Day Five of the CCC trip

Dano says:
Ahhh, the day that I was waiting for. The wide open Plains of eastern Colorado leading into western Kansas. I-70 east out of Denver is motorcycle bliss. Well, we all ready ourselves at Castle Moke and prepare to head out so Ian can take his son to school. After the round of "Thank you's" from everyone we rolled over to I-25 south for a few miles to hit a gas stop. With the new morning scheduled breakfast that we had to include (Uncle Dudes breakfast, like I argued with it), I spied a Waffle House near the gas station. Oh yeah, time for an American grease spoon icon. We grabbed a bunch of seats at the counter and grubbed out, lets roll bishes. Down to the 470 we go, but wait....whats this? Is my stomach upset? How can this be? Damn Waffle House strikes again. I detour into a Marriott hotel parking lot and proceed to use their accommodations.

Ok, fast forward if you don't like sophomoric/teenager boy humor. You have been warned! So I get to the nice restrooms and make my way to a stall. I know the boots in the next stall,

they belong to Uncle Dude. The restroom rendezvous goes like this...(Dano) What's up Dude? looks like we are going to be stall neighbors." (Dude laughs) "sup brudda." hear the ass gaskets being opened and placed on the Thrones, bare asses sitting on them....silence....pause. (Dano)"I'm gunna be nice and give ya a courtesy flush." smiling I do so, and let one rip in the whirlpool background noise. Quickly Dude follows up "Oh yeah." and fires one off too. Both of us are laughing now. I smile and say "Back at ya." and launch a retaliation second round. Giggling school boys we are, Dude pipes up and says, "I'll see your flush and raise you one." and immediately cranks out two rapid fire flushes, damn professional. I'm crying I'm laughing so hard I cant talk. (Dude)"You can out corner me, but ya cant out flush me." Dude gets up and because he is in the handicap stall he walks out of my boot viewing sight. Water in a sink turns on and he starts to wash his hands....in the stall too. I ask, "They have a sink in the stall?", (Dude)"Yeah, and they have bagels and coffee machine too." I was glad that I was on the toilet because I would have crapped or pissed my pants because I was laughing so hard. The boots walk off and leave me. I get outside and we both laugh looking at each other. With everyone fed and relieved, we head out into the wide open spaces that is eastern Colorado. At that point Steve parted out company and headed back on his own as he was going to do some big mile days at a faster speed than us. Adios Steve, good meeting you.

The weather was sunny and blue skies, perfect weather to ride in. We all took full advantage of the hair-ties that Hockey had given us and set our make shift cruise controls on. Private Parts(Chad) practiced his Iron Cross cruise control balance act. I did a high speed strafe on Private Parts and Hockey with the RC FiddyOne at full song. We swapped bikes a few times in during the day at gas stops. I recall eating at McDonald's because Chewie wanted to see if they made the burgers the same way as in Australia. They did, tasted exactly like what he was used to. While eating lunch, Hockey posed a question. The question was that we vote on changing CCC Chad's name from Private Parts to Rose. Hockey can fill in that story, haha. It might gave been at that time that I also nominated that we change Hockey's name to "The Fall Guy" because of his run in with the ground at Lake Arrowhead. Hockey laughed but wasn't too keen for the change Hahaha. With a quick bite to eat we rolled out to get across the open plains. We stopped at the Colorado/Kansas border and took the normal State line sign photo.



