Passes & Canyons Blog

This is the kind of road you don’t want to run out of gas on.

Dennis has a saying we all like: The only time you can have too much gas is when you’re on fire.

Yeah, we’ve all run out of gas a time or two, right? I certainly have. Little things like forgetting to reset your trip meter after getting gas. That sort of thing. Too much optimism about how far what you have will take you.

Well, there’s thread for that. Over on the AdventureRiders site. I like to check in on it now and then. Especially at times like now when riding is out of the question and I’ve got a blog post to write. So here are a few people’s stories.

• I had the tank off to check the valves and change the air filter. Put the bike back together and rode it like I usually do. I used the trip counter as a fuel gauge. I noticed that I had gone well over my usual range before the light normally came on. I congratulated myself on improving my fuel mileage by looking after my bike…. and it sputtered and died. Apparently the idiot light needs the idiot who took the tank off to remember to plug the wires back in on reinstall. Girlfriend at the time brought me fuel and had a great time telling everyone about it for weeks afterwards.
• The Triumph Daytona, on the first ride home from the dealership. $h…s must have filled the tank with a cup of gas and told me to “have a nice ride.” Had to knock on a strangers door for “lawnmower gas” to get home.
• Most adventurous fuel flame-out was in Moab with a rental dirt bike. Coming out of the White Rim Trail, I was trying to make a gas stop in Moab. The bike had no fuel gauge and I was trying to make this happen using memories of the odometer. Ran out a mile from the station and had to bum lawnmower fuel.
• 1984, I switched my Seca 650 to reserve ten miles from home at the end of a two week tour. It had been a long, wet, 800 mile day (and night) and I just wanted to see my own bed. Had to work the next day, made a mental note to get gas in the morning. (Yeah, that did not happen.) After work, in rush hour traffic on the freeway, bike starts to stutter. Oh, now I remember!
  Between Ft Morgan and Julesberg CO I ended up chilling on the side of the road for entirely too long not realizing what the problem actually was. It wasn’t a stretch where I ever had an issue before, but apparently had enough headwind and weight to drop my range a good 15-20 miles. I was also caught off guard not realizing that I’d forgotten to flip it off reserve from the last stretch, and the Shadow doesn’t die quite the same. Normally low on fuel is a quick loss of power but plenty of time to go to reserve, if you’re already on reserve it’ll cough a couple times and then just die. So I call my brother in NP, he comes out with a trailer, and the next day I fart around with it trying to figure out what I broke or wore out for at least an hour before I notice that the plugs have solid spark but are bone dry. D’oh.
• I was 16. My friend was taking me as pillion on my 1984 Yamaha 400 Maxim to do my driver license test. I filled the tank the day before. Little did I know that my sister had conveniently drained most of the gas from my tank that night to fill her car and left me only just enough to ride about 10 miles. We ran out of gas, at the bottom of the hill, had to push the bike nearly 2 miles to the next gas station. I missed my scheduled appointment for my drivers test and had to reschedule for two weeks later. Guess who I don’t call for Christmas every year.
• The last time I ran out of gas was in 1973 when I overestimated how far I could go on a tank of gas with my RD350. I was close to home so my dad (who just happened to go by) picked me up. I didn’t have tie downs so I sat on the bike in the back of his truck. I had rather long hair at the time and wasn’t wearing a helmet. My Dad was laughing at me the whole way home because I looked like an Indian Chief with a headdress on.
• Our day started out great, we were on an ADV ride from Northern CA in late May headed to Oregon and had tracks we were following around the backside of Mt. Shasta on a Forest Service dirt road when after 30 miles of riding we were blocked by snow. Unfortunately, the blockage occurred 10 miles from our intended gas stop, but turning around meant gas was almost 45 miles the other direction routing us on roads, with the gas gauges all having come on simultaneously on our BMW R1200GS’ with a “low fuel” warning flashing 40 miles of range left on the gauge. The funny thing is we hit ZERO miles remaining 5 miles from the gas station and decided to chance it (nothing to lose at this point and our fortune favors the bold attitude). When we arrived (yes we did not run out of gas) the gauge on the bike showed negative (-) 5 miles of range left which we all laughed about as we had never seen a negative number on the gas gauge before and thanked the BMW engineer who had designed it with the “Pushing Your Luck Attitude” in mind.

