Passes & Canyons Blog

My 1999 Kawasaki Concours is a far better bike than my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. So why is it that it has always been very clear in my mind that it is just more fun to ride the Honda? I think I figured it out awhile ago: Weight.

It just make sense. I’ve ridden scooters a number of times and the one thing I keep saying about them is that scooters are fun! And of course, scooters are light. When you’re riding a scooter – at least a small one; there are some big scooters – you’re not concerned about tipping over. There is zero chance when you come to a stop that you’re going to drop the thing. It’s too light. That leaves you free to just go zipping around and enjoy the ride.

It’s a very different matter when you’re on a heavy motorcycle. My CB weighs around 580 pounds wet. At 580 pounds, the CB is nowadays a mid-sized bike, though when it was new it was considered a big bike. It also sits reasonably low, so all that weight is easy to manage – usually.

My Connie, on the other hand, weighs 675 pounds wet and the 7.5-gallon gas tank sits way up high, making it pretty top-heavy. Especially when it was new, you’d better believe I put a lot of my focus on just keeping it up whenever I was stopping or standing. I’ve had the bike for 22 years now, so I’ve gotten used to it but I still don’t take it for granted. I’ve dropped it a couple times and I know that if it leans a little too far there is nothing in the world I can do to stop it from going all the way over.

Then one summer I had the chance to ride a Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic for two days. This bike weighs about 860 pounds. Talk about struggling to keep that thing up at times! On the highway it was a great motorcycle but I hated it in city traffic, and the weight was the biggest part of what made that so unpleasant.

More recently, although we’re talking about eight years ago, I bought a Suzuki V-Strom 650. This bike weighs 490 pounds wet. Compared to my Connie it feels so light and easy to handle that it’s just a kick. Which is to say: Fun!

So it hit me, way back whenever. The more weight, the more focus you have to put on the bike. The less weight, the more you can focus on the ride. And I’ve said many, many times, I’m not into motorcycles, I’m into riding motorcycles. I love it when all of sudden things make such sense.

Biker Quote for Today

What’s sexier than a curvy girl with tattoos and a cute face? A curvy girl with tattoos and a cute face who riders her own motorcycle.

I hadn’t even heard it was being considered and now I get a note that Oregon has in fact approved lanesplitting, although the governor has not yet signed the bill. Yahoo. Little by little acceptance of this entirely sensible practice continues to spread across the country.

UPDATE–Much to the surprise of many, the governor vetoed this bill. Here’s the story: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/05/26/gov-kate-brown-vetoes-bill-allowing-lane-splitting-by-oregon-motorcyclists/

Of course, each state handles it differently so that will make for some real confusion at some point. California is the most permissive. Here’s a breakdown of what Oregon will be enacting, courtesy of a post on Adventure Rider.

SB574 would legalize lane sharing under limited conditions:
Highways only:
lane-sharing allowed only on roads with a posted speed limit of 50MPH or higher
Traffic on the road:
must be stopped, or moving at 10 miles per hour or less
The rider:
may travel no more than 10 miles per hour faster than traffic
must not impede the normal and reasonable movement of traffic
must safely merge with traffic, if traffic speed exceeds 10 miles per hour
must pass traffic traveling in the same direction
Riders cannot lane share:
between a traffic lane and the curb and bicycle lane (on either side)
between a traffic lane and a row of parked vehicles (on either side)
on the right side of the rightmost lane of traffic, or the left side of the leftmost lane of traffic
in a school zone
Riders should also use common sense when lane sharing, and err on the side of caution: “If you can’t fit, don’t split”.

That looks fairly reasonable to me. Three cheers for Oregon.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you spend more time shining your bike than riding it.

With the weather warm and everyone getting back out on the road it’s time once again to be aware of the hazards. Here’s another installment of the crazy things motorcyclists have encountered on the road, courtesy of Adventure Riders.

