Passes & Canyons Blog

The Riders Share website.

Have you ever rented a motorcycle? It’s really great to go somewhere on vacation and get a bike to ride around but if you go through any of the major rental outfits you’re going to pay an arm and a leg. As I recall, the last time I rented a Harley from Eagle Rider it cost me above $150 per day. Ouch! That’s a lot of money if you’re looking at a week-long trip.

I’ve written about a couple different rental options, basically the sharing economy thing, as with AirBnB, such as Twisted Road. Well, I recently learned of another such outfit: Riders Share. I would have sworn I had written about them before but multiple searches of this blog turns up nothing, so maybe I haven’t. In that case, now is the time.

Looking at the Riders Share site, they list cities where they operate. For Denver they say they have 64+ bikes for rent. There’s quite a range. For $150 a day there is a 2004 Honda CB600F. There’s a 2018 BMW R Ninet Scrambler for $122 a day. There are a bunch of scooters for $38 to $40 a day. A 2015 Suzuki GSX-S750ZL5 for $72 a day. In Fort Lupton there is a Honda VT1100C2 Shadow Sabre for $52 a day. In Westminster there’s a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R for $53 a day. In Lakewood there’s a 2004 Harley FLSTFI Fat Boy for $67 a day. You get the picture.

These are realistic prices that won’t break the bank. Plus, it works the other way. Riders Share does not own these bikes, they’re owned by people like you and me who have agreed to rent their bikes out to other folks. I’m not sure what the price split is between the website and the owner but if you’re interested I’m sure they’ll be happy to explain it all to you.

A few things about the website. On the home page they have a listing of cities where they operate and you can click on the city and be taken to those listings. Looking at what was offered I clicked to see more and found myself cycling through the same seven or eight bikes, not the 64+ they claimed for Denver. Looking around I found that if I used the map on the home page to zero in on the Denver area they have an interactive map that shows you every offering within that map area. That’s where you see all the other available bikes. If you’re interested in a particular price range or specific make they have filters for that.

Unfortunately, if I clicked to see one particular bike and then hit the Back button it took me all the way back to their headquarters in the Los Angeles area. Then I had to drag the map back to Denver to look at another. Again and again. I suspect that if you sign up as a user they have it set to you can always return to your specific area. Or something of that sort. Boy, if they don’t, they really need to. OK, digging around further I see they do have that option. You just have to plug in the city where you want to focus. Good.

So this looks like a good option. I know there have been plenty of times I’ve been somewhere away from home and wished I could go for a ride in the area. Now maybe that can happen.

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: We rev our engines when going under bridges.

What sort of things make a place biker-friendly these days?

I started building this motorcyclecolorado.com website in 2004 and at the time I figured it would be helpful to include a page on biker-friendly hotels and motels. So I did and I have added to it over the years.

Things change, though, and more recently I have had people ask me what the idea is. Which is to say, what with doctors, lawyers, and people from every walk of life taking up motorcycling, a lot of people have no understanding that there was a time not so long ago when bikers might find themselves turned away from lodging purely because they were on motorcycles.

Now, that’s great. It means we’ve come a long way. The image of the evil, dangerous outlaw biker has largely faded from the public consciousness.

That raises a question then. What today constitutes a biker-friendly hotel or motel? Are there criteria I should use when adding places to the page?

One criterion I’ve always used is that if the establishment contacts me asking to be added, I consider that biker-friendly and I add them. Also, if they buy ads on the website that’s a pretty clear indication they are actively seeking business from bikers, so obviously they are biker-friendly. That’s pretty simple.

Most of the others I have added are places we have stayed where they have been very nice to us. And seeking to be helpful beyond pointing riders to one place or another, I have even listed a place or two that I would not recommend and explained why. The example that comes immediately to my mind is one place where the bed was absolutely horrid. But I’ve grown concerned about that. We stayed in that place a long time ago now. I have to believe they have gotten rid of that terrible bed by now; is it fair that I have not changed that listing in all these years? We haven’t been back so I can’t revise the rating upward; should I just delete it now?

What about the design/layout of the place? Planning this year’s OFMC trip the guys told me they really like the places where you can park your bike right outside the door. That makes it an easy schlep of your gear and the bike is right there in case someone tries to mess with it. Does that make a place biker-friendly? I know I prefer that because I hate carrying all my gear through a hallway, up a stairway, and down another hallway. Still, if they have carts that you can load it all onto, and an elevator, and you can easily roll it all then it’s really not that bad. Do carts and an elevator make a place biker-friendly?

