Passes & Canyons Blog

Noisy motorcycles have drawn the ire of the Denver City Council and the Council has now passed an ordinance singling them out. This is good and bad.

The good is that the Council is trying to address the legitimate concerns of the populace. Let me give an example. The issue is about noisy bikes downtown when the bars close. Closing time is 2 a.m., so a lot of people who live downtown are asleep . . . until the biker boys rev their engines. My dentist lives downtown and periodically I’ll mention one of my bikes or one of our trips. Then he’ll go into his usual rant about the racket the bikes make late at night. He has every right to be unhappy and I’m sure he welcomes this new ordinance. I’m happy for him.

The bad is that the ordinance wasn’t necessary, and in singling out motorcycles it does nothing about noisy cars or noisy trucks. The city already has a noise ordinance and what the police need to do is enforce it, regardless of vehicle type. The way this ordinance works, your bike has to have a muffler with a particular stamp on it, and if you don’t have the stamp you get a ticket. So what if you don’t have the stamp but your noise is within legal limits? Too bad. American jurisprudence is now turned on its ear and you are guilty until proven innocent. In the meantime, while the cop is writing you a ticket, an illegally loud truck drives by unmolested because the cop does not have a decibelmeter to prove that he is in violation. Or to prove that you are not.

The police say they can’t afford to issue decibelmeters to all cops so this discrimination against motorcyclists is warranted. Well, downtown is a very finite space and Lodo, where most of the action is on a Saturday night, is even more so. How about giving those cops decibelmeters, or at least a few of them, and have the ones with the meters come to the assistance of the ones without when needed? No, that would make too much sense.

Fortunately the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) got wind of this and is getting involved. With any luck, their experienced team will lead the Council to an acceptable alternative. But if you ride an obnoxiously loud bike, don’t think the AMA is going to save your butt. They’ve made it clear that they have no love for overly loud bikes making people hate bikes and bikers. If you’re over the noise limit it won’t bother them one bit to see you get a ticket. As long as it’s legitimate and not carried out in a way that illegitimately targets bikers and excludes other actual violators.

Common sense prevailed in the Colorado Legislature this season. Attempts to pass a helmet law and allow police to stop and ticket you for not wearing a seat belt were both defeated.

Make no mistake, the two are connected. The nannies who think government has some right to poke its nose into private matters were behind these bills. I won’t argue with people who say not wearing a seat belt is stupidity. It’s just that stupidity is not illegal. The same with helmets. The job of government is to protect us from foreign invaders and polluters poisoning the common air we breathe or water we drink, those sorts of things. Helmets and seat belts don’t fall into that category.

Congratulations to the Colorado Legislature for showing some sense.

There was the old Iron Horse Rally, and lately a slew of others, but pulling off a motorcycle rally in southwestern Colorado has proven to be a difficult thing to do. Either the authorities decide they don’t want you, or who knows what.

Well, there are some determined people out there, and coming in late August there is going to be a rally just outside of Mancos. Where is Mancos? It’s west out of Durango on US 160, a bit more than half way to Cortez. It will be at the Sugar Pine Ranch and they’re calling it the Sugar Pine Ranch Rally. Here’s the website:

http://www.sugarpineranchrally.com/

They’re billing it as “~All New Rally~All new Promoters~Permits in place!” The dates are Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. Check it out. Could be a good one.

OK, I forgot to tune in USA Biker Nation last week but I had it on my Palm to remind me this week. Well, I tuned in to KKZN-AM 760 at 10 am, just a few minutes ago, and it was just ending. So apparently they changed the time. Presumably it now starts at 8 am. I went to the web site and all they have is info for the show two weeks ago. This is not an auspicious beginning but we’ll give them time to work it all out. I hope this turns out to be a show worth listening to.

Well, I had to listen to the first airing of Peter Boyles’s new radio show, USA Biker Nation. It was this morning at 10 am on KKZN-AM 760, which I didn’t even know existed. It’s local here in Colorado but they’re going national in two weeks, he said. They were broadcasting live from the Easyriders V-Twin Bike Show going on today at the Merchandise Mart.

