DK's Definitive Ride Report - Some of the Best Scenic Roads Out West - Tons of Photo'

[Trail Blazer]

Thank you, glad you enjoy, lots more to come, we're just getting started.

Thank you. Looking forward to it!

Thank you! Good to hear you enjoy!!!

Yeah, I'm sure there will be many more cloud pics.

Thank you! I'll be trying to update every day, or at least every few days.

Hey Jr., was great spending some time with you and Darlene, really enjoyed it. Glad you got home with minimal rain. We rode with no rain today...last 5 hours was in 93-97* temps....no clouds.

Kevin

Kevin we also enjoyed you and Mary, ( Mary have some great stories) we will see you'll again down the road.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Yeah, I see her moving around some...but, it's usually in some sharp curves where I'm paying attention to the road. Good thing it's not a 2 wheeler where she has to be concerned.

Team Kev and Mary, almost like being there, thanks much for taking the time and sharing. Gotta be difficult picking the pics and doing the captions, great job. I see a few Canam Spyders parked at the hotel, maybe getting a bit more popular. I don't ride one, but curious. I'm subscribed, keep on doing this for the next 40 days or so, if it don't rain you out for pics.

Glad you're enjoying. I started doing these ride reports as a way to help us remember our trips....so many trips before where we have tons of photo's but lots of the details are lost in our not so good memories. :laugh: :xzqxz:

Great ride and pics

Almost like being there

Glad you're liking it Jack!

Kevin we also enjoyed you and Mary, ( Mary have some great stories) we will see you'll again down the road.

Looking forward to it!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 4 Part II-

Love how the road disappears into the forest.

Another acrobatic photo technique...lol...it's a cambered road, and we're taking it low & inside, at a good clip....she leans over to the right and reaches forward to get the camera even or a bit in front of my leg.

I have a Pavlovian response to signs like this...they mean FUN AHEAD!

And a sign like this is like a booklet full of E-Tickets!

Nice S curve, just one of miles of them.*

Pretty cool pic, looking back-

Before we know it, 80 miles of fun are behind us and we're in Oark at the Oark Cafe-

Food was good, folks were friendly, then we saw a three ring binder with photo's & a memorial of our friend Larry Weaver.* He was murdered by some motorcycle thieves 2 years ago.* LINK if you want to see some pics of Larry doing what he loved.

It is good of the folks at the Oark Cafe to keep this memorial of him.

Ok, back on the road that Larry loved riding.

Back Rolling-

​​​​​​​Day 4 concluded in the next post.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 4 Part III Conclusion-

The roads in these parts are just a ton of fun with curves, beautiful scenery...

...and more curves!

Looking back in a curve-

Still rolling at 50+ mph right before the 10 mph sign. I probably hauled it down to 20-25 mph.

Most those that ride HD Trikes know how well the handle...akin to a go-cart or a Porsche, for the uninitiated, I know they look like a bug than can easily tip over, but it is a rare stock HD 2 wheeler that can keep up with a HD Trike in the twisties. HD nailed the handling with them.

The Pig Trail was perfect today...hardly any traffic, mostly dry, scenic and just a great riding road.

Climbing, cambered curves...

...rolling, cambered curves...

...The Pig Trail!

Cloud Pic-

Some other folks out, looks like they're enjoying a great day of riding as much as we are!

That's it for our time in the Ozarks. Tomorrow morning we leave out for Dodge City, Kansas.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 5 Part I of II-

9 AM in Eureka Springs, getting ready to mount up for a ride to Dodge City, KS-

The ride thru the Ozarks, out of Eureka Springs is a stark contrast...

...to where we're headed.* We are totally enjoying the perfect weather and great riding roads!

Blue skies, 70's, some clouds, winding roads, Mary caught this river as we crossed it at 60 mph.

I believe this is our first shadow pic of the trip...usually she gets one of these in the afternoon...this one was in the morning, while still in the Ozarks.

Curving, cambered roads, there may be something wrong with me...but I never get tired of riding them!

Last pic of some of the best riding in the country...the Ozarks-

As we head toward Joplin Missouri, this road is cut straight thru the rock-

Crossing into Missouri-

The rest of the ride to Dodge City in the next post.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 5 Part II of II-

After crossing into Missouri we ran thru a bit of interstate, going thru Joplin....

...and not too long later we crossed into Kansas.

Pretty much as soon as we got into Kansas it started warming up....the temperature fluctuated between 93-97* the rest of the day...drank lots of water!

Mary messing around at a gas stop! lol

No offense to anyone from Kansas, but it is a State we need to cross to get to places we want to ride. Long, straight, mostly flat...

