Passes & Canyons Blog

I was in the waiting area of couches, chairs, and refreshments at Fay Myers while they were putting my new front tire on the V-Strom and changing the oil and I noticed this magazine there on the table. VAHNA it was called, and they had a bunch of issues. I had never heard of this so I picked one up to look at.

It’s a motorcycle magazine, one I had never heard of, and what a nice magazine. Super high-quality reproduction on heavy paper and perfect binding. (“Perfect binding is a bookbinding method where pages are glued together along the spine, and then a cover is wrapped around the glued spine, resulting in a softcover book with clean, trimmed edges”–per the AI search results.)

Opening it up I was amazed. More photos than writing, it was full-page-spreads and double-page spreads of fabulous photos of motorcycles, mostly out off-road. It was gorgeous. But the writing was really good, too. Heck, I pulled out my phone and shot pictures of several pages as a quick and easy way to save the writing that I could see would be great to use in the quotes I end this blog with each time.

I also noted why Fay Myers has all these issues sitting there: toward the back of each issue was a full-page Fay Myers ad.

So I was really interested. What the heck is this magazine? When I got home I sat down at the computer and searched. First of all I looked for the meaning of VAHNA. I expected it would be an acronym for some motorcycle trade organization. Nope. Here’s the AI explanation: In the context of Indian mythology, “vahna” refers to a creature or vehicle that serves as a mount for a god. It’s a Hindi word derived from Sanskrit “vaha,” meaning “to carry.”

OK, so that’s cool. What a great name for a motorcycle magazine. We do ride the mounts of gods. We all know this.

But still, what is this magazine?

It turns out that VAHNA is more than a magazine. They make films and host a film festival. They’ll be launching a podcast this summer. They had a film festival tour that came to Denver for two days in January but I never heard about it. Darn. I’m going to get myself on their email list.

And the magazine? I did some searching before I found their site and a lot of people were saying the magazine was no longer being published. But as far as I can tell they are wrong. Or maybe it has gone online only. Not sure. But the site has articles posted as recently as March 5, 2025.

You should definitely check this out. I’d suggest doing so on a desktop computer just so you can fully appreciate the photography–a cellphone screen just won’t do it justice.

So you can file this under “gosh Ken, thanks for telling me about this.”

Biker Quote for Today

Feet on the pegs, head in the clouds.

So I got that new front tire put on the V-Strom. And while I was at it I had them go ahead and do an oil change. Now I’m ready for a 3,200-mile trip.

This was Fay Myers where I took it. I got there early on Friday and was able to go straight to the desk and get the whole thing arranged. The guy I dealt with was great and the whole thing took about an hour and a half.

As a plus, when I got the invoice and paid, I saw that they had basically done an overall check of the bike, which is a good thing to do before a trip. I know they do these things because if they find anything else they thing needs doing they want to bring this to your attention so you can presumably pay them to handle it.

So:
Inspect steering and suspension–check
Check battery and charging system voltage–check
Check operation of lights/switches/meters–check
Inspect/adjust control and cables–check
Inspect/top off cooling system–check
Inspect brake pads–check
Inspect brake fluid level/condition–check
Inspect/top off final drive oil–check
Inspect chain–check
Set tire pressure–check

Hey guys, thanks. I think I’m good to go here.

The funny thing was that then the next day I went for this ride with the RMMRC and mentioned to Bob that I had had the work done, and at Fay Myers. He asked me, “Do you trust them?” That took me by surprise, and as I told him, I had never heard anything to suggest that I shouldn’t. He didn’t elaborate but I thought that was odd. So yeah, I do trust them. Why shouldn’t I? Odd.

Now I need to start pulling things together and making a number of pre-trip decisions. And as departure day draws nearly the forecast keeps looking better and better. April can be tricky but it looks like we’re in luck. Oh boy.

Biker Quote for Today

How many motorcycles do you need? N-1, where N equals the number needed for divorce.

To say that there were a lot of motorcycles out on Saturday would be a gross understatement. With temperatures in the 80s Denver set a new record high for the date. Meanwhile, not just motorcyclists but hikers, bicyclists, ATVers and everyone else was out in full force. This included the RMMRC.

Six of us gathered at the Phillips 66 in Morrison, along with about 30-40 other bikers in numerous groups. In an inauspicious start to the ride, Charley, who has recently had surgery and has trouble getting his leg over the saddle, ended up pushing the bike over and falling with it. With all these bikers around a swarm immediately gathered and got him and bike back up. He was unhurt and fortunately this was not a portent of ills to follow on the ride.

