Rocky Mountain High

Welcome to Ride and Rally with Fix My Hog, brought to you by Gatorz Eyewear, fit, form, function, proudly made in the USA. Footwear provided by Harley Davidson Footwear. How's it going everybody, I'm Nate, and you're watching another episode of Fix My Hog. I'm bringing you a ride report today, I'm heading out the the Rockies to go ride some motorcycles and get gnarly on a Harley. Now this whole trip kinda spawned cause I got an email from a buddy that said he was gonna be getting married in the Vale and I thought why not, there's an Eagle Rider in Denver, I'll go pick up a bike there, way better than seeing it from a car. So for those of you that hadn't either been to the Rockies or the Mountains, you know, ridden up there, it's one of the most dangerous riding places. Not only are there switchbacks, but you deal with altitude sickness, if you're prone to that. But also the weather, you know I'm looking at the forecast and it's 75° and sunny, but that's only from noon to three and in the mornings it's gonna be 50-55 and in the evenings it's gonna be you know 50, maybe a little colder than that. So we're running down what I'm gonna pack here for the trip to make sure we stay happy and healthy. It all starts to me with a good base layer. Something that's not only gonna wick away sweat, but it's gonna keep me warm and not take a lot of room in my saddle bag when I do have to take it off part way through the ride. I've got my Kevlar jeans here to keep me safe in case I go down. Now this right here is my secret weapon for riding in cold weather. It's a fleece and it's fairly thin but because it's fleece and not cotton, it's gonna keep me way warmer and again you gotta think about packing it halfway through the day when it's 75 so you're not sweating on a Harley. For this trip I opted to bring my leather jacket instead of my Kevlar flannel. My leather jacket is a little bit more adaptable to weather changes. It's got these vents right here in the front so halfway through the day I can unzip that and get some airflow. It's got vents under the arms as well so I can get some airflow. But in the mornings, zip it all up and we're all super warm and good to go. On any motorcycle trip I highly advise you to bring two pairs of gloves. So I'm bringing in my Thinsulate Leather Gloves for the mornings and the evenings. And then I've got just my basic riding glove for the afternoons when it does warm up a little bit. And of course lastly we're gonna take the brain bucket. Keep us all safe. So I'm gonna get all this stuff packed up and head to the airport and we'll see you on the other side. What we did is I flew into Denver and I got a 2018 Low Rider from the Denver Eagle Rider. So then I took I70 west out of Denver towards the Vale. Now when you're heading west on I70 if you're familiar with the area there's a big tunnel. Well if you actually go over the mountain instead of through the tunnel, you're gonna go over this pass called Loveland Pass, at 12000 feet, over the continental divide, switch backs, no guard rails, it's absolutely definitely, definitely the route you need to take as opposed to going through the tunnel. From there we did Vale over through Glenwood Canyon, west in I70, through Glenwood Springs and then went south to Aspen, heading east through Independence Pass. Again crossing the continental divide at 12000 feet. Again, switchbacks, no guard rails, definitely a ride for a more intermediate to advanced rider or a more advanced beginner but honestly anyone who's doing it just be honest with yourself and your riding abilities and try to be safe. So from there we headed back up north through the Vale, overall it's a few hundred miles, you know I made it a day trip, I stopped for lunch in Aspen and it was really a feeling of being in the area, a must ride, absolutely. So let's talk about that 2018 Low Rider real quick. So I'm really more of an oldschool Harley guy, don't really like change that much, so when they came out with a modern shock and killed the dino, I was honestly pretty upset. So like rolling into this bike rental, you know it already strikes against it being that it was one of the new modern shocks and after riding it, you know, I was so wrong with the modern shock and all those reviews you're reading throughout different websites and magazines that are just ranting and raving on how good this chassis is are absolutely correct. Not only is it comfortable and the suspemsion is great for comfort going straight, but the lean angles and the handling in the corners are second to none and dare I say better than my Sportster. So if you have the chance to get on a new Milwaukee, on a new modern Shock, I absolutely suggest you take that opportunity and do it and check it out cause it is awesome. So props to all the engineers over at Harley for doing that. So that's it, we hope you enjoyed the video and until next time, ride safe, wrench safe and we'll see you on the road.