Free afternoon in Denver, what to do?

My rather limited experience: Getting out of the metro into the hills is sketch as fuck no matter what. These trips you'll want a street bike / big dual sport.

A pretty easy one for that time frame is out to Winter Park, up to Steamboat, and back through Walden then either over to longmont (shorter) to Granby, RMNP over to Estes and back to the beast via Lyons (better). Or do deathrace on 285 out to Buena Vista and down to the southwest to Gunnison, over to Black Canyon, up to Hotchkiss then to Carbondale / Basalt, through Aspen, over independence pass (usually crazy busy but worth seeing) over to Frisco, then I70 deathrace back.

I like the SW areas better, But 285 is fairly dull and heavy traffic to get there. Oh and best to stay off the major roads friday-sunday.

 

Pike's Peak generally sucks to drive. The tourist traffic means speeds are super slow.

 

For street riding, Coal Creek Canyon to Nederland is a cool drive and Nederland has solid food - especially the pizza joint. Try to hit it earlier rather than later.

I'm also partial to Cañon City, but it's a haul from Denver.

 

agree. But there are better and worse times in the day.
Like first at the gate in the morning …

 

Is the Butler map like a map map? I don't think I know how to use one of those.

Fuck cars.

I mean.........obviously

I'd likely be riding from Friday-Sunday, so that seems to throw a bit of a spanner into the gears. Can the route that you laid out be done on a streetbike with sport tires or does it need a dual sport with a 50/50 tire?

As much as I'd like to dual sport it and hit some passes, with limited time it seems like a helmet and street bike are going to be the most straightforward. It's looking like I'm going right from an offsite in VA to NY to the Isle of Man, and then I'll be heading right from there to Denver so packing any motorcycle gear will be a bitch.



Appreciate all the suggestions, guys

 

That's all pavement, should be no issue, occasionally you'll run into repairs that are class 5 or something, but nothing unmanageable. I used some track rashed Q4's one trip, no issues.

As far as the weekend, I'd still say do it, just be aware of some of the congestion areas.

 

„Just found out I’m getting out of a conference about noon today and don’t fly out until 9:00 PM“

Sure, if you can find him a bike and gear in such a short time span, then go ahead … otherwise, maybe unfuck cars…