Passes & Canyons Blog

Have you ever wished you could get out on your motorcycle and just let her rip? No worry about speeding tickets. No worry about hitting that pocket of gravel as you carve that turn. No worry about that idiot cager who’s just about to pull out in front of you at the intersection.

That’s why God invented race tracks.

The really cool thing is that race tracks are not just for the pros. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of days when race tracks sit idle and you’d better believe the people running them welcome additional users. The perfect scenario is for your riding club to hire the track for a day, bring in a couple riding instructors to give pointers and offer critique, and then each of you pay your share of the cost to go ride the track for a day. Alternatively, sometimes the tracks themselves set it up and provide the instructors. Then all you have to do is sign up and pay.

The Concours Owners Group that I have intermittently belonged to organized a track day at one point and I jumped at the chance. The day was set up in segments, alternating classroom instruction and parking lot practice with track time. They divided us up into three groups based on skill level. I knew I wasn’t in the top tier but I sure didn’t want to think of myself as bottom tier, so I went for the middle. My thinking seemed to predominate, so there were more than could be accommodated in the middle, but I was not one of the ones forced to join the lower group.

My group started in the classroom, and in many ways it was very much like the Experienced Rider Course (ERC) sanctioned by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, just omitting the portions on looking out for other traffic. They talked about braking before entering the turn, late apexing, where you go deep into the turn before initiating a sharp turn, and other such techniques.

Then we moved out into the parking lot. We practiced swerving, turning our heads to look as far into the curve as possible, standing the bike up before braking, and modulating braking to achieve maximum stopping power without skidding. Then it was time for the track. Hot dang!

As each group took to the track, the instructors also mounted up and rode with us. Singling out each rider individually, at times they would ride behind and observe your technique, and at other times they might pull ahead and motion for you to follow them as they demonstrated what you should do.

It turned out you really couldn’t blast your way down the track at warp speed because the straightaway was not long enough to reach that speed before you needed to start backing off. And no, there were no worries of gravel in the curves but there was one spot coming into a curve where an asphalt patch was much softer than the area around it and, of course, target fixation lead me to hit that spot consistently. One of those times my rear wheel would have slid out from under me in a low-side get-off but I planted my left foot well enough to recover and stay up.

I also found that my riding ego was a bit puffed up. While I had not wanted to be relegated to the low-skill group, I was the slowest rider in the middle group. Everyone else kept passing me, and I never passed anyone. Time for a little humility.

After lunch we repeated the circuit, with the added input of the instructors’ critique of our earlier riding. We each now had a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses, and what we needed to work on. But the track day is only a beginning. Techniques do not become skills unless you continue to practice them. I have, and I believe I’m a better rider because of it, but nothing beats a refresher course once in a while.

Biker Quote for Today

This is a motorcycle rock. Throw the rock into the air. If it hits the ground, go ride.

Motorcycle Link for Today

Heading to Australia? Check out Procycles.

We don’t stop riding because we get old, we get old because we stop riding.

I’ve heard that line for years but now I’m starting to question it. People I know are no longer riding and while age is not the reason in and of itself, the more specific reasons are directly related to age.

John is the perfect example. John had a Cushman scooter when he was a kid but then went years without a bike. Later, when he bought a 750cc Virago he opened the door for a lot. First he took me riding on behind and then before long I bought my own bike, my CB750 Custom. Then Bill got a Shadow and the OFMC was born.

That was a long time ago. Well, John has hung up his spurs. More specifically, he sold the Harley. He’s done riding.

John’s decision is based on health. He has started suffering from esophageal cramps, which basically render him almost comatose. He got hit by one while riding on this year’s OFMC trip. Scary situation. On top of that, he is suffering macular degeneration, which is causing him to lose the vision in the center of his eyes. He sees around the edges but when he looks directly at something it disappears.

This is very sad, and the OFMC will not be the same. This might be John’s motto: When I was younger I was afraid I’d die riding. Now that I’m old and falling apart, I’m afraid I won’t.

Then there’s Dan. With Dan it was more direct–he suffered a stroke. More than a year later he’s still struggling to perform everyday functions; riding a motorcycle is out of the question, and the bike was sold long ago.

Mind you, this is a guy who used to routinely ride more than 30,000 miles every year. Dan had a decal on his bike that showed a map of the 48 states with the label, “My riding area.” He meant it. But now he doesn’t ride. So very sad, and so unfair. He had seemed to be in great health until one day he wasn’t.

This might have been Dan’s motto: Young riders pick a destination and go. Old riders pick a direction and go.

I know a bunch of other guys who used to ride but don’t any more but for them it was a decision; in some cases the dad decision, as in “I have a child and he needs a father–I’m giving up the bike.” Maybe in later years they will be back.

What this has meant for the OFMC is that this year there were only 6 riders on the trip. Not long ago we had had 10-11.

