BMW
Service

Adventure Rider’s Outpost

Airhead Restoration

Tires

Basin e-Bay Store

Basin Marketplace

Events

We’re in the process of setting up a mini movie theater in our showroom and want to offer the room as a gathering place to share information, stories and motorcycle related films. Contact us for more information.

_{________________________________________________________________________________________________}

Paonia by Dirt in 2012

The BMW of Colorado Motorcycle Club holds their annual, Top of the Rockies Rally, in Paonia. This year's gathering is from July 12th thru July 15th, 2012. http://www.coloradobeemers.org/

For a couple of years now we have been kicking around the idea of putting together a wee adventure ride from our shop in Mancos to the Paonia rally. Our intent is to stick to the most backcountry of tarmac and fire roads for as much of the journey as possible. The tentative route is Mancos to Dolores, then north thru the San Juan National Forest to Nucla, than east to the Uncompahgre Plateau, north up the Uncompahgre's spine to Hwy 141, east to Grand Mesa via Lands End Road, across Grand Mesa into the network of fire roads to the east, and then drop down from the North essentially onto Paonia's front doorstep .

This will be a disorganized ride, not a guided event.  All we can tell you at this point is that it looks like we can string together a route that is mostly off road, but it still has tarmac sections. Mostly minor county roads but there are a couple of stretches of secondary highway in there as well with potentially 65 mph traffic. For this first annual excursion we will steer clear of single track and stick to forest service roads when off pavement. You are free, of course, to add any detours or alternate routes that you find appealing. We may well run across closed gates and other impediments that require backpedaling or route reassessment on the fly. I often think that the "adventuresomeness" of a ride is directly proportional to how many u-turns you must perform. 

The ride will commence from the shop, more or less at a loosely designated time yet to be established. You are free to join in at any point on the route, or at any time you wish, or just make your own way by yourself, or with a select group of your choosing. The destination may be a BMW rally but this ride is nondenominational. Our only requirement is fairly strict, but simple - that you like to ride motorcycles. The Rally site is the Paonia City Park, a delightful, tree shaded venue right in the heart of town. There is lots of space to pitch a tent but it is typically wall to wall, so the early bird definitely gets the "choice tent site" worm. The motels are probably filled early, so if that is your thing you might check that out well in advance. The rally is quite a grand event, an incredible number of bikes to ogle, plenty of food options at the rally site and in town, and usually some really good bands on stage in the evenings.

We will provide a road book indicating the route numbers and the turn points as well as a rudimentary map. Beyond that you are responsible for deciding if you and your chosen mount are compatible with the degree of difficulty of the route. You will make all of the decisions regarding how you prepare your bike, fuel capacity needs, the equipment you choose to bring along, food, etc. and everything else. You should go expecting to be entirely self-sufficient.

We have an extensive collection of maps and guide books in our library at the shop which you are welcome to rummage thru to help you with your planning. We are also happy to advise you as best we can regarding bike preparation, and the types of equipment and spares to take. We also have extensive experience with backpacking gear and would be happy to speak with you about equipment choices.

If you want to suss out the nitty gritty details of the planned routes, you may want to assemble your own map package, which we highly encourage. We carry a few of  the relevant maps for sale at our shop, but the most comprehensive collections are carried by our local backpacking stores and the Public Lands Center in Durango. Our favorite maps are by Latitude 40, National Geographic/Trails Illustrated and the National Forest Service. Also, be sure to check out the route on Google Earth, definitely a useful perspective. Although we won't be providing a GPS waypoint guide, if anyone fancies putting together one that they would be willing to share, that would be terrific. The shop will help distribute it, if that would help.

Although we suspect there will be a number of mechanically savvy folks along on the ride, most of whom will be happy to lend a hand if needed, you should go assuming you will be your own mechanic.

We suspect that this will be a two or three day ride one way, depending on the pace you are comfortable with. There will be numerous opportunities to bail out and pick up pavement if you have time constraints. 

If this interests you, come to the shop to sign up, or do so by e-mail. This puts you in no obligation but we will send you information that we think will help you plan for the ride. 

The biggest possible hiccup. If we get fire danger mandated forest service road closures, this may scuttle the planned route at the last minute.

If this ride garners enough interest we will add a web page at the Basin Web Site to post information as we gather it.

In the meantime, we hope you can join us.

The Crew at Basin 

Click on basinmotorcycle@durango.net  and type Paonia By Dirt, 2011 Paonia by Dirt, 2012 in the subject line.