Here’s a story of my own. Sometime, many years ago, Judy and I were out on the CB750 and ran out of gas. Don’t remember where. As we wondered what to do a guy in a car pulled up and asked if he could help. You bet! So he drove us to get gas, and he even had a gas can with him. Along the way he explained that he was kind of a professional good Samaritan. That is to say, he would very much appreciate us paying him for his assistance. Man, at times like that you are so glad to have assistance. We readily gave him a large “tip.”

Biker Quote for Today

The road to hell is very grippy, with fabulous camber and some wicked left-handers.

This is the stuff I’ve accumulated and I don’t even care for this kind of stuff.

You’ve seen them, I know. The guys with leather vests and jackets festooned with pins and patches. Biker paraphernalia. Some guys just love that stuff.

To each his own, I guess. I’m not that kind of guy. But I am a biker, so this stuff inevitably comes my way nevertheless.

That photo above is all the stuff I could find to pull out and display. There’s an AMA Life Member patch, an ABATE of Colorado District 10 (defunct) patch, a Ride with the 40 patch from when that crew came through some years ago, and an OFMC patch. I do actually have an OFMC patch on one of my leather jackets. That’s the only patch I have on anything.

Of course there are the brass nuts from attending ABATE’s Last Brass Monkey Run each December 31. I only found six but I’m sure I have more somewhere.

Then there are the pins. Time was when every year I would receive a pin each from ABATE and the AMA tallying my years of membership. Finally people got wise at both organizations and asked “Do you wish to receive a pin each year?” I said no. Great idea. Save yourselves money and save me accumulating junk I don’t want.

Some people really get into this stuff, I know. That’s great. For you. I’ll pass, thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

Weekend forecast: Motorcycling with no chance of house cleaning or cooking.

Here’s the whole gang that showed up for my first ride organizing effort. Me.

Well I did it. I’ve been talking for some time now about how, with activity and membership in the RMMRC declining, I needed to step up and take on some of the organizing. With the weather forecast for Thursday looking positively fabulous I set up a ride and posted it on the site. Nothing special, just an easy ride out to Kiowa for lunch at Patty Ann’s, an RMMRC favorite.

I did this on Wednesday so it meant that there was not a lot of lead time. It also meant that anyone with a day job was out of luck. But it couldn’t wait for the weekend; the weather was in for a huge change for the worse.

The first thing I did after posting the ride was to call Roy and give him the word. Roy is perhaps the only person in three states who does not use a computer these days so the only way to inform him was to call. Plus, I knew he would spread the word further.

Roy regretted to tell me that his bike is not in running order so he would not be coming, but he promised to pass the word along immediately. He noted that he had just talked with Bob not long ago and Bob was looking to do a ride on Thursday as well. Great. It might just be me and Bob but hey, we’re riding.

On Thursday I headed over to the meeting spot a little early with the intention of sticking around a while. Typically when RMMRC rides get posted they give a gathering time and a time 15 minutes later for kick stands up. I had not done that. Being a lunch ride I just said meet here at 11 a.m. I got there at 10:50.

There were no bikes there when I pulled in so I parked in a prominent spot and started scanning the roads for other bikes. Eleven o’clock came and went with nobody else arriving, and at 11:15 I was still the only one. I decided to give it five more minutes.

At 11:20 I concluded it was just me but by golly I was going for a ride. And it was a gorgeous, warm day!

