Passes & Canyons Blog

I have a new title. I am the official National Motorcycle Examiner. That means that in addition to the three blog postings I do here each week, I am now making three posts each week to Examiner.com, writing about . . . motorcycles!

Who or what the heck (you may ask) is Examiner.com? I can answer that question.

The San Francisco Examiner is an old, established newspaper in San Francisco. In recent years it has gone through a series of transformation, which you can read about here on Wikipedia.

Most recently, local Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz has purchased the Examiner and has started turning it into a national publication. One aspect of this is Examiner.com, with local home pages for cities across the country.

That’s where I come in. While the Examiner.com sites aggregate hard news feeds from other media, they enlist local experts (their term) to write about their passions. Ernie Tucker found me through this blog and asked me if I’d like to write for them. Oh, please don’t throw me in that briar patch! I said yes.

Now I won’t lie to you, I am indeed making some things do double duty on this blog and on Examiner.com. But so far I’ve only copied one item verbatim from one to the other. In a few other cases I have written about the same things but they were two distinct pieces. For the most part I really am writing six articles a week now instead of three.

So if you’re really interested in reading about motorcycles and motorcycling, and you like my stuff (thank you!), I urge you to become a regular visitor at Examiner.com.

Note, years later: Examiner is no longer in existence.

Biker Quote for Today

Enjoy the ride . . . the rest takes care of itself.

I went to the gym this morning and there, parked in the motorcycle parking area, was a bike I did not recognize. And it was an amazing looking bike. What the heck is this? It says it’s a Honda, but what is it?

Well, it wasn’t until I got home and did some internet searching that I discovered it was a Honda Valkyrie Rune. Here’s what it looks like.

Now, this photo really doesn’t do this thing justice. Yes, you can see that it has a shape and parts that are nothing like anything you’ve ever seen on any other motorcycle, but in the flesh this thing was amazing. For one thing, it’s huge. It sits really low to the ground but it is wide and solid. You don’t see through it the way you do a naked bike or even a lot of bikes with bodywork. And it has angles and metal everywhere.

The one thing that struck me very negative about this bike was that I couldn’t see how you could ride it. The seat is way back, with the pegs way forward, and the handlebars are a lot further forward than the pegs. Obviously I wasn’t about to get on it and see what kind of body contortions are necessary but it looked to me like it would be hugely uncomfortable.

That said, otherwise it was an incredible bike. My understanding is that it was overpriced and did not sell well and there are a lot of unsold new ones stored in warehouses. What I read said 2004 was the last year it was made, but this particular one said 2005 on it in several places, so I’m not sure about that. But despite the odd design and very unusual look, I have to tell you, up close and personal it was a beautiful motorcycle.

I definitely give Honda credit for having the guts to make this bike, and I hope that the experience doesn’t stop them from taking other such risks in the future. And I hope whoever owns this bike rides it to the gym again. I’d like to take another look at it.

Update
OK, I don’t understand this, but I just found a web page that shows a 2007 Rune. Has Honda started making them again? Can anyone help me out?

Biker Quote for Today

People are like motorcycles: each is customized a bit differently.

There was a comment on a previous post from Gianluca Pezzi, who is involved with Blogo.it. In case the name and the “it” at the end of that website name didn’t give it away, Gianluca is Italian. He mentioned two things that caught my interest.

First, he was calling my attention to their Two Wheels Blog, which he describes as “for readers interested in what’s happening on the motorcycling scene in Italy.” If you click on these links you’ll see that the blog is in English, but the website is in Italian. Unless you read Italian I guess I’d stick with the blog.

Anyway, the blog is a variety of information, including a lot of videos of bikes and such. Interesting to check out if you’re a big fan of Italian bikes. Says Gianluca:

Two Wheels Blog is a new initiative from Blogo.it, and is dedicated to the motorcycling sector in Italy: with everything from championships, to new models released, our favourite brands, photos and videos, we’re hoping to give voice to the dedicated motorcycling community around these parts.

So far we’ve written about our testing of the new Beta Urban 200 pre-series, included a video on a new BMW, written about the new Halley, and reviewed all the style of the Italian scootering tradition. We have a photo of the day spot, where readers can send their best pics from around the world, and you can point us to news or make comments.

