• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

Copper Canyon - Prelude

Joined
Apr 9, 2003
Messages
518
Reaction score
0
Location
Leander
Hi all,

I've 'somewhat' made it back from Copper Canyon. My pschy probably never will. We have plenty of pics but no video. It was too rough out there. There will be a trip report later. Possibly in chapters because there's so much to tell. I think I could write a book. Quick thoughts...

- A GS is WAAAYYY too much bike. Anything over a 650 single is way too much.
- A fully loaded GS is hard to pick up...for the 7th time.
- I had WAAAYYY too much gear, but used every bit of it, even the water purifier.
- A GS cannot swim.
- Banditos carry AK-47s and Colt 45s with pearl inlay.
- Beer tastes better after 6 hours of riding in 4" of dust on the side of a cliff.
- There are still cowboys who sleep on the ground with a horse blankets.
- There are some NICE paved twisties down there. Maybe nicer than the states that go on and on and on and on.
- The people were great.
- All the gear all the time is GOOD no matter how much you sweat.
- I wish I had a DR or XR350 and only 20 lbs of gear.
- The canyon was steep and switchbacks tight. Makes Pike's Peak look like Kansas. Oh yeah, throw in dust, rocks and trucks into the mix as well.
- Riding 750 miles in a day is cake compared to riding 100 miles of canyon dirt roads.
- We broke all the rules...'yes mom, we rode down into the canyon at night.'
- Would I do it again? **** yes! Same bike? **** no!

And finally...I hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day! We sure did, camped out with the cowboys eating freeze dried Turkey Tetrazini.

It's nice to be home.
 
:tab Hmmm... I was wondering if you made it back intact. Does this mean you will be selling the GS? Or just getting another bike... after you get your FZ1... after you find Sara a good dirt bike...

:tab We'll be heading over on the weekend of the 13th for Will's house warming party, which I am sure he has totally neglected to mention to you ;-) Since Brian and Shane are bringing their rugrats, we'll probably stay with you if that is okay. I can only take so much screaming and drool.

:tab Can't wait for the full story and pics! Glad you had a great time. I'm green with envy :-P Well... except for the part about picking up the bike seven times.

Adios,
 
irondawg said:
'01 R1150GS 'PigZilla' (changed the name)

:lol: I totally misssed this the first time I read the post!

Adios,
 
Hey John, since you're convinced that a smaller bike and less gear would be a better choice for the really serious back country, do you have any post-trip thoughts about how you might be able to lighten the gear?

Also, please tell us more about how you learned what kind of weapons that the banditos carry. Sounds like an interesting story behind that comment... :shock: :wink:
 
Here's a preview...this just scratches the surface.

http://irondawg.smugmug.com/gallery/42879

As far as what bike I would ride...DR or XR 350 with about 25 lbs. of gear.

I figured I had about 135 lbs. of gear if you take into consideration the Jesse's, rack, tank bag, and two other bags and all the other crap I carried. I've already made a list of just necessities and it needs to all fit in a day backpack, one 15x10x7 waterproof bag and a fender tool kit.

The group is already talking about Baja next year!!!

I've made my gear list.
 
That had to be quite a handful with all that gear and the weight of the GS to boot. :shock: I used to have a hard time just riding a 225lb CR500 with no extra baggage. Granted the power was a big factor in its difficulty, but I can't imagine having to toss around that much weight off road. My Quadracer 250 didn't even weight half that! Glad you had a good time. I'm sure it'll be even better if you can get your hands on a more dedicated trail machine. :)
 
:tab Good grief!! :eek: Did the other guys laugh at you when you pulled up with all the crap tied to the back of your bike?! :P What happened to your windscreen? Did you remove it because it was in the way or something? How did the guy on the KTM fare?

Adios,
 
You'd think so but I didn't have the most gear!! Two other guys had me beat big time. One with a full set of the big side and top box Givi's and a bag on his seat. Another guy had a bag that weighed in over 100lbs, saddle bags and other crap hanging off.

Windscreen...ah well, yeah should have taken it off...didn't have to worry about it too long once we hit the dirt. One guy went down and I was behind him. I pulled over to help. We were on a pretty steep hill, figure 45 degree incline. Parked the bike, put it on the side stand and hopped off. Took two steps and looked back. The front wheel was coming off the ground and the bike rotating in my direction!!! Got the **** out of there and heard CRACK. There's no stopping 750 lbs of bike and gear coming at you down hill!! Broke the left hand side of the screen clear through where it mounts. Duct tape and I'm good to go. Next day I went down in some volcanic rock, that's some slippery ****!! Cracked the other side. I donated it to Fritz, the crazy German living in the hills. He rode an F650GS.

The guy on the KTM went down about 3 times I think. He did MUCH better than the rest of us except the motocrosser who was **** good. The bastid only drop his bike twice. We were getting pissed cause he was complaining how heavy the KTM felt!! We gracefully told him to shut the %!@# up and stop bitching or he'll find his bike missing a few parts to 'lighten it up'. Like a wheel. Hehehehe.
 
With all the carrying capacity of the GS, why don't you just forget the gear and strap a motocross bike to the back seat? They weigh 220-250lbs, so just crank up the preload for the ride there and then ride the lighter bike when you get there. :wink:
 
Hey John,
Did anybody ever state how many times"truthfully", that each of the eight of us, went down? To the best of my knowledge Loneride and GSAdventure didn't fall. I dumped once,(BMW R1000 G/S PD) and (others) ?????????????
We're looking forwand to hearing about the Mexico trip you are presently on. I'm leaving for bike week in Daytona in the morning.
Enjoy. Hardy Baker
 
Hey Hardy!

I'm not sure about LoneRider but GSAdven did go down once on an easy downhiller. He told me that of all the places that was the least place he expected to bite it. It was more of a step off, like a lot of the get offs, than a full blown biff. In fact, no one had a really big get off.

As Scott said, the report is on another topic. I've got pictures on smugmug but it seems to be down at the moment.

Have fun in Daytona!!
 
Back
Top