Passes & Canyons Blog

Three times over two days recently I observed some interesting people on motorcycles.

I was up in the hills and had no intention of coming down on I-70 but a wrong turn left me doing exactly that. I was in no hurry and so I kept to the right lane, where I got passed by a couple guys in a bigger hurry than me. They were something to see.

These two guys were obviously traveling because their bikes–Harleys or something similar–were totally loaded with gear. But I’m not talking big bags on the sides and a big top bag. No, they had all their individual items bungeed on all over the back ends of their bikes. And they had a lot of gear.

They were barreling along the interstate and neither of them had a riding jacket on. Both were wearing sleeveless t-shirts, although they were wearing helmets. And on top of each helmet was a GoPro camera.

Yeah, they were an interesting sight.

Further along the way home on this same ride, I was coming east through town on Hampden and it was rush hour. Or crawl hour, more appropriately. I was aware of the traffic around me so it was with some surprise that I glanced in the mirror at one point to see there was another bike right behind me in my lane. Where did that guy come from?

I barely had time to wonder if perhaps he lane-split his way up behind me when the traffic came to a complete stop and he blasted on ahead, going up the middle. Question answered. Lane-splitting is not legal in Colorado but that obviously did not bother him.

Then the next day I was once again on Hampden, this time headed east near Kennedy Golf Course, when I came to a stop at a red light. In front in the left-hand lane was a guy on a sportbike. A big pick-up was in front of me, first in line, and to our right a small orange pick-up, with a riding lawnmower in the bed, pulled up first in line.

But this was no ordinary pick-up. This one had no hood because the engine stood up about a foot above where the hood would have been. And this guy was revving his engine, clearly planning to blast away as soon as the light changed.

The light did change and whether there had been some communication between them or what, both the bike and the orange pick-up rocketed away. Most likely, the biker decided it would be fun to shut down this orange guy, whose intentions were clear.

I quickly lost sight of them both because of the guy in front of me, but as we neared Havana, where the road curves hard to the left, I caught sight of the bike going about 70, screaming around the curve with no orange guy anywhere to be seen. I’d say the biker definitely shut down that orange guy. Just having fun, you know.

Biker Quote for Today

If you can park it and not turn around to admire it before walking away you bought the wrong one.

We got away from Willie and Jungle’s place in Eagle not even an hour later than planned–not bad for eight people in/on seven vehicles. Destination: Banff and Jasper.

The line-up as we left, which remained largely the same through much of the trip, was Jungle in the lead on his Honda Interceptor, Judy and me on my Concours, followed by Donna on her Star Silverado. Then came Jean, Donna’s sister, in a Polaris Slingshot she rented. I say “in” because as far as I’m concerned, that thing is a three-wheeled car, not a motorcycle. And in Colorado this last legislative session, they created a new vehicle class for this sort of thing, called “autocycle.”

Next was JC in his own Slingshot. Brand new, just delivered the day before and already the speedometer doesn’t work. JC had been planning to ride his Harley but he was taken by the thought of Jean’s Slingshot so he tried to rent one, too. They didn’t have any more so he said, “OK, sell me one.” They didn’t have any to sell either so he called a dealer in Denver, bought it, and had it delivered to Vail.

Following JC was Terry in her Porsche Carrera 2, and Willie rode sweep on her Yamaha FJ1100.

That was the crew as we headed west on I-70 through Glenwood Canyon to Rifle and then north on Colorado 13 to County Road 5, which skirts west and north avoiding Meeker, and up to Colorado 64, where we turned west to Rangely and on to Dinosaur, where we picked up U.S. 40. Then west to Vernal. All this way it was blazing hot and in Vernal it was 103 degrees. We were being cooked!

At Vernal we turned north on U.S. 191 to a turn-off for the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area and also the Red Canyon Lodge, our destination for the day. The coolness at this higher elevation was much appreciated and the forest setting of the lodge made for a great stopping point.

The two folks in the Slingshots couldn’t rave enough about how much fun they were having in those things.

