Adventure Touring on a Concours?

[NinjaBob]

As our club name suggests, I am a Sport Tourer, have owned and ridden Sport Touring motorcycles since 1982 when Honda produced the VF45 Sabre, the bike that started this club. I have met many many good fiends in the club over the years and have been regularly riding and touring with a small group of member/friends for about 15 or 20 years now. Initially we all rode Sport Touring or Standard bikes like the Honda STs, Kawasaki Concours and Yamaha FJR. Over the last 10 years or so motorcycle touring has shifted away from Sport Touring to Dual Sport or Adventure bikes like the BMW GS. And our little group is no exception. I however have resisted and still prefer my Concours and BMW RT.

So when long time riding buddy Tony Crowell proposed an adventure tour through Colorado, Wyoming and Kansas this August I decided to go on my Concours. My plan was to plot alternate routes to avoid the unpaved sections in the event I found them unsuitable for the Concours (and my limited off road skills, lol).

Well, the trip went great until the last day and I have decided to tell the story.

Here is a screen capture and a link to a google map of my trip made from my Zumo track log.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1z_IGL7paw2CwW_54coJAfB2VerON7oc&usp=sharing



I will report the highlights and lowlights of our trip with some photos in my next posts.

[NinjaBob]

Our core group of road trippers consists of three Louisiana members plus two Ex LA members now living in Houston and Northeast Oklahoma. This group had ridden togother this year to California in April and STAR at Cape Girardeau in June. For this August trip it would only be the two retired old farts as the working stiffs had used up their vacation time. The original plan was to meet at Woodward, OK to begin the group tour but since it was just the two Baton Rouge area guys, myself and Tony Crowell, we met instead at Mt. Pleasant, TX. Tony hates the heat and has big auxillary lights on his BMW R1250 GSA and usually departs well before dawn in summertime to beat the heat. So Tony had our motel room nice and cool when I arrived on my 2008 Concours 14. I have a cut down windshield on the Concours and get good wind flow to work with a cooling towel and find the August heat bearable.

We had a good meal at the nearby Applebees. The next morning Tony was well on his way to Woodward, OK when I arose to a nice Texas Sunrise.

[NinjaBob]

Tony and I took different routes to Woodward. H echose to ride the Indian Nation Turnpike. The last time I rode the Turnpike I fould the frequest stops to pay tolls annoying plus I enjoy seeing the little country towns you apss through on the smaller highways. I rode up through Paris, TX to Antlers, OK and then hung a left on OH 3 which I would follow to Woodward except for a stint on 19 to bypass Oklahoma City. The old Concours 14 performed flawlessy. Tony and I had a nice meal at the Red Prairie Steakhouse.
I got a kck out of this sign at a vaping store:


Here is a nice picture of our bikes.

[stevegrab]

Looking forward to....the rest of the story....

[NinjaBob]

On Sunday the 15th Tony and I road 401 miles to our next destination, Colorado City, starting out by riding most of the OKlahoma Panhandle in a mean crosswind. My memory is hazy but I think we stopped for breakdast in Guymon, OK and then for a break at the Outpost in Kim, OK. Or maybe we had breakfast at the motel and lunch at the Outpost. Tony, if you read this feel free to correct me.



At Trinidad we went North on I-25 for 62 miles to our Days Inn in Colorado City. Colorado City is a small town I had never heard of and there is not much there and on Sunday most eating places were closed. But the Three Sisters Tavern & Grill was open and just across the road.


At Trinidad we went North on I-25 for 62 miles to our Days Inn in Colorado City. Colorado City is a small town I had never heard of and there is not much there and on Sunday most eating places were closed. But the Three Sisters Tavern was open and just across the road.
A cool place and a good meal!

[HawkGTRider]

I have great memories of places I've chanced upon. Three Sisters sounds like one of those places.

[NinjaBob]

Our 397 mile (mine Tony's was a bit shorter) from Colorado City to Glenwood Springs proved pretty exciting. The route included a scenic dirt section that Tony wanted to ride.  The forecast was for frequent rains showers and I was glad I had an alternate paved route loaded in my Zumo. We headed northwest through San Isabel National Forest on CO 165 then west on CO 96 and nortwest again on 69 to Cotopaxi where we stopped for a break at the Cotopaxi Store. From there we continued northwest on US 50 to Salida then US 285 north to Buena Vista. This is an awesome route I have ridden selveral time on my way MSTA STAR in Avon, CO, continuing north on US24 to I-70 just east of Avon. We stopped at on overlook near Cottonwood Pass for some pictures. I climbed a steep, rock strewn path to get this one.




This time at Buena Vista we went west on County Road 306, again through San Isabel National Forest. We climbed Cottonwood Pass, elevation 12,126 feet. The temperature dropped into the 50s. We were now in Gunnison National Forest following the Taylor River on County Road 742. At Almont we turned north on CO 135.


Note: I labeled the first photo erroneously as US50. My memory is lousy so I was using my my Zumo tracks to try to identify  photo location, trying to estimate tracklog timing. Well, that is was not accurate. The photos were taken with my smart phone, which also has a GPS. I discovered that the phone stamps the photos with Latitude and Longitude coordinates. I plugged these into Google maps and Google located the photos on the map.

