Carrying Spare Fuel on Valencia

Running out of fuel when you're in the middle of some mountain trail, trees all around, and pretty much miles and miles from any kind of help, much less a fuel station, is not a good feeling.

For the longest time, I'd carried my 1.5 gallons of extra fuel in my Kolpin gas can, mounted on a bracket carrier bolted to the metal plate one steps on when getting in and out of the sidecar.  This worked for many months but in the end, all the bouncing of the rig on rough terrain led the bracket and can to oscillate and eventually break two of the three mounting tabs for the metal plate!

I'm going to have the plate re-welded into place by my friend Oscar this weekend, but the step plate will not be used again for the Kolpin mounting bracket.

Instead, after debating for some time, and almost buying the spare gas can/bracket from the Ural dealer, I decided to mount the existing Kolpin can using the panel mount it comes with, in the same spot as my fellow Uralistas had mounted their Ural-supplied gas cans.

I marked the holes once I picked the spot for the mounting plate.  Using a level, I oriented it so that the bottom end of the support arm is slightly more forward than the top end, causing the can to rest its weight to the rear.  Four holes later ( I did cringe a bit on the first one), some nuts/bolts/washers, and voila:

 I've learned through experience, that this can will leak if I ride with the spout on the inside,

so I mount it on the outside, in case you were wondering why.l

 You slide the gas can over the support arm and securing handle,

turn clockwise till nice and tight, there's two dimples on the can which inhibit

movement by the securing handle, once tight.

The inside of the trunk, used large washers to help

distribute the weight of the gas can. (About ten pounds)

The carrying capacity is 1.5 gallons but in reality its a bit less to avoid spillage on hot days.  The URAL gas can is 10 Liters or about 2.5 gallons.  All things working right, I should be able to get 40-45 miles range on this spare gas can's contents.

If this arrangement works out in the long run, I might get a second Kolpin can for the right side of the trunk, to balance things out a bit eh?

My thanks to fellow Uralista Darrell for helping me get over punching holes in my sidecar.  I'm kidding you Darrell!  :)

Ready for the 2013 Elephant Ride

Ready for the 2013 Elephant Ride

I spent a few hours today, making sure Valencia, my 2011 Ural Patrol Sidecar Rig is ready for this year's Elephant Ride.

What's the Elephant Ride you ask?  Longtime readers will know its a yearly event, held on the Guanella Pass Road starting from the small settlement of Grant, Colorado.  This year, the even is on February 10.

The objective is to see how far one can take one's motorcycle/sidecar rig up Guanella Pass Road, which is not maintained by snow plows in the Winter.  I've been attending this event since 2010 when four Ural rigs including my first Ural, Natasha, a '96 Ural Sportsman model:  LINK-2010 Elephant Ride.

It's a whole bunch of fun, even when one is stuck as everyone nearby pitches in to help you get moving once again.  Last year, we made it to with rock throwing distance of the gate the National Forest Rangers put up to block the way for vehicles to reach the summit of the pass.

February 2011, Spat's Rig with Cookie in it.

You can see the gate in the background.

So, today I put new Heidenau K37 Tires on both the pusher and front wheels on Valencia.  The slightly worn Heidenau K37 that had been the pusher for the last 1700 KM got swapped to the sidecar wheel, so now I have Heidenaus all around.  The spare is what used to be the sidecar tire, a somewhat worn Duro 307.  I must say, the Duro 307s were not very long lasting.  The front Duro lasted 5732 km, though I think I could have gotten 6000km on it.  It was too worn though for the expected miles and miles of snow covered road at the Elephant Ride next month.

Two sets of eight snow chains are ready to be fitted onto the tires for extra traction if needed, though they're really for icy conditions.  I'm expecting a layer of ice under the snow, especially after the top layer is churned up by the dirt bikes and dual sport motorcycles that usually go ahead of our rigs.

All fluids were changed a bit over 1000 KM ago, air filter cleaned at that time.  She ran beautifully yesterday so I believe she's ready.  Got my cold weather gear all sorted out so I'm ready. We have tow straps and even practiced manual winching techniques.  Bring on the snow, Motorcycling Gods, bring on the snow!