From there we made it into Salinas, Kansas for the evening. We spotted a Travelodge right off the interstate and booked 3 rooms with the sweet military discount that Hockey provided. Hockey and I were at at the counter and asked to have three room right next to each other. The girl at the counter said she would look for three open rooms together. Hockey and me look at each other(not because we are sexy, but we are) because there was maybe FIVE cars in the whole parking lot. The hotel was three buildings and two stories each. Do your best then please. With keys in hand we divvy up the rooms and unload the steeds, leaving the unloaded Ventura packs on the bikes. Why? Because its early, we ain't got no jobs and we ain't got shit to do, I'm gunna get you drunk. (Friday the movie reference) Off to gas up the bikes, lube the chains and make a beer, whiskey run. With all the party essentials in hand (thanks for the tequila guys) we went back to party central. The tables and chairs from all three rooms came out in front of the rooms onto the covered sidewalk. We formed our own private outdoor patio club, with our six bikes right in front of us. We had the whole backside of the hotel to ourselves. Next on the list, pizza. Domino was called and grub was delivered. We couldn't have had a better time than what we did. Six guys with nothing to do except ride, drink and have fun. We drank lots, and enjoyed a great evening of bullshitting and great company. Tequila Dan made an appearance, that's me when I have lots of tequila and start to smile and laugh a lot. I'll let some of the others fill in the blanks of the night because I don't recall a lot...I do remember that the Aussies became Crown Royal fans, Cheers big ears! What a night, fist bumps all around.

Chewie says:.....this was one of the best nights we had......one of those things you can't plan, they just happen.

Dano says:.....I agree Chewie, it was by far the funnest night of the trip(speaking for myself). There were other many close seconds, but this night topped them all.



David says:
We actually got an early start today. Good thing too because this was going to be a big mile day. We fueled up the bikes not too far from The Mokes house and Dan spotted a Waffle House. I wasn't exactly pleased with his decision because I've had a few bad experiences at the WH but I made the best of it, ordered light and stayed away from anything fried. About an hour into the ride Dan hits an exit ramp and rolls into a hotel parking lot. I have no personal knowledge of what went on in that bathroom but he went in with a slightly panicked look on his face and came out giggling like a school girl. After that we headed down to I-70 on a toll road. I've never been through a toll that doesn't get their money right away, this one took a picture of your tag as you drove by and mails you the bill. The combination of the overloaded bike and dirty tag means I never got a bill. Good because that one toll in Ohio cost me over a $100.
I'm not really sure why but I was expecting a big drop in elevation leaving the mile high city. That was not the case. The Great Planes spread the elevation drop over about three states. I never knew that. We did about 400 miles on a straight, flat, boring interstate. Along the way I guess Nimec started to fight the boredom by trying to see how long he could ride with no hands. I watched him ride along with his arms floating out to the side for probably 10 minutes when it hit me, it looked just like he was recreating the scene from Titanic where "Rose" is standing on the bow of the ship. I chuckled to myself till the next stop and put the name change to a vote. It passed.
I have to agree with Dan and John that was one of the best nights on the road. I have no idea how long we were outside but it was one of the most relaxed and stress free times I have had and I'm glad I had such a great group of friends to share it with. It was one of the moments that has made me define this trip as "life changing". Salina Kansas 6266 miles so far.




