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A few of us decided to take a Colorado trip this last weekend. I didn't want to ride all the way from Oklahoma to Pagosa Springs, Colorado in one day, so I headed out Wednesday afternoon and stayed the night in Guymon, Oklahoma and was going to meet up the next day with Cody on a 1400 Concourse, Bob Embrey on his XJ1100, Bohn Frazer on an XS1100, and Cody's friend Rod on a Goldwing 1800.
Thursday morning, I got a call from Cody saying that a local tax collector (Highway Patrol) had stopped them and gave ALL FOUR of them a hefty ticket. Long story there, but it was a pretty bogus operation he was running. It turned out that the extra money I paid for a hotel room was the significantly cheaper choice since I would have been right there with them if I had decided to ride the whole way.
After that, we met up and headed out onto the open praries of Oklahoma....
Cody turned around to send me some love... or maybe telling me which highway we were on?
Along the way, we were ambushed by the local Ladybug Kamakazi Unit. We did our best to thin out the herd a bit...
Miles Baker rode down from his home in Colorado and met us at the New Mexico border. That made two XS1100's, two XJ1100's, a Concourse and a Goldwing.
Miles is just a little bitty fella at 6'5" and 250+ pounds. Have you ever seen anyone make an XS11 look like a mini bike?
It threatened rain along the way, but we were never hit with more than a few drops.
Lots of these antelope around with a couple dead on the road. Hit one and it WILL leave a mark!
A chance to let the motors breathe a bit...
We finally arrive in our targeted state... Colorado.
... and the scenery (And roads) start to get much improved.
Even in June, there's still snow on the mountains.
A stop at Wolf Creek Pass. elevation 10,850 feet at the continental divide. It's getting a bit cool.. notice the snow on the side of the road. From left to right is Rod's Goldwing, Miles' XS1100, Cody and his Concourse, my XJ1100, Bob's Xj1100, and Bohn's XS1100.
We arrived in Pagosa Springs in a couple condos that were to be home for a few days. Everybody was pretty tired and went to bed shortly after with a lot of riding planned in the next few days.
Friday morning, we grabbed some coffee and breakfast and headed south to Chama, New Mexico. There were some nice sweepers on the way that we got to take at a nice "relaxed" pace...
We then headed north on HWY 17. Chama has a steam engine scenic railroad I'd like to come back and ride sometime... Here she is belching smoke, hissing steam, and chugging away as it pulls the grade.
After this we headed to the Great Sand Dunes State Park northeast of Alamosa, Colorado. It would be easier to read here than for me to tell you about it..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_S...k_and_Preserve
We then rode to South Fork and headed up to Creede.
Creede is a nice little mining town that has a museum inside a mine they dug for that purpose. We took the tour at a later time, but here's the town all snugged up in a corner of the mountain.
And don't forget the Wild Beaver!!
On the return trip from Creede, Bob started losing power in his XJ and pulled over. It was making some loud ticking sounds. We rode back and inspected things and listened to it and decided he could limp it back to South Fork where we would park it at the Hungry Logger Restauarant. We went in to eat while we contemplated what could be wrong. I initially thought gas in the oil, but the oil was fine, so I figured there was a lubrication problem for some reason. I cracked the oil line going to the head to check for oil pressure (XJ has an oil LEVEL sensor, not pressure) and sure enough.. no oil pressure. We took off the clutch side cover and could see that the oil pump screws had come loose and it was kind of dangling, so right there in these peoples' parking lot, we dropped the exhaust, drained the oil in a pan we bought, and took off the oil pan... to discover gear teeth in the pan. The little gear between the oil pump and the clutch basket gear had been eaten by the big meaner gears. It would have been spinning full speed when the oil pump would have gone up on a bump or something and made contact with the much stouter oil pump gear. Something had to lose unfortunately. I felt bad because I was the one who had installed this oil pump after I had tore the motor apart. I've never heard of one having the screws come loose before, but it is a hard lesson to learn to always use loc-tite on them from now on.
We covered the bike up and left it there in the parking lot. Poor Bob was reduced to riding in the Barcalounger on two wheels (The Goldwing 1800). He had to endure many comments and ribbings because of this. He thought about just heading home at that point, but we were glad he decided to stay and experience the trip with Rod being his chauffeur for a couple more days. Cody's mom had an Isuzu Trooper stored there at Pagosa Springs, and his son had a small trailer over in Durango where he is attending college.. so we had the bike's trip home arranged.
I have to add that the owners at the Hungry Logger Restaurant were astoundingly accomodating. It took us two days to get the towing arrangements together. In that time with the cover over it in the parking lot, some strong winds had come through and blown the bike over. The owner picked the bike back up (Most know this is no small feat!) and moved it to a safer spot right next to the building, then picked up all the parts and pieces and stacked them nicely next to the bike. If you're ever in the area.. thank them with some patronage. I suggest a pancake... but I think they turn them with a snow shovel. They are HUGE!
