Colorado Freewheelers 1000in24


Fay Myers
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Check In Time: 21:17 Ending Odometer: 52945
Check Out Time: 0200 Starting Odometer: 51859
Elapsed Time: 19:17 Total Miles: 1086

Averaged 56.3 mph

It was a dark and stormy night. Visibility was reduced to a white fog by the atomization of the rainwater as the surrounding vehicles bore their way north. The water droplets beaded on the face shield and reflected the lights of oncoming traffic in a diffuse spray of white and blue-white. As we sped up Rt 25 to Fay Myers and the end of the days ride, I reflected upon the beginning of the ride.


It began at 12:30am as the alarm roused me from sleep. Sleep that was fleeting when I lay down at 6pm in an attempt to store sufficient sleep credits that I would maintain wakefullness during the 24 hour ride that starts in 8 or so hours. Sleep came in fits. Sleeping for an hour then waking. Sleep for 90 minutes and again rising. At 10pm, I woke yet again and headed downstairs to see Rita and check the news for the weather. Lows in the 40's over Cameron Pass, possibility of rain. Good thing I packed my Gerbings and my Aerostich is water resistant. I lay down once again and the habits take over and I'm asleep. At least until 12:30am.


I arise, hit the shower and wake Rita. Downstairs to get suited up, plugged in and roll out of the garage. Rita in the door to wave goodbye. She waves and shuts the garage door then waits at the front door. I wave as I ride off and she heads back to bed.


1:12am and I'm heading to the gas station to fill up. Head down to 120th street and Rt 25 south. Traffic is light as you'd expect for 1:30am on a Friday night. Rolling by T-Rex, there are a few cops out. Two on the northbound side making sure some drunk doesn't take out a road worker. One on a southbound entrance ramp with a hapless female the subject of his attentions.


Take the exit for Arapahoe, head east to Dayton and the Fay Myers parking lot. The lot is pretty dark and you can see several bikes. About half as many as last year's ride up to The Black Hills/Devil's Tower. Perhaps the rain forecast has reduced the number of riders this year.


I roll into the end spot and Herb heads over to perform the pre-ride inspection. The front tire, put on new in Richmond VA the middle of June is down to its last 1,500 miles or so and shows evidence of dry rot. I look and sure enough, there are the minute cracks around what's left of the tread. Shoot, hope it doesn't disqualify me. They have sent folks home when bikes don't pass inspection. The leader calls the group together for the pre-ride briefing.




Be careful. Don't overextend yourselves. Call the number in your booklet if you decide to stop so we know where you are. If you're intending on have the IronButt paperwork submitted, you'll need to answer the questions on the back and provide the gas station receipts upon completion. Watch out for wildlife, especially since we'll be going through Poudre Canyon in the dark. On the other side of Cameron Pass, there's a bit of a dip in the road. The roads are a little rough south of Meeker. Mudslides on Rt 141. New paving and construction before Pagosa Springs. Good luck.


I go upstairs and register, picking up my pin, t-shirt (with the route map on the back), hat, and booklet. I also snagged one of the donuts on my way back out the door. Back at my bike, I get the iPod plugged in and the Autocom unit plugged together. In looking for Herb (who started the inspection), one of the other inspectors come over. He takes my card, tells me the front tire is borderline, checks the lights and signs off with the time, 2am and I'm ready to go (I figure that Herb didn't want to bias his decision since we're riding together and turned the inspection over to another inspector which is fine by me).




Herb is done and getting his bike ready. He rented a FJR1300 for the trip because his main bike only has about a 130 mile range. The FJR turns out to have about a 250 mile range which exceeds my Hayabusa's range of about 200 miles. In preparation for the ride, I'd purchased a couple of Autocom cables so my Motorola walkie talkies would be able to communicate with his. He got his plugged in and we found that I could talk to him but he wasn't able to communicate back. We didn't really want to spend a lot of time yakking about it so we headed out anyway. We both had full tanks so we didn't have to stop before hitting the road and we rolled on to 25. Northbound to the first corner in Ft. Collins.


While heading through the artificial light on 25 North, I did a little preparation talking to Herb and tried to set up some signals. He'd waved when he saw the police so I said that I'd acknowledge the wave so he would know I saw him. At 2:30am I announced the time and that I'd make announcements to make sure we were both alert. I saw him nod acceptance. At 3am as we were approaching Ft. Collins I announced the time and he didn't hear me. Turns out the walkie talkie couldn't take the lower temps (about 60F) and had shut itself down.


We'd caught up and passed a group of riders and then caught up and passed another single rider and could see a couple more ahead of us as we went through Ft. Collins. We were behind them as we made the turn onto Rt 14 and I followed one into the gas station at the entrance. Another rider was already at the pump. Herb had continued on but turned around when he saw I wasn't there. Always good to get filled up when you can, especially when it's a 100 mile ride to Walden and the next real possibility of gas. Unfortunately the pumps, while on, needed someone in the booth to actually start them. The guy on the Harley wasn't sure he was going to make it to Walden either and was weighing heading back to fill up or go on. Ultimately he dedided to continue to Walden. Frustrated though, I hit the bathrooms (that would be the shorter green bathrooms behind the station). We saddled up and headed out.