1600mi ride around Monument Valley, Los Alamos NM and various other places.

[Clegg78]

I wrapped up my 5 day trip around CO and some key landmarks in the southwest.    I took my freshly upgraded Tracer 900GT with new Ohlins bits front and back and put it through its paces on a lot of dirt/gravel and a ton of twisty riding as well.   Most of the roads everywhere were covered in sand/gravel/dirt where I was so there wasn't a whole lot of fully committed lean over time, but it was fun and fast. 
 Total mileage on dirt on this trip was close to 100mi out of the 1600 total on some loose dirt, some hard pack clay, some gravel, all fun.   Having the Pyramid fender extenders + shock protector really helped keep the dirt where it was supposed to be.   The SW Motec sump protector got tagged a few times on some larger gravel bits but nothing more than a couple scratches. 

I went to Victor, CO - an old mining town - just south of where I live for an easy first day.   Then did a long ride with 30+ miles of sketch dirt roads (Phantom Canyon that runs from Victor to Canon City), I was nervous about that day becuse that road is known to be pretty  iffy at times.   But besides for about 10 miles of loose dirt making for some really interesting riding with sheer cliffs next to the road, it was a fun day (The alternate route on pavement would have been about 120miles). 

I made it to Los Alamos that day, which as a geek I am all about.   Los Alamos is a oasis in the desert, lush and green.  I had a lot of fun walking around that town for an afternoon.   I also washed dirt off the bike quickly and relubed the chain after that day of dirt.

Then I had a long -  close to 400mi - haul to Monument Valley.    I took the insanely fun Hwy 4 through Jemez Springs  down to San Ysidro, NM, and then ventured to the place I broke my motorcycle in 2020 (Pics in the next post, ran out of attachment space).    I found the oil spot from my bike.  I took a close to 75mi detour from my route to find this spot and show it, it didnt beat me   

In Monument Valley I spend 2 days there, with the night I got in, I did a guided tour with a Navajo to watch the full moon come up on a bluff in the valley, that was a lot of fun.   then the next day I rode all around the valley, most on-road, some off road, but the sandy trails in the valley are super sketch with the tires I have on the bike so I didn't do that much.   But I put 150mi just meandering around the valley that day taking pictures. 

Then I started a highspeed sprint home as the weather outlook turned sour in CO for 2 days from when I left Monument Valley.  So I took a very very fun route to Montrose, CO.  Hitting up one of my favorite rides in the area (CO Hwy 141 out of Egnar , and 145 out of Norwood).     

Then the next day I did a high speed dash to Denver as weather was moving in.   I still took a fun ride over Grand Mesa to get home in the morning.  But I pushed gas mileage on the bike hard, and only stopped for gas once and ate a cliff bar on the 320mi way home.  Ended up doing an average of 64Mph over those 320 miles with the morning gas stop, breakfast stop, and going over some very twisty roads in the morning. 

The bike didn't miss a beat the entire way, no drama, no issues.    The new suspension was incredible, and the tool I made to do quick changes to the suspension upfront was a game changer for going between on/offroad (few clicks of compression dampening here and there). 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Clegg78

[Clegg78]

So the pic with the sun setting, was in 2020 when the bike was stranded with a hole in the oil pan.   The other pic is me visiting that spot 8 months later with a functional bike. 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Clegg78

[Heli ATP]

Sounds like a great trip.....Funny how they always return to the scene of the crime. 🙂

[Salish900]

What a truly epic ride and great report. My oh my. That's God's country for sure. Live in the rainy PNW but love that four corners area. I don't think I've read of anyone using their 900 on much gravel or even dirt. I see you have some non-Road 5 tires on there. What were they? What pressures did you ride? How did she do off road? 

Well done. Thanks for sharing. 

[Jayzonk]

How did you end up with a hole in the oil pan?  Hit something off road?

[Clegg78]

1 hour ago, Jayzonk said:

How did you end up with a hole in the oil pan?  Hit something off road?

It was last year and it was a small dirt patch in the middle of the road on a highway that had arhat looked like a baseball sized rock in a rut I rode through… it took out the sump protector and pushed it into the oil pan.   I had a port about it somewhere, I’ll find it.

Since then I upgraded to a better sw-motec protector vs the eBay one I had, and reinforced it with a stainless steel plate.   But I had no issues at this trip.  It was a truly freak hit that hit precisely where it needed to cause that damage,

[Clegg78]

1 hour ago, Salish900 said:

What a truly epic ride and great report. My oh my. That's God's country for sure. Live in the rainy PNW but love that four corners area. I don't think I've read of anyone using their 900 on much gravel or even dirt. I see you have some non-Road 5 tires on there. What were they? What pressures did you ride? How did she do off road? 

Well done. Thanks for sharing. 

I’m a fan of the Michelin Pilot Road series, I’ve had PR2,3,4 on past bikes.  For this I wanted to try something different this tire, and went with Pirelli Scorpion Trail 2 for this set.  The ADV folks seem to like em, I’ve used them in freezing rain, slush, downpours, dirt, gravel, and searing hot dry asphalt… they work pretty good and do t fling rocks like the PR5 would.

They are wearing a bit faster than I expected, I have around 4000mi on them and the rear is almost to the center wear bars for the longer distance touring I’ve been doing,

ive been running the front and rear at recommended pressures when fully loaded, but with light I keep the. Both 2-4psi under the recommendation of the frame.

not sure I can say they are better than the PR5s over all, but I know the PR4s we’re a little weird on loose surfaces.  I have probably 200mi on dirt/gravel/sandy roads with these…. The bike is still a handful just given the geometry and such, but it works and you need a delicate hand on everything.

[Clegg78]

1 hour ago, Jayzonk said:

How did you end up with a hole in the oil pan?  Hit something off road?

Found some posts on the accident last year.

The problem:

A Motorcycle Trip Cut Short : 2020 Strikes again. – Interwebs of Joe

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About a week ago I left on a motorcycle trip/adventure as I talked about in...

 

the fix: 

The bike is repaired! – Interwebs of Joe

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New pan onOut with the old, in with the newOil siphon/strainerOwchVery...