I could have just gone anywhere since it was just me but I figured Patty Ann’s still sounded good. Plus, maybe Bob had found someone else to ride with and they had not wanted to start as late as 11 but perhaps they would also shoot to be at Patty Ann’s around noon. Or someone else could just show up there on their own. As I said, Patty Ann’s is a popular spot in the RMMRC.

So I headed out down Parker Road, picked up Hilltop Road, and continued south on Flintwood Road as Hilltop arced off to the east. I hit CO 86 and turned east. Coming into Kiowa I was eager to see if any other bikes were parked outside Patty Ann’s but there were none. Oh well. I’m going to have a good lunch.

And I did. It used to be, in many of our opinions, that the best things on the menu here were the Mexican items. Patty Ann’s had killer green chile. But for unknown reasons, awhile back they revised their menu and eliminated all the Mexican items. Dang. But they still have a bunch of other good things on the menu.

I ordered the chicken, apple, walnut salad and it was terrific. I’m no restaurant critic but that chicken was beautifully prepared and the whole thing was really good. I’ve thought for a long time I ought to ride out here with Judy for lunch some day, and when we do it’s pretty likely at least one of us will order this.

So I sat and ate and once my ears perked up at the sound of a bike but they must have just been going by because no one came in. And when I was leaving there were still no other bikes parked out front.

My ride home was 86 to Franktown, Parker Road (CO 83) north to Broncos Parkway and on in. By the time I was getting back into the metro area it was so warm I turned my electric vest off. That’s how nice a day it was. All along the way I saw six other bikers out but boy, there should have been a lot more. You people are missing out.

And now it’s 15 degrees out there with Monday forecast to have a high of 7. Yikes!

OK. My first time organizing an RMMRC ride went great for everyone who came. Maybe next time that won’t be just me.

Biker Quote for Today

Under my ass or in my garage. (Where I keep my motorcycle.)

Yeah, it’s pretty snowy out there but the roads are mostly clear. The only ice I had to deal with was on my street.

You never know at this time of year when you’ll be able to ride so you take advantage when you can. That’s what I did on Wednesday.

Isn’t it funny how your tolerance of the weather adjusts with the weather. In September a day in the 40s seems really cold. Now here we are in January and I thought, “Wow, it’s in the 40s. What a great day to ride!”

I hadn’t been on the V-Strom in a while so it was time it had its turn. I had no plans to go far, just making sure to get in a ride on each bike in January.

Heading southeast I crossed the Cherry Creek Dam and the reservoir told a tale of the weather. Frequently, long before this time of winter the lake will be completely frozen. But it has been warm–until the last couple weeks–so while most of the lake had ice there were small portions that were open. Then I noticed that the freezing was very spotty with a lot of little bits of water amid big sections of ice. I’ve never seen it in this stage of near-freeze before. And with the temperature expected to take a serious plunge in just a couple days, by next week it could all be ice.

I headed out on Parker Road, all the way down to Parker and then turned west on Main Street. For some reason, as soon as I turned west it seemed the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. Not at all sure why.

I was totally geared up, with one of my heated gloves set to the lowest setting and the other to the number 2 setting. I’m always experimenting to see what difference something like that makes. Well, in this case, my fingertips in the lowest setting glove were getting darn chilly, so when I stopped to shoot that photo above I bumped it up. That felt good.

It was a pretty uneventful ride but I did see one other rider out. Plus, I had seen another one earlier when I was out in my car. Some people know a good day to ride when they see it. Back at home I felt like the ride was too short. How nice to go out in the middle of winter and wish you had stayed out longer and ridden further. You gotta love Colorado.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is an endless opportunity to accessorize.

The Colorado legislature is now in session and there will be a few bills of interest to motorcyclists this session.

Perhaps the one most directly of interest to bikers is a recommendation to sunset the MOST program. But in the meantime the legislature wants to take the money we have paid in for rider safety training and direct it to the general fund. A little background is in order here.

The Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program was created quite a few years ago in part to deflect the desire of some groups to mandate helmet use in Colorado. The argument was, and continues to be, that greater overall road safety and fewer crashes are better than safer crashes. Which is to say, you can still die in a crash even if you’re wearing a helmet but nobody ever died from having a safe ride.

So motorcyclists in the state supported imposition of an extra fee added to our vehicle registrations each year to fund a rider safety program. Now here’s something I did not know. I only learned this just now as I was reading the 2023 MOST annual report.

The CO MOST program is funded by a $2 surcharge for motorcycle endorsements on a driver’s license or provisional driver’s license, and a $4 surcharge on a motorcycle registration.

I thought we paid $2 each for every motorcycle registration we filed, and that was all. So while I thought with two bikes I would be paying $4 per year to MOST, in fact I must pay $8, and then an additional $2 whenever I renew my driver’s license. OK, not going to break the bank, but definitely worth being aware of.

In the earlier years the MOST program provided a subsidy to rider safety training programs to lower the cost the rider paid for the training. Over the years, however, things got twisted a bit so that now the money is spent only on things like highway signs and program administration and I’m not sure what else but money does not go to defray the cost of rider training. Funny. Car drivers don’t pay extra with their registrations for road signs.

It seems the only true benefit new riders (and only new riders) get is that if you take the Basic Rider Course and pass, the riding test that is part of the training counts toward getting your motorcycle accreditation so you only need to go to the DMV to pay the fee and pass the written test.

So now, from what I hear from Stump, the ABATE of Colorado legislative liaison, the legislative committee involved with such things has recommended that MOST be sunsetted for nine years. Colorado has a sunset law whereby programs are periodically reviewed and recommended for continuance or termination. What surprised me about what Stump said was that apparently this sunsetting is not necessarily permanent, it is only for three years. Really? But in the case of MOST the recommendation is to sunset it for nine years.

Which is to say the committee apparently has serious reservations. Stump told me in the program’s accounting approximately $100,000 is unaccounted for, although it was not clear to me if he meant the program has failed to account for that much of its funding or the committee failed to account for it in its review. Whichever it is, they say let’s sunset MOST.

Considering that MOST no longer does what seems like it’s most important job–lowering the cost of rider safety training–my opinion is that it should be allowed to sunset. And the fees we pay should be suspended. Can you imagine if the program continues and we continue to pay into it and then that money gets turned over to the state general fund? That money is ours. We paid it in for one specific reason. Car drivers do not pay extra for highway safety. If we’re not getting what we’re paying for there is no justification for continuing to collect those fees. And meanwhile, any remaining balance in program funds ought to be spent, I don’t know, how about reducing the cost of rider training?

But no, the nearly $2 million balance looks mighty attractive to a legislature looking to fill a budget shortfall. Let’s steal it from the bikers.

It’s going to be an interesting process. You can bet I’ll be spending some time at the Capitol, and I’ll be telling you all about it. Stay tuned.

Biker Quote for Today

Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafés. Non-racers. The emptiness of those lives shocks me.

Riding up on Cochetopa Pass.

I kind of outdid myself in the area of low mileage last year. Somewhat to my surprise, I did still put more miles on my motorcycles than I did on my car, but the total of all vehicles was substantially below what in some years I have put on a single bike.

To be specific, I put a total of 3,852 miles on my bikes and 3,102 miles on my car. That’s just a hair under 7,000 miles total. Heck, in 2011 I put 10,004 miles on my Kawasaki Concours. In 2013 I put 9,437 miles on that bike. As recently as 2023 I put 3,866 miles on my V-Strom.

Am I getting to be a big-time homebody? Well, maybe, maybe not. In recent years I had really leaned on the folks at the RMMRC to plan rides and then I’d go along. Those rides have dropped off a lot lately and I need to be the instigator at least on occasion rather than depending on someone else to do the work. I do have a couple day rides in mind for after the weather gets warmer and we can go up in the mountains again.

