Passes & Canyons Blog

Let me say right up front that I understand why the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is very friendly with senators and congressmen who predominantly belong to the Republican Party. The simple fact is that they tend to be more supportive of motorcyclist issues than Democrats. Probably the very best from a biker’s perspective is Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, of Wisconsin.

That said, I don’t like the direction the AMA seems to be going. The group’s membership spans the political spectrum but lately they’re sounding just a bit too Republican. I just don’t think that’s appropriate considering the membership.

Specifically, in the December 2015 and January 2016 issues of the group’s magazine, American Motorcyclist, they have said three times that President Obama has been “sidestepping Congress” by creating new national monuments by executive fiat.

What’s the issue? They say Obama is closing public lands to motorized recreation. What is he doing? He’s using the power that Congress gave to the president–all presidents–in 1906 when they passed the Antiquities Act. In the time since it was passed, 16 of the 19 presidents have used the Antiquities Act to unilaterally create national monuments. They’ve used that power 137 times. In some cases, Congress came along later and turned those national monuments into national parks. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park used to be a monument. Great Sand Dunes National Park used to be a monument. They were created as monuments by presidents “sidestepping Congress” by following the law that Congress passed.

Just to get my biases out in the open here, I am a registered independent voter, who has little affection for the Republicans or Democrats, and I do work at the National Park Service (for a few more days) and the park service is one of the several agencies that administer national monuments.

So there’s no question that I love the national parks–don’t you?–and the monuments and the seashores, and all the rest. I also have some concern with creating any more of these things right now because they add to the National Park Service and other agency responsibilities without adding a penny more budget. You can’t keep doing that forever.

But this business of accusing Obama of “sidestepping Congress”–repeatedly!!–when he’s only doing what so many other presidents have done, just smacks too much of right-wing partisanship for me. The AMA a couple years ago hired former Colorado Rep. Wayne Allard as their legislative liaison and I wondered then if this would lead to a rightward tilt on policy. At the same time, I figured Allard might be more effective than someone else because he would be on good terms with the Republicans who control both houses of Congress. So I withheld judgment. Just wait and watch. Not everyone else did so. There were AMA members who protested right away about Allard’s appointment.

And that’s the point. The membership spans the political spectrum. The AMA has no business playing this partisanship game. And that’s exactly what this is.

And oh, by the way, the president who created the most acreage of new national monuments was George W. Bush, by a lot. Of course Bush’s monuments were largely in the Pacific around islands but do you suppose the scuba divers object to the restrictions these declarations created? And while Ronald Reagan was one of the three presidents who created no new national monuments while in office, he did sign 43 wilderness bills that rendered 10.6 million acres off-limits to motorized recreation. But of course he wasn’t side-stepping Congress. That doesn’t make those 10.6 million acres any less off limits.

And finally, I have to wonder about the interests of AMA members. I would guess the large majority are people who never ride off road anyway, but perhaps love the parks and monuments. Tough luck for the dirt-bike crowd, maybe, but that’s a trade-off the street-riding folks might be very willing to make. And depending on the piece of land, there may not even be dirt-bikers who are affected. I don’t really know.

So I have communicated my displeasure to the AMA. I’ll let you know what, if anything, they have to say to me.

Biker Quote for Today

I like to ride the canyons at night, when there’s a full moon, and you shut the engine off and coast downhill. — Keanu Reeves

Maybe it’s like gay marriage. Maybe it’s like legal marijuana. Maybe lane-splitting is riding a new wave of public acceptability and is something we’ll soon see all over.

What? Why would I say something like that? Right now the only state in the U.S. that allows motorcyclists to filter between cars that are stopped are plodding in traffic jams is California. Where’s the wave?

How about Washington. Oregon. Tennessee.

I get emails from the American Motorcyclist Association whenever they have news they want to pass along and I was recently interested to receive one that was titled, “American Motorcyclist Association supports lane-splitting legislation in Tennessee.”

That was on a Friday.

The following Tuesday there was another email in my inbox with the title, “American Motorcyclist Association supports lane-splitting legislation in Oregon.” Not only that, that same day there was a second email in my inbox with the title, “American Motorcyclist Association supports lane-splitting legislation in Washington.”

Holy smoke! It’s looking like a movement!

Of course, if history is any predictor, all of these bills will fail. In fact, I’d bet on it. But I’m also willing to bet that within 10 years California will not be alone, and once that dam starts to give way there won’t be anything that can hold it back.