• Freaking goat was standing in the middle of the road recently! Fairly big dude with a serious set of horns. Figured he got out of someone’s pasture and was wandering so I stopped, he didn’t get aggressive when I approached (ATGATT, helmet still on) so I led him to the side of the road and down a driveway. Called 911, local sheriff laughed when I told them what I found. I said – your problem, I’m leaving and rode away.
• I found a pig wandering down the Middle of the Blue Ridge Parkway near the VA/NC border. When I finished laughing I stopped. Pig came running up, obviously someone’s pet. Texted a picture to my wife – she said hell no! So I called the rangers and rode away.
• This summer I was T-boned by a domestic sheep. Scooted the back end sideways but that’s it. In the spring in a canyon going to Red River, NM a Big Horn sheep ram challenged a couple on a Harley. The ram did a head on with the bike, sent the woman over the handlebars and she died. Crazy Big Horns will run into anything, moving or sitting still!
• I’m not sure if this counts. I was riding in The Villages FL. I was stopped at a traffic signal minding my own business and some old dude side swipes my front wheel while crossing the intersection in his Yamaha golf cart. This was a Hit & Run! I was laying on the ground laughing in disbelief at what just occurred. I wasn’t hurt, just amazed at golf cart traffic in that retirement community.
• I hit something with my chest while road riding in eastern PA several years ago. I’m not sure what it was, because it exploded. It was about softball sized covered in fur, full of blood, and suspended in midair in the middle of the day. My guess is either a confused bat or an unlucky squirrel that had fallen out of a tree at just the right time for me to intercept it.
• I was riding 100′ behind my son in North Washington and watched a huge Bald Eagle swoop off it’s nest, down toward my son and extended it’s talons and swept inches by his helmet. Like he was trying to pluck a fish from the water. That thing had a 4-5′ wingspan. Never a camera on when you need it.
• Night time. Three lanes of traffic. Arlington Va. Two lanes full of tractor trailers. I’m in the #1 lane just whizzing by, minding my own business when the trucks swerve partly into my lane as I’m even with the lead truck’s cab. Just then, I see what I thought was a paper bag blowing around in my lane, but it was a big hub cap, spinning and skittering all around in front of me. I barely managed to not get hit by the truck, swerve my way around the hub cap, just in time for the little sedan that had the tire blow-out and subsequent hub cap ejection, to swerve into my lane, missing me by literal inches.
• On a very windy afternoon ride home on I-580 many years ago, I was drafting a pickup towing a boat. Evidently, the boaters had left a number of bags of groceries in the open boat and the wind was whipping them around/tearing them up. The truck rolled over a chunk of lumber laying in the road and when the trailer hit it, something popped up out of the open boat. As I swerved to avoid the hunk of 2×4 in the road, a full can of beer went sailing by inches from my head. I saw the can explode in my mirror when it hit the pavement behind me.
• Buzzard. Buzzards actually. On my 250, I hit two of them in one day. For some odd reason, the were running across the road and I hit them with my left footpeg and foot. You would think that they would cross at crosswalks, but NOOOOO. They have to cross wherever they damn well please. No self discipline whatsoever. But then I hit one on my Beemer. I live in the Ozarks and was having way too much fun on a roller coaster road. Came up over a steep hill and saw some movement on my left. Hit the brakes and watched it fly right into my clutch lever, explode, roll up my arm and smack me in the helmet. Hit hard enough that I saw stars and repeated the mantra ” don’t pass out, don’t pass out, don’t pass out” until I could pull off to the side of the road. Put the sidestand down and fell off of the bike. Crawled over to the side of the road, drank water and breathed deeply for awhile until recovered. I was getting tired of the stench of the feedyard I had parked next to until I realized there was no feedyard nearby. The front of my jacket was covered with buzzard guts and whatever it had for lunch. I skipped lunch that day.
• Magpie, at speed and it flew through my front wheel, well part way through anyway. Then I had to put up with the smell of KFC for the next 40km, stopped for gas, went into pay and the guy at the cash register leapt backwards. “Um?” He couldn’t speak, just pointed at the mirror behind one of the racks, yeah I took a step back as well, covered in blood and feathers. I looked like a walking satanic ritual.

Yep. Ride motorcycles. Come for the fun; stay for the excitement!

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if when she says “It’s the bike or me!!” you have to think about it really hard.

I got a notification from Jerry Pokorny of an event that might be interesting if you’d be inclined to head up to Steamboat Springs in a couple weeks. It’s called the Premier & Classic Weekend.

So what is this Premier & Classic Weekend? Well, for starters, the AHRMA is the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association. Which is to say, this is a group that stages vintage motorcycle races. You can fill in the rest.

This event will be held at the Jenny Ranch, outside Steamboat, at 37850 Routt County Road 45. It starts on Friday, June 4, and runs through the weekend. There will be a dual-sport ride on Friday, vintage trial racing on Saturday, and premier and classic scrambles on Sunday. If you just want to watch, admission is $10 per day. If you want to bring your old bike and participate, entry fees are $30 or $40 depending on the event. If you want to stay the weekend, there are local accommodations or you can camp on the ranch for $10 per night. A catered dinner is available on Saturday night for $15 per person.