...some roadside metal art!

The TG is running great. We've run the 400 before and it was fairly irritating with the poor road surface. With the new suspension, this time is was like butter. Mary did not even realize it was a road that had worn her out previously. Engine is doing well also, running at 68 mph, into a pretty stiff headwind, 97* and we got 35.5 mpg. I'm happy with that.

440 miles later we arrived in Dodge City.

Tomorrow we cross the rest of the hot, flat, windy Kansas, then into the eastern desert of Colorado, and finally to the cooler start of the mountainous area of Colorado.

Kevin

 

[Fearless]

Thank you for sharing another Adventure with us as always travel safe. That road side art looks like one of the shows from American Pickers. Fredray:

 

[DK Custom Products]

Fuzzy, we had a great day visiting with you. Thank you for coming over to Ouray. Glad you made it back safely, and the tune did great today.

Got 40.2 mpg, averaging 65 mph, and that including crossing 3 passes. Two of them in the 9000's and the other was Monarch Pass at 11,300.

Ended up at the same altitude we started...and, no I did not turn off the engine going down any of the hills. :laugh:

Also, there was no significant wind, tail or head. Still gotta run some more with it, in some hot weather, but it is looking pretty good!

Thank you for sharing another Adventure with us as always travel safe. That road side art looks like one of the shows from American Pickers. Fredray:

Glad you're enjoying...we've barely gotten started.

Yes, I thought the same when we started seeing it...and we've seen a bunch!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 6-

Today we left out of Dodge City, headed for Alamosa, or further, we'll see how it works out.

It's cloudy, in the mid 70's, which is WAY MORE BETTER than yesterday afternoon in the high 90's. No rain, but plenty of long straight road.

This is a huge feed lot...what is in the photo below is less than 10% of how big it is.

The props on the wind generators are Humongous! There was a lot filled with them. We would have had to leave the road to get the entire length of one in a photo-

Mary in the Mirror as I am passing some slow pokes.

Morning clouds burned off and we have a lot of blue sky. Mary took a lot of cloud pics today!

The route we're taking today is the 400, to the 50, to the 10, to the 160.

Here we are leaving Kansas...

...crossing into Colorful Colorado. BUT, it's the same as Kansas for quite a while....

...except for more tar snakes. Yep, Mary was bored of cloud pics and started taking photos of the road. lol

We are now on the 10...rain off in the distance, which would be welcome. It has climbed into high 80's.

The rest of the report on the ride toward Alamosa will be continued when I have some time.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

It will probably be day after tomorrow before I can update the Ride Report again. Rode over 10 hours today and spending time charging batteries and uploading videos and pics. Tomorrow is another 10+ hour day.

Been doing some great riding and seeing amazing sights!

Kevin

 

[ol' school]

Looking forward to seeing more pics of your ride! Ride safe!

 

[DK Custom Products]

Hey Fuzzy, nope, no coasting that day....but I did coast a bit yesterday thru a little park area.

Great advice on the PV tunes. I am really impressed with the one I got from you. In the past I have not been overly impressed with the canned Dynojet tunes...but this one (I realize you did some auto-tuning) is really good! Seems like they've upped their game on the canned tunes!

On the speedo calibration, I left it at zero, and it is within 1 mph of several tests I've done.

Looking forward to seeing more pics of your ride! Ride safe!

Thank you. Lots more to come!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 6 Concluded-

The photo's cannot convey what we encountered on the long straight (sometimes flat, sometimes up & sometimes down hill) of the 10 today...

...I do not close my modular helmet unless it is raining VERY hard, or it's in the low 30's or lower. But today I had to. The temps climbed to 95, and the cross wind was a steady 40 mph, gusting up to 50 mph...

Mary in the mirror. I had the cruise set at 68 mph, and DOWNHILL I had to downshift to 5th just to maintain that speed against the wind. WOW.

Looking back, uphill, on the 10...

...that was a brutal 70 miles from La Junta to Walensburg. We've done it before, but never with that strong of a cross wind.

By the time we got to Walensburg, which is sort of a foothill town, the wind had died down. As we rolled thru town, this deer crossed the road in front of us and was going thru the yards in this neighborhood.

Leaving Walensburg we have our first mountains...Yeah!!! La Veta Pass of 9413 foot elevation...

...it was great to get into some curvy roads, and a bit cooler weather.

It was definitely a fun road, and a sharp contrast to what we've been traveling the last two days.