The next morning, (Saturday) we were getting the bikes ready and heard something and looked up.
We rode while Bob drove the Trooper over to Durango and left it for the day at Cody's son Justin's house. This is Chimney Rock on the way...
End of part one...
Thursday morning, I got a call from Cody saying that a local tax collector (Highway Patrol) had stopped them and gave ALL FOUR of them a hefty ticket. Long story there, but it was a pretty bogus operation he was running. It turned out that the extra money I paid for a hotel room was the significantly cheaper choice since I would have been right there with them if I had decided to ride the whole way.
After that, we met up and headed out onto the open praries of Oklahoma....
Cody turned around to send me some love... or maybe telling me which highway we were on?
Along the way, we were ambushed by the local Ladybug Kamakazi Unit. We did our best to thin out the herd a bit...
Miles Baker rode down from his home in Colorado and met us at the New Mexico border. That made two XS1100's, two XJ1100's, a Concourse and a Goldwing.
Miles is just a little bitty fella at 6'5" and 250+ pounds. Have you ever seen anyone make an XS11 look like a mini bike?
It threatened rain along the way, but we were never hit with more than a few drops.
Lots of these antelope around with a couple dead on the road. Hit one and it WILL leave a mark!
A chance to let the motors breathe a bit...
We finally arrive in our targeted state... Colorado.
... and the scenery (And roads) start to get much improved.
Even in June, there's still snow on the mountains.
A stop at Wolf Creek Pass. elevation 10,850 feet at the continental divide. It's getting a bit cool.. notice the snow on the side of the road. From left to right is Rod's Goldwing, Miles' XS1100, Cody and his Concourse, my XJ1100, Bob's Xj1100, and Bohn's XS1100.
We arrived in Pagosa Springs in a couple condos that were to be home for a few days. Everybody was pretty tired and went to bed shortly after with a lot of riding planned in the next few days.
Friday morning, we grabbed some coffee and breakfast and headed south to Chama, New Mexico. There were some nice sweepers on the way that we got to take at a nice "relaxed" pace...
We then headed north on HWY 17. Chama has a steam engine scenic railroad I'd like to come back and ride sometime... Here she is belching smoke, hissing steam, and chugging away as it pulls the grade.
After this we headed to the Great Sand Dunes State Park northeast of Alamosa, Colorado. It would be easier to read here than for me to tell you about it..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_S...k_and_Preserve
We then rode to South Fork and headed up to Creede.
Creede is a nice little mining town that has a museum inside a mine they dug for that purpose. We took the tour at a later time, but here's the town all snugged up in a corner of the mountain.
And don't forget the Wild Beaver!!
On the return trip from Creede, Bob started losing power in his XJ and pulled over. It was making some loud ticking sounds. We rode back and inspected things and listened to it and decided he could limp it back to South Fork where we would park it at the Hungry Logger Restauarant. We went in to eat while we contemplated what could be wrong. I initially thought gas in the oil, but the oil was fine, so I figured there was a lubrication problem for some reason. I cracked the oil line going to the head to check for oil pressure (XJ has an oil LEVEL sensor, not pressure) and sure enough.. no oil pressure. We took off the clutch side cover and could see that the oil pump screws had come loose and it was kind of dangling, so right there in these peoples' parking lot, we dropped the exhaust, drained the oil in a pan we bought, and took off the oil pan... to discover gear teeth in the pan. The little gear between the oil pump and the clutch basket gear had been eaten by the big meaner gears. It would have been spinning full speed when the oil pump would have gone up on a bump or something and made contact with the much stouter oil pump gear. Something had to lose unfortunately. I felt bad because I was the one who had installed this oil pump after I had tore the motor apart. I've never heard of one having the screws come loose before, but it is a hard lesson to learn to always use loc-tite on them from now on.
We covered the bike up and left it there in the parking lot. Poor Bob was reduced to riding in the Barcalounger on two wheels (The Goldwing 1800). He had to endure many comments and ribbings because of this. He thought about just heading home at that point, but we were glad he decided to stay and experience the trip with Rod being his chauffeur for a couple more days. Cody's mom had an Isuzu Trooper stored there at Pagosa Springs, and his son had a small trailer over in Durango where he is attending college.. so we had the bike's trip home arranged.
I have to add that the owners at the Hungry Logger Restaurant were astoundingly accomodating. It took us two days to get the towing arrangements together. In that time with the cover over it in the parking lot, some strong winds had come through and blown the bike over. The owner picked the bike back up (Most know this is no small feat!) and moved it to a safer spot right next to the building, then picked up all the parts and pieces and stacked them nicely next to the bike. If you're ever in the area.. thank them with some patronage. I suggest a pancake... but I think they turn them with a snow shovel. They are HUGE!
The next morning, (Saturday) we were getting the bikes ready and heard something and looked up.
We rode while Bob drove the Trooper over to Durango and left it for the day at Cody's son Justin's house. This is Chimney Rock on the way...
End of part one...
(Sold back to Maximan)
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