Me, I was just glad Judy and I were doing well on the Concours. We haven’t done a lot of long-distance rides together so I had been a bit apprehensive. But we did great. That’s a good thing because we had 12 more days and about 3,000 more miles ahead of us.

Biker Quote for Today

I love to ride; I hate to arrive.

We went to Red Rocks to see Amos Lee performing with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and though we went in my car it made me wonder about the perks that motorcyclists used to get there. The answer is yes. Are you aware of these?

In the past, motorcycles were sent for parking to the very top circle of the amphitheater, which is pretty dang nice. The thing I hate most about going to concerts at Red Rocks is parking and then hiking up and up and up to get first into the seating area and then more up to get to where you actually get to sit. Parking right at the top and walking down to your seat is nice. I’ve done this, though not any time recently. Heck, I haven’t been to a show at Red Rocks any time recently until the other night.

Now, as it turns out, they no longer send bikes to the very top, but do send them to the larger lot just below, which is where that photo above was shot. There were 12 motorcycle parking spaces and at this show there were only two bikes. Unless you get there very, very early, the line for admission goes down the stairs to this lot so it’s not like you’ll do any extra stairs starting from here.

The other advantage of course is getting out quickly. Huge numbers of people who hiked and climbed all the way to their seats are now, at the end of the show, faced with hiking all the way back to their cars, and then waiting in long lines to file out slowly.

With your bike just up at the top you can get to it quickly and get going in a hurry before most people are even near their cars. Plus, although lane splitting is not legal in Colorado, on a motorcycle you can easily slip past the creeping line of cars and get out in a hurry.

In fact, it has been a long time since I’ve been to a show at Red Rocks so I don’t know if this is still the case, but years ago, when you were leaving via the east entrance, they would direct people to use both lanes, thereby speeding things up by 100 percent. At 93 they would not allow right turns toward Morrison and so both lanes would flow left toward I-70. I don’t know if they still do this.

We parked this time in the upper south lot and I was surprised how quickly we got out of the lot. Then I saw all the traffic was in one lane so I jumped into the other lane figuring to make as much progress as I could before coming up behind other cars in that lane. There were none. We went all the way out to Bear Creek Road without a stop and the only other people in the lane were a car or two who jumped in behind us.

Coming out to the road I merged into traffic in full sight of the cops directing traffic and all they did was continue directing traffic. If I had been on a bike the whole move would have been even easier and quicker. I’ve never gotten out of Red Rocks that fast before–and that was in a car.

So this has nothing to do with motorcycles but it was amusing and I want to pass it along. We learned after we parked that they run a free shuttle up to the top, for anybody who wants to ride it. You get on by the Trading Post. So we only had to walk down to our seats.

Well, we were on the stairs I mentioned before, waiting in line, and people were going up and down the stairs all the time. One older woman in a black dress went up the stairs past us and I just happened to turn my head that direction as she was about 10 steps above us. Believe me, I wasn’t trying to look up her dress but my eye was caught immediately by a glimpse of something gray and shiny. I looked more closely and saw she had something attached to her thigh with duct tape.

At first I thought it must be a catheter bag or colostomy bag but then thought, no, if it was a medical device there would be some medically approved attachment device. No, this was presumably a flask or bottle of liquor she was smuggling in, duct-taped to her thigh. I got a laugh out of that.

Biker Quote for Today

15 grand and 15 miles doesn’t make you a biker.

Toto, we’re not in Kansas any more. And no, and this is not the 1970s either. You know, Richard Nixon’s war on drugs and the more than $1 trillion spent on it without success in the intervening years.

Well, here’s a posting on Craigslist that I happened to see the other day.

Cannabis Delivery Seeking Motorcycle Couriers (City of SF)

Do you enjoy medical cannabis? Do you love riding motorcycles? Are you interested in joining a cutting-edge team in the blossoming medical cannabis industry? If so, this might be the perfect job for you.

