A couple of years ago me and some friends decided to do a trip from Chicago to Colorado and back, this is the story. But first the cast of characters
Dan aka"Pete"

Russ

Jim


Dan


and me aka "Mike"


Now on with the story.
Last year a friend of mine from work bought a new Harley Dyna Wide Glide. While we were admiring it and talking, I suggested that since he had a new bike he now needs to take it on a trip. I was in Colorado earlier that year on my KLR on a trip that was cut short do to a rock meeting the bottom of my buddies engine just behind his skid plate ripping out the oil drain plug
so I suggested Colorado for the following summer. We both set the days, got clearance from the tower and the planning began. I am the only one at work with a dual sport, everyone else has Harley’s but I figured that would be no problem, they should be able to keep up with me. When we put the word out of a motorcycle trip in June of 2011 we had about 10 guys who said that they would go. The plan was to stay off all interstates, taking back roads for the whole trip and doing 400 to 450 miles a day, no rush just riding, also no chain restaurants. So as the departure date got nearer that number of participants began to decline. 1 week before we were to leave we had 6 guys confirmed, all on Harleys except me on my ’09 KLR.

So three days before we leave one of the guy’s hurts his back at work and cannot make the trip, we are now down to 5. The big day comes and we all meet at our fire house , it is gray day with a chance of rain and a light to moderate wind. The five guys are Dan on a heritage soft tail, Jim on a dyna, Dan,(aka Pete), on an Electra Glide, Russ on a Road King and Mike on a KLR.

One thing about my KLR is that it has been upgraded from top to bottom, 685 kit, front and rear cogent dynamics suspension, Thermo bob, carb work, doo hickey and a baja worx Dakar windshield among other things. I was not worried about taking it on the road and putting 3500 miles on it. During the planning stages a good friend of mine offered me his Harley Ultra Classic to take on the trip, I declined.(mistake)
Finally on the road

So we leave and head west, through Illinois and this is where our first rule was changed, we jumped on I-39 to save time. As we do this it starts to rain a little bit and the winds pick up now gusting to about 25 to 30 mph, and of course they are crosswinds. After an hour of this I am getting blown around on the KLR. All the threads that I read were right, KLR’s suck in cross winds. As we are somewhere in central Illinois a sudden crosswind blows me across my lane. Unfortunately there as a BIG piece of debris in the center of my lane which I knew I was going to hit and I did which put me in a tank slapper on a rain slickened road doing 60 MPH. Fortunately the new Michelin Anakee 2 I had just put on held the road and I was able to recover with only a minor underwear replacement needed. Right about now I am starting to wish I had taken my friends offer for his Harley.
We stop in Springfield for lunch and talk about going into Kansas instead of stopping at our original destination of Chillecothe Mo. (450 miles). We continue on across Missouri as the sun finally comes out and the winds pick up even more. My bike feels like the it is literally going to come out from underneath me, 6 hours into the 10 day trip and I am now really wishing that I had taken up my friends offer on the Ultra. At one point the winds were so strong that my helmet felt like it was being ripped off of my head. Finally late in the afternoon and in western Missouri the winds subside and the ride becomes more enjoyable. With no wind the KLR was great. We make it into Elwood Kansas for the night.

Where we stayed, the Capri motel

We found a bar/restaurant down the road and wound down. We were treated great, the people there were very friendly and envious of our trip. I don’t know if they admired our courage for riding motorcycles across the country or for staying at the motel that we stayed in but hey it was cheap and it had a bed.

Elwood sits right on the west bank of the Missouri river, this year the water level is very high and there is fear of a massive flood if the levee breaks. They have a levee system that helps protect the town. St Joseph Mo. has the same on their side of the river. Judging from what the locals we met told us there must be some kind of feud going on between St. Joseph and Elwood to protect their levees. If one of the levees breaks then that town will be flooded. A number of years ago someone, allegedly from St. Joseph blew up the Elwood levee and flooded the town to protect St. Joseph. Now Elwood has armed men who patrol their levee and we were told that if you get caught on the levee it is 30 days in jail. Now remember we got all of this info from the local bar patrons. They were fun folks and we had a great time shooting the breeze with them. Day one Hoffman Estates to Elwood Ks. 526 miles.

 

So far so good. We (two of us) plan and do our trips in the same manner. I'm subscribed keep 'em coming.

 

A lot of group rides start out that way, and many others end up that way.


I've learned to plan for myself and if others want to come a long, that's fine.
If not, that's also fine.


I had planned my retirement trip to Alaska with two of my cousin's that I had rode with for years. One of them was already "semi-retired" and the other asked me to wait one more year until he also retired.
Well, I waited, but before he retired he changed his mind about the trip, and soon after that, my other cousin also backed out!


I had made up my mind that I was going regardless.
Several months before I was to leave on the trip, a friend (who didn't even own a bike) asked if would be welcome on the trip?
I said "the more, the merrier", so he calls another friend and we're back to the "Three Amigos" scenario.
We returned home (they left Alaska in late June) and I was a couple of weeks behind them. A great trip for all!
If I would have cancelled that trip due to not having company I would have regretted it forever.


Plan your trip, pack your stuff and ride!


If you don't, it's no one's fault but yours.

 

Day 2 starts with mild temps and light winds as we take off west on Rt. 36
across Kansas. It was a nice ride with little wind and nice temps until we got to Washington Ks.







I was starting to slow down and when I went for my front break there was a loud grinding noise and no brakes! I looked over the front of my bike and my front caliper was hanging from the bottom bolt, the top bolt was completely gone.

