Full Size
     
  14. HispanicSlammer
    Loveland Pass
    It has been a while since I have actually day tripped on the VFR, most my day trips have been on the XR and the VFR has been doing interstate duties this season. Not last Tuesday, I just had to get out and see for myself if the autumn leaves are changing color yet? For the most part yes! Unfortunatly they seem to be falling right off the trees as soon as they do. Most of the path I took was Evergreens.
    View Google Route Map
    I took some twisty mountain roads around the Evergreen/Connifer area to keep my skills honed, and well they are not so honed. It was good practice but some of the 180 degree up hill hairpins on Connifer mountain proved to be tricky. I decided to try some more on Brook Forest Road, the looped back into the Denver Area - well no quite I turned off in Morrison first and stayed in the mountains.
    Then I heade up the Interstate to Hwy 6 and went up and over Loveland Pass, I was having some fun on the turns and then saw some guy at the top photographing me as I leaned it over into the twisty parts. Well not just me he had his lounge chair all set up, waving as I went by. I stopped at the top to see a young long haired bicyclist on his Lamond road bike, he was very fit and it looked like the bike had some miles on it. I offered to take pictures for a few tourist out for a drive in thier minivan. Everybody has to take a picuture at the Loveland pass sign - including me.

    Loveland Pass

    Grizzly Peak

    Continental Divide

    A popular snow boarding area

    Loveland Pass
    Then I got back on the bike and headed down the pass to No Name Gultch where A-Basin ski area resides, there is a nice switchback there with a pull off to view the scenery.

    No Name Gultch ten mile range in the background

    A Basin

    Ten Mile Range

    Grissly Peak dusted with snow
    I waved as the family of tourist passed by in thier minivan. I was a bit cold but nice to be out riding. I was up here last year learning to snow board, I was sore from falling over and over again. I remember seeing a lot of Grizzly peak that day.

    Hoosier Pass
    Hoosier pass is also on the continental divide, I had to pass a long line of cars to get to the good turns near the top - where I was alone and free to rail at my leasure. I stopped breifly at the top with no sign of the cars I passed at the bottom. It was turning out to be a great ride.
  15. HispanicSlammer

    Yosemite

    By HispanicSlammer,

    Tioga Pass New Video
    This is a part of the trip Dan and I made to California to go see the USMotoGP, we took a half day and visited the park. One of Americas National Treasures the place is definitly worth the time to visit once in your life, many more if your a true outdoors person. We started out in Lee Vining and made our way up Tioga Pass, where we entered on the east Gate at the top of the Pass. It is a national park so there was alot of traffic, I took over 3 hours of video and boiled it down to 12 minutes.
    :media: Yosemite National Park Video
    High resolution video wmv format 1mb/s sample and 12 minutes runtime, music by Foo Fighters, Cold Play, and the late great Johnny Cash
    The Map
    [map=AARTsJqwtAxDPukzS07Ix6SmJ3xAJVygmw]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=14239156040400631956,37.933710,-119.179250&time=&date=&ttype=&saddr=Poole+Power+Plant+Rd+%4037.933710,+-119.179250&daddr=37.711529,-119.663086&mra=mi&mrsp=1,0&sz=11&sll=37.71859,-119.514771&sspn=0.242789,0.63858&ie=UTF8&ll=37.800019,-119.367828&spn=0.485041,1.277161&t=p&z=10&om=1[/map]

    Tioga Pass 6 sportbikes tore it up right before we did

    Tioga Pass

    Lembert Dome we did not stop

    Yosemite

    Yosemite

    Bridalveil falls closer
    LOW RESOLUTION YOU TUBE two parts


  16. HispanicSlammer
    This is an image of Aztec family raceway - its a privately owned dirt track (members only) for dirt bike enthusiasts and racers alike. Right next to the Aztec raceway the city of Colorado Springs is going to build, or already has built some wonderful single track for ohv use. Here is where the trouble begins, my buddy Dan is an avid dirt bike enthusiast, who is a bit cash strapped and is really exited about this new park the city is proposing. He cant afford the prices Aztec wants - and who would if your just a weekend trail rider looking for some place close and legal to ride - for free, or for a small day use fee. Aztec wants a down payment and monthly fees? Thats fine if you are a racer there but if your just looking to go for a ride on your day off its not cost effective?

