Passes & Canyons Blog

At the Progressive International Motorcycle Show.

One of the fun things about being a member of a community of like-minded souls is that you run into old friends and acquaintances when you go to events. That was definitely the case for me recently at the Progressive International Motorcycle Show.

At one point I was just walking through the crowd, looking around for anything interesting, when suddenly I was face to face with Alisa Clickenger. I’ve know Alisa now for about 10 years and I hadn’t expected to see her there but I probably should have. I met Alisa during the Adventure for the Cures event put on up at Keystone by Sue Slate and Gin Shear. Alisa was one of the riders. Since then Alisa has ridden solo to the tip of South America and most recently organized the Sisters Centennial Motorcycle Ride, which came through here in 2016.

Alisa is now promoting her latest project, the Suffragists Centennial Ride, another coast to coast event tied in to the passage of the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote. Basically all of Alisa’s endeavors are aimed at empowering women by getting them on motorcycles and realizing their ability to take charge of their own lives.

So Alisa was there. Then I saw a tall, long-haired guy I recognized but took a while to place. It didn’t take me long, though, to realize it was Dan Ballard, who runs Bitchin’ Stitchin’. I don’t really know Dan–I’ve only met him once–but he was one of my very earliest advertisers here on the Passes & Canyons website. I didn’t say hello but it was like, oh yeah, I know him.

Next I ran into Mike Langello. Mike is a member of the RMMRC who I never quite met on a ride we took “together” a couple years ago. We were all headed out to Alabama to the Barber Motorsports Museum but Judy and I left separately from the group and then got snowbound in western Kansas for three days. We never did meet up with the group but I was in contact the whole time with Mike, who was leading the ride. I finally met him in person at an RMMRC meeting about a year later.

Finally, I was tired and wanted to sit so I chose a bench with space next to this other guy. We got to talking and of course asked what each other rode and when I said I have a 1999 Kawasaki Concours he replied that he had had two of them. He got the second after he “wadded up” the first. This guy, Phil, asked if I had been involved at all with the Concours Owners Group (COG) and I said I had just for one year, twice. Phil had been very active in that group and I realized he did look familiar and I must have meet him a time or two way back then.

Talking with Phil was fun. It was like we were part of a fraternity where we both knew the same things and could talk without needing to provide details or clarification. He said he had had two ’99 Connies and I asked, “The burgundy one?” He replied yes, but you know what some people call it, don’t you? Yes, the “Barney bike,” referencing Barney the purple dinosaur.

I told Phil the best thing I got out of COG membership was assistance at a Wrench & Retch where a couple guys helped me install some highway pegs I got from Murph after he came out with the design that allowed you to mount them without cutting holes in the body work. I’m betting there are at least three items in that statement that you don’t understand but Phil needed no explanation, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

The bottom line here is that it’s nice to go to these things and run into people you know. When I was working full time as a motorcycle journalist I used to go to lots of events and most of the time I was all by myself, didn’t know anyone, and I’ve never been really good at meeting people. I spent a lot of really solitary days in the thick of large crowds. That’s something I don’t miss.

Biker Quote for Today

Life is about finding out who you are while enjoying the journey to get there.

Yeah, you really need to get a bike that fits your size.

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show always features some cool custom bikes on display, just to have eye candy. Here are some of them.

With that expensive paint job you have to wonder if this bike gets ridden.

I hope you’ve got your sunglasses.

Notice that front wheel vs. the rear wheel.

Yeah, you’re definitely going to look over that windshield.

Now we’re going a bit minimalist.

OK, this one leaves me a bit cold but I guess some people would think it’s cool.

Last one. Sorry the image isn’t sharper.

What more is there to say? Here’s the quote of the day.

Motorcycle Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: You’ll have to come rescue us when we run out of gas on the other side of town.

An earlier RMMRC ride.

There were about 10 guys but only 4 motorcycles showing up Wednesday morning for the RMMRC‘s regularly scheduled breakfast and ride. I was on my V-Strom while the other bikes were two Goldwings and one Shadow. It was definitely cool but if you wore the right gear it was a very nice day to ride.

