Help planning a ride through Colorado

[pekowski]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie with a question. I'm trailering some street bikes to Colorado for 5 or 6 days of riding. The car/trailer will be a base from which we will take 1 to 3 days out on the bike. I found this site with a lot of good rides:
http://www.motorcycleroads.us/co.html
We are interested mostly in the twisties, but wouldn't want to miss a good sweeping road if it has nice views.

One of the sub-trips is this one:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...7,2.268677&z=9

Need some help on that route.
1) How many days should we plan? Maybe day 1 to Grand Lake, day 2 in Rocky Mount National Park ending in Estes Park area, day 3 back to Idaho Springs and day 4 the SR 103 loop with Mt Evans included.
2) We want to save on money, so want to camp. Any suggestions? Can we make reservations? Or should we go seat of the pants?
3) If this takes 4 days, we have 2 or 3 days left. We are thinking about some loops off of IH70. We will be arriving in Colorado on a Saturday evening, stating the rides on Sunday. Should we plan starting out trip with this ride or go down IH 70 and return to this on Tuesday or Wednesday. I say start the trip, but my friend says it would be better to wait for the middle of the week. I say that we might find the area so appealing that we would want to stay the whole time.

I know this is a log of questions, but help in any part of this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[Gramps]

Woah there big guy

You might find a lot of help on here but slow down a little.

Where you coming from? What are you riding? What kind of riding are you use to?

What kind of age range are you riding with?


These would all be great information to have in order to reach out to the right group of people on here

Hope your trip works out well, this is a beautiful place to ride

[CaptGoodvibes]

Hi everyone. I'm a newbie with a question. I'm trailering some street bikes to Colorado for 5 or 6 days of riding. The car/trailer will be a base from which we will take 1 to 3 days out on the bike. I found this site with a lot of good rides:
http://www.motorcycleroads.us/co.html
We are interested mostly in the twisties, but wouldn't want to miss a good sweeping road if it has nice views.

One of the sub-trips is this one:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...7,2.268677&z=9

Need some help on that route.
1) How many days should we plan? Maybe day 1 to Grand Lake, day 2 in Rocky Mount National Park ending in Estes Park area, day 3 back to Idaho Springs and day 4 the SR 103 loop with Mt Evans included.
2) We want to save on money, so want to camp. Any suggestions? Can we make reservations? Or should we go seat of the pants?
3) If this takes 4 days, we have 2 or 3 days left. We are thinking about some loops off of IH70. We will be arriving in Colorado on a Saturday evening, stating the rides on Sunday. Should we plan starting out trip with this ride or go down IH 70 and return to this on Tuesday or Wednesday. I say start the trip, but my friend says it would be better to wait for the middle of the week. I say that we might find the area so appealing that we would want to stay the whole time.

I know this is a log of questions, but help in any part of this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

That map you linked can be done in 1 day if you start early.

[asp_125]

Depends on how much of the time you want to ride, and how much to sightsee off the bike. That's a one day ride for most of us here. I modified the route a bit to get you onto some of our favorite twisties (St Vrain Cyn, Coal Creek Cyn, and Golden Gate Cyn).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...4,1.702881&z=9
You could split it up over two easy days camping one night up in RMNP near Grand Lake, and have time to hike around, see some sights. Reservations to camp are recommended in any of the national park campgrounds most summer weekends, never hurts to check ahead.

If you have 3-4 days, plan a ride up to the high country.. Aspen, Independence Pass, Leadville, Summit County etc.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...9,1.702881&z=9

Or one south through Deckers to Woodland Park/Colorado Springs to Pikes Peak.

[Repsol a095]

Let me know when you are going to roll through. I would love to join you, and I can help show you around.
Patrick

[pekowski]

Woah there big guy

You might find a lot of help on here but slow down a little.

Where you coming from? What are you riding? What kind of riding are you use to?

What kind of age range are you riding with?


These would all be great information to have in order to reach out to the right group of people on here

Hope your trip works out well, this is a beautiful place to ride

Thanks Gramps, we got a great laugh out of "Woah there big guy" comment. We are from Texas, specifically Austin, so it's a 16 hour drive. We have a diverse group with me, 48, my future son-in-law, 26, and my son, 15. We'll be riding a 2000 Suzuki VZ800 Marauder, some great sports bike I don't know the name of, and a 2008 Kawasaki 250 Ninja.

I've been to Rocky Mountain National Park as a child and an adult several times and was thinking we should make it the first part of our trip, in case we decide to stay an extra day. My future son-in-law thinks it will be too crowded on Sunday and Monday, so we should wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to take that loop.