    http://www.corralbluffs.com
    He has been talking non stop about his place ever since he read about it on thumper talk, and already the motorcycle crazy among us have been giving privately our own hard earned cash to make this park a reality. Now here is where it gets interesting. Dan is a college student and during class one day a librarian came to his class to "discuss" something with the class. She was going to talk about how she was opposing this new OHV park - about how it will destroy the natural beauty of Coral Canyon. OK WHAT??? So naturally Dan - being the engineering scientist type, lets her speak, and when she finishes her speech she asks the students if they have any questions. Of course Dan is the first to raise his hand.
    Being an engineering student he launches into a series of questions of a Socratic nature, designed to undermine her argument.
    1) Mame have you ever been to Coral Canyon - NO
    2) Are you aware that a dirt bike facility already exists next to the park? - NO
    3) Are you aware that a dump site exists just adjacent to the Park? - NO
    4) Why did you not complain when the county commissioners allowed the building of the dump site? - I had no idea it was there?
    5) Are you aware that there are already single track paths laid out by hikers and illegal dirt bikes, and mountain bikers - that the land has been used this way for years? NO
    6) Are you aware that our organization intends to clean up the random trash strewn around the property and that we are making an effort to shore up illegal single track with erosion barriers and signs to point out legal trails. - I knew that there were trails but not that the park was intended to fix them?
    7) Are you aware that 70% of the funding has been by private citizens not city government funded? NOT A SINGLE TAX DOLLAR WILL BE SPENT? = NO ANSWER
    The thing is he pretty much gutted her arguments and provided a solid foundation for why the park should be allowed. I for one welcome the park, its a great cold weather park and limited access place to ride in the winter when its too difficult to trail ride in the mountains, it is also close to the city and was targeted for urban development anyway! What is the problem lady?
    I guess if you want to ride you have to fight for it!
  17. HispanicSlammer
    New Video
    Well this is really two rides, an ill fated ride I put together for Adam30 and the same ride the next weekend (of sorts) - Adam30 put out feelers on the forum to take a ride in Colorado to which I responded to and set up a ride on Memorial Day to show him some good local twisties. I got some vfrs, a Bandit and a K1200 beemer together to go riding. Unfortunatly Adam called me from a 100 miles away and wasnt gonna make it. It was already 8am and the guys where ready to meet with kickstands up by 9:30 I had to go.
    Ride one - brief version
    The weather was not cold but not warm either, we took off for Woodland Park - Deckers where we were supposed to meet more riders but they were not there, finnally after riding most of the Pine Loop hwy 67 we found Sfarson waiting for us at Pine Juction on hwy 285, we hemmed and hawed about the weather a bit and decided to take an abbreivated trip into the foothills around Denver, hopefully to see some views of the city from on high. It did not work out since the fog had gotten so thick any views where obsucured, and surprizingly there were a lot of bicyclists out riding in the thick fog, we had to tip toe around them on the gravely roads near Turkey Creek. Sfarson was leading and he schooled me a bit pulling away from me on Turkey Creek Road on the good part down at the bottom. I was 10 yards behind him at first, then 20, then 50, he was at the next turn, then gone! I looked at my tires (brand new Road 2's) and I wasnt even leaning over. I guess I am a cold blooded rider, not warm blooded I need a little heat to come alive. Mr Dude and LDSRIDER had to get home for domestic duties so they headed into Denver and went home to southern colorado from where this picture was taken below. Reddog, Sfarson and I took a look up on top of Connifer Mountain where the fog was so thick I couldnt see Steve for the Forest or the Trees. A least I had his brake lights to guide me I dont know how he could see where he was going, and at one point he turne off on sombodies driveway thinking it was the road, only to stop and turn around. We said enough of this "lets go get some lunch" and off we went to Pine Junction for 2 hours of stories and a good lunch. Then the fog turned to rain and I followed Reddog Home as he smoothly guided us back down the mountain to Woodland Park and home. Steve I havent ridden with him for over a year, Mr "I have been Everywhere" check out the video section for some of his famous videos Sfarson.com (not much there but his videos - no website I think) I got the good ones in the video section.

    Ill fated Adam 30 ride L to R - LDSRIDER - Mr Dude - SFarson - Reddog
    Ride 2
    Mr Dude - Colosprvfr and I all work together and Mark (Mr Dude) said he wanted to try the ride again - this time when it was clear out and warm. Last ride he had on mesh gear and was visibly shivering, I loaned him a jacket to get him through without going into hypothermia, hes a vetran and wouldnt ask so I just handed it to him - no worries I know where you work!! Anyway this time I got Craig to come along too, or Mark did I think I was the one who was going to dual sport instead but it doesnt take much to get me off of that.

    Craig looks over the Continental Divide

    Top of Squaw Pass overlooking the Continental Divide

    He finally turned around so I could get his picture

    Thumbs up
    This ride we would trace the route we were supposed to take on Memorial day but sort of play it by ear since we did not leave till 11am, mostly the same stuff, but this time staying off Connifer mountain where there was a lot of gravel on the road. We headed up to Woodland Park, into Deckers over Horsepower Hill where Mr Dude was going to smoke us (dude those vfrs just dont have the power my bandit does) OK we pretty much opened it up there and well............not like predicted. So we waited on the long strait and then headed down the Hill into Buffalo Creek and the town of Pine. We wanted to go hit up the Bucksnort Saloon for lunch - did the mile long dirt road into the mountains to get there only to find it is closed on Mondays now. OK what now?? Up to Pine Junction back to the Crossroads Diner where Steve took us last week, I had a meatball sandwitch that was awsome, and we had the same good looking waitress again, good looking Irish girl.
    I then took the guys into the hills around Evergreen - criss crossing over a few times to avoid the actual mess around Evergreen - up and over Brook Forest into Little cub and High Drive, back the other way over Parmalee Gultch Into Kittridge and a mile or so of shitty road on Kerr Gulch and up onto Squaw Pass road to Mount Evans. It was a lot of good twisties and the guys enjoyed it I think. Mr Dude and I switch bikes and I rode his a bit on hwy 285 I found it to be stretched out a bit and the steel frame seemed to flex alot with road shock, it fights you at slow speed like it doesnt want to turn but at speed it was stable, soft brakes I did not like but it had plenty of power. Another hour or so and I think I could get used to it! I had to reaclimate to my bike after that, tottally different. My bike bends you over a bit and puts your hands out wider, knees not so far back and the shifter and brake are different. Wierd having to get used to my own bike again so soon.
    The Route
    [map=AARTsJp-hJ7CpDFIahLLN5V0pZq-BOoyeg]http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=12960902794228093676,38.805690,-104.803070%3B9122679265987358436,39.243900,-105.253610%3B16349537758131869779,39.573500,-105.383410%3B5868094169438716382,39.616884,-105.287638%3B8477526918289051932,39.616604,-105.235749%3B11824084871735532496,39.680049,-105.323831%3B18172287422626321777,39.658924,-105.601874%3B9715024367986603673,39.739011,-105.430843%3B9134224254711685995,39.718056,-105.355237%3B10229800758628161607,39.700140,-105.333770%3B6595482955177938619,39.671753,-105.304005%3B15736109217874686941,39.458874,-104.983936%3B9471670675130473078,39.243040,-104.956000%3B17536871409415329671,38.795790,-104.797390&saddr=I-25+N+%4038.805690,+-104.803070&daddr=CO-126%2FDeckers+Rd+%4039.243900,+-105.253610+to:S+Black+Mountain+Dr%2FCR-78+%4039.573500,+-105.383410+to:Stanley+Park+Rd+%4039.616884,+-105.287638+to:S+Parmalee+Gulch+Rd+%4039.616604,+-105.235749+to:Kerr+Gulch+Rd+%4039.680049,+-105.323831+to:CO-103+%4039.658924,+-105.601874+to:US-40+%4039.739011,+-105.430843+to:US-40+%4039.718056,+-105.355237+to:US-40+%4039.700140,+-105.333770+to:Kerr+Gulch+Rd+%4039.671753,+-105.304005+to:US-85+%4039.458874,+-104.983936+to:CR-105%2FS+Perry+Park+Rd+%4039.243040,+-104.956000+to:39.11621,-104.903641+to:I-25+S+%4038.795790,+-104.797390&mra=dpe&mrcr=7&mrsp=13&sz=11&via=1,8,10,11,12,13&sll=39.199802,-104.720993&sspn=0.315542,0.749817&ie=UTF8&ll=39.364032,-105.136414&spn=1.25919,2.999268&t=p&z=9[/map]
    if map is blank right click it and "refresh"

