Autumn winding down

[Testarossa]

It's been dry and warm here, so warm we had to cancel the Beaver Creek World Cup races for want of snow. But a winter storm rolls in tomorrow afternoon. Today was 65F, sunny and windless, so I took the Mille out for one of the last nice rides of autumn. Roads almost empty but I saw half a dozen riders out with the same idea, and the skydivers were out getting in their last licks.

As evening draws in, it's still calm at ground level but the storm wind is already building up high, generating these spectacular roller clouds.




Skiing by Thursday . . .

[fotoguzzi]

your livin the dream! my cousin-in-law lives in Longmont.  a nice place, sometimes I wish I lived out there..
I ride out there but use his truck to pick wife from airport then go to Red Feather area..

[Sasquatch Jim]

 We don't get the leaves turning signs here.  We get the snow accumulating up on Mauna Kea.  It happens about the time our biggest snowbirds get here.  The Humpies come in winter to roll around in the sun, show off to the girls, and hope to get laid just like any other tourists.  They put on an amazing display leaping into the air and crashing back down on their sides. The displays are visible from more than a mile out to sea.

[yellowheader]

I put the Cali in the shed once and for all yesterday. It's been a weird fall here in Alberta. October is usually cool and dry, but good riding weather. The snow generally settles around the first of November. This year it was colder, wet and cloudy almost every day. Even so, the snow held off until this weekend. I was able to keep riding three weeks later than usual, but it certainly wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.

[pat80flh]

Here in west/central  NY, it's been a beautiful autumn. Saturday morning was sunny and 60f. I took the V65 to the shop who brokered the  sale, to see if I could get an inspection . Should have called first, opening say of deer/shotgun season. Glad I took the long way.
  By  2:00 PM  it had turned sharply colder, and a very cold wind was blowing in from the north-west. Sunday was 30 and flurries, the real snow started  last night, as of 6:00 AM this morning we have a solid 6 inches on the ground, and it will snow all day.
 

[Goosecoop]

I, too, had the pleasure of riding yesterday from Frederick to Boulder to Lyons. My son, daughter-in-law, wife and I rode the back roads to Lyons for lunch. It was my first ride since moving out here and the first ride with my son. As a bonus waved at a fellow Guzzi rider on a black loop frame going the other way. Wish I could have stopped to meet the fellow. While I lived in Michigan I never got to ride the week of Thanksgiving because it is usually cold and raining or snowing. I'm loving this.

[jas67]

It was 65 degrees and sunny here midday on Saturday.   I went out for a nice 2 1/2 ride on the Duc, knowing that a cold front would be here later in the day.     That front blew in pretty quickly around 3:30 in the afternoon.   Temps plummeted to 45 degrees in about 20 minutes, and to 40 within 30 min.   We got some rain by 4:30, and by 7:30 it was 34 degrees, we had sleet and a little snow.

So, here, at least, Autumn didn't wind down, it came to a screeching halt.

It's been very windy with gusts to 40 MPH ever since.   It's gusty enough that I drove the car to work today.

[Testarossa]

Goose, we'll see a few sporadic riding days midwinter. Happens more often in recent years.

When you head up this way again, give us a heads-up beforehand. Some spectacular rides west of here.

[Nic in Western NYS]

Weather's in a bad drought with fires so bad I didn't ride.  Cold front came through and thanks to the firefighters, the lines on the fires held and the wind cleared the smoke.  Rode yesterday, 39F, just beautiful.  They do use salt in an odd way here - earlier in the week they put salt down on a day when the temp didn't go below 40F.  It was so dry, the salt just blew off the road so it got cleared without any precip.  So who knows what the winter will bring - I got her ready for whatever by filling it up, putting the stabil and ethanol treatment in, and running it to operating temp (and bringing home cookies from a great local bakery).  I'm hoping to ride every month but we'll see.  Salt, not slippery roads, is the main challenge so far.

[Goosecoop]

Thanks for the invite and will give a heads up. I'm hoping to connect with you folks now that I'm in town. Is there a time and place where you all meet on a regular basis? IN Michigan we met every Sunday throughout the year at a coffee shop. During Winter we just drove our cars and trucks and still got together to talk motorcycles and anyting else that came up.

[Testarossa]

Nothing regular. Once or twice a year alanp, motogeezer and I do a ride, generally in coolish spring or fall weather. A couple of times we've held informal not-a-rally weekends in good riding country -- 2013 in Ouray, 2015 in Cripple Creek. We typically get a dozen Guzzisti riding in from as far away as California and Missouri. There's a big Beemer rally in Paonia every summer and a lot of Guzzisti go -- by next summer I'll be living there so I'll do some of the rides.

[Goosecoop]

Wonder if there's interest to get together on Sunday mornings. In Michigan we invited all manners of bikes and on a good day we wold have 75 bikes. Is there a good coffee shop/breakfast spot for this?

[Testarossa]

There used to be a group that met in Golden one Sunday each month. Not going to get 75 Italian bikes out out in Colorado -- a dozen maybe. Could pull four or five for a monthly meet in the Boulder-Longmont-Lyons area.

[Goosecoop]

We would get maybe 10 Italian bikes and the rest were a mix of everything else. We would usually have 5 or 6 Guzzis. It wasn't a gathering that focused on particular brand of bike. We enjoyed them all. Made for an eclectic group of characters.