I recently emailed Chornbe about my trip to Colorado - it was amazing. 6 riders, 1 too new, 2 fairly new but game, and 3 experienced riders. We had a mix of BMW's = 2 GS1200's and a 1200GT, a Connie 14, and a 2nd generation FJR for me. The outlet on the FJR didn't work, and it was well after the rental shop (tourbikes.com) was closed, so I was planning on checking the fuse box. I emailed Chornbe to find out where it was because he used to have an FJR.
My email explains a lot about the ride. Pictures and/or a link to a website with pictures follows:
Chris - thanks again. I never got to it, as I didn't really need the GPS (2 of 6 were locals, 2 others had GPS) so I went old school with a map in the clear portion of my tank bag.
Holy balls, you need to ride Colorado. There is a stretch of 92 that is so wonderfully technical... not quite enough hard switchbacks, but varying degrees of turns everywhere - no straightaways over a hundred yards or so for a good 20 miles or so.
FJR handled like a champ, I also enjoyed the Connie 14, although both were definitely heavy compared to what I'm used to. Connie was a bit smoother, had a 6th/overdrive gear, but not much faster if it even is....off the line 0-80 it was 1-1 (no rubber match) but the starts weren't necessarily even...
Later on in the ride, taking fairly deep sweepers at 85+ was a bit scary, as you are leaned over pretty damn far, and you can feel the suspension bouncing, struggling to handle all of that weight pushing down on it smoothly....amazing riding tho. Yes, I had it set to "HARD" - it's just not a light bike.
And independence pass - oh my god. Gravel on the way up kind of sucked - we were being led by our slowest rider on gravel (he had no business being with us on this ride and he agreed to ride his own ride while we took off, monitoring his progress with too frequent stops). He was riding a Vulcan 800 and had less than 500 miles under his belt. But on the way down.... wow. I was SO wishing I had the Tuono, or even the FZ1. BIG TIME. I've never seen roads like that (or Vistas) in anything but pictures and travel advertisements.
Most amazing trip ever. Stops in Crested Butte and Aspen for the night. Not a lot of miles [637.9], but a lot of stopping, pictures, eating, and drinking at night, etc. (paid for it on Sunday...) Apparently we are the Twisted Spirit Riders...I'll get you a link when we have a website, which I am told we will. I pulled the camera out on the highway and started snapping away, actually got a few good action shots and some bumpy video.
For a trip full of twisties, the only semi-heavy rain we got was on the only 30 miles of straight highway we were on - perfect as 3 riders were cutting their teeth on rain riding. One of them didn't belong - the other two did great. The three of us that have been riding for a while left them in the dust pretty much each day, but 2 of them got comfortable and kept up just fine in all but the most technical parts. I'm no racer, but me and another guy enjoyed the speed in the twisties significantly more than the others.
I decided I do NOT like BMW GS 1200's, they are just too tall, the engine feels anemic, and I just didn't like them, although they are pretty nimble for such a big tall bike. I couldn't get anyone to rent the VFR (I just didn't want to be committed to it if no one else liked it...we were able to freely switch bikes with each other as we all bought the extra insurance).
Anyway, thanks again - you are an amazing resource and should you ever make your way to Chicago, you must let me offer up some hospitality.
- Dan
LINK TO PICS:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99908&id=676608961&l=670d200bc9
