Gurock
Well-known member
All winter my friend Brian and I had been planning a grand tour of the western half of America from Chicago. Some of you may hold against Brian that he rides a BMW R1200R, but we can't all be perfect. I being the wiser of the two of us took my 06 FJR AE.
We made numerous preparations in equipment and planning. We also made a number of small three or four day trips to iron out kinks before we set out on weeks in travel. Our basic plan was to leave Chicago on a Saturday morning and ride like bats out of hell to central Colorado. We were going to then tour the mountains of Colorado for some days, move on to the southern half of Utah and tour for several days. After Utah and figuring that our minds and bodies would be getting tired from riding we were going to do a fast run from Cedar City Utah to San Diego.
I have brothers in San Diego and we could stay with them ride much less for a few days while we rested and recovered. After San Diego we were going to ride north through California touring in California for a few days, then moving on through north Nevada, south Idaho and into Wyoming and Montana for a few days in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone area. Finally we would ride like heck through South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to get back to Chicago again.
Our plan involved motels and not camping. Were not getting any younger, a bed, shower, and no camping equipment to haul or set up looked good, It also allowed us more space to carry riding gear for all the different climates and conditions we would encounter in the varied geographies that we would encounter. We thought that we should be prepared with cold weather gear for places like Beartooth Pass and cooling vests for places like the Mojave Desert. Multiple gloves and enough clothes to avoid laundry every couple days. Most of this worked out well. We never ended up needing to use the cooling vests, but on the other hand I used my heated jacket liner quite a bit and discovered that I never need to plug in my heated gloves as the FJR heated grips proved sufficient.
My basics were a pair of Firstgear mesh riding pants, two kevlar lined jeans, a first gear rain pants/rain jacket set. A Tourmaster Synergy heated jacket/gloves and various light and medium gloves. Obviously the normal shirts/socks/undies and such along with an Olympia transition jacket and Fieldsheer mesh jacket. I used my FJR side cases and a Givi E 55 top case avoiding any need to tie down luggage. Also a Shoei Quest helmet.
Brian went a little different bringing a second helmet and all Olympia outer gear with the same Tourmaster heated gear. He used his BMW side cases and a Wolfman 55 liter water proof bag.
In the end most of the gear worked out well, I discovered that the mesh jacket suited me better and never used my Olympia jacket, but Brian sometimes used my Olympia jacket over his to avoid heated gear and as I'm a good deal bigger size.
We also had Sena SMH 10 communications and I phones. The Sena equipment works fairly well when it's working, I've had my troubles with it as I've had a broken unit that was replaced at my expense before this trip and late in this trip my adapter to go to earbuds broke.
All this as it was we finally got to take off on a Saturday morning late in May, the 18th. a little of a late start that morning, but not to bad. We rode our butts through St Louis and on through Missouri into Kansas on I 55 into I 70, then somewhere in Kansas just a little before Salina our first tribulation hit. We got caught in the north side of the terrible storm that took out Moore, Oklahoma. It was storming like a dog and we were having trouble seeing in front of the bikes. We took some temporary relief under a gas station canopy and regrouped. I ended up finding a motel twenty miles up the road and when the storm eased a little we went on down to end the first day.
We started back out from near Salina, KS not as early as we would have liked, we'd gone till late the night before and were a little worn, but headed on west. All went well into Colorado when we got caught in the next round of the same basic storm. We took a late lunch break and broke out rain gear to move on. We hit Colorado Springs about seven that evening and decided a good dinner and motel would be best. Starting into the mountains near dark didn't seem best and we figured that we'd earned steak and beer.
Colorado Springs, being a college town (home of the Air Force Academy) has lots of restaurants and motels so a stek joint and Holiday Inn Express were easy. BTW we used Hotwire and Travelocity secret mostly and kept our nightly motels down to an average of about $65.00 that we divided by two. It all worked out pretty well and we were ready for the mountains in the morning.
The next morning we headed out to Pike's Peak with plans of riding to the top. While the sign said open to the top, when we went up to enter the ranger turned us back. He said there was a combination of snow and ice on the road above about 12,000 feet that wouldn't work for our bikes. So figuring that we'd go on with the day we headed for Cripple Creek, CO which was supposed to be a good ride and nice to visit. It was a great ride, but as we approached town it began to snow. Snow in late May, but there it was. So discretion being the better part of valor we quickly looked at the town and bea a hasty retreat for somewhat lower mountain roads. we spent the rest of the day riding mountains and valleys west of Cripple Creek and at about 4:00 ended up in Frisco, CO near to I 70. I had this bright idea of getting on I 70 to CO 131 and taking 131 to 134 through Kremmling, CO and back down on US 40 to stay near US 40 and I 70. As we got on I 70 west it began to snow. We tried to keep going for a little bit, but soon beat a hasty retreat back to Frisco for the night.