    Mr Dude On his Bandit

    My Baby loves it up here

    Mr Dude whips out his camera Kingston Peak I think in the background

    Mount Evans just behind Craig

    Perry Peak

    The Continental Divide Colorado Style

    Berthod pass just behind those mountains
    Most of these pictures where taken on the western side of the road then these next where looking east or south at Mount Evans

    Haystack Canyon Brookvale - Elephant park - Buffalo Park and Evergreen below

    Craig on his VTEC

    Mr Dude and His Bandit

    looks like somthing out of the Sound of Music

    Mount Evans from Echo Lake 14,264'
    We rode down the mountain into Idaho springs I was flyin and got around a few cars quickly which the other guys could not get around so I just decided to take off and meet them at the bottom soon enough - the road was sort of bumpy but sweet I enjoyed taking the turns quick - much quicker than usual I really trust these new tires (road 2's).

    Small waterfall in Idaho Springs
    At Idaho Springs we stopped for gas and took a long break, and decided on a path home, back down Kerr Gultch and down Bear Creek Canyon and into the Denver foothills Hwy 105 south and home.
    The Video
    :media: Shadow of Mount Evans Video - high resolution wmv - music by cold play.
    You tube low res

    all in all it was a good day of riding 260 miles most of it tight and twisty. Attached is the GPX tracks from my zumo

    Vertical Profile from my Zumo
  18. HispanicSlammer

    Busted!

    By HispanicSlammer,

    http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/videos/491/1236587658_busted.wmv.flv


    Come take a ride with me up the Central City Parkway and watch me get rewarded for doing it. This last summer I rode to Rist Canyon and well rode all over tarnation and back not really knowing where I was gonna end up, just that I was gonna ride and I was gonna ride all day long! Seems that all summer long when I took the vfr out for a day ride I ended up getting busted by the cops! My luck seemed to have run out in that regard and this day was no exception. This was just before high noon and I had just turned off Interstate 70 to head to Central City on the "Central City Parkway" its a 4 lane freeway for about 6 miles where it ends up at the top of the mountain in - you guessed it. This video actually continues on the Peak To Peak highway where I met a wonderful LEO who wasnt pulling punches on that day!


    Full Size


    A = Central City Parkway
    B = Busted Flat - feeling nearly faded as my stich!
  19. HispanicSlammer
    Long Scraggy Overlook
    Mrdude - or Millertm as he is named here at vfrd - Mark by everyone else said hey lets go riding! I says "where" he tells me that he was up on Horsepower hill 2 weeks ago that it was clear. Then he told me a story of how he smoked some guy on a CBR or some such thing liter bike going up HPH. On his 1250 Bandit that he has piped, sliponed, big sprocketed, and fuel thingy adjusted to give him more torque and HP. Big Horsepower for Horsepower Hill. Anyways we head up the interstate to Hwy 24 and make our way up the Canyon into Cascade. Mark is hanging back presumably at the speed limit cause hes unemployed at the moment (layed off like half of America is right now) and he has to keep his driving record clean to get a truck driving gig. Me I take off for a few turns and wait for him on the straits. Its a short set of double lane twisties that is way overcrowded anyway and sometimes patroled but not often going up. More cops on the down side than the upside but either way its not worth a ticket, then it opens up near Cascade and you just have to Cruise to Woodland Park. Its not a freeway but it might as well be, split like a freeway with 2 lanes going up and down.
    It starts to become clear there is a lot of snow near Woodland park, its melting all over the road with cars spraying up the wet muddy water thats streaking across the road. So I try to stay far enough behind the cars that I dont smudge up my visor with overspray. Its always a chore from Cascade till your out of Woodland Park. I dont know maybe 6,500 live up there? Mostly White guys who drive SUV's, wear baseball caps and chew tobbacco. The girls are cute but not too friendly - in other words I dont fit in there! Well maybe thats not true but I avoid the place if I can, but its difficult since I have a couple of friends who live there.(both white guys who wear baseball caps, drive sub's and chew tobbacco HEH) REDDOG YOU KNOW YOU DO!
    THE MAP

    Full Size
    A) Colorado Springs
    B) Woodland Park
    C) Deckers
    D) Horsepower Hill (I dont know we just call it that)
    E) Pine
    F) Pine Junction
    G) Bailey
    We finally get past the the last remnant of Woodland Park the golf course (which looked like it would be fun on a snowmoble today) and are following a few cars north on 67 for about 10 miles till the road turns into the hills, so far your just on the high mountain plains till you get to Rainbow Falls where it gets curvy. We are weary of the gravel on the road so we follow a few cars down the hill into the creek bed - Westcreek its called - where the road is fun. It follows along side the creek for a good 5 miles again afraid of gravel I followed a truck for a mile till I finally said "F THIS" and went around him only to find that there was a whole chain of cars basically spaced 1/4 mile apart, I get them all one by one. Mark follows cautiously behind and soon we are passing Deckers - no more cars! I hate the part from Deckers to Horsepower hill it always has gravel in the turns, no matter what time of year, no matter if it is in the sweetest part of summer it always has had gravel in the turns. I baby it and Mark is right on my tail.
    I was expecting him to take off at the base of Horspower hill since he was talking about his CBR encounter just that morning, I see its rather clean and so I hit it - seeing triple digits for a good couple of minutes and Mark is about a 1000 yards back basiclly mirroring my speed, I slow down toward the top cause its not so clean I am thinking but its is clean! Its clean all the way to Pine! Matter of fact the climb from Pine to Pine junction is super clean! I enjoyed that alot, Mark was nowhere to be found cause well he is more into sweepers that the tight turns. Any way I stopped at the top of Horsepower hill at the Long Scraggy Overlook