Sort of like gay marriage and legal marijuana. Those waves took years to build up but gay marriage is sweeping across the country and legal marijuana is just getting started, but with a vengeance. I don’t care what you think about either of those movements, they’re happening. Their time has come. And just maybe lane-splitting is not far behind.

I personally support lane-splitting. I’ve ridden in California and I’ve traveled to a number of countries around the world. The U.S. is one of the few where lane-splitting is not simply the norm. That photo above is something I shot in Paris. You could stand at a street corner and watch it happen again and again: The light would turn red and cars would stop. Then a motorcycle or scooter would come between the cars and take a place in front of the cars. Then more bikes and scooters would join the group. Finally the light would turn green and the two-wheelers would blast forward, leaving the four-wheelers in the dust. And then the light would turn red and the whole scene would play itself out once more.

Nobody got hurt, nobody was in any danger, everybody considered it to be perfectly normal. In the meantime, each of those scooters or motorcycles represented at least part of one car that was not on the road adding to what was already a significant traffic jam. Those drivers were benefiting from the lane-splitting.

Of course the bikers were benefiting more. They got where they were going in probably half the time it would have taken them in a car. At a significantly lower cost. And they were on bikes, for pete’s sake. What’s not to like about that?

Some day these benighted states of America may join the rest of the world. The encouraging thought is that it may come sooner than we expected.

Biker Quote for Today

Born to ride; forced to work.

I guess if you always wear your helmet it doesn’t matter what the helmet laws are in different states. But if you sometimes like to go without, you know how important it is to laws in different states you might ride in. There’s an app for that.

I got an email yesterday from Catherine Kazda at Buckfire & Buckfire, PC–which is to say they are attorneys–plugging this new app they have made available on their site for no charge. It will give you not only the state by state laws in the U.S., but also has information on Canada and Europe. Maybe some other places as well–I forget. The video goes into all that but my memory isn’t that good.

So it’s kind of a good idea. And I think it’s probably a great promotional idea for them. They apparently deal in motorcycle crash litigation so of course they want bikers coming to their website.

The app offers other information as well. It basically covers motorcycle laws in general, not just helmet laws. And they have a link on it to information on what to do if you’re involved in a crash. I’m sure one of the things it tells you to do is call an attorney, preferably Buckfire & Buckfire. But OK, it’s still probably good information.

So hey guys, your marketing plan is working. I’m passing this along, and I have already seen a link to some other site that did so, too.

Of course there is one other way to get all this information, though I don’t know if it’s quite as easy as a smartphone app. You can go to the American Motorcyclist Association site, to their page where they list all the state-by-state info.

And I guess I might as well tell a couple stories here because they’re totally related.

The first time John and Bill and I came down into Nebraska from the Black Hills we stopped at a wayside picnic area and got to talking to a guy there. Somewhere along the way he mentioned that we ought to be aware that “Nebraska is a bucket state.” He had seen us ride in without our helmets on. OK, thanks.

Another time, our first time in Nevada, we pulled into Vegas–coming from Arizona, I guess–and it wasn’t until after we had checked in to a hotel that we learned Nevada is a helmet state, too. We hadn’t been wearing ours. Oops. After that we made it a point to find out about states we were going to before we went there.

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Motorcycle safety studies continue

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you grab for your hairbrush before your old lady.

I have to admit to ignorance here, but in the last half hour I’ve been learning a lot about Mark Bruckner. That’s because the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) just released their list of this year’s nominees to the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame and Bruckner is the first name on the list.

Of course, what they said about him in the announcement was guaranteed to catch my eye: “National/international motorcycling rights advocate, past state coordinator for ABATE of Colorado, past board member/president/chairman of the Motorcycle Riders Foundation.”

Oh wow, and until I read that I’d never heard of him. So he’s a previous state coordinator for ABATE of Colorado. I know Terry Howard, the current state coordinator, very well, but I’ve never met Bruckner. Turns out he was in that position from 1991 to 1994. After that he went on to the MRF, as stated above.

Currently Bruckner is Executive Director of BIKEPAC of Colorado. I get to show my ignorance again here. I’m not familiar with BIKEPAC of Colorado. Turns out it is a political action committee (PAC). Here is what it says about its mission.