What else? Some places make a point to offer rags for cleaning your bike. Now, certainly many of them do this for their own interests because too many bikers have been jerks and used good towels and washcloths for that purpose, and those towels and washcloths are then ruined. Still, it’s always nice when at check-in the clerk tells you where to find rags to clean your bike. That definitely seems biker-friendly.

But what else? I’d really like to hear your thoughts because if it makes sense I want to revise this page. But in what way? Should I include a checklist: rags–check; actively seeking biker business–check; preferred motorcycle parking–check. You get the picture. Or what? Let me know what you think.

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: We have grease under our fingernails.

Keep the rubber side down, OK?

What else can we glean from the 2020 annual report of Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program?

How about this. Bullets copied from the report with my comments added in parentheses.

Motorcyclist Fatalities – 2019

• 103 motorcyclists were killed in motorcycle crashes in 2019, 92 were male, and 11 were female. Ninety-three were motorcycle operators, and ten were motorcycle passengers.
• Motorcyclist fatalities represented 17.3% of Colorado’s total traffic fatalities (103 of 596). (Yeah, and we sure aren’t 17.3% of the vehicles on the road.)
• The number of motorcyclist fatalities remained the same in 2017, 2018, and 2019 at 103.
• 71 motorcycle operators involved in fatal crashes were determined to be “at fault” in the crash.
• 43 of the fatal motorcycle crashes involved only the motorcycle and no other vehicle. (Can’t blame someone else, at least in most of these cases. There’s always the possibility a rider swerved to avoid an idiot and paid with their life.)
• In 2019, 24 motorcycle operators killed in a fatal crash were suspected to be impaired by alcohol and/or drugs.
• 48 motorcycle operators killed were not wearing a helmet. (This means 55 who died were wearing helmets. Helmets are good but don’t let anyone try to tell you they’re a cure-all.)

Of 1,965 motorcycle crashes tallied, where did they happen?

Non-intersection: 1,022. At intersection: 595. Intersection related: 160. Driveway access related: 114. Ramp: 42. Roundabout: 19. In alley: 11. Parking lot: 2.

So OK, we all know the dangers of drivers turning left in front of you, but apparently the majority of crashes don’t even occur at intersections. What causes these? I think we’ll start to get some answers in the next section.

What was the “First Harmful Event” as the report terms it?

Overturning (non-collision): 548. Collision with curb/median: 136. Front to rear collision: 134. Other non-collision: 90. Side to side collision–same direction: 86. Collision with wild animal: 48. Collision with other object: 41. Collision with parked vehicle: 29. Collision with embankment: 27. Collision with guard rail: 26.

So overturning (non-collision) is the top event? What caused that? The top violations of at-fault riders again helps explain. These are apparently what the riders were actually cited with after the crashes.

Careless driving: 469. Driving under the influence of alcohol: 48. Reckless driving: 47. Following too closely: 45. Improper driving on mountain highway: 21. Failed to drive in designated lane: 12. No insurance in possession: 12. Unsafe lane change: 8. Improper turning left: 8. Improper passing on right: 8.

So careless driving is a really big factor. That’s worth noting. Next we have top contributing human factors of riders at-fault.

Driver inexperience: 224. Driver unfamiliar with area: 73. Driver preoccupied: 51. Evading law enforcement officer: 16. Illness/medical: 7. Driver fatigue: 6. Distracted by a passenger, food, objects, etc.: 4. Driver emotionally upset: 3. Physical disability: 1. Other: 453.

So in other words, with 453 “Other” there must be an unknowable number of human factors that, under the right combination of circumstances, can lead to a crash. Next is top movements of at-fault riders.

Going straight: 603. Making left turn: 89. Slowing: 69. Changing lanes: 58. Making right turn: 56. Passing: 41. Weaving: 35. Avoiding object in roadway: 28. Making U-turn: 7. Entering/leaving parked position: 3.

There it is! That’s what causes motorcycle crashes! In 603 cases the riders were going straight! Don’t these people understand you’re supposed to ride the curvy roads? OK, yeah, I’m funny.

Hopefully there is some tidbit of information here that strikes you and that you will incorporate into your mindset when riding to make you a safer rider. Something like, wow, most crashes don’t even happen at intersections, I guess I’d better be more alert all the time. And maybe not; well, I offered it to you.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you can’t figure out why the battery on your new bike won’t stay charged.