Somewhere along the road both bolts vibrated loose as well as the small screw that that holds the guide for the brake line. I was lucky that I caught this when I did, I don’t want to think about what could have happened if it came off completely and got tangled in my front wheel while moving at 60 mph. As luck would have it, I pulled into an auto parts store parking lot and the repairs began. To start with, this got quite the chuckle from my Harley ridding buddies as the thought that it was funny that a metric bike had parts vibrating off and the Harleys were fine. I had to agree but this problem was completely my fault. During the prep for the trip I changed the front brake pads and I did not use loc-tite on the bolts. DOH!! I won’t forget to do that again, ever. We got a new bolt and some blue loc-tite and continued on our journey west.


Petes Selfie at 60 mph

The afternoon greeted us with steadily increasing winds, heat and road construction.


The winds were from the south again and once again life aboard the KLR was miserable. I was not enjoying this bike and my hat goes off to all of the KLR riders that take this thing on long cross-country trips. Now granted, I am keeping up doing 60 – 70 mph this whole time. Somewhere near Hoxie Ks. The decision is made to jump on I-70 to make time. Once again one of our rules gets broken, no interstate. Once on the interstate Pete, Russ and Jim speed ahead as Dan and me settle in the right lane doing the speed limit. We all get of at Goodland for fuel and we decide to push on to Colorado Springs to get in a day early, rule 2 400 – 450 miles a day shattered it will be a 600 + mile day Colorado Springs.


Dan and Jim trying to get that perfect shot


Other then the wind blowing me across Kansas I didn’t mind the long days in the saddle as my Rick Mayer seat and Alaska leather topper have made the mileage go by easily. However Dan on his Heritage Softail doesn’t seem to be enjoying himself.

Looks like he's enjoying himself here!
A little history on Dan is that about 4 weeks before this trip he had a low side accident that shook his confidence a little bit. So we ride on and make it to Colorado Springs for the night(or so we thought). We check in to our hotel at around 8:30 and go to get something to eat. Day 2 stats; Elwood Ks. to Colorado Springs, 600 miles.

Enough of the flatlands, we have finally made it to the mountains!!





more to come.........

 

Nice. I like to read these stories

 

That picture from the scenic overlook above Cripple Creek makes me miss Colorado. I lived in Woodland Park for 23 years.

 

Day 3 we all get up and agree to go to Pikes Peak Harley Davidson so that Russ could get his oil changed. Russ had some engine work done just before we left on the trip. While we were waiting I see this Bike in the used lot:

so I snap a picture of it and send it to my wife saying that I just bought it. Now I have the greatest wife in the world, she texts me back saying" its your money go ahead" Hmmmm, should I call her bluff. Nah I'm not old enough to have a road sofa yet.
All 5 of us are waiting and looking at the new and used bikes when I see Russ looking at a 2011 Electra Glide Limited. He tells me that he has wanted to by this exact bike for a while now but hasn’t pulled the trigger yet. I told him that if he bought that bike I would buy his on the spot.

Well he thinks it over talks to the dealer and suddenly he is the proud owner of a new 2011 Electra Glide Limited and I am the new owner of a 2004 Road King Classic that is loaded with extras. Russ being the stand up guy that he is also sold me the bike for less then the dealer offered him. Now that is a great riding buddy.



Now I had to figure out a way to get my KLR shipped home. Now while all of this is going on Dan, Jim and Pete decide it is a great day for a ride, so they took off to meet up with us later. While I was on the phone to a shipping company Jim rings through on call waiting and tells me that Dan is done with the trip. He was not having any fun and was very nervous on the road, probably because he still was thinking about his accident a month ago. He is renting a truck and going home. Jim says that the good news was that the truck could fit my motorcycle in it also so that my shipping dilemma was now solved.

While we were waiting for the new bike to be prepped Jim and Pete had a great day. Their plan was to have no plan. They stopped in a local watering hole and asked the locals what was cool to see and where to ride.








This was a great idea as they saw things and went riding to places that we never would have thought of. While they were at their first stop they were told they had to see the donkey show in Cripple Creek. Their eyes lit up but after it was explained that it was not a Baja type donkey show they decided to check it out anyway. It was more of a festival. They went on from there and since I wasn’t there I will just show the pictures they gave me.





You gotta love Colorado

Day 3 Colorado Springs Jim and Pete - about 275 miles, Russ, Dan and Mike about 25.

 

More! More!

 

 

Day 4.
First thing we loaded up the two bikes for the return trip home with Dan. We also lightened our luggage a bit and it was on the road again.

First stop was a Rally that was in Downtown Colorado Springs.




As we are riding through town to get to the rally Russ’s check engine light on his brand new bike goes on. This happened yesterday at the dealer which is why we were there all day so we thought it was the same issue. This bummed out Russ so we decided to check back into a hotel and stay around Colorado Springs one more day. So after the Rally we find a hotel near the dealer. Russ decides to stay at the hotel so Jim Pete and myself go for a ride out toward Canon City.






From there we go to Royal Gorge but thought that $25.00 to get into the park was a little on the expensive side so we passed and found a nice spot on the Colorado river to cool off, it was 100 degrees that day.









Soon we were headed to Pueblo in search of a "Pueblo Slopper" sandwich that Jim wanted to try.


sorry about the quality.
The first place we went to was Grays Coors Tavern, unfortunately the kitchen was closed. We then found out that almost everyplace in Pueblo is closed on a Sunday. The bartender getting off duty felt so bad for us that he offered us his that he was taking home for dinner, talk about hospitality. With some help from another local we tracked down another spot that was open. After filling our bellies with this heart attack on a plate, which was delicious by the way, we traveled back to our hotel. 275 miles for the day.