Passes & Canyons Blog

Harry’s Roamers is still going strong and I’m pretty sure the information here is just as good now as it was then (except the dates, of course).

Two wheels, four wheels, three wheels, and even third wheels, they all raced on the ice. The ice racing season for Harry’s Roamers Motorcycle Club started today and will run four more times in the next five weeks.

A frozen lake up at Rainbow Falls Park, south of Deckers along CO 67, provides the venue. Racers drill sheet metal screws into their tires to provide traction, or they run on bare tires with sipes cut in the treads. The ones with screws go so fast and take the curves leaned over so far you can’t believe they’re on ice.

I had really hoped to have a slide show here for you to see a dozen or so of the terrific photos I got, but our slideshow functionality is not working at the moment so I guess you have to be satisfied for now with a couple. Once the slideshows are working again I’ll post a bunch more pix.

Tom Flint, this year’s vice president of the club, told me they have about 40 members and are the oldest motorcycle club in Colorado. In addition to ice racing, the club takes one five-day trip each summer, one day trip each month during the summer, and goes dirt-biking in the Rampart Range every Tuesday while the weather is warm. Occasionally they will also sponsor a vintage motocross event.

Two wheels, three wheels, and four wheels–they all
raced on the ice

The bikes used on the ice are no different than any street bike except for the studded tires and a special type of fender that helps prevent mishaps from getting a foot caught between it and the tire. Riders are all ages, from retirees to tykes so small you would expect to see them on tricycles. In fact you do see some of them on tricycles–their racing bikes are fitted with training wheels or outriggers.

The club raises money at their events and donates it to a variety of charities. Tom said they like to keep it in the biker community but they give a lot of money to a lot of different causes.

“It’s a great spectator sport, it’s a family affair, we have lots of kids here,” said Tom.

If you’re interested in joining in the fun, there will be races on Jan. 11, Jan. 18, Jan. 25, and Feb. 8. Racing starts at 10 a.m. and figure at least an hour and a half from Denver. Admission is $8 and kids under 12 are free.

Dress warmly!

Biker Quote for Today

Only cool grandparents ride motorcycles.

LoJack, the makers of a tracking system for finding stolen motorcycles and other things, used to supply me with these fun stories on a regular basis. This was the first one. And of course, this is another Examiner resurrection.

Motorcycle thieves should be drawn and quartered. But first you have to catch them.

One bit of technology that is helping catch bike thieves is the security system marketed by LoJack. A LoJack technician hides a radio transmitter somewhere on your vehicle. If someone steals the vehicle you contact LoJack, the transmitter is remotely activated, and police can often pick up the signal and track it to its source.

LoJack, in a totally self-serving but understandable move, likes to publicize its successes. Recently they published their 2008 list of best bike thief busts. Here’s their list. Kinda makes you smile.

• Most Arrests Made in Recoveries – In less than 48 hours, LoJack for Motorcycles helped Las Vegas police and the Southern Nevada Auto Theft Task Force uncover two theft rings, leading to the arrest of ten suspects. Four stolen Honda motorcycles and a Yamaha ATV were recovered in the two raids.
• Fastest Motorcycle Recovery Leads to Big Chop Shop – A Yamaha YZR was recovered just eight minutes after the LoJack for Motorcycles system was activated. The recovery led Los Angeles police to find seven other stolen bikes and parts with an estimated total worth of over $100,000.
• Best Bust Reflecting the Trend of Selling Stolen Bikes Online – A potential motorcycle buyer saw an online advertisement for a motorcycle and contacted the posters about the bike. What the buyer didn’t know was that the poster did not own the bike advertised. Once the posters were contacted by the interested buyer, they allegedly stole a motorcycle that fit the description in the advertisement. Using this method, thieves could minimize the time they would be in possession of the stolen bike. LoJack’s recovery system located the bike ten minutes after activation about 75 miles away from where it was taken.
• Bike Stolen and Recovered Four Times in Nine Months – A Tuscon, Ariz. resident’s Yamaha YZF-R6 was stolen and recovered for the fourth time since August 2007. LoJack for Motorcycles helped police locate the bikes 14 minutes after activation.
• Best LoJack Early Warning Recovery – LoJack’s Early Warning system notified the owner of a Yamaha YZF-R6 after the bike was moved from his apartment’s parking lot without his permission. Police were able to track the system’s silent signal 20 minutes later moving on a local interstate highway. When officers closed in on the transmission, they had difficulty finding the R6. As officers passed a nearby cargo van, the signal’s direction arrow reversed. The police stopped the van and discovered the R6 and two other stolen motorcycles inside. Two suspects were arrested.