miles traveled for the day=458

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Day Four of the CCC trip

Dano says:
Today I felt that everyone was getting in a semi-schedule routine. We were getting up early enough, taking care of business and generally getting ready to hit the road. I got up and lubed and tightened a few of the bikes chains, I also checked the oil levels. With the dirty work and the packing done, I grabbed a shower, and then Chewie and me enjoyed the free breakfast in the lobby. With everyone good to go, we departed Grand Junction with beautiful weather at a decent time in the morning. I-70 east out of Grand Junction is wonderful for making time and having amazing scenery to enjoy as you go.
I love the Colorado River and the tall narrow canyons that it runs in. The elevated highways and occasional sighting of the Amtrak train are stark contrasts to nature's beauty that they run through. All of this beauty and to add to the fact that you are gaining elevation into the famous Rocky Mountains. At one fuel/rest stop in Aspen we pull in and got the cold shoulder. I guess that we weren't riding BMW's or Ducati's, what a pretentious bunch of wankers, I hate snobs.
While stopped in Aspen, I called TheMoke(Ian) and told him our arrival time. I was doubting myself that I missed a turn off, so I exited and called him once again. Sweet, I didn't pass the exit and we had a few miles till we met up with him. As we were leaving, Steve decided to "leave" a little of the rear tire on the pavement. I missed seeing it, but I heard that big flat 6 Honda bouncing off the rev limiter...haha(being in front sucks sometimes as you miss all of the hooligan behaviour). We meet up with TheMoke at the next exit, the usual twenty minute meet and greet takes place and we inform TheMoke that gas is needed. No worries as his GPS tells up there is a gas station in Empire, cool. A few miles down the road we pull into the ancient station and swarm the only premium pump. The sad thing was that it was an OLD pump... it took forever to pump, pay, pump, pay....yeah all the bikes had to do this with cash basically. We decide to throw some nuked burritos down our throats and get ready to hit some big mtn country. As we were leaving, we were approached by a local young custom bike builder. The fella had a small Chinese motor grafted onto a bike frame and another low rider bike. Major props to the kid for his design and fab skills. Oh yeah, fatty(me) broke his side stand while in the full tuck on the bike taking a picture. All I remember is hearing a "PING" and feeling the bike start to lean left....
I felt bad and apologized and tried to make it right, but he insisted that it would be a easy weld fix and the bike was just a mix of parts anyways he says. Very nice kid, he even gave one of us his business card with website info on it, who has that? It was a fun stop, we got to enjoy his creations that he was eager to show,

and he got to ogle some sweet bikes.
With the day ticking away, and the not so good looking weather looming ahead, I suggested that everyone suit up for nasty weather. My concern was the rain and lowering temps, I didn't want anyone to get hypothermia if they were to get wet in the cold. We suit up and take off, hwy 40 up to Winterpark is fun, mixed in with a few sprinkles here and there. We pulled into Granby, because the temperatures rose and a few of the guys were roasting in their suits. A quick stop and off we go, next stop, the shoreline of Lake Granby for a few pics. While stopped we gassed up, and donned the rain suits again(lucky me, I had my Tourmaster textile gear). I insisted that everyone get ready for cold and wet roads ahead. I couldn't see the mtn top in a few places so in my past experience, it forecast harsh conditions ahead. For the most part we got lucky and only got rained on at the 12k foot summit.
Yes we got rain, sleet and hail. Yes it was cold, and yes the rest of the fellas were ready to get off that mountain. So we proceeded down after a picture stop (I installed my suit thermal liners, hate me because I'm beautiful, not because I'm warm).


The trip down got better as we descended, everyone was amazed at the lack of guard rails at 12k feet. You better pay attention to the road, target fixation up there will get you a nice fall over some BIG cliffs. Like riding on sleet/hail/rain covered roads wasn't bad enough to distract you. Fun times...just a few days before and we were roasting in 118 degree heat, now this. Welcome to America Chewie and Bucket. I love going over that pass. You never know what type of weather you will get, along with the wildlife and natural sights makes it a must see. We didn't need or want to stop in Estes Park so we set out to Castle Moke in Longmont. As we came into Longmont I was amazed at the ability to now wheelie again because of the lower elevation, Hockey agreed. We arrived a little before dark and unpacked. WOW what a nice castle Ian, truly a sweet place. You have the English cars, bikes, yourself, a castle, all that is needed to complete the package is a moat. A moat for TheMoke. When we arrived at Castle Moke we took a breather in the bailey as we stabled the bikes. Hockey's rainsuit looked a little tattered, he decided that the easiest way out was to summon his inner Hulkamania.
No No NO....wrong shirtless dude,

this is the Hulkster

And this is the Hockymania...

A few of us stayed there are cleaned up and TheMoke(Ian) and a few others ran out to get some adult beverages, only later to be denied because it was to late. When Ian returned he and the wife provided chips and dips and LOTS of nice English beers, while they finished the fabulous pork ribs, chicken and baked beans...nom nom nom. The dinner was fantastic and I stuffed myself and enjoyed everything about the night. You have a great family Ian, a wonderful wife Darla, daughter and son.