We headed north on CO 93 out of Golden, across Rocky Flats, to the south end of Boulder. Boulder is this huge blot on a rider’s route. There’s no good way to get through it and getting around it is limited by the fact of mountains on the west side. Fortunately what you can do at the El Dorado Springs intersection is go east a short distance and then turn north on Cherryvale Road. This takes you a good ways north up past Baseline Reservoir to where you go east on Baseline Road and then you follow a zig-zag pattern up through the less heavily developed portions of east Boulder.

That’s what we did, got into Niwot intending to go west on Niwot Road, but got to the Longmont Diagonal and found the road closed for construction. This put us on the Diagonal headed toward Longmont. With some more bobbing and weaving we finally reached CO 66 and were able to turn west to Lyons, our lunch stop. At Smokin’ Dave’s we found two more folks waiting for us. We got seated and ordered and in walked Bruce. The group keeps growing.

After lunch we headed up to the Peak-to-Peak Highway via CO 7, the South Saint Vrain road. This road had been closed for a really long time, including the last time we had been up this way but it is now finally open to traffic again. Nice.

So we took that southwest to meet up with CO 72, the first stretch at the north end of the Peak-to-Peak. It was starting to cook in the city but up on the Peak-to-Peak it was actually a bit chilly. I had started with a couple layer I didn’t need, had removed them, and now would have welcomed at least one of those back. But it wasn’t bad.

Motorcycles were everywhere. Every trailhead we passed had cars overflowing the parking areas. Bicyclists were everywhere. This was a day to be outside!

We headed south, with intentions of going back down via Golden Gate Canyon. However, at Nederland, with Bob leading, he missed the correct turn off the Nederland roundabout and we found ourselves headed down Boulder Canyon, right into the heart of Boulder. I had considered making the right turn and splitting off from the group but I didn’t. I figured what the heck, I ride Golden Gate a lot and almost never take Boulder Canyon. It will be a change of pace.

Of course Boulder was its usual horrible mess. Some of us managed to stay together and head south on 93 but bit by bit we got separated so by the time I got back to Morrison I was alone and just headed on home. And I was roasting. Really glad I had not put another layer back on, and wishing I could remove another layer, but not wanting to stop.

So. Good ride. Great day for a ride. And as for scuffing up my new front tire on my V-Strom, mission accomplished. What more can you ask for?

Biker Quote for Today

“Cyclists see considerably more of this beautiful world than any other class of citizens.” – Dr. K.K. Doty

Man, you think it’s going to be so simple and then it’s not.

I concluded I ought to get a new front tire put on my V-Strom before I leave on this California trip in a couple weeks, so I checked around.

Performance Cycle sells tires but they only mount them if you bring the wheel in off the bike. Of course I could get a tire there and take it to One Down Four Up to be mounted but that would require an appointment. I checked with Fay Myers and they sell tires and their website said you could come in and mounting would be first come, first served. So I decided I would do that on Tuesday.

Just to be sure I called on Tuesday morning. Following the phone tree I headed to service and . . . got disconnected. I called back, same phone tree, and . . . disconnected. Dang.

So I called again and this time I asked for parts. I got to parts and inquired about a tire, which they had, and the guy told me the price. Quite a bit higher than I expected but oh well. Then he took my name and number and said he would have service call me.

They called soon after and it turns out the website is technically correct but a bit incomplete. On Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday you need an appointment to have a tire mounted and you have to leave the bike there. No mount while you wait option. You can come in on Friday or Saturday and it’s first come first served, mount while you wait. OK, I’ll probably see you on Friday morning early.

Probably. If it’s going to be other than I expected let’s see if there is a better way, particularly since the price is unexpectedly high.

I called Performance to see what tires they had at what prices. I figured then to call One Down Four Up and see about getting the bike in to have the work done while I wait.

I called Performance, the phone rang and was picked up with a quick “Please hold.” I then sat there for 10 minutes or so listening to the list of things Performance offers and the assurance that “A fellow rider will be with you shortly.” Now and then that would be interrupted by ringing, which would only be replaced with the spiel again. I hung up.

I considered calling One Down Four Up and asking when they could get me in but I hesitated to make an appointment until I was sure I would want to get the tire from Performance. So I called Performance again.