I sure wore the right gear. I had my electric vest and my heated gloves, plus my Rev-It riding pants with long underwear underneath. I’ve got to tell you, the more I wear those pants the more I fall in love with them. This was a really, really good purchase.

One of the four of us riders was Don, who got connected to the group via the Meet-Up site. Don came all the way down from Louisville. It was his birthday and he had taken the day off from work, so he wanted to ride. Welcome Don, I hope we see you again.

Having Don join us was indicative of a shift in RMMRC thinking. The group for years had maintained a standalone website but the member who was supposed to be tending to it managed to let the hosting contract lapse. We had already added the Meet-Up page and that has the advantage of exposing other people to the fact of the club’s existence and, at times at least, bringing them to the rides. After some discussion it was decided not to reestablish the old web site, just use Meet-Up. So if you have any old bookmarks for www.rmmrc.org you might as well delete those.

The ride was no big deal; we didn’t have anything great in the way of ideas–just let’s go ride. We wound our way, avoiding highways, to the underpass under I-25 just north of the Castle Pines exit and then over to Daniels Park, down to US 85, up through Sedalia to pick up C-470 and then went our separate ways where that road intersected US 285. Robert and I headed east and home from there while Don continued north toward home. Bob had split off for home back at Daniels Park.

The thing is, the route was not important. It was just a great January day to be out on the bikes. It was windy, especially along the foothills, so I had chosen the V-Strom. I really wanted to ride the Concours but with all its body work it acts like a sail in high winds. I still got blown around on the V, just not as much.

So, we’ve had a lot of cool but clear days so far this January. You don’t have to have electrics, although I strongly recommend them. Just dress with all the warmth you can and get out there. There’s a lot of good riding to be done.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: When riding, you and your Motorcycle both arrive at the same time.

Right this way to the motorcycle show.

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show (PIMS) came to Denver this past weekend and of course I went down. PIMS doesn’t generally come to Denver but I had been to the show some years ago in Greenville, South Carolina, so I was interested to see how it compared. Somehow it didn’t seem as big and there didn’t seem to be as many people as in Greenville.

No matter. There was still a lot of interest.

One thing I had not seen before that seems to have become widespread is the use of rollers to allow someone to actually ride a running motorcycle right there on the spot. The motor is running, the drive wheel is turning, you’re just not going anywhere. What I didn’t understand was where the exhaust was going because I didn’t see any hoses hooked up to the exhausts, only fans presumably to disperse the fumes.

Of course exhaust was not an issue for one growing segment of the motorcycle world: electric bikes. One fairly large area of the exhibition hall was set aside as a riding track that was part of the Discover the Ride program. This program aims to introduce new riders to the world of motorcycling. There were a bunch of Zero bikes to be ridden but there were also some Yamaha power-assisted bicycles, actual mo-peds.

Introducing new riders to electric motorcycles.

Then in the opposite corner of the hall was a much smaller track for kids on kid-sized electric bikes. Most of them seemed tentative but having fun, although there was one boy who truly knew his stuff. He was zipping past the others at full throttle, sliding his inside foot on the curves, clearly not doing this for the first time.

I was surprised to see that Moto Works Denver had a display. I did a blog post on Moto Works Denver in August of last year and their community garage program. I mean, this is a big deal show and there are plenty of small, independent shops around but they don’t have booths at PIMS. I talked to the guy, who was not King Browne, the guy I spoke with for the post in August, and he said PIMS had approached them because they wanted to promote the community garage concept. So, cool. I support the community garage concept, too.

Of course all the manufacturers had their large spaces, showcasing all their new bikes. Plus the folks selling helmets and other gear. Over in the Honda area I was particularly interested to see the new model CB1000. When Honda introduced this bike some years ago it was styled to evoke the old CBs and it didn’t look all that different from my own 1980 CB750 Custom. Well, the bike has apparently sold well enough but the styling has moved on. This latest CB1000 looks totally modern, no signs of retro. Still a nice bike, though.

I’ll be focusing on specific pieces of PIMS in my next few posts. Stay tuned.

Biker Quote for Today

He was a crazy biker in a motorcycle ridin’ daredevil show. — Nanci Griffith

The Kawi out on the plains.