Tuning in early I caught a bad infomercial–I didn’t even know they had those on radio. Then lots of commercials and the news and finally, to the strains of Arlo Guthrie singing “The Motorsickle Song,” followed by Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider agreeing to ride with Fonda and Hopper, and finally “Get your motor running . . .” the show began.

Boyles started with two guests, Pastor Gary Davis of Church of the Wind, and a guy named Nick who is a former member of Sons of Silence. They talked, there were more guests, and after two hours the show wrapped up.

How did it go? I really didn’t think it was all that interesting. Hey, it’s a first show so it takes time to start rolling and hit your stride, but I hope they do exactly that. It’s also supposed to be a call-in show but apparently they figure to get it started first and then let people start calling in. As it was, they didn’t even mention a phone number.

They did mention a website: www.usabikernation.com. There’s nothing much up there yet but I’m sure that will change.

So we’ll see. I’ll tune in again next week but they’re going to have to fire it up to keep me coming back.

(Comments are welcome, but the blog spammers forced me to turn off that function. Please send any comments to ken at motorcyclecolorado dot com.)

This just in:

The Rocky Mountain News reported yesterday that long-time local radio personality Peter Boyles, in conjunction with Jones Radio Network, will be launching a two-hour weekly radio program on motorcycling. The show will be called USA Biker Nation, and apparently the intent is to start locally here in Colorado and then expand nationally.

Presumably Boyles rides. I hadn’t heard that he does, but that’s no shocker. I haven’t spoken to him in many years, and haven’t heard him on the air in quite a few years.

So anyway, the show is to debut on KKZN-AM radio at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 7. Heck, I didn’t even know there was a KKZN radio. That’s AM 760 on your dial. So I hope it’s good and he and the network succeed with this. I’ll be tuning in, and I’ll report back about what I hear.

I keep saying this but it’s important for it to be clear up front: I am not and have never been a Republican. I used to be Democrat, but I’m not any more.

That said, I want to say a couple words on behalf of a couple Republican Colorado legislators, Don Marostica of Loveland and Greg Brophy of Wray.

Last week Marostica wore a helmet to the debate on requiring motorcycle riders under 18 to wear helmets. Asked to remove the helmet, he said, as quoted in the Rocky Mountain News:

That’s why I wore my helmet down here. I didn’t want to trip. I’m going to wear it on the way back to my desk.

His point was that people have a greater risk of dying or suffering a brain injury from tripping and falling than they do from motorcycle accidents.

As for Brophy, he is one of the leaders in the fight against allowing police to stop a driver solely for not wearing a seat belt. Right now, you can only be cited if the police stop you for another reason and you’re not wearing your belt.

Said Brophy, once again as quoted in the Rocky Mountain News:

I don’t believe you should be able to pull over someone in this country basically at will. It is another way government will be able to harass citizens.

Kudos, too, to Ron Tupa, Democratic senator from Boulder, who was the lone Democrat voting against the measure.

OK, I guess I spoke too quickly last time. Turns out there is an attempt in the Colorado Legislature to pass a helmet bill. As usual, it is the nanny-government Democrats at work again.

Let me restate this: I’m not a Republican. I am anti-government-sticking-its-nose-in-where-it-doesn’t-belong. I’m a Libertarian.

The proposed legislation would require all riders under age 18 to wear helmets. Simple enough, and maybe not a bad idea. Lord knows kids don’t have the sense to watch out for themselves. I know what I was like when I was a kid, and even more, I know what our kids were like just a few years ago.

If I could trust that this was all it was and that would be the end of it I might go along with this bill. But history shows me that that is not the case.

About 15-20 years ago the legislature passed a bill requiring seat belts to be worn, but they made the offense such that you could not be stopped for it, they could only cite you if they stopped you for something else. Then recently, guess what? They want to change the law so the police can stop you just for failure to wear a seatbelt. There is no doubt in mind that once they get this helmet law passed for kids they’ll be back later to extend that requirement to adults.

The legislators fighting this bill are Republicans. Now, I have no more use for Republicans than I do for Democrats. One wants to tell you how to think and the other wants to control everything you do. That’s why I changed my party affiliation from Democrat to Libertarian awhile back.

That’s also why I believe in divided government. As long as one party controls the executive branch, the other the legislative, they checkmate each other. They govern down the middle. I guess I’ll be working for the Republicans to take back some power in the next election.