Colfax Ride

This Saturday we rode Colfax Avenue. (Check out this cool interactive link! I wish I'd seen it before we went out on our ride.) I'd always wanted to do this just to say that I had. Now, it is crossed off the list and we don't have to do it ever again. It wasn't horrible by any stretch but it wasn't one of those nice comfortable rides with lots of great scenery either. It was quite stressful at times but not too bad overall. I guess what I'm trying to say is it could have been worse. :-)

We started out from Golden where we had some Starbucks and read the paper. It was going to be a leisurely ride. Our official starting point was Heritage Road and W. Colfax Ave. We headed east from there ending up at Powhaton Road in Aurora. The weather was great. Even though we got a late start, it wasn't too hot to be in the stop and go of Colfax. The traffic was pretty light as well. The only construction was a very short bit downtown. It was fun to ride by the capitol as if we were tourists just traveling through. Maybe knowing we didn't have to try to find a parking space was what made it more relaxing. LOL! About noon we stopped at a Wendy's at Colfax and Chambers. Next time, if we do something like this again, we'll have to plan it so we can stop at one of the diners along the route.

Once we got to Powhaton, we considered whether to keep going but decided to start heading back. Hubby had a party to go to later. So, we took a route back through Aurora, Cherry Creek, downtown Denver, Highlands, and home. It was a pretty great ride actually. Not as bad as I'm making it out to be. :-) We only nearly got run over a few times on Colfax by people not paying attention or in too much of a hurry to look for motorcycles. But that's nothing new. We make up for it by paying attention for them and being hyper-aware of our surroundings.

Here's a Google map of our route.

A weekend of motorcycling!!

First of all, happy birthday to my sister-in-law!! :-) We celebrated her bday on Saturday in Loveland. Hubby and I rode out on the motos making a quick stop at Colorado Euro Motorcycles in Loveland. A few days ago I stopped in Foothills BMW but they were out of the 2009 G650GS. I was hoping to sit on one with my gear on to see how it fit. Apparently, Foothills owns the store up north, so the guy called that shop to see what they had. They had a couple in the shop so I thought it would be fun to stop there on the way to sis-in-law's place. :-) They had two on the floor, both black, one lowered one stock. The stock one is too tall. I could only tippy toe it. The lowered one was perfect! I'm not totally flatfooted but very close. Certainly close enough to be comfortable. The lowered one also had heated grips and a center-stand. It was about $8500. So, I have lots of saving to do. It was so comfortable sitting on it. :-D I could so get used to that!!

When we got to sis-in-law's she said they'd left her bike out in case I wanted to take it for a spin. :-D I was thinking I shouldn't because what if I fell in love with it? That would be sad. But then I thought, if I don't, I'll certainly wish I had. So, later, after dinner, she and I traded bikes. She rode the Rebel and led me around the neighborhood, around some lakes near their place on some slow curvy roads. It was so much fun! And I did love it. The GS is (obviously) taller than the Rebel. I say obviously but riding it is really what makes the difference. It's one thing to sit in the dealership on the floor but it's another thing to see the world go by from the saddle.

The pegs are in a completely different place too - thus the difference between a cruiser and standard I suppose. It actually took me a little while to find them. Muscle memory wanted them to be some where else entirely. And they are smaller than the Rebel's too. That was a bit weird for a while. My boots felt really big. The brake and shift levers are smaller too. Sitting on it was very comfortable. The seat is comfy and just the right size. The cruiser seat on the Rebel doesn't allow for much movement but I can see where the GS would be better. My knees nestled comfortably on the "tank". The Rebel tank is quite small and I always feel like my knees are not where they are supposed to be or are flopping around.

The handlebar position is also (obviously) completely different from the Rebel. The GS has a more leaned over position, although not as dramatic as a sportbike. I think it is a bit more leaned over than hubby's CX, although, that may be because I'm shorter of torso. I definitely felt like I was leaning on my shoulders more. I'm sure that can be changed easily enough if needed. It was difficult to reach the turn signals while holding onto the clutch, or really just the grips. I remember that being something that felt abnormal in the Rebel at first too. It takes some coordination to hold the handlebars steady while working the clutch and reaching for the controls. Muscle memory again.

