The Pryor Road/Lockwood Loop

November 21, 2025

I had some chores to get out of the way but by early afternoon I was thinking about a ride. It was in the mid-50s and there was no wind.  With the number of riding days rapidly dwindling, I had to get the bike out.

I usually don't ride in town but needed to pick up some pencils for a drawing I'm working on so I stopped by the art supply shop and took care of that.  Then I was undecided as to where to ride so I headed south on 15th and since I wanted to avoid King and 24th, I headed to South Billings Blvd. and out of town.  

It's been a while since I've done this route and it was a near perfect day to ride it.  I headed south on South Billings Blvd. and continued on to Pryor Road.  I turned left and followed that to Hwy 87.  This is pretty much wide open country.  The speed limit was 50 MPH and I set my cruise control at that but was passed by several who didn't like that speed.

When I arrived at Hwy 87 I stopped for a few photos.

From there I headed to Lockwood through some nice twisty curves.  I went through the edge of downtown Billings, stopped to top up the tank, and arrived home without incident.

Here'some video from today's ride.

It was about a 50 mile day.

A Short Loop

November 15, 2025

It's been a busy few days, getting work done on the other house.  Today wound up the bathroom exhaust fan project with the HVAC guy followed by the roofing guy.  I caulked the panel I installed on the wall next to the shower and called it good.

The weather fine and the was really just enough time to grab a short ride and that's all I really wanted to do so I rode the loop out Molt Road to Shorey, to Alkali Creek, back on Skyline, and down Zimmerman.  It was about 25 miles and just felt good to be out.  We have some more nice weather in the coming week and after that it looks like a change so I'll try to get out for at least one more day ride.

Here's a few photos from the ride.

And some random videos.

It was a 25 mile ride.

The Billings, Roundup, Lavina Triangle

November 3, 2025

While it is definitely fall, it's still riding weather and with an open afternoon, I wasn't going to waste the clear skies and temperatures in the low-50s.  There wasn't even the wind we've had for the past few days.

It wasn't a complicated ride.  I headed out at a bit after 2pm and rode up Zimmerman Trail and took Skyline Drive into Billings Heights where I got on Main Street and then headed north on Hwy 87.  This is a nice, 2-lane road that travels to Roundup, about 50 miles.  

Not much to say about it.  I had on my good gear so was warm.  I had some good music playing in my helmet.  The cruise control was set to 70.  There wasn't much traffic.

Just before Roundup I turned on Hwy 12 and took that west.  I don't ride this route very often and it is a good one.  It has quite a bit of the flat prairie but there are a few hills and curves along the way.

A few miles in, the station I was streaming went away so I pulled over to start another one.  Plus, a message had come in on my phone and I wanted to see who that was.  It was a friend I've been trying to connect with and I call him back when I get home.  I took a few photos while I was pulled over.

I turned south on Hwy 3 and rode through Lavina and then through Broadvieew.  Just short of Acton I pulled over for a few more photos.

I cruised on into Billings, stopped for gas (2.6 gallons) and then on to home.  I downloaded some random video clips from my dashcan and assembled them into a quick video sequence.  These are just random selections from the front and rear cams.  

The big discovery is that when I download from the cam head unit to my phone, they arrive as .mov files which are ready to import in iMovie for editing.  When I pull them directly from the memory card they are .ts files and have to be converted before I can edit and post them to the blog.  That's a great thing to know since doing the conversion when on a multi-day trip and using my iPad is major hassle.

It was 123 mile ride.