Passes & Canyons Blog

Getting ready to ride to Bennett.

The early part of this week has been great riding weather, with bad weather coming soon, so of course I was out taking advantage of it.

On Monday I took the V-Strom out and ran the regular errands I carry out each month. Not a lot of miles so I’ve got to get back out on this one again this month if I want to turn over the next 1,000 on the odometer. I’m still about 70 miles away. Maybe today after I finish this post. The weather is supposed to hit tomorrow.

On Tuesday I went out on the Concours for a longer run. I’m still waiting to get the bike in to Rowdy Rocket Garage to get this vacuum issue fixed so I’m still contending with the fact that the engine races like crazy every time I pull the clutch in to shift. I’ve started figuring out how to adapt to the problem at other times. For instance, if I’m coming to a stop I just let the bike slow down a lot before I finally pull in the clutch and downshift. Normally you would be concerned about stalling but this bike is not going to stall. In fact, much of the time I can let go of the throttle just as if I had cruise control on and the bike just keeps going.

This ride just strengthened my resolve that yes, I am going to sell this bike at some point and replace it with something newer and lighter. It just isn’t all that much fun to ride when I’m constantly having to pay attention to this problem. And yes, once I am finally able to have the problem addressed it will eliminate this negative condition but I’m past that. My mind is made up to move on. I was talking to Bruce yesterday and he was saying just go ahead and sell the bike as it is and take whatever you can get. But I don’t think I could find any buyer at this time of year so I’d like to have it fixed so I can enjoy riding it in the next few months before I sell it. At least if it’s not going to cost too much.

Then on Wednesday the RMMRC took a ride out to Bennett for lunch. I rode the CB750.

There were eight of us on this beautiful, warm, sunny day. We headed out down Parker Road, then east on Quincy and out into the country. There are not a lot of options on roads to take going out where we were headed so we just rode the straight out to where we turned north on County Road 129, jogged east and then north under I-70, and reached our destination, the High Plains Diner. We had never been there before and I was favorably impressed. The food was good–nothing spectacular–at very reasonable prices. I would not hesitate to go there again.

Heading out after the meal we didn’t have a lot of choices. We could go back the way we came or we could go east about a mile and take the Kiowa-Bennett Road south. Heading west without going south didn’t offer any attractive options, although I guess we could have gone east on US 30 to Watkins and then south on Watkins Road. We took the Kiowa-Bennett Road.

Two of us were inclined to go on all the way to Kiowa and then turn west but the other six decided just to go south as far as Quincy and then retrace our route there. So we did, then home. But man, it was a great day to be out on a bike.

Biker Quote for Today

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.

Rider training not only helps you learn to ride, it can weed out those who really don’t belong on a motorcycle.

There is a quote I used at the end of one of these posts that reads, “The only thing better than a motorcycle is a woman riding one.” There have been others as well in a similar vein. Yes, I love seeing women riding.

That said, not everyone–man or woman–is really cut out to ride.

For instance, my wife Judy is OK with riding behind me but only because she trusts me. The only time I’ve been able to get her on a bike on her own was when I was test riding an electric scooter. We went over to the parking lot of the local elementary school and she got on and tentatively twisted the throttle. She was unsteady at first but in a couple minutes she was doing figure 8s and had the biggest grin on her face.

But that was it. She had no desire to do it again and never has.

Someone a bit more game was Davey. Long before I ever even met Judy I was seeing a woman named Davey. Davey enjoyed riding on the bike with me–my CB750, the only bike I had at that time–and decided maybe she’d like to try it on her own.

She signed up for a Beginning Rider course up at Front Range Community College, in Westminster, close to where I was then living. I knew she was doing it and I knew how long the class runs so I was surprised in mid-afternoon when she appeared at my door, rushed in, and hugged me and cried. Things had not gone well.

Of course, the first part of the class is in the classroom and that went fine. But then, after lunch, they went out to the course and she mounted the little 250cc bike they use in these classes. I don’t know how long it took but somewhere along the way she rode the thing right into a curb and was sent sprawling on the grass. She got up, said not a word to the instructor or anyone else, ran to her car, and drove straight to my house.

What I had not thought about, and I’m not sure if she had or not, was that she drove a car with an automatic transmission. She had never driven a stick, so not only was she trying to learn to ride a motorcycle, she was trying at the same time to learn to use a clutch and to shift gears. Yow! That would be a challenge for anyone!

So yeah, if you want to ride motorcycles you really should probably know how to shift gears beforehand. Although there are some bikes these days where shifting is not necessary. But most scooters don’t have gears either, so there is that option. But, if we’re honest with ourselves, some people just really ought not to get on a motorized two-wheeler more powerful than an e-bike. It’s just true.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m that crazy biker chick that everybody warned you about.