Passes & Canyons Blog

A lot of motorcyclists insist on keeping their bikes spotless. I am not one of those. I figure that I can spend hours cleaning a bike and then go for a ride and get in some rain and by the time I get home it’s filthy again.

No, I just try to make a point to clean each of my bikes at least once every few years. I’d rather just spend that time riding.

But it had been a few years so I’ve done some cleaning recently. I had Joel give my Concours a complete tune-up while he had the bike to put on a new front tire. After I got it back I figured what the heck, if I’m doing all that I might as well clean it. So I did. Looks nice.

That got me going. Next I decided I ought to clean the Honda. I had to admit, it was pretty dang dirty even by my standards. Plus, Joel was going to be working on it because I had had an issue with the fuel line. I figured he might appreciate working on a cleaner bike.

So I dove in. That was when I noticed the right front fork tube was spectacularly dirty, and the left tube was not. Uh oh, this looks like a failed fork seal. Who knows how long it would have been before I noticed this if I hadn’t started cleaning.

Of course it’s a good thing to notice it. And the timing was good. I just added it to the list of things for Joel to work on. So now it’s the fork seals, the fuel line, and I’m having Joel do a tune-up on this bike, too. Lord knows how long it’s been since it had one.

Considering how filthy this bike was, I’m sure Joel is glad I cleaned it.

And I have this consolation: it took a long time for that bike to get that dirty. It won’t be anywhere near that dirty again any time soon. Yahoo! Let’s go ride.

Biker Quote for Today

Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: One bike is fine, but five bikes are better.

Not to put too fine a point on this but the OFMC should never let Bill lead.

OK, sure, if all we’re doing is following one highway in one direction and there is no way to go wrong, fine, he can take the lead. But if there are any turns involved someone else better be in front. And even then there can be problems.

We saw this a couple times on this last trip we took in July. On the first day we were heading south from Poncha Springs to Alamosa. There is a point along there where you need to get off U.S. 285, which veers southwest at this point, onto CO 17, which continues straight south to Alamosa.

Bill was in the lead and at this intersection he just stayed on 285. Dennis and I made the turn and pulled over to wait for him to return.

While we waited I told Dennis about the time up in Wyoming many years ago when we were coming down from Cokeville on U.S. 30, headed to Kemmerer. There is a point there where 30 bends east and if you go straight you get onto WY 89 headed into Utah. Bill blasted past the turn and so did John. I pulled over to wait. After a while John came back but then we waited longer for Bill. It seems he ran into a speed trap and was getting issued a ticket. Bill has never lived that one down.

So this time around he figured it out pretty quickly and came right back and on we rode to Alamosa.

A few days later we were headed to Durango, coming down through Ouray and Silverton. Leaving Silverton it looked like rain ahead so we were geared up, but it wasn’t long before the skies cleared and it started getting warm. Dennis did not want to be cruising slowly through Durango all rain-suited up so he turned on his right-turn signal and kept trying to attract Bill’s attention. But Bill wasn’t paying any attention. Finally Dennis and I pulled over on our own and stripped off the suits. When we encountered Bill a short way down the road he said he thought it was silly to stop when Durango was so close ahead. Later, however, he acknowledged the wisdom of shedding the suits before reaching town.

And then two days later we did it again. We were heading north out of Monticello, Utah, on U.S. 191 and needed to turn right at La Sal Junction onto UT 46. Bill was leading and once again he blasted right on by. Again Dennis and I made the turn and pulled over to wait for him to come back.

Back when John was still riding with us he often would take the lead. Queried about this once he said that he didn’t trust most of the guys to have any real sense of where we were going. He singled me out as the exception because, “Ken always has a map right in front of him on top of his tank bag.” And I prefer to bring up the rear, so that arrangement worked well.

But now it’s just the three of us and it looks like Dennis and I are going to have to more actively ensure that if the route is at all tricky, Bill is not in the lead. Sorry Bill, we love ya, but now that your brother Friggs is no longer coming on these trips you inherit his old title of Mr. Oblivious. I guess it runs in the family.

Biker Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: You’ll have to park your new car outside because the garage is full of bikes.

