Saturday 18 September 2010

September Motorcycle Ride

Perfect day, new tire, 310 mile ride.

Top of Rabbit Ears pass - before the descent into Steamboat Springs.

This was a ride I'd planned last year and then didn't get around to before hunting season started in earnest and the weather got too bad to ride. It took seven hours to ride this route, about 40 miles of it is on gravel. North of Steamboat Lake, route 129  is gravel to within a couple of miles where (as WY 710 - Snake River Spur Road)  it intersects WY 70.  Also, Fox Creek Rd. from Albany WY to Woods Landing is dirt as well.  The entire ride is spectacular, but the ride up and over Battle Pass (elevation 9,955 ft.) on the way to Encampment from Baggs is just about the most perfect winding mountain road for a motorcycle.


View Motorcycle Ride in a larger map

Seen in Walden CO - bow season is open.

In Walden.



Looking back south into CO from the Snake River Spur Road.
Near Lake Marie and the top of the pass over the Snowies on WY 130.

Home again - at the new house.

Friday 17 September 2010

New Motorcycle Tires

I've been needing new tires on the motorcycle for some time and more recently, the rear tire was so worn out it has been keeping me from riding as much as I'd like. I finally bit the bullet and ordered a set of Dunlop K70's. The front tire is back-ordered until mid-October, but the rear tire is what I really needed so I had Barry Messenger in Fort Collins mount it and balance it for me.



Barry with the SR in his shop.
I spent a lot of time trying to figure what the right tires for my riding would be. A big part of that decision was the kind of roads I ride. Many of my local roads here are dirt and gravel and although the motorcycle isn't really a dual-sport, out of necessity, I ride a lot of unpaved roads. I like the looks of a vintage tire and the K70's certainly are that. The were popular with flat-track racers in the 1960's and early 1970's. I was having some trouble figuring out if the 3.50-19 would fit under the stock front fender when I ran across a blog called Contemplative Motorcycling.  That blogger rides similar roads in Australia and he'd just put a set of the K70's on his bike.  I could see that the wider front tire fit and he is enthusiastic about them.

Final Adjustments.
Barry does great work at a reasonable price and is a font of knowledge about vintage motorcycles, his specialty is restoring older BMW's, though he has some SR spares tucked away in his shop too.  He managed to get my SR running reliably when it was way beyond me and everyone else I talked to.