So what’s actually going to be going on, besides the chance to see some very cool motorcycles in action? Let’s take trials. Per the AHRMA website:

Observed trials is a very significant part of historic motorcycle competition. It began as a wintertime sport for European enthusiasts, who tested themselves by tracing ancient Roman roads. These riders negotiated various obstacles along the way, all of which gave test to both man and machine. As the “gentleman’s sport” developed, such obstacles became more specific, and more challenging. From the 1980s until today, the obstacles presented to trials competitors have been inconceivable for most motorcycle riders.

AHRMA’s observed trials goal is to provide its members a safe, historically accurate environment to showcase and experience vintage machinery. The key to this enjoyment is the observed sections. From the 1950s into the ‘70s, sections were mainly composed of wide-open areas of challenging terrain, with the rider’s choice of line determining his/her success. Observed sections reminiscent of this era are critical in AHRMA’s representation of classic observed trials. With period-accurate sections, machines will remain true to their original concept, and the techniques required to ride them will do the same, enhancing the entire vintage trials scene. The trials-riding experience will undoubtedly result in good friends, good rides and good fun.

So. Could be a fun weekend. Will I be there? No, I’ll be in some state about a thousand miles to the east on that weekend. But you might consider it. If you do, and you want to send me some photos and a report I’ll be glad to publish them. Thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

I don’t ride my bike to win races, not do I ride to get places. I ride to escape this world. I ride to find peace with myself. I ride to feel free and I ride to feel strong.

The folks who put together the Backcountry Discovery Routes have had a lot of fun, I’m sure, putting together backcountry routes through 10 states in the last 10 years. Butler Maps offers maps of these routes and they have sent me several of them. I’ve never ridden any of these routes but that’s not from lack of desire to do so.

Every year they put together a film of the development of that year’s route and now, at 10 years, they have put together a 10-year retrospective film. While that film will not be available for viewing until June 1, there is a trailer available now. Yeah, it looks like fun.

So, I don’t have a link right now but they say the full film will be available for free viewing as of June 1 on YouTube, Vimeo, and Amazon Prime. I’m sure a simple search will get you to it. Particularly if you search for “Ride BDR: A 10-Year Retrospective Film.”

I had hopes when they were mapping out the Colorado BDR that I might get to be part of the group but that didn’t happen. I have a somewhat distant connection to these folks and that connection seems to get weaker each year, but back then I had hopes. Didn’t happen. I’m sure they had plenty of people who wanted to go but they had to be selective.

So come June 1 we can all go see what we’ve been missing.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: You can ride a motorcycle any time of the month.

I heard yesterday about two airplanes making contact in mid-air, just a very short distance from here, over Cherry Creek Reservoir. Not a full-on collision, but one plane clipped the other. Both planes got down safely and nobody got killed.

But doesn’t that make you think: How in the heck, in all that space up in the sky, do two planes manage to hit one another? I bet I know one factor that played into it: target fixation.

The way target fixation works, if you see something you wish to avoid, but you keep looking at it, you will almost certainly steer directly to it. It happens on a motorcycle, in a car, on foot, and I’m sure it happens in airplanes, too.

I have numerous personal experiences with target fixation. When I used to fly a hang-glider I was flying once up in South Park and I was headed toward a pole with a wind sock on it. The trouble was, I was losing altitude and I was not going to be high enough to go over it. I tried to steer away but I kept looking right at it and inexorably I continued straight for it. Finally, in order not to hit it, I flared upward to go over, but that put me into a stall and I came nose down just on the other side of the pole. That hurt.

On my CB750 once we were coming down Poncha Pass toward Poncha Springs and there was a rock I’d say that was about four inches in diameter in the road ahead. I definitely didn’t want to run over that but as I tried to maneuver away I kept staring at it and ended up going right over it. This threw my front end up in the air, the only wheelie I’ve ever done on that 600 pound motorcycle. I did manage to ride it out safely.

But the point was, I kept looking right at it. That seems like the normal thing to do–you want to be sure to avoid it so you keep your eye on it. But your brain works a little differently. What you really need to do is look away from it. You will go where you’re looking. So look away and you will steer away. Look right at it and you will go straight toward it.

I can just imagine one of those pilots yesterday. He sees this other plane and wants very much to steer clear of it. But he keeps looking at it, and hard as he tries to steer away he continues to find himself on a course directly toward it. Even when the other pilot tries to evade him, the pilot who is fixated adjusts his course unconsciously to continue toward the other plane. And crash.

