Passes & Canyons Blog

Sometimes we do ride where it's crunchy.

Tuesday was looking iffy. Sure the weather forecast said 60 degrees as a high, but it also said snow later and much colder on Wednesday. What if the cold weather came in early?

I was thinking about riding to work but we had just had a bunch of snow and I wasn’t even sure if our own street was clear or not. I intended to take a close look when I came home on Monday but forgot. Then at dinner I mentioned it and Judy said let’s go for a walk after dinner and we can check it out. But then we forgot that.

So Tuesday morning I got up and decided to give it a shot. Of course I wore all the warm gear.

Turned out our street was clear, so no problem getting out of the neighborhood. I knew the main roads would be clear so the only part I had any concern about was the last two miles to the office. While everything else is arterials, that last bit would probably be called a collector street, and not as likely to be clear. Plus, when I rode to work last week it was along there that I encountered a little ice.

I often compose these blog posts in my head as I’m riding and I was envisioning hitting some ice and going down, thinking about a title for the post along the lines of “Not A Good Day To Ride.” But I didn’t need to use that one. And it appeared I might get all the way to work without seeing one single other motorcycle. That’s very unusual, especially on a day with a predicted high of 60. But I did finally see one other bike eventually. Just that one.

I was also wondering about the parking lot. I knew I was likely to run into ice there. Oh well, if avoiding the ice meant I parked in a car space rather than in the motorcycle parking area, so be it. And yes, there was some ice–not a lot–but I just rolled across it safely.

So it was a good ride in. I love the idea of riding the motorcycle to work in February.

Heading home I knew there would be no problem. I still only saw two other bikes. Where were the rest of you guys on Tuesday?

And nobody tried to kill me. Although one person about three cars ahead did start to pull into my lane without looking to see if someone was there. But that was another car he almost hit, not me. Dude, you need to turn your head and look. And if a car can get swallowed up in someone’s blind spot what does that tell you about a motorcycle?

And now it’s cold and snowy again. But have hope: the weekend forecast looks very good. I will be seeing you out there on Saturday, won’t I? I’ll be there.

Biker Quote for Today

Am I the only one around here who doesn’t think twice about riding in the rain?

Even the pros need training and practice, as this officer has demonstrated.

Some motorcycle groups never supported the MOST program in the first place but now even those that have are turning against it. Look for it to be an issue at the state capitol this session and next.

MOST, or Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program, was created to make motorcycle rider training more affordable, with the expectation that lower costs would encourage more riders to get trained. In order to fund this, an extra $2 is tacked onto the motorcycle registration fees we all pay each year. While some riders have objected to paying out of their pocket for someone else’s benefit, others have been willing to pay the extra to make riding safer and, by doing that, forestall any moves by legislators to reinstate Colorado’s helmet law.

Of the money raised by this $2 fee, 15 percent of it has been earmarked for the administrative costs of operating the program. The rest is to be used to reduce training costs for students.

Now, ABATE of Colorado and others are upset that the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which administers MOST, has put out a request for proposals with the intent to bring on a contractor to oversee MOST. And the money to pay that contractor would come out of the 85 percent that is supposed to go for training, not the 15 percent for administration.

ABATE’s legislative liaison, Stump, explained that they feel it is too late to be getting a bill in this session that would terminate the $2 fee, although that is definitely a likelihood for next session. In the meantime, efforts are being made to have legislators put pressure on the MOST bureaucrats to justify their intended use of this money in ways not specified in the legislation.

One fly in this ointment, however, seems to be that the actual legislation was not specific about this intent. While the debate and discussion at the time MOST was created clearly held reducing rider training costs as the intent, that wording never made it into the bill.

We’ll see now how much influence motorcyclists have with the state legislature.

(Not related to MOST, but regarding rider training, if you’re in England and want to feel more confident riding there, they do have rider training companies over there, too. We suggest visiting London Motorcycle Training.)

Biker Quote for Today

A smart rider knows what he knows, a wise rider knows what he does not know.