    Millertm Mark and his Bandit

    Me New knee pucks - nope not even close this ride
    I sent my suit into Aerostich to have it repaired and had them sew on some knee puck velcro, not sure I will ever get a knee down or not? I ride fast enough but I just dont toss my knees out far enough to do it? I am hopeing to get in a trackday and learn - I do ride fast but my form can use some improvement. In more ways than I can count starting off with the wieght!
    I stopped at the light and waited for Mark at the top of Pine Junction, he pulls in about 30 seconds later and I say lets go to Bailey and get a burger at the Cut Throat Cafe! Hes good with that and so we head west for about 7 miles to Bailey - going slow cause the road is busy and there are construction crews out, the hwy 285 cooridoor is rather congested in the mountains all the way to Grants where it opens up, thats bascially where most of the mountain communities end, the commute to Denver is too far from that point to be reasonable, which its not reasonable anway, some 20,000 people must live along that route? I dont know its all strung out along the highway. Its beautiful up there in anycase, but cold in the winter.
    We pull into the Cut Throat Cafe and find its closed, a fire it says forced a shutdown - shoot! I love that little joint too. So we go across the road to the bar and it is closed as well! OH hell back to Pine Junction and we finnaly find some food at the Junction Resturant. Good food there! We hang out for an hour, seems like a good place just to hang out and talk! Alas we are 70 miles from home, Mark says he needs gas? I am like HUH? Gas after 70 miles? OK he says he can wait till we get back to Woodland park. My bike has at 3/4 tank and he was at 1/3rd? Jebus man that thing is thirsty!
    On the way back I am not so scared anymore and know where the worst parts are and proceed to basically run it at 80% pace of my normal summer speed. Its much more fun for me the way back, going down HP hill I get a good view of the snow on Pikes Peak and enjoy the twisties much much more, I just run it my speed and check to see if Mark is still back there every once in a while, he is! Its all good, it is great to be in the mountains once again!
  20. HispanicSlammer
    It all started like this... I PM Reddog..."any thoughs on a fathersday ride"? This ride is somthing that Bill and I have been doing for the past 4 years now and this year it was a bit of a Cluster *&&^ to get it going. He writes back that he has things to do and perhaps we can do it on such and such a date, and I write back "no how about such and such", and he writes back "nope cant do that". Then I write back "well what about this weekend?" and he says OK. The of course then I change it cause some guys from work want to ride too, and of course they cant do that day. Reddog comments that usually our ride plans consist of a few grunts and a place to meet, nothing this rediculous, we took of on 3 day rides with less than 4 words!
    Well it all came together for yesterday 4 riders - one of us was new. Reddog Myself LDSRIDER and our newcomber Ryan all met up at the Texas Creek Diner at 8:30am. Well OK thats not quite true, LDSRider, Ryan, and I met at a gas station in Colorado Springs then rode the hour and half to Texas Creek to meet Bill (Reddog). We had a bit of fun on the way. Passing vehicles that is, Ryan got stuck behind a slow mover in the canyon and LDSRider got away for a about a mile or so. I slowed up to let him catch up because the diner was comming up soon and I did not Ryan to miss it. Just as we slowed up we saw a State Pat-troll on the side of the road tucked in behind some trees WHEW just in time I looked at my speedo and it showed the speed limit right on the dot! GOOD THING We waited for Ryan or he would have been waiting on us!

    Texas Creek Cafe the meeting place

    LDSRider - Ryan - and Myself we arrived first
    We had some breakfast at the diner and introduced Ryan to Reddog, he is a fairly new rider on a F4 CBR. He was riding much more mature than most guys his age and well within his limits from what I saw, but he had some difficulties getting around the slow moveing cages. The breakfast was good it was starting to get up to an hour we decided we had a long way to go yet and mapped out our stops, when Ryan would need gas cause he had the smallest gas tank amoung us, and off we went for Monarch Pass.

    Monarch Pass Our First stop at the top of the pass

    Monarch Pass LDSRIDER and Reddog
    Reddog had mentioned that he was a bit rusty at the breakfast diner - only putting on 6k miles in the last year. He said he had slowed down his pace from our usual (yea right ok) - I will believe it when I see it! Reddog says "I dont ride like that anymore"! HEH yea if he slowed down any I guess I have too! We determined that Ryan and Scott (LDS) would ride pace with each other, then Bill and I would rail for a bit and wait somwhere up ahead when there was a stop, or a turn, or when the road just plain got slabby. It worked out well and there was no issues with getting lost, missing turns, or anybody riding over there limits. The Slab was about equal to the twisties, the slab is scenic though, jostling with cars and trucks on the all too few broken dotted lines to get ahead. You know the boring parts! Well I think the Black Canyon would just not be as sweet if it was so easy to get too, you need the build up to really appreciate it for what it is - a great road. Boy was it sweet, the road was clean for the most part and the wind was minimal, no rain and it was warm! You cant ask for better conditions, all day long, and we had at it
    Comming down Monarch Pass we encounted a State Pat-troll who had pulled over a car in the turns on the downhill section? What, I never have seen that before and it soon became appearant why, CONTRUCTION CREWS. A land slide had to be cleared and so we had to wait a good 20 minutes for that to happen. I have only once been stopped by any cop in Colorado in a twisty section, because it is dangerous for cops to stop in areas where they can not be seen, and the twisties usually can not accomidate a parking area. Not only that cars dont usually speed in the twisties so why would they stop there to collect speeding taxes? I read about Deals Gap and well that makes sense, it gotta be a gold mine with all those speeding bikes every weekend. Oh yea the public saftey and all of that too. Monarch Pass? No it does not qualify, the bike to cage ratio is much much less than Deals Gap or Angels Crest Highway. I knew there was somthing comming up down the road, and sure enough the construction sign was just around the next turn.

