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I've got to come up with a new naming system for Ride Reports - this might get a bit tedious. Anyway, second ride of June took me up and over Independence Pass near Aspen, Colorado today. A small lake near Copper Mountain - was forzen over 2 weeks ago whjen I was last past here...

The old mining town of Independence... or what's left of it..

Made it to the Pass / Continental Divide. Wind was whipping at about 45 mph at this point. Thought my bike was going to blow over...

The town of Twin Lakes has little in it aside from some old cabins. The sure picked a great location with views!

After passing Leadville, I came upon Twin Lakes, Colorado - home two, twin lakes. Who'd have guessed?

No shame in stating what you like.....ladies need to chill out about that stuff.... ? A big smile just for you!

I do some off road riding in Moab when it's too cold here. It;s not far away and we just toss the dirtbikes in the truck and go. It extends our riding season a bit. Pics form a previous trip - snowing at my houise as we load up and 26C in Moab....

Thought about stopping for a beer at the Silver Dollar, but thought better of it as I had some miles to cover to get home.

Took another rest next to the snow melt swollen creek - very loud.

Had to do this for my friend from Cork - just sharing the love...

And now back down the hill into Aspen...

Cold and raining up on the hill, perfect place to stop for a delicious lunch....

Looking back down at the valley that I just rode through..

Getting on to the fun part of the ride now. Roads were barren except for me and my bike...

Continuing up the hill, passed the remnants of an avalanche. The snow is all gone but the trees and mess remain. Can you imagine being caught up in the mess as it flies down the mountain? Trees would beat the shit out of you...

Well I've seen a few over the years....so I could probably fill this thread up with stories. One that springs to mind was a buddy of @Renegade........who I had the misfortune to be behind on a run back in 2003/4. Ren knew he was a total twat but didn't warn me! I won't name him on here but Ren knows who I'm talking about! So I'm behind this guy on country roads and whenever he sees chevrons way up ahead for an oncoming bend......he just slams the anchors on. So then he has to accelerate again to reach the bend.....and slams the anchors on again. Going into a bend (totally upright) he seems to drift from one side of the bend to the other for no reason. Then when you finally got through the bend you'd start to pick up speed again......and he slams the brakes on! For no fucking reason. But the final thing (which I'll never forget).....we get to a long straight of about a mile.....totally clear. And he waves frantically for me to overtake him! Nothing odd about that you may think? Well it is when you consider he was on an XJR1300 and I was on a TTR250!

There are some people who should never ride bikes......ever! It doesn't matter how long they ride, they just have so little ability that they're a menace to others. I remember one guy in the early 70's......he was always an accident waiting to happen. He didn't belt about or do crazy things.....it's just that he was a disaster. The number of times he left his sidestand down and came off was unbelievable. But he still did it. He'd wear big baggy flares which acted like parachutes......and on a few occasions the kickstarter would go up inside them after he'd kicked the bike over. And he'd find that out when he came to a stop and tried to put his foot down......and over he went. Wearing a long scarf round his neck......getting it tangled up in the chain and nearly strangling himself......yeh he did that as well.

Another one one i remember was at the top end of the Elan Valley. I Stopped to look at the view above a couple of sharp bends in the road as it was a nice day and saw a large group of bikes coming towards me in the distance, so decided to hang about to see what was going on, as i was watching them start to ride up towards me two of them just fell off on the bend below they were travelling just over walking space and just keeled over like someone had switched them off. Chatting to one of the group that manged to get to me he said they were on a led ride out from a bike rally and half of them had never ridden a country road before and didn't know how to ride around a tight uphill bend, these were guys who were 50+ Street view of where i stopped to admire the view with said bend look how difficult it is not https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3311763,-3.6070901,3a,75y,265.41h,93.6t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5G9_J2rVEanwnVjPshuLqA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

I actually developed a game at this guy's expense; it's called in French " Poser, Déposer, Tourner autour" literally "Put down, Un put down, gone around" in a series of bends the game consists of overtaking a rider round the outside = "Poser", letting him come back past you = "De poser" , and then overtaking him again so you have gone all the way round him = "tourner autour" the pefect score is acheived if the complete manouvre can be achieved in 3 consecutive bends... Anyone still wondering why he won't ride with us anymore? ??

we had a uy used to ride with us regularly ( not anymore but that's a whole 'nother story) Roda some huge 1800cc suzuki factory custom drag thing with a rear tyre stolen from a combine harvester and 0 ground clearence ( Intruder?) . He was always the last to arrive at the top of a twisty section, even behind me and the tralp excepet that he always positioned himself 2nd in line on any ride so every body had to get past him, my problem getting past him was that he would slam the anchors on going into a bend on the inside line, run wide cos he couldn't get enough angle to hold his line and as soon as he saw the exit open the throttle and shut the door back onto the inside line, with no regard whatsoever for enyone else who might be going round him inside or outside ( or, for that matter, coming the other way...) once he opened the throttle there was no way i could keep up with the tralps poor little ponies giving their best. I came sooo close to being pushed into oncoming traffic trying to get round the outside of him or into the ditch up his inside that I developed I number of very specific un often unorthodox, techniques to get past him. If there were a radpid series of opposite bends or asingle switch back long enough I could just out manouvre him either round the inside or outside, but i had to leave the braking retty late and get back on the gas a bit early. Obviouly once I got the tiger I could just slide by on the inside as he ran wide and be gone before he could react. He doesn't ride with our group any more, having flounced.

