Passes & Canyons Blog

Raise your hand if you love this kind of riding.

You wouldn’t believe the number of people who want to spam you–you, the readers of this blog–and the kind of crap they want to foist off. Or maybe you would.

I figure I get on average about 10 emails a week from people asking to do guest posts for the blog, promising the very best in quality and interest for my readers. My reply is very straightforward. I paste in my boilerplate answer and send. The boilerplate basically says that I know they get paid for getting links to their client sites placed on good sites like mine, and if they’re going to get paid I want to be paid, too. But first, even if they’re willing to pay me, the content has to be good. I’m not going to spam my readers.

For most of them that’s it; I never hear from them again. A few express interest in the paid post and they send me what they want me to run. I cannot tell you the dreck I receive. Let’s take the most recent one as an example.

In reply to my boilerplate reply, this woman said OK, she’d be willing to pay, but as a freelancer she only gets $40 for each placement, and I ask $50, so would I be willing to take $20? I told her no, I really don’t care if anyone pays me because for me the blog is not work. I’m a writer and I do it for my own pleasure and satisfaction. So no, I’m not going to cut my fee.

Somewhat to my surprise, I got a follow-up from her saying OK, she’d pay the $50, and here’s the piece she wants published. You can’t imagine what garbage it was. Right off the bat, it wasn’t a motorcycle-related piece at all; it was about mountain biking. Hello, do you understand that I run a motorcycle site. And then, even if it were a motorcycle piece, it was one of these totally basic things like “Three Must-Dos for Motorcyclists” with the three items along the lines of get training, wear the proper gear, and get insurance. Oh, now that is really useful information I absolutely must share with my readers. I’m sure none of those three things ever crossed any of their minds. Yeah.

Of course, insurance is the really key thing here. She wants to get a link to an insurance website on my blog. So I fired an email back to her telling her how abysmal the piece she sent me was, and that no, it will not be running on my blog. To my great surprise she emailed right back apologizing for disappointing me and including another piece for me to run. I didn’t even read it; I just hit the Spam button so with any luck anything else she sends me will go straight to that folder.

And that’s the way it goes, week after week. On the rarest occasions I actually get something good, or at least good enough that I don’t feel I’ll be totally insulting you publishing it. If you’re read those in the past and not been impressed then I suggest you just skip over them; I won’t be offended. I mean, the occasional 50 bucks is nice but if in the future I run something and you think I should have turned it down I’d be pleased to hear from you to that effect. Turning off my readers is not worth $50.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Colorado rider training program ailing badly

Biker Quote for Today

“The engine settled into the climb, with that relaxed ticka-ticka-ticka old BMWs have. It’s not the sound that makes you want to race; more seductive, it tempts you to quit your job and ride to South America.” Riding with Rilke by Ted Bishop

My three motorcycles lined up in the driveway. This is the first time I've gotten some shots of them all together.

No, this is not a piece about getting your bikes ready to put them away for the winter. I never do that. There’s not a single month that goes by that I don’t ride every bike I own.

Nope, winterizing in this case is getting my bikes prepared for getting through the winter and being ready to run any time we have a nice day. That was my main objective on Sunday.

The first thing I figured I needed to do was make sure each bike had a full tank of gas, with fuel stabilizer in it. That meant running the Kawi and the Honda over to get gas and adding the stabilizer. Of course I then had to go for a short ride on each of them, After all, it’s November, a new month, so each needed a chance to run and keep that battery charged.

The Suzuki didn’t need gas as I had just filled it the last time I was out on it, but I put in some stabilizer and went for a ride. What an incredibly gorgeous day! Temps were at least in the high 60s and I saw one clock that said it was 73 degree. This is why we love Colorado.

The next thing I do is make sure to put each bike on the trickle charger periodically. Getting the seat off the Honda to get to the battery is a bear so I had a pig-tail connected to it. For the other two it’s easy to pop the seat off and access the battery. I only have one trickle charger but I figure if I rotate it around the bikes regularly that will be fine. There’s nothing worse than having a fabulous, warm day in February and not being able to get your bike started! Your battery will live longer, too, if it doesn’t just sit for long periods.

And make no mistake, they do sit for long periods. In the middle of winter it’s cold and I don’t ride as much. (You, too? Who’d a thunk?) And even though I ride each bike every month, I just rode all three on Nov. 3 and in theory at least it could be Dec. 31 before I ride again and that will still meet the criteria. That’s not generally how it happens but there have been a few times over the years when it did. Sometimes the weather is not a friend.

The next part is winterizing myself. I have an electric vest, with pig-tails for it on the Honda and Kawi but I don’t yet have a pig-tail for the Suzuki. That is on the top of my priority list and I just have to remember to do it.

I also have battery-powered electric gloves and for them it has been the opposite. That is, I’ve periodically charged them over the summer because I don’t want those batteries to die any sooner than I can avoid. I really don’t want those batteries to die because they would cost almost as much to replace as the gloves themselves. So I try to keep them charged, and of course during the weather when I wear them they go back on the charger immediately after each use.

I also have some fleece-lined chaps and they’re cozy in cold weather. They don’t keep you warm the way electric gear does but they’re way better than just going out in jeans.

So OK, I’m about ready. Just need to get that pig-tail for the Suzuki. Then eventually it’s going to be spring again and I’ll need to do a bunch of other things. The Honda is going to need new tires next year and the Kawi will need a new back tire. And the Suzuki still needs highway pegs and . . .

It never ends, does it?

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Colorado rider training program ailing badly

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you’ve never had to replace a worn out tire.