    Stuck on the pass waiting for crews to clear a land slide
    THE VIDEO
    [vid]94[/vid]
    I got a little carried away with the length of this video, its a long one but it has excerpts from all the best parts of this ride. We were stopping a bit more than usual, what with the extra gas stops for Ryans bike, more riders than usual, and picture stops it was still a very good day so far. I was again very excited to be on my favorite road of all time. (MINE ALL MINE) Heha boy do I love hwy 92.

    The Damn at Blue Mesa the guys take a look

    Black Canyon goes on from here Gunnison River below

    Looks good already Colorado Hwy 92
    There was NO traffic in the Canyon at all, none that we encountered anways except there were a few bicyclist and a chain gang out from the sherrif cleaning up the road. They were not friendly when I waved as we went by nobody waved back and I think I heard the F word. OK well then dont do the crime boys!!! Maybe you would be out on a motorcycle too if you stay out of trouble! I was really enjoying it the more the turns came, and the more miles into it we went, Reddog had somehow managed to shake off the "Rust" he was talking about and was going what I thought was a darned good pace, perhaps a bit slow in the straits is what he ment cause it sure seemed like I was all the way leaned over in the turns! I managed to scrub in my new tire all the way in anyhow. When the rest of our group caught up to us LDSRIDER took off his glove and put out his hand. It was visibly shaking cause he was so darned pumped, a Black Canyon virgin he was - he had the same reaction I did my first time. Positively overwhelmed is the word I am looking for, but loving it.

    Reddog and I waiting for the others at the overlook

    Marrow Point Reservoir

    San Juan Range

    Reddog and Ryan
    We tried to find a new lunch stop this year, another place in Crawford I tried last year but nothing was open besides the Boardwalk Cafe. The same place we always stop, last year the food was a bit lax and dissapointing but they more then made up for it this time. I think I inhaled my burger it was so good! Perhaps the ride was so good that I did not care but it really hit the spot, the company was good too. I caught up on what was going on in the Reddog Household and Scott and Ryan were just as forthcomming. Ryan was looking for a ring finger on the young woman serving us cause she was rather cute. "Cornfed" he said and well she filled out them blue jeans as good as any city girl could! I think she was married to the cook cause he sure was eyeing us, well keeping an eye on Ryan anyway!

    McClure Pass

    McClure Pass
    We took off for Paonia after lunch and were a bit on a tight schedual cause we had dilly dalleyed a bit too much the first half, so we picked up the pace up McClure pass and past Paonia Lake, I love that section too the sweepers there on Hwy 133 at the bottom of the pass are so sweet you can do your best Valintino Rossi imitation and crack a huge smile as the speed and those turns are just right for the sweeper reapers! The ride up to the top of the Pass was sweet too but we all stayed together cause I did not want them to miss the incredible view of the other side. I was surprised they did not feel the same way about it as I did, perhaps it was getting too late and they were tired but I am always amazed by that view from the top of McClure pass.
    We had to endure a bit of slab into Aspen then the weather got worse and colder but for the trip over Independance pass but it was not so bad, I never ride well when I am cold so Reddog started to pull away from me in the tight stuff, I had to gas it a bit in the short strait areas to catch up. I guess my issues with the really tight stuff continue on from the Texasmac, I did not get dropped though just was not so comfortable.

    Independence Pass

    Twin Lakes Reddog and I wait for the others
    It was here that LDSrider said he had noticed his Concours was showing his rear tire pressure low, I KNOW! The bike showed him he had low pressure in his rear tire! It has a pressure sensor in the tires? OK wow - well thats really cool, so we looked and found a screw embedded in one of the treads on his brand new Pilot Road 2! He starts pulling out a kit and its one of those gunked up thead kits, Reddog pulls out some fix a flat - but I had my Stop and go kit with me so we decided to use it. I went to work for about 40 minutes reaming it out like I had practiced, the first plug failed I did not insert it correctly but the second one went in like a charm. Then I pulled out my mini pump and we had him up and running in no time!

    Repairing LDSRIDERS tire he caught a screw somewhere in Aspen
    The ride from here was a lot of slab but at least the traffic was low, going up hwy 285 was a lot of traffic I decided we should wait till the turn off at hwy 24 then pass any cars who turn off as well its wide open there. Then it was the usual easy going riding to Woodland Park but LDS was running late so he picked up the pace and so did I, I took off after Wilkerson Pass cause it felt good and was soon by myself. I decided to pull out and wait for the rest when we came to Lake George and ride in together. Reddog pulled out in Woodland park for home and the rest of us continued down UTE pass - but somehow we had an extra bike with us? I thought for a moment I misscounted but we managed to catch on to an interloper squid guy who was messing with the formation the whole way down, going ahead, merging into us, slowing down, then pulling out? He was annoying me with his in and out routine, we just took it easy on Ute pass cause we all know its patrolled by the State guys alot. I noticed the traffic was really lite for a weekday, it was actually really low and so I decided to take the canyon section at pace and keep my eyes peeled for cops on the sides. I hit the first turn at 80 and the squid thought he would follow, I did my thing and was having fun when I noticed squid guy had overcooked the 4th turn and went way wide so I rolled off right quick so he wouldnt try to continue to keep pace - I was pulling ahead of the guy rather easily but I wasnt expecting him to do that so I thought I should shut it down and just roll into Manitou Springs with the guys. After that he stayed well away from me and the other two of us caught up. The sun was going down and we where back in Colorado Springs. I dont usually school Squids but I was going to ride it anyway like that, cause its not often that the Ute Pass Canyon is free of heavy traffic, so I took a chance the cops were taking a break and ran it. I pulled the bike into the garage and noticed wow I was really really tired! Thats a sign of a great day of riding - when you ride all day long and dont notice how tired you are till you get home!
    The Map

