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I went on a ride with a couple of friends yesterday. The ride was almost 400 miles of twisty colorado mountain roads. Had an absolute blast.

The bandit is soo much better on twisty roads than my old CX500 was.

The bandit definately could use some breathing improvements though. It was seriously down on power at anything over 8000ft (most of this ride is between 8000-11000ft)

I think the 3 of us were responsible for most of the insect deaths in that part of colorado that day LOL. Had to stop to clean bugs off our helmets every 50 miles or so and our jackets and bikes were plain covered in dead bugs.

sounded like fun!

at least you didn't get stung by wasp.

a socal riders group that i met once did a long ride and they got attacked by wasp. scary stuff.

no wasp encounters. did have a bee splat right in the middle of my faceshield though.

nice!

planning on a saddlesore 1000 or have you already got that under your belt?

it will be awhile before that.

I think the most I have ridden in one sitting is around 50 miles.
I really should change that.
50 MPG and 3.5 gallons = 175 miles... meh.
I guess quick refill stops don't count...

the longest I rode in one day...was from Flagstaff AZ to Livermore, CA...I think that it was like 705 miles....plus or minus a few....

here is some detail of the route I took

went out via CO 14 (aka poudre canyon) then hit US 40 over rabbit ears pass which has a 5000ft elevation change in a mere 10 miles (there was still some snow on the ground at the summit), came back via a slightly different route, took CO 125 north of walden into wyoming and took WY 230 into Laramie.

poudre canyon is a blast, its about 60 miles of tight twisty turns, though it has a lot of blind turns and gravel strewn about, that same road goes into camden pass which has to be the most perfect riding road I have seen, lots of tight turns but with great visibility and little gravel, after the 10,700ft summit it straightens out as it goes into walden. Walden to rabbit ears pass is 40 miles of long, straight and boring (great place to top out your bike if you wanted). The pass itself has 2 summits both over 11,000ft, the east summit has lots of great sweepers and a passing lane most of the way so you dont get stuck behind cagers, the west summit begins the STEEP decent into steamboat springs, 7% grade for 10 miles with 50-60mph turns most of the way. You get to climb back up this heading back, a big torquey bike is good here, even my 600 was sucking wind going back up the pass.

Try not to over do it or you will have a nice aching shoulder and back bones.
As for big climbs how about saving up for a BMW 650 or 1200 GS

for me The longest day is a toss up between NYC to Ohio state lines and NYC to Vermont in figure 8 mode with a stop over in Worcestor, MA. (Gas station food) I guess I was hipnotised by the straight tree lined roads with some mild curves tossed in.

other than that I used to go 220 miles every weekend to Montauk, NY weather permitting (eg. no snow all else is fair game)

JCViper528 wrote: As for big climbs how about saving up for a BMW 650 or 1200 GS

hmm. R1200S or K1200S maybe, not GS. Looking at either a full on supersport or sport tourer for my next bike.

The bandit is nice for now, the other 2 guys I was riding with were having fewer altitude related problems with their bikes, but their bikes are also much more powerful (GSXR-600 and R1), my bandit desperately needs to be rejetted for this altitude. Intake/exhaust upgrades would probably help too