Elephant Ride 2010, 2011, 2012

Frazier's account of the Birth of the Elephant Ride: LINK

Previous post: Getting Unstuck

Getting Unstuck

One of the things about riding a Ural Sidecar Rig is the increased possibilities in terms of being able to explore trails and paths that might be "difficult" on just two wheels.  Gravel? Mud? Snow? Ice? Boulders? Zombie Apocalypse?  These tend to be less concern-inducing when on a sidecar rig with its three wheels, well maybe not the Zombie Apocalypse, unless you've the machine gun mount for your sidecar and happen to own a machine gun.

Throw in the two wheel drive capability and reverse gear and there's not many terrain conditions where one hesitates to take one's Ural.

Having said all that, there's also the increased potential of finding yourself in a situation where you're stuck and attempts at "motoring" your way out of the situation will have failed.  Being stuck in deep mud or snow for instance; or your rig has slid into a ditch due to loss of traction due to ice.  You get the idea.

So there you are, all alone or perhaps only one more fellow Uralista with you.  The stuck rig is heavy, 770 pounds dry, not counting whatever gear you carry along.  Terrain constraints prevent using your fellow Uralista's rig to tow your stuck rig out of its predicament; so what do you do?

Well, today, we tried two different methods of basically pulling a Ural Sidecar Rig out of a small ditch.  Five rigs and their riders met up in Black Hawk, CO and we proceeded uphill from the town to a small area near some abandoned mines.

Tim L. volunteered his rig and he backed it slowly down into a small ditch, leaving the rig pointed slightly skyward at perhaps a 15 degree angle.  The ditch was deep enough in that we believed it would have problems driving itself out on its own if even possible without causing damage to the drive train.

Tim L's rig is positioned into a small ditch, as Dan K. looks on.

 Another view of "the ditch", steep enough for training purposes
photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

 The Rock-n-Rescue Strap and Carabiner
photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

The training area
photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

First up was Darrell K's Maasdam Rope puller with 20 feet of 1/2 Inch Rope.  We used two 20 foot tow straps looped together to use a nearby tree's trunk as an anchor point.  Darrell's rope puller was secured to the tow strap via high tensile strength carabiner; with another short mountain rescue strap and carabiner attached to the front subframe mount on the rig.

Darrell's Maasdam Rope Puller made short work out of pulling Tim's rig out of the ditch:

Deana pulls Tim's rig from the ditch using the Maasdam Rope Puller
while Darrell keeps the front wheel pointed straight.

Deana does the "heavy work" as we take pictures....sounds fair.
photo courtesy of Tim L.

Everyone was quite impressed with the Maasdam Rope Puller, most of us now have plans to buy our own. Both Dan and I had previously bought cheap wire cable pullers which we both realized wouldn't be up to the job after seeing how Darrell's rope puller worked.  Darrell's model was the A20 with a 3/4 Ton pulling capacity.

Next up was Tim L's Z Pulley System, which fit inside a small carrying bag (not counting the special 19,000 LB tensile strength rope Tim had also brought along.  Google Z Pulley System for more info.  Suffice to say, that it was quite impressive though until you've trained and practiced with it, it's a bit more complicated to deploy than the Maasdam Rope Puller.  The Rope Puller however, takes up way more space!  This is usually not an issue with our sidecar rigs, but for two-wheeled riders.....

 A closeup of  the first of two special pulleys, anchored to a mountaineering
carabiner, itself anchored to a Rock-n-Rescue strap that is looped
to an anchor point.  In this case, the anchor point was my rig's subframe tubing.
Note: The carabiners being used were rated for mountain rescue work, rated for 24 KiloNewtons.

 The pulley is specially designed so you can install it onto the carabiner without
having to run the carabiner through its eyelets, quite handy.
Above: Using my rig as the anchor point.

 The leftmost portion of the rope leads to the rig, the dark blue Prusik rope functions
as an anchor, note the second pulley on its other end.
The light blue rope is made by Amsteel is rated for 19,000 Lbs Tensile strength.
Info link courtesy of Tim L.

 The pinkish prusik rope above functions as a brake.  So when you let up
on pulling tension it holds things in place and the rig doesn't backslide back into the ditch
while you reposition yourself for more pulling.

Hopefully a good view of the angles involved with the Z Pulley System.

At this point, Tim has the mechanical advantage of two pulleys and the rig

is being slowly pulled out of the ditch.

Poor traction conditions led me to help Tim pull on the rope and we succeeded in getting his rig out of the ditch.  Tim will be purchasing two more pulleys to further increase the pulling power of his Z Pulley System for when he's riding by himself.