So don’t take it for granted. Get out there and ride every chance you get. And I’m going to take seriously the motto Roy told us he has subscribed to all his life. Roy just turned 86 but he’s as spry and active as someone 40 years younger. Here’s his take on life: Does as much as you can for as long as you can.

Yeah, what he said.

Biker Quote for Today

Hop on your steel horse and go find your soul in the wind.

When I first started riding I found after awhile that unlike driving a car, there was no way I could conceivably get drowsy and be in danger of falling asleep. There was so much demanding my attention, my focus was constantly being called to steering, to braking, to potential traffic issues, and to so much else. No way would I have to slap my face or shake my head vigorously to keep my eyes open, as I sometimes do in a car.

That was then. This is a long time later. Although I still maintain constant alertness, these things have become much more second nature now and are not so demanding on my focus. Do I sometimes find myself wanting to close my eyes and sleep while riding? Oh yeah.

Of course, sleeping on a bike in motion is not such a strange concept. I know various guys whose lady friends have fallen asleep while on the back of the bike. Usually their heads fall forward and their helmets crack together and she wakes up. Sometimes the rider seat is a lounge chair with back and arms and they just safely drift off. Once Johnathon had to catch Felicia as she started to fall off the side. These things happen.

So what do I do when I start struggling to keep my eyes open? It’s easy if I’m riding alone–I pull over and take a break. And if I’m riding with just one or two other people I’ll probably do the same, telling them I just need to stop for a few minutes.

It’s a more complex situation when you’re with a larger group. Any time a big group stops you just know it is going to be a more lengthy stop because there is inevitably at least one person who is constitutionally incapable of getting going again without going through an extended rigamarole. Friggs is that guy with us. Everything has to be adjusted and made just right and he takes his time. The rest of us hardly start getting ready until he’s putting his helmet on.

So making the decision to stop the group just because only I am drowsy is a hard call to make at times. Especially if I know there is a stop planned not that far ahead, I just do my best to keep going, and wish the miles would pass more quickly. And then yes, I shift my body position, shake my head vigorously to try to rattle my brains, and do anything else that seems like it might work to keep me going until the drowsiness passes.

But sometimes you just have to stop. I tend to ride at the back of the group so pulling out in front to indicate a stop is generally a problematic proposition. So I just pull off and trust the guy in front of me to notice and pull off, too, starting a chain reaction. But with the guys I ride with this is not guaranteed. So sometimes I just take my break and catch up to them as I’m able. I’m OK with that. The only thing is, I wish these guys were more observant because maybe I’m back behind them with a flat tire. That happened once and they never did come back for me.

I don’t care, though. If you can’t keep your eyes open you should not be on the road. I have no desire to crash, and I’ll take whatever results from a safe decision over being totally foolish.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if all your leathers match.

I took Judy to the airport early on Tuesday and as I drove home I thought about one of my first visits to Denver International Airport when it was just new.

I actually had been out there even before it was completed. One day I led John and Bill on our bikes riding out on the then under construction Pena Boulevard, going past areas where it was posted to stay out, this being a Sunday with no one to stop us. It was the first any of us had had the chance to see what was taking shape way out there northeast of the city.

But then the airport opened so we decided one day to ride out there again and see this new creation now functioning. If you were around back then you may recall that initially they set things up a bit differently than they are today. That’s because this bright idea about controlling traffic turned out to be a really bad idea and they quickly revamped things.

That is to say, it was set up so that all road traffic to DIA had to stop at a row of toll booths about a mile from the terminal. You were issued tickets and as you exited you handed over your ticket and paid for any time you were there beyond half an hour. Everybody did this, every time. What a waste of time. Now you drive in and drop off or pick up your passenger(s) and there’s no stopping. You only pay something if you park. Who had that dumb idea in the first place?

But it was worse if you were on a motorcycle. Apparently they figured that no one on a motorcycle would ever drop someone off or pick someone up. So when you pulled up to the toll booths there were signs saying “No Motorcycles.” I’m not sure we noticed those signs this day but either way, we pulled up to the toll booth and I don’t remember if we got one ticket for all of us or one apiece or what. Whatever, we drove on in, made the loop past the terminal, and then headed out.

That’s when we really hit trouble.

At the exit toll booth they didn’t know what to do with us. The equipment was not set up to deal with motorcycles, so either the weight or the mass of one bike was not enough to alert the machines that someone was there seeking to exit. Plus, the system was set up so when you picked up your ticket on entry a photo was made of your license plate and the person at the exit booth confirmed that this was the same vehicle.

So when one bike wasn’t enough, they had us pull all three bikes up to increase the mass. That worked but then they had to confirm that this “one vehicle”–really three–was the same “one vehicle” that had come through the entry gate. What a total mess! What a fiasco!