As I explained in my last post, my Concours needed some brake work. Dealers generally don’t like working on older bikes but I decided to ask Vickery for some assistance. Here’s what happened.

I explained to the guy at the service desk that I had bought the bike from them but they had fired me as a customer 10 years ago. Now I was just asking their assistance in getting a screw out of the plate covering the brake fluid reservoir. Could they at least do that for me? While I was making this appeal, a second guy stood and observed. This other guy turned out to be Randy, the service manager. He came out to look at the bike and called out an older mechanic, presumably because this guy had experience working on this older bike.

They assessed the situation and said they could try bleeding the brakes for me and would drill out the bad screw. They also said the front brake pads were nearly shot and should be replaced, which they would be happy to do.

I was surprised they would take the bike in but happily called Judy to come get me.

Shortly before closing time that day they called to say the bike was ready to be picked up. I said thanks, I’ll come by tomorrow.

The next morning I went over and Randy pulled out his phone to show me a photo he had taken. They had removed the plate from the reservoir and the photo showed a whole bunch of sludge that had formed over many years and which was blocking the ports on the reservoir, thus the bad brake performance.

The sludge had been cleaned out and the brake lines flushed, plus new brake pads had been put on. The brakes were working great again. I was good to go.

I told Randy I truly appreciated their working on my bike, and that they had fired me as a customer long ago, and yet they had done this work. Randy explained that the big problem for them is that at times people bring machines in for work and the mechanics find much bigger problems, such that the owners then decide they don’t want to spend the money and they abandon the vehicle without paying for the work already done.

The key, he explained, for them to agree to do simple maintenance work on an older bike such as mine, was to bring the bike in and let them look it over. If the bike is sound and if it’s just simple maintenance they will do the work, IF. The big if. If they have a mechanic–like that grey-haired guy–with experience with the older bike. Their younger mechanics have never worked on, say, a 1999 Kawasaki Concours, and they are reluctant to have one of them touch it. But if they have the guy, they’ll work on the bike.

I also got the impression that it is Randy who would need to look at the bike and make the decision, not the guy behind the counter. Those guys, it seems, are pretty much told to say no to any such request.

So I was thrilled. The Connie is long overdue for a basic tune-up and while that would be something Joel could do I’d much rather just drop the bike at Vickery. Thank you Randy, you haven’t seen the last of me.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you see no use in going to a bar without bikes in front.

The Connie on Loveland Pass.

The front brakes on my 1999 Concours were squishy and the brake fluid level seemed low. I could add fluid but if it got low again that would indicate a fuel-line leak. That’s beyond my ability to deal with.

Normally I would just have taken the bike over to Joel at Mountain Thunder Motorsports but these are not normal times for Joel. His landlord had raised his rent a huge amount and rather than pay it Joel had closed up shop and is now working out of his home. Unfortunately, his home is somewhere up in the hills. If he’s going to work on my bike it will mean he drives down with a trailer, loads it up, drives home and works on it, then drives it back down. That’s a lot of effort for what might just be low brake fluid.

So I called Vickery, where I bought the bike new in 1999. I used to take it to Vickery for service but about 10 years ago they fired me as a customer because dealerships don’t like to work on older bikes. That’s how I ended up working with Joel. I had also been fired as a customer by Aurora Honda some years before that with my CB750, for the same reason.

It seemed to me that Vickery ought to be willing to just do some simple maintenance, even on an older bike. No harm in asking.

I called the service department and explained the situation and asked if they would be willing to at least do this simple job. The answer was no. I then asked what sort of brake fluid the bike would use, because I have read many times how you should not mix different types of brake fluids. I figured I could at least top it off myself and then if it got low again that would mean a bigger problem and I could call Joel.

The guy at the service counter told me what fluid it needed and I went over to Vickery to buy some. Back at home I tried to remove the top plate on the reservoir but for the life of me I could not get one of the screws out. The other came out easily but all the bad one did was start stripping. Now what do I do?

It was a nice day and I was determined to ride the Kawi that day so I geared up and headed out, with no destination in mind. Before I got out of the neighborhood I decided to ride to Vickery. At the very least perhaps they would help me get that screw out. Refusing that, I felt, would be terrible customer relations, but I wasn’t especially optimistic. If they wouldn’t even do that for me, I had located an independent shop over near where Joel used to be and I figured I could drop by there and see if they would help me.