The other thing Gianluca mentioned was that he couldn’t find any way to contact me directly on the blog. Now, on the main motorcyclecolorado.com website there are a number of places where I have placed javascript no-spam email links so people can contact me directly, but I had not thought to do the same here on the blog. I’ll need to do something about that right away but in the meantime, if you want to email me just send to either ken at motorcyclecolorado.com or to webmaster at motorcyclecolorado.com. Thanks. I always love to hear from you.

Biker Quote for Today

Tomorrow is uncertain, so today I ride.

I had a pleasing email in my inbox this morning. It seems the folks at Mile High Harley-Davidson discovered this site and liked it enough to feature it in a post on their blog. They sent me a bunch of rides to add to my Rides and Rallies page and mentioned, oh by the way, we recommended your site on our blog. Boy, did they ever! They didn’t just link to the home page, they gave their readers links to all of the great roads pages on the whole website.

If you are one of the folks coming here via those links, this “Welcome” is for you! Go ahead and explore the site. Then, if there’s something you particularly like I’m always happy to hear that. And if there’s something you’d like to see added I’m even more interested to hear that.

Of course, if you have any events you’d like added to the Rides and Rallies page just send them along and I’ll get them up right away. Thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

Only a biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.

Great weather today–got to get out in it. Just a note:

Five years ago I could fill the tank on my Honda Civic for under $10. Today I can’t fill the tank on my Honda CB750 Custom for under $15.

What more is there to say?

Biker Quote for Today

A good long ride can clear your mind, restore your faith, and use up a lot of fuel.

This may not be a big deal for most motorcyclists, but I just got highway pegs on my Kawasaki Concours. So why is it a big deal for me?

Because for many, many years there were none available. The fact that you can finally get highway pegs for a Concours is thanks to Murph, not Kawasaki. Who is Murph? Murph is a guy who has taken it upon himself to create and market a wide variety of accessories specifically for the Concours. With the first highway pegs he created for the bike you had to cut a hole through your body work, which a lot of guys did, but others were reluctant to do.

But Murph kept at it and now he has come out with a set that requires cutting through a bit of plastic underneath the body work (out of sight) but not the body work itself. You mount the main bolt to the spot where the radiator bolt normally resides, and then a bracket goes sideways from that spot and pokes out one of the vent slots on the fairing. That’s where you attach the pegs.

Now, I’m pretty handy with a wrench, but trying to get clear on what I needed to do to install these things had me bothered. Fortunately, I didn’t have to go it alone. The local chapter of the Concours Owners Group, which I recently rejoined, has a yearly tradition of meeting at Rick Hall’s place up the South St. Vrain Canyon for Wrench and Retch. Folks ride on up to Rick’s and help each other out with the work they need to do on their Connies. Steve, whose last name I didn’t get, has a 1999 Concours, same as mine, and has the same pegs, so he helped me install mine. Rick supplies the tools and the workshop. Rick also cooks up a big pot of chili each year for after the wrenching is all done.

So finally! Now I can go out on these long trips we take each year and I’ll have a way to reposition my legs. Heck, I used them on the way home. From Rick’s I went on up the St. Vrain to the Peak to Peak Highway and on home that way. It was about 75 miles and my legs were ready for some shifting long before I got home. And by gum, they work! Thanks Murph.

Biker Quote for Today

Always replace the cheapest parts first.

OK, it took a new battery to get me running again. That’s after having put in a new battery in October. That’s just wrong.

Unfortunately, all the issues did not get answered. The first question is why did this new battery go dead after just five months? Then, why didn’t it take a charge at home? Why did it take a charge in a shop but then turn up dead again a few weeks later?

I bought the previous battery from Pep Boys in October. That store closed so I took the battery yesterday to a different Pep Boys. There I was told 1) anything sold from the other store was on an “all sales are final” basis since it was closing. 2) The battery had only a three-month warranty so they had no obligation to do anything about it. 3) We’ll be happy to sell you another battery.

Thanks but no thanks.