[NinjaBob]

At Crested Butte we went west on county Road 12 and soon came to a an uphill dirt road. It looked damp and I spotted a few muddy spots. I told Tony I did not want to ride it. Tony went ahead and I switch my Zumo to my alternate paved route. However it turned out we were not actually at the location we were supposed to be so my route was not working and Zumo said I was off route and wanted to recalculate. I backtracked on 135 to US 50 but when I got to CO 92 Zumo failed to make the turn and continued on UD 50 toward Montrose and Delta instead of Hotchkiss This would have taken me 80 miles out of my way. Luckily for me I soon came to a major road blockage due to construction. After no movement in either direction a couple of car drivers got out and went up to talk to the flagman. They returned to their vehicles, pulled out of like and left. Seeing that I decided to do the same. I hit Zumo's "DETOUR" button! I had never tried this before and was not expecting it to work but it did! It put me back on the correct route across the Gunnison River onto 92. 92 proved to be one of the best roads on the trip! At Hotchkiss I turned northeast on CO 133 follwing the North Fork Gunnison and Crystal Rivers, beautiful scenery.

By the time I reached Carbondale and CO 82, the final leg to Glenwood Springs, the rain had started and at times it was comming down pretty hard. I reached Glenwood Springs at rush hour and was stuck in stop and go traffic.  I finally reached the Hanging Lake Inn about 5:30, tired and damp but intact. Tony and I donned our rain gear and walked to a nearby Taco truck. We enjoyed some delicious Tacos at a picnic table under a tent.  The Hanging Lake Inn had comfy front porch with a great view. All and all another great day despite the rain.

[NinjaBob]

The next day's 295 mile ride began with a scoot east on I-70 to Eagle for a breakfast stop at the Eagle Diner where I had a scrumption breafast scramble. Then a little more on I-70 to Wolcott and CO131 a nice sweeper road I recall riding during a couple of STAR event at Avon, CO. At Tonopas we to 134 east and then US 40 north. We continued north on sv eral Colorado highways to the Wyoming border and Medicin Bow National Forest. We enjoyed some beautiful mountain scenery and stopped for some photos of the Snowy Range, west of Centennial.







We spent the night in Laramie with a nice meal at an Applebees.

[NinjaBob]

Thursday, August 18 would be a fun and rewarding day for adventure touring. We rode south and crossed back into Colorado and soon were on unpaved Larimer County 103. We soon came up on about a dozen horses standing in the middle of the road and as we approached they didn't budge! They were pretty close to blocking the road with just about a bike and a half width to get by. I stopped to see if they would give me more room. Instead one came right up to me and started sniffing my attractive and sporty CopperDawg windshield. Not only was this horse fearless, he had good taste.  After sniffing a bit he raised his head and just stared at me. I reached over and rubbed his ears a bit. THis is apparently what he wanted all along and after getting a nice rub he backed off a bit and I went on my way.

[HawkGTRider]

Rubbing the horse's ears...that's grand!

In a much earlier time in my life, I found myself on a little backroad in eastern Tennessee about 4:00 a.m. in a car. I came around a corner and found myself face to face with a cow that refused to move out the way. It was a very narrow road and I had to get past the cow...and it wasn't cooperating. I flashed my lights, honked my horn, and moved backwards and forwards...all to no avail. The cow just stood there and stared back at me. I finally eased up and bumped him with the car. That finally provided the impetus for the cow to move to the side of the road.
That sort of memory stays with you. Rubbing the ears of a horse in the road from a bike will stay with you too, I'll bet.

[NinjaBob]

Yes, it will. I have a great fondness for horses. On my twice a week 6 mile walk/runs I pass a couple of pastures that have horses that I have made friends with. Whenever they are close to the road I stop and give them some treats.

[NinjaBob]

We continued south on County Rd 103 to a scenic and recreational area at Chambers Lake where we stopped for some photos

[NinjaBob]

Just past the lake we turned off of 103 and the Larimer River to CO 14 and the Cache La Poudre River and Poudre Canyon which was nicely paved and twisty and scenic.



 I was enjoying the ride when suddenly my windshield went sideways. I told Tony I would have to pull over at the next safe spot and rode with one hande on the throttle and the other holding the windshield. We pulled into a recreational spot with somne shade trees. 5 of the 6 screws mounting the clear parts of my Copperdawg windshield to it's base had fallen out. We secured the shield with some zip ties and got back on the road.



In Fort Collins Tony noticed his windshield was also loose. We pulled off and found a good spot to work on it.  Two of the four mounting screws had fallen out. Tony actually had a couple of suitable screws in his tool kit!.



After the repair job we stopped for lunch in Ault, Co at the Bison Breath Bar and Grill.



We stopped for the night in Goodland, KS

[HawkGTRider]

Harry and Beth Hemstreet were kind enough to tell me how the "locals" pronounced Poudre...according to them, it's Poo-der with the accent on the first syllable. I was pronouncing it another way, and they were very gentle in correcting me.