88millimeter
Member
1st time writing a ride report I normally ride, snap pictures and take videos for me and not for the adv community so please excuse the quality. The real reason I'm writing this is because I promised Donk that I would post a review of the Shark Explore-R helmet he sold me. I figured if I'm going to write a review I might as well post a ride report. Enjoy the report below and stick around till the end if you want to read the review.
3 of us wanted to ride the TAT through Colorado, so the plan was to meet on I-45 in Madison to load the bikes on the trailer since 2 of us live in Beaumont and 1 lives in Houston. Well the trip started on the wrong foot when the rider from Houston hit a 2x4 on I-45 and bent his front wheel which knocked him out of the trip. Guess those BMW wheels are a little soft
.
So the Houston rider was bummed he couldn't go as were we but his little incident could have been much worse, he managed to keep the bike upright and limp home. However, he had all of the routes on his GPS all I had was a thirty thousand foot view of the route he had sent me via a text message.
So the other remaining rider and myself decided to continue and make the best of a bad situation, we headed to Trinidad CO where we unloaded the bikes and picked up the TAT heading West. The first part of the TAT leaving Trinidad was surprisingly flat but there were some scenic valleys.
To my surprise I was able to stay on the trail even with the less than adequate map, we missed the hard bypass just west of Trinidad but we managed to find the 2nd hard bypass just south of Howard and Salida. The name of the bypass is called the Hayden Creek Pass. It started out a little tricky but it got ugly quick.
After dropping our bikes several times we were wore out physically and mentally but we eventually made it to what we thought was the top of the mountain, we figured if we could start heading downhill we could get a break. Going up a steep hill with baseball to basketball size rocks is hard work.
Well that was not the top of the mountain and just around the corner from where I took that video was what looked to me like a wall of rock, extremely steep and no way to take a 700 lb bike over it. We had no choice but to turn around and make camp at Hayden Creek Campground.
Day 2 we decided to stick to the normal route and avoid the hard bypasses the first half of the day was fun, we drove along a few creeks where it was rocky but nothing like Hayden Creek Pass.
We eventually made it to Cinnamon Pass which was a fun ride. The weather up there felt great especially since I was in full ADV gear.
Still heading west we came down from Cinnamon Pass until we reached a fork in the road and had to make a decision. A right would have taken us over Engineer Pass, A left and we would be headed towards Ouray via Engineer Mountain Road. I really wanted to do Engineer Pass but I was almost out of fuel and according to my map Ouray appeared to be 12 short miles away via Engineer Mountain Trail, boy was I wrong, those were the hardest 12 miles my Tenere has ever done. It was rough and ROCKY to say the least but it was downhill. We dropped our bikes several times, the other rider was on a 2003 BMW 1150GS Adventure and he dented his large 8 gallon gas tank on both sides. I went over a rock ledge and did not see the large pointy rock that I landed on. When I heard the BANG!, I knew it was bad. I lost my balance and fell off the bike, when I got up and tried to start the bike the low oil level/pressure light came on. I've dropped the bike several times and have never seen that light come on, I got a sick feeling in my stomach and I turned the bike off. I checked the oil sump for damage and found that the rock had dented the Rumbux plate and frame into the sump but I could not see any oil. I turned the bike on again and again the light was there. I turned it off and on one more time and thankfully it went away. I was so exhausted and frustrated because I had let myself fall into this situation where I had to take a trail that I should not have been on that I didn't take any pics except for the trailhead closest to Ouray (intersection of Hwy 550), sorry folks.
We finally made it to Ouray and fueled up. We had dinner and a few beers on the roof of the Ouray Brewery. By the way I now know why Ouray is so popular, it's a gorgeous town.
The next difficulty was to find a camp site or a motel, the town was packed. We got a tip from a local on a possible vacancy at a spa motel with a vapor cave. After a long day of riding it was exactly what I needed. The next day we rode the million dollar highway south to Durango and rode back to Trinidad. IT was a bitter sweet trip, it was great riding but it would have been better if there were three of us
3 of us wanted to ride the TAT through Colorado, so the plan was to meet on I-45 in Madison to load the bikes on the trailer since 2 of us live in Beaumont and 1 lives in Houston. Well the trip started on the wrong foot when the rider from Houston hit a 2x4 on I-45 and bent his front wheel which knocked him out of the trip. Guess those BMW wheels are a little soft
.
So the Houston rider was bummed he couldn't go as were we but his little incident could have been much worse, he managed to keep the bike upright and limp home. However, he had all of the routes on his GPS all I had was a thirty thousand foot view of the route he had sent me via a text message.
So the other remaining rider and myself decided to continue and make the best of a bad situation, we headed to Trinidad CO where we unloaded the bikes and picked up the TAT heading West. The first part of the TAT leaving Trinidad was surprisingly flat but there were some scenic valleys.
To my surprise I was able to stay on the trail even with the less than adequate map, we missed the hard bypass just west of Trinidad but we managed to find the 2nd hard bypass just south of Howard and Salida. The name of the bypass is called the Hayden Creek Pass. It started out a little tricky but it got ugly quick.
After dropping our bikes several times we were wore out physically and mentally but we eventually made it to what we thought was the top of the mountain, we figured if we could start heading downhill we could get a break. Going up a steep hill with baseball to basketball size rocks is hard work.
Well that was not the top of the mountain and just around the corner from where I took that video was what looked to me like a wall of rock, extremely steep and no way to take a 700 lb bike over it. We had no choice but to turn around and make camp at Hayden Creek Campground.
Day 2 we decided to stick to the normal route and avoid the hard bypasses the first half of the day was fun, we drove along a few creeks where it was rocky but nothing like Hayden Creek Pass.
We eventually made it to Cinnamon Pass which was a fun ride. The weather up there felt great especially since I was in full ADV gear.
Still heading west we came down from Cinnamon Pass until we reached a fork in the road and had to make a decision. A right would have taken us over Engineer Pass, A left and we would be headed towards Ouray via Engineer Mountain Road. I really wanted to do Engineer Pass but I was almost out of fuel and according to my map Ouray appeared to be 12 short miles away via Engineer Mountain Trail, boy was I wrong, those were the hardest 12 miles my Tenere has ever done. It was rough and ROCKY to say the least but it was downhill. We dropped our bikes several times, the other rider was on a 2003 BMW 1150GS Adventure and he dented his large 8 gallon gas tank on both sides. I went over a rock ledge and did not see the large pointy rock that I landed on. When I heard the BANG!, I knew it was bad. I lost my balance and fell off the bike, when I got up and tried to start the bike the low oil level/pressure light came on. I've dropped the bike several times and have never seen that light come on, I got a sick feeling in my stomach and I turned the bike off. I checked the oil sump for damage and found that the rock had dented the Rumbux plate and frame into the sump but I could not see any oil. I turned the bike on again and again the light was there. I turned it off and on one more time and thankfully it went away. I was so exhausted and frustrated because I had let myself fall into this situation where I had to take a trail that I should not have been on that I didn't take any pics except for the trailhead closest to Ouray (intersection of Hwy 550), sorry folks.
We finally made it to Ouray and fueled up. We had dinner and a few beers on the roof of the Ouray Brewery. By the way I now know why Ouray is so popular, it's a gorgeous town.
The next difficulty was to find a camp site or a motel, the town was packed. We got a tip from a local on a possible vacancy at a spa motel with a vapor cave. After a long day of riding it was exactly what I needed. The next day we rode the million dollar highway south to Durango and rode back to Trinidad. IT was a bitter sweet trip, it was great riding but it would have been better if there were three of us
