Passes & Canyons Blog

Here’s an amusing coincidence. I was going to do a post about an event coming up on Saturday in a couple weeks and I wanted to see where this place was. I used Google Earth to get a ground-level view and it turns out it is a place I have history with. Let’s start at the beginning.

I got an email awhile ago from Ben Kriederman, who rents BMW motorcycles through House of Motorrad, about an event they are putting on or sponsoring or whatever. It’s two Saturdays from now, April 27, and it is a slideshow presentation titled “Adventuring South.” It’s the story of a father and son who decided to ride their BMWs from Colorado to Argentina. No charge and as a promotional event for House of Motorrad they are giving away some goodies–plus free food and beer.

Sounds good to me. Maybe I’ll go, although I’m leaving town the next morning so it may not work out.

Oh yeah: where? This is where it gets interesting.

The location is 15801 W. Colfax, at a place called Uhl Studios. Zooming in on Google Earth to see the place I was surprised to see it is the same–although greatly remodeled–place that used to be home to Golden Skysails. Golden Skysails was a hang-glider dealer and trainer, and it was through Golden Skysails that I bought and learned to fly a hang-glider many years ago.

Of course, that whole business tied directly into motorcycling for me as well. I learned to fly, though not very well, and eventually I had a pretty bad crash. The only time I’ve ever flown in a helicopter was when I was air-lifted to the hospital.

After I was recovered I still wanted to fly so I repaired my glider and went out again a few times to fly but ran into a common issue: no air time. You see, the issue with hang-gliding is that you can get up early and load all your gear, then drive for a couple hours to a suitable place to fly, only to sit there all day and never get wind in the right direction. So you then break everything back down, load it up, drive a couple hours home, and you never got to do what you were planning to do. And the whole day is gone.

So after this happened a couple times I got fed up and decided to sell the glider. I promised myself that I would then take the money I sold the glider for and buy a motorcycle, because at least with a motorcycle, as soon as I threw my leg over and fired it up I would be doing what I came to do. And that’s what I did and I’ve never looked back.

Now we come full circle. I don’t know what Uhl Studios is but they’re in that space I was familiar with long ago. I’d sure like to be there on Saturday night but I suspect I just won’t have time. Oh well.

Thanks and an Update

I want to give a thank-you to Barry Jones and Jeff McDonald who responded to my request to help me figure out why no one was ever leaving comments on this blog. Turns out, I had things set to where anyone wanting to comment would have to sign up and have a WordPress log-in, and then they would need to be logged in. That’s way too much for most people. So I changed that. Now all you have to do to leave a comment is do a little spam-blocking routine, something along the lines of + 1 = 4, where you enter the 3. So please . . . offer your comments. And yes, I have already gotten a couple spam comments but I also have it set up so that no comment appears until I approve it. So you’ll never see some junk, spammy comment, although your own comment will not appear until I approve it. And I won’t be a censor; all I want to do is make sure it’s a real, bonafide comment, even if you’re telling me I’m the biggest jerk in the world, although I will not permit foul language. Just keep it clean. Thanks.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Tilting Motor Works offers a fun trike conversion

Biker Quote for Today

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hot diggity, the days are getting warmer–and longer–and riding to work is once again going to be an option. Actually, where I work now, out west of Union on Alameda, there are a couple hard-core BMW guys who already are riding most days.

Of course, I haven’t met them yet, so who knows if maybe they just live 2 miles away. For me it is a 22-mile ride if I take the direct route, or about 26 miles if I take the route with less traffic. You can ignore a lot if you’re only going a few miles.

I don’t like taking the more direct route because that puts me in the thick of commuter traffic, with a lot of stop and go. That’s murder on your clutch wrist. Plus it’s dangerous. I went this same route several years ago when I was working out in the same general area and there was more than one occasion when I was on a bike and someone decided to pull into the next lane without looking to see if anyone–me–might be there who they could not see in their mirror.

The fact is, though, I’m going to be a bit torn in another month or so. The W line for the RTD’s light rail system is set to open April 26 and that will enable me to get on the train very close to home and ride all they way out to 2nd and Union. I’ll need to get on a bus from there but the bus stops right outside our office building. Why battle traffic at all when you don’t need to?

But I will want to ride at least some days. So I guess I won’t be getting a monthly pass. Those things cost enough that if you don’t use them every day you don’t save any money. I guess I’ll just get the book of passes that save you some money and ride the bike some days, ride the light rail some days, and maybe even drive my car some days–maybe not.

Of course that’s the other thing. Right now there is a bottleneck on I-25 where Santa Fe feeds into it, but that project looks like it should be finished in two or three months. Once they get all those north and south lanes open I’m hoping the jam-ups that are there pretty much every day will go away, and then even taking that route by car may be a lot better. Might even go that way on the bike, if it improves a lot.

Till then, though, I’m just looking for it to be nice enough that I won’t have to dress as if it was winter just because I’m leaving home at 7:45 a.m. Then maybe I’ll finally meet those beemer guys.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Tilting Motor Works offers a fun trike conversion

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t just look at it – Ride the bloody thing!

I was passing through Mancos on Sunday, on my way home from the Overland Expo, and I noticed a motorcycle shop that I was not sure I had any familiarity with. It was Basin Motorcycle Works, a name that I’m certain was selected because the initials are BMW, and the shop is a BMW shop.

As I hope you’re aware, I have a page on this website, Dealers and Repair Shops, where I try to list all the shops in Colorado. I know there must be some I don’t have listed, and I’ll bet there are some that are listed that have closed. This name sounded familiar but I had the idea that may have been because I had seen it mentioned in relation to one of the numerous BMW rider events going on in the state this summer. I figured I’d check when I got home to see if it was on the site already or not.

