Beat the Heat ride today

[Greg]

It was just a hair over 100* in our area today and I decided to find some cooler weather late in the afternoon. I ended up in my favorite local high altitude location, Glade Park, and made a big loop up there by way of the Colorado Natl. Monument.

The elevation gets up around 8,500 feet, making it much cooler than the valley down below. I'm still running the street tires, Avon Gripsters, and while they are amazing on twisty roads, they SUCK in sand... and I encountered much of that today. I quit counting how many times I almost dropped the bike. My knobbies are supposed to be here Monday, I'm looking forward to mounting them up!

I didn't take any pics of the higher elevation places with the pines and aspens, but it was amazing as usual. I did see a few deer, including a good sized buck. I made it home just before the sun went down and had 80 miles on the bike from the ride. Here's a few pics of the afternoon ride.

 

[Rot Box]

Looks like a good time thanks for sharing! :greg:

It's funny how a good set of tires will make or break a bike. Either way i'd rather ride on bald tires than suffer through a day of work!

 

[Greg]

Looks like a good time thanks for sharing! :greg:

It's funny how a good set of tires will make or break a bike. Either way i'd rather ride on bald tires than suffer through a day of work!

You know me, I love to share! But thanks...

I did some more riding above Glade Park today and was actually impressed with the street tires. There wasn't too much sand, but I ended up on a well-used 2-track ATV trail with whoops a plenty, some fallen trees and somewhat tight trails. Not the place you'd want street tires, but the Gripsters held their own and did quite well. Honestly, I was impressed... but that doesn't mean they will stay on once the Dunlop 606's get here.

I was actually doing some 'testing' today, I've needed to re-jet the bike since I bought it in Kansas at 1000' elevation and it was running rich up here. It really suffered at high elevations, so I re-jetted it this morning and took it for a ride around Noon. This time I reached almost 10k feet elevation and was very pleased that the bike no longer bogged under throttle at elevation!

Here's some pics of the ride today-