It was a fabulous ride! Thanks sister-in-law!

Saturday, hubby and I rode about 116 miles.

On Sunday we went out to meet some of hubby's work buddies. They were planning a group lunch ride to Estes Park, which is one of my most favorite places in Colorado. There were 13 of us in the group and 9 bikes. I was the only woman riding her own and also the smallest bike there (with hubby close behind on his CX500). There were lots of different bikes - a couple of touring Harleys, a Gold Wing, a Victory, a Suzuki TL1000, a Virago, my Rebel, and hubby's CX. It was a great group of folks, most of whom I met for the first time there. The Victory had some electrical problems that the guys were able to fix before we left. That took about 30 minutes or so. Then we were off. Here is the route:We rode about 163 miles. It was so much fun! We rode from our house to the meeting point down south in Littleton. from there we went northwest through Morrison, Red Rocks park, to Golden and highway 93, north to Coal Creek Canyon, and the Peak-to-Peak highway into Estes. We had lunch at Ed's Cantina, where I'd never eaten before. It was pretty ok. Not un-tasty. :-) Lunch is made all the better by good company. :-) After lunch, I led the group back to Boulder on highway 36. Well, most of the group. It's tough getting out of Estes on a weekend. Lots of tourists. So, we lost half the group getting out of town but were reunited between Lyons and Boulder. No worries, although I felt bad losing them since I was the leader. :-(

Here are some of the bikes we rode with.

It was a fabulous weekend spent with my hubby on the motos! We were sure tired after all that though. :-)

Weird

I just posted the helmet review and this is the ad that popped up...


The internet really creeps me out some days.....

Icon Airframe Helmet review

Here is a review of my helmet from the Women Riders Now web site. I really like this helmet. My father got it for me for Christmas last year. It fits me perfectly - chipmunk cheeks and all. By the way, it isn't the helmet I'm wearing in my profile photo. Maybe I'll update that one. :-)

Some updates.....

Recently I purchased a recovered gel seat for the 450 from Jack's. It is fabulous! I've been riding with it for a while now and I don't know how I ever rode without it. At first it took some getting used to. The seat is slightly higher and pushes me forward more than the other. And there isn't much room to play around with in that area. But, once I got it broken in, it was great. There are no buttons on the seat either so water doesn't pool so much when it rains on the parked bike. (We've had a lot of that lately, rain that is.) I also have a seat cover that I can use for the other bike. I bought that from a member of the Rebel board. He made it himself. Maybe I'll play around with that this weekend.

I also have been wearing some SmartWool ski socks. These are the best socks ever! They don't slip down in the boot, which had been a problem for some reason with my right foot. Weird. But the SmartWool socks are so comfy. They aren't very warm unless I walk around in them. And they are warm enough in the winter or cooler morning rides. They must breathe very well otherwise. Of course, we haven't had very very hot weather yet this season either.

I also got new glasses. It is so nice not to have headaches all the time. Ha! I went with polarized lenses which at first was a bad idea. It took some getting used to for sure but now I wear them all the time. Our cloudy weather has made the polarized lenses very useful. The view of the world is much clearer when it is cloudy or even rainy. It is still difficult to see drivers' faces through their tinted windows. But, I've adjusted to that as well. Another thing I noticed is my new Icon helmet, which fits properly, makes it more difficult to get the glasses on. But, the polarized glasses fit that helmet well too. I'm quite happy with them.

And speaking of rain, which I mentioned earlier, we sure have gotten a lot of it lately! It seems every afternoon this week it has really come down. There have been tornado warnings and watches all around us. Some how though, when it is time for me to ride home from work, the sun is shining. I haven't had to ride in the rain after work yet. Knock on wood. The bike's been wet when I've come out but the sun is out as well. Not that I mind the rain, obviously, or I'd have been in the car all week long. I've got all the proper gear to keep me comfortable and dry on the bike. And since I've spent all the money on the gear I might as well use it, right? Rain I can live with. Lightning on the other hand, scares the crap out of me. So far so good though.

Been riding

It is hard to blog about riding when you are riding a lot. Weird. And mostly, my rides are just commuting to work. I really enjoy those rides but there isn't much to write about them. Getting from point A to point B and back again at the end of the day. All very important to the ride, but not so interesting to blog about. Oh well.

