Overall: when setting up your ride for the Gunnison Basin, please come that with the mindset that you're coming to trail ride on multi-user trails. Have your bike running strong, but quiet, and have it set up with good rubber (and proper inflation--at least 15psi) so that you can get around the trails without having to spin the rear. That's part of intelligent trail riding. Thanks.

		Less Sound Equals More Ground. Please resist the temptation to alter your exhaust so that it's obnoxiously loud. Yes, you'll be down on power when you ride at the 7,500 foot and above elevations that the Gunnison Basin has to offer. But please do what you can to keep your bike as unobtrusive as possible in the high country. Keep your bike quiet and no one will know you're out there . . . a USFS approved spark arrestor is required for riding the Gunni Basin. Check out the new quiet performance offerings from aftermarket exhaust companies like FMF.
		It doesn't matter if you run aluminum, steel or carbon fiber, but run some kind of rear brake disc protector. The typical shark fin can turn a potentially detrimental blow to your rear disc to a just another bump in the road. If you could see the bottom of this fin, you'd see the scratches and dings and know that this thing gets used.
		Another no-brainer is a skid plate. They come in all shapes, sizes and materials. Sure they add a little weight, but the protection they can provide the bottom of your bike is substantial. Rocky sections of trail need to be ridden aggressively--the confidence that a skid plate offers is well worth the cost and small weight addition.
		The real question is, how often do you want to replace your pipe? Everybody lays their bike down while riding. Doesn't matter if drop it going-for-it on the trail or forgetting to put your kick stand down--you will dump it. When you do, chances are your pipe will hit the ground. Pipe guards like this banzai model won't protect you from the crushing hits, but will turn a common crusher into a glancing blow. Again, a variety of materials and styles are available offering trade-offs in cost, weight and the amount of protection.
		You should have bought hand guards when you bought your bike--if you didn't, now's the time to remedy that. The bark-buster variety of hand guards shown offer the minimal amount of protection available for your hands and bars. They'll keep you from bloody-knuckling into a tree on a tight trail and prevent you from losing levers when you take your bike horizontal. The more money you have to spend, the more swanky the hand guard you can get.
		Radiator guards--they're probably one of the lesser used pieces of protection around here. They're much less expensive than repairing or replacing radiators, so they might not be a bad idea.
		You will need to rejet to make your bike run as cleanly and efficiently as possible. If you're good with jetting, plan on spending a couple of hours getting it dialed. If you don't know your main from your pilot, plan on learning or getting some help from a local dealer or rider with the same bike. People send in questions about jetting all of the time. Being that it's different for every bike and bike intake/exhaust setup, we have a hard time answering the question. It's probably best to talk to a dealer and start from there (they tend to play it safe and offer you jetting that's a touch fat). But two-stroke or four, small displacement or large, plan on touching your jets when you get here.