And then I forgot about it. I got home on Monday, flew to Philadelphia on Tuesday, flew home on Thursday, and this morning–Friday–I was at the computer playing catch-up and an email arrived. It was a guy named Mac Musick who is, get this, in charge of marketing and sales for Basin Motorcycle Works.

Mac greeted me saying, “I like your website very much in spite of the fact that we are not included among your listing of dealers and service shops.”

OK, that answered my question. They’re on the page now.

Mac continued that, “We would love for you to highlight hwy 145 south to Dolores (along the beautiful Dolores River) and Cortez, and also hwy 184 that goes south east from 145 just south of Dolores to Mancos and comes to the intersection of hwy 160 about a block from our shop.”

Here at least I was able to respond that I do already have most of that route on the site, as the Lizard Head Pass page.

And he gave me a bit of a pitch for the shop: “Our business is owned by Harry Hill who has been wrenching on BMWs and most other motorcycles since 1969. We moved the shop from Durango to Mancos about this time of year in 2009. Our location close to the entrance of Mesa Verde National Park and alongside the busy highway 160 makes us a valuable service and repair center for folks who are riding in the Four Corners.”

So there you go, now you know there’s a motorcycle shop in Mancos and you know something about it. Now I know these things, too.

By the way, if you peruse the Dealers and Repair Shops page and see that a shop you know is not included, please let me know so I can add it. Also, if you see a shop listed that you know has closed or moved, please let me know that as well. Thanks. I appreciate it.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Bullet points sum up sessions at Overland Expo

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe, if you set at least one mirror, if not both, to reflect yourself.

If you ride a BMW and want to spend some time with like-minded folks in Colorado, you’re truly in luck this summer.

I was looking through the March 2012 issue of BMW Owners News, which a friend passed along to me, and in the back they have a U.S. map with numbers corresponding to the info, separately, for various events going on around the country. Well, Colorado had four numbers, indicating four BMW events. To put this in perspective, in all of Colorado’s surrounding states there are two events, one in Arizona and one in Kansas.

It would appear that this is perhaps entirely due to the efforts of the very active BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado, as well as one event put on by the BMW Riders of Western Colorado group. Here’s what’s cookin’.

2nd Annual Canyon Mixer Ride, July 7
Starting out from Northern Colorado Euro Motorcycles in Fort Collins.

41st Top O’ The Rockies Rally, July 12-15
Headquartered in Paonia.

13th Annual Colorado 100,000 Foot Ride, August 4
Route and starting point disclosed in the registration packet. This event routinely sells out, so don’t put it off if you’re interested.

10th Annual Thunder Mountain Rendevouz, September 21-23
Headquartered in Hotchkiss, timed to coincide with the peak of fall color.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
AMA ‘Flash Tours’ inject fun themes into riding

Biker Quote for Today

I’m never lost, I just don’t know where I’m at!

I rode up to Loveland the other day with my friend Randy and his neighbor, Donny, to Northern Colorado Euro Motorcycles, where BMW had come in with a truckload of bikes to offer demo rides. I’ve never had much opportunity to ride any BMW bikes, other than a K1300GT I test rode last fall in Keystone, so I was pleased at this opportunity.

The four bikes I rode were very different and my thoughts on them are comparably different. The one I really loved was the R1200RT, a touring bike that was just about as sweet as you could ask for. In fact, it was such a nice bike it’s hard to think of anything to say about it other than it was just a great bike. I will mention, though, that it was just a little odd, at least in my experience, because the mirrors were below the handlebar, so you look down to see them and in the top of the mirror you see your hands. Very odd, but I’m sure you’d get used to it.

I also rode the dual sport F800GS. I haven’t done much dual sport riding and this was by far the tallest bike I’ve ever gotten on. There was no way I could push up off the sidestand other than to throw my weight that direction and count on catching myself on the other side before going over. At stops I either slid off on one side or barely touched ground on both sides on my tiptoes. But that’s nothing uncommon for a bike that needs deep suspension.

The thing about this test ride, however, was that it was on the pavement. If a dual sport bike is in the middle between street and dirt, this one is biased toward the dirt, and we didn’t get to go there with them. As it was, I felt very much that that was where it belonged, and that I didn’t much care for riding it on the pavement.

The next bike was also a half-and-half bike, the F800ST, with the ST referring to sport touring. (That’s me on the F800ST in the picture, which Randy shot.) This bike puts the “sport” into “sport touring.” As nearly perfect as it might have been for me and my preferred style of riding, the pegs were so high that there was no way I could ride this thing all day without my knees being in agony. It has great power and is fun to ride and if you’re less than 5’6″ it could be your dream bike. If you’re taller, however, forget it.

My final ride of the day was the all-out sport bike, the S1000RR. A bit of a disclaimer here: I’ve never ridden a sport bike before, and now I know why. With the high pegs and the low grips, I was perfectly set up to play leap-frog, and there’s no way I am going to ride in that position for long. For those who like those kinds of bikes, I suspect you would love this one. I know I didn’t ride it anywhere close to its capabilities. I just wanted to see what it was like to ride a sport bike, plus I wanted to compare it to the F800ST, which itself seems so biased to the sport side of its own equation.

So that’s just a quick run-through. I’ll go into more detail sometime soon on Examiner.

Biker Quote for Today

Just because I am a BMW apologist, doesn’t mean I have to be snarky.