Mark your calandars! Devil's Highway 2013!

[Clovis]

Updated 5/7/13 See below

Last year's thread located here: http://www.cosportbikeclub.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43045










Updated 5/7/13:

Questions? Comments? Running late? Here's my info and contact information:

Justin Harward
cell - 719-201-9383 - please text over calling if possible. This way I have your number handy.
email - jdharward@gmail.com or justin.harward@greatwesternbank.com

The work email (great western bank) is best during the week as I check my email compulsively but rarely check my gmail account more then once a day as it's mostly spam. I get my email on my phone for both.

Dates: Leave Saturday May 18th, return Monday May 20th.

Attendee's

Group meet up for those departing from Colorado Springs:


From Colorado Springs, We'll meet at the Acorn gas station (my usual meeting spot) located on Hwy 24 (aka Cimarron) and 8th Street
Group meet up:

305 S 8th Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80905 - 719-633-8423

(Located 1/4 mile west of I-25 on the south side of 24). It's right next to a classy boarded up motel undergoing renovations, you can't miss it!

Please arrive and be ready to leave at 7:30.

Denver meet up: That's up to you guys, I would get with Christi (bornwildnfree).

Group meet up - "North meets south".

Jan's Restaurant in Buena Vista, CO.

304 US Hwy 24 S
Buena Vista, CO 81211

Buena Vista is approximately 100 miles from both Denver and Colorado Springs. Jan's has an outstanding breakfast menu with plenty of room. If you've been on any of the black canyon / fire cracker 500 trips of the past, then you probably met everyone here.

If you would like to get breakfast, plan to be there around 8am. We're leaving at 9am.

Hotels? I like having the flexability of not being bound to a hotel reservation. I'll make the hotel reservation just prior to arrival. In my years of traveling this has never lead to no room in the inn. All though depending on the size of the group I may make an exception as a ton of people have expressed interest over the months.

Last year in Gallup we stayed at (I think?) a Red Roof Inn. Comfortable hotel with an indoor pool and hottub and shuttle service to and from the only place for food late in the evening, one of the Indian casinos. Pretty badass set up if you ask me. Free shuttle ride to and from the hotel and food is tasty and cheap. Ohhh did I mention cheap? Last year I got a huge hambergur, three or four tall beers and split some desert all for $20 including the tip. Gotta love tax free dining!

Christi expressed interest in pushing to Alpine on day one and last year we talked about that. It would be pretty sweet to get a cabin or two right on the highway and spend the day riding the spine but here's the problem.

To Gallup, NM is 500 miles and I know for a lot of you that's pushing it. No shame in admitting it, it's a lot of miles. Pushing on to Alpine means packing on 130 additional miles on day one and at least 2, maybe 3 hours of night riding. My thought is we can take a group poll around lunch time and if lodging is available in Alpine, consider pushing on but as of right now the offical plan is to stop at Gallup at night one.

Day 2: The plan is to find lodging in Grants, NM. I've never stayed there as both times we spent night 2 in Socorro, NM. The 2nd time by accident.

Hotels are plenty in Grants however. Days Inn, Holiday Inn, Red Lion Inn, Quality Inn, ect. All there.

Socorro sucks. It's right off I-25 and means either super slapping up I25 back home, or super slabbing up a combination of I25 and other back but equally boring roads to Durango, CO.

It shouldn't be an issue this year as my phone (my GPS unit) has downloaded maps so losing cell service is not an issue with regards to navigation!

Attendee list (as of 5/8/13) If you're out, please let me know so I can update the list. If I've missed you, please do the same.

I have sent PM's to everyone. If you did not get a PM, please let me know.

Confirmed:

1) Clovis / Mrs. Clovis (2up)
2) Drano
3) Aaron
4) Cornfed
5) Bornwildnfree
6) Dick (Bornwildnfree's guest)
7) Chaos
Tiutis
9) Hotcarcus

Pending confirmation:


10) Scubbasteve
11) FZJake
12) Matrix
13) Denman
14) Street Doctor
15) Neutron
16) BiikChiq
17) Stuart Little
18 Supaduka
19) Powers
20) Ssutton21




Please PM me the following information as I'll make two contact list to distribute to the group:

**Please let me know if if you would like me to omit any of the following information from the group distribution, ie medical information. I'll keep that private. But consider that if you crash, I may not be there to relay that information so it's generally safer if everyone knows everything relevant to saving your life.1) Real name and your CSC name.
2) Cell phone number (super important)
2) Home address
3) Age
4) Please provide at least two emergency contacts with names and phone numbers. Ie who should I call if something happens?

