Passes & Canyons Blog

It has been a long time since I did one of these posts. Here you are, direct from the Adventure Riders forum, 10 more reports on close encounters on the road.

1. Hit birds (like a baseball hitting you), black cat during Halloween (shattered the 89 GSXR750 fairing), and a big dog trying to bite my front wheel. The latter knocked the bike (07 750) out from under me at about 60mph. Killed him, and broke my collarbone, ribs, both rotator cuffs torn. Didn’t do the bike any good either.

2. I was headed north on I-5 when the top of an RV peeled off like a tuna can lid. A wall about twelve feet tall of aluminum and interior stood erect and on end, like a wall, in the middle lane and the piece was sliding at about eighty miles an hour. Sparks were spitting out from under it. I was lucky that I was riding the inside lane because a diesel was in the outside lane and he was jack-knifing his trailer in order to avoid it. I only had enough time to see it coming in the center lane.

3. Man, I wish I had a picture of this one. Making my last left turn on my 86 mile commute home, 5 mile zone of death and am paying extra attention. I have a green, catch movement from the right, it’s 11 o’clock at night, bicycle riding against traffic runs the light, process and wait for him to go by, then fireworks thrown into intersection by bicyclist, ok I’m too tired for this, start to go, wait what? Bicycle is towing a 12 foot canoe and I almost rode right through it. This.Is.California.

4. A chicken, on my 2010 Ultra….chicken did not survive…the guy that was riding next to my right saddlebag was covered in feathers and chicken parts…..

5. If any of you have ever been near the Mississippi River (northern part) in the spring, you know all about May flies. Those things FILL the air to the point that after just a few miles, you are literally covered in dead bug juice….the Iowa DOT goes as far as to put signs up showing a mayfly on the road, with the word “Slippery”…and it CAN be….absolutely disgusting cleaning cooked bug guts off your pipes and radiator.

6. How about a 3 foot alligator, in Idaho! Was playing on the ST1100 at work, call it playing because I just patrol to be visible, going through an area along the river with a bunch of hot springs. Came around a curve and saw what looked like a log in the road, but one end moved and had two reflective dots. Got stopped and saw what was and tried to back pedal. It turned and scooted back into brush. Turned out to be an attempted theft from a private farm by high school kids. For years didn’t know why they called that place a gator farm, do now. Raises them to about 3 feet for boots.

7. A month ago, riding in the N. California coastal hills with a buddy, I pulled over and my buddy came alongside saying he had to clean off his jacket. What? Turns out about a mile back a buzzard had lifted off ahead of him carrying a huge load of purified road kill. It flew low over my pal and suddenly dropped his load like a precision bomb, a direct hit. It was about the consistency of jelly and so putrid I almost puked while helping wipe it off his jacket. We rode on a couple miles further to a small lake where we were able to wash off the worst of it while flies buzzed around us.

8. Downhill, country road twisty at a high rate of speed. Not one but TWO peacocks in full plumage centered in my lane! They flew up and I drove under them!

9. Narrowly missed a mirror off of the car in front me when an oncoming car sideswiped it at highway speeds. Dodged oncoming, ducked under flying mirror, dodged car in front of me after they locked up their brakes.

10. Riding along a dirt lane to a campground in Steelevile MO, what I thought was a mass of about 40 to 50 dragonflies hovering and darting around over the middle of the road turned out to actually be a mass of humming birds. I never slowed down since bug guts never really bothered me. But I recognized what they were as I rode through the cloud of birds. Never touched a one of them as they simply just parted enough to let me through. It didn’t even faze them and they returned to their buzzing over the middle of the road as if nothing ever happened.

Wow–totally cool about the hummingbirds. I’m sure he would have hated massacring a bunch of those little guys. So there you have it. Ride carefully, it’s dangerous out there!

Biker Quote for Today

When people talk about how many times I’ve gone down . . . yeah, but did I die?

Stump was at the ABATE District 17 meeting and he updated us on the legislative scene vis a vis motorcycles. That’s his job, as you probably know–he’s ABATE’s state legislative representative.

Stump is hopeful in this upcoming session about a red light bill. Anyone who rides a motorcycle knows that there are user-triggered red lights that do not recognize motorcycles, which puts you in the position of either waiting until a car comes along–maybe for a long time–or ignoring the red and proceeding.