Biker Quote for Today

The necessities of life: 1. Air 2. Water 3. Food 4. My bike (And not necessarily in that order.)

It’s pretty well established that motorcycle engines and ethanol do not play nicely together, particularly when the proportion of ethanol in the gas get beyond a certain point. And using high-ethanol gas can reputedly even invalidate your warranty on the bike.

So it should not be a surprise that ABATE of Colorado opposes E-15, which is a newer ethanol fuel that has 15 percent ethanol, vs. the 10 percent we have had for many years. E-15 crosses the line.

I got the following alert from Stump, who keeps track of legislation for ABATE and does what he can to promote or oppose bills. That is to say, he’s a lobbyist, our lobbyist.

On Monday, 3/28, SB16-175 (E-15 Gasoline Income Tax Credit For Retail Dealers) was introduced in the Senate and assigned to the Senate Finance Committee. The Senate Finance Committee Members are: Sen. Neville (chair); Sen. Hill; Sen. Holbert; Sen. Johnston; and Sen. Kerr. I requested a meeting with the sponsor of the bill. I also plan to get a letter out to the Senate Finance Committee members and possibly meet with a couple of them before the committee meets on this bill which is scheduled for Thursday, 4/14. Now would be a good time to write / e-mail the Senate Finance Committee Members and urge them to oppose SB16-175. I’ve attached some talking point about E-15 Fuel to use in your letters. Please forward this to your district members ASAP and encourage them to e-mail the Senate Finance Committee Members.

Thanks,

Stump

You can read that letter with talking points that he mentioned here.

There are two issues as far as I see it. First there are the detrimental effects, of which Stump lists four:

PROBLEM 1: DEBRIS IN FUEL
Gums rapidly form in the fuel tank and fuel delivery systems as ethanol fuels age. However, ethanol is also a powerful solvent that will strip away and disperse this build up back into the fuel as large, performance-robbing particles. This leads to clogged filters, injectors and carburetors.

PROBLEM 2: EXCESSIVE WATER IN THE FUEL AND PHASE SEPARATION
Ethanol attracts moisture from the atmosphere, forming an ethanol/water solution mixed in the gasoline. Ethanol-blended fuel will naturally hold .5% water in suspension, but when water levels exceed this threshold, or when the fuel cools significantly, the water/ethanol mix drops out of suspension. This is phase separation. Excessive water in the fuel tank causes engines to run rough, stall, and can lead to internal damage to engine components. Ethanol provides a significant amount of the fuel’s octane, so when the ethanol/water solution separates and drops to the bottom of the tank, the remaining fuel is left without enough octane to properly operate the engine. Additionally, the ethanol/water solution can become partially combustible, which can lead to engine damage.

PROBLEM 3: ETHANOL FUELS BREAK DOWN QUICKLY
Over a short period of time ethanol fuel begins to break down. As ethanol and other components evaporate, the fuel loses octane and becomes “stale.” This causes hard starts, pinging and engine knock, which robs your engine of power and can cause damage.

PROBLEM 4: ETHANOL CAUSES LOST POWER, PERFORMANCE AND DECREASED FUEL ECONOMY
Ethanol fuel does not produce as much energy as traditional fuel. This results in inefficient combustion, decreased performance, reduced throttle response and poor fuel economy.

–Reprinted from StarTron fuel additive info brochure–

The other is that the only reason this whole ethanol thing has not died is because of the political pull of the corn farmers. Like so many other people I supported the idea of adding ethanol to gas originally, but like so many others I have now come to see that the whole things is a waste. It takes nearly as much energy to produce the stuff as you get from burning it and it’s not good for your motor. We tried it. It failed. Let’s kill the program and move forward. Oh, no–now we have vested interests.

At least if we could get SB 16-175 killed we wouldn’t be giving a tax credit to the stations that sell the stuff.

Biker Quote for Today

Gone riding, be back whenever . . .

I haven’t done this for a while so it must be due. More weird stuff encountered on the road, from a thread on Adventure Riders.

