The Traction Archive | Point of No Return

There’s something about early spring in the Rockies: wind that doesn’t let up, fresh slushy snow storms, and air that actually smells like something after the freeze has worn off. This is the first entry in The Traction Archive: a record of places reached on two wheels and the kind of thinking that tends to happen when you’re moving just slowly enough to notice where you are. This ride starts on an exposed rock outcrop in a high desert sagebrush sea with weather moving in from every direction, then works its way through forest roads, beetle-killed lodgepole, mud, and melting snow, before arriving at a steep singletrack climb to a saddle we’ll call the Point of No Return. It looks unfriendly. It mostly was. The machine doing the work is a 1986 Yamaha Big Wheel 200, rescued from a barn, running at around 10,000 feet, and handling like it has its own opinions about direction. Along the way, we revisit a 1985 Cycle World review of the BW200 to see how well it holds up four decades later. It turns out they were mostly right. Just not always elegantly. — 00:00 Intro — Invigorating spring weather in the high desert 01:36 Meet the BW200 02:18 Cycle World (1985) Flyer 02:51 Into the mountains on an adventure ride 03:49 Point of No Return 05:49 Open road — Cycle World revisited 08:14 Creek crossing play 09:14 Closing