Myself and 2 good mates I went to University with recently got together to do a 10 day mostly backcountry Colorado motorbike trip. The main aim was to do most of the well know Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route https://ridebdr.com/cobdr/
Myself and my friend Neil rented two Honda Africa Twins from Alex at MotoDiscovery https://motodiscoveryrentals.com/ who did a great job of prepping the bikes for us, the main thing being putting mostly off road tyres on the bikes.
One Bloke’s thoughts on the trip
Mates! It was great to spend some time with 2 great mates with whom we are all separated by geography and to do something we could all participate in actively (riding a motorbike) and have an adventure was a fantastic way to catch up with each other.
Dust!! I swallowed a lot of dust on this trip! Apart from that it was a fantastic experience and was great to see a slice of backcountry Colorado. I don’t have a lot of adventure motorcycling experience and for me the backcountry lesser travelled roads, the high passes and small towns were the highlights for me. Being on a motorbike on the inter-state roads or busy highways was definitely not for me.
Hot! Motorbike protective clothing jackets, pants etc (essential) is hot when you are travelling in hot environments so when you stop you need to strip all your gear off and secure it somehow. I found this slightly frustrating as there were instances when I would have liked to stop and go for a walk but couldn’t due to the fact that you somehow needed to secure your gear and all your worldly possessions were hanging on your bike so was reluctant to leave the bike unattended…maybe that was just me.
Bikes too Big? All 3 of us found our bikes at times when the terrain was getting rough to be a little too big and heavy for our levels of experience. There were times when a smaller bike such as the Suzuki DRZ400 would have been lighter and more nimble making for perhaps a better riding experience.
Honda Africa Twin – Overall really enjoyed my experience on the Honda Africa Twin. I’m fairly tall at 6’3″ and the Honda is a fairly tall bike which I found comfortable. Mine had a few after market parts and handlebar risers fitted and the more time I spent on it the more comfortable I got with it. I also believe that the bike was actually far more capable than I was for the terrain we were tackling. My only gripe was that I would have liked first gear to have been a bit lower geared than it was which would have given me more confidence in some of the trickier parts of the trails.