2020 Good Times

[350for350]

I know that this year has been difficult to say the least for a lot of people. I don't believe that it was all awful for everyone though. Since 2020 is coming to a close, I'd like to focus on the good things that have happened to us during the last year. Let's post pictures of riding trips, fun with our trikes, or just plain fun pictures. To start off, at the end of July, I went to Taylor Park, Colorado for a few days of riding. Naturally, I had to represent the trike community alone. The first ride we went on was Taylor Pass. The kid on the 400EX did very well considering that he didn't rejet for the altitude. There is part of the trail where you ride through a creek for about 400 yards. At least that's what I've been told. The biggest challenge of the trail is the big boulders that you have to climb over upon exiting at the top of the creek. Before I forget, I do have some Maier rear fenders on the 250ES now.2656902656912656922656932656942656952656962656 97265698265699265700265701265702

[350for350]

It was pretty rainy while we were there. The way it worked out, the mornings would be okay, but the rain would move in during the afternoon so we didn't get in as much riding as I would have liked. Our next ride was only two of us. The 400EX rider twisted his wrist pretty bad coming back down Taylor Pass so he didn't ride at all the second day. The SxS guys wanted to ride faster and find some rock to climb. It was just me and the guy who was on the TRX300 the day before. I rode my 250ES again and he rode his Rancher 420. We went up to the top of Flag Mountain. There's an American Flag at the top. The top is (I believe)12,719' while the pass below is 12,000' at a guess. On the way up, we checked out an old mine and a cabin that I think the mine owner lived in for several decades. It was still drizzley when we started out so we were the first ones to ride that trail that morning and the first ones to the top of the mountain. The trail from the pass to the top has three pretty steep sections and my jetting ran out on the final steep part to the top. I ended up in 1st gear with the engine singing, but I made it. There is a couple of marmots that live at the top. One stayed a long way away from us, but the other is almost tame. That one would come right up to us hoping for a snack. It sniffed one of my boots and licked my one of my buddy's boots. On the way back down to the pass, we pulled over to let a group of dirt bikes go by. A couple of weeks later, I happened to be watching a You Tube video on a channel that I subscribe to and got to see the two of us sitting there to let the bikes go by. I had no idea that there was a Go Pro with them or that I would get to see the video. That really made my whole day seeing us.26570326570426570526570626570726570826570926571 02657112657122657132657142657152657162657172657182 65719

[350for350]

We stayed on top of Flag Mountain until a cloud rolled in and we could barely see the flag anymore. We took that as a sign to head back. On the way down, we stopped to check the biggest rocks in what looked like a whole field of big rocks. Here's the rest of my pictures from the Flag Mountain ride.265720265721265722265723265724265725265726265 72726572826572926573026573126573226573326573426573 5265736265737265738265739265740265741265742265743I have to admit that my very favorite part of the whole trip back down was was when we had just got back down to the pass and we came upon what looked like an early 1990's Nissan pickup with a man and woman in it. He wanted to talk for a few minutes so we did. As they were getting ready to leave, he said "she just me how in the world did he get that thing up here?" Of course she meant my 250ES. I just looked right at her and said "Why I rode it up here!" The look on her face was priceless.

[350for350]

The next morning, we went up Tellurium Creek Trail. I decided to be different so I rode my 250SX and all of us went together this time. The last part of the trail to the very top is very narrow (unless you're on a trike) and fairly steep. Two of the SxS's went up first while the rest of us sat on the last switchback below the top. They sat toward the top of the trail for quite a while and finally had to back down. They told us that the trail still had a snowdrift across it and they thought that it was pretty deep so we all headed back down. On the way back down, there was a short cut off trail that led to a flattened spot below a hollow dug into the side of the mountain. There was what we believed to be a seismic sensor buried in the ground inside the hollow. This was the worst ride of the trip to me. I had forgotten that the SX carb took a different type of main jet than the 300EX carb that's on my ES. I didn't order the right jet for it so I put in one that came out of a cheap rebuild kit that I got somewhere. It was in my collection of jets. It looked barely smaller than the one for the ES, but it ran terrible. At just under 10,000', I had to have the choke all the way on in order to go down a basically flat road and then I still couldn't get full RPMs out of the engine. Other than that, the ride was great. After I got home and put the low elevation jet back into the carb, I took the one that was the wrong size and threw it as hard as I could into the wheat field that's out behind my garage. No more of that jet! I'm going to split these pictures up into two posts too since there's so many of them.265746265747265748265749265750265751265752265 753265754265755265756265757265758265759265760

[350for350]

And the rest of the pictures from Tellurium Creek Trail.26576126576226576326576426576526576626576726 5768265769265770265771

[ATC King]

Thanks for the pics, and for repping trikes!

[mikeheck]

That is really cool, thanks for taking time to put up all the pics. You are braver then I am taking an old trike up into the mountains!

