Elephant Ride Coming This Weekend
Who is crazy enough to ride their motorcycles up over a high Colorado mountain pass at a time when the pass is closed by deep snow? Why, the Adventure Riders, of course. They’ll be doing it this weekend and while I’m not riding, I do plan to be there as a witness to the event.
The group will gather Saturday night in Grant, along U.S. 285, and camp out or take advantage of the local accommodations. Saturday night is party time. Then on Sunday they’ll head up over Guanella Pass to Georgetown, or at least as far as they can get.
This photo gives you an idea of what it’s like. I grabbed the shot from an AVRider post by a guy who goes as “Geek” and I don’t yet have his permission but I’m contacting him to ask for his OK.
The folks making the ride generally ride smaller dirt bikes set up with studs in the tires, just like ice racers, or on sidecar rigs (Urals generally), other three wheelers, or Rokons. Rokons, in case you’re not familiar with them, are very wide tire motorcycles designed to plow through mud or snow and just generally be a four-wheel-drive sort of two-wheeler.
I do know that Dom Chang, the Colorado Motorcycle Travel Examiner, who I’ve written about before, is planning on doing this run on his Ural sidecar rig. I don’t know any of the others but that should change soon.
Oh, and one other consideration. The weather forecast for the next three days is clear, but snow is predicted on Sunday. Could be fun.
Update: Geek gave me the OK for using his picture, and I spoke to Dom and I’m going to be riding with him in his Ural, so I won’t be just a spectator after all. Hot dog!
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
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Biker Quote for Today
There are 2 kinds of people in this world. Those who ride motorcycles and those who want to ride motorcycles.
Tags: Elephant Ride
February 11th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Ken!
Glad you called me, looking forward to you being the “monkey” on my rig. I had been wondering how to take pictures without stopping which invites getting stuck.
Make sure you have your wheaties that morning!