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I am a vlogger, says my kids, well its a pain in the f%$^&&& making one but here's another

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRlDOZI ... e=youtu.be

1m alpine tunnel avalanche leftovers
2min Huricanne Pass
8 min Imogene
10:45-18 Engineer Pass
24:55 bad turn on CODBR easy goes really hard
31:32 Salt Creek (usually knee deep but this time just a trickle)
31:40 Todd chases cows and is ready to go home

I did this in a my "cheater bike" which is a husky FE350S plated dirt bike. Larry used a KTM 690 and Todd was on a Africa Twin. I think we all pretty much thought that our own bike choice was the best. I am borderline asthmatic and the altitude just kills me at times. Its why I went small, no regrets. 55 top end but who cares (well they did at times, but not me).

I really did like using Silverton as a base and doing Section 1 backwards, because with those rocks (as you can see in Imogene at 8min) that looks like hell coming up in something bigger than a 450. You can find pics of the guy that sent his GS to the bottom the fast way off that side I was resting on. Going down we had a bike drop and nothing much really. We did most COBDRs tracks, easy and normal.

I will say this - I have tons of tracks for Colorado, been out there many times, but those Bueller Map guys have picked way better routes than I tried to add to the trip for the COBDR. No matter what you think your bringing, just use their stuff as a base, its better. The only thing I think I added that was better was replacing Cinnamon with Engineer, and doing the easy stuff to get to to Lake City and going up and over from there.

NMBDR - New Mexico??? I am stoked!

Thanks for posting, nice video!

Watching now. How did your 350 do? I bought an EFI 2012 KTM 350 and loved it until I tried to ride it in CO with a lot of steep single-track above 10,000 ft. It ran great--no issues with fuel/air mix. The EFI did it's thing. She simply ran out of oomph. I was never stranded--don't get me wrong, but I'd be wrapped up in 1st with the engine screaming, shift into 2nd and she'd slow wind down until I had to shift back to 1st. So I ended up just wrapping her out in 1st a lot when above 10K. Maybe it was only when really up there. We were sometimes riding at 12K.

Near the top of Ca Gulch/Huricane Pass I was full throttle on it and barely doing 15, 20mph. Same for Monarch Pass, Imogene and Engineer. First time it happens, it really freaked me out. But it does seem to figure it out after a minute and you actually get a 'little' power. I was doing 5mph up CA and then it go it together, and I was doing 15mph.

Same for shifting into 2d up at 12k, that was going nowhere first time up there. I think in the vid at one point up Eng I am saying "that was a poor gear choice" just as bogs down and I just stay on it in 2d on day 3. I was downshifting to 1st on the switchbacks because I was too slow for 2d.

Poky mtn pass power and coming back from Cortez/Durango to Silverton via highway at 45-55mph was a pain. Or returning from Leadville to Salida via pavement - 2 hours - at 55mph. I got 4000 miles on it. I did 1100 miles on the same oil out there...figuring it was easy stuff other than the few minutes in the video of harder sections.

But for all that - wouldn't trade it for the 990 out there. I just lay the bike down on the ground or on a tree in the crappy stuff and walk off if needed to help someone, and later pick my own bike up with ease, no worries, no cares. I have gotten into too much nasty stuff in CO with the 990 on my own where I was wondering if/how to pick it back up...and imagine getting water out of the air box/pulling the plugs on the 990 in a swamp when its raining. No thanks.

I am wondering when I will really need some of the service stuff they mention? I'll get another 500 this year plus on it, for about 4500+. I checked the valves at 3k and they were fine. It had 400 miles of way harder single track when I got it, but I am not a dirt biker so its been the easy life for it since.

Everybody tells me when they check the valves on their newer KTM/Husqvarnas, they never find anything out of adjustment. Seems these machines are relatively bullet-proof.

I justified my 500 vs the 350 to gain HP at elevation.

On average, a normally aspirated (non-boosted) engine looses 3% of it's power for every 1,000' increase in density altitude

Here in KC, we are at around 800 ft. So figure at 12,000 ft, you have lost close to 35% of the power you are used to.

Nice video!