Passes & Canyons Blog

Just to wrap this up, I’m not going on this RMMRC ride I’ve been talking about. Healing is just taking too long.

But as part of my exploration as to what I am currently capable of, on Tuesday I decided it was time to do a real ride and I went out US 285 and then over Guanella Pass. A beautiful day to ride and if I couldn’t handle this 150-mile jaunt I sure couldn’t handle the longer days planned for the trip.

And it was good. I got all the way out of town before I felt even slight discomfort. Big, big improvement.

So there I am tooling up 285 and a couple on a Concours 14 rolled up behind me. Very shortly afterward another guy joined us. I was chuckling to myself about how anyone who saw us was almost certainly thinking we were a group of riders on a trip together. You don’t think that about three cars in a row but you do when it’s a bunch of motorcycles.

Then in a few more miles we were joined by two more guys on bikes. Now we’re a group of five bikes and six people, for all the world like we’re traveling together. We passed a bunch of bikes going the other way, everybody’s waving, and I’m just shaking my head at how I just know that even those bikers figured we were together.

The solo guy who had been the third member of the group turned off at Pine Junction so now there were only four bikes, and we got to Grant and I turned up the Guanella Pass road and the couple on the Concours went straight. They have a sign there at Grant that I liked. It read, “This is a mountain pass, not a raceway. Slow down and enjoy the scenery.” Words of wisdom.

The other two guys had dropped out of sight behind we got to Grant but then I stopped partway up the pass to put on a sweatshirt–it was getting chilly!–and they went by. Hey fellas, fun riding with you for awhile.

Just FYI there were a lot of tar snakes on the Grant side of this pass. I figured since it was cool they would be no issue but after my rear end slid out a couple times I concluded they were not to be ignored. On the Georgetown side, which is a different county, there were no tar snakes but there was a lot of gravel in the very high switchbacks and some in some of the lower ones. So take care riding this pass at this point.

And yeah, it was darn chilly up on top of the pass but dang if my butt didn’t still just feel fine. I like this. I’ll need to stop and take the sweatshirt off when I get lower but for now it’s very welcome.

So there was no obvious spot to stop once I got down lower so I kept riding but by the time I was getting off I-70 at the El Rancho exit I was cooking. The plan was to jump on the Evergreen Parkway just a couple miles and then turn off onto Kerr Gulch Road and take that very non-busy route down to Kittredge.

Up at the top Kerr Gulch is very steep but I finally came upon a driveway and that looked like a good spot to stop. I stopped, put the kick-stand down, and got off . . . and the bike just rolled forward and fell over. Dang! I didn’t need this. What happened next is a bit of a story and I’ll tell that next time. Suffice it to say I got going again.

So, down to Kittredge, to Morrison, to US 285, and home. A good long ride and by the time I got home I knew I’d be texting Alberto to say no way am I going on this trip. By this point I was hurting and this time a hot soak in the tub was not enough to make it all go away.

Not that it mattered as it turned out. I checked my email later and he had sent me a note the day before saying he had had to cancel out. And a couple other guys dropped out, too, and it was now just down to Alan, the organizer, and Bruce. I texted Bruce to ask if they were going to go nevertheless and he said yes. Good for them. Sorry I won’t be with you.

Biker Quote for Today

Does it get any better than motorcycling with your best friends?

With four days left before we are to leave on this RMMRC ride my butt is better but not great so I took another ride to see just how bad–or good–it was. Verdict: I still don’t know.

I had taken a ride about a week earlier and that time I had barely gone a block or two and was already uncomfortable. I made it for about 35 minutes that day. This time it actually felt just fine at first, but after about a mile I felt the discomfort creeping in. But that’s a big improvement.

It was a blazing hot day so I wanted to head up into the hills. I meandered my way through the southwest suburbs heading toward Deer Creek Canyon. But then, heading south on Kipling, the bike died. Please, no!

I was on the Honda and I stopped at a traffic light but when I started to move again it just died. I pressed the starter button and it fired up but as soon as I let out the clutch it died again. I was in the middle of the intersection at this point so I paddle-walked the rest of the way across, coming to a stop next to the median.