• I had to dodge a claw hammer that bounced off a pickup truck’s rear bumper after he hit a bump.
• A wheel w/ tire rolling across the road from an oncoming truck.
• Couple weeks ago, my wife was heading to work on her PC800…crested a hill, and right in the middle of her lane was a damn Fisher-Price playhouse!
• Boulders. Large boulders for landscaping / construction. An 18 wheel dump truck was turning in front of me, across my path of travel, about 100 yards away. The truck, being overloaded, flipped on its side. 6 or 7 large boulders rolled out, and tumbled straight toward me. They were round enough so they actually rolled a good distance. It was such an unexpected event that I had a strange feeling of calm, and actually steered around one as it rolled past.
• Took a bat in the chest at 70 MPH crossing a bridge one night. That was weird, and painful. Thankfully it was the flying kind, not the baseball kind.
• After moving from Alaska in 1990 I met up with local riders in Oregon where I moved to. They managed to make me paranoid of deer (we didn’t have them, just moose), one early morning I was riding toward Bridgeport Washington on a sunny morning a few months later. The light through the trees was incredible. But for some reason my mind had gotten back to the deer. . every shadow started worried, then I came around a beauty of a right hand sweeping corner doing about 70 mph and there it was. . the biggest Pig I have ever seen in my life smack dab in the middle of my line. Missed it by a foot at best, afterwards the first thing that came to mind was the epitaph for my head stone “They never warned me of the pigs”
• My friend was hit by a fish in the chest. He startled an osprey who dropped his catch.
• Hit a boat once, in the middle of the desert. Long story…
  (Other ADV member) Was it the Calypso?
  Nope a small fishing boat. Came up over a hill on my Buell s1w. Paved road winding thru the dez. Came up over a hill and a truck turned left in front of me. No problem I thought, get on front brake and get around him to his right though I knew not much room for error. All looked good then I saw he was towing a fishing boat. Broadside the boat, I went up and over, the bike stopped still. Bike totalled, me just a few broken bones, bruised kidneys and liver, ATGATT saved my ass. He was nice enough to offer me a cold beer and some whiskey, at 8 am. Yes he was cited including for dui but hey he was going fishin’ after all..
• Narrowly missed a pile of elephant poop in the road — massive turds — while up on some twisties in the mountains. That would have ended badly….
• Narrow miss. Giant 10 or 12 point buck in full velvet in August. Hard on the brakes and missed his tail by one foot. It was the full velvet up close that was freaky.

OK, enough fun. Now it’s time to get out there and ride so you can have your own thrilling encounters and add them to this thread.

Biker Quote for Today

Squids: tee-shirt, temporary tag, sneakers, shorts, and no idea what the yellow line is for.

Stump is the lobbyist at the state capitol for ABATE of Colorado and he has been busy. It looks as though this whole issue with motorcycles being required to have transponders to use HOV lanes will be resolved soon. I’m just going to paste in Stump’s latest email on the topic.
___________________________________

This week was another busy week down at the Capitol. HB16-123 (HOV / Transponders) is more involved than I originally thought. The part of concern to us, motorcycles needing transponders, is the easy part. Everyone involved, CDOT, HPTE, Senators, and even opponents of the bill at the Senate Transportation Committee Hearing, understand that motorcycles are HOV per Federal Regulations. The discussion now is, “How do we go about giving motorcycles “free access” to the HOV lanes?”

The rest of the bill about switchable transponders is a lot more complicated. The bill was scheduled for 2nd reading on the Senate floor on Tuesday, 2/23. It got laid over to Thursday, 2/25. I talked to a few Senators on Wednesday, 2/24, to get a feel for the bill. I’ve heard in the past that a bill is sometimes laid over if the sponsor feels he doesn’t have enough votes to carry the bill. That morning there was also a meeting with CDOT, HPTE, and a few Senators. After much discussion, a compromise was offered by CDOT, but not accepted by the sponsor. (I wasn’t at the meeting so I don’t know the exact offer). Wednesday afternoon, I did have a meeting with Senator Todd, Scott Spendlove (lobbyist for HPTE & E-470), and Andy K. (lobbyist for CDOT). While a lot of the discussion was about the bill, all of us agreed that motorcycles shouldn’t need transponders. Scott said he would take the issue directly to the Director of HPTE and work on a solution. Sen. Todd emphatically stated she wants this done ASAP and if it isn’t handled soon and SB16-123 gets killed, she would sponsor a bill specifically about motorcycles not needing transponders.

So on Thursday, 2/25, the bill was read on the Senate floor. Senators Lundberg, Jones, and Neville gave some very strong arguments in support of the bill. (The bill wants to get rid of the switchable transponders and go back to how the HOV / HOT lanes operated before July 22, 2015). Senators Todd and Heath opposed the bill. After much discussion and confusion about the ramifications of the bill, it was voted to lay over the bill till Tuesday, 3/1. There’s a meeting on Monday, 2/29, with the same people that met Wednesday morning. Since the motorcycle’s issue seems to be separate and already agreed upon, I wasn’t invited to the meeting. I’m sure there will be more compromises offered. FYI, I talked to Andy on Thursday and he said he’d send me an e-mail to the effect that CDOT is working on a solution to the motorcycle / transponder issue. (I haven’t gotten it yet).

