Colorado the Pffog and Flatty way
 

A few months back someone mentioned TOR and Flatty said it sounded like a lot of Pelicans would show up, and someone replied he should come too. But without a wing man, and riding across the plains on a bike, he respectfully declined the invite. Well that got me thinking I had a big gap between riding with Dee and company in May and the trip in Sept. So Ii PMed flatty and asked if he would be interested in going if I took the trailer out, his reply, abso-freakin-lutely! We also decided to keep it quiet that we were showing up.

Too long a hike for just TOR, so we planned 2 weeks. Roads were researched, routes programmed, bikes loaded we headed west. MAN IT IS FREAKING HOT! Poor Saab got used and abused hauling a trailer and 2 bikes across the Midwest , in 105 degree temps! Had running issues due to the gasoline BOILING in the gas tank, yes BOILING! Fuel pumps don’t pump foam very good. AC strained to keep up at times, and did I say it was just plain HOT!

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Day1 in CO
We finally got to Colorado and decided we would take a minute to practice some skills for the twisty roads

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Got to the mountains at lunch, stopped for a bite, and then went looking for a motel, found one just as it started to rain, and hail!

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Cell phone streaming weather is great; we unloaded, and waited for a break in the thunder storms. First ride, the highest paved road in the US, Mt. Evans, at 14,300 feet, as we headed up hit some rain and temps dropped as we climbed hit the top to 40 degree temps, and 20-30 mph winds. Needless to say we didn’t stay long, also we just hit elevation and never acclimated to it, so physical exertion took your breath away quick.

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Road some very nice foot hill roads before heading back to the room for the night.

Nice you missed that weather when mounted! Thanks for the picts. First time I've heard of boiling gas. woa

Looks like a lot of tongue weight on the poor Saab. Any opportunity to move some of that weight rearward? EDIT: A different draw bar with 6 inches additional rise might help a lot too...

Hope you have a ball,

N.

Nice Monster!

Keep the pics coming you guys. A travel thread is worthless without pics. :)

Richard an Flatty, that is absolutely a wonderment. Great sneak attack on the west coast Pelicans. Why waste all that good rubber running straight and level. I hope you to have an absolute blast. I kow Flatty is happy to see Bill for a reunion. Two thumbs up for you.

Nice!

Looking good.

Yea, it was squatting a bit, we brought too much crap along. tools tires, gear, everything except folding chairs which all the guys on bikes had, so much for being prepared.

At the first stop in Colorado I borrowed the maintenance mans drill and repositioned the front stops on the trailer to move the bikes about 6" rearward, that took some weight off. With 177K on the clock the rear springs are sagging a little, even without the trailer, but aside from the heat issues, she pulls the trailers well.

Very nice report! Thank you.

Looks like fun!

Despite the forecast, the next morning was clear and cool. We took off to do some more canyons on the eastern side, little traffic for the most part, and cool sunny temps, and great riding.

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The eastern front is full of little twisting roads, most had little traffic, and wonderful views


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Looking back across Boulder to eastern CO and the flat land


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More twisties


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Flatty making conversation with an English couple


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Stopped for lunch and checked the weather and found it was rapidly closing in on us. So we headed back on the road along the front range, hoping to avoid the rapidly building thunder storms. How we did it I don’t know, but aside from a five minute rain, we got back to the motel just as it started to rain again, and it rained the rest of the day.


Toms boots are not quite waterproof anymore, after a day of strafing the canyon roads.


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Honked and waved at you on our way outta town Richard. You were tying the bikes on the trailer as my son and I went by early Sunday morning.

Richard, I'll be interested to hear your assessment of CO vs WNC roads.

I saw you and nodded my head, I couldn't wave as I was holding the Duc up, trying to get the 2nd strap on it.

Glad you had a safe trip home. 4 1/2 more hours of driving until Tom and I part company, then 6 more for him, 3 1/2 for me. LONG trip across the plains.

O.k., enough of the nice pictures of the scenary and the bikes. We all know that Flatty is a Babe Magnet and on a Ducati, there must be a dozen paternity suits pending. Let's get to the good stuff.

well there was this hippy chick in....uhhh....Richard what town was that? nothing happened though as we were leaving town.

jeez flatty, scrape the dust off your stud instruction manual, because you've got it all backwards:

something should happen....then you leave town.

next time....honest.

many pix to come soon.

I can only wonder what would happen to my diaphragm and my tear ducts, if Flatty AND Brad would happen to be in the same vicinity and I should be lucky enough to witness it.

It would be nice to find out though?

We packed up to head to Granby Co for 3 days, pulled out early and got to Granby about 10, room was not ready and it was still in the 50’s with rain.

We grabbed a coffee and killed time waiting for the air to warm and rain to clear. We got our room, unloaded and took off to the North. Colorado does have mountains, but it also has a LOT of high prairies , this road started out meandering along a stream, with some interesting geological features.

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Until it hit the plateau, then we had a lot of this.

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We headed back S towards Steamboat, on a long flat highway, wicking it up at times. When we hit 40 we were going to head into Steamboat for lunch, so we started up Muddy pass, when the sky opened, so we did a quick u-turn and beat feat back to Granby.

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We went for dinner and found a FANTASTIC little restaurant. There is nothing like a first class meal to top off the day. Now what was that campground talk of MRI and freeze dried eggs best used for bait...............I will take this any day.

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