[3banger]

This tail starts with ride down south to Ouray CO to give the little Zong a real work out with a planned climb over Imogene Pass to Telluride. Climbed to the summit of 13,114' on the girlfriends XT250 just about a year ago with out much difficulty so I figured it couldn't be that much of challenge on then RX3 with 7+ more HP and only a little more weight.

Stopped in Ridgeway CO (home of the Grammy!) at CimarronEric's cool little coffee and book store. Over a fine Ethiopian blend we discussed the difficulties of getting up the steeper sections of Imogene Pass with the tall gearing on the RX. After some delicious but potent brew I headed south determined not to be denied the Summit

Through Ouray and up to Lower Camp Bird is really a none issue for the little 250 and its stock gearing. Above this point is were things get interesting. It turns to a full 4x4 Jeep road with a few pitches that are challenging to most stock four wheel drive vehicles. This is were the overly caffeinated charge for Imogen Summit glory and real clutch abuse begin. I was deterrent to power up all of the steepest assents with enough speed not to stall the engine. As grades increased my technique moved from a little clutch slipping here and there to full throttle pinned in first gear and modulating the clutch to keep it just shy of redline. This let me get max power to the ground at speeds less then 10 mph while keeping the little 250 on full boil. The down side of this is massive amounts of friction generated heat being dumped to the clutch pack.

The clutch held in there admirably and I made it a little less then a mile from the summit. The clutch felt like it was giving good drive and modulation right up until the end. I needed a little push to clear the section in the photo below with the jeep. With the help of a friendly quad rider pushing the rear rack and my self walking alongside slightly slipping the clutch in first we walked right up this section. Eric I'll admit this section was a bit of a challenge on the RX and I had a few minors tip overs trying it with out assistance. After this there is short down hill crossing a little creek drainage and then pretty much the final pitch to the summit and this is were any mechanical connection between the little 250 engine that could the and the rear wheel just went away. When the clutch was done it was done! Gravity assist down hill drive was the only way this bike was getting off the mountain.

So in your mind when you climbing a big ass hill like Imogene it's got be down hill all the way back? Well that's what I thought when I turned around and how wrong I was! So I have to give a big thanks to the mystery side by siders who helped tow me up every little incline I couldn't maintain enough speed to coast over. Also the RX has great little tow point right under the front fender where engine guards connect. After multiple coast, tow repeats I finally rolled into Ouray later in the afternoon. My girlfriend and friends were in Ouray for training runs on the pass; the big Imogene run is in early September. So they gave us a ride home and then we made late night return trip to fetch the Zong.

The next day I gave the bike a quick rinse drained the foulest smelling oil I've very had the pleasure to sample and pulled the clutch. It's actually quite easy on this bike. The friction material on the two inner most fiber plates was basically gone and the corresponding steals were throughly cooked. I ordered a whole new clutch pack from CSC for a very reasonable 74 bucks. I contemplated just replacing the fibers and then giving the steels a good sanding or bead blasting but with them only being $2.80 a piece there is no reason not to replace them. One of the real values of the moto is the very reasonable cost of parts and that CSC is stocking them all! Also just ordered the 13t front sprocket, this will help but I still feel Imogene will be a challenge on the RX. Really first gear needs to be geared to redline at about 10mph to really make technical climbs a little more doable.

My new clutch bits arrived but I haven't really been able to complete the job. The following weekend I gave my left collarbone a titanium plate up grade running the down hill MTB park in Steamboat CO. Yep over the bars at speed and fractured the left clavicle, bruised right ribs and a nasty friction burn to the shin from one of my tires. Also took out a front spoke with the chin guard on my full face helmet. So it will be a month or more before I'm back on two wheels. But hopefully I'll be recovered enough to start fixing things. Right now the list is a KTM 200 with a no compression, RX3 with a smoked clutch and a Transition Covert MTB that need tires and few front wheel spokes; about par for me near the end of any summer...