Wiring Fixed and Fresh Oil

Odo. 39750

Repaired 4 broken wires:
- left turn indicator
- brake check/failure indicator light
- oil pressure indicator light
- right heated grip

Everything works now!

Checked tire pressure. Set to 36 PSI front, 42 PSI rear.
Changed oil.  Used BMW 20W50 dinosaur oil and K&N filter.

The leak at the final drive/drive shaft boot has not dripped anything on the ground or shown any visible drips hanging off of it in a long time.  I'm assuming the earlier drips were due to it sitting for a while.  Perhaps the fluid level was a little too high after the last change (last July, I believe) and some fluid was pushed passed the seal.

Preparing for Spring Ride

Preparing for a roughly 2000 mile ride through Southern CO, AZ and NM.

Odo. 37398
Checked transmission fluid level.  GOOD.
Checked tire pressure. Set to 36 PSI front, 41 PSI rear.
Changed oil.  Used BMW 10W40 dinosaur oil and OEM filter.

There's a leak at the front of the boot covering the connection of the tail end of the drive shaft with the final drive.  This has been there for years, but there were visible drips this time.  Will probably have to deal with this soon.

The right heated grip no longer works.  Preliminary poking around with a volt meter makes me think that the heating element has a short.  There is a small voltage at the wire delivering power to the element that changes slightly when the switch is moved from off to low to high.  The voltage is about a tenth of the voltage read at the other (working) grip ( about 0.5V on high).

There are still issues within the wire bundle going to the console indicator lights.  Don't want to take the time to deal with that one right now.

Echo Lake

Doing and afternoon ride tomorrow to Echo Lake with some guys from work.  I've never been there, but hear it's really pretty and popular for bicycles.  Here's the route:

Start in Morrison, well, after we get to the West side of town.  From there we follow Hwy 74 through Evergreen, then up toward Bergen Park, then West along Squaw Pass Rd. to Hwy 103 to Echo Lake.  From there we follow 103 down (North) to Idaho Springs then a little ways down I-70 we pick up US 6 (Clear Creek Canyon) to Golden for some refreshment at the Golden City Brewery.  Should be a really nice ride.

Ducati Brothers

Sunday, got an invite to go riding with a friend and friends of friends.  Two guys on Ducatis, Another BMW R-bike, and a Harley Lowrider.  The "Ducati Brothers" (not actually brothers, but their bikes were) lead the pack, followed by the two BMWs, with the Harley bringing up the rear.  Was a gorgeous ride, at a pretty quick pace.  Had a ton of fun, but don't prefer to ride like that all the time.  It was a little tough, at times, keeping up with the Ducati Bros.

Started in Golden with a full tank:

Headed up Clear Creek Canyon, to Blackhawk, to Peak-to-Peak Hwy, down through Golden Gate Canyon, up Hwy 93 to Hwy 72:

Up Coal Creek Canyon to Nederland where we stopped for some great pizza.  Don't know the name of the place but here's a view of Nederland from the balcony:

From Nederland, continued on to Lyons (Harley town).  Then I split toward home by way of Hwy 36 and Boulder.

Beautiful weather and views.  LOTS of twisty roads taken a little too fast.  Very fun ride, trying to keep up with the Ducati Bros.

Floodstage Ale Works, Brighton

Friday (8/19) decided to take a long lunch at the Floodstage Ale Works in Brighton, CO.  Met a couple other riders (from work) there for BBQ and a few beverages.  Unfortunately, their boiler (?) was broken, and they didn't have any of their own beers available.  Had Odell's 5 Barrel Pale Ale instead.  It was very very good. :-)

Gas

Shell Premium.
3.86 gal. 177 mi.
(35901)

Ride to Deckers was awesome

That's probably the third time I've been to Deckers.  Each time the route was a little different.  This Ride was awesome.  Light traffic, perfect weather, incredible views.  The only problem was sand/gravel on the road in a lot of spots - had to really take it easy on some of the curves I would have normally taken a lot faster.

Here's the route:

Basically,
 - C-470 to Wadsworth South.
 - Immediate right on W. Deer Creek Canyon Rd (Co Rd 124).
 - Left on S. Deer Creek Rd. which becomes High Grade Rd. (keep right) and then Pleasant Park Rd (again, keep right). For some reason I thought I needed to turn left and ended up on S. Kuehster Rd., and eventually dead-ended on someone's private property with unfriendly signs all over the place... Nice views, though!
- Go under 285 and around to the left to get on 285 going South.  About a mile (or less) down 285, there's a turn out on the left where you need to do a U-turn, then an immediate exit to the right onto S. Foxton Rd (Co Rd 97)
- Almost to Foxton, turn right onto SW Platte River Rd. (Co Rd 96)
- Left onto Deckers Rd. (Co. Rd 126)
- At Deckers (Co Rd 126/Hwy 67 intersection) stop and have a beverage or ice cream at the cafe.
- Head North on 67
- Take the second right turn after the sign that says "Sedalia 17 mi.".  That's W. Pine Creek Rd.  It's dirt, but well maintained and manageable, and really pretty.
- Left on 67 to Sedalia. (There's a nice biker bar here at Hwy 67 / US 85 intersection (Sedalia Grill?).
- Right on US 85
- Left on Meadows Pkwy (there's a sign indicating that's the way to get onto I-25).
- Cross I-25.  Keep straight (veering right), road becomes Founders Pkwy.
- Left onto N. Crowfoot Valley Rd.
- Right onto Stroh Rd. to Parker Rd. (Hwy 83).

(Yeah "basically", haha.)

Some views from the ride:

Just starting and Deer Creek Canyon Rd.

View from Kuehster Rd.

Foxton

SW Platte River Rd.

Deckers

W. Pine Creek Rd.

Back on 67.  Cool looking restaurant I'd like to check out sometime.