Hubby and I took a ride last Saturday. We were hoping to meet up with his sister in Lyons for some art fair thingy but her bike wouldn't cooperate. Bummer. She ended up pushing it back home a quarter mile. :-( But, as she mentioned, at least she didn't get stranded very far from home. Hubby and I did the ride through Lyons via highway 72 from Arvada to the junction of 72 and 119. We were planning to stay on 72 all the way to 7 but the weather decided otherwise. Just before we hit the junction, it started to rain. The kind of rain you can see before you get into it. No worries though. We pulled over and put our rain jackets on and continued on. But, we went right instead of left and headed toward Nederland. It was sort of by accident but probably a good thing because when we stopped to gear up, there was actually some hail or gropple falling as well as rain. And it was pretty chilly being wet and all. Once we got to Nederland, I pulled over again to put my rain pants on since I had my mesh Olympia's on. It was like air conditioning on my legs. Anyway, that ensured the rain would stop, which it did as we headed down the hill towards Boulder. We continued on to Lyons where we were able to call sister-in-law to find out her troubles. We didn't hang around too long as the clouds were coming in there as well. So, we went back to Boulder and had some lunch. It was a very good day! (Except for missing out on our riding buddy.) Here is a map of the route (more or less).



Wednesday I took the scenic route home. I was having a not so good day, feeling sorry for myself and my lack of time to maintain my attendance in the fitness boot camp. So, after the crappy work out, I thought I'd take the slow route home. As I was riding, I thought it would be nice if it rained a little. So, I took matters into my own hands. I pulled over when the first three drops hit my visor. I put my rain pants on and wen tout in search of the rain. :-) It was quite fun actually. It never did rain very hard at all. The tank barely got wet thanks to the windshield. But, it was good enough for me. I felt a lot better although, I started to feel guilty that I hadn't told my hubby where I was. He was out of town on east coast time so by the time I got home at 8pm, he was ready to get to sleep. (He's coming home today though.)

I've put lots of miles on my moto gear. I've noticed my mesh Olympia pants are starting to show some wear. The reflective piping is starting to fray a bit. Well, not fray but sort of chip away. I really like those pants. They are so comfy and fit very well. I wonder if I should invest in another pair just in case they stop making them. Maybe I should check with Mary at MotoGear Outlet about that. My jacket is in good shape. I finally cut out the nylon thread that had been poking my in my arm. Why I hadn't done that months ago I don't know. The boots are great too. Last Saturday was the first time I'd worn them in a good rain. I didn't even think about that. They are awesome! And I was able to break in my new Joe Rocket gloves in the rain as well. I'd warmed them up in the toaster oven to help stretch out the fingers. And then being in the rain helped too. Now they fit just fine. :-)

I'm hoping hubby and I will attend the Top Gun motorcycle competition on Sunday. I've always wanted to see that. That will be so cool! I'll try to remember to blog about it if I do. And take pictures.

Been riding to work almost every day this week. I drove one day because we weren't supposed to park the cars on the street for a special trash pick up in the city. I was going to ride and just pull the car out, then the moto, and then put the car back, but that seemed like a waste of time. No big deal to drive that day. The weather should get up to 80 next week. I'm psyched! Of course I have to drive that particular day. Oh well.

I've been enjoying the solitude of riding. Going to work and on the drive home. It's the only alone time I have. I like it. Wish I had more. I wish I had more riding alone time to share with my hubby too. He doesn't get to ride as much as I do. Maybe we should actually plan a trip or something.

The bike was a bit cranky getting it started on Monday. I guess it had been sitting a while and the gas tank wasn't full either. (I didn't fill it today either and I am on reserve.) After the second day of riding it seemed to be back to normal. Although, today it did seem to have less power. That could have been the wind though. It was pretty fierce on the ride home. I'm glad I didn't take highway 93! I had to pull over anyway to put my liner on. There is a front coming in tonight. The high tomorrow is only supposed to be in the 50s.

I think I'll wash my jacket and pants tonight since I won't be riding this weekend. That's a good idea. :-)