As the organization’s resources grow, BIKEPAC will contribute to candidates running for office in the State Senate and the State House of Representatives. BIKEPAC may also contribute to Gubernatorial candidates. BIKEPAC will not contribute to candidates for office at the federal and local government levels. BIKEPAC believes that the most effective way to protect motorcycling in Colorado – and to best utilize our resources – is to contribute to the campaigns of pro-motorcycling candidates at the State Senate and House level. BIKEPAC employs a full-time lobbyist. Unlike many lobbyist who represent multiple clients at the State Capitol, the lobbyist for BIKEPAC represents only one group – the motorcyclists of Colorado.

Except that maybe this info is outdated. The link I tried to follow to the website doesn’t go there, and on a lobbying site I found it listed the organization as being registered through 2006. I have more digging to do. I’ll put up more as I learn more.

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Another terrific Motorcycle Travel Network experience

Biker Quote for Today

Bikes are better than women because you don’t have to talk to your motorcycle after you ride it.

Most of us have learned a lot of lessons in motorcycling by doing things that make us say, “Oops, I guess I won’t do that again.” It’s called experience.

Well, the folks who work for the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) have between them an awful lot of experience. And somebody got the idea for them all to collect the tips they have picked up along the way and offer their wisdom to all riders. The result is the Rider Resources page on the AMA website. It’s worth a look.

The page has three sections, Riding, Wrenching, and Learning. Each section offers a variety of articles on different topics. For instance, under Riding they offer “33 Secrets for Smart Touring,” “Tips for Crossing the Border,” and “Keeping Warm.” Under Wrenching the topics include such as “Used-Bike Buying Checklist” and “The Bike Stopped. Now What?” “Books We Love to Read” and “Riding With Disabilities” are two of the topics under Learning.

A lot of the info is sure to be stuff most of us already know, though newbies will find it very helpful. A lot is not such common knowledge. For instance, among the 33 touring tips are some jewels like this: If you’re nearing the end of your riding day and want to set yourself up for a quick getaway in the morning, consider riding to the far side of the next city you reach before you stop for the night, eliminating urban traffic the next morning.

At the same time, I find it amusing that the piece on what to do if the bike stops on you doesn’t mention what is probably one of the biggest reasons for this sort of occurrence: the kill switch. Who among us hasn’t had the experience of the bike either dying or failing to start and after beating our heads against the wall for . . . how long? . . . realizing it was just the kill switch. It happened to me one time when I reached over to engage my throttle lock and inadvertently hit that switch. I was stopped there by the side of the road for 15 minutes before it dawned on me.

That shortcoming aside, however, a whole bunch of riders offering their best advice has to have something of value for just about any rider. Take a look and see what you can learn.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you crash your bicycle when you lock up the tire because you were trying to use the brake as a clutch lever.

For a lot of people, getting into riding motorcycles consists of simply throwing their legs over the bike and riding off. Never mind that that may be just a bit less preparation than would be good, most do eventually figure it out.

Others are a bit more hesitant. They welcome some coaching, and even once they learn to ride they still welcome coaching to move to the next level. That’s where the AMA Conference Tour comes in. Organized by my friend Alisa Clickenger (aka MotoAdventureGal) and her associate, Karen Thomson, this ride is intended to help women riders gain confidence in and learn the ways of motorcycle touring.

I’m interpreting some of this from their website but as I read it, their name for their venture is Women’s Empowerment Motorcycle Tour, and this AMA Conference Tour is one of two they are promoting this year. The other is a 10-day Pacific Northwest Tour. Their first ever event was the original Women’s Empowerment Motorcycle Tour last year. (I’m sure Alisa will clarify this for me if I’ve got it wrong.)

So anyway, this AMA Conference Tour starts out in Denver on July 20 and is a 6-day ride to Carson City, NV, where the American Motorcyclist Association will be hosting the International Women & Motorcycling Conference.

As they note on the site, “Besides the normal tour itinerary and enjoyment, the tour will include pre-trip personal coaching, confidence building exercises, and during-tour seminars to give every rider a toolbox of skills they can rely on when planning or implementing their own future trips.”

Now, there’s no mention of the return trip, so I have the idea that once the riders get the experience going out there they’re going to get to put what they’ve learned into practice immediately getting home on their own.

So hey, great time. Road trip. Just ride the dang thing.

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AMA doubles up on dirt ride series

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycles make good girls do bad things!