After dinner some of us washed clothes and ourselves too. We sat around watching videos from Uncle Dude and discussing the fastest route around Denver via the toll roads. Thanks for the tip on that Ian. Later in the evening we all calmed down because we were tired and TheMoke family had a life that started early the next day. So with that in mind, we scattered to our beds or sofas.

Many thanks go out to Ian and his family. From meeting and riding with us, to the wonderful dinner, beers and the sweet accommodations at Castle Moke. I owe ya.

David Says:
Commuting on I-95 in northern VA everyday has given me a pretty solid dislike of interstates. Weekly I see three lanes packed with people doing everything from typing on a laptop to shaving while traveling well above the speed limit. There isn't much to hate about I-70 leaving Grand Junction. It follows a river up through the canyon and at times the east and west bound lanes are almost stacked on top of one another. Across the river there was a set of railroad tracks and I kept waiting for an old steam powered locomotive to come around the bend. After a bit of that we met up with the Moke. While Dan was destroying some poor kids life work I spotted this wicked Jeep.


I'm not sure why you would take the doors off a vehicle when you live in CO but then again we were on motorcycles heading into the bad weather. With the weather looking gloomy we decided to put on the rain gear. Rain Gear is one of the things I wanted to upgrade before I left but never had a chance. I had a feeling if it got cold it wouldn't last more than a day but this was the worst weather I'd hit so far so I put it on. Glad I did too because the higher in elevation we got the colder the rain got. Speaking of rain I have to admit I ride pretty much like I grew a vagina when it starts raining. Always have. Don't think I've been setting any records in the twisties since Cali 'cause I haven't. The rain just makes it worse. We headed into Rocky Mt National Park and as we started really getting up in the elevation the rain started to develop chunks. By the time we passed the 11,000 ft mark it was sleet. Big vagina, but so worth it. The views were amazing on top. Even though we couldn't see much past the next ridge line that still left a pretty rugged looking valley to see. We start down the other side and the weather relents a bit. Later The Moke tells me he's surprised it didn't start snowing, I said "good thing 'cause I would have walked the bike down". It would be getting dark soon and there was a fantastic meal waiting for us at The Mokes house so we quit messing around and started making time. Saw a few bull elk and a big mule deer on the way out of the park but didn't have an opportunity to get a picture. The Moke and his family treated like kings, fed us, let us drink his booze, and let us crash at his very nice pad. Thank you and your family. Day 16 5791 miles so far


Bucket says: Loved that road heading out of Grand Junction with the elevated highways, brilliant. So many different variations of roads over the last few days, amazing. When we got to ASSPEN I realised this was a money town, so I made a point of saying hello to as many people as I could. Funny some of the responses. I felt like a troll when we stopped under the bridge while Dano called the Moke, meanwhile Uncle Dude and myself got a great photo, I didn't realise you were so short Dude. Next thing Stevo is bagging up the the big Honda and we are away again. We meet up with the Moke and fuel up in Empire, where once again people were having trouble with the accent. Off up into the Rockies, whilst everyone else was donning there rain suits I decided to go hard core and do it in jeans as I was sick of my textile gear. Yep, that was a good idea as when we got to the top my jeans were actually frozen, you could tap them and they made a noise and were crunchy. I decided to warm up with a cigarette but couldn't be bothered to take off my helmet, that was an experience as Hockey dared me to take a choof and blow it out with my visor down, COUGH COUGH, but another great photo indeed. Just the sheer size of these mountains is amazing, the scenery is breathtaking. I also noticed the air was a bit thin up there. Then it was on to The Moke and family castle. What a great home and family. Putting all us smelly motorcycle enthusiasts up who they had never met before, awesome. They fed us and gave us booze and good company, thankyou you very much The Moke family. Another brilliant day with my mates.