You’re probably very much aware of the standard format for a motorcycle club: You hold regular meetings that are as much about being social as conducting business; you organize some rides; and you organize other social gatherings. That’s fine as far as it goes, but might there be a better model?

I’ve been a member of the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club for about three years ago and after Robert became president this year things have really changed. I was talking to him about it recently.

To Robert’s way of thinking, the main thing a motorcycle club should do is ride. Forget all these social gatherings. You can still do that but aren’t we really there to ride? The RMMRC has always organized impromptu rides but that involved someone making a plan and then letting people know about that plan in some way. That included emails but also phone calls, i.e., labor intensive.

Things are a little different now. We still have the meetings–or try to in this pandemic era–and the planned cross-country rides, but the focus is more on impromptu rides, and a lot of them. What has facilitated this was moving the club website to Meetup.com. Now, anyone who has an idea for a ride can post it, anyone who is signed up gets an email alerting them, and then whoever shows up goes for a ride. We’re averaging one or two rides per week now. THAT is a motorcycle club.

Plus, there are other benefits. Eliminating the cost of a dedicated website, the group’s membership fee has been cut in half. Putting the rides out there on Meetup gets the word out to other people who are free to show up, and once they do they often sign up, which means membership is rising.

Thanks to the coronavirus many of the planned, longer rides for this year are being canceled or adjusted, but boy do we go riding a lot! Heck, I’m thinking that once Pikes Peak and Mount Evans open for the season I’ll organize this Tale of Two Mountains ride I’ve been wanting to do for several years. It couldn’t be easier.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you think ‘Helmet Hair’ is a fashion statement.

I got a comment from Mark in regard to my most recent post, wherein I mentioned a rider going the other way tapping the top of his helmet to warn me of a radar trap up ahead. He asked if there were other signals that are used to communicate while riding. I had written about hand signals in a post back in 2008 and I referred him to that post. But that got me to thinking about how it can be good to cycle back to certain topics from time to time because there are always new people coming into motorcycling, as well as readers who didn’t see what I wrote 12 years ago. Just because you wrote about something 12 years ago doesn’t mean you should never mention it again.

On the other hand, I don’t want to just repeat myself. So I figured I would do a Google search for “motorcycle hand signals” and see what showed up. Turns out there are a lot but also not so many. Which is to say, there seems to be one basic chart that you see with many different organizations’ logos slapped on them. That would be one in the image above. I know you can’t read it that small so here’s a link to it.

Here’s a different one, which I linked to in that 2008 post. It’s a gif so it shows motion, which can be useful in understanding just what it is you do.

For the most part, these signals are for things like “start your engines,” “hazard ahead,” and “police ahead.” That’s all well and good, and certainly we should all know and use them. But in some cases there was a little humor injected. In particular, there was this one. Now, I made a decision when I first started this blog not to use language that could be offensive to some people, and this chart is a bit off color. That’s why I’m linking to it, not just dropping it into this post. So you can choose to view it or not.

And here’s another that is similar.

Good for a laugh. But anyway, thanks Mark for giving me a topic for this post. And I also want to mention, any time someone comments on any of my posts, as Mark did, I post a reply. But I’ve never had the blog set up to notify the person I’m replying to that I have replied. Well, I just added such a plug-in. It also works if someone other than me replies to your comment. So hey, comments are always welcome.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: Motorcycles don’t get jealous if you come home with grease under your fingernails.

Riding a motorcycle is not like driving a car. Have you noticed that?

For instance, no one ever mentions to you how they headed out in their car and discovered it was a lot warmer or cooler than they expected and therefore they were way too hot or way too cool. They just took care of it with the AC or the heater and didn’t give it another thought.

Not so those of us on two wheels. And there is no more likely time to get that surprise than at the changing of the seasons, like right now.

Until this week, the last several times I’ve been out on my bikes I have consistently underestimated how chilly it was going to be. I’m not stupid, though, and I have a few years of experience under my belt, so I was carrying along the warmer gear to compensate.

And riding in cool weather is pretty energizing. The term “cool, brisk fall days” speaks to a reality. It’s very cool (yes, double meaning) actually.