Medical Information:

5) Blood type (if known)
6) Any known medical problems that could present a problem. I do not need to know about any mental disorders unless you feel they could potentially cause a problem for you and a an EMT knowing this or not could possibly save your life or accidentally kill you.
7) Any known medical drug allergies. Alergic to penicillin? I need to know.
Current medications. I only need to know this because of certain potential drug interactions. Most drug interactions are mild and not even noticeable but some are potentially fatal.
What is it? A 3 day ride through Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Total mileage is around 1600-1700 miles.

3 days of riding 500-600 mile days through the best roads in the 3 states.

The highway itself is known by many names. The official name is the Coronado Trail Scenic but it was formally known as Highway 666. Also known as the Devil's Spine.

It runs from Alpine, AZ to Clifton, AZ. 1100 curves and corners in just 94 miles.

Because of the temperature difference in Arizona, the best (only) time to go is late Spring or early Fall. Both times I've done this trip we've had cold weather leaving Colorado with sleet and 80-90 degrees in Arizona.

Skill level: Intermediate.

Gear: I highly recommend full leathers but as a minimum you'll want boots with ankle protection and riding jacket w/ gloves. Last year we had zero accidents but in 2008 we did have 2 people go down in Arizona. Have fun but play it safe, you don't want to crash 800 miles from home and 30 miles from help.

Heated gear is nice but just dress in layers and you'll be fine. Just leave room in your bags to take off layers.

Video from 2012: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljkXdOmMinI

Estimated total cost: $300 between fuel, food and hotels. There's no camping on this trip.

Night 1 we'll stay in Gallup, NM
Night 2 we'll stay in Grants, NM

The hotel in Gallup has a nice indoor swimming pool w/ hot tub so bring your suit!

Want to go? Sign up here!

[Grant H.]

Tag for interest.

No clue on schedule yet.

[FZjake719]

Ohhhhhhh man this would be a blast! I'll have to check the sched, see whats going on and if I can get away from work for this.

[Matrix]

I will keep this in mind as well. Good on you Clovis for pushing this every year!

[Supaduka]

Ummm ya I'm down for sure! How are we going to do hotel reservations?

[Clovis]

I always just get a hotel upon arrival. Gallup is large enough that finding a hotel is easy.

Grants, I haven't been to yet. Last year we missed a turn and ended up in Socorro, NM. Same thing happened the trip before but this time I have GPS!

[Captain Obvious]

Hmmmm, May 3-5 might be doable..... wonder if I fit into my leathers still.

[Denman]

Looks like fantastic route, but 500-600 miles a day would be pretty painful on a sportbike. At least for an old fart like me.

2012 Speed Triple

[Ph03niX]

How many people went last year? Yeah this would be cool but im debating taking the sheer pain of riding a sportsbike all day. Like omg my brothers would need a break every hour lol.

[Clovis]

We had 5 last year. My fz6 (the bike I took on that trip) is a standard though and eats up miles like nothing else.

The other 4 were on super sports… maybe they wold chime in? I don't remember hearing complaints other then pick a damn hotel Clovis!

[Denman]

Clovis - I used the HD trip planner to try to calculate the mileage and got 2300+ starting and finishing in Denver. How did you come up with 1600-1700 miles?

[sloridr]

Clovis - I used the HD trip planner to try to calculate the mileage and got 2300+ starting and finishing in Denver. How did you come up with 1600-1700 miles?

More miles=bigger smile

[Streetdoctor]

interested!

[Captain Obvious]

We had 5 last year. My fz6 (the bike I took on that trip) is a standard though and eats up miles like nothing else.

The other 4 were on super sports… maybe they wold chime in? I don't remember hearing complaints other then pick a damn hotel Clovis!

What do I win if I do it on the TLR?