miles traveled for the day=335

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Day Three of the CCC trip

Dano says:
I almost got a good nights rest, but I had Sir Snore a'lot (Nimec) under me in the bottom bunk-bed. I peeked outside and found that it was a glorious day and I was eager to hit the awesome roads ahead of us. I showered and got loaded up to go. "Hold on partner", said Uncle Dude in his calm, relaxed, on vacation voice spoke. "I need some breakfast and coffee before I hit the road". Ok, says me. We all order something to chow down on and warm up with. It was then that I found out that Uncle Dude's schedule is dictated by his stomach. A man after my own stomach..haha. I have no idea how he stays so thin, must be a tapeworm. Moving on, Utah Hwy 12 is a motorcycle delight, it must be ridden to understand. So many sights, views and twisties for miles. I almost felt bad for going more than a mile at a time without stopping for pictures,

but we did stop at a few great spots to grab some. If we had stopped every time that one of us in the group wanted to shoot a picture, we would have never gotten anywhere. Along the way to Torry we had a few run ins. You have to love open range roads, yes either cattle drives or cattle on the side of the roads. I got to hear the boom of the Staintunes again as I rounded a corner(at a slightly elevated speed) and had to grab brakes for a black cow on the road. Between the two big V-Twins booming along the cow made a fast exit into the woods. It still was a wake up call to me.....slow down(but the roads are empty and fun as hell, sweepers begging to be ridden hard) and keep the group safe. As I railed a few corners down the way, I got the chance to dodge some cow patties in the road. Wow, that's NOT what I want to do, eat shit as I wipe out on cow shit. Time to SLOW down. At one photo stop,


Bucket noticed that the clutch cable on the Sprint was fraying, great! I called MrBiff to start the ball rolling on finding a cable for us. He also got in touch with TheMoke as I didn't have his number. I also called Cheapbastard to help in the cable search. Major props to ALL that was involved and helped procure a cable for us, Nicene and BobW....you are great guys. So we tell Bucket to do as much clutch-less shifting as he can do to save the cable. Off we go.

I remember stopping once just west of Torrey and trading bikes with Hockey. He wanted some of that FiddyOne. At the gas stop in Loa,(after the high speed pass, haha) he expressed his fun with an ear to ear grin. With some "spare" gas bottles filled up and the tanks topped off, we set out to run Hwy 72. Wow, what a nice piece of road too, freshly coated and sealed.
It was a perfect day, wonderful roads, temperatures and awesome sights. Then it happened, we rounded a hill and you could see the road laid out in front of you for miles....and there it was. The perfect top speed bomb run road.

I surveyed it for about half a second and said it would be worth the ticket, next thing I know the RC51 is being pinned in each gear. I knew that If I didn't jump on it that I would have a few bikes passing me. Funk that! At 8,000 feet you lose a little power, but I was still able to hit a "Pass Go and go directly to Jail" speeds. It was awesome, at least I didn't get passed right? Well we hit our home for the next few days....Interstate 70. We stopped in Green River for gas and lunch. Subway it is, but we get hit up by a couple of young barefoot dirty, smelly hippies. I went inside and scarfed a sammich, then kicked the tires as we still had miles to go to make Grand Junction that evening.
I wanted to make it to a bike shop to see if we could find a similar clutch cable. The rest of the ride to Grand Junction was filled with open roads and Nimec doing the "Flying Cross" with his new throttle lock installed. Chad's actions earned him a new CCC name later because of this. He couldn't find that certain speed to just cruise along, no... it had always seemed to be a few mph faster than the rest of us. In doing so he weaved in and out and around us to go by doing the Flying Cross, than he would slow the bike down and retake his place in the group.

At the Spotted Wolf canyon we pulled over to take in the amazing red rock scenery. I suggested that we do a photo shoot with the awesome backgrounds.































We didn't make the bike shop in time, it was closed up, damn. Off to the hotel, we get settled in and Hockey and I decide to do some parking lot wonder work on the Sprints clutch cable. We roll over to Lowes and buy some aircraft cable and a few crimp sleeves. We pulled the old frayed cable out, threaded the new one in and crimped the aluminium sleeve on to secure both ends. The temporary fix is awesome and worked great. Hockey and I rule, damn awesome roadside mechanics. Time for a beer, time for dinner. Applebees's here we come. We walked over to dinner and stumbled back...whooo hoooo. I called it quits early, and sacked out.


