Pic Heavy 2016 Ride Report - 40 Days Following the Front Wheel

[DK Custom Products]

Kevin and Mary thank you for all the photos and write ups.

You didn't know it but I was setting right beside you looking in awe. Thanks DJ

Very cool. I am in constant amazement of the world we live in!

Kevin
is it possible for you to send me a detailed list of everything you have done to your tri to make it run as well and as cool as it does. I have a 2015 freewheeler which runs pretty hot. It is stock exept for external breathers and cannon screaming eagle exhaust.
Thank You
Gerald Martin
martingw@telus.net

Gerald, I will get an email out to you within a couple of days.

HERE'S A LINK:

http://www.triketalk.com/forum/threads/30249-DK-Custom-PROJECT-TRI-GLIDE-Report-w-Lots-of-Pics

Thank you!

"As we were warming up Mary took a pic. The TG is running great! I'm also getting used to the quieter exhaust. 45 mpg over the last 80 or so miles. Can't complain about that. About half at 45 mph, and half at 65 mph, pretty much the same amount of uphill as downhill."

Ive read all your threads up to this point and tried to digest all the info. What is the exact configuration of all Your mods at this point that have given you this result? I have a 2016 Tri-Glide that Im ready to start modifying.

I will be doing a re-cap of everything at this LINK within a couple of days.

Look at FuzzyWuzHe's post right above yours,Al.

Thank you!

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 28 Concluded.


I apologize for the break in posting. Had a lot going on the last few days.




So, we have seen some amazing sights today. Riding down out of the Rocky Mountain National Park is literally coming down from the mountain-tops!


It was a beautiful, if somewhat sedate ride down, following a line of cars.

Down at the "bottom" now. We are "out of the mountains" but still at around 8000 feet elevation.

Headed for Colorado Springs now, mostly via secondary, country roads, we are following Scott & Karin back to their stomping grounds.

Those mountains in the distance lie between us and Colorado Springs. Yeah!

We stopped and topped off our tanks and are back rolling.

Back in the mountains!


See that yellow sign on the right....

...that means "fun ahead".

We are really enjoying riding with Scott & Karin. They are good people, and my riding style is very much like Scotts, so I am not feeling held back by him, nor feeling like I have to push it to keep up.

This is a FUN road!!!

More in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 28 Concluded-






This is a great curvy, two lanes in our direction, road heading up the mountain. I pull ahead for a just a bit for Mary to get a few pics from a different perspective.

Mary taking a pic of Karin taking a pic.

At the top, we are about...

...to start heading down.

Lots of "Fun Ahead" signs as we enjoy this road, uncluttered by cages.

Besides being a great riding road, the views are inspiring...

...that is a lot of water running down the side!

Still headed down...

...a look back at where we were a few minutes ago.

We're on the 70 now, just for a short bit.

More in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 28 Concluded-


We just barely missed the rain...

...but we did not miss the traffic!

It is not long before we are off the interstate and on country roads...

...there was a couple of hours of rolling, curvy country riding to get to Colorado Springs...

...with beautiful views.

After the views earlier, plus 10 hours of riding, not many pics were taken during this time.


Here is a shadow pic as we neared CS.

However tired/sensory overloaded we are, Scott and Karin have ridden 2 hours MORE than us today!






Closing out today with a pic from earlier this morning, Mary taking a pic of Karin taking a pic as we were first heading up into RMNP.

Tomorrow is another early start (early for me anyway), as we are going to Pikes Peak and other adventures.




More coming soon!

Kevin

 

[ol' school]

More awesome pics! Awesome country to be riding through! Thanks for sharing!

Had to take a quick look at your thread sittin' here drinking my morning coffee before we head out for a day ride with friends today.

 

[Ed Hobgood]

Don't you just love those little curvy road signs and the more of them you see the better we like it.epper:epper:epper:

 

[DK Custom Products]

More awesome pics! Awesome country to be riding through! Thanks for sharing!

Had to take a quick look at your thread sittin' here drinking my morning coffee before we head out for a day ride with friends today.

More coming for your morning coffee!

Don't you just love those little curvy road signs and the more of them you see the better we like it.epper:epper:epper:

Yep! ThumbUp

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 29-




Scott and Karin are at the Super 8, ready to roll at 9 AM.

We've never been up Pikes Peak, and it's been years since I watched a youtube on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.


Making our way thru the city of Colorado Springs toward the mountains...

We had no idea what an Amazing day we are in for!


Clear of the city now, heading into the "hills".

We're on our way!

We pulled over here for a few minutes...Scott and I shed our helmets, Mary put on her jacket liner.

It's 20 bucks a bike to ride up the mountain...well worth it!

What a great start, beautiful day, fantastic road!

Ok. Never seen a sign like this before.


When we were in Bella Coola, Canada there was a lot of local talk of a Sasquatch in the area...but no signs.

At this point we have no idea what to expect. The road is nice, the scenery is great, and we see we have about 5200 feet in elevation to climb.

Tomorrow is race day and preparations are underway.


Starting here, to the top, is 12.4 miles with 156 turns, ending up at the 14110 foot elevation peak.

Here are a couple of short videos, showing just a taste of what it's like near the top.




Click HERE for Video #1




Click HERE for Video #2






Yeah, the hills and turns are that steep, and yes, it feels like you're on the top of the world AND the edge of the world at the same time!








More coming soon.


Kevin

 

[DblTrbl]

WOW!!

After being in all those hills, it must suck to come back to the flatlands........

 

[FuzzyWuzHe]

Great videos Kevin ... Pikes Peak and Norad are on my todo list ... now that I own a bike again and inspired by your trip up ... I'll be planing that soon.

