Passes & Canyons Blog

I got an email recently from someone in Vancouver, B.C., asking about how a bike runs in Colorado, particularly in places such as Mt. Evans, when they’re tuned for lower altitudes. It strikes me that that’s a question a lot of people planning to come here might have so I figured I would reprint here the reply I sent him. Here it is.

With the understanding that my bikes are tuned for the altitude in Denver (5,000 feet, more or less) I’m happy to say that I’ve never had any problems. They start, run, and act just like they do in the city. Also, I had a note from a guy who lives in Atlanta who came out to Colorado and he went to the top of Mt. Evans and didn’t have any problem either. I’ve been all over the state and seen people from many states stopping to enjoy the view at the top of passes and I’ve never seen anyone having trouble starting their bike or had anyone mention anything about a problem. Hopefully that means you won’t have anything to worry about.

So that’s what I told him. If any of you have had bad experiences please write and let me know about them and how you handled the problem. Thanks.

Reading the May issue of Cycle World magazine I came across a column by Peter Egan where he talks about how the best two days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it. He goes on to talk about a conversation he and his buddies had about why motorcycles are better than just about anything you could name. The list includes items such as “When the engine stops, you can pull over and put your foot down, instead of doing a dead-stick landing in a cornfield. Or getting towed to port.” Another is “During a big storm, you don’t have to lie awake at night and picture your motorcycle bashing itself to pieces on some rocks.” You get the picture.

I totally identify with what he’s talking about. In fact, that’s exactly how I came to buy my first motorcycle, back in 1987. I had been flying a hang glider but there were way too many days when I’d get up early, load the glider on the car, and drive a couple hours to the flying site, then set it up and haul it up to launch, only to sit there all day and never get good flying conditions. Then after sitting all day I’d break it down, load it back on the car, drive home, and the whole day was shot for nothing.

Finally I decided I would sell my hang glider and use the money to buy a motorcycle, because at least with a motorcycle, when I threw my leg over the bike I’d be doing what I came to do, right now. That was one of the best decisions of my life. And I still have that bike.

My latest issue of Rider magazine arrived yesterday and the irony was very heavy. There inside was the regular column on motorcycle safety by Lawrence Grodsky, who has been writing that column for Rider at least as long as I’ve been reading the magazine, about 17 years. The irony is that on April 8 Grodsky was killed by a deer that ran in front of his bike. Long lead times on hard copy national magazines mean this issue was already put to bed when he died. I’m sure the next issue will have the story.

You can read about the tragedy on the AMA site or at the magazine’s site.

Here in Colorado there are many collisions between cars and deer, though I don’t hear of many motorcycle/deer collisions. I know in other states there are riders who won’t even ride outside of the city after dark for fear of hitting them. I’ve had a couple close encounters and I’ll bet most of you have, too. It’s not a reason not to ride; it’s a very good reason to ride carefully.

Our sympathies are with the Grodsky family. We’ll miss you buddy.

I had some trouble with my old Honda awhile back and I was less than thrilled at the response from the dealer where I had been taking the bike for years. They told me flat out that they didn’t want to work on my bike–it was too old. Mind you, this was just a couple months after they had been happy to take my money to put on a new rear tire. But do work on the carbs or whatever else might be causing the problem? No sir, buddy.

So I took it to another shop and they got it running again but not quickly. Seems this other shop prefers to specialize in racing bikes and only works on others to keep the mechanics busy and pay the bills. I had to wait six weeks for them to get around to doing my bike.

Then, just a couple months later, I had the same sort of problem I had had before. This time I took the recommendation of the guy with 2 Wheel Transport and took it to Mountain Thunder Motor Sports for work. What they found out was that it was not the simple problem with gummed up carbs that the other place found, it was the accelerator pump, something much more subtle that required some real investigation to uncover. So Mountain Thunder fixed it for me in a week and it has run just as smooth and sweet as can be ever since. In the meantime, I also needed a new front tire and I dropped in to Mountain Thunder one Saturday unannounced and they put on a new tire while I waited. That’s service.

So this is an unpaid, unsolicited plug for Mountain Thunder Motor Sports, at 2670 W. Hampden Avenue, in Denver. The phone is 303-806-5054. They work on old bikes. They’ll get my business from now on.