But there’s a funny twist here: Colorado already has a red light bill. Did people just forget? I don’t remember if this was something I knew at one point. If I did, I forgot.

Anyway, Stump is hoping for a small change to make the existing bill work better. Right now the verbiage is that you must wait “during several time cycles” before you can proceed. In most states that have red light bills they are more specific, usually stating a specific time span. In most cases it is two minutes. That’s what we’ll be pushing for, and Stump reports that he has found several legislators who favor making that change. And note that this would apply to all vehicles, so if you’re in your car and a light is broken you could run the red legally.

The issue, everyone agreed, is with the law enforcement folks. What happens when a cop shows up just as you pull through the red and he/she wasn’t there to see you sitting and waiting? If you have that sort of experience and you get ticketed, ABATE wants to know because if it is found to be a real issue then further measures may be needed.

Profiling
The present day issue with profiling is when law enforcement sets up checkpoints that only stop motorcyclists. That is perceived as unfair and therefore flat wrong. When the Motorcycle Riders Foundation had its Meeting of the Minds in Denver recently there was an event where Colorado U.S. Rep. Ken Buck was the keynote speaker. There have been efforts at the federal level to outlaw this practice but they have not gone far. Buck has not been a supporter, but following his interaction and exposure to the motorcycling community he has agreed to sign on to that effort in Washington. It’s a step forward.

Distracted Driving
The proposed distracted driving bill would increase penalties for someone injuring someone else due to their being distracted while driving. By that we primarily mean using their cell phone but it would apply to other distractions as well.

This bill has been supported in the legislature for several years by the Democrats but has repeatedly been blocked by the Republicans. Essentially, neither party has wanted to support the other’s legislative measures so if the Dems support this one the Reps oppose it, and they have. Plus, Stump says, some Republican legislators have told him they feel this would be an impingement on the driver’s liberty. (Never mind the liberty and well-being of the person they injure!) Now, however, the Democrats control both houses of the legislature and the governorship, so sponsor Sen. Lois Court hopes to finally see it move forward.

It’s a whole new ball game in Colorado now with the Dems firmly in control, and we’re likely to see a few things happening. We’ll be eager to see what those changes are, and whether we really think they’re for the best. Here’s hoping.

Biker Quote for Today

There is something about the sight of a passing motorcyclist that tempts many automobile drivers to commit murder. — Hunter S. Thompson

As I mentioned previously, my District 10 of ABATE of Colorado shut down and I am now a member of District 17. This group meets on Tuesday evenings and I went to my first meeting two days ago. Let’s just say it was interesting.

First off, those of us who were transferring from D-10 to D-17 had the idea that the D-17 people meet at The Shack in Littleton at 7 p.m. but many of them come at 6 for dinner and socializing. I got there and found Bruce and Carol Downs (former D-10) but nobody else. After awhile, Larry and Kathy Montgomery (former D-10) also showed up. But no one else. OK, we had dinner.

Eventually the others showed up, around 7. Mike Cole, the district rep, was very welcoming, as well he should be. By the time everyone got there, there were five of us and seven of them, so we have nearly doubled the size of their group. At least their active group; there are a lot of members who do not come to meetings.

We had introductions all around and got right to business. It was the usual stuff, legislative matters and planning for fundraising events, plus some discussion of bringing in new members. I’ll be going over these things later.

Under the events heading, I was interested to find that D-17 each year hosts a “Dart Run.” I don’t thing I’d ever heard of this before but it sounds like fun, and I was assured that it is. I’m still not clear on what it’s all about but the talk was of broken crossbows that need to be replaced, spears that were stolen from the event this year, and of course, darts. OK, I want to know more.

Mike mentioned that they are still in need of someone to chair the planning for next year’s Dart Run and he turned to me with the suggestion that perhaps I’d like to volunteer. I declined for now. This is just not how I function. My style, ever since I was a young child my mother tells me, is to come into a new situation and sit on the sidelines observing intently for a while, until I feel comfortable, at which point I join in. So stepping right up for this is not likely to happen.