Of course there’s talk of a possible federal crack-down on states allowing legal marijuana use, such as Colorado, especially with incoming Vice President Mike Pence reportedly being strenuously opposed to legalization. That could throw a kink into someone’s plans to make a living on their bike in this fashion.

Is that likely, though? Curious, I was speaking the other day to a young woman who works at a marijuana store here in Denver and asked her if those in the industry were concerned about the incoming administration. She said they have no concern at all because at this point the industry brings so much in tax dollars into public coffers that it simply would not be tolerated. Of course, that was what the proponents of legalization argued all along: make marijuana a cash positive part of the economy–legalize and tax it heavily.

I don’t think we have marijuana delivery service here, however, either two-wheel or four-wheel. But I guess motorcycle delivery in San Francisco makes sense just like lane-splitting makes so much sense in California.

No Toto, we’re definitely not in Kansas any more.

Biker Quote for Today

You can have more fun on a gallon of gas than a barrel of booze.

For nine years now I have operated this blog single-handedly, with the stray guest contributor along the way. Today I’m announcing something new and very different.

Matt Wessels is, among other things, a blogger and like me he is a journalism school graduate. And he rides. Boy, does he ride. We’ll get to that in a moment. The point right now is that Matt can write. That’s important to me and I would hope it is important to you. I do this kind of work professionally so it is important to me that the writing is clear, intelligent, interesting, and not chock full of misspellings, punctuation errors, and all that. I’m expecting Matt to bring that kind of writing that you and I, too, will want to read.

Now, here’s a bit about him. I asked some basic questions: What kind of bike do you ride? What kind of riding do you do? How long have you been riding? Here’s what Matt gave me back.

Me and riding… Let’s see. I started riding at age 20 on a Kawasaki Eliminator 600. I’ve had a slew of road bikes including cruisers, standards, adventure tourers, and sport bikes. I’ve been riding my Ninja 250, which I bought new in 2008 since then, and it currently has over 64,000 miles on it. Personally I’ve clocked over 100,000 in the decade I’ve been riding and crossed 38 states. The 250 has seen both US coasts and every weather condition on earth. I have not spent a lot of time on the dirt as the motorcycle was usually my primary transportation. I’ve always ridden my bikes year round. I’ve ridden down to -15F on ice and snow. I’ve ridden in cross winds that forced me to lean right going around a left-hand turn. I’ve been pelted with 45mph salt flying across the Bonneville Salt Flats and I’ve experienced a lithium fire on a bike. I don’t say these things to impress, most of the time they were due to my lack of planning, experience, or know-how. I’ve messed up a lot and I’ve learned a lot. Through each difficult experience I’ve learned we’re stronger than we think, that we can endure more than we think, that we can go harder, faster, and better than we ever thought possible, if only we dare try.

Riding to me is being in harmony with life. When I’m on my bike going somewhere, anywhere, I’m moving, and that is how I should be. I like to learn, and am curious about everything in life, and you can’t learn when you’re not moving. I live by the mantra that “I’m never lost, I’m exploring” because life too short to be scared, or unhappy, or bored. I hope I can bring some good information to this site and help riders discover something they didn’t know about the glorious state of Colorado.

In case you’d like to see some of what Matt has written previously, you can check him out at https://thedandooligan.wordpress.com/.

Welcome Matt.

Biker Quote for Today

The perfect man? A poet on a motorcycle. ~Lucinda Williams

I had occasion to speak with Ben Hochberg, the former head of the ABATE of Colorado rider training program, and once we were done with the topic at hand we, of course, shifted to discussing motorcycles.

“What are you riding now?” Ben asked.

I told him that of the four bikes I’ve owned I still have three and they are the 1980 CB750 Custom, my ’99 Concours, and my latest, the 2006 V-Strom 650. Get a load of what Ben told me about his bikes.

Sometime in the last couple years he sold his old Kawasaki KZ 750. Now, just like my CB, the KZ is from the era of the UJM, the universal Japanese motorcycle, where function defined style and therefore there were a whole lot of bikes that were virtually identical.