Quite an instructive tech day we had ourselves today.  Tim L and Dan K were both founts of knowledge when it came to rescue techniques, calculating rope strengths and determining what is safe to use, under what scenarios and cautions to be observed.

Four of the five rigs, leaving the "training area"

We then put all the gear away, and we did some dirt riding in and around the hills of Central City.  Darrell had to go meet up with his wife Piper but the remaining four rigs and riders had ourselves some fun times on some narrow, snow-covered dirt trails.

Coming to a neighborhood near you, a pack of Uralisti.....

A brief break near the furthest point we reached on a 

snow-covered trail.

photo courtesy of Tim L.

Dan found and led our four rigs down this dirt road which was perhaps 80% snow-covered, with lots of negatively cambered portions, dips and ruts which gave us a small upper body workout as we swung our bodies to keep the rig centered in slippery conditions.  On the negatively cambered portions, you have to lean out over the tub to keep it from coming up on you; fun times.

 Dan in the lead, and yours truly behind him

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Dan K

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Tim L

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

We had to turn back finally, when Dan got a really steep uphill portion covered in snow where he had no traction.

Returning towards Central City and Black Hawk, we made our way to CO119 aka the Peak to Peak Highway where we stopped for gas.  Motoring on past Rollinsville, Tim L departed our company as we neared the Eldora Ski Resort and while he headed home to Longmont, the remaining three rigs headed towards the ski resort.

It was a well paved and steeply climbing road to the ski resort and soon enough we were posing our rigs at the bus stop area right next to the first chair lift station.  The parking enforcer was quite impressed with the rigs and didn't mind us temporarily blocking the bus parking spot.

Eldora Ski Resort

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

Then, after properly parking our rigs, we went into the resort's cafe/diner building and rested for a bit with a drink.  It was nice chatting of many things, even though the live music band that was playing forced us to shout most of the conversation!  

We left after a bit and we motored down the mountain back to CO119, headed south now towards the Last Shot Restaurant near where Dan K lives.  Once we reached there, I noted it was past 3:00 PM and I decided to forego sharing a meal with Dan, Deana and Jay and said my goodbyes.

"Hanging a cheek" on the Peak to Peak Highway

photo courtesy of Deana and Jay

They went in to eat and I motored southwards heading back to Central City, from there I got back on the Central City Parkway, retracing the route I'd take up from the Denver Metro Area.  Instead of using US40 though as I'd done in the morning, I stayed on I-70 and at the right exits, used C-470 to US285 back through the metro area and back home by 5:00 PM.

A good day's riding, good learning and training, good camaraderie....what more could one ask for?

Previous post: Fixing the Damage on Valencia's Tub

Fixing the damage on Valencia's Tub

A sidecar rig's tub, or the compartment the monkey rides in, is a major component of a sidecar rig as you can imagine.  Hell, it defines it.

Two weekends ago, Valencia's tub sustained some slight damage when it was hit by the nose portion of another sidecar rig.  No harm, no foul.  The Uralista in question, has gone out of his way to make good the damage.  He bought the dent repair tool set and let me use it first.  He took time from his work day to gather my rig's side cover, took it to an automotive paint supply place and got a quart made up along with accompanying hardener and thinner compounds.

So, here's a set of pictures detailing my puny yet satisfying efforts to make fix the damage:

1.  The damage, taken shortly after the accident at the junction of CO72 and Two Spruce Road:

2.  The damaged portion, after I'd finished hammering it back into shape....about 95% of the original anyways:

Lots of sanding with 150 Grit Sandblock later....

3.  Here's a view of the inside of the sidecar's trunk:

4.  Here's a photo of the first coat of paint.  (I was having some doubts at this point)

First coat of paint, applied with a small foam brush

5.  Several coats of paint later, mostly applied with a regular small paint brush, the kind used for painting pictures:

Painting is done, now for some sanding of the 

paint lumps and minimizing that paint edge line.

6.  Sunday, I sanded down the area, mostly with the 150 grit sandblock again, and the final sanding with 2000 grit sand paper.  It came out pretty good.  I then applied several coats of clear coat spray paint and left her to dry while I went riding on Brigitta.

7.  Here's the area, now with three coats of clearcoat paint and the black steel band touched up where some orange paint got applied by mistake.