As I said, it was blazing hot and I had visions of being stuck there in the heat with no shade anywhere, waiting for a tow truck. But I’m not stupid, or new at this, and it occurred to me that this was kind of like running out of gas. Now, the trip meter only read 68 miles and this bike generally goes to Reserve at about 125 miles. But it had been in the shop and I had not filled the tank since I’d had it back so who knows how totally off that 68 might be. I flipped to Reserve, pressed the starter, and it fired up. Yahoo! Next stop the nearest gas station.

I got to the canyon and by now the discomfort was starting to worry me. I’d never go 250 miles in a day like this. But then suddenly it was like second wind, where the burning just kind of went away. I felt fine again. Nice.

Nevertheless, as I continued further up the canyon a bit came creeping back again. It was my intention to crest out of the canyon and down to Turkey Creek Road, where I would go right. I decided to stop at Tiny Town both to get a photo and to see how much good it did to just get off the bike for a few minutes.

I got my picture and even that few minutes off the bike did a lot of good. Then I got onto US 285 coming back down out of the hills and continuing east to home. Along the way it was getting pretty uncomfortable again so I decided to shift my position on the seat. It isn’t sitting per se that is uncomfortable, it is sitting for very long in the same position. And yes, shifting around made a big difference.

Then as I got back into town I made a point to stand up every time I got stopped at a red light. That helped, too. Altogether, this time I was out for an hour and a half and I did not feel as bad as I had after 35 minutes a few days before. I decided I now put my odds of going on this ride at 70-30, versus the 50-50 I had set it at previously. But just four more days.

When I got home I found that Alberto, my presumed roommate on this ride, had texted me asking for an update. I guess Alberto is a glass half empty kind of guy because he asked if I was still a no-go. Looking at 50-50 I had never considered myself a no-go. Surely I would get better each day–the question was how much better I would get, how fast. I was just waiting to see if I would feel sufficiently better. But now I told him 70-30.

He asked for a definite decision by Tuesday evening. Money is apparently an issue and he said if I’m not coming he isn’t going to pay those hotel bills by himself and will cancel and not go either. And of course he needs to cancel far enough in advance not to be charged. So I guess I’ll be making a definite decision on Tuesday, after riding again on Monday and then Tuesday.

My best guess at this point would be a go. I just may not ride with the rest of the group all the time, stopping whenever I feel the need to regardless of what they do. Plus, I’ll be on the V-Strom and that bike is designed to be ridden standing up, so I may stand up a lot.

Biker Quote for Today

Any day is a good day to leave some miles behind.

Was it truly inevitable? The Colorado legislature this session passed a bill making it legal for motorcycles to filter to the front when traffic is at a standstill. Although passed and signed by the governor, lane filtering does not become legal in Colorado until August 7. But they’re doing it already.

You’ve probably seen it. And the thing is, it’s not just filtering. There are riders out there right now who are doing full-blown lane splitting even though that is not what has been legalized.

On Monday Judy and I were headed out of town to go spend a few days in the mountains. We were headed up US 285 near Conifer, a four-lane, divided highway stretch, and seemingly out of nowhere a guy on a sportbike blazed past us and proceeded to weave his way, lane-splitting, through the whole group of cars ahead of us. And he was immediately followed by two other guys doing the same.

Now, a couple things about these guys. First off, they were seriously geared up. These were not weekend bikers just running over to the bar. These were serious riders on serious sportbikes and just from the way they were riding I would not be surprised to find that they were Europeans. They didn’t look like guys just trying out this new thing, they looked like they knew exactly what they were doing.

And they were going fast. Within about a mile they were far out of sight up ahead of us. Did they even know about the change in Colorado law, or were they just riding that way because why not? We’ll never know.

But these were not the first lane-splitters I’ve seen, and I know you’ve probably seen it, too. At last month’s RMMRC meeting Roy said he had seen a guy blasting his way through traffic on Hampden. I saw someone lane splitting somewhere recently, though I don’t remember where. Lane filtering is not even legal yet and people are lane splitting. Wow.

Now, I have no problem with lane splitting. The fact is, most riders in Colorado are not even likely to filter because let’s face it, if you’re on a big Harley or some big BMW or Indian you aren’t going to have room to slip between cars, stopped or not. Heck, I slipped past a car stopped in a right turn lane one time on my Concours, which was a big bike, and my mirror clipped his. Oops. Not a good thing.

