The Complete Guide to Motorcycling Colorado: The Definitive Reference for ALL the Best Roads, Rides, and Tips
Reviews (85)
Good content but writing style gets old fast.
For motorcyclists contemplating or planning to reach a Rocky Mountain high in Colorado, this book is very useful. The book divides the state into sections and describes rides for that part of the state. The photos and simple maps are a plus. However, this book has some stylistic problems that interfere with reading enjoyment. Every ride is wonderful, magnificient, or some other glowing adjective available on a thesarus, creating a reading experience more like Winnebago than Harley-Davidson. Frequent use of the second person pronoun "you" gets old fast--real fast--and never goes away. English has far better ways to phrase a sentence. Compare, for example, the terse, gritty, compact prose of Chris Scott's classic Adventure Motorcycling Handbook, a book not only famous for its content, but also a pleasure to read. Less foo-foo and more Scott-style grit would have improved this guide to motorcyling in Colorado. Still, I'm glad I purchased it, and if I ever head east for some mile high motorcyling, this book will guide my planning and will probably be in my saddlebag.
A Time Saver and Fun Finder...
I bought the book for a Colorado motorcycle adventure trip last summer. I hauled a KLR 650 out to the front range, setup base camp in Nederland, and rode out from there. I didn't have time explore more than the front range and this book let me select the rides I wanted without guessing and false starts. The ride to Caribou, for example, was short and sweet and without the book I wouldn't have ventured there. The mention of a dual purpose road connecting to Eldora caught my eye and turned an out and back into a perfect loop for a KLR and a couple of DR 650's. We were laughing and sweating and proud and the beer never tasted better than after that ride! County road 68 between Magnolia Road and Boulder was another perfect ride for us. Even with a mounted GPS we couldn't find where 68 turned into the unmaintained dual purpose road. We knew it was there because it was in the book but finally a county worker had us drive to the end the road and turn right between a couple of big bushes. Ha! Sure enough, after squeezing through a space just wide enough for my handlebars we found what looked more like a rutted ditch than a road. Perfect off road adventure; even had a bear run out in front of me! Fortunately bears only eat KLR's for breakfast and we loped out near Boulder, driving down Flagstaff Mountain just as the sun was setting.
I was wasting time without this book....
This is a great book. There are a lot of roads not listed on my Butler map or my MAD map (both of which I like also a lot), and this book has them. Really makes me want to get out and ride. Just about every two page spread in the book has a nice little color map, a color photo of some fabulous piece of CO road, and a black and white photo of CO history - like what that stretch of road looked like 100 years ago, or the ghost town back in the day that you are going to ride through, etc. This is one of my favorite parts. Plus there is usually a recommended food stop (has not failed me yet) or two and ideas in each ride description on how to link the ride with other rides in the book. It is not a "loop" ride book. Most of the rides are single roads, so you have to put them together to make your own loop for the day. I like this because you get pretty detailed descriptions for each road. I look forward to using the book to plan by route from CO Springs to Million Dollar Highway this summer. I think if you ride in CO you have to get this book.
great guide for touring motorcycle or car!
at first i was skeptical i didn't like the layout of this touring book but after thumbing thru it i began to see things i really liked.the book itself is about the size of a readers digest and i thought it was small in type and maps till i realized it's far better than trying to open a folding map for reference on the road.the map is devided into regions and are color coded for easy access. scenic routes are listed for each region by road type and riding skill level.the size of the book makes it very easy to stow while travelling and very handy to view while stopped on the road side. i bought this book in preperation of our trip to colorado this summer and will be a valuable resource on our journey. i did however also purchase a waterproof map of the whole state of colorado as an additional reference mainly to get the big picture of our touring route. the only drawback of the colorado motorcycling book was it's small size which was easy for stowing didn't have a full map of colorado.
Don't Leave Home Without It
I've ridden almost all the notable paved roads in CO, and Steve describes them all accurately. He even provides a helmet cam view on a dedicated web site. He includes enough detail that the rider can determine if it has the desired appeal. To me, the real treasure was his listing of off pavements rides. He tries to restrict these to roads doable by large dual sports. Usually he makes a comment such as "doable by a mid-size street bike" or "if you don't mind loose gravel, doable by normal street tourer". Some of the rides were as long as 90 miles, a lot of the in the 40 mile range. Steve suggests side trips for the more adventurous. Well organized with regional maps before each section followed up with a localized map for each ride. A great trip aid for those wanting to explore CO.
Remarkably complete
I bought this book because of a recommendation on an online forum (the author is a participant) and found that it passed the ultimate test; when he describes the motorcycling routes and trails we use, he's uncannily accurate. So that's a good clue that the rest of the recommendations are spot on, too. The photography and prose are first rate. I lent it to a buddy, who called me up a couple of days later and told me that he wanted me to order a copy for him, too. That's the ultimate compliment. Whether you ride on or off road - or both - you are sure to find a number of new rides and suggestions.
This is the Colorado Rider's Bible. Don't leave home without it!
Steve Farson has put together the ultimate reference guide for a great day of riding, no matter where you find yourself in Colorado. He didn't just list where to ride on a map. He took the time to gather historical information for each ride, to enrich the experience. He goes a step further to upload onboard video of each of the rides listed in the book, so you know what to expect when you take it on for yourself. I've been riding in Colorado for several years, and have now learned just how much I've missed out by passing by some of these little-known roads and byways. A huge debt of gratitude to Mr Farson for putting this together. I'm looking forward to discovering all of these little gems!
Poorly organized for outsiders to use
This book describes 172 rides in Colorado but the rides are broken up into very short day or part day trips that make it hard for someone touring Colorado to use; although he tries to address this in the back of the book with some longer tour maps. Farson wastes space in many ride descriptions to point out where other rides connect with the route. In some cases, this not very relevant information takes up half the description of the primary ride. He sometimes wonders a field, in one case-Ride 123-admitting he is giving useless trivia, instead of giving more information about the route or the towns on it. Also beware of his comments on the road surfaces since road conditions change over time and generally for the worst in this time of insufficient funds for road and major highway maintenance. His safety tip section is very brief. Since many riders will come from the Midwest, he should have at least mentioned the frequent dangers of rocks on mountain roads and snow or ice patches at high elevations and how to deal with the many summer thunderstorms. In summary, a good reference book but if you are visiting Colorado you will need to supplement it with conventional travel guides.
It's so hard to be honest.
If I had any morals, I would give this book the 5+ starts it deserves, But I don't want too many people to read this book & be out on the same trails, at the same time that I am Reason for the 3 stars). Great book!!! Sorry for the three stars Steve. I couldn't go through with it, I just edited it back to 5 stars just in case there is such thing as Karma or whatever. Keep up the good work Steve. We need more books like this. Within ten minutes, I bought another copy & sent it to my son.
BEST BOOK for Colorado!!!
I used this book to plan our Motorcycle trip to Colorado. This book really made our trip that much better. We were able to hit some of the nicest rides Colorado has to offer and use some of the advice from the book and visit sights and restaurants along the way. I think we will be going back next year as there are still so many rides left to do. I wish I could get this book for other trips we want to do...
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