DS Colorado Highland Trails

[LeeDavis]

Jeff, Greg and me returned from riding Colorado highland trails last night and everybody is still in one piece!

Mostly we based out of Silverthorne at 9k' altitude and rode in the range of 10k'-12.5' with a max 14k'. We also bunked a couple days in Montrose and did Silverton highland trails. The reason I mention altitude is that it's A Thing when you're used to living at 1k'!

Colorado scenery is breathtakingly spectacular pretty much all the time and that doubles when the vantage point is a shelf trail cut into the side of a cliff out in the backcountry.

The only issue we had was that the trails are long and sometimes quit rough with various treacherous surfaces. Our DRZ's were under equipped for the tough stuff - we needed more offroad biased tires than the TKC80's and lower gearing than the standard "S" model 15/44. We all fell down a few times and much of that could be eliminated with correct bike setup.

If I get the chance I'll definitely head west again to ride trails. It's a unique experience.

My phone managed to bounce out of my pocket somewhere in the highlands so the only picture I've got is from the 1st day. Here're Jeff and Greg in front of an abandoned mine (there are a lot of those).

[Brick]

Cool!


Let's Ride!
Brick

[Bob]

Dang--are you the only one that took any pics (or should I say pic lol)? Sorry you lost the phone. Glad y'all made it back alive. If not TKC's, what tire would you need--lotsa mud?

[LeeDavis]

Dang--are you the only one that took any pics (or should I say pic lol)? Sorry you lost the phone. Glad y'all made it back alive. If not TKC's, what tire would you need--lotsa mud?

Jeff and Greg have many pictures - I'll probably get some from them.

Though there are many water crossings mud wasn't a problem. What got us was loose surfaces - baby head rocks and talcum powder on steep inclines, descents and switchbacks. Grippy tires and low gearing are what's needed to tractor through that stuff without sliding out and losing control. We had neither to the extent required.

I hear of guys running D606 rear and MT21 front on the DRZ for more offroad bias. Have to look into it.

[Bob]

What pressure did you air down to?

[LeeDavis]

I used 15/15 and I think Jeff and Greg were around the same.

[HaulinAshe]

Let me cover some of the factoids about the trip and then I will post some pictures separately.

For months I've been complaining about the lack of braking traction on the Continental TKC-80s. Colorado only served to convince me more that they are not the tire for my off-road tastes. My biggest complaint is the significant differential between accel traction and braking traction. I've always been able to get a good feel for traction by testing acceleration with short bursts of torque, and then tapping the rear-only brakes for a burst of tire skid. With the TKC-80s, especially the rear, it loads up quickly during braking and never dumps its load or pushes material ahead of the tread. It quickly becomes a rear ski and I swear it accelerates instead of slowing the bike. It's very deceiving because the braking traction is SOOOOOooo much less than the acceleration traction on that tire. This made for an extremely precarious and risky ride on Colorado's extreme rocky, silty and steep-grade downhills. It was at times, downright scary!

Leaving the DRZ400 at the stock 15/44 gearing was also a bad idea. It was necessary to do any passing of slower cagers on the paved stretches, and necessary for bare survival on I-70 across the tunnel passes. But I think I could have managed to hide in the right-hand lane sucking up my speedometer pride in trade for a real tractoring-along first gear in the rocks. Better yet, it might have been best to just trailer closer to the off-road sections. The lack of a six-gear tranny with a broad range is a DRZ400 weakness that Colorado exploits.

Stock jetting on my 2012 DRZ was too rich above 9,000 feet. The top end especially coughed and sputtered heavily. Removing the airbox side cover helped, as did running Colorado's version of premium gasoline, 91 octane. As is typical with all carburetor setups, higher octanes tend to have a higher percentage of ethanol, which in turn produces a slightly leaner mixture. The pilot jet (bottom end/idle) didn't seem to matter nearly as much and produced only a slight variation in cold-start/choke pattern, but no stumble at mid-range as one would expect with too large a pilot jet. My overall suggestion would be one step smaller main jet, permanently open up that damn overly-restricted DRZ air box, and carry a Motion Pro pilot jet tool or install an extended knurled one so that you can adjust the idle mixture at/above 9,000 feet altitude. That would also help tremendously with flooding when you drop the bike. If you aren't extra careful to avoid any quick action twisting of the throttle, you can flood the crap out of a DRZ at high altitudes with squirts from the accelerator pump. Lastly on fueling, I would NOT recommend using a conventional petcock in place of the stock vacuum activated petcock, as that would tend to flood even more when you dump the bike.

As you can probably tell, the trip was a true learning experience. But what you probably can't tell is just how magnificent the learning process was!!!
As Lee so aptly stated... It was an epic and breathtaking journey!

[Bob]

Interesting post Jeff. Sounds like an FI bike would have made a lot of the issues vanish....

But on the tires--I know what you mean about sliding on the steep downhills. You are pretty much helpless when it happens and when there's a sheer drop-off right next to you, its a real pucker moment. About all you can do if you're about to buy the farm is lock up the front wheel and dump it quick.

[Brick]

At the same time you were there there was a group of MSTA DS riders very near to you camping together. They have been going there for years. Many with the same bikes as you guys. 3 or 4 from here just over in TN.


Let's Ride!
Brick

[LeeDavis]

At the same time you were there there was a group of MSTA DS riders very near to you camping together. They have been going there for years. Many with the same bikes as you guys. 3 or 4 from here just over in TN.

I looked into hooking up with those guys early in the planning but there wasn't much to accommodations in Silverton and I'm no camper. With the option to piggyback on to the FJR national rally in Montrose, that settled it. We were only in the town of Silverton long enough to grab a bite to eat once.

