Alpine Roads: Twists & Turns of the Santa Fe Ski Basin Road

A few more...

This last pic of my bike, is at 10,000 ft. above sea level. This road, known locally as "the ski basin road", is about 17 miles long, depending on who you ask and where it's measured from. On a weekday when there is very little vehicle traffic on this road (it ends at the ski area, so no through traffic), you can easily get 100 miles, or more, of high quality riding in a short period of time. I've often done four or five consecutive up & down runs in an afternoon on a quiet weekday. By the second run of the day, you can really start to rocket through some of these corners (a few are kind of rough and too beat up to let it all hang out). Of the 8000 miles on my CBR, I'd estimate that 5000 to 6000 were logged on this sweet little stretch of road... it's very addictive.

Minifur said:

Very nice Mike! Much better corners and road surface than what is found in my neck of the woods. Do you find that the elevation affects the performance of the bike?

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Thanks. Yeah, I think on my next ride up there, likely tomorrow, I'll have to take photos of a few of the corners that are kind of beat. But overall, the road surface is not too bad. Just have to choose your line through those corners more carefully, and notch the entry speed down a bit.

I have to say that it is a lot fun getting to really know a particular stretch of road like the back of you hand. It isn't even so much about raw speed, or how fast you can go, as it is about being smooth and fluid from corner to corner... basically becoming one with the bike, and in the zone. They say that when you arrive in the zone, you can't help but be quick. I certainly believe that is true.

As far as the performance of the CBR at high altitude, most agree that a normally aspirated engine will lose 2.5% of its rated sea level HP, for every thousand feet of increase in altitude. So for the CBR250R at 10,000 ft., it's a decrease of about 5.75 HP from what the engine puts out at sea level... in terms of the seat of the pants dynamometer, you really do notice it going up in elevation. Contrast that to the downhill grades, where it feels like gravity gives you that 5.75 HP back, and then some. I've never had my bike below about 6500 ft., so I can only imagine what having all those 23 horses on tap must be like down at sea level.