Ben said he was really, really interested in a V-Strom 1000, and came very near to buying one that was remaindered with a great asking price, but ultimately just couldn’t justify even that expense.

Nevertheless, he needed a good bike he could burn some serious miles on because his training activities often take him some distance from home. So when a friend from New York came to visit, a guy who rides an older Concours like mine, Ben decided to take a look at Connies on craigslist. There he found a mint condition 2003 (?) bike with just 10,000 miles on it for a fabulous price. He thought about it but still couldn’t justify the spend.

He did mention it, though, at one point and the friend asked to see the ad. Calling it up on his phone, he showed it to the friend, who got seriously excited and told Ben, “You’ve got to call the guy! It’s going to be gone!” Ben demurred, at which point his wife, Sheila, told him, “Call the guy.” He said to Sheila, “I love you!” and dialed the phone.

Besides the bike involved, it is similar to my situation with the V-Strom. After I got my second bike my wife told me if I ever intended to get another I would need to let go of one of the two I already had. Then, years later, the opportunity came for me to get the V-Strom and I was just wavering. Without mentioning anything about that previous conversation, Judy told me, “Buy the bike. You’ve wanted one for a long time.” Yeah, I love you, too, Judy.

Ben asked about my set-up on the Connie and I told him the first thing I did was to get risers so I wouldn’t have such a serious lean toward the grips. Check. Ben has gotten adapters that allow you to use a tubular handlebar, which then gives you a wide selection so you can have them come up and back to whatever point you want.

“Have you ever thought about getting highway pegs?” he asked.

Oh yeah, I have them and I love them.

“Where did you get them?”

From Murph. Anyone who rides a Concours knows Murph’s. He has designed and produced a whole lot of the best accessories for Connies. And yes, those are the highway pegs Ben has gotten for his Connie.

Now, he has also gotten an aftermarket windshield and I haven’t done that. I’m perfectly happy with stock on that item.

So obviously we must have very similar tastes in bikes, which surprises me because the last time I saw Ben he was riding some big Harley cruiser. I guess that Harley is long gone. He also has a Buell that he says he’ll never part with. I’m not a Harley guy at all and I doubt I’ll ever have a Buell, though I’d take the Buell before I’d take the Harley. Pretty interesting, though, all this similarity.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
ABATE of Colorado in a fight for its life

Biker Quote for Today

The shortest distance between two points is for people who can’t ride.

I was looking around on Adventure Rider and ran across a thread titled “Stupid questions people ask you when stopped.” Some of them were pretty good so I figured I’d pass a few along here.

The guy starting the thread rides a BMW and he offered several:
Sir, is that a real BMW or it’s just the badge?
Duuuuude, does your bike has two engines?! (asked a number of times, I usually try to explain the boxer design, but if all fails I tell them the right one is the turbocharger)
Since when does BMW make motorcycles?

Then this one is from a woman rider:
Is that your motorcycle? Did you ride that here all by yourself?

How about this:
I stopped at an intersection and a teenager walked up to me and said, “Can I take it around the block?”
My response.” What?? No way.”
His response, “Hey, I’m not playin”
I just laughed and rode off. People are insane.

Here is, as the fellow says, a Ural specific one:
Is that real?

And in the category of “you just don’t get it”:
As I was pulling my helmet on a dude walked up and asked ‘What kind of bike is that?’ I looked down at the tank on my Commando that has large gold letters saying ‘Norton’ and said, ‘it’s a Norton.’ He looked it over once again and asked ‘Is that made by Harley or Honda?’

And this:
The dumbest thing I ever got asked is, “Can you pull a wheelie on that thing or are you too scared?”

This hasn’t happened to me, at least not yet, but I guess it could:
I had a 9 or 10 year old boy ask me if I “get a lot of chicks with that.” This while on my Vstrom with my wife on the back!

Of course we’ve all heard this one:
Aren’t motorcycles dangerous?