But then during the rest of the meeting, any time some need of this sort came up Mike turned to me again and again. Whoa, whoa, back off! I know you don’t know me but let me tell you, to push me aggressively is the surest way to get me to not do what you want. I may need to have a discussion with him about this. I appreciate that he’s trying to get things accomplished but that’s not how I work.

So anyway, they seemed like a good group of people and we’re all there for the same reason, to look out for the interests of motorcyclists. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more about them here.

Biker Quote for Today

When I’m riding my motorcycle, I’m glad to be alive. When I stop riding my motorcycle, I’m glad to be alive. — Neil Peart

For quite some time now I have been looking covetously at my friends who have weatherproof, armored riding pants. These are the people who have no reason to stop when the weather turns wet. While the rest of us are making quick stops to suit up, they sit and wait for us.

I decided to become one of them. I went down to Performance Cycle and came home with a pair of REV’IT! Vapor 2 pants.

There are several attractions. First there is the armor. If I go down I like the idea of having armor in the knees and hips. I’ll still need to put on a rain jacket but putting on the rain pants is always the biggest pain.

But another really big thing is the benefit for packing. These are pants you can wear without having to wear other pants beneath. When you’re traveling, you get up, put on the Vapor 2s with just your underwear beneath, and when you get to the day’s destination you change out of them into shorts, light-weight pants, jeans–whatever you want. The point being that you can pack pants that are more compact than jeans and/or you can just pack fewer pants.

What I’m still looking to explore is their winter usefulness. In the summer I can ride with just underwear beneath, or I can wear jeans beneath. All of this with the flannel liner removed. In winter I can ride with jeans beneath and no liner or add in the liner for additional warmth.

So far I’ve only worn them once on a cold day and that was without the liner. I found that in front, primarily due to the armor, they were plenty warm. However, the back sides of my legs felt the relative coolness. I have yet to ride with the liner in.

All that said, wearing them takes some getting used to. They feel a little big and clunky on me and them impede the act of swinging my leg over the saddle. I just have to do it in a more planned, deliberate manner.

Will I really take to them, and make them an everyday part of my riding gear? I’ll let you know.

Biker Quote for Today

Son, someday you will make a girl very happy, for a short period of time. Then she’ll leave you and be with new men who are ten times better than you could ever hope to be. These men are call motocross racers.

Hey, did you notice this website was offline for . . . oh . . . nine days?! You better believe I noticed.

I have been through web domain hell. Despite diligent efforts by the support people at my web host, HostGator, this experience could hardly have been worse. You cannot believe the relief I feel about getting the site back online.

It all started, sort of, on Sunday when I went to log into my blog to post for the coming week–this week. My heart nearly stopped when I saw that page in the image above, reading “This Domain Name Has Expired.” There was a link to renewal instructions but they were pretty generic and I took the more direct approach, I called my web host.

The point is, my account was set up so that they would take care of renewing my domain name. I had recently received a couple emails from an outfit I wasn’t familiar with saying my domain was about to expire but “knowing” that HostGator had all in hand, I assumed this was some scammer trying to get money out of me. I sent those emails to my spam folder.

The guy I reached at HostGator looked up my account and and said that they had screwed up and he would take care of it. He said I should be back online in 24 to 48 hours. I thought things were taken care of. After speaking with him I discovered an email from HostGator from the previous Tuesday–in my spam folder–telling me the domain name had expired. If I had seen this notice from my web host vs. some outfit I didn’t know I would have paid attention. But it had gone to spam.

Two days went by and the site was not back. I contacted HostGator again. That person spent a long time with me and thought he had it all set up but rather than an email confirmation was needed and while we waited the time just dragged by. Finally he said it would come sooner or later and we broke off.

Frequently yesterday I checked to see if it was fixed and it was not. This morning I called HostGator again and was a bit more angry. The guy I got was super nice and did his very best to be helpful but ultimately, after nearly an hour, he told me that HostGator does not maintain my domain name, a company called Registry Rocket via a company named ENOM did, and I should contact them.

So I called Registy Rocket. That person asked for my domain name and quickly said, “We don’t maintain that domain name, HostGator does” and immediately transferred me to HostGator–right back where I started. I hung up and called Registry Rocket back and when the the rep asked for my domain name I told her first not to do anything until I told her what was going on. Only then did I give her my domain name.

