TLDR Road conditions:
Deckers: Clear
Central City Race way: Clear
119: Clear until 3 miles south of Nederland where 119 and 72 meet. Also, this is where Nederland takes over road maintenance and the road always goes to shit.
Peak to Peak: clear except for 9 thru 16 miles north of Nederland. Watch out for water run off in the corners from snow melt.
Highway 7: clear, but concrete barriers have been installed along huge sections of highway 7 making it appear narrower then it really is. Also, lots of traffic on this road by 1:30PM on a Friday.
Report:
Wow! What a perfect day for riding! Perfect weather, light traffic, good road conditions!
I picked up a new (to me) '09 FZ1 over the winter and got to truly ride it for the first time today. This week I registered the bike, threw on new tires, plus a Sargent seat and touring wind screen I picked up off the FZ1 forums.
Today reminded me why I bought this bike. It has everything that I loved about my FZ6 (comfortable, very easy to ride fast, ect) but with gobs and gobs of power on tap.
I took today off from work and left the house at 9:45 AM heading up Highway 24 to Deckers.
Road conditions: Deckers is perfect. No excess sand or snow melt off, it's as good as it ever gets. The sand is confined to the shoulder and double yellow.
Horse Power Hill was as clean and fun as it always is...
I continued on to Evergreen, encountering very little traffic. From Evergreen next on my agenda was Nederland and Hwy 119.
Cool temps (notice the snow and ice) but it was high 50s and very comfortable. I didn't even grab my heated gear, just my leathers, a hoodie to go under my jacket and neck scarff scrunchie thing.
119 is completely clear and free of sand until you see the sign "Nederland: 3 miles" sign, right at the turn off for Hwy 72 to Golden. If you're familiar with this road, then you know this is where the road always gets shitty. Presumably because it's maintained by Nederland and they don't have the money.
With that said, the road is a little rough but presented no problems. There are a few areas with water run off from the melting snow and they're always in the corners. You can see them well in advance, wet pavement stands out but they also look just like the shadows cast from the trees along the road so just something to be mindful.
From Nederland it was directly onto Peak 2 Peak towards Highway 7.
The road is always kind of hit or miss. They have repaved sections of it over the winters. Heading north of Nederland on Peak 2 Peak, watch out for snow melt run off that starts around 10 miles out and ends 16 miles north of Nederland. This was in most of the corners that people like to fly through. As you move into lower elevation the snow (and water) disappears entirely.
This is the section every "leaf peeper" likes to take pictures of during the fall aspen leave color change. Slightly different landscape this time of year:
Once I got to lower elevation and the snow disappeared, it was phenominally fun riding. I've done these roads a million times but I made a point of taking pictures for YOU, the viewer!
Unfortunately that's where the pictures end.
Highway 7 was in good shape all though (due to the flooding last summer?) they have concrete barriers along large sections of it which give the illusion of the road being narrower then it really is. Unfortantely Highway 7 had a ton of traffic... I had to do a lot of passing. It was heavier then normal summer weekend traffic, so I guess other people had the same idea as me.
After getting gas in Lyons, I reversed the route and headed home.
All together, the milage for the day was around 320 per Mapquest.
A fun day ride!
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