Up and ready to go by 8 AM: Gas - checked, Tire pressure - checked, Oil - checked. Since I had all my camping stuff and conference crap off the bike, the bike was a lot lighter. Just grabbed some tools, just in case. Good thing I did, since "Just in case" happens later.
Garmin Zumo 660 has been great until this point. I found it on Craigslist. Actually this is the Harley branded model called "Road Tech". They guy selling really didn't know what he was selling. He moved from Harley to Indian and the unit didn't fit his new bike. So I got it pretty cheap.
Anyway, I put in the route for the day and start. Dry crisp, not so cold air was nice. I am on HWY 24. I see the sign "Pikes Peak North Pole." Garmin tells me to keep going. So I did. I ended up in a town called "Woodland Park". I knew I went to far. It's time to turn around. This time, I use Google Map App and it takes me to the entrance to Pikes Peak. Well, that "Pikes Peak North Pole" was the entrance I was supposed to take.
Once I make the turn and ride a bit, I understood what "North Pole" was. There was some kind of Santa Workshop thing there. I guess that's a tourist attraction. I didn't even stop.
Moving onto Pikes Peak. The long line at the entrance was annoying. Two gates were open. and there were at least 10 cars each on the both line. BUT on my way down, three gates were open and cares were backed up to nearly HWY 24.
The first half of the ride is pretty boring. There is a lake and you eventually get to a check point. Beyond that is where the fun begins.
I like the views and road once the trees are gone, above 12,000 ft. This is where the thrill begins. Lots of hair pin curves. Huge cliffs within 10 ft of your reach. Only one close call I had. There were a bunch of down hill bicycle tourists. I guess the van takes the tourists and bikes to the top and they just ride down. That sounds like fun. BUT there was this one family with kids coming down. One of their son had his bike uncontrollable. His handle bar is wobbling and almost came into my lane. I had CLIFF to my right. Nothing happened beyond that, but I was truly scared at that moment. I thought he was going to take me down the cliff.
I arrive to the top safely. My motel neighbor was telling me that he was not going to go up Pike Peak since he heard that the top was dirt road and he was not taking his Mini onto dirt road ever. He was right. The very top is an unpaved parking lot.
There was a shop there. I was not at all interested in buying any tourist crap. So didn't spend much time at the peak, but started to descend. Going up was scary, but coming down is even more scary. The gravity becomes your enemy. Put your bike in lower gear and descent. =)
No near misses on descend and the road took me back to HWY 24. Next I head out to Cripple Creek, an old GOLD mining town. It is now flourished with tourism. The ride on HWY 67 was a lot of fun, nice leisure pace but enough curves to make it fun. Once in Cripple Creek, I needed gas. So I went deep into town to look for a gas station.
Found one at the end of town. Parked the bike, got the gas, start the bike to proceed, but my steering was dull. I had no air in the front tire. Bummer. I pulled out my Slime electric air pump and filled the tire up to 30 psi. When I checked the tire pressure earlier at the motel, the stem had difficult time seating back. Surprisingly the slow leak took me all the way up to Pikes Peak.
Luckily, the back side of this gas station was the town's ONLY hardware store and it had a bunch of tire related products. I bought two packages of valve stems and a package of stem cap with rubber seal and core remover.
I removed the damaged core, installed a new one, put 30 psi, and put the sealer cap. And it was good the rest of the trip. There were other motorcyclist there from out of town. Two guy were riding bikes from the 70s and 80s. They were riding around colorado, like I was, on those old bikes. They also needed some parts to get their bike fixed temporarily. That's all adventure that we enjoy.
From Cripple Creek, I rode to Victor, another old mining city with lots of tourists now. They were actually having some kind of festival there and some town streets were closed. I probably should have checked out what was going on, but riding the next road was more important to me.
From Victor, I took Phantom Canyon Road. Riding this road was on my bucket list.