She checked and said no, HostGator maintains my domain. I said they told me you did and she said no, they are wrong. So she transfered me to HostGator again.

I told the rep I got this time that one of her coworkers had sent me to Registry Rocket, who had sent me right back to HostGator, and “One of you has got to be wrong.” She checked a little further and found that HostGator does indeed maintain my domain. It had been the other way but at some point they migrated a bunch of domains over and mine got lost in the shuffle. Wonderful.

To make a still rather lengthy story short, she got it taken care of. And now I’m finally back.

What an incredibly exhausting, frustrating experience. In the meantime, a ton of traffic to the site has gotten that same “domain name expired” message and Google has undoubtedly taken note and severely downgraded my site’s rating. All I can say is that it’s a good thing I’m not in this for the money, because if I was I’d be filing a lawsuit right away!

I was going to put up another Examiner Resurrection about efforts by a few Congress members to put a damper on the then-new practice of setting up motorcycle-only checkpoints.

I thought that post would be worth resurrecting (Examiner.com died a couple years ago) because this is an issue we are still dealing with today. The point here, in case you are new to the subject or need a memory prod, is that law enforcement agencies sometimes set up checkpoints to look for a variety of issues: seat belt use, valid driver’s license, whatever.

The problem with motorcycle-only checkpoints is that they single us out, and for no justifiable reason. You want to check for valid driver’s license? Fine, stop everyone and check everyone. But don’t stop only motorcyclists.

I decided instead to tie this in with last week’s post about the Demise of District 10. The point being, these kind of policies go unchallenged if you don’t have people active in groups such as ABATE and the American Motorcyclist Association fighting them.

Just a few days ago I read a piece about how the American commitment to democracy seems to be fading as fewer and fewer people find themselves personally involved in associations. Years ago, it said, this country was sometimes called a “nation of presidents.” The meaning is that if you were a farmer you belonged to a co-op, and the co-op had officers and members voted on issues of concern. If you worked in a factory you belonged to the union and the union had officers and the members voted on issues of concern.

Cooperative groups like this flourished throughout society, to the point that everyone lived and practiced democracy and many, many people served as the officers of these groups: a nation of presidents.

This sort of participatory democracy has diminished. And it affects us as motorcyclists. District 10 of ABATE of Colorado died because there were not enough people who felt it worth their time to get involved. But really, is it not worth your time? How do you feel about motorcycle-only checkpoints? How do you feel about future infrastructure projects not taking motorcyclists into consideration in their planning? How do you feel about HOV lanes–which federal law says must be free to motorcycles–slapping you with a fee and fine for using them without a transponder?

These issues and many more are addressed by a very small percentage of riders–those of us willing to take our time to stand up for those who ride.

So back to the Examiner post I was going to run. The gist is in the lead sentence, “Laying it on the line, 11 Congressmen today questioned a grant program that provides money for law enforcement agencies to set up motorcycle-only traffic checkpoints and called on U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to suspend it.”

While we have made progress on this issue, we’re still fighting it. How much more effective might our efforts be if more of our fellow riders stepped up and offered their support, contacting their elected representatives to voice their concerns.

At the very least, lend your support via numbers. The more members the AMA has the more impact they are able to have. Here are three groups you might want to consider joining.
American Motorcyclist Association
Motorcycle Riders Foundation
ABATE of Colorado

Biker Quote for Today

And God said “Let there be bikers” and the Devil ran like hell.

Again, I didn’t know where I was headed. I’ll just have to find out.

Friday was nice so I needed to ride. I headed southeast on Parker Road. And I kept going.

By the time I reached Franktown I had a thought in mind. I would head over through Castle Rock, on over to U.S. 85 coming down from Sedalia. Then I’d turn up Happy Canyon Road and who knows where from there.

But as I cruised along I thought about Daniels Park Road. I’ve been up there numerous times and it was gravel north of the park. But I had read a while ago that they had paved that stretch of Daniels Park Road, so here was something new for me to explore. Decision made.

Turning off 85 onto Daniels Park Road it wasn’t long before I found myself coming up on a car that was stopped right in the road. What’s up? As I slowed down and drew near I saw the situation. There were three wild turkeys feeding almost right on the road on the left. The guy in the car had stopped to look at them, and who knows, shoot a few photos. He continued on when I came up behind him.

