Beartooth Pass Blast or Not a Wimpy Bishop's Castle Ride
A Beartooth Pass Blast or Not a Wimpy Bishops Castle Ride
This ride came about from our very own Soco OKD. OLd Knee Dragger.I think he dreams this stuff.
He approached us about this fantastic ride at one of the friday night bikenights.
He had heard tales of unending turns and switchbacks, rising out of the forests just outside of Yellowstone National Park.
The road, Hwy 212, makes it's way up and out of the state of Wyoming to the north and east into Montana.
This is acessed from the south by another great road Hwy 296, THe Chief Joseph Senic Highway, or Crandall Road, your pick.
As it would happen on these kind of adventures, things change and so do the participants.
At first lots of people are interested and willing, but as most things go, shit happens.
In the end, it was but just three crazy sportbikers from the Springs.
The orignal plan involved just over 1700 miles in two days covering the states of Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska.
I love to ride as much as the next guy but that was really a bit more than what I wanted to do in the amount of time that was allocated.
Oh. I forgot to mention the timeframe, just two days, Saturday and Sunday.
Most of us deviants work for a living and have to be back at the grindstone bright and early Monday morning.
We decided to get a jump on the trip and cut out after I got off of work on Friday, about 1:00PM or so.
As things would have it, I needed to push the clock back to 2:00PM as we are really busy at my work.
I had changed my oil and put on a slightly used pair of Bridgstone BT14's for the trip the week before.
I got these from Ninga Nate. They where a OEM set that was on his ZX10 and he let them go for a great price.
Thanks Nate.
I figured these tires would be the perfect choice for the kind of abuse I would be inflicting upon
them on the straights in Wyoming and Nebraska, but hold thier own on the twisty's on the passes. I chose wisely.
The tires wore great on the boring parts and stuck well enough on the turns.
As I readied my tailbag and geared up to leave I went to start my bike and it wouldn't. I thought, this is strange, as
this behaviour had never occured before. It is after all a Honda. It seemed to crank just fine but not fire and start.
So after repeated attempts to start it I took the seat off and put it on the quick charger. THe starter was cranking butit seemed the fuel pump wasn't
working as well as it normally sounds. After 10 minutes on the charger she fired right up. The last time I had started
the bike was at the oil change but only to circulate and check the oil level. Before that was three weeks prior. Might
need to save for a new battery soon! Off on the bike to meet my mates in a hurry I forgot to grab my camera. Crap!
All the pictures for this ride are from one of the other misfits, GSXRJohnny.
GSXRJohnny, a misfit here in the Soco, rides a 2006 GSXR1000. Crazy huh? He has joined our group in this last year
and has come along on a few of the rides put forth here in the south.A competent rider who enjoys going fast and telling
tales of his youth. He has about 10 or so years on me, and I'm no spring chicken. He likes his bike red and his women
Brazilian, tanned, and femine. He will show you a picture of his wife at your first encounter with him, just ask.
He has to talk to her at least 3 times thoughout the day without fail, or the international community will suffer dearly.
The other misfit on this adventure is Bill Smith 7. He prefers his bikes Honda, any color and his women sassy and cute.
He has a pair of children, one of each, just to keep things fair. He is the most calm person to talk to until you
start going fast, then he is on you like quick, urging to go faster, as the red mist desends over his eyes and
he lives for the moment. Also my roomie for the Baja Mexico trip this last winter. Both guys very cool to ride with
no quirky habits to deal with, just smooth and fast.
As we left the town of Colorado Springs behind us, heading up into the mountians and the cooler air I looked down
for a odometer reading to start my memory of the trip at 16,000, exactly. Weird. WE cruised up Hwy 24 to Harsel, cut over
on the 9 into Fairplay and up and over the first pass of the trip, Hoosier. Down thru Blue River into Frisco for a quick
fill up and then north thru Kremmling and over Rabbit Ears Pass into Steamboat Springs. We stopped to eat at a place
I had eaten at years ago when the MRA used to race the streets in Steamboat. Anybody remember going up to the races and seeing
those guys try not to hit a curb or a lightpole for a little trophy. Crazy! Good times for sure. To snooty now for any real fun.
We fueled up and headed west to Craig on Hwy 40, thru the Yampa valley. Watch for the Police in this stretch, as they like to hang in the shadows
of the trees along the road and snag the unattentive. No luck for them that evening as we hit Craig and turned north towards Baggs, Wyoming.
We stopped to change to our clear shields as the sun was low and the shadows were getting long. This road is really boring if you can avoid it as it really offers nothing unless you are into historical markers of wagon trails and such. At I-80 the other two were sweating the milage
to the next fuel stop. Bill's Honda doesn't get great range as we had found out on the trip to Mexico. Johnny's bike was not that much better.
I had aquired a fuel tank from a AMA racer that added about two gallons or so to the stock tank some time ago on E-Bay.
This has been the best money spent on my bike for this kind of sport touring.I can go over two hundred miles between fillups, life is good!
The town of Rawlins was just about 30 miles to the east so we stuck to the speed limit and cruised into town on fumes.
I picked a No-Tell Motel to sleep in for the night. I guess I got used to the old Fifties style motels in Mexico
and boy can I pick them. Jimmy, the night clerk assured us the place was clean, so in we went to crash for the night.
After we got used to the odor of mildew and cow shit, we fell asleep wondering what awaited for the following day.
GSXRJohnny will provide the pictures for those of you who cant read.
Till the next installment...
Peace Bash
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Re: Beartooth Pass Blast or Not a Wimpy Bishop's Castle Ride
9/7 
Originally Posted by Yamacati Bob
you didn't see the negitive sign in front of the 3 (-3 star). Maybe in Wyoming that is a 3 star hotel, I'm not sure. 