 

[ol' school]

Great videos Kevin ...

I agree with Fuzzy! Awesome videos! Definitely gives one the perspective of how steep it is up there!!! Looks like fun!!!

 

[DK Custom Products]

WOW!!

After being in all those hills, it must suck to come back to the flatlands........

Well, it certainly makes one think about moving. hahaha But there is all different kinds of fun riding....just none of those hills around where I live.

Great videos Kevin ... Pikes Peak and Norad are on my todo list ... now that I own a bike again and inspired by your trip up ... I'll be planing that soon.

I agree with Fuzzy! Awesome videos! Definitely gives one the perspective of how steep it is up there!!! Looks like fun!!!

Thanks guys. Yeah, those are some steep roads and big drop-off with no guardrails. It was funny watching all the cagers (that normally are texting and paying little attention to their surroundings) going so slow, careful & paying 1000% attention on that road.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 29 Continued-

Almost right away the curves start...

...looking back at that curve. All those bales of hay are not for us everyday folks...their putting them up for the race.

What a perfect day for riding!

Fun curves for sure!

View to the right at 11,000 feet. Wow!

This is a fun road, the views, the incline, the curves. The edges, where there is no rail or rocks, just a drop-off...but since you can't see where it is dropping off too....instead you just see out into the sky, sort of a weird feeling.

Another steep right curve (with earth/land on either side of the road).

We're above the treeline now. Not sure if Mary was taking pics of the road, the landscape or if...

...these were "cloud pics". No matter, this is an amazing ride with some spectacular views!

A look down at just a bit of the road we've been riding.

More in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 29 Continued-

Yeah! If you like curves (and I do) this is a fun road to ride!!!

Seemingly endless supply of curves.

Big drop-offs! I am not tempted to get too close to them!

We pulled over here....spectacular view...for Scott and I to put on our jacket liners. It is getting a bit chilly.

We are getting up pretty high now, and parts of this road have an "edge of the world" feel to them.

What a view!

We're almost out of curves....but we get to do them all again on the way down!

Yeah, it is as steep as it looks!

That is a gnarly looking cloud up ahead!

We're at the top. 14,100 feet!

I am not sure how long it will take to go thru all the pics for Day 29. We had a ton more adventures this day.

More coming soon!

Kevin

 

[Ed Hobgood]

The road looks a lot better now than it did the last time I was there. Did you guys not stop and smell the roses or should I say stop and have a snowball fight?

 

[ol' school]

WOW! Looks like you are driving right into the clouds!

 

[desertclassic]

Sure is a nice road to travel. Great views. 14K elevation, air is a little thin?? I remember how hard it was to keep a straight head when we climbed above 10K in the plane that was not equipped with pressure. Doing a check ride and a full climb until stall was exciting. That plane would quit climbing and then it was time to shut the throttle and kick it around. Really exciting when it came out of the dive before the wings pulled off fuselage. I am enjoying the trip that you and Mary are doing. Keep us excited. Jim

 

[DK Custom Products]

The road looks a lot better now than it did the last time I was there. Did you guys not stop and smell the roses or should I say stop and have a snowball fight?

We did pull into some scenic outlooks...but no snowball fights.

WOW! Looks like you are driving right into the clouds!

Yeah, crazy!

Sure is a nice road to travel. Great views. 14K elevation, air is a little thin?? I remember how hard it was to keep a straight head when we climbed above 10K in the plane that was not equipped with pressure. Doing a check ride and a full climb until stall was exciting. That plane would quit climbing and then it was time to shut the throttle and kick it around. Really exciting when it came out of the dive before the wings pulled off fuselage.

I am enjoying the trip that you and Mary are doing. Keep us excited. Jim

Yep, not much oxygen content in the air up there. I think Scott and Karin were used to it, Mary and I had oxygen drops in our water, so no problem with feeling light headed. But when you go to walking around, especially uphill, well, we took our time, there was no running. lol

Stalls, those are fun...everything loose floating to the top of the cabin.

Kevin

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 29 Continued-

One of the many views at the top of Pikes Peak-

There is a cog train that goes to the summit at Pikes Peak. It's the worlds highest cog railway. You can see it stopped here, just a few feet from the edge.

This is as close as Mary will get to the edge...and she's pretty nervous being this close-

All four of us at the sign-

Scott and I climbed down to this look-out point....

...the climb down was not so bad. Coming back up I stopped a couple of times to try and get some oxygen out of that thin air. lol

We spent 30-40 minutes at the top, enjoying all the views.

We mounted back up...

...and started the ride down. If anything the views were even more stunning.

A look back...

...and ahead. Fantastic views!

More in next post.

 

[DK Custom Products]

Day 29 Continued-

I know I'm posting up a lot of pics of just this one day...and there are a lot more to come...but what I am posting is just a small fraction of all the great pics that Mary got.

I thought we had ridden into a pull-out and Mary took this pic from the back of the TG...she reminded me that this was taken as we were riding, just looking over the edge of the road.

Just a taste of some of the 156 curves coming up...

...and another look at some of what we get to ride back down thru.

Anatomy of a curve-

Heading into the curve...

...midway thru the curve....

...looking back at it.

Before heading down Scott had told me about the mandatory brake check at about the 1/2 point down the hill. They shoot the brakes discs with an infrared and if they are too hot, they make you pull over for 20 or 30 minutes before continuing on.

So we are using our brakes very little on the way down, doing most of our braking with the gears. We are not going fast, probably 4-5 times faster than most of the cages thru the curves, but still at a leisurely pace.

This road is just a lot of fun...

...riding thru curve after curve...

...with breathtaking views...

...everywhere we look.

More in next post.