What a great road! It's dirt, runs through canyon, tunnels, cliffs, it's got everything. The road is hard packed and two-up Harley can make it, too. (As you see in the video.)
https://goo.gl/maps/YEBEtzhT4EL2
No incident of any kind through this path. It was very pleasant afternoon with a fabulous ride. I was sad to see the pavement at the end of the road.
After that, rode the asphalt back to the motel, took shower, met up with a college friend, and the day ended.
Garmin Zumo 660 has been great until this point. I found it on Craigslist. Actually this is the Harley branded model called "Road Tech". They guy selling really didn't know what he was selling. He moved from Harley to Indian and the unit didn't fit his new bike. So I got it pretty cheap.
Anyway, I put in the route for the day and start. Dry crisp, not so cold air was nice. I am on HWY 24. I see the sign "Pikes Peak North Pole." Garmin tells me to keep going. So I did. I ended up in a town called "Woodland Park". I knew I went to far. It's time to turn around. This time, I use Google Map App and it takes me to the entrance to Pikes Peak. Well, that "Pikes Peak North Pole" was the entrance I was supposed to take.
Once I make the turn and ride a bit, I understood what "North Pole" was. There was some kind of Santa Workshop thing there. I guess that's a tourist attraction. I didn't even stop.
Moving onto Pikes Peak. The long line at the entrance was annoying. Two gates were open. and there were at least 10 cars each on the both line. BUT on my way down, three gates were open and cares were backed up to nearly HWY 24.
The first half of the ride is pretty boring. There is a lake and you eventually get to a check point. Beyond that is where the fun begins.
I like the views and road once the trees are gone, above 12,000 ft. This is where the thrill begins. Lots of hair pin curves. Huge cliffs within 10 ft of your reach. Only one close call I had. There were a bunch of down hill bicycle tourists. I guess the van takes the tourists and bikes to the top and they just ride down. That sounds like fun. BUT there was this one family with kids coming down. One of their son had his bike uncontrollable. His handle bar is wobbling and almost came into my lane. I had CLIFF to my right. Nothing happened beyond that, but I was truly scared at that moment. I thought he was going to take me down the cliff.
I arrive to the top safely. My motel neighbor was telling me that he was not going to go up Pike Peak since he heard that the top was dirt road and he was not taking his Mini onto dirt road ever. He was right. The very top is an unpaved parking lot.
There was a shop there. I was not at all interested in buying any tourist crap. So didn't spend much time at the peak, but started to descend. Going up was scary, but coming down is even more scary. The gravity becomes your enemy. Put your bike in lower gear and descent. =)
No near misses on descend and the road took me back to HWY 24. Next I head out to Cripple Creek, an old GOLD mining town. It is now flourished with tourism. The ride on HWY 67 was a lot of fun, nice leisure pace but enough curves to make it fun. Once in Cripple Creek, I needed gas. So I went deep into town to look for a gas station.
Found one at the end of town. Parked the bike, got the gas, start the bike to proceed, but my steering was dull. I had no air in the front tire. Bummer. I pulled out my Slime electric air pump and filled the tire up to 30 psi. When I checked the tire pressure earlier at the motel, the stem had difficult time seating back. Surprisingly the slow leak took me all the way up to Pikes Peak.
From Cripple Creek, I rode to Victor, another old mining city with lots of tourists now. They were actually having some kind of festival there and some town streets were closed. I probably should have checked out what was going on, but riding the next road was more important to me.
From Victor, I took Phantom Canyon Road. Riding this road was on my bucket list.
What a great road! It's dirt, runs through canyon, tunnels, cliffs, it's got everything. The road is hard packed and two-up Harley can make it, too. (As you see in the video.)
https://goo.gl/maps/YEBEtzhT4EL2
No incident of any kind through this path. It was very pleasant afternoon with a fabulous ride. I was sad to see the pavement at the end of the road.
After that, rode the asphalt back to the motel, took shower, met up with a college friend, and the day ended.
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