January 17 is the deadline for comments on a proposed Resource Management Plan (RMP) put together by the Colorado River Valley (CRVO) Glenwood Springs field office of the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). After studying the plan the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) has issued an alert stating that “The current proposed RMP calls for a significant decrease in the number of miles for off-highway vehicle use as well as a total elimination of all cross country travel,” and urging motorcyclists to register their concerns with the plan. Letters should be sent to:

BLM CO River Valley Field Office
2300 River Frontage Rd.
Silt, CO 81652

Or you can email your comments to cormpkg@ttsfo.com.

Limitations proposed by the plan include the following.

• Eliminate all cross-country travel currently allowed on 123,000 acres
• Decrease designated route mileage for full-size vehicles from 760 miles to 470 miles
• Decrease designated route mileage for ATVs from 82 miles to 62 miles
• Decrease designated single-track route mileage for motorcycles from 85 miles to 66 miles
• Closure of an additional 47,900 acres currently open to snowmobile recreation
• Closure to snowmobile usage on anything other than a trail on an additional 14,800 acres

The particular issues the AMA has with the plan, and what they consider the talking points to be raised in making comments, include the following.

• There is a lot of information provided in the plan for different uses; however it is disorganized and hard to review.
• Travel management analysis and decisions appear to have been overlooked in the development of the plan and there is no analysis offered as to why all routes closed to motorized usage are assumed to be available for non-motorized and mechanized usage going forward. The lack of analysis for travel management related issues is a violation of NEPA’s requirements for a detailed statement of high quality information of why decisions in the Plan have been made.
• Motorized users are the only loser in the plan as travel management is the first tool used to address management issues that have nothing to do with travel management, like big game hunting issues and cave management.
• Alternative D is the best alternative but it still fails to address usage trends on the CRVO.
• Alternative C is very weak scientifically and violates both state and federal planning guidelines.
• The Plan moves to a fully designated trail system for all users; however the stated benefits of the proposed changes are simply not addressed. The Plan does not analyze why this protection is not enough and further closures are necessary, when most habitat management plans never identify the need for any trail closures to protect the species.
• Loss of the Gypsum Hills Special Recreation Management Area (SRMA) is unfair and runs counter to the reason it was originally created (to off-set the impacts of two Wilderness Study Areas (WSA’s). The WSA’s are still present and the SRMA should not be removed until there is a proposal to re-open the WSAs.
• User conflicts are often overstated to obtain closures for other reasons and most user conflicts can be addressed without the closures of trails and roads.
• Closure of the Hardscrabble Area for motorized access and subsequent designation of the Hardscrabble area for targeted recreational motorsports activities is inconsistent. This plan fails to give any analysis of the existing motorized opportunities that will be lost in the Hardscrabble area.
• Many of the Wilderness characteristic areas and areas of critical environmental concern designations are inconsistent or conflicting.
• Many proposed management standards violate multiple usage requirements such as the standard of managing all big game habitats to optimum standards

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Safety advocate group includes helmet laws in 15-item list

Biker Quote for Today

Life is long enough – it just isn’t wide enough. Although I do enjoy a good single track now and then!

Today is warm and sunny and that’s a good thing. We still have ice on our street, and more importantly, we still have ice between our driveway and the clear part of the street. I need that to be gone so I can get out on one of my motorcycles. By tomorrow it should be clear.

It’s the day after tomorrow that I’m particularly interested in. December 31 is the date for the Last Brass Monkey Run, as I’ve mentioned before. I’m planning to ride this year, and I’ll bet there are a lot of other people making similar plans. It’s not always possible but this year looks like a good one.

Of course, that also means I’ll almost certainly be out on both my bikes the following day. I make it a point to ride both bikes at least once every single month of every single year, and at this time of year you have to take advantage of the first opportunity you get. The weather can change and if you don’t ride today, tomorrow may not be an option. With good weather on January 1 you can pretty much assume I’ll be out riding.

Looking ahead to the new year, I’ve got some great trips planned. I’ve decided this is the year to expand my horizons, and to that end, I’m planning on heading to Ohio for the AMA’s Vintage Motorcycle Days. I’ve never ridden out in that part of the country, so this will be a long trip and it will be something completely new. Plus, I have a brother who lives in Ohio and he and a friend are in the process of opening a biker-oriented cafe in Michigan and of course he wants me to come out and tell the world about it. It’s a dirty job and all that. I’ve never ridden in Michigan before either.

But first we have some cold months to get through. All I ask is just a couple nice days in each of them.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Top Motorcycle Examiner stories of 2011

Biker Quote for Today

Yes, I have a problem — that there are 50 weeks of the year without Dakar!