Then maybe just 100 feet further on I spotted a flock of about 12-15 more turkeys off on the right side of the road. Then a quarter mile further there were a bunch of deer lounging on the hillside next to the road. Who knew this was a nature preserve? Actually, I bet anyone who lives out there and tries to have a garden knows all too well. I live in the city and I have trouble with deer trashing my garden. These folks would have that problem in spades.

So I got on up to the park and immediately missed my left turn so I went just a little further and took advantage of a roundabout to make a U-turn. You know what’s amazing about this Rever map I’m embedding in this post? If you zoom in you can go all the way down and see my trip around that roundabout. GPS is amazing.

I got back on my intended route and quickly saw the changes since they paved, and it was not what I expected. For one thing, much of the newly paved stretch is one-lane divided. The northbound lane veers away to the right while the southbound lane veers away to the left. And man have they put up the fences. The whole stretch of road is flanked with what I think are commonly referred to as split-rail fences, except that instead of split rails they used round fence posts. And they put them in between the traffic lanes as well.

And then beyond those the whole area was lined with new six-foot wire fences, like someone wants really badly to keep deer or livestock off the road.

But then I got out of the park and hit Grigs Road, a T-intersection. To the right the road was paved but to the left–the way I wanted to go–it turns out it is still gravel.

Fortunately, I was on the CB750 and that old bike is a do anything, go anywhere sort of bike. Mostly the road was fine, though in places a bit dicey. I just took it slowly.

I got into the Highlands Ranch area, hooked up with Quebec, and headed north for home. Another nice November ride. And oh yeah, I had my winter gear on. It’s chilly out there most days now.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you never ride to work.

District 10 of ABATE of Colorado is no more. This is the district I have been part of since I joined. I am now part of District 17.

It’s a sad situation. When I joined ABATE and District 10, D-10 was the largest, most active district in the state. What happened?

As usual, even though I was right there I was out of the loop. I’m never on the grapevine, never in touch with undercurrents. This is how it has been my whole life. I’m not sure why.

So I asked about this at the D-10 meeting in September. Why did membership drop off so precipitously?

The story, at least what I get from the folks who stayed with D-10, is that many of the old group were wedded to the Frontier Club, out on East Colfax, where we used to meet. Coming to ABATE on Sunday morning was just an opportunity to get an early start on Sunday’s drinking.

Meanwhile, there were other members who were uncomfortable with meeting at a bar, and drinking early in the day, when we were supposedly an organization that promoted responsible riding. There were enough of these to vote to move the meetings to a different place and the other folks stayed behind.

Again, this is what I get from the folks who stayed with D-10. If anyone from the other group wants to fill me in on their perspective, please do.

Additionally, there were conflicts about use of money raised through fund-raising efforts. When I joined ABATE, Randy Savely was the state rep for D-10. Randy had lost a leg when a car turned in front of him, and the Randy Ride had been created to raise money for other riders who had been hurt.

Now, the Randy Run was an ABATE function and so ABATE’s rules needed to apply to the money it raised. But, I am told, the core group focused on the Randy Run felt they should be able to use that money as they saw fit. Obviously this led to conflict and that group decided to go off on its own, taking the Randy Run with them.

And so D-10 shrank to where at most meetings there would be six people. The district had six officers so every one of us was an officer and at every meeting it was the same group of faces. More importantly, there were only those six to organize and carry off any events we chose to host. That’s a lot of work for just a few people. And to be honest, I was generally not one of those doing the work. I’ve never gotten into doing the grunt work, opting instead to do my part helping publicize the events the rest of them organized.

So when it came to vote on Sunday whether to fold the district or not, I was prepared to abstain because I felt they were the ones really carrying the load, who am I to vote to keep the district going for them to do the work? But the vote, without me, was 4 in favor of folding, with one abstention, so I added my vote to fold.

The upside is that I’ll be meeting new people and there are three districts in the state that are going to receive new members who are known to be active. That can only be a good thing for them. It will be interesting. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Biker Quote for Today

Teach your kids to count bikes on car journeys and they will automatically see us when they start to drive.