8.  Well, that's it, this is a view of the tub from about five feet away:

As Martha says, it's a Ural....gives it a bit of character.

Movie Review: COBDR Colorado Backcountry Discovery route

Movie Review: COBDR: Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route

This past Saturday evening, I joined several fellow Uralisti and a whole bunch of other riders, at the BMW of Denver dealership for a viewing of the DVD Movie: COBDR: Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route.  I'ts a companion video to a route map printed by Butler Maps specifically to guide other riders through riding the COBDR.

From the COBDR website:

The guys at Backcountry Discovery Routes have just released a trailer for their upcoming documentary about their expedition across the state of Colorado. Tom Myers and Paul Guillien of Touratech-USA have teamed up with Rob Watt, Bryce Stevens, Justin Bradshaw and Sterling Noren to create a 501c(4) non-profit organization dedicated to establishing and preserving off-pavement riding opportunities for dual-sport and adventure-touring motorcycles. One of the primary goals of the Backcountry Discovery Routes organization is to create routes that cross entire states using primarily unpaved roads across public lands and mountain ranges

I must say, this is quite an enjoyable and visually appealing movie, shot by riders for riders.  It does a great job of showing off the beauty of Colorado's scenic beauty, and I was very impressed with the editing and the considerable effort it must have taken to make this film.

Highly recommended if you're a dual-sport rider, wonder what riding backcountry roads in Colorado is like, or just enjoy taking the road less traveled once in a while.

Some photos from the COBDR website:

 On the road down from Corkscrew Pass
all pictures courtesy of touratech-usa

 Hurricane Pass

Beautiful shot of a valley road surrounded by mountains

The movie showed some passes I'd already ridden but also added some passes to the list I must now try to ride:  Ophir Pass, Hurricane Pass, Corkscrew Pass, and Cinammon Pass.  Some of the footage made some of the sections of road look quite hard to negotiate on two wheels.  But the premise of the COBDR is that most riders, on most dualsport motorcycles, should be able to do the entire route.  Where your "inner rider" says it's too challenging, the map produced by the folks of Butler Maps provide easier detours.

You can go to the website and download the route to import into your GPS device and they recommend they do that to use along with the Butler Map.  The download is free, so why not right?

They folks who did the film and photography really did a nice job, kudos!

If you want to see some of Colorado's beautiful riding scenery, this DVD is a strong recommendation.  The folks at Butler Maps are concentrating on the western states, as you'll see in the website.  Check them out.

Previous Post: A Ride to Gross Reservoir Road

A Ride to Gross Reservoir Road

Last weekend, as our group of Ural Sidecar Rigs careened up and down twisty mountain roads in sub-freezing temperatures, I had spotted some nice views of the dam which created Gross Reservoir to the west of the city of Boulder.

In fact there was one spot where the road was pointed towards the dam and created quite the scenic shot.  Trouble was, at the time, we were not only not stopping, but also having to swerve around this cager in his SUV, parked in the middle of the road probably taking a photograph!  You see that a lot on the more popular dirt roads, cagers to lazy to park to the side, blocking the hairpin turns, taking pictures.

So today, I decided to try and find that scenic spot again, but this time riding Brigitta, my 1987 BMW Airhead Beemer.  In my already fading memory, I'd not noticed any undue difficulties with Gross Dam Road and so figured it'd be a good ride.

I made my way, with elan, through the Denver Metro area using I-25 to get to the US6 highway, which led me in due course to Golden.  Once there, it was CO93 cruising northwards towards Baseline Road in Boulder.  The Colorado Highway Patrol was working a section of CO93, I saw at five of their patrol cruisers either having pulled some cager over, or hunting for the next one!

Once in Boulder, I turned west on Baseline Road, which turns into Flagstaff Rd and winds its steep way up Flagstaff Mountain.  The narrow mountain road was heavily sprinkled with loose gravel for traction in snow, and slowed me way down both on the way up and down.

The view from Lost Gulch Scenic Overlook

Flagstaff Mountain Road

Finally, the gravel stopped for a bit on the paved road once I left the top of the mountain and crossed the boundary of the Boulder Parks department.  A few miles later, I came to the junction with Gross Dam Road and turned onto this heavily graveled dirt road.

