This weekend I'll be heading out to the mountain biking mecca Moab, Utah.

Driving to Detroit, flying from there to Denver, then doing this in a rental "Premium SUV" (Suburban or Expedition EL)

Spending a week biking and whitewater rafting there in Moab, then one day in Fruita, CO on the way back to Denver.

Enjoy ..............

Trip went really well. Five guys biking for at least 4 hours a day for 6 days, and no serious injuries. Can't ask for much more than that. Went whitewater rafting on the Colorado as well.

I'll get some pics up here once my friend sends them to me.

Oh, and we had a white Suburban pretty much exactly like this one

It impressed my friends for sure - it had impressive fuel economy considering we were climbing over the Rockies with five guys and a back end completely full of luggage and bikes.

I-70 west of Denver is completely insane. I've never seen anything like that in a major highway. You really need to engine brake on the way down to avoid burning your brakes. 6-7% grades meant that even with the Suburban in 3rd gear (of 6) revving at 3-4k, no throttle and even periodic braking was required to keep it around 60-70 mph.

One interesting thing is that the car seemed to realize what I was trying to do with the engine braking - it left all 8 cylinders on when I was doing that, but would go down to 4 when cruising gently.

Nice to see GM 2nd attempt at cylinder deactivation has turned out successful. I've had good experiences with all the ones I drove.

The 1980s Cadillac 8-6-4 was er.... troublesome.

Edited June 1, 201015 yr by Sixty8panther

Trip went really well. Five guys biking for at least 4 hours a day for 6 days, and no serious injuries. Can't ask for much more than that. Went whitewater rafting on the Colorado as well.

I-70 west of Denver is completely insane. I've never seen anything like that in a major highway. You really need to engine brake on the way down to avoid burning your brakes. 6-7% grades meant that even with the Suburban in 3rd gear (of 6) revving at 3-4k, no throttle and even periodic braking was required to keep it around 60-70 mph.

Sounds like you had fun...yeah, I-70 is an adventure...I've driven that stretch from Denver out to the Breckenridge/Vail/Copper Mountain area and back probably 100 times since 1997, in all sorts of weather...some of those grades are very scary, in dry or icy or snowy conditions.

Further west on I-70, what did you think of the Glenwood Canyon stretch?

Edited June 1, 201015 yr by Cubical-aka-Moltar