It’s only the sportbike crowd that is going to filter. Those bikes are narrow and can do it safely. And if they want to split as well, well, good luck if some cop sees you doing it. It might not be such a good idea. The point is, though, that splitting is not what was made legal, filtering is.

All I’m hoping is that these guys don’t flout the law so much that when it comes time in three years to review this lane-filtering law that the legislature reverses course. That would be very unfortunate. So maybe you guys ought to tone it down just a bit. Maybe?

Biker Quote for Today

I don’t need you, my bike is enough to drive me crazy.

I hadn’t been on a bike recently because about 10 days ago I had minor surgery that makes it very uncomfortable for me to sit down for too long. But I’m planning on doing a four-day RMMRC ride in a bit less than two weeks so I was feeling a bit uncertain. Figured I’d better go for a ride.

I plan to ride the V-Strom so that was the bike I went out on. I was figuring it has a nice broad, flat seat so maybe that will be OK. Well, I got about two blocks and was already uncomfortable. Not a good sign.

So I wanted to see, would the discomfort get worse, diminish, or what, and how quickly? I checked my watch before I left.

Certainly I did not want to go a long way away and find myself in pain and have a long way to return, so I headed out, went a ways, and made a right turn. Now just go straight until I’m feeling like I ought to do another right turn. One more right turn after that and I would be home.

The good news is that the discomfort did not increase. The not so good news is that it did not diminish either. And hitting bumps was not more uncomfortable as I thought it might be. It was just a stable level of discomfort, but I have the strong suspicion that if I were to do that all day it would get a lot worse and then maybe I wouldn’t even be able to walk the next day.

OK, that answered my question. And I was only out for 35 minutes. Now, I still have 10 days before we leave. Surely I’ll be feeling a lot better by then, right? I mean, heck, I did three weeks straight on the Concours just two months after having heart surgery. This will pass, won’t it?

It better. I’m set up to share motel rooms with Alberto on this ride and I don’t want to leave him holding the bag paying in full for rooms he had expected to split. But if we were leaving tomorrow and I was feeling like I do today there’s no way I’d be going. We all know about monkey butt. Well, this is monkey butt to the max. It’s got to be better in 10 days.

Biker Quote for Today

They say treat yourself right, so I bought myself a motorcycle.

OK, rather than a motorcycle-related post here I’m doing a blog-related post. Specifically something I have long tried to figure out about this blog.

Why does almost no one ever comment? If you look at that screen shot of my blog dashboard you’ll see that there have been 1,780 posts which garnered only 698 comments. I look at other people’s blogs and they’ll have multiple comments on every post. I just don’t get it.

For one, I’m wondering if I have this thing set up in a way that makes commenting difficult or even impossible for people at times? Something I could fix. Could I move the comment button somewhere more convenient?

Or is what I write so complete that no one has anything to add? Or so boring that no one cares? Or is it something else I have no idea about?

I know, for instance, that up at the top right, below the photo of me on the Honda, it reads “Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).” And I know that is not functional; I need to remove it. Is that it? Do people click on that Comments link and get nowhere? The Comments link that does work is at the bottom of each post. You read the post, you get to the end, you want to offer a reply, and you click the link there. Is that not clear enough?

This has frustrated me for a long time. Anything anyone can do to help me out here will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

You can’t get good by staying home. If you want to go fast, you have to go where the fast guys are.

Back in the very early days of the OFMC Bill and John and I headed to the northwestern, Yellowstone-Grand Teton, corner of Wyoming, across the Beartooth Pass, through the Bighorn Mountains, and made our way on east to the Black Hills. Leaving the Black Hills we came south into Nebraska and stopped soon after crossing the state line at a rest area.

We got a bit of a surprise then when a fellow we met at the rest area informed us that “Nebraska is a bucket state,” meaning helmets were required. And we had not been wearing ours. Oops.

Of course, this was back in the days when we often did not wear helmets. We were much younger and we were immortal and helmets were just too confining. But we also didn’t want to get tickets so for the rest of our time in the state we rode with helmets.

Well, this is not new news but that all changed on January 1 of this year. Last year a bill was passed unanimously through the state’s unicameral (one house) legislature and was signed that day by the governor. No more helmet requirement, provided you meet certain prerequisites.

First, you have to be 21 and, second, you have to wear eye protection. No problem.