Needless to say, this whole procedure did not last very long. Somebody with authority realized how idiotic it was and the toll booths were eliminated.

And you have to wonder, what might have been different if they had included motorcyclists in the planning process. Surely there would have been extreme protest over the “no motorcycles” part of the plan. And maybe that would have triggered some other thinking about the necessity of inconveniencing every single person coming out there. Isn’t it amazing how generally smart people can have such stupid ideas?

Biker Quote for Today

She told me to whisper something sexy in her ear, so I said, “I ride a Harley.”

This Examiner Resurrection is dated in that I have since acquired a dual-sport bike and have a lot more dirt riding under my belt. Still, the points it makes are timeless and it was not a bad thing even for me to reread the material.

Learning Dirt-Biking Techniques

Riding motorcycles in the dirt is not the same as riding on the street. That may not come as a surprise to a lot of people but until you try riding in the dirt you may not realize how different it is.

I had the opportunity yesterday to receive some dual-sport dirt-riding training. I’m doing some coverage of the Adventure for the Cures ride that kicked off today and Sue Slate, the organizer, invited me to participate in the training session. Let me backtrack: The “Dirty Dozen” riders participating in this breast/ovarian cancer research fundraising event are all experienced street riders who have not ridden on dirt before. Thus the training.

Of course I accepted the invitation. So at 6:30 a.m. I was headed up the hill to Keystone in order to be there for an 8 a.m. “working breakfast.” You might be amazed how cold it is on an August day at 7 a.m. at 10,000 feet. My fingers were ice cubes.

The training took place, as so much motorcycle rider training does, in a parking lot, although this one, of course, was unpaved. The trainers were Andrea Beach and Bonnie Warch, of Coach2Ride, a south California riding school specializing on dual-sport riding.

Having only recently taken a refresher Beginning Rider Course (BRC) from T3RG Motorcycle Schools, where they told us to grab the brake lever with all four fingers–a practice I was working on adopting–I was surprised to be told that in dirt biking you want to always cover the lever with two fingers in order to quicken your response time. OK, so now I unlearn.

Andrea also told us you don’t counter-steer on the dirt; you turn by putting your weight on the opposite peg from the direction you want to go. You also shift your weight. That is, if you want to steer left, you lean the bike to the left but counter the lean by moving your weight to the right. This initiates the turn while keeping the bike’s center of gravity stable.

The fact is, this is the technique they taught us in the BRC for tight turns at slow speeds. That’s something else I had been practicing since I took the class so this was good reinforcement.

Another difference is that when you go dirt-biking you tend to stand up on the pegs a lot. Not exactly a recommended practice on the road. First off, standing up serves the same purpose it does on the street where you momentarily stand up to cushion a hard bump. Cruisers, with their pegs way out front, aren’t suitable for this, which is why I always prefer a bike with the pegs underneath me. And on the dirt you’re always dealing with bumps so the need to be able to stand on the pegs is obvious.

Secondly, you get better control of the bike when you stand on the pegs because it shifts the center of gravity down. Dirt bikes tend to be very tall because of the suspension, and this counteracts that situation, which is good.

So after a couple hours of training we took off up a fire road to put it all into practice. This was only the second time I’ve ever ridden dirt but I remember the first time being a lot of fun. This was a lot of fun, although way too short.

We rode up, making a point to steer around some potholes and obstacles for the steering practice, and deliberately hitting others for the practice that afforded. By the time we got back down I was really getting into standing and steering with my weight. It had taken awhile but I had found the comfortable–read “less tiring”–standing position and had developed an understanding for the direction to grip the tank with your knees. Some things you can hear about forever but not really understand until you have a chance to do it.

Will I do more dirt riding? Man, I’d love to, although not having a dirt bike or trailer is a bit of an issue in that regard. Or any place to store them. We’ll have to see what I can figure out.

Biker Quote for Today

When you’re on a motorcycle you’re never lost if there is still gas in the tank–you’re just finding new roads!

Drivers are cruising along thinking, “My gosh, there are a lot of motorcycles on the road. I better be extra careful I don’t change lanes without seeing one, or turn in front of one!”

That’s the kind of thinking we would love all drivers to have going on in their heads, isn’t it? Well what are you–yes, YOU!–to make them think that way?

How about this. Ride your motorcycle to work on Monday, June 19. That’s this coming Monday.

Monday, June 19 is Ride Your Motorcycle to Word Day. The idea of this effort is to inculcate exactly the sort of thinking described above. Flood the streets with bikes and make drivers shake their heads in surprise at how many motorcycles there are out there. Make them aware we are there and hope that they will connect the dots to realize that they need to do that head check rather than just glance in their mirror. That kind of thing.

I could go on about the whole philosophy behind this event but why bother? This is the gist of it. Just ride your bike on Monday.

Biker Quote for Today

Hospital gowns don’t come in black leather. Ride aware.