This time I got right through. And despite what their promotional spiel says, the prices they were asking for all but one of the tires we discussed were higher than what Fay Myers had quoted me. The one cheaper one was a Shinko, which I have run before. Because this is an 80-20 street/offroad tire and I pretty much just ride on the street this tire has not worn well for me.

Bottom line, I decided I’ll just run over to Fay Myers Friday morning. I’ll need to adjust my schedule to make it work but oh well. Sure would have been nice if I could have done this Tuesday morning.

Biker Quote for Today

My motorcycle takes me places my car never will.

From time to time I go all meta on this blog, which is to say, instead of writing about motorcycles on the blog I write about the blog. “Meta” basically means self-referential. I learned the term when I was writing software user guides and there was this constant mention of “metadata.” Metadata, it turns out, is data about the data. Self-referential.

I’ve done this a few times, particularly a number of years ago when someone hacked the site and played all kind of mischief.

This time it’s not damage but a curious situation. Apparently somebody in China has a bot (I assume it’s a bot, no one would do this in person) has gone through the entire site–especially this blog–visiting every single page.

I first noticed it about a month ago when I went to check my visitor statistics and found that the number had shot through the roof. In the previous month there were a reported 1,537 visitors and then the next month that number stood at 8,351. I gasped and drilled down. And what I found is like what you see above in that screen shot: thousands and thousands of one-page visits all from one source in Beijing.

The way I figure it, some company in China is scraping all my content, probably for use in training an artificial intelligence tool. Intellectual theft as it were. Everything here is copyrighted but nobody is asking my permission or paying me for it.

I had figured that this was a one-shot affair but it seems to be continuing. Yesterday’s traffic was more than 50 percent from this bot. It’s not like it’s costing me something out of pocket but it screws up my stats. I have kept stats on this site ever since I launched it and now my traffic numbers are just garbage. I don’t see that there’s a thing in the world I can do about it so I just hope they get what they want and then leave for good and let me get back to normal.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride now; beer later.

Two recent reports suggest that Colorado’s law forbidding use of a cellphone while driving, except in hands-free mode, is having an effect.

The more significant of the two is from the Colorado State Patrol, which, according to an article in The Denver Post on April 1, said that distracted driving citations have increased in 2025 by 135% over the previous year.

As far as I can tell, it’s playing out exactly as I said it would. Driving with your phone in your hand is now illegal, but it is only a secondary offense, meaning you can’t be stopped just for that. So what will happen is that the cops will stop you for something else and then tack on the citation for using your phone, while perhaps being “nice” to you by not citing you for what they “actually” stopped you for. Or maybe they’ll cite you for that, too.

And the point, really, is that if they see you engaged in careless or reckless driving they could stop you for that before. It’s just that now, with the emphasis on getting people to be aware of and obey this new law they are apparently focusing more on stops for careless/reckless driving.

Either way, I’ll take it.

Meanwhile, a report from Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) says that the data “reveal a 3.3% reduction in phone motion distraction statewide, an improvement that CMT estimates to have prevented 88 crashes, 49 injuries, and $3.5 million in economic damages since the law began.”

CMT uses data drawn from cellphone tracking. Just in case you wondered if your moves are being tracked, presumably anonymously, be assured that they are. According to the report, “CMT defines phone motion distraction as when a phone moves with its screen on while a vehicle is in motion. The study analyzed over 3.8 million trips in Colorado between December 1, 2024, and February 11, 2025, measuring changes in distraction before and after the law took effect.”

Mind you, the improvement is measured in seconds, but all it takes is about one or two seconds of inattentive driving for you to totally change your life or the life of someone else.

One question here that I wonder about is how they distinguish between phone use by a driver vs. by a passenger. I would guess they can’t, so the figures are overall. Still, considering how much of the time people are alone in their cars, sussing out how much of the phone use is passenger vs. driver is not of overriding consequence. If the amount of time is declining that’s a good thing.

Still, let’s not fool ourselves. Just in the last week I’ve been behind a car that repeatedly wandered over into the next lane and when I was able to shoot past the guy he was looking at his phone. In another instance I was behind a guy who had his phone on a mount on the dashboard. I watched as he repeatedly reached up and tapped it, scrolled it, and pretty much constantly interacted with it. That is not hands-free. We’ve got a long way to go to fix this problem but at least we’re making a start.