[Bob]

Colorado scenery is breathtakingly spectacular pretty much all the time and that doubles when the vantage point is a shelf trail cut into the side of a cliff out in the backcountry.

Lee, any chance you were referring to Imogene Pass above? Sounds like the part where they blasted a "groove" in a granite cliff wall to make the road. (between Ouray and Telluride)

[Brick]

At the same time you were there there was a group of MSTA DS riders very near to you camping together. They have been going there for years. Many with the same bikes as you guys. 3 or 4 from here just over in TN.

I looked into hooking up with those guys early in the planning but there wasn't much to accommodations in Silverton and I'm no camper. With the option to piggyback on to the FJR national rally in Montrose, that settled it. We were only in the town of Silverton long enough to grab a bite to eat once.

I was referring to the fact that they have been doing this for years so they could have shared bike set up information. That would have helped y'all enjoy this trip more. [THUMBS UP SIGN]


Let's Ride!
Brick

[LeeDavis]

Colorado scenery is breathtakingly spectacular pretty much all the time and that doubles when the vantage point is a shelf trail cut into the side of a cliff out in the backcountry.

Lee, any chance you were referring to Imogene Pass above? Sounds like the part where they blasted a "groove" in a granite cliff wall to make the road. (between Ouray and Telluride)

I planned Imogene pass for our last ride but we didn't get that far. However, I'm of the opinion that just about any highland trail with some length up there has at least one shelf section. We rode a number of them. Our last challenge of the trip was off Hurricane Pass at 12.4K' altitude through Corkscrew Gulch. It began with a with a 30' steep descent to a blind right shelf so all I could see in front of me was the abyss over the edge. It got my attention!

[Brick]

Whoa... yes that could get you awake! [FLUSHED FACE]


Let's Ride!
Brick

[HaulinAshe]

I have a PhotoBucket account, but the response has become so slow it's impossible to manage the libraries (mine has thousands of ride photos). And you're right, Google Photos won't give me a direct link URL to the JPEG file. So I downsized a dozen pics and posted them here.
If anyone is running short on Ooooooo and Aaaaaahhhhh, I have more! :)

[Brick]

Whoa! Beautiful. Well not you old guys! Looks like Lee's bike got tired and had to lay down.


Let's Ride!
Brick

[HaulinAshe]

I'll place the panorama landscapes into this post. Double-click on the photo to get more detail. I resized them down to 1024 wide so they should fit on most displays.

[Bob]

Those are all some great photos. I see the waterfall and avalanche shed on us550. We'll be in Ouray in a few wks.

[LeeDavis]

Whoa! Beautiful. Well not you old guys! Looks like Lee's bike got tired and had to lay down.

Yeah, that's my Colorado pose: 12k' alt with the bike fell down, sucking oxygen out of a can!

[beachy]

Looks like more fun than a person is allowed to have. Geat pics

[Bob]

Jeff feel free to post more piccies--me likey.

Lee, now be honest--you staged that pic of you gulping O2 with your bike taking a dirt nap, right? Your fingernails don't even look blue. Thats just too good.

[Brick]

I agree it looks like a lot of fun. Great photos and thanks for posting them.


Let's Ride!
Brick

[HaulinAshe]

Whoa! Beautiful. Well not you old guys! Looks like Lee's bike got tired and had to lay down.


Let's Ride!
Brick

Being the good friend that I am (and dreading when it was going to be MY turn), I rode to a safer stopping point, walked down the hill, walked up the hill, handed Lee my oxygen bottle and said...
"Here, suck on this for a while!"

Lee ever so graciously posed for the re-enactment pic. That's why his finger tips weren't blue.

[HaulinAshe]

While it was a breathtaking display of color. The reality of this location strikes hard, even on those (of us) who aren't tree-huggers. This "lake" is the holding pond for massive underground mining operation that's just behind and above the camera on the opposite side of the road. If you look closely you can see concrete pipe sections and other industrial waste objects. We decided this had to be the reason for no visible signs of animal life in the region. Nothing would survive a single sip of that "water".

Greg deserves his Internet immortality too.

Remains of Castle In The Sky (Crest House) atop Mt. Evans, roughly 14,200 feet. The top was blown off by a propane leak/explosion in 1979. Insured for $440k, (re)Construction Estimate $1.4M.

[Broz]

Looks like a great trip. I salute you guys. Lee I know you think the 13 tooth sprocket on front was too small according to "the experts on the Internet" but trust me it was a good off road set up if you're okay driving 55 mph on hwy. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

[Bob]

Jeff, yeah when you zoom in on the pic of the "lake" it really looks nasty as hell. Wonder what the pH level of that stuff is...

Great pics, beautiful wide open spaces. That what I really love about the west.

[LeeDavis]

Looks like a great trip. I salute you guys. Lee I know you think the 13 tooth sprocket on front was too small according to "the experts on the Internet" but trust me it was a good off road set up if you're okay driving 55 mph on hwy. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

The 13 tooth doesn't cause the bike to immediately blow up - it doesn't track properly and tears up the front sprocket area over time. A reduction from the stock 15 to 14 is OK though. Last week I changed the rear sprocket from 44 to 47 and that has made an improvement.

[Broz]

That's not true Lee trust me. Just cuz one or more dumbasses said so. It's smaller not bigger can't tear anything up if the chain is the proper length. It is working on the same plane as if it was a 16 tooth. I had both and speak from personal experience. It made a tremendous difference in low end torque.