Then there was last Tuesday. The forecast was for one more warm day followed by serious, serious cold. As in a low of 14 degrees. That’s cold! I figured I’d better take advantage so off I went on the Concours. The thermometer said 75 so, after being surprised by the cool recently, I overdressed for the warmth. You can always remove layers.

Boy did I overdress. To the point where I was roasting. So I stopped and shed a layer, right? No, that would have been too easy, too intelligent.

I wanted a convenient place to stop. And it’s amazing how when you want something specific you never seem to find it. At any time I could have turned off onto a side street, stopped and de-layered, and turned around and gotten back on the main road. But that would not have been convenient.

I finally remembered that my jacket has vents so I opened the ones in front, and that helped some. I groped in back but could not locate the rear vents or that would have helped even more.

So finally I ended up back home and oh golly, how glad I was to rip some layers off.

As I said, you never hear stories like this from people driving cars, do you. But I’ll bet that nearly every one of you could tell some similar story about riding your motorcycle. Riding a motorcycle is not like driving a car.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding motorcycles helps clear the cobwebs from my mind; if I ride long enough I get to kill some of the spiders.

As I mentioned last week, I got a free pair of earplugs to try out and review. They come from a company called Big Ear.

First thing you need to understand is that the plugs they gave me are their bottom of the line, which sell for $85. For some reason they just weren’t inclined to give me a pair of their top of the line, $2,150 ear plugs. Go figure. I thought you loved me!

This is all to say, of course, that they have a wide range of offerings. The low end is the solid plugs that just simply block noise. Plus, these are pretty rigid. For $109 you can get the same but in softer, more comfortable acrylic, and for $169 you can get even softer silicone. Just from wearing these I’d probably be inclined to pay a little more for the acrylic.

Stepping up, you get the filtered plugs. These start at $150 and as the name implies, you get noise reduction but only certain wavelengths are filtered out so you can talk and hear normally but the loud, bad stuff if blocked.

If you want to go big they have the hunter varieties where it selectively filters out the sound of your gun but allows you to hear leaves rustling and footsteps, etc. out there in the woods. These go as high as $1,050.

If you’re a swimmer they have aquatic plugs that are biased toward keeping water out of your ears, blocking sound, or playing music while you swim. (Who does that? Nobody I know.)

Many people do like to listen to music while riding their motorcycles, however, and Big Ear has that covered. These have cords and/or Bluetooth to connect to your cellphone. These go as high as $1,496.

And then the top of the line does everything: music, Bluetooth, sound reduction, filtering, and top of the line sound quality.

So I showed up at Avalanche Harley-Davidson, where Pete and Sandi MacLachlan had their booth set up and they fitted me on the spot. Only the very bottom of the line, like I got, are made right there; the rest have to be fitted and then sent to the factory to be made.

They inserted a foam block in my ears, attached with threads for extraction, to limit how far in the molding material could go. Then the silicone was pumped in and while it hardened they shaped the exterior a bit. Once the silicone was set it was all extracted and allowed to set further. With some buffing and trimming and grinding away of extraneous matter, plus some sealant coating, the result was a pair of finished earplugs.

And the big question: how do they do?

The first test I gave them was not on the bike. We have a VitaMix blender at home that, when turned up to top speed, is like a jet engine. It is so loud we wear a pair of noise-blocking headphones when we use it. So I tried making a smoothie using my new Big Ear earplugs. And it was pretty comparable to the headphones. Which means they block a lot of noise.

With that fact established I could only think of one other thing to test and that was comfort. So I went for a ride. Would they be comfortable for an extended period?

Here the answer was a little more ambiguous. For whatever reason, the one in my left ear was more noticeable than the one in my right ear. It may be that it was a snugger fit because I also noticed I got a bit of wind noise in my right ear but not in my left. But that snugger fit was also harder to ignore. I was barely aware on the right but very aware on the left. That’s why I say if I was going to buy these things I would probably pay the extra for the softer units.

But they fit under the helmet perfectly. I’ve worn ear plugs that protruded and got jostled by the helmet when I was putting it on and that is not going to happen with these.

If you care about your hearing you really ought to protect it. Judy and I both have some degree of hearing loss and the failure to hear and understand each other clearly is what leads to most of our moments of friction. There are numerous sources of good earplugs out there and I know that Big Ear is only one of them. Whatever brand you choose, I would strongly urge you to use something.

