Just got back from an amazing 3 day ride with @Rich_Strauss and Chris Cooley. The ride was supposed to be 4 of us but one guy dropped out, as it happens every time. Rich was a late add after we did a really hard singletrack ride near Gold Lake. He made the cut so it was just the three of us. What a good group. Cooley, AKA Coolio, was on a KTM 890. Coolio is not normal. He can ride the living shit out of that bike. Rich, AKA The Sandman, was on a KTM 500 which of course he can ride the shit out of that too. I was on my CRF450. I also have a nickname, Frenchy, Coolio named me that. I too can ride but just enough to keep up.
If you donât know the ride, Kokopelli is a 150 miles from Fruita to Moab. It has some pavement and smooth dirt but I would not describe it as that. I would describe it as a long tough day. When the going gets rough, itâs difficult. It starts from Rabbit Valley on a fun dirt road. Then some pavement and back to dirt and I donât recall what else or in what order. It was 7 hours and I was fried at the end. What I do recall was Rose Garden Hill. We came down that son a bitch. I would not go up it. The Sandman and I made it down with lots of butt pucker, but luckily our bikes are over 100 lbs lighter than Coolioâs. Coolio managed to make it with only a broken turn signal. He is such a beast! I do feel the need to mention that big bikes in Moab seems like a really bad idea. Unless you are Coolio, I would ride nothing over 320lbs. You can get in way over your head quickly out there and help is far away. Also big bikes break when you drop them. Sandman and I dropped our bikes so many times and we just pick it up and go.
Kokopelli is a great DS ride and I do recommend it. Start at sunrise and you will be fine. There are ways to bypass the tough stuff but you shouldnât. Sack up and just do it!
In case you donât know Cooley and Rich I will describe them to you. They hit the gym what looks like 7 days a week. They have lots of muscles, big muscles. I too have muscles but you wouldnât notice. You canât miss these guys. So when we made it to Moab, and I was totally done, I assumed those guys would hit the gym. Maybe do a back and leg day or hit the Nautalis machines if thatâs still a thing. I was surprised that they just wanted to eat dinner. Nice, this is going great. After a quick shower we were off for some Mexican food about 7 blocks away. Did we walk there? Nope, flip flops and no helmets. It was kinda nice to feel the wind in my hair. And I didnât want to put that nasty helmet back on. It was only two twists of the throttle and max speed of 15, we felt safe enough. Those guys had margs and I drank nothing. I has some issues that required Imodium. Nothing too bad but I wasnât taking any chances. After dinner we rode back to the Air BB and watched TV until about 8pm then called it a night.
The next day Sandman was ride leader. This ride has so much sand. Iâm not sure if Gaia has a map layer for sand but if it does, thats what Rich was using. He kept talking about how much he loves the desert and sand riding. Sugar sand, packed sand, moon dust, breakable crust and other words to describe sand. Also different places for sand like Death Valley and Vegas. Rich is the Forrest Gump of sand. Thatâs how he earned the nickname Sandman. I have to admit that I too like the sand, just in a more normal reasonable way. We rode really far out of Moab. We did Maryâs trail. Itâs a slickrock ride that is truly amazing. One wall was really tall and super steep at the top. It was more of a head game than difficult but my heart was racing at the top. After we finished Maryâs we rode another dozen miles of moon dust and breakable crust. At some point we realized my tire was flat. I never had a flat with my TuBliss before so I got to use some plugs. After 4 plugs it seemed to hold. We ride out and hit the pavement for about 12 miles at 60 MPH. By the time I got back to the place the plug had melted from the heat and the tire was flat. Shit, I need to put in a tube. At least we are at the Air BB. We grab a six pack of beer and change the tire.
Hot tip- When changing a tire with a bunch of guys around drinking beer, itâs probably best to go hide somewhere and do it without the drunks giving advice. More accurately, giving shit advice. Iâm fine changing a tire and do it fairly well and kinda quick but throwing tire levers at me and telling me not to pinch the tube over and over again was not helping. âDid you pinch it? I think itâs pinched! Definitely pinched. I told you not to pinch it. You know I saw Adam Riemann do it in like a minute. Itâs been twenty minutes and you still donât have the bead onâ That went on for a while. Also they recorded the whole thing. I did not include that here. Iâm sure you can find that somewhere. And if Coolio adds it to this post I will share a photo of him at the campfire in a not ready for prime time situation. Yes, thats a threat!
The last day we rode Rimrocker. We left 15 minutes before sunrise. We knew this was going to be a long day. 200 plus miles and then drive home. We ride pavement for 20 minutes and then we are on the dirt. This was really rough. Baby heads for a few hours with the sun directly in our faces. Seriously could not see a thing. I was in first gear struggling just to stay upright. I think it would not have been so bad without the sun because I could have kept my speed up . This was absolutely miserable. Finally through that and the ride ended up being a great ride for a big bike. Some slightly spicy sections but overall easy. If you do it on a GS, skip the rough section. We ended up having lunch in a town called Nucla. Never heard of it. Really sleepy place. I canât think of a reason to go there. If you miss it you didnât miss a thing. Almost every store was closed and nobody was on the streets. Whatever this town used to do, it doesnât do it anymore.
After lunch we hit the pavement for a long time. Including a few exits of I-70. Rich put his Mousse Balls to the test. They worked out. I think Iâll switch from TuBliss to Mousse at the next tire change. I know Rich wrote about this in another post. Seems like the way to go. We made it back to Fruita and changed up and got into our vans for the drive home. It rained most of the way. Traffic and accidents as usual for I-70. It was an amazing trip.