[knappyfeet]

Love it...very cool

[DAM shop]

Nice! Someday I have to do that.

[350for350]

That is really cool, thanks for taking time to put up all the pics. You are braver then I am taking an old trike up into the mountains!

The funny thing is that I don't concern myself with it much more than I do riding it around here. The mechanicals are still the same age as are the electrical parts. It's no more likely to break down there as it is 1/2 mile from my garage. The single, best part of the trip was all of the smiles, nods, thumbs up, and the people who stopped wanting to talk to the "crazy" guy riding the trike. I lost track of how many times I heard "I started out on a three wheeler" or even "Hey a Big Red! I used to have a Big Red like that". Honestly, it kind of strokes the ego too. I say that my goal is mostly to show that not only are trikes not completely useless, they are still a capable, fun off road vehicle.

[350for350]

Nice! Someday I have to do that.

I really recommend that everyone try riding their trikes in the mountain at least once. It certainly doesn't have to be in Colorado either. That's just the closest place for me to ride in the mountains. I do highly recommend using one with full suspension though. A hardtail or a no suspender would have been kind of miserable. That would have required different trails. I also recommend soft two ply tires. Those Cheng Shin tires amazed me at how well they could climb over rocks.

[ironchop]

Holy cow! What a fantastic thread.

The scenery is mind-blowing. Thanks for posting all of that. Now I want to go there too.

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

[350for350]

Well this one isn't quite as scenic, but it was still a good time with good friends. I have some friends who live in Brady, NE (about 20 miles east of North Platte). Two are brothers. One had his birthday on Friday, Sept 11 (I know, poor guy) and the other one had his birthday on the following Wednesday. I went up on Sept 12 and we all went riding in the Platte River there. The one with the Wednesday birthday was getting a surprise party thrown that evening (Sept. 12) by his wife. Our mission was to keep him out until at least 6:00 PM. A tough job but we fought our way through it anyway (ha ha). Those guys were complaining about the low water level in the river. I don't really like riding in deep water or mud very much so I thought it was great. One guy even found a pretty good sized soft shelled (leather back) turtle and let it go after holding it up for us to see. The river riding uses a totally different skill set than I'm used to using, but I got the hang of it fairly quickly. The weather was great. It got up to around 85 degrees and there was a nice wind that kept us almost a little chilly since we were wet from the waist down. this will be another multi part post due to the number of pictures. The Nebraska Lottery really set the tone for the weekend in the first town that I came into after crossing in from Kansas.265789

[350for350]

Here's the start to the riding pictures.26579226579326579426579526579626579726579 82657992658002658012658032658042658052658062658072 65809265810

[350for350]

This bridge is where I-80 crosses the river here. This is at the end of our ride. It was about 6 miles from town, but we stopped to BS a lot and we rode around in circles a lot too if we found a fun spot. You can see the water line on the bridge where the normal water level is at. They thought that we could ride a little bit past the bridge since it looked pretty dry. I stayed back a little bit and the first trike that got stuck in the mud told me to stay WAY away from it. Sometimes having 13 years or more on the rest of the guys has it's advantages.265811265812265813265814265815265816265 81726581826581926582026582126582226582326582426582 5265826

[350for350]

The bridge in these pictures is 1/2-3/4 miles south of Brady and it's where we started and finished our ride. In case anyone has trouble figuring it out, I'm kind of a picture nerd. I'm always holding up everyone else by stopping to take pictures. When I take my riding pictures, I try to let others see what I saw which explains why I NEVER take selfies. There's a couple of pictures of the always unusual "tree growing out of a tree" and one of the young deer that we found laying there too. In these pictures, I'm riding the same 250ES that I had in Colorado except that it has the new fenders on it. I ordered two aluminum rims in the first part of June to have all three on when I went to Colorado, but due to the Covid lock downs, they came in on Sept. 11 which was the day before the river ride started. I did have one with a mounted tire along as a spare, but didn't take the time to put it on the front of the ES. Mine is the one with the blue and white cooler on the rear rack.265827265828265829265830265831265832265833265 834

[350for350]

I had another ride that I had wanted to post pictures of, but they are all on my computer and for some reason, it's saying that the file is empty so I can't post them.

[350for350]

Holy cow! What a fantastic thread.

The scenery is mind-blowing. Thanks for posting all of that. Now I want to go there too.

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

You're welcome for the pics. I'm planning to go back next summer some time with a Facebook group. This time, I think that we'll be going to Lake City, Colorado. I can certainly make a thread in the rides section when I find out more info like dates in case anybody wants to join. I know that it's a long drive for most people, but maybe someone who lives in the Midwest will want to go along.

[350for350]

Just to bump this back up to make it easier to find. I started a thread about going on a ride in the same area of Colorado that I was in last summer. I know that some members thought that they'd like to go. The thread is in "Rides, Event's Locations".

[badasskfx]

Great photos!!!