COLORADO: SOLO ride from GATEWAY to OURAY and my first MOTORCYCLE SERVICE

Yes, traveling the USA looks like this. Or this. But traveling solo with a motorcycle is not only beautiful views. You have to be concentrated, always focus on the roads ahead of you. And you have to make sure that yourself and your motorcycle are in the best shape possible to meet these challenges. And yes, Colorado, of course, is an awesome ride. But upon my arrival in the mountainous state, my Yamaha Tenere was demanding some proper care. Good morning, everyone. So today is really the first day that I'm completely alone. Actually, our group wanted to travel through Colorado together, but due to the accident, everyone had to go home from here. And I'm by myself now. I don't have so super much time left to go to Miami. It's about two weeks. And yeah, today the biggest challenge is I need to find a place to service the Tenere because I have not done it yet. And it's overdue. Goodbye gateway and goodbye travel group. I'm back on the road all by myself. And I'm a bit sad because my travel partner was so unlucky, but I'm as well happy to be back on the road solo, even though it was now a few days earlier than expected because otherwise we would have traveled to New Mexico together. And then I would have been all by myself. The ride from gateway to the town Natarita on highway 141 cut through Dolores River Canyon for most of the way and follows the Dolores and San Miguel rivers with its smooth sandstone walls and roaring waters. I was traveling on the so-called Unaweap Tabuach Scenic Byway now. ♪ And as long as the sun shines upon us ♪ ♪ And I just want to be with you ♪ Wow, I didn't expect this. For me, Colorado is always Alpine mountains and this is basically riding in a canyon again. So that's pretty nice and unexpected. This section of highway played an integral role in World War II. The uranium used in the first atomic bombs of the US was mined near Uravan, the midway point of the route. But there is as well some more pleasurable history than bombs. Dinosaur fossils have been found within the red sandstone canyon walls that surround the road. And the area's soil has produced rich copper reserves. So on my world trip, I traveled to many mountain passes here in Colorado and some were good decisions and some not so good decisions. And I rode the whole back country discovery route, Colorado and some not so smart detours. But really nothing was like this area here. When I talk about good decisions, I mean basically the whole route that you can find on the butler maps of the back country discovery routes. Go get these for your ride in Colorado. I can highly recommend them. When I talk about the not so good decisions, I mean riding to Animas Forks, Hurricane or Engineer Pass with a fully loaded adventure motorcycle. This is the village Naturita and soon highway 141 ends and I have to turn off to highway 145 to ride further to central Colorado and the mountains that I have been waiting for. And indeed the scenery for the first time since leaving from Los Angeles changed completely. Instead of burning heat, the sky was covered with clouds. Temperature dropped to 20 degrees Celsius and in the far distance, I was able to see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. I would really like some of the gravel mountain passes but to be honest, I don't know if they are open and doable on a motorcycle yet. All this snow here on the mountains doesn't look so promising to me and in the Alps in Europe, some of the passes only open up around June. So it could be that it's the same here and then I would be too early, but we will see. I will try. But before heading to the mountains, I was on another mission, finally getting a service for my Yamaha Tenere, which was overdue since about 900 miles. I Googled all Yamaha dealers in Colorado yesterday and this one here looked very promising and it's kind of on my way. And I didn't call beforehand though, so fingers crossed they can take me in. I really feel bad about each additional kilometer meanwhile and yeah, because I already should have serviced this motorcycle hundreds of kilometers ago, but there was nothing. I'm now at Davies Garage and I hope they can help me here. Fingers crossed for the first service. I don't know if there is a codex for all motorcycle workshops in the USA or if I was just lucky, but whenever I came by a workshop and told them that I only travel through and don't have much time, every single place I went to took me in immediately. So did the nice guys at Davies. Ah, you see it? I didn't check that. Oh, wow. Maybe that was the cause, but then I don't know for the sidestand problem, but I don't know. And then I asked about my YouTube fix for the broken sidestand switch, basically only because I was so proud that I cut and connected the cables myself and was hoping for some appreciation. In my opinion, you did the right thing. It's working now. I think you should, if you can plan your route ahead, do a Yamaha dealership, maybe you can call ahead and have them get you a sidestand switch somewhere and have it replaced. Okay. And off he was, enjoying his ride on my beloved Yamaha Tenere. What a super nice shop and workshop. It's really big. So if you have some issues with your Suzuki, Kawasaki, Honda, or Yamaha bike, basically all Asian Japanese brands, this is the place. Finally, I was heading to the mountains with a short stop in Ridgeway to ask the locals if the mountain passes I wanted to do are open and to grab some late lunch. So I just found out that basically all gravel passes and all passes above 10,000 feet are still closed because it's too early in the season. That's actually a bit of a bummer because I wanted to go over the so-called million dollar highway and then take a pass called Cinnamon Pass, but it's closed. And all other ways are very like long tours around. So I'm not too happy about that, but not so much I can do about it. This is my biggest frustration when traveling. If I have a plan, I really want that it works out. So I would lie if I would say that I'm not completely disappointed now. I mean, look at these nice mountains I had. So many passes there, but basically all of them closed. Approaching the town Ore now, which is a lovely little village and normally the perfect place to stay for accessing all of these fantastic off-road passes that I can't drive, but I will just continue to the million dollar highway. Ore is called Colorado's quirkiest town and known as the Switzerland of America. It's surrounded by rugged canyons and the San Juan mountains, and is famous for being a hub for its close by off-road mountain passes, for its hot springs, outdoor activities, and its historic, charming old town. So that didn't go that well. I was just about to start the ride of the million dollar highway and it started to pour down. So I decided to head into a motel quick and I'm staying in Ore now for tonight. And then I do the million dollar highway tomorrow. Ore has a lot of excellent breweries and historic landmarks like the Wright Opera House that dates back to the 19th century. It rains so much. I don't know if you can see it, but it's super rainy and I need to find some food. Thank you for keeping me company in the workshop and in the pouring rain. Let me know in the comments what your favorite mountain passes in Colorado are and support me by giving this video a thumbs up. The next episode will take us to Colorado's most famous road, to the million dollar highway, and all the way to New Mexico. See you guys next Thursday.