MOST Program annual report

The 2020 annual report of Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program is out and more than anything it looks like last year’s report. In fact, the number of fatalities has remained steady at 103 for three years in a row now. This is down from an all-time high in 2016 of 125 fatalities. The 2020 report addresses crashes in 2019.

As would be expected, the counties with the highest number of fatalities are the counties with the highest populations. These include Adams County (10 in 2019, 53 in the last five years), Denver (15 and 63), El Paso (19 and 59), and Jefferson (13 and 63). The 10 fatalities in Adams County matches the previous year and the 13 in Jefferson County is one higher than 2018, but there were considerable increases in Denver (7 up to 15) and El Paso (12 up to 19).

The age groups of those who died were largely stable with the exception of the 40-49 age group, which has risen from 15 to 21 in the last three years, and the 50-59 age group, which has declined from 20 to 16.

Looking at overall statistics, in 2019 there were approximately 120,000 vehicle crashes statewide, of which 1,965 (1.6%) involved motorcycles. Those 1,965 included 115 riders who took MOST training in either 2018 or 2019.

OK, here’s a statistic I didn’t understand at first but think I do now: Of the 1,965 crashes involving a motorcycle, 1,361 crashes resulted in injury, and 96 crashes resulted in a fatality. I wondered how could it be 96 if there were 103 fatalities but then I realized that several of those crashes must have resulted in two or more motorcyclists killed.

Here’s another interesting statistic that does not reflect well on MOST: Of the 1,965 motorcycle crashes, 1,269 of the motorcycle operators were at fault in the crash (64.6%). Among the 115 motorcycle operators who were MOST students and had a crash in 2019, 76 were at fault in the crash (66.1%). So how effective is training, really? Despite that I still have to believe getting training is better than not getting training.

This next stat speaks better of MOST: In 2019, there were 154 crashes where alcohol or drugs were suspected among motorcycle operators at fault in a crash. 127 of the motorcycle operators were suspected of alcohol use only, 18 operators were suspected of drug use only, and 9 motorcycle operators were suspected of both alcohol and drug use. Only eight MOST students were suspected to be impaired by drugs or alcohol at the time of the crash.

Perhaps that implies that people who are responsible enough to get training are also more responsible about impaired driving in general.

There is more information to be mined from this report and I’ll continue with that in my next post.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you never ride to work.

Parked across the street from Patty Ann’s in Kiowa.

A regular ride for the RMMRC is out to Kiowa to Patty Ann’s Cafe, where the folks are friendly and the food is very good. Such a regular ride that we really have to work to find different ways to get there and come back.

Sure, we could always ride down Parker Road to Franktown and take CO 86 east to Kiowa but what fun would that be? Fortunately there are a lot of different routes.

The one we took out there on Wednesday was another really basic one: out east on Quincy to the Bennett-Kiowa Road and then south. If you just took those two routes you would soon be bored out of your mind. But there are numerous north-south roads, intersecting numerous east-west roads and you can pretty much zig-zag your way and vary the route any number of ways. You end up in the same place.

This, of course, is the curse of living in one place too long. There’s not a road anywhere near you that you haven’t ridden several hundred times.

Years ago I used to be pretty footloose. I moved around. And even when I stayed in the same place I would go away frequently, for extended excursions. I was known for this. When some friends moved to Buffalo, New York, the wife told me she wasn’t saying good-bye to me because she knew I’d be showing up at their door at some point. That was 40 years ago and I have never seen those folks again.

As it turned out, I settled down. I bought a house. That meant staying in one place and having mortgage payments that had to be made or else. That meant jobs where they expect you to show up every day. Dang, footloose was fun.

So I started going on all these week-long summer trips with the OFMC, which we’ve been doing for 31 years now. But even that started getting repetitive. In 31 years you cover a lot of roads anywhere you can get to and back in a week and a day or two.

For a while I pushed the guys to try something like shipping the bikes a long way away and flying out and then riding home. Or renting a truck to haul the bikes one way and having a marathon drive out somewhere distant and then riding home. I never could get anyone to go along on that with me. I’ve given up on that, plus the OFMC is down to just three again and in 2019, as I was mapping out a route, they told me they were game for some big miles in order to reach some places we don’t generally go. Afterward, planning the 2020 trip, they told me “let’s not do such long rides this time.” OK guys, whatever you wish.

And you end up riding the same roads over and over again. Sometimes I want to move to another city just so I can ride different roads. That’s not going to happen. I’ll keep riding these same roads, and ultimately they all lead to Patty Ann’s. Heck, it’s not a bad destination.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if people have nearly died of starvation looking at all of your bike/run pictures.