[Grim2.0]

I may be in on this. Sportbike isn't an issue unless your a pansy, Christie and I did we'll over 500 miles in one day on the Cortez ride and did another 500 going back home both on our ninjas.

[moep]

I think I need a lot of miles under me before I try this. Looks like a lot of fun but definitely not ready yet.

[Clovis]

I think I need a lot of miles under me before I try this. Looks like a lot of fun but definitely not ready yet.

Good for you to reconalize this. I listed the difficulty level as "intermediate" but that's subjective. This trip definately isn't for the novice.

The first time I did this trip I had only been riding for a year. I wasn't ready and felt way outside of my comfort level. At the end it felt more like an acomplishment then "That was fun, I want to go back next week!".

By last year's trip I had years of riding experience under my belt and it was a whole other story. With exception to a large ticket in Park County, it was one of my best trips.

[Clovis]

Christie went on this trip last year and she's like 3 feet tall! Her feet don't even touch the ground and she made it!

I may be in on this. Sportbike isn't an issue unless your a pansy, Christie and I did we'll over 500 miles in one day on the Cortez ride and did another 500 going back home both on our ninjas.

[Grim2.0]

Yeah Justin you're staying in front with the radar and if you get a wild hair up your ass and take off you'll be waiting for me.

[Clovis]

The link to the original thread has a map link within it. Odd, I couldn't get the link to work just now but if you go into this forum (Trips and touring) and show threads from a year ago, you'll see all of my trips for the last year. The 2012 thread is called "who can do a 3 day ride?" and is about halfway down the page.

Anyhow, here's a map link to the entire route we did last year.

http://www.mapquest.com/?version=1.0&hk=5-4M9HZGxP

It starts and ends in Colorado Springs but everyone just meets in Buena Vista, CO.

Interestingly, Buena Vista is 100 miles from both Colorado Springs and Denver. We meet there in the morning for breakfast before heading to Monarch Pass (the first of many) and west to Montrose.

The spine itself is only 200 miles of the entire trip; the rest goes through my favorite Colorado mountain roads and it's a blast.

Clovis - I used the HD trip planner to try to calculate the mileage and got 2300+ starting and finishing in Denver. How did you come up with 1600-1700 miles?

[Clovis]

Yeah Justin you're staying in front with the radar and if you get a wild hair up your ass and take off you'll be waiting for me.

Best $700 investment ($430 detector - escort 9500ix, $200 for the screamer/flashing LEDs and $70 for the ram mount) I've ever spent. That thing seriously has saved my ass more times then I can count. At least 1-2 times each day day trip.

I was on 24 heading to Buena vista after Indie pass crusing along at my usual casual pace when it went off. I slowed to the speed limit and didn't see the trooper until about a half mile later.

Sneaky SOB was sitting off on the side in a ditch.

[Aaron]

I'm in, on my S1000RR too!

I have yet to figure out how I'm going to pack clothes. Do you have room on your Goldwing? If not just bring your Goldwing trailer and we'll use that.

[Clovis]

LOL! I'll just bring one of my Givi trunks

Get some soft luggage. Side bags and a tail bag.

I have a tail bag that was for my R1, I think it will fit your bike. It straps onto the rear seat and is water proof. It's almost big enough to fit your helmet so would probably work. The difference between a 2 day and 3 day trip (packing wise) is a extra pair of socks, underwear and t-shirt.

Let's see if it fits, I'll bring it to work next time your in my area.

Another option would be getting a smallish pair of saddle bags. I had a really nice set of Roadgear bags that I bought 5 years ago for $80 at Rocky Mountain Cycle Plaza. They might still sell them but I think they're more expensive now.

I also have a spare, large Joe Rockey Manta XL tank bag you could use.

Just don't stuff everything into a back pack, you'll regret it.

[Aaron]

Count me in on the tank and tail bag, between those two it'll be more than enough room. It's not like I need clothing.

Thanks Clovis!

Also, will I need a leather jacket or will the textile one I have work? I don't love the one I have for any reason, but it does everything I need, and I don't fantasize about spending $500 on a leather jacket. I've yet to figure out how I'm going to keep up with you guys. Maybe the helmet mohawk will help me ride faster.