- Location
- Grand Junction, CO
Met up with Brad on his BMW GS800F today and rode to the San Juans... 100 miles of boring highway to get there and back, but so worth the butt-numbing ride. Since we were both on bigger bikes with street-friendly tires, we decided to take it easy at first. We rode over Red Mountain pass and to the trailhead for Ophir Pass. It's a neat drive over the mountain to Telluride, there are a handful of loose, rocky areas that grab your attention, but the rest of it isn't too challenging.
From Telluride we found the start of Imogene Pass and started working our way up. There was a LOT of 4x4, SxS, ATV, MC & mountain bike traffic... as well as a few extreme runners! Made it hard at times to make passes on loose, rocky parts of the trail. At the top it was COLD and it felt so good! Probably low 40's and the wind was blowing pretty hard. We parked the bikes and hiked a few hundred feet above the pass to a small shelter cabin and American Flag on the mountain tiop.
We headed into Ouray for a late lunch, aired up the tires and headed home! 275 miles for the day.
From Telluride we found the start of Imogene Pass and started working our way up. There was a LOT of 4x4, SxS, ATV, MC & mountain bike traffic... as well as a few extreme runners! Made it hard at times to make passes on loose, rocky parts of the trail. At the top it was COLD and it felt so good! Probably low 40's and the wind was blowing pretty hard. We parked the bikes and hiked a few hundred feet above the pass to a small shelter cabin and American Flag on the mountain tiop.
We headed into Ouray for a late lunch, aired up the tires and headed home! 275 miles for the day.
The best practice for controlling the large bike was standing on the pegs and really gripping the bike with your legs, otherwise it's all over the place. At one point I had to stop for oncoming, downhill traffic... the spot I stopped was steep and loose. It took a few tries to get moving again, as the street-friendly tire just wanted to spin in the loose rock. I think I'm going to drop 1 tooth on the counter sprocket, it doesn't like slow speed riding very much... and with stock gearing it'll run 130-140 MPH, so no loss if I loose a few MPH off the top. All things considered, it worked pretty well... you could still ride it pretty quick when the roads weren't super rough. 