Biker Quote for Today

Warning: Objects seen in mirror are disappearing rapidly.

After coming all the way through the Colorado Senate, the Colorado House has killed the bill that would have made it illegal for drivers to dial or text with their phones while driving. The vote, on Tuesday, was 11-0 in the House Judiciary Committee.

Senate sponsor, Lois Court, said she is not done with this measure and it will return next session.

The American Civil Liberties Union was one of the chief opponents of the bill. The ACLU argued that “all the studies tell us that banning their use or imposing high fines on their use doesn’t stop the use.” Denise Maes, Public Policy Director for the ACLU, also expressed concern that the law could be used as a cover for racial profiling.

No, banning and imposing fines would not stop people from using their phones but I have to believe it would at least reduce their use. Laws against murder do not stop all instances of murder but you better believe it happens a lot less frequently than it would if it were legal. As for racial profiling, Colorado is not known as having a high incidence of that, unlike some other cities we could name. But if a bad cop wants to do it he or she always knows some law they can use. It’s not like this would have been the only one they could turn to.

So this was a very sad day. Drivers need to hang up their damn phones and drive.

In the meantime, there is other activity of interest at the Capitol.

Per Stump: “SB19-144 (Motorcyclists and Malfunctioning Traffic Signals) passed through 2nd and 3rd readings in the House chambers this week with one small amendment at 3rd reading to correct a “grammatical” error. Of course, that meant it had to go back to the Senate for concurrence on the House amendment, which was easily handled this week also. So now it goes to the Governor for his signature.”

Biker Quote for Today

Fake bikers have an image to maintain. The real bikers just don’t give a damn.

Usually, for strong supporters of a piece of legislation, amendments mean a less favorable bill. That is not the case in the Colorado legislature with the proposed Senate Bill 144, known as the dead red bill. This bill is intended to address the issues motorcyclists face when traffic signals do not recognize their presence.

Currently state law says that you must wait for two cycles of the light before you can run the red. The catch-22, of course, is that if it doesn’t recognize your presence the light is not going to cycle so you can sit there forever. A revision was proposed that requires you to sit and wait for two minutes, at which time you are free to run the red.

Well, in the hearing on Tuesday the Colorado Municipal League objected to that wording. Their representative explained that they had spoken with law enforcement folks and the two minute requirement was deemed unenforceable. Then an amazing thing happened. The League, the Colorado Department of Transportation, and the Colorado State Patrol got together and concluded the best language was simply to say that the motorcyclist should treat the light as they would a 4-way stop. Come to a complete stop, wait until it is safe, and then proceed.

Wow! How absolutely logical! And the great thing is that this amended bill was approved by the committee unanimously. With any luck it might make its way out of the Senate over to the House by the end of this week. Don’t you love it when government works!?

Distracted Driving
Also of interest at the capitol on Tuesday, the distracted driving bill that would make it a primary offense to be holding an electronic communications device in your hand while driving–talking on your cellphone–also moved ahead, this time with some amendments. In order to win approval the bill was watered down a little more than it already had been in terms of the penalties.

Rather than a $300 fine for the first offense, the first offense would be set at $50, second at $150, and third at $300. Opponents working for these reductions made the argument that it works better to establish incentives rather than punishments. As Stump said in response, gosh, not incurring a $300 fine would seem like a pretty darn good incentive. And it doesn’t cost a penny to not use your phone while you’re driving.

Nevertheless, legislation is often a matter of baby steps. The most important things here are that using your phone while driving would become a primary offense, meaning the cops can stop you for that reason alone, and it would no longer be necessary to prove you were texting, which the current law against texting while driving requires. All it requires is that the cop sees you with your phone in your hand.

I guess considering that people now text or call with no fear of repercussions it makes sense to give them a break-in period with low fines. Then, once everyone knows that this is no longer permitted, perhaps fines can be increased, if indeed that is shown to promote compliance. Regardless, if we can get at least a significant percentage of drivers to hang up their dang phones while driving it will make the roads a lot safer for us and for them, too.

Biker Quote for Today

Never sell a motorcycle – it is a part of you. Just buy more.