Remember I wrote that I didn't think much of the difficulties of riding this road?  Well, either I've severely lost my offroad motoring skills on two wheels or the fact that I was on three wheels the last time I was on this road led me to be unduly confident in the terrain conditions!  Personally, I think it's a combination of both.  The descent portions of the road were steep, on very loose gravel covered dirt road, slowing me even further as I felt the tires loose traction on the sandier spots.  The downward turning hairpin turns were more interesting on two wheels, I'll admit!

I was making slow progress, having passed views of the reservoir itself without finding a good safe spot to park when the engine coughed and died.  Hmmm, I thought, what's going on?  Can't be gas, I'd checked and it read 88 miles on the trip meter.  I pulled over to the side of the road and took a closer look at the tripmeter, and dammit, it was actually 188 miles!  I'd noticed of late that the "hundreds" counter was a bit "off".  Letting out a heavy sigh, I cut in the reserve lever and the engine fired up after a couple of attempts.

I had to turn around at this point, as I knew I had about 12 miles of gasoline left!  I retraced my route back towards Boulder, trying to use as little gas as possible, especially when pointed downhill.  I almost made it to the gas station south of the junction of Broadway and Baseline too!  The engine died again about a block from the darn station!  I could see it!  Sighing (and panting heavily after a bit), I walked Brigitta onto the sidewalk, across two pedestrian crossings and onto the gas station's parking lot and to the nearest pump.

 Brigitta's 550 pounds or so felt quite heavy and ackward, I must admit.

All fueled up again, I took Broadway south and out of Boulder.  I was now headed to the junction of CO93 and CO72, aka Coal Creek Road.  I was going to try and get to the Gross Dam Road's scenic viewpoint from the southern end.

I rode past the junction of Coal Creek Rd and Spruce Tree Rd, where Darrell and my sidecar rig had collided last weekend and soon was turning onto Crescent Park Drive which leads one to Gross Dam Road after a short interval.

Again, the loose gravel dirt road conditions slowed me way down, having street tires on my heavy street motorcycle reminded me how surefooted being on three wheels can be.  I was missing Valencia at this point, but she was home, waiting for her paint to dry on her repaired impact point on the rear of the sidecar.

I came to the railroad crossing I remembered from last weekend but this time stopped for this photo:

RR Crossing on Gross Dam Road

I kept motoring along from the crossing, slowly descending further along Gross Dam Road.  I started seeing a few patches of snow-covered dirt road, which I easily bypassed.  Two steep turns later though, the next curve was fully covered in packed snow and ice and that stopped me.

It was then I remembered that section of road, and how easily our rigs had blithely cruised over those slick traction conditions with no thought or pause.  Sighing again, I turned Brigitta around and headed back towards a spot on the other side of the railroad crossing where I'd spotted vistas of the Gross Dam in the distance.

It was a bit steep the spot I picked to pose Brigitta on, I would have to end up using the engine to push her off the center stand after the photos were taken.

 Long's Peak?

 Brigitta with Gross Dam in the background

 Long's Peak in the far distance

20X magnification shot of the Gross Dam

Pictures done, I retraced my way back to CO72 and turned Brigitta back towards the Denver Metro Area.  I would end up getting on C-470 and take the long way around the metro area, all the way back to I-25 which I would take north to exit at Arapahoe Road.  

 A cool looking rock formation 

Along CO 93, just south of the junction with CO72

I made it home around 3:15 PM without incident and only slightly chilled from having ridden in temperatures in the low 40s.

Hope you got a chance to ride today!

Previous Post: Cold and Twisty Riding with Fellow Uralisti

Cold and Twisty Riding with Fellow Uralisti

Ah, riding on the 13th in 2013, starting in sub-zero temperatures and ending in the single digits by 12:30, talk about tempting the motorcycling gods.  We rode up and down mountain trails and roads, the roads were sometimes covered in snow and ice, sometimes clear, sometimes we raised a dust storm while snow flakes fell, winding our way through steep hairpin turns and steep uphill climbs and seemingly steeper descents.  In other words, a great day of riding, in spite of a slight "sidecar bender" between my rig and Darrell's.

We all met up around 8:00AM at the Red Rocks Grill in the small town of Morrison, CO.  Temperatures were below zero throughout the front range and all six riders who showed up for breakfast commented on the cold.

Breakfast was leisurely and we didn't manage to leave till around 9:40AM.  John S. aka Spat, had been the last Uralista to arrive and he had stuff to do so he didn't join us for the day's riding.