And third, you have to have taken a basic motorcycle safety course. OK, that’s something you want to pay attention to.

First off, there are plenty of people who have been riding for years who have never taken a riding course. I personally know plenty of people who would scoff at the idea of doing that because they figure they know it all already. Well, you don’t. I have taken numerous riding courses and even the Basic Rider Course (BRC) can introduce you to ideas and riding techniques you’ve missed along the way. It’s worth it, and now if you want to ride helmetless in Nebraska it’s required.

Second, having taken that course is probably not going to do you a lot of good if you’re stopped unless you are carrying the card they give you upon completion. Oh, yeah. Maybe the cops aren’t just going to take your word for it. Good thing to take along. Stick it in with your driver’s license.

Now, this is no longer relevant for those of us in the OFMC. We long ago grew cautious enough that we no longer ride without helmets, ever. But back in 1992, when we took that trip, we would only have met two of the three criteria, age and eye protection. But if you want the wind in your hair just remember that you’ve got to take a class. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Biker Quote for Today

Wind therapy has always worked miracles for me. — Eric Trow

Let’s see, second Tuesday of June . . . something going on, isn’t there? Oh yeah, it’s Ride to Work Day.

You know, for some of us, riding to work is an impossibility because we don’t work. I’m retired. But when I was working you bet I made it a point to ride my bike to work on this day. Now I just get out and ride. Nobody knows I’m not going to work and besides, the work part of it is not the main point. The main point is to flood the streets with motorcycles and make drivers conscious that we are out there and they better be on the look-out.

I mean, when was the last time someone started pulling into your lane in your space because they didn’t bother to do a head check to make sure there was nothing in their blind spot? Yesterday? The day before? OK, maybe it doesn’t happen that often but I know that every one of us has had that experience numerous times.

And now, with lane filtering on its way, we’re really going to need to make our presence known. What better time to get started than on Ride to Work Day?

Of course, you know, another way to make drivers aware of us is not to blend into the scenery. I ride with the RMMRC a lot and most of those guys always wear high-viz fluorescent-colored vests and clothing. I finally gave in to peer pressure and bought a bright orange vest. You can stop ragging on me now Roy.

Biker Quote for Today

Under my helmet, dreams come alive, and I make them real on the road.

If you’re like me and the your main riding group of buddies (in my case the OFMC) doesn’t do as many rides as you might like to do, joining a public group can solve that issue. For me, that came a number of years ago in the form of the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club (RMMRC). Nowadays I ride a lot more with the RMMRC than I do with the OFMC.

Well, you can, too. At this moment the RMMRC has four multi-day rides planned and posted on the site. Club membership only costs $12 a year and all sign-up is handled through MeetUp.com. Here’s a quick run-through.

2024 BMW National Rally — While officially a BMW rally, in reality all makes are welcome. The RMMRC does this rally most years because so many club members do ride BMWs but it’s really just an excuse to go somewhere. The plan is only to spend about half a day at the actual rally.

The group going will be leaving Denver on Monday, June 10, and returning on Thursday, June 20. Each day’s ride will be in the 300 to 350 mile range.

Colorado Scenic Highways — I’m going to be going on this ride, which leaves on Thursday, June 27 and returns on Sunday, June 30. The three overnight destinations are Crested Butte, Grand Junction, and Durango. Then the only long day’s ride is coming home from Durango.

Glacier & Banff National Parks — This trip will run from Monday, August 5, to Friday, August 16. It’s kind of a skinny loop so that means no actual back-tracking, which is nice. Sometimes on these rides you have little choice but to return on at least some of the roads you went out on. I won’t be going on this ride, partly because it doesn’t work with my schedule and partly because I did a very similar ride a few years ago. About the only place we didn’t get to on that trip that this trip will hit is Calgary. I’m sure it’s going to be a really good ride.

Colorado 4-Corners Tour — This is a 4-day, 3-night tour starting from and returning to Morrison. Total tour is just over 1,000 miles with daily mileage between 250-340 miles. The stops are Walsenberg, Farmington, and Ridgway. Departure is Thursday, September 19, and return is Sunday, September 22.

So hey! Not getting in enough riding? Here’s your chance. You’d be very welcome. What are you waiting for?

Biker Quote for Today

You are not alone bro, your bike is with you.