Another question is do you think we need to do any carburator adjustments for the altitude?

Thanks again!

[pekowski]

Depends on how much of the time you want to ride, and how much to sightsee off the bike. That's a one day ride for most of us here. I modified the route a bit to get you onto some of our favorite twisties (St Vrain Cyn, Coal Creek Cyn, and Golden Gate Cyn).
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...4,1.702881&z=9
You could split it up over two easy days camping one night up in RMNP near Grand Lake, and have time to hike around, see some sights. Reservations to camp are recommended in any of the national park campgrounds most summer weekends, never hurts to check ahead.

If you have 3-4 days, plan a ride up to the high country.. Aspen, Independence Pass, Leadville, Summit County etc.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...9,1.702881&z=9

Or one south through Deckers to Woodland Park/Colorado Springs to Pikes Peak.

asp_125, thanks for the suggestions on some routes to take!! These look awesome. I'm thinking they will take up most of our time. Do you think these rides are better or worse than those that can be found further West in Colorado?

[pekowski]

Let me know when you are going to roll through. I would love to join you, and I can help show you around.
Patrick

Patrick, That would be awesome and might work out. We are planning on arriving in Colorado late on the 2nd of August and departing early on the 9th.

[Gramps]

The park is way better during the week. The weekends are just a big traffic jam.

I think the offer to show you arouond is great. Thats probably the best way to enjoy the area without having to worry about getting lost.

[Repsol a095]

Your bikes are not going to run well because of the altitude, but adjusting them for a few days may be more work than it is worth. However, if you are carb savy, and you really love to pull the carbs off your bike, I think that if you adjust the needles it might make things quite a bit better.
Patrick

[salsashark]

asp_125, thanks for the suggestions on some routes to take!! These look awesome. I'm thinking they will take up most of our time. Do you think these rides are better or worse than those that can be found further West in Colorado?

Depending on when your planning your trip, the western slope can get real hot. One reason to stick to the high country.

Check out 131 between Wolcott and Toponas. I think the people who mapped this road were bikers cause it's all good. Makes a good day trip to Steamboat Springs.

Also, 134 between Toponas and Kremmling and 125 between Granby and Walden (last time I was up there I saw construction signs so be warned) are a couple of my favorite roads. If you take them on the weekdays, no traffic, no cops, no fuss, all fun!

[pekowski]

Your bikes are not going to run well because of the altitude, but adjusting them for a few days may be more work than it is worth. However, if you are carb savy, and you really love to pull the carbs off your bike, I think that if you adjust the needles it might make things quite a bit better.
Patrick

Thanks for the advice on the carburators. We aren't carb savy, so will probably want to avoid adjusting them, unless we get adventurous or find that it doesn't cost a lot at the mechanic. If we don't adjust them, is there some maximum altitude that we should try to stay under to keep the bikes running well? What happens if we exceed this altitude? just poor performance or do we do damage to the bikes?

Thanks for the help.

[Nick_Ninja]

Thanks for the advice on the carburators. We aren't carb savy, so will probably want to avoid adjusting them, unless we get adventurous or find that it doesn't cost a lot at the mechanic. If we don't adjust them, is there some maximum altitude that we should try to stay under to keep the bikes running well? What happens if we exceed this altitude? just poor performance or do we do damage to the bikes?

Thanks for the help.

If your bikes are stock you most likely won't have an issue. If you have aftermarket pipes than the chances increase to have air/fuel mix issues. Any elevation above 11,000 feet will most likely be the place you notice performance degradation.

[Jaydoc]

Just had some friends in from Kansas. One on a Vstar 1100. No real problems to speak of on the passes but did notice a big decrease in HP.

Friend two on a Vstar 650 was having a hard time maintaining even 55 mph over the passes.

[asp_125]

asp_125, thanks for the suggestions on some routes to take!! These look awesome. I'm thinking they will take up most of our time. Do you think these rides are better or worse than those that can be found further West in Colorado?

RMNP during weekends is major suckage.. one big rolling parade. The nice times to go through are early morning before 9am, and late afternoon early evening. The western slope as noted, can get hot but not unbearably east coast humid hot.. like they say, a dry heat. If you have the time though, southwestern Colorado is worth seeing, rugged peaks and twisty roads.

[Repsol a095]

I moved here from Los Angeles, and I noticed a big drop in hp and the bike was just rough. I would leave everything alone and just deal with a little rough riding rather than trying to take everything apart when you are far from home. However, I can recommend a great garage shop if you really want to adjust them. I think you will be just fine though!!

