Paonia BMW Rally

[mrgilmore at aol.com]

Hey Charles,

Glad to see you are still doing the ride and camp thing.? It's an inspiration to me, that it's not something to keep behind me as a "youth-thing", but something that I'll look forward to doing more of soon.? Love that freedom.
It was also good to hear the names of some spots we rode through on my last Fandango there.? Yes, our Geepers are long in the tooth, but until my money tree bears fruit, I'll just have to keep it going and drool over the ZX 14 and Concours like so many of us do.

Per the Domain conversation, I too believe in this format.? It is more like a club, than a chat thing.? 

Happy trails to you and all my GPz1100 brothers.

Ron Jordan
Altadena, CA?- where it is too hot to ride these days...


-----Original Message-----
From: scapco at ecentral.com
To: gpzlist at micapeak.com
Sent: Sun, Jul 26, 2009 7:43 pm
Subject: Paonia BMW Rally



I got back about 2:30 this afternoon from Paonia Colorado
and the state BMW rally.  I went with my friends Bruce and
Tim and got in over 900 of some great riding.

We left Friday around 8:00 and took Deer Creek canyon which
lived up to it's name when a cute little fawn ran in front
of me, it still had it's white spots.  Rode 285 to Buena
Vista and then north over Independence Pass, had lunch in
Aspen and then through a hot Carbondale to Paonia where
Bruce and I threw our tents up as fast as possible and ran
for a cold shower.  Came back and had a great steak dinner,
before retiring.  Unfortunately, I must have worn out my
mattress pad last summer in Canukistan as it refused to hold
air so I slept miserably on the hard ground.

Woke up Saturday and headed north to near Grand Junction and
rode 141 south along the canyons to Gateway where we grabbed
a quick bite and headed south before it got really hot.  No
car museum, again...  Got cooled off a little near Telluride
and then back into the afternoon heat at Ridgeway and
Montrose.  Took hwy 92 along the Black Canyon of the
Gunnison (no cattle drive this time) but it was a slow ride
due to 5 miles of fairly fresh chipseal.  Past Joe Cockers
old restaurant and back to Paonia in time for dinner and the
annual "guess I didn't win anything" give aways, LOL!

Had another bad night's sleep, but we again left around 8:00
and headed south on 92 again to Blue Mesa Dam and then
through Gunnison, over Monarch Pass and into off and on rain
showers all the way back into Denver around 2:30.

The old Geeper is still running well and so far I'm liking
the Dunlop Roadsmarts.  I can tell the GPZ is getting a
little tired though so I'm thinking this winter I will
replace the steering head bearings and freshen up the forks
at the least.  I might repack the swingarm bearings and
possibly toss on a new chain and sprockets, although with
30K on them they really don't look bad at all.  I'm hearing
rumors of brand new Concours 14's for $10K which I sure wish
I could do, but probably won't.


The GPZ will get a rest next week as I'm caging it to
Calgary Canada this coming Thursday with my daughter Jamie
and will meet my ex and oldest daughter there for a week in
a rented RV.  Should be nice and relaxing.

Heading to bed now, my butt is sore and I'm tired.  :-)

Charles
S.