Sometimes it’s the responses that are good:
I walk into Starbucks (my regular one) this afternoon, helmet in hand.
“Do you ride a bike?” asks the fine young man.
“No, I’m just very clumsy” I reply.

And this:
I suppose this is a somewhat reasonable question, but someone once asked me what kept me from flying off the bike when I hit a bump. My reply?
“Gravity.”

On another note:
When are you getting some pipes? I could barely hear ya pull up.

And another in the response category:
My new response when I get to school wearing ATGATT:
“You ride today?”
“No, I took the jet.

OK, enough for today. We’ll come back for some more some other time.

Biker Quote for Today

“That’s all the motorcycle is, a system of concepts worked out in steel.” — Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

It wasn’t my intention to write about this today but when I became aware of it just by chance it became the obvious choice. As of today, this very 24-hour period, I have been writing for Examiner.com as a “motorcycle Examiner” for six years.

A little background may be in order. Six years ago the social internet was in its infancy. Friendster.com was still around, Facebook was just getting going, and the idea of crowd-sourcing website content was getting a lot of attention. I got an email out of the blue from an outfit called Examiner.com asking if I would like to write for them as their Denver Motorcycle Examiner. Ernie, the guy who contacted me, had seen this blog and figured I’d be a good fit. I said sure, you bet. And, just so you know, “Examiners” is what they call their writers. I later shifted and became the National Motorcycle Examiner, and then they tweaked names and I became–and remain–the National Motorcycles Examiner.

Starting out, the pay was practically nonexistent and it took me three months to earn enough for them to issue me a paycheck. But my earnings kept growing and I started getting paid every month. Then I saw that they had a second motorcycle Examiner they had brought on, Mark Poesch, who was the Washington DC Motorcycle Travel Examiner. I got his email from Ernie and made contact and we agreed to work together to promote each other’s posts. After all, we got paid on page views.

More motorcycle Examiners joined and for quite a while I contacted each one inviting them to join our little community. We grew and grew, though there were plenty who didn’t stick it out when they saw how little money they made in the beginning. But for those of us who applied ourselves and kept at it the checks kept getting bigger and bigger. Along the way, my Examiner postings caught the eye of someone else looking for a motorcycle writer and I was contacted to write for RumBum.com as well. Of course I said yes.

Shortly after this my latest contract gig ended and I made the decision that with my Examiner and Rum Bum earnings, and other opportunities opening up, I would not seek another job, I would go full-time freelance. And that’s what I did for the next four years.

The only constant is change, however, and Examiner made a lot of changes. They were trying to figure out how to make money on the Web and one thing they apparently figured out was that they couldn’t pay us as much as they were and make a profit. So changes followed upon changes and every change had the same result: our earnings got cut. From sometimes making more than $100 a day, my earnings dwindled to where I was lucky to make $50 in a month. And then Rum Bum went under. By this time Rum Bum had become my biggest client, so with them gone and my earnings at Examiner down by 90% my finances were really hurting. Right at that time this gig at the National Park Service came along and I found myself working in an office again.

Through it all though, I have continued to write for Examiner, but only about once a month. The reason there is that if you don’t stay active, posting at least once a month, they quit paying you, even though everything you have written is still out there and still gets read. In other words, you’re still earning them money, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t continue to get my meager share. I can do a piece in half an hour or less once a month and it becomes like an annuity, though an extremely small annuity.

And now today is my six-year anniversary with Examiner. It has been quite a ride. There have been a lot of good things that have come my way through my association with Examiner. High on the list was the media tour I was invited on by EagleRider a few years ago where they put us on bikes and paid all our expenses and took us on a darn nice ride through California. I have received all kinds of free gear and motorcycle books and maps in exchange for reviewing them. I’ve met a lot of people and made a lot of friends through all these events I have covered. It’s been good.

So it’s too bad that the money part of it no longer works. But I will keep posting enough to remain active. And I guess in a year I’ll be marking my seventh anniversary.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #32

Biker Quote for Today

Happy to still be working though it interferes with riding!