With this written, I'll try to post continuations every day or two to finish the story as time gets too late and I have to catch up work after a three week ride vacation.
We made numerous preparations in equipment and planning. We also made a number of small three or four day trips to iron out kinks before we set out on weeks in travel. Our basic plan was to leave Chicago on a Saturday morning and ride like bats out of hell to central Colorado. We were going to then tour the mountains of Colorado for some days, move on to the southern half of Utah and tour for several days. After Utah and figuring that our minds and bodies would be getting tired from riding we were going to do a fast run from Cedar City Utah to San Diego.
I have brothers in San Diego and we could stay with them ride much less for a few days while we rested and recovered. After San Diego we were going to ride north through California touring in California for a few days, then moving on through north Nevada, south Idaho and into Wyoming and Montana for a few days in the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone area. Finally we would ride like heck through South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin to get back to Chicago again.
Our plan involved motels and not camping. Were not getting any younger, a bed, shower, and no camping equipment to haul or set up looked good, It also allowed us more space to carry riding gear for all the different climates and conditions we would encounter in the varied geographies that we would encounter. We thought that we should be prepared with cold weather gear for places like Beartooth Pass and cooling vests for places like the Mojave Desert. Multiple gloves and enough clothes to avoid laundry every couple days. Most of this worked out well. We never ended up needing to use the cooling vests, but on the other hand I used my heated jacket liner quite a bit and discovered that I never need to plug in my heated gloves as the FJR heated grips proved sufficient.
My basics were a pair of Firstgear mesh riding pants, two kevlar lined jeans, a first gear rain pants/rain jacket set. A Tourmaster Synergy heated jacket/gloves and various light and medium gloves. Obviously the normal shirts/socks/undies and such along with an Olympia transition jacket and Fieldsheer mesh jacket. I used my FJR side cases and a Givi E 55 top case avoiding any need to tie down luggage. Also a Shoei Quest helmet.
Brian went a little different bringing a second helmet and all Olympia outer gear with the same Tourmaster heated gear. He used his BMW side cases and a Wolfman 55 liter water proof bag.
In the end most of the gear worked out well, I discovered that the mesh jacket suited me better and never used my Olympia jacket, but Brian sometimes used my Olympia jacket over his to avoid heated gear and as I'm a good deal bigger size.
We also had Sena SMH 10 communications and I phones. The Sena equipment works fairly well when it's working, I've had my troubles with it as I've had a broken unit that was replaced at my expense before this trip and late in this trip my adapter to go to earbuds broke.
All this as it was we finally got to take off on a Saturday morning late in May, the 18th. a little of a late start that morning, but not to bad. We rode our butts through St Louis and on through Missouri into Kansas on I 55 into I 70, then somewhere in Kansas just a little before Salina our first tribulation hit. We got caught in the north side of the terrible storm that took out Moore, Oklahoma. It was storming like a dog and we were having trouble seeing in front of the bikes. We took some temporary relief under a gas station canopy and regrouped. I ended up finding a motel twenty miles up the road and when the storm eased a little we went on down to end the first day.
We started back out from near Salina, KS not as early as we would have liked, we'd gone till late the night before and were a little worn, but headed on west. All went well into Colorado when we got caught in the next round of the same basic storm. We took a late lunch break and broke out rain gear to move on. We hit Colorado Springs about seven that evening and decided a good dinner and motel would be best. Starting into the mountains near dark didn't seem best and we figured that we'd earned steak and beer.
Colorado Springs, being a college town (home of the Air Force Academy) has lots of restaurants and motels so a stek joint and Holiday Inn Express were easy. BTW we used Hotwire and Travelocity secret mostly and kept our nightly motels down to an average of about $65.00 that we divided by two. It all worked out pretty well and we were ready for the mountains in the morning.
The next morning we headed out to Pike's Peak with plans of riding to the top. While the sign said open to the top, when we went up to enter the ranger turned us back. He said there was a combination of snow and ice on the road above about 12,000 feet that wouldn't work for our bikes. So figuring that we'd go on with the day we headed for Cripple Creek, CO which was supposed to be a good ride and nice to visit. It was a great ride, but as we approached town it began to snow. Snow in late May, but there it was. So discretion being the better part of valor we quickly looked at the town and bea a hasty retreat for somewhat lower mountain roads. we spent the rest of the day riding mountains and valleys west of Cripple Creek and at about 4:00 ended up in Frisco, CO near to I 70. I had this bright idea of getting on I 70 to CO 131 and taking 131 to 134 through Kremmling, CO and back down on US 40 to stay near US 40 and I 70. As we got on I 70 west it began to snow. We tried to keep going for a little bit, but soon beat a hasty retreat back to Frisco for the night.
With this written, I'll try to post continuations every day or two to finish the story as time gets too late and I have to catch up work after a three week ride vacation.
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