[pekowski]

Depending on when your planning your trip, the western slope can get real hot. One reason to stick to the high country.

Check out 131 between Wolcott and Toponas. I think the people who mapped this road were bikers cause it's all good. Makes a good day trip to Steamboat Springs.

Also, 134 between Toponas and Kremmling and 125 between Granby and Walden (last time I was up there I saw construction signs so be warned) are a couple of my favorite roads. If you take them on the weekdays, no traffic, no cops, no fuss, all fun!

Salsashark,

Thanks for the suggestions. Hot is relative. I think anything in Colorado will be considered cool compared to what he have here in Austin, TX. It's up to 100 with some humidity.

I tried to string together some of those roads you mentioned and came up with this loop:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...8,2.268677&z=9

Looks like a good one.

[pekowski]

RMNP during weekends is major suckage.. one big rolling parade. The nice times to go through are early morning before 9am, and late afternoon early evening. The western slope as noted, can get hot but not unbearably east coast humid hot.. like they say, a dry heat. If you have the time though, southwestern Colorado is worth seeing, rugged peaks and twisty roads.

asp_125,

Thanks for the recommendations on RMNP. I think you convinced me that we should save it until later. Regarding southwestern Colorado, I went there a couple of years ago on a backpacking trip to Vallecito. I wasn't that impressed with Vallecito, but got more and more impressed as we got to Ouray. We stayed there for a day and turned around. Wished we had stayed there the whole time. But, from what I remember, there aren't a log of good street bike roads. There are a ton of dirt roads and four wheeling seemed like it would be awesome there. Did I miss something?

Pekowski

[salsashark]

Salsashark,

Thanks for the suggestions. Hot is relative. I think anything in Colorado will be considered cool compared to what he have here in Austin, TX. It's up to 100 with some humidity.

I tried to string together some of those roads you mentioned and came up with this loop:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...8,2.268677&z=9

Looks like a good one.

That looks like a great ride!

FYI - we stopped at Shake 'n Burger in Kremmling for lunch and they were some tastey burgers! Fries weren't anything to write home about, but the burgers rocked.

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...9&z=16&iwloc=A

[asp_125]

asp_125,

Thanks for the recommendations on RMNP. I think you convinced me that we should save it until later. Regarding southwestern Colorado, I went there a couple of years ago on a backpacking trip to Vallecito. I wasn't that impressed with Vallecito, but got more and more impressed as we got to Ouray. We stayed there for a day and turned around. Wished we had stayed there the whole time. But, from what I remember, there aren't a log of good street bike roads. There are a ton of dirt roads and four wheeling seemed like it would be awesome there. Did I miss something?

Pekowski

Yes there are a ton of dirt roads, dual sport heaven.

This is more than your planned vacation, but it's on my bucket list as a muti-day loop I'd like to do. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...7,3.850708&z=8

[pekowski]

Any recommendation on how to take Trail Ridge Road in RMNP? I thought I read somewhere that taking it from Grand Lake to Estes Park is better for the view.

Anyway, this is getting to be too much fun and not enough time to do everything. Here is another route, stringing one of asp_125's and the one inspired by salsashark.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...2,1.906128&z=9

This is at least two days.

[pekowski]

How about this insane trip?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=e...9,3.812256&z=8

Strings together the other one from asp_125. We could stash a cooler in Denver somewhere to restock the camping food and clothes perhaps and pick it up on the way home.

Sure wish we could fit in that southwest loop though from asp_125, that one looks good.

[asp_125]

Too many roads, not enough time. Where've I heard that before! I know how you feel. That only means one thing.... y'know? You'll have something to plan for next year!

A friend of mine from New York City came thru this summer and rode from Denver to Durango.. he exclaimed.."I've died and gone to f***ing motorcycle heaven!"

Here's a generalization. The closer you are to Denver, the more likelihood of running into weekend traffic and LEOs, so you should plan for a slower pace. The further out you are, the more "wilderness" experience where you may come across wildlife, open range and the true adventure touring experience. We've got some riders here who do the iron butt type rides and can tell you what to expect out in the boonies.

[asp_125]

In one back issue of Roadrunner magazine, the writer strung together a 3 day trip going over 12 of our mountain passes. I will see if I can dig up the article. I think the passes were RMNP, Squaw, Loveland, Berthoud, Hoosier, Tennesee, Cottonwood(?), and a bunch of others.