If you like a bit of cock and bum fun then that’s up to you, it’s a brave new world.

We get 30" inches and no one bats an eye. All what you're used to and are prepared for.....

We have snow for at least 7 months on the ground, but I have a 4WD truck so we're only actually "snowed in" for a day or two at a time. Once the plows get their work done, it's not a bother.

Agreed, although I don't even care if people ride bikes or not. It's the passion, can be cars, boats, running, cycling, chess playing, if you don't have something that touches you you're not an interesting person. And bikes aren't even a passion for me, just something that makes me feel good.

Great quote, Goucho Marx was also an american so you can get away with it. Regarding this whole biker / non biker nonsense, I think you're all getting a little bit of cabin fever. I, for one, refuse to see myself as a biker. I just like riding bikes and what they do for me, not really into the whole kindred spirit thing connecting me to every twat on two wheels, except if she's got a nice smile and clever humor. I enjoy riding my bikes, more so if I'm by myself since that is what I'm looking for, time alone. I wave to other people on bikes, and stop if someone is stranded on the side of the road, but don't pretend I have any sort of connection to them, and in fact usually assume I don't. Having said that, I have a couple of friends who also ride bikes and I spend some time with them, usually over a meal and plenty of wine instead of riding bikes, couldn't care less if that takes away from me being considered a biker since I am just a guy who enjoys riding and traveling on bikes. Whenever people assume I would like to hang around someone else just because they also ride a bike, I am the first to correct them saying they can annoy me as much as anyone else, if not more

And one pic from my phone that I forgot to add. Shot from the fuel station parking lot in Leadville. Not bad scenery for a fuel station!

When you say 'back down the pass to Aspen' I keep thinking of that scene in Dumb and Dumber with them on the moped ?

The road on this side of the hill does not suck - just made for going fast...

Not a complete list but just a few photos that happen to be accessible via my iPad right now.

I can remember filling my Vauxhall viva up for £1

One i remember i was riding behind a sports bike in a country lane, i'm on my XR400, every bend we go into he's getting his knee down i'm poodling along bolt upright, not going fast enough even to get any bad feelings from the full on knobbly tyres i'm running thinking WTF is he like

seems pretty common nowadays. so common that when we are out on a trip, chatting up people we meet, when they ask how we all met we just say "eHarmony" ?

31? That's some serious shit Fred! I've seen temps that high here at midnight!

Panic!

Well, we’re in 2020, your “friend” can be whichever gender you want

As I said earlier.......it's different things to different people. Some always like to ride in groups......I don't......I did enough of that in the 70's to last me a fucking lifetime. You meet up somewhere......and guaranteed some twats haven't fuelled. So we all have to stop at the first petrol station. Then some can't keep up and you're having to wait for them all the time. Stop and start continually! Then some twat breaks down (no recovery trucks or phones in those days).......you get going again and some twat falls off. Finally get to where you were going and somebody reckons it's shit and it was a wasted ride......so him and the guy who took us start scuffling. Go in a cafe and somebody sits on the jukebox and falls right through it and the Police get called. I could write a book on some of the stupid shit I've seen! That's why I go where I want, when I want, and at the pace that I want. And I don't have to keep checking my mirrors every two seconds to see what other twats are doing around me.

I had a girlfriend like that once and we made up a story to tell people

Very similar here. i would just add that i've met some really good motorcycle enthusiasts thru all this online stuff, that i wouldnt have met otherwise. Even Bruce, whom i plan on meeting in the flesh someday soon. Dont really care what bike you ride, just that you love to ride. Grew up on Hondas, went thru Kawis and a Groundpounder and a Road Glide before choosing my current brand. I just love tweaking the nose of those who think their bike choice defines them, and defines them as better than others. Especially them KTM guys. They are totally clueless ?

Sunny and warm (24C) out here in the sticks yesterday, Aspens getting some leaves, so I got on my scooter and headed out...

Just south of home on the next hill over...

The XR is a good canyon racer when you get old and dont like the bent over position

Start off with Bruce's favorite GS - Flames Then, a fun one to hooligan on: This was a big improvement in offroad "stuff" - the Rallye

It still looks pretty 'green' there Chris .

The "Ex"