After crossing the pass there is 20 miles or so of flat, high desert road before reaching Alamosa. This pic is looking back at the mountains we just crossed.

Earlier we thought about going further than Alamosa, but after that ride on the 10, we were ready to stop. So Alamosa it is.

Tomorrow we head up the Million Dollar Highway for Silverton!

Kevin

 

[Fearless]

Great Pictures as always. please... travel safe Fred

 

[DakotaTG]

Great Pictures! Always look forward to your ride reports. Where are you coming thru in Idaho? We live in Nampa which is just west of Meridian (where Trent is) and Boise. We moved here from North Dakota (hence the DakotaTG moniker) in Sept. 2017 and love it here. Many great places to ride.

Have a safe trip and enjoy!

 

[DK Custom Products]

Thanks man. Can't believe we did not take a single photo all day in Ouray!!!

Great Pictures as always. please... travel safe Fred

Thank you, and thank you!!!

Great Pictures! Always look forward to your ride reports. Where are you coming thru in Idaho? We live in Nampa which is just west of Meridian (where Trent is) and Boise. We moved here from North Dakota (hence the DakotaTG moniker) in Sept. 2017 and love it here. Many great places to ride.

Have a safe trip and enjoy!

Thank you! Shoot me an email at Kevin@DKCustomProducts.com

Kevin

 

[flyswatter]

Always enjoy your ride reports and pictures...Enjoy the ride....

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 7-

Today we're leaving Alamosa, and have reservations in Silverton, at the Triangle Motel.* Not a lot of miles, but some absolutely beautiful country, and great riding.* Mary took over 400 photos, and 98% of them are phenomenal.* I am going to try and pare it down to 40.

I took this first photo...not all the stuff we're carrying, but what we brought into the room last night....all packed up this morning, ready to go back in the trunk and Tour-Pak.

Leaving Alamosa, a cloud pic and a Drive-in.* We don't have drive-in movies in our part of the world, so always interesting to see one.

Another cloud pic as we head toward Wolf Creek Pass.* It's our first pass of the trip, and at 10,857 feet, we're looking forward to it.

Passed by an entire line of old trains.

On the way to Wolf Creek Pass...

*

...heading up.* This is why we ride thru long, straight, flat, hot, windy roads....to get to places like this.

Wolf Creek running along the side of the road.

Coming up on a tunnel...that's a lot of rock up there.

Coming up on another tunnel....

...and coming out of that tunnel, what a view!

​​​​​​​More in next post.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 7 Continued-

Here we are approaching the summit of Wolf Creek Pass...

...so many good photos of the climb up, but I just can't post them all.* Here we are starting down.* Looking back, uphill-

There are some nice curves on both sides of the pass.

One of thousands of amazing views today-

After reaching the bottom, we pass thru Pagosa Springs.* Very cool town.

We stopped at Durgango HD, but they were closed.* Took a few minutes to change batteries in the camera and the video camera....and also put on our electric jackets.* We are headed up the Million Dollar Highway, and it will be chilly up there.

We're on the 550 now (aka Million Dollar Highway), absolutely beautiful, and very nice that there are very few other vehicles on the road.

Lot's of curves!!!!!

Spectacular views!!!!

And more curves with amazing views.* Great combination!

I will finish the ride to Silverton as time allows.

​​​​​​​

Kevin

 

[Fearless]

Very nice thank you for the ride...please ride safe, be alert and enjoy the trip. :good: Fred/Jeanne

 

[DK Custom Products]

Very nice thank you for the ride...please ride safe, be alert and enjoy the trip. :good: Fred/Jeanne

Thank you Fred!

Kevin

 

[Ray55]

Wolfe Creek Pass way upon the great divide

Truchin on down the other side.

The song takes a lot of liberty

It's a long way from the bottom of the pass to downtown Pagoda Springs

 

[gfaltersack]

Kevin's ride

What year is your trike and is that your first Triglide?

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 7 Continued-

The road up to Silverton is....

...just a lot of fun...

...with lots of curves.

The views are hard to beat too.* Here we are pulling into a stop at the summit of Molas Pass.* 10,910 feet elevation.

Mary at Molas Pass.

Back on the road...

...headed down the other side of the pass.* If you ever get a chance to ride the Million Dollar Highway, it truly is a fun riding road, and absolutely beautiful.* I've cut hundreds of pics out, all really great, simply can't put them all in here.* Ride it, if you can.

Riding down into the Historic Town of Silverton.**

We're staying the night here.* We've visited before.* They have a super interesting museum.* But we've never stayed before.

​​​​​​​Concluded in the next post.

Kevin