There’s other bills happening but I just wanted to bring you up to date on SB16-123. I’ll let you know what happens next week and if we need to contact our Representatives.

Stump

Biker Quote for Today

The only date I need has two wheels, can be full on under $10, always goes all the way, and definitely screams on top.

I mentioned before that I had sent comments to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) protesting the apparent rightward political tilt the organization has been taking lately. Specifically, I’m unhappy with their ongoing characterization of President Obama’s creation of national monuments, via the Antiquities Act, as “side-stepping Congress.” Congress passed that act specifically to give all presidents exactly that power. How is it side-stepping Congress if you follow the guidelines of a law created by Congress?

Twice I went to the web page on the AMA’s site where you can send the organization a message. And I sent messages. That page has a check box titled “I would like a reply.” Both times I checked it and neither time did I get a reply. And I kept watching the magazine to see if they would continue using that term.

When the latest issue arrived earlier this week it was there again, so this time I sent an email directly to Rob Dingman, president and CEO of the organization. Here’s that email.

Rob, I have two big bones to pick with you and the AMA, and I’m coming to you because no one else even replies to me.

And that’s the first one. I have sent two letters to the organization (http://www.americanmotorcyclist.com/contact) and in both cases I checked the box that says “I would like a reply.” I haven’t gotten any replies and neither of my letters made it into the magazine. If you’re going to have that checkbox there it seems to me at the very least that someone should reply to the member’s question. And I know for a fact that I’m not the only one who has not gotten replies.

The other issue is what I was writing about the other two times. I was writing in protest of your ongoing characterization in the pages of American Motorcyclist of President Obama’s use of the Congressionally created Antiquities Act as “sidestepping Congress.” I said then, and I say it now, that characterizing Obama’s actions, which are no different than that of many previous presidents, employing a law passed by Congress, as “sidestepping Congress,” smacks very strongly of right-wing partisanship, which has no place in a national organization whose membership spans the political spectrum.

In two consecutive issues that language was used three times. There was no such language in the February issue, but now the March issue has arrived and there you go again. On behalf of all of us in this organization who are not rabid right-wingers I implore you to STOP IT!

Now, I do see in the release sent out the other day that you are focusing more on the fact that establishing national monuments by executive fiat is legal based on the Antiquities Act, and you are now working to amend that legislation. So maybe our protests have been heard and at least sort of responded to. That’s a step forward. I want you to know right now that, as a member, I do not support this effort on the part of my organization. Just FYI. But I’m not going to quarrel over that. I do ask that you totally cease this ongoing use of the term “sidestepping Congress.” Let’s at least stick to the truth, OK?

And yes, I would like a reply to this email. Thank you.

Well, I got a reply this time. Not from Rob, but from Pete TerHorst, who does public relations work for the AMA, and who I’ve known for a number of years and have always been on very good terms with.

I won’t paste in Pete’s entire reply as it is quite long. But here are two pertinent remarks:
– The AMA strives to be non-partisan and apolitical in its advocacy on behalf of motorcyclists. Certainly it does not help the cause to divide the relatively small number of riders in the U.S. (compared to automobile/SUV drivers) into even smaller groups when we are trying to persuade our legislators and regulators that the AMA represents all motorcyclists.

– We do indeed believe that the current administration, and others before it, has exercised inappropriate authority — in effect, sidestepping Congress — when designating national monuments.

I’d like to believe that there is no such intent as there appears to be–not just to me but to other AMA members. But then there’s this, from a comment on that previous blog post:

Adding to this is the recent hiring of one person directly from the Heritage Foundation and one from the House Select Committee on Benghazi (a GOP witch-hunt) into their government relations staff. Adding Wayne Allard alone should have sent a clear signal, though.

I want my organization to be non-partisan. I’m not a Republican or a Democrat. I’m an independent because I have a very low regard for both parties. But if nothing else, the AMA seems to be tone-deaf. This continual complaint about Obama’s “side-stepping Congress” is a pitch-perfect echo of what comes out of the Republicans on a daily basis. And those hires. If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck . . .

I suggest the AMA pay a lot more attention to that first bullet I pulled from Pete’s reply, the one about not dividing riders into even smaller groups. Because right now that’s exactly what they’re doing.

Biker Quote for Today

Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba — HST