Geek's Guide to Colorado.

[pyrate]

Yerba Mate works well too!

Originally Posted by eakins

drinking alot of water & taking ginkgo is key
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c...titude&spell=1

QUOTE=CA Stu]Altitude:
Does spending a couple of nights acclimatizing at intermediate elevation (i.e. Durango, Ouray) before venturing up to the highest peaks and passes mitigate the effects somewhat?

Thanks
CA Stu

[/quote]

[kaia]

Originally Posted by Geek

You are EXACTLY who I am going to aim this report at. Stay tuned. As I start to break down this report into individual actual routes I'm going to give my opinion on what is required skill and bike wise to enjoy the various routes. I'll be sure to add "two up" friendliness.

I'm going to try and give the perspective for a "non-Colorado rider" as opposed to say a "Neduro".
A non-Colorado rider would crap their pants on a big bike on Black Bear Pass for example.
Neduro would wheelie up and down it without giving it a second thought.
I'll see if I can come up with a way to rate the various routes so that everyone can judge for themselves.

Originally Posted by Geek

I've been trying to decide how to rate a Pass's difficulty? I've had many different ideas but none seem to be a "best solution". Perhaps the easiest might be a simple scale of 1 to 4... I am open to suggestions? Then there is the issue of some routes being inconsistent... Black Bear might only be a 2 for most of it but could be a 3 or 4 for about 150 yards of it.

Then there is an issue of what I find easy someone else might find hard or vice versa...

i think you've just mentioned your rating system, in some way. one rating system isn't going to work for everything, and everyone. do a triple rating... ie: rate it on a 1-5 scale (or 1-10) for three categories of riders: average joe, neduro, and 2up. give each pass or route three scores, one for each group. each person reading it will quickly get the drift, and be able to figure out how they want to read the score for themselves, from the information from the three.?

call it the trinity scoring system, or something.

[z987k]

Originally Posted by Geek

To put in in perspective how high you are at 8000... pilots are required to use oxygen above 10,000 feet.

Nope.

Pilots are required to use oxygen IF they are above 12,500 ft for more than 30 mins, or they are above 14,000.
We're required to provide passengers with oxygen above 15,000.
These are all cabin pressure altitudes.

I think the FAA recommends using oxygen at 10,000 during the day and 5,000 at night, but I don't know anyone who follows that.

[joenuclear]

Originally Posted by Headwaters

You do need to add a disclaimer though......

Please enjoy your visit and riding in Colorado but, you can't move here. Their is no more room for anybody else.

Not a problem, I spent a year in Leadville and I'd rather visit during warm weather.

[AceThumperPilot]

Happy Trails
Really enjoy your post. As a Flatlander and coming our to CO this summer it will make it nice to know where to go and what to expect.

[SteveRed]

Hey Geek.. Was nice to meet you at Paul's shed the other week. I might very well take up your offer when I do the Divide ride, for some guided trails through CO. Let me know when you want to come downunder for an Aussie ride.

Cheers

SteveRed

[MizzouRider]

Originally Posted by jimmy73

Geek,

This thread is great! I moved to Colorado springs in May '08, deployed to Afghanistan in June '09. Did not have time to ride too much due to train up and such. As I sit here in Afghanistan reading this it is giving me so much more information than I would have gotten on my own.

Thank you for taking the time to put this together.
Jimmy

Jimmy... Thanks for your service. Seriously..

[Thinc2]

Originally Posted by Geek

Climate!



General Rules:

You'll be hot down low.
You'll be cool up high.
You'll get soaked for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

The other rule they try to drum into us around here:

MAKE SURE YOU ARE BACK BELOW TREELINE BY NOON.



Blah Blah Blah



So long story short:
Wear layers
Have a water proof outer layer
Get below tree line before noon if you can.



Blah Blah Blah


sure it is sunny where I am.. but those clouds in the distance means I have no business going above treeline right now

What happened to the real Geek - this all sounds so responsible.

[Geek]

Don't worry Tim... I'll find a photo or two of your bike laying on its side to include in this ride report
(Thinc2 owned the Yellow DRZ you see in the Red Cone photo.. he used to kindly let me borrow it when I didn't have a bike a few years back )

SteveRed: Great to meet you too mate. Us bald brothers need to stick together. If you, Ned and myself end up in a bar together we're going to scare the locals Enjoy your Autumn cuz winter is coming!


edit: Here you go Tim.. there is some nice footage of us taking really good care of your bike in this video


For those wondering.. this is the Middle Fork of Swan Creek.
Needless to say I won't be recommending it for big bikes or for 2 up

[Spinalcracker]

A rating system would be great especially for us from the east planing a trip out that way who have never ridden high mountain passes. I'm not fond of precipitous heights either.

I think a simple scale of 1-4 would be great with photos of course. "This pass is a 2 with a section at 3 going up" something like that maybe.

With the photos if you take them with someone on the tough parts it would give scale to the photo.

Thanks for the great report.

[Geek]

...and just in case one of you actually watched the video and is wondering what happened.. here is part 2




Note: That was our first time on Swan Creek (obviously).
I've since been back and the next time we went down it.
I think I have photos of four different bikes taking naps on that slope on the way down

[Geek]

Originally Posted by RedRiderofMA

With the photos if you take them with someone on the tough parts it would give scale to the photo..

I agree... accept at this point all of my reviews are going to be in hindsight and with the photos I currently have. Usually when the going got tough we didn't have time to take photos (unless things got REALLY tough like in the video above ).

If I were taking photos actually for a report like this as opposed to my personal albums I'd have photographed a lot of different things than I actually did. Oh well..

[TheCowboy]

GEEK - Thank you so much for making this information available. My wife and I are taking our DR650's to CO in July for a 2-week ADVride. We are flatlanders and know very little of CO except for the awesome pics we see here on AVDrider. Up to now I was confused on what rides to do, where to go and what to expect. We will be making notes and soaking up your information as you dish it out.

Thanks again - this is why we love ADVrider.com

TheCowboy & C5Babe

[nada]

Originally Posted by Geek

I've been trying to decide how to rate a Pass's difficulty? I've had many different ideas but none seem to be a "best solution". Perhaps the easiest might be a simple scale of 1 to 4... I am open to suggestions?

Some trail rating ideas here:
A modest proposal: Trail Rating System

From that same thread, here's Gaspipe's list of CO passes he's ridden and his ratings:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showp...0&postcount=50

[grub]

Originally Posted by kaia

i think you've just mentioned your rating system, in some way. one rating system isn't going to work for everything, and everyone. do a triple rating... ie: rate it on a 1-5 scale (or 1-10) for three categories of riders: average joe, neduro, and 2up. give each pass or route three scores, one for each group. each person reading it will quickly get the drift, and be able to figure out how they want to read the score for themselves, from the information from the three.?

call it the trinity scoring system, or something.

I can see the Neduro 1-5 Scale now:

Argentine Pass - 1.6
Pearl and Schofield - 1.2
Everything Else - .9