Passes & Canyons Blog

We all know that bad legislation that would unfairly affect motorcyclists gets introduced and sometimes passed in legislative bodies at all levels. Who should we thank when these proposals are defeated or revoked? I’ve mentioned the American Motorcyclist Association on numerous occasions, and they do a lot of work in this area. Another organization fighting for our rights is the Motorcycle Riders Foundation.

Here’s what the MRF says about itself on its website home page:

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF), incorporated in 1987, is a membership-based national motorcyclists’ rights organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The MRF monitors and when necessary, sways federal legislation and regulatory action that pertains to street riders. The MRF concerns itself with what is going on in the arena of motorcycling safety education, training, licensing, and public awareness. The MRF provides members and state motorcyclists’ rights organizations with direction and information to protect motorcyclists’ rights and motorcycling. The MRF sponsors annual regional and national educational seminars for motorcyclists’ rights activists and publishes a bi-monthly newsletter, The MRF Reports.

Well, the MRF is coming to Denver. Every year the organization holds two regional and one national conference. The Meeting of the Minds, MRF’s national conference, will be held in Denver this year Sept. 25-28. This is the kind of conference you will want to attend if you care passionately about protecting our rights. Registration before Aug. 18 is $60 for members, $70 for non-members.

The agenda includes topics such as “The Motorcycling Community – Working Together,” an international transport forum on motorcycle safety, impaired riding, state legislative updates, and more, as well as some fun activities and — or course! — a ride.

I’ll be bringing you more information about this as it draws near, and with any luck I’ll manage to attend at least part of it. If you want to attend, here’s the link for registration.

Biker Quote for Today

Training, the best safety and performance “equipment” you can get!

I wrote an unfavorable piece about U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters that you may recall, about her efforts to divert money earmarked for rider training to promote helmet use and state laws requiring helmet use. Randy Bingner replied to that and I’d like to share our discussion.

Randy’s initial response was this:

I suggest step back from your focus on helmet laws and look at everything Mary Peters is doing for the motorcycling community. It is very difficult to be critical when you look at the big picture.

I was interested and wanted to know more. I sent Randy this reply:

I appreciate your comment on my Mary Peters post. I’ll be completely honest with you and say I don’t know much at all about what she has done or tried to do except what I read in American Motorcyclist. I would be really pleased if you would write a guest post addressing that topic. Something to balance out my frankly more superficial take on the matter. Are you interested?

Here is Randy’s answer:

I have been at the Sturgis rally the past week and just got home. You could Google and find no end to information. Basically, in my opinion, the most telling quote from Mary Peters, and I will paraphrase, is that when highways are designed, constructed, and maintained, the motorcycle should not be an afterthought. I am attaching a recent article I wrote for the back page of another newsletter. The fact that this initiative exists is due in large part to the fact that we have a rider at the head of the USDOT. I am an AMA member, but I do not agree with all positions it takes. Motorcyclists are a comparatively small group when you look at all users of the transportation system. The more we get divided, the easier it will be to lose rights and privileges. I am for freedom of choice. I chose to wear a helmet and leather.

So that’s a starting point. I intend to follow Randy’s suggestion and do some research to learn more about what Mary Peters has done, and I’ll pass that along to you. And I want to thank Randy for offering his take on the matter.

I do want to make one other point, however. I stand by my original argument that taking money from rider training to push for helmet requirements is inappropriate. Helmet usage becomes moot if accidents are avoided in the first place. I think rider training is the most important of the two.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride as if your life depended on it!!

I just did a four-part series on Examiner.com about what it’s like in Sturgis and the surrounding area during Bike Week. Rather than just copy all that stuff here I’m going to give you a synopsis and links so you can go there and read it if you’re interested.

Part 1: The decision to go, getting there, swarms of bikes flood the highways, settling in at home base in Rapid City, partying in Rapid.

Part 2: The Black Hills are the reason bikers love the area, Iron Mountain Road, pig-tail bridges, bikers everywhere.

Part 3: Into the epicenter, the Sturgis scene, hitting the Full Throttle.

Part 4: The campgrounds, big-name entertainment, thoughts on a return trip.

I don’t claim to be an authoritative voice on the Sturgis experience; this is just one person’s description of one visit. But at least it should begin to answer the question, “What’s it really like?”. Feel free to offer your own experiences in a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker wannabe if you put your pony-tail back in the drawer after you get home.

Right about now the Sturgis Bike Week festivities are at full tilt, and the Black Hills are alive with the sound of Harleys.

Not the OFMC, however. We’ve already done our summer ride this year and besides, we went to Sturgis two years ago. It was an incredible experience. It was something you have to see and feel at least once in your life if you have an pretensions of being a red-blooded American biker.

But it was also something that even the most hard-core Harley riders among us said, once we got home, that they had no interest in ever doing again.

That photo, by the way, is of the OFMC and friends at the Crazy Horse Lodge during the 2006 rally.

Fast forward two years. We’re wrapping up this year’s trip and talking about next year and what place is a large part of the group thinking about? Sturgis.

It seems, they tell us, that we did it wrong.

“I told some guys that we stayed in Rapid City and they said that was ridiculous. The rally isn’t happening in Rapid, it’s happening in the campgrounds!” Or words to that effect.

The campgrounds, in case you’re unaware, are these private facilities where you don’t just park the RV or set up the tent and then ride into Sturgis. The campgrounds, like the Buffalo Chip for example, are self-contained communities with food and drink and entertainment. Big time entertainment.

Performing this year at the Buffalo Chip you have groups like Foghat, Guess Who, Blind Melon, Alice Cooper, Kid Rock, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Sugarland, and ZZ Top, to name only the better known. And admission is part of your basic fee to stay in the campground.

The campgrounds are where the real partying goes on. I can’t speak from experience but the word is that the roar of motorcycles is constant, night and day. Some campgrounds work to ensure a more peaceful environment but that only means you hear the more muffled roar from the campgrounds across the way.

So that’s the scoop. From one visit being enough for a lifetime we’ve come full turn to eyeing another trip to the rally. Who’d a thunk?

Not next year, though. Next year we’re doing the Beartooth.

Biker Quote for Today

Actual experience beats half-assed assumptions and prejudice.

I have to tell you, I’m amazed. You may recall that I announced in early April that this Passes and Canyons, Motorcycle Touring in Colorado website had had more than 3,000 unique visitors in the month of March, the first time it ever hit that level. It took 2 years and 5 months to go from zero to 3,000, so I was pretty excited.

Then I was really excited to be able to announce in June that the total of unique visitors for May had passed 4,000. That’s 29 months to go from zero to 3,000, but only 2 months to go from 3,000 to 4,000.

So you might be thinking now that I’m going to tell you the number went from 4,000 to 5,000 in July, but you would be wrong. It went over 6,000! I am just blown away! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your interest. I do this website as a labor of love and it matters immensely that someone out there appreciates my efforts.

Now, knowing the month to month trends, I have every expectation that the numbers will drop off in the immediate future. That’s the way it has worked every year up to now, so I see no reason to expect anything different. But that’s fine. I have a lot of new material that I’m in the process of adding, so when next year’s surge comes you and all the other visitors will have a lot more hopefully useful information available.

Thank you.

Biker Quote for Today

I only feel like riding my motorcycle on days that end with the letter “Y.”