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) released its legislative agenda for the coming year and it looks much like last year’s agenda. That’s how these things work: You chip away year after year until you finally reach your objective. There are few easy fixes.

The MRF, just to recap, is the national motorcyclist rights organization that works in Washington, DC, with Congress on issues of importance nationally to riders. Meanwhile, all the local and state ABATEs provide the same function on the state levels.

Here’s the MRF agenda. I’ll add a few notes on some of them.

• Profiling: Continue pursuit of the House anti-profiling resolution mirroring the Senate version that passed unanimously. Build momentum for inclusion of anti-profiling language in other legislation. (This is to halt the practice of law enforcement agencies setting up checkpoints solely for motorcyclists; if you want to stop all motorists and check for valid licenses, etc., that’s fine, but not just motorcyclists.)
• Renewable Fuels: Advocate for targeted changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). (This is aimed at protecting motorcycle engines from the negative effects of too-high ethanol content in gas.)
• Autonomous Vehicles: Advocate and monitor any legislation or regulations related to motorcycles concerning connected and autonomous vehicles. (Make sure autonomous vehicles see and recognize motorcycles.)
• Emission Regulations: Engage the EPA & Congress on any activity related to motorcycle emission regulations.
• Definition of a Motorcycle: Educate policymakers and advocate for change to current definition, that better reflects the current two- and three-wheel motorcycle landscape. (Ensure that regulations affecting motorcycles are based on statistics truly related to motorcycles, i.e., two-wheeled vehicles primarily, and treat three- and four-wheel vehicles as a different class of vehicle.)
• Crash Avoidance: Continue to promote the theme of crash avoidance versus safer crashing urging NHTSA and the DOT to focus on crash prevention and rider education.
• Helmet Laws: Oppose any mandatory federal helmet, apparel or conspicuity standards.
• Black Box: Pursue legislative language that any collected or available vehicle data is the property of the consumer and in which the consumer has the choice to opt-out of having their personal data communicated to interested parties.
• Surface Transportation Reauthorization (Highway Bill): Advocate and pursue legislative efforts that impact motorcyclists in the Highway Bill, now set to expire in 2021.

Seriously, I wouldn’t expect many of these items to be checked off a done a year from now but if the MRF was not there doing its work it is easily imaginable that these situations could get worse. At the very least, preventing backsliding is itself a worthwhile objective.

Biker Quote for Today

So when push comes to shove, get the Harley revved up, the moon can eclipse even the sun. — Lou Reed

The RMMRC on an earlier ride.

I headed over on Wednesday to meet up with the other RMMRC members who were going riding but when I got there I only saw one bike in the parking lot. I pulled over by a woman on a Harley who I did not recognize and she said she hadn’t seen any other bikes. I took a slow turn around the lot and only spotted one more.

Back over by her, she said she was going inside to use the restroom. I parked and walked over and saw the regular cast of characters at an outdoor table. I joined them. There was Robert but he is moving to Panama in less than a week and has sold his bike. Roy was there but not on his bike. Bob was there but not on his bike.

When the Harley woman joined us there were four of us who were on our bikes: her and me plus another woman and a guy on a Concours who I had seen before but whose name I did not recall at that moment. Paula, Valerie, and Gene, respectively, as I know now.

What this meant was that none of the usual leaders were riding and none of us had a plan. Think fast.

I was the one who came up with a plan. I have previously discussed a recent ride the RMMRC took where we rode Kerr Gulch, Witter Gulch, and Shadow Mountain Drive. I had never been on two of those roads and had only been on the third one time. I had mapped out a plan for a ride to take Judy on, essentially doing much of that original ride in reverse. Let’s do this, I proposed.

No one else had any ideas so it was no surprise they agreed to follow me. We headed out toward Morrison, figuring to go up to Kittredge and catch Kerr Gulch Road there.

Now, first off, being in the lead is a responsibility. When you’re just following along you don’t have to do much other than pay attention to the guy in front of you and the guy behind. Leading, especially in the city, means constantly keeping an eye out that you don’t lose anyone off the back end. With traffic and stoplights that can be challenging. This is part of why most people don’t like to lead. But I volunteered for it today.

We passed through Morrison and just on the outskirts of town we hit a roadblock. The whole highway was closed. Dang! What the heck are they doing up there? I still don’t know but, as the GPS says, recalculating.