    Full Size
    for some reason google maps does not recognize Indepenance Pass as a road so it routes around it.
  21. HispanicSlammer
    Oh man what day! The Colts fulfilled there destiny and Payton stepped up to get his ring. Not that I care all that much but the guy was starting to look too much my like my very own John Elway with all that dissapointment, these last few years, nobody wants to see reruns! I was glad to see the Colts collect on a promise they made!
    Me however I was listening to the action on the radio as Craig and I drove home from PMI in Pueblo Colorado, not sitting on our asses on some strangers couch eating stale potato chips!! We took our XRs out for some riding instead! Four months of snow and cold and a weather report that said 40 degrees was all it took for the both of us to get the truck loaded up with two honda relics called once dirtbikes (XR'S)!
    SIDE NOTE: We did see some CRF's out there today, matter of fact the place was packed with dirtbikes and ATV's Man I love Colorado!
    Where else can you find so much to do outdoors and all relativly free! Look this way theres Pikes Peak, look that way theres the Spanish Peaks, look that way theres Craig rolling on in some nasty ass mud! OK I think he took me through every mud patch there is in Pueblo and at the end I asked him "is there any mud we might have missed there Craig"?
    Good times and tired! Boy he worked me out - I know I slowed him down on my 650 cause he had to stop a few times once when I avoided a patch of standing water and headed for the thistle only to find a 2 foot deep ditch - down I went, and once down a sortid 60 foot cliff that I wasnt so sure about! Its a 650 man but I went down it anyway! hells ya! The the both of us got schooled by the youger generation on there YZ's and there CRF's doing 60 foot triples where we were going around to easy parts, well I was anyways! Darned kids looked mighty good jumping those berms! I had a great time and was soooooo glad to be back on two wheels and thankful to the Lord for providing us with the bounty of warm weather in Febuary after so much misery and snow these last four months, what a great day! Looks like those of us who had a destiny to fulfil did so on this day, I am a rider plain and simple! I ride!
  22. HispanicSlammer
    Garden Of The Gods Pikes Peak
    So I am mostly done, since it seems that this paint job is a never ending time of fixing drips, scratches, redoing messups and well there are plenty of mess ups to fix yet. However the bike is back together and running after a bout with not starting and replacing parts. So I figure I put about 120 man hours into it this winter here is the final accounting
    Replaced fork oil Replaced fork seals Replaced wheels Powdercoated wheels Powdercoated rear swing arm Replaced swing arm axle Replaced all swing arm bearing bushings dust covers Replaced chain sprockets Replaced stator cover, the gasket, fixed oil leak Rewired accessories moved all forward to make more underseat space Fixed busted plastic plastic welded cracks and dedumbo the front signals Replaced exentric hub bearings Replaced wheel bearings dust covers Rebuilt rear brake caliper new bolts, seals, bleeder bibs Painted mirrors Painted frame part of it Painted plastics Took tank to the bare metal and repainted Replaced tank gaskets, vent hoses, fuel hoses, fuel filter Rebuilt Ohlins shock Powdercoated rearsets Powdercoated pegs Powdercoated passenger hangers and pegs Rewired signals Replaced dash lights with LEDs Replaced fuel hoses cleaned and rebuilt thottle bodies and fuel rail new seals on injectors Replaced exahust studs, replaced copper exhaust crush seals, new seals in the down pipes, drilling out broken studs was a bitch thank goodness for carbide drill bits taps! Sanded and refinished stainless Staintune exaust muffler Installed new rear cargo mount from Kanadian Ken the beefy version Cleaned fuel system with seafoam treatment Cleaned fuel injectors Rebuilt seat latch mechanism new spring Replaced ingition key system, helmet, and tank locks thanks Baileyrock for providing the parts New tires New red anodized wheel 85 degree vavle stems from Kurvy Girl New st1300 tank pad (yet to install) New vfrd graphics on the plastics New bolts on the brake calipers Powdercoated chain drive hub New rubber drive chain dampers New copper and steel spacers bushings all over Replaced head cover gaskets Valve check and shim swaps, sanded shims where I had to too for tight vavles Replaced coolant hoses that cracked Drilled and tapped leaky water pump drain hole Replaced coolant Painted mirrors Installed SAE Mount for battery charger Installed steering column powerlet and rear powerlet
  23. HispanicSlammer
    The Entrance to Shelf Road You can see the cliffs in the distance, its a bumpy jeep road when it reaches the canyon - taken just north of Canon City
    Here are a few pics from my recent solo run on the gold belt tour, mostly dirt roads in the Wet Mountains and along the Pike Forest.

    The Sangre De Christo range hwy 96 near Rosita

    Cooling Clouds An afternoon rain storm forms over the mountains

    Westcliff taken from the gas station in Silvercliff, beats me why there are two separate towns right next to each other?

    Shelf Road In all her bumpy glory at Trail Gulch - Four Mile Creek below

    Work Horses they scrambled when I came up to the fence but when they saw the apple slices I had they were soon eating right out of hand

    Goldfield Mine just north of Victor

    Pikes Peak South Face

    Pikes Peak South Face at the end of Gold Camp Road

    Cathedral Park On Gold Camp Road

    Cathedral Park up close

    Old Stage Road Descending to Colorado Springs my home town below - it was getting dark and cold!

