Passes & Canyons Blog

John and Bill on their Honda Shadows (years later).

It’s a whole lot easier these days to get a good handle on the places you intend to head to and the roads you’ll be on getting there than it was in the early days of the OFMC. Getting onto some dicey roads on a brand new bike is a good way to get your first scratches right away. This is a lesson John learned one year.

When the OFMC first got going, John bought a used Yamaha Virago, I bought a used Honda CB750 Custom, and Bill bought a brand new Honda Shadow. After we’d been riding about five years John decided to upgrade and he bought a new Shadow almost exactly like Bill’s, except newer. These were the bikes we set out on in 1994.

We headed toward Kremmling, where John’s Mom was living, and stopped to pay her a visit. We left town continuing northwest on US 40. Just a little further up the road we turned off US 40 onto CO134 over Gore Pass to Toponas. Nice ride. First time I’d ever been over that road.

From Toponas CO131 heads back up to US 40 but John had looked at the map and was interested in Routt County 8, which goes over Ripple Creek Pass from Yampa to Meeker. He had scoped it out and figured out (or so he thought) that it was paved all except for about 10 miles of gravel. Were we willing to do that bit of gravel? Back in those days these guys were more adventurous and we said yes; later on they concluded they did not wish to do gravel at all. I’m still willing, except on my Concours but I’ve always been more adventurous than them.

John was wrong. This road was 40 miles of gravel, much of it washboard and much of it deep with sand. It was probably the hardest riding any of us has ever done. And John managed to put his brand new bike down for the very first time.

John was leading and I was right behind. At one point he decided to stop and take a break and pulled off to the side of the road. Unfortunately for him, right at this point the side of the road was deep sand. I braked cautiously as I saw him go down. Fortunately there were the two of to help him get that bike up.

Ripple Creek Pass, by the way, is a beautiful road if you want to do it in a car or on a bike that is equipped for that kind of thing. I highly recommend it.

But that business of so much serious washboard had another impact. I noticed later that day that a couple of the welds on the sissy bar on my Honda had vibrated so hard that they broke. My sissy bar, with most of my stuff strapped onto it, was dangling precariously. But we stopped in Vernal, Utah, that night and then went on to Salt Lake City the next day and spent a couple days there. While there I went to a welding shop and got it fixed. So not a big deal. But that’s how bad the washboard was.

Heading from Vernal to Salt Lake the next day Bill was in the lead as we came alongside Strawberry Reservoir, near Duchesne. He saw a dirt road running down to the water and decided he wanted to check it out. John followed and I was right behind John.

It turned out the road was deeply rutted from erosion. Bill had no problem but John got himself in a fix and was about to lose it. He called out to me, “Ken, come help me! Quick!” I wanted to help him but I was in the same rough ground he was in and before I could do anything to help him I had to find a place to stop and park my own bike. By the time I did that he was down, his brand new bike laying on the ground.

As I recall, Bill came back on foot and helped us get John’s bike back upright, and we then rode on down the rest of the way to the water. We hung out for awhile and then managed to get back up to the highway uneventfully.

Now fortunately, neither of these two spills did any real damage to the bike, just a few cosmetic scratches and such. But it was no longer the brand new bike he had started out on just the day before.

We got more cautious about the roads we took after that.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s not the falling off that hurts, it’s the landing.

Clustered around after picking up Roy’s bike, which he dumped in the gravel.

With snow forecast for Monday but the warmest, sunniest weather yet on the year before that it was a no-brainer that the RMMRC was going to have a ride on Saturday. And this time we went some place different.

At this time of year riding options are somewhat limited. You can’t go into the mountains because of the snow and ice, not to mention a lot of sand and gravel, so east of the mountains is the only choice. Very, very often we ride out to Kiowa, to Patty Ann’s. And Patty Ann’s is great. They have really good food and it’s a nice place. But aren’t there other places?

Well, yes.

We met up at Performance Cycle and headed south on a route that itself was a bit different from what we’ve often taken, down to Hess Road and over to Hilltop Road. Destination Elbert, the South 40 Bar and Grill.

And what a great day for a ride! You’d be tempted to think Spring had arrived!

We got to Elbert and Bob proceeded to take us on a tour of the unpaved back streets of Elbert. It wasn’t really obvious where this place was. Heck, I’ve been through Elbert many times and never had any idea there was a restaurant. But we found it. You just have to make that right turn right after you come into town (from the north).

Lunch was OK; I’d have to say Patty Ann’s is better, but it was not bad at all. And two other groups on motorcycles showed up while we were there so this place is definitely known to at least some people. The guy we spoke with was out of Colorado Springs, and that makes sense because it’s closer to there than to Denver.

Leaving, we continued south and then turned west over to Monument and came up CO 105. I have to tell you, I declare Sturgis rules to be in effect along CO 105. If you’ve ever been to Sturgis for the rally you know there are way, way too many people on bikes top even think about waving to every one you see. You don’t wave at other bikers at the rally. Well, CO 105 on a weekend of gorgeous weather is not as biker-heavy as Sturgis but it’s close enough. Time to invoke Sturgis rules.

We started to splinter at Sedalia as people headed home in different directions. From eight, to five, to three, to one, and my ride was done. A good day.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: If your motorcycle makes too much noise, you can buy a muffler.