Bikes at the mountain?

[Mole_C]

Im looking at getting a new bike soon as i got an exemption and wondering how different types would survive being left at the base of Mt. Ruapehu (chateau area) for 4 days or so every few weeks while I ski. Staying at uni ski club up the top but don't wanna leave it that exposed.

Looking at gsx600/750F - would the air cooled be an advantage with no radiator to freeze?

RF600, gsxr750, zx6/7r and any other sports/sport tourer under $8k

Any advice on these bikes in general, especially how they would handle the mountain would be great. Cheers

[Theatre]

Harden up, theres a guy with a bumblebee GSXR600 that rode it right up to the top (ok, it was when we were doing renovations in summer, so even though it was pouring it doesnt quite count :p). Id imagine you wouldnt have any problems with a liquid cooled bike as long as you've got antifreeze to the days in there, afterall all the cages up top are watercooled and manage to get up and down.

No help on the bikes unfortunately, but look forward to seeing another biker up there :rockon:

[sAsLEX]

Anti freeze??

[craigs288]

I been skiing a few times and sometimes when you get to the top you can hear the water boiling in the radiator overflow tank. Pretty sure that it is a combination of altitude and slow speed ( no airflow ) and lots of heat from driving up hill for a long time.
I was also in the army in Waiouru for a time and we used to go trail biking up the Tukino ski field in summer. You can literally feel the bikes losing power as you climb the road to the top.
I was on a shitty little ER185 and by the time I was 3/4 the way up it was back to first gear and struggling, lots of slipping the clutch and revving the piss out of it to keep going. My mates TT225 was boiling the oil in the sump.
Having said that, if you make sure you are full of anti-freeze and top your oil up, shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[Swoop]

Some years ago, a mate was permitted to leave his bike in the boiler room of the Chateau. Might still be possible if you ask nicely.

[marty]

geez the top o the bruce is only about 4500ft. the chateau is only around 3500', and it doesn't get THAT cold. yes you will lose some HP as you climb, but you shouldn't be boiling the radiator - ever heard of a cooldown after wringing its guts for a 20min climb at altitude?

my plane develops 300hp (28"hg) at sea level on a standard day. it climbs at 75% throttle (25" Hg), progressively needing more throttle until about 6000', which is WOT height. from there, i lose about 1" per 1000', to get about 20" at 11000' - around 200hp, 60% of sea level power. your 50hp gsf600 will be down to about 40hp at 4500' i'd say (being unable to maintain optimum stoichemetric ratio and all)

[craigs288]

Maybe if I owned the ER185 I might have been nice enough to let it cool down but it was the workshop hack.
However, if I owned an ER185 I wouldn't admit to it.
Caning it up the hill was almost as much fun as taking a straight line down the side through all the mud from the lahar ( har har )