3 Pass Blast

[markboy]

Did a nice 400 mile trip over the weekend with an overnight stay at about the 300 mile point. It's a great loop from the Seattle area over Stevens Pass, Washington Pass and Rainy Pass. Great road with fairly low traffic in the mornings but a bit busier in the afternoon (nearly all sight seeing and camping folks though). There are two fun tourist trap towns along the way as well. Leavenworth (http://www.leavenworth.org) is done up as a Bavarian village and sits in a beautiful mountain valley just after coming off Stevens Pass. I had a good breakfast at Kristalls (100 mile point).

Lots of great roads and Eastern Washington sunshine all the way around to Winthrop (http://www.gonorthwest.com/Washington/c ... nthrop.htm) a Western themed town. This place was BUSY. Fortunately I found parking and was able to grab a quick lunch at a pizza joint (200 mile point)

Time to head over the Passes to Marblemount. The ride was gorgeous but the bike was not performing. Every time I shifted into 5th it just bogged down. I couldn't hold it over 50 (though 4th would get me up to nearly 65 - so I would lose power in 5th). I'll follow this up in the troubleshooting forum. There was a dork sportbike that did some poorly timed passing about half way across the pass - and then pulled over a couple miles down the road to enjoy a view. Beyond that the ride was smooth and the bike did fine coming off the Pass. I noticed that once I was over the Pass and on some flats the bike was performing better in 5th though still not 100%. I pulled into my buddies cabin in Marblemount and enjoyed steak and beer for dinner. (300 mile point).

And then it rained all night... It finally cleared in the morning so I hit the road for my first potential ride in the rain. I held off for the first half hour and then it hit. Fortunately I had gear that kept me dry and it eventually cleared. The first 60 miles were on great backroads but then I was back in civilization and had to deal with traffice. I was able to get back to some backroads near home and had a great final 15 miles with zero traffic. All in all a great ride. Now to go figure out what was happening in 5th gear... (400 miles).

[Dupo]

Riding, steak and a beer. What could be better?

Looks like its a real scenic route!

[Water Warrior 2]

Been through Leavenworth a couple times myself, really neat place to visit. Sounds like great way to spend your weekend, just riding and eating. The lack of power might be from the altitude, less air equals less power. I seriously doubt there is anything wrong with the bike.

[markboy]

I've been through Squamish several times on the way to Whistler. It's nothing short of stunning - I love the rock face and view of bay. One of my options for the weekend was to ride up through Harrison Hot Springs head North and come back down the length of HWY 99. It was really tempting but I decided to stay away from traffic areas like Vancouver. Have you ever ridden up to Lillooet? How is the road?

[Water Warrior 2]

Markboy, you picked the right option. #99 is a madhouse with all the impatient cagers/tourists not wanting to accept lower speed limits and delays due to the construction between Vancouver and Whistler. Even the daily commuters haven't figured it out after 2 years. Leave earlier and plan your time accordingly. That said, I am thinking of a ride up to Lillooet sometime this week if all goes well. North of Whistler should be relatively sane and scenic as usual. Hopefully Happy Hobo can join me on her 250 but she is presently living with a very sore back and moving to a different job within the company so days off are a crap shoot. Might have to suffer alone on the VStrom, lol.