So I went to Performance Motorcycles down the street and described the situation. The very savvy woman behind the counter said what I was describing said that the battery took a surface charge and that was what got the bike started, but why it was then dead a couple weeks later. She also said this Energizer battery was a low quality battery compared to the Yuasa battery that is OEM on Hondas. So I bought a new Yuasa. It has a one-year warranty.

Then things got complicated when I got home. First I discovered that my battery charger somehow got switched from 12 volt to 6 volt. That could explain why the battery wasn’t charging properly, if in fact it was not defective. And then I found that I did not have good contact between the cables and the battery previously. The way it works, I have the cables coming to the battery posts, and then I also have the wires for my trickle charger and my electric vest to hook up there as well. When I removed the battery in March, the first time I had the problem, I did not connect the vest wires because it’s getting warm now. But what I discovered is that that meant the screws I used were too long, and when screwed in as far as they would go did not snug the contacts up to the posts.

So between 6 volts versus 12 volts, and not a good connection, it is no wonder that I couldn’t give it a charge, or even that it went dead between rides. That Energizer might have been perfectly fine after all. Except that it had gone dead the first time. No new battery on a bike that has been regularly ridden should be dead.

That means I’ll never know what the true situation was. But what I do know is that I’m running again and went for a ride yesterday. That’s what it’s all about, right?

Biker Quote for Today

A bike on the road is worth two in the shed.

Do you ever spend an extended period of time away from home? And more importantly, from your bike(s)? For example, your job sends you somewhere for weeks or even months. Sure, that doesn’t happen to most of us but it does happen to some, and it did happen to me once.

So what do you do to feed your motorcycle need while away? I’ve mentioned this before in passing but want to spend a little more time on it today.

Certainly, if you are just gone for a week or a few days you ought to take advantage of the opportunity to ride somewhere new. That’s getting easier and easier thanks to there being more places that rent motorcycles. I did that when my company sent me to Nashville for a day, and I stayed over the weekend and rented a Harley.

But as we all know, motorcycle rentals don’t come cheap. You can pay that high price for a day or two, or even a week perhaps, but there gets to be a limit to how much you can justify spending.

Here’s a better alternative, and it’s what I did when my company sent me to Sacramento for a month. I bought a bike in Sacramento with the agreement that the dealer would buy it back from me for a specified price when it was time for me to go home.

Think about the options this opens up. Most rental companies have a fairly limited selection. But what if you walk into a dealership and make your selection from all the used bikes they have for sale? And if one dealer doesn’t have anything you’re interested in, move on to another. You ought to be able to find exactly the bike you want at a price you can manage.

So how does the repurchase arrangement work? First of all, both parties agree up front that if you drop the bike or bring it back in any condition different than when you took it, except with a few more miles on it, then the whole thing is up for reconsideration. You have to understand that there is a possibility that you will have acquired a new bike, or that the repurchase price will be less than you originally agreed upon.

The other key is finding a dealer to agree to this. Not all of them will. I got lucky that the first place I walked into, when I asked to speak with the manager and told him what I wanted to do, he was willing. He told me that not all dealerships would do this.

The key was, he rides and is a motorcycle lover himself. So when I presented myself as someone who just had to have a bike to ride while I was out there, he understood. Of course he wasn’t just being altruistic. I paid full price for the bike and if anything had happened to it he would have had a sale. As it was, he got a nice chunk of cash and put the bike back on the floor for the same price it was listed at before.

And my benefit was that I had a bike to ride for a month at a fraction of what I would have paid for a rental. As I recall, he made $400 off the bike for the four weeks I had it. I’d call that a bargain. And because I only had it for four weeks I could ride with just the dealer tag and didn’t have to get plates on it. Of course I contacted my insurance agent and had it insured.

As I said, I got lucky because the first place I tried I found someone who was willing to do this. If I was going to do it again I would call the local dealers in advance and see who might be willing. I’d be prepared to give all the reasons why it would benefit them, in case they were reluctant. And who knows, maybe you wouldn’t find anyone. But it doesn’t hurt to try it, and boy did I love having that bike for that month.

Biker Quote for Today

Every day is a good day to ride! Some are better than others.