    200 mile loop
  24. HispanicSlammer
    Two Horsepower next to 172 hp Lunch at the Dogbar in Cuchara CO
    I just got home about 4pm after riding 300 miles of New Mexico and Southern Colorado on my brand spaking new vfr1200f - I am pooped, 300 miles yesterday of slab and no throttle lock I had one sore right hand by the end of the day! I am so stoked about this bike, its hardly become real to me, its like I am stil riding the old girl sometimes but then I roll on the throttle and its so quiet I cant hear it, but boy I can feel it. Gobs and Gobs of power, its a bit intimidating really. I have been given 75% more power to the wheel and its definitly there. 6th gear roll on passes of cages is nothing for this "Buffalo" I havent named it yet but Buffalo Bill is rolling around in my head - not sure about that one! Buffalo Betty?
    I rolled into some back roads near Folsom New Mexico this moring and hit some very bumpy rual roads, it was set way to stiff. I ended up softening the rebound on the forks 6 clicks in the final account, stopping every now and then and clicking off more rebound and then 3/4 turn softer on the shock too. I think I got it just about right. I have yet to get the sag set properly its definitly steering neutral if perhaps a bit slow. She does like to tip over easy but the side to side flick transitions are more effort then the the 5th gen. Its the extra wieght but it is stable in the turns - if not for the Bridgestones, I cant say I like these oem tires. They seem planted but every now and then they get squirrly especially rolling on out of turns in low gear at 5-8k rpm powering out of turns. I havent even come close to the edge yet. I am still learning this bike. Its gonna take a while to get completely comfy it wieght is in a different place the longer wheel base. I suspect it will steer more effortlessly when I get the sag sorted out. No center stand makes that a bit of a chore!
    The first thing I noticed is the pegs are higher up, and in a spot that seems to be just right to for makeing my hip injury ache. It goes away after a 1/2 hour or so but its a bit uncomfy I might need to lower the pegs for now, and they seem to stick out farther just in a differnt position then what I am used to. more sporty then the 5th gen or the vtec for rider postion. However the bars are not as far of a reach for me. She does not like ot run below 80mph it seems as I would naturally seem to be rolling over these Colorado meandering turns at that speed without thinking. You know the easy stuff drop it a bit and round the turns all day long. Oh and the seat is WAY comfy, its all day comfy, I did not start to feel the usual butt fatigue till well into 300 miles! Its narrower too so that helps alot, more supportive then my corbin too! Very happy with the stock seat! I did the Bishops castle ride about 10-15mph slower then I run it on the old girl and it felt very good, I was timid with it at first then I got more aggresive as I rolled into the more open hills with less forest where the Deer hide. Plus the wind was gusting again, this damn southern colorado wind is annoying its pushes me over in turns and just destroys my confidence. But I think after a few more rides I will be back at my usual pace through there. Hike it up in the back perhaps and it will steer a bit quicker. Comming down Cucharra Pass I noticed the quirky nature of a shaft drive. Its definitly not as responsive as a chain drive, but darned close. There is a slight, very slight delay at low gear when first rolling on and when the power kicks in I can only describe it as drive line lash and its a bit jerky so I have to be very smooth on the throttle when In lower gear 1st and 2nd gear are the most noticeable, but 2-6 is much smoother. I am sure its somthing you will have to manage to learn to ride. For me I slowed down in the tight stuff more then usual not used to the tires, or the shaft drive or the different powerband. Oh yes I am glad it has a gear indicator cause it reves out power at a lower rpm so what feels to me like 6th gear is actually 5th or 4th. I has the same thumpy vibration as the older vfr but its at a different harmonic - what I am trying to say is I am used to the vibes of the 5th gen in 6th gear crusing being up into 6-7k rpm at 80mph in 6th gear. The 1200 feels the same in 5th and 4th gear but at 6th gear its cruises 80mph at 4-5k rpm so its just a bit less revy in top gear!
    I think the fly by wire averages out sudden imputs, it will take off if you whack the trottle but it will be smooth and not like the older bikes, where it will reve out very fast, this one just builds more power with less revs so it seems like your not going as fast by the vibrations but the speedo is indicating quite the opposite your hauling with much less twist of the wrist!~ I cant explain it, it seems tame when you whack it but its doing 100mph without feeling like 100mph! The vfr time continum has changed and warped out a bit on this beast. I hope to become much smoother with throttle inputs in the twisties and be more confident in the turns as I learn this bike, towards the end of the day I was feeling like my old self again if not a bit wiser to the bike!

    First MOD! Drilling a hole to install a Powerlet socket to Power my GPS

    Looks like a fish gill it slides right off the front of the bike

    Gswanson - Fabricator GPS vfr1200 stem mount cut - welded - drilled - deburred - painted

    Stonewall Colorado

    Stonewall Sangre De Christo mountains in the background

    Stonewall
    Source: HS's Buffalo Roundup In Oklahoma
  25. HispanicSlammer
    The Sawtooth Mountains Stanley Idaho
    Continuing on from my last blog entry - I spent the night in Waldon Colorado - then early in the morning I packed up and headed out on the veefalo north. I just blindly followed my GPS that for some reason had switched to automatic route recalculation which sent me over the pass into Laramie. I had it figured out just about the time I found some really great sweepers on the Wyoming side - I decided not to turn back but rather to find out just how far this rabbit hole would go! I was enjoying the 30mph marked turns at double that speed and it was rather chilly so I only hit the good ones in the sun and not so fast in the shade. I dont ride too well when I am cold. I suppose a racing career for an overwieght 45 year old is out of the question so I will just stick to touring and writing in my blog and keep my night job.

    Sheep Mountain Waldon Colorado

    Balloons in Waldon 7am - 45 degrees out - still cool air perfect balloon weather
    So having figured it out that I had basically added 50 miles to my route with this stupid zumo reprogram job. I figured I needed to gas up in Laramie and grab some cash at the wells fargo ATM since I was already in town. Which sent me to an interesting gas station - tackle shop - gun store - candy store - resturant where the owner had fish bait and chewing tobbacco on the same shelf. Helpful though he pointed me in the right direction to the wells fargo with detailed directions right down to the shape of the windows in the Taco Bell next door. Right by the Wyoming Cowboys stadium he said. Sure enough there it was. Then 100 or so plus miles of super slab on I-80 to Rawlins. It was here I discovered my bike was covered with oil encrusted dirt pellets all over the forks, swingarm, and radiator. So in Rawlins I cut over to a car wash to get that crap off, and the 1/4 inch high pile of dead bugs on the windshield.
    Rawlins is the sort of place I like to just pass through, if it were not for the gas situation I would have! It did get me off the interstate and that dueling semi nonsense for the last hour or so - they always seem to look in the mirror and see me comming then try to pass each other before I get there - nope - snails dont make for good racing! So I would have to haul it down to below the posted speed limit and wait behind the chain of cages that also are stuck behind this 18 wheeler fiasco - interstates might be the fastest way to cross the USA but they sure are a pain in the ass on a motorcycle.
    I turned off for more slab, but this time it was 2 lane slab for another 150 miles till I hit the edge of Dubios Wyoming where the scenery took a turn for the better. Here it started to get interesting - I should have stopped for more pictures cause the whole way from Dubios to Jackson was very scenic. Too bad the highway department thought different. Togwatte pass was all tore up to the dirt and bumpy as hell since it was being repaved. It was all tore up for a good 15 miles and after that there was mud all over the brand new pavement. All the way into the Grand Tetons National Forest. Turning the corner and cresting the hill and seeing my first sight of the Grand Tetons was amazing, it took my breath away it was so spectacular!