David says:
Who knew the store next to the cabins would have such awesome food. I ordered a breakfast sandwich that was quite tasty until I spied Uncle Dudes plate of Eggs Escalante. The Dude knows his way around a menu. We hit the road after that for one of the nicest days of riding I think I have ever had. The scenery was amazing, the weather was beautiful, the roads were in great shape, (except for the tar snakes that continue to rattle me) and the company was to say the least "entertaining". At one of the picture stops I ask Dan if he wanted to take a break from the 51 for a while. As we were pulling out I stalled the Honda. It happens, new bike and all. Well as I'm trying to get her started again everybody pulls out and leaves me. Every time I hit the starter, nothing. I check the kill switch, the kick stand I even cut the key off and back on, nothing. Finally I put the old girl in neutral and she fires right up. By this time I am pretty far behind so the way I see it there's only one option. No worries Mark I shifted at about 8500 and didn't get it much past 130. That's about how fast I was going when I caught and passed the group too. That'll teach 'em to leave me. Dan did say later he thought I may have stretched the chain while I was on it. WTF does that mean, you calling me tubby? Leggy got a turn on Speedy and enjoyed it thoroughly. I don't think you could've wiped that grin off with a shovel. As you can see from Dans photos Spotted Wolf Canyon provided a pretty good backdrop so we all took a turn getting our picture taken. I generally hate having my picture taken but I figured I wouldn't get many chances like that so I relented. I even had Dan take one using my cell phone so I could send it to my wife which turned out to be great timing because she said she was missing me terribly when she got it. At one point we were just cruising through some easy sweepers and enjoying the sights when I heard the RC open up. I don't know if he down shifted or not but I went down two and hammered it. Uncle Dude was between us and he generally doesn't ride all that hard but he had a pretty good handful because for a while I wasn't sure if I was going to catch either one of them. By the time we rolled into Grand Junction Buckets clutch cable was on its last leg. After striking out with the local shops Dan and I decided to go all shade tree on it. I took less than $8.35 in Home Depot parts to put something together that would make it to Cheaps house without another worry. Then off to find some food. The waitresses weren't nearly as nice as the ones in Escalante but they did keep the Crown and Cokes full so they managed a good tip anyway. Day 15, 5447 miles so far.


Bucket says: Well what can I say, I was sad to be leaving the waitress from the diner behind, but hey, you break a few hearts when you're on the road. Here we were heading off again into the wilderness, fn awesome. The roads were brilliant the temps were good and the scenery was amazing. I was in another country with mates I had only just met a few days and the night before and riding motorcycles, nothing beats it. As mentioned above at one of the stops I noticed the clutch cable fraying rather bad and I thought not again. I had a clutch cable go on the top off Bathurst Mountain(Australia) once before and had to ride down the mountain and into Bathurst without a clutch, not a big fan of this situation. With a bit of advice from the fellas it was clutch less shifting and all was fine. I love the road trips we do in Australia but this was just amazing, I couldn't get over the sheer size of the cliffs and canyons. I remember as we were riding up to Spotted Wolf canyon thinking "Where the f#*k does the road go". From a distance you couldn't tell, I couldn't pick if it went around or what, then BAM, we were riding through the middle of this massive canyon. Brilliant. Lots of photos taken up the top looking down. When we rolled into Grand Junction we had to move the motorcycles from around the front of the motel to the side, that's when I felt the cable pop, there was two strands of wire holding it. We had to decide what to do over a few beers, then the maintanence crew rolled into action. Hockey and Dano came back with some cable and crimps and within what seemed like minutes it was fixed. Thanks fellas and to all who were involved in having a new one waiting for us at the rally, you know who you are. Another fine day.


miles traveled for the day=285

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