Also, I would have racked up a bunch more miles if I had been able to go on a multi-day RMMRC ride that I planned to go on, but physical issues just made that impossible. And then the OFMC opted in 2024 for a much shorter ride than in recent years, mostly just staying in Colorado.

Well, the OFMC appears to have run its course so now I also need to turn my planning efforts to a longer ride with the RMMRC. I do have thoughts about that, too–I just need to follow through.

The other thing I’d really like to do is get out for some two- or three-day rides with Judy on behind. The last trip we did together was up to British Columbia but that was years ago. I’m not sure she has even been on a bike in several years. My fault. She’s not going to plan something like that; I need to.

OK Ken, you have your assignment. Now get with it dude!

Biker Quote for Today

Is it time for our post-work motorcycle ride, yet?

This highway alert says it all. Hang up your phone and drive!

Hands-free is now the law in Colorado. At last.

Using your phone–unless it is hands-free–is now prohibited, but the law could be better. It’s still only a secondary offense, meaning the cops can’t stop you just for using your phone but if they stop you for something else they can also fine you for the phone. And if they’re eager to make the point it’s usually not hard to find some primary offense to stop you for, then let you off on speeding (57 in a 55 zone) but give you the ticket for the phone. Be warned. Heck, just hang the damn thing up. Your call is not more important than my life.

Now, did I shoot those photos above while driving? Nope. I have a dash camera and I popped out the memory card when I got home and downloaded those images.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is unique unto itself and unknowable to the outside world. — Jon Robertson

Each year you go to the Last Brass Monkey Run you receive a brass nut. Sometimes they even have monkeys on them.

I looked at the outside thermometer on Tuesday morning (28) and asked myself what I was trying to prove to who? I drove my car to the Last Brass Monkey Run. I knew that on a sunny day with no ice on the road there would be a good number of hard-core folks heading to the Rock Rest on their bikes, but I was not going to be one of them. A final temperature check (36) as I was getting ready to leave made me reconsider but nope, I drove.

ABATE of Colorado’s Last Brass Monkey Run is always promoted as the last ride of the year, and is held on December 31, regardless of the weather. It is held these days at the Rock Rest Lodge in Golden, and I generally go.

So I got there, and yeah, there were bikes parked outside. Oh well. Some people are more hard-core than me. I have ridden some years.

The event used to be an actual poker run but nowadays the poker is set up inside, with games you play to receive your card. I’ve never had even a decent hand at a poker run so I never expect much. But this time was different. I drew three 2s. A pretty low three of a kind but still a three of a kind. Who knows, I might win something.

There are always door prizes as well and in recent years there have been enough door prizes for everyone there to get one. Of course, due to simple reality, someone is destined to be the one with the last ticket drawn. Last year that was me. And my prize was pretty much the dregs of what you might receive.

This year I was not last. When I arrived they were already calling numbers but very soon afterward announced there were stopping the drawing to have lunch. I got some lunch and was sitting with Kathy and Mike, holding ticket number 699. People finished eating and they announced a resumption of the door prize drawings and Mike said “OK Ken, get ready, it’s gonna be 699.” Larry looked at the ticket and called out “699.” No bull.

My prize was OK, nothing great, but really something we had no use for. I didn’t care, I was waiting for the best poker hand.

Larry got up to announce the winners and he said he had never seen such a lousy bunch of poker players. That gave me more hope.

And the top winner was . . . three of a kind 8s. Dang. Well, there is a second place prize as well. Second place was three of a kind 5s. Double dang. My 2s were just too low.

Meanwhile, another Kathy, Larry’s wife, had joined us at our table and remarked how she had hoped to get what I had gotten. I gave it to her.

So it was an enjoyable time, good to see a bunch of folks I don’t see all that often any more since I no longer go to ABATE meetings. Who knows, maybe next year I’ll ride. Maybe.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 51. We pay more for insurance than your car payment.