    Dubois Wyoming pretty little town

    Grand Teton Range impressive sight

    Grand Tetons

    Veefalo at Grand Tetons

    Jacksons Hole Wyoming

    Jacksons Hole
    I was going to try to make it to Idaho City but it was getting late and the sun was about to go down so I found a place to stay in Jackson, it was expensive so I did not splurge on food opting instead for a burger at the DQ and an ice cream. I walked over to the Cowboy bar and looked at the strange wood fixtures - mutant wood with what looked like wood tumors all over it and saddles for bar stools. I had a bottle of beer and walked around downtown Jackson. It reminded me alot of Durango where I went to school. Only a bit smaller. Its a tourist trap too in the summer time.

    Full Size
    I got up early and headed out, I had a room just below my bike so I could just lift my bags up onto the pavement and not have to carry them so far. I wound my way over Teton Pass passing scores of cars 5 at a time which was easy since the grade was 10% so they were barely moving 30mph at most. I had a little of the pass to myself just in time to catch a whole nother line of cars and pass them too. It was too busy to really do anything fun. Lots of traffic heading over to the Tetons and up into Yellowstone. I was glad to get off the main highway and over to Pine Creek Road where I had it all to myself. I really enjoyed the 50 miles of that road - and stopped for breakfast at a little run down joint run by a mother daughter team. The lady behind the grill looked just like my great aunt Jenny I am sure I made her uncomfortable they way I was squinting to see if it was really my grandmas little sister - and the daughter - she was very pretty too. Good food and plenty of it, pork chops eggs and homemade salsa. The daughter was a good conversationalist if a bit unnattentive as a waitress, Mom though set her strait a few times, "get the coffie honey" she said, and "bring those plates back here" gentle but firm. She seemed more annyoned at having to finish up the night shifts work than being a waitress. Aw but the food was special.

    Starting toward the pass to Idaho

    Balloons on the Tetons

    Angus Cafe Swan Valley Good breakfast but he outside is a little run down Swan Valley Idaho

    Swan Valley Idaho
    From here it got slabby again and into the city of Idaho Falls I ran into a 10 mile length of constuction with crazy 4 inch pot holes that I had to aviod. The car infront of me was going so slow I had to back off way back to get a good idea when the next pot hole was comming to avoid it. The cars behind me where no comfort!
    From there I gassed up in the boring town of Idaho Falls - note to self any town in the west out on the planes with the word "falls" in it is probably a sink hole! On my way into Atomic City Idaho I passed Harely Davidson after Harley Davidson after Harley Davidson. They seem to think that a 115 cubic inch HD can hold off a 1200 vfr? Not even close! I would pass with a simple 6th gear roll on and be done with them in a hurry. This thing cruises at 100mph while they struggle at it. Try twice the rpms and more HP its not much of a match, add in turns and its all over! I might see you on the way back.
    So I looked up some maps and headed up north a bit to hit the Salmon River roads stopping again in Arco to gas up since I have no idea where the gas stations are gonna be. It seemed prudent andnd once again in Challis since this was a back way or so I thought going along the Salmon. Nope it was busy, busy with all sorts of anglers fly fishing the river and driving along the twisty road. It was fun and fast. Then the canyon opened up and I saw the Sawtooth Mountain range for my first time and it Rivals the Grand Tetons in scope if not as sharp but massive, I stopped to take a pic.

    The Sawtooth Mountains Stanley Idaho
    Then I turned on what I thought was going to be the best road of the day and it was strait as an arrow, so my Uncle Told me! For a good 20 miles it was strait then slowly it started to get a kink here and there, then after 40 miles it was getting better and better, pretty soon I was enjoying it alot. Passing everything in range I was having fun on the fast sweepers, it was all good chip seal the kind that is done right and not loose anymore - not scrapped off by snow plows either just good chip seal. Its grippy and confidence inspiring.
    The at Lowman Idaho I turned a corner and the temperature went up 20 degrees and I started to sweat and then all of a sudden - whammo - tight tight twisty - deals gap of the west road! My Uncle had not set me wrong!~ I am glad he pointed this road out on the map to me at Christmas - this is some good stuff here! Wow I was not so sure about this bike up till now and I just leaned forward and gassed it smooth and let her rip and bump and lean and pitch. Flicking the bike side to side just like as if I was on the old girl. I think it was this road that made me think that I do have a good bike! A bike I can ride now, I was riding it well and it was responding well. I was happy with the veefalo all at once and completely focused on this road. I was having fun railing it and it was responding like it was too! Wow moments like this are a real treat, its not always you feel like your one with your bike or that its just an extention of your will, it was handling and turning like it was a sport bike! OH Harley guys try and follow me now!
    I looked down at my gas gauge - uhh oOHH its blinking! Aw shoot, 15 miles to Idaho City.. will I make it? The road started down hill and switch back after switch back melted away with ease, a little slower down hill I am still enjoying myself but trying to conserve gas. Then sweepers again till I saw what looked like a small village and a gas station on the side. I pumped 4.2 gallons and went over 150 miles, that last gas stop in Challis all they had was ethonol blend and I dont think I filled it to the rim, just topped up. I was really reving the pants off the bike for the most of 75 miles - and another 40 along the Salmon river. I really ran that section hard.

    I think your brother is all over my windshield
    Stange looking Zebra beetles in Idaho City they where everywhere - never seen bugs like them before? Cool looking especially when in flight. I stopped and fueled up and fueled up my belly with some Red Bull Cola and an Ice cream. I was only 50 miles to my Uncles place and was really happy with the bike! I feel like I broke an invisable barrier on that day!

    Full Size
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy.

  I accept