More cargo space

My top box came in yesterday but the lock is being shipped from Germany.

First ride thru Arkansas on the new bike

Took the new BMW over to Hot Springs and then up Hwy 7 thru the curves in the fog.  It's pretty amazing how much better it corners than the Harley.  I love the way it sits up higher, is quieter, and so much smoother to ride.  I can see puttling a lot of good miles on this one.  Speaking of miles, I pulled into the dealer for the first initial 700 mile service 4 days after I bought it.  As of today, it has right at 1200 miles on the odometer.  Better gas mileage, more power, better cornering, what's not to like.  

My new ride

I've been thinking about the type of riding I do and decided to go with the ultimate touring machine, a BMW R1200 RT. Took her out yesterday and today to the twisty hills of Arkansas. She likes to run and corners like a rollercoaster on rails. I'll probably sell the Harley but then again, what's wrong with having 2 bikes.

Great weather weekend

After rain for several days last week, the weather was absolutely perfect Friday and Saturday. Shannon and I took the trailer for a test run down to Mt Scott and the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. It pulled just fine with just a slight decrease in gas mileage. On Sunday, my friend Kevin and I made a little over 200 mile loop east, north, south, then back west. It was mid eighties and no wind. Not bad for March in Oklahoma. I got a good start on my bikers tan.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 A New Friend and Riding Companion
After my hot ride to Texas, I began to think about a ride to the cool mountains of Colorado. Once again, it would be a solitary trip but I thought it might be good to see if I could find someone else who liked to ride and wanted to go too. I was surfing www.hdforums.com one night and noticed a guy who was planning a trip thru Colorado and maybe on up to Yellowstone National Park. I sent him a message, we talked a couple of times on the phone, and we decided to take a trip to Colorado together. Some people would think a guy is crazy for agreeing to go on a trip with someone you've never met but I figured the worst that could happen would be I'd get my throat slashed while I slept so what the hell.
John and I met up at Fort Thunder Harley Davidson on the first day of our trip late in the afternoon since I'd had a family activity I had to attend earlier in the day. It turned out that I couldn't have picked a better rider to travel with. Neither one of us smoked, we both only drank a couple of beers in the evening, we liked to get up early, and best of all, we liked to ride plenty of miles in a day. We hit the road that August afternoon and got lucky right off the bat with a cool front moving thru that provided lower temps and break from the relentless heat we'd been having all summer. It did rain a bit but we didn't care and made it all the way to Dumas, Texas that first evening. I think we both considered day 1 to be a great start.

John and I spent the next week seeing the sights of Colorado and there are many incredible things to see. Some of the highlights of the trip include rides to the top of Pike's Peak, Mount Evans, Independence Pass, and Trail Mountain Road thru Rocky Mountain National Park.

I've always been a little afraid of heights but riding the bike along these narrow roads with shear drop offs on the sides of several will cure you of that pretty quickly. The ride up Pike's Peak was our first big adventure and it was incredible. Part of the road was under construction with packed gravel but we made it just fine to the summit at just over 14,000 feet. I'd been to the top of the peak before via the Cog Train but riding the bike both up and back down was a thrill I'll always remember. If you've never done it, I'd highly recommend it and take a camera as there are plenty of places to pull over and take some great pictures.

The ride up Mount Evans was just as thrilling but John and I both were a little concerned with the weather. It had been raining that morning and was still very overcast as we started up. This road was not under construction but maybe it should have been since there were several areas of frost heave where the payment had been pushed up to make for some very rough riding. We actually rode thru one layer of clouds on the way up and that was pretty cool. At least it seems pretty cool now, it was pretty scary at the time not being able to see very well and knowing a steep drop off was just to your left as we rode. The closer to the top we got, the more severe the curves were with the bike's leaned way over just to stay in your lane. We did make it to the top without mishap, took some pictures, and in John's words, "got the hell off the mountain" before it started raining again.
Speaking of weather, I can tell you from experience that is rains almost every August afternoon in the mountains of Colorado. We had some great riding in the mornings and then decided if we wanted to ride in the afternoons or go ahead and find a motel. Most days we rode and it wasn't too bad except for a couple of times. My Aerostich Darien rain suit proved itself time and again by keeping me bone dry in some very hard rain. The worst of it was when John and I were looking for the Harley dealer in Loveland. Somehow we had become separated and as I rode north on I25, there was about 3 inches of water on the highway with more coming down in buckets. I was able to pull off the highway and find some shelter under a car dealers overhang until the worst of the thunderstorm had passed. John didn't fair so well and when we met up again he was thoroughly drenched. By the time we did find the Harley dealer, they were just closing for the day so we decided to get a room and visit them the first thing in the morning. This was the day that I came closest to wrecking my bike when I was turning a corner and rear tire slid across a large metal manhole cover. I had all but given up and thought I was going down when the bike somehow righted itself and stayed upright. We managed to find a room so John could change into dry clothes and I could change my underwear. That would have been something to ride all those curvy mountain roads and end up wrecked on level ground in the city of Loveland. Both John and I rode the mountain roads like we knew what we were doing, nothing crazy but I got some great video on my GoPro Hero video camera that I still look watch once in a while. They are posted on my youtube channel which is Pstmstr. The only real mishap of our trip was when John twisted his ankle a little as we were parking on our bikes on a gravel pull off. I had just parked mine and was climbing off when I saw John's bike fall over and him just laying there on the ground. It scared me to death but turned out to be much better than it looked and he kept right on going like a trooper with a sore ankle for the next couple of days.

Of all the trips I've taken and friends I've met so far since I began riding, John is numero uno and we had a great time riding the great roads of Colorado. I'm ready to go back anytime he is.