What happened then is interesting and I’ll fill you in on Thursday.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: Motorcycles only need their fluids changed every 2,000 miles.

From left to right, the Concours, the CB750, and the V-Strom.

I make note of my odometer readings on all three bikes and my car at the end of the year and once again I put more miles on my bikes than I did on my car. It has been quite awhile, actually, since the last time I put more miles on the car than on the bikes. I try to ensure that the bikes get the bulk of the miles.

That said, my mileage overall for the year was down. In 2018 my total mileage was 10,158 (7,230 motorcycle miles); in 2019 it was 8,011 (4,777 motorcycle miles). I guess I just don’t leave the house as much as I used to. Still, that was 4,777 miles on the bikes versus only 3,234 miles in the car. But there have been years when I’ve put more miles on the Kawi alone than I put on all my vehicles last year.

So which one got the most riding? Once again it was the V-Strom. This has totally to do with tires. I was getting set to go on the OFMC ride last year and looking at the tires on the Kawi I was not confident. I wanted to take the Kawi but the tread was getting thin. But it was not thin enough for me to want to get new tires yet. I briefly considered taking the CB750 but it has the least luggage capacity so I took the V-Strom.

All told, I put 3,494 miles on the V. That compares to 2,425 the year before.

The Concours was the one that really got short shrift last year. That wonderful highway bike was only ridden for 688 miles, versus 4,336 the previous year. That has got to be the least it has ever had. (Nope, I checked my records and I only rode it 666 miles in 2013.) I want to ride it on the OFMC trip this year so I’ll make sure to wear out those tires and get new ones before that trip comes around.

In last place as always is the CB750. I only put 595 miles on it last year. But that’s up from 469 miles the previous year. I made a special point of riding that bike more.

So what am I looking for in 2020? By golly, I will put more miles on all three bikes, I swear. And if I can put fewer miles on my car that will just be a bonus. In particular I want to put more than 1,000 miles on the Honda in one year, something I haven’t done since 2009. That used to be my only bike and it always got lots of miles.

And let’s see if I can exceed 10,000 motorcycle miles this year. You know what they say about a dirty job that someone has to do. Well, I’m more than willing to do the dirty work.

Biker Quote for Today

The cost of not following your heart is spending the rest of your life wishing you had.

I’m so glad this was NOT what things looked like here on Saturday.

I knew Saturday, January 4, was supposed to be an extremely warm day, the kind that is perfect for motorcycle riding. There was just one problem. Our street was still iced in, especially in several spots where big trees shade the road and protect the ice. Would I be able to get out or would I be totally frustrated watching a terrific riding day slip by?

Thursday and Friday had been moderately warm, in the mid 40s. Saturday was projected to hit 58. By sundown on Friday there was still way too much ice on our street.

I checked it out. If there had been just a spot or two where I would have had to coast over, say, 5 feet of ice, I would have been inclined to do it. But those big trees were leaving areas where it was more like 25 feet of ice, and more than just one. Going out I might have been able to roll on over, with no throttle because it is downhill. But coming back would have meant higher speed or throttle to get back over those spots. I was leery.

So in the early part of the day I went about my normal routine. That includes walking to the gym, around the other side of our block. Coming home I saw that that side of the block was still unpassable. I showered and had lunch and then took a walk down our side of the block to check the ice there.

Holy smokes! The way was totally clear! And it wasn’t just a narrow pathway, a huge wide swath had just opened up. Thank you Mr. Sun! I headed home to gear up.

I chose the V-Strom for my first ride of the year. The ride was nothing of any particular note; I just headed south, and south, and south, until I turned east, and then turned north for home again. But it was a beautiful day. I wore my electric vest but had no need to turn it on. I kept my visor cracked the whole time and my face never came close to getting cold.

And there were a lot of other bikes out. Plenty. Heck, who wouldn’t want to go out on a day like this? I even saw a convertible with the top down.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love living in Colorado? This is why.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than men: If your motorcycle doesn’t look good, you can paint it or get better parts.