Look away! Look away! That’s what you’ve got to do. Practice it while you’re out riding. Identify a spot in the road ahead and deliberately look elsewhere and avoid it. Or look right at it and try to steer around it. Good luck with that. Practicing now to look away will make it easier to do it when it matters; it will be more reflexive.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 21. From March until October is roadracing season. We’ll watch it all: races, qualifying, free practice, even testing.

My 1980 Honda CB750 Custom was my first motorcycle and I still have it and I have always loved it. That said, nobody–and nothing–is perfect.

I can say for one thing that I’m not crazy about the chain drive. Having to lube that chain, adjust it occasionally, and replace both it and the sprockets at times is a bit of an annoyance and also a bit of expense. But I live with it. And from what I’ve read, chain drive has some advantages over shaft drive, though I’m not particularly attuned to those sorts of things. I just ride the bike.

There is one thing, though, that is just an out and out pain: unmounting and mounting the seat.

Motorcycle design has changed in a huge way since 1980 and getting the seat off and on is one in which the improvement is especially huge. On both my 1999 Kawasaki Concours and my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom all you have to do is insert the key and turn it, then pop the seat off. To put it back on you just position it properly and press down till it clicks. Couldn’t be simpler.

Not so on the CB.

On this bike there are two bolts that go through holes in two flanges that extend downward from the seat frame. You can see the flange in the photo at right. These bolts screw into the frame of the bike. Under the best conditions this is a simple process with a wrench. I do not enjoy the best conditions.

First off, the seat, after 41 years, seems not to be completely symmetrical and so I find it necessary to lay across the seat from the left, putting my weight on the seat to push it down just enough to free up the bolt. Then on the right I have to lift the seat just enough to free up the bolt.

On top of that, when I first bought the bike it came with a sissy bar already on it, which is great, I like that. But the rail attaches the sissy bar to the frame of the bike in a way that blocks access to the seat bolts. I don’t have to take the sissy bar off, but it is definitely awkward reaching around it to get at the bolts.

What this amounts to is that an operation that takes about three seconds on my other two bikes takes at least five minutes on the Honda and I need to have the proper tools to do it. OK, so if this is the toughest thing I’ve got going in my life I know I’m not getting any sympathy from anyone. And I’m not asking for sympathy–just making note of one of life’s little irritations. I’ll live with it. Heck, I’ve lived with it for more than 30 years already.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your ponytail comes off with your cap.

I took the Honda for a ride to see how the set-up I had used on this new Viking Bags tank bag was going to be secure. It was, but I figured I could configure it better. So I did.

As you can see from the picture above I no longer have the straps looping back over the sides of the tank. As the other picture shows, they now go into the cleft where the tank fits over the spine of the frame and around the steering column. Dipping below the tank it then loops around a couple frame members to hold it securely. In doing this I was very conscious of positioning the strap to not crimp any cables or wires or anything, and to not be located such that movement of the bars left and right would cause rubbing and wear.

In short, I think it’s well set up and should be fine for the long term, though I will check it periodically at least for a while so as to be sure.

So, so much for set-up. What about the bag itself? The first thing you have to understand about any Viking Bags product is that they are targeting the lower-priced end of the market. If you want premium quality and are willing to pay for it, buy Harley gear. If you want something that is perfectly satisfactory but maybe a little rough around the edges for a very affordable price, then Viking does a very good job.

That said, the bag has a fairly large storage space that can unzip to create a really large space. If you wanted to stand a water bottle upright at the back end, closest to you, there would be no problem at all. The detachable map case (Velcro) is a good size: 8-1/2 x 10. That’s big enough to fit a full two-panel section of most maps.

There is also a small zippered pocket on the bottom portion of the rear, rider-end of the bag that you could use small items you want quick access to. Some tank bags have a softer, grippy base layer that is actually in contact with the tank, that keeps the inevitable rubbing from wearing away at your paint. That’s one of those premium items that you pay more for; don’t look for that with this bag. I may try to come up with something to put under there to protect the paint–it seems like maybe a chamois cloth would work well–or I may just ignore it. Probably the latter. I mean, I’m assuming the material is nylon, and nylon won’t scratch the paint; it’s the grit that gets in between the bag and the tank that does the damage.

I really think I’m going to like having this bag. It’s a good size and can carry my rain suit so I won’t need to put the saddle bags on for that. I’ve been sold on tank bags for a long time. Now I finally have one on the Honda.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you lie to your wife in order to spend more quality time with your bike.