John S. aka Spat and his very clean Arctic White Patrol

Getting ready for riding after breakfast.

The "ride captain" today was Dan K, from Blackhawk.  He'd proposed the route and knew it well.  We would end up covering roads I'd not ridden on before so it was all good.  He took us through some back roads that spanned a big part of the front range between Morrison and Boulder and we avoided a lot of the main roads which was good as road conditions at times could be iffy.

Here's our route today: Link to Google Maps

It never got above 5°F during the entire morning as we rode from Morrison to Boulder.  All the rigs did great up the steep inclines we encountered and even the heavy gravel concentrations didn't cause more than the slight "wake up" call when one of us would have a front or back wheel slide due to injudicious braking or downshifting.

Now, as to the minor "fender bender".  At the junction of Gap Road and CO Highway 72.  Darrell was riding sweep with me in the #4 position.  The first three rigs moved out from the stop sign and as I started to accelerate into the left turn to join them.  As I was starting out, I spotted a white car coming from the right where there was a blind curve!  No way I had the clearance so I stopped, Darrell who was behind me, saw the car as well and  made to stop but he didn't realized that I'd stopped.  He spotted me too late and I believe he slid into me at less than 5MPH so both our rigs' sidecars sustained some damage.

No harm to either of us personally, no foul.  A brief inspection was made and we believe the damage can be pounded out (mostly).  The problem will be, in both our cases, getting the right paint to match up once we got the metal more or less back in its original shape.

Dan K. had circled back to find out what had happened to us and all three of use rejoined up with Tim L. and Jay M. further up the road.  We all motored on, once more following Dan K. to even more twisty and climbing gulch roads with equally plunging downhill portions.  We ended up near the top of Flagstaff Mountain near Boulder, the descent of which had to be done slowly and carefully due to snow and icy conditions on the road.

Although it had felt like we'd been riding for hours and hours, it was only about 2.5 hours of riding that took us from Morrison to Boulder!  We were all ready for some warmth and a meal once we got to Boulder and Dan led us to a nearby Denny's.

From left to right:

Dan K., Tim L., Darrell S. and Jay M.

After lunch at Denny's in Boulder.

We all split up, going our separate ways after a brief lunch.  Darrell and I stopped by the Harbor Freight store on Sheridan Blvd on the way home and he bought a set of dent repair tools.  I'll be using it first and then he'll use the tools to fix his sidecar's nose.  After the purchase, we went our separate ways, he back to Northglenn and I went back to Centennial.

Good day of riding, the accident was the only slight mar to the whole day.  Everyone survived the cold conditions plus the challenging terrain and made it home safe.  A good day's ride overall!

Previous Post: A Foggy Ride to the Drug Store

A Foggy Ride to the Drug Store

Martha, my loving wife, is currently afflicted with what appears to be a bad cold.  I left the house shortly before 8:00AM to go to the drug store to pick up some of the "real" Sudafed cold medicine.  Trouble was that the pharmacy didn't open till 9:00AM.  What to do, what to do.

So, I headed back towards the snow-covered fields/ranches south of my home neighborhoods.  My previous post showed conditions with the sun setting, today I give you what it looks like in the early morning light.  Add in a thick covering of fog in the distance, and it made for some brisk riding conditions as temperatures got to almost -3°F.

I'd neglected, you see, to don my snow helmet's breath mask and so the double-walled visor on the helmet frosted up pretty quickly to the point where I couldn't see.  So I had to ride with the visor open in these temperatures.

 I liked the way the fog occluded one's view of the morning sun.

I donned my breath mask after the above pictures, it helped me bear

the subfreezing temperatures as I rode about with the visor up.

It was about 8:45AM by this point so I exited the development and got back onto Piney Lake Road and motored back towards Smoky Hill Road.  Soon, while peeking through the small clear spaces in my visor, I made it to the drugstore's parking lot and walked in.  

Nice and warm inside, I was able to wipe the ice/frost from both the inside and outside of the helmet's visor. After a brief wait, I got Martha her drugs and some other sundries she'd requested and headed back outside.  

I wore the face mask with the helmet this time and my closed visor stayed nice and clear all the way home.  It was almost 5°F by the time I got home, the sun was out and it promised to be a nice day here in the great state of Colorado.  Group ride with fellow Uralisti tomorrow, looking forward to some adventure perhaps.

Previously: A Snowy Evening Ride