It occurred to me that we could go back toward Morrison and take the road that runs over to U.S. 285, take 285 to the Parmalee Gulch road, and then take the turn that carries you over to Kittredge. We headed that way with me leading and Paula behind me. We got separated from the other two by cars. At 285 we couldn’t see either of them so we pulled over. After a minute or two Gene came along and said Valerie decided to go home. OK, now there were just the three of us. A pretty small ride by RMMRC standards.

So we followed that route, ignored the sign in Kittredge that said local traffic only, and turned onto Kerr Gulch Road. Up to Evergreen Parkway, a short jog south to get on the road over Squaw Pass, and then a turn down Witter Gulch.

Nearing Evergreen from the back side I pulled into the lot at the Evergreen Golf Course. Everyone was glad to take a break and get off the bikes, and Gene was enthused at what we had just ridden. He said he has ridden his bicycle on Squaw Pass many times and never even noticed that turn-off down Witter Gulch. I wasn’t sure Paula was as enthused because I know from experience that all those really tight turns are work on a big, heavy bike.

I told them my ride had one more leg but if they were ready to head home we were just outside Evergreen. They were game for one more so we rode into town, took the right toward Conifer, and then I had to find the turn-off. Coming the other way you see the sign for Shadow Mountain Drive. Over here, however, the road has become something else and I couldn’t remember exactly what. I warned them I might make a wrong turn.

We got to Brook Forest Road and I turned but very quickly considered turning back, thinking I had goofed. But I reconsidered and kept on and after awhile the road became Black Mountain Road and finally Shadow Mountain Road. That brought us back to CO 73 just outside of Conifer and U.S. 285. Now we turn for home.

It was a heck of a nice ride. There was still a lot more fall color than I expected and it was a beautiful day. A beautiful day up in the hills, that is. Coming down into town the smoke from the forest fires was so bad you couldn’t even see downtown. I don’t even want to think about what this crap is doing to our lungs.

So Robert is leaving the country, and new leadership is going to need to step up for the RMMRC. I guess I’m going to have to do my share. I did pretty well this time.

/Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than men: Motorcycles don’t need Viagra.

You’re not likely to see crowd scenes like this at the 2021 Colorado Motorcycle Expo.

The Colorado Motorcycle Expo, formerly the Motorcycle Show and Swap, has had a rough few years. First there was a shooting that resulted in it closing early and then not happening the following year. Now it is stuck in the same conundrum facing so many venues in light of the coronavirus.

Obviously, the folks running it have to make some decisions about the 2021 show, presumably to be held in January. Here are some of the proposed changes.

• The number of attendees inside the building at one time will be limited to 700. This will increase to 1000 if we use more space on the lower level and 3rd floor. The good news is vendors and employees are not counted as attendees. Our plan is to stagger admission times with 2 hour blocks so the overall attendance is not significantly impacted.
• All food and beverage consumption will be confined to designated areas. This means people cannot walk around eating or drinking.
• Facial coverings will be required at all times with the exception of designated food and beverage areas.
• Aisle sizes will increase and be designated for one way traffic only. Additionally, the spacing between vendors will be increased. Our plan is to spread the bike show out throughout the entire vendor areas in order to increase traffic throughout the expo and to fill the increased spaces between vendors.
• Plexiglas barriers will be required for all vendors where financial transactions take place. You can provide your own or the facility will rent these to you.
• A quick temperature scan will be included with daily vendor check in/screening.
• Proper social distancing will be expected and enforced with attendees.
• Concerts and entertainment are not allowed at the facility. Our plan is to have after hour parties that are relocated off-site for 2021.

All of this, by the way, is only if they’re able to proceed in the first place. That is not a given and at the moment the management is reaching out to the vendors to see whether they would even plan to come. If that comes up with a largely negative response the Expo may not happen at all, I would presume.

But also, you have to wonder a few things here. First, will people come to the Expo? I know Judy and I don’t get too bent out of shape by the coronavirus but we categorically do not go places where there are crowds. And they say facial coverings will be mandated at all times. Considering a significant portion of the biker community is made up of Trump-friendly anti-maskers, this could be hard to enforce. Who’s going to tell a group of 25 1%ers that they have to put masks on or leave? This could be tough.

More news will follow. I’ll update you when I hear anything more.

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider:
And the Number 1 sign that a computer is owned by a Harley rider:
01. — A half-naked, big-breasted “warrior princess” and her tiger have been airbrushed onto the sides of the monitor.