Passes & Canyons Blog

I meet a lot of people in this work, and among my favorites are Jungle and Willie Fuhrman, who operate Ball O’ String Custom Adventure Motorcycle Tours and Sports Car Tours from their home in Eagle. This is a shameless plug for them and their offerings. If you’re looking for some out-of-the-ordinary rides, check these out. And just so you’ll know, Willie and Jungle like to eat really good food, so there’s no stopping at McDonald’s on their tours, they go gourmet all the way.

North to Alaska — Willie and Jungle are leaving June 10 for Alaska and while there is no official tour planned, if you’d like to join them, they’d be glad to have you.

Colorado Rocky Mountains Tour — Eight nights luxury lodging with riding everywhere from Trail Ridge Road to Independence Pass, the Million Dollar Highway, Telluride, Crested Butte, Vail and more. This trip will be running July 7-15.

Vail Ride & Dine — Judy and I are going to join Jungle and Willie and others on this 3-night adventure, August 10-13. As always, luxury lodging and dining. You should join us.

Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Glacier Park Ride and Dine — Running from August 18 to September 1, you’ll visit the places mentioned as well as Flaming Gorge, Waterton Lakes Canadian National Park, and various other stops in Montana and Idaho.

Fall in Love with Italy — Willie and Jungle fell in love with Italy a long time ago, and so every chance they get they go back there, preferably leading a group of riders. No hard and fast dates yet but this tour will be in September.

Colorado and Utah National Parks Tour — Including eight nights of luxury lodging, you’ll visit Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and other scenic spots in these two states. This trip will run October 6-14.

If one of those catches your fancy, check it out. And I guarantee you’ll enjoy the time you spend with Willie and Jungle, in addition to the riding.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Pennsylvania consider requiring rider training for young motorcyclists

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if your saddle bags say “Gucci.”

This is not the first time I’ve said this but I’ll repeat myself: I’ve got to get a dual-sport motorcycle.

The trigger this time is a ride I didn’t do, because I didn’t have a dual-sport. I was contacted on Monday by a guy named Milan, who heard of me through Ben at House of Motorrad. Milan told me he works as a ski guide in winter and wants to start doing Colorado motorcycle guiding in the summer. He asked if he could get a link to his site on my site and, by the way, wanna go for a ride?

Milan lives in Telluride and was headed back that way from Golden and proposed taking some dirt from Como to Salida. I said I’d love to, but not on one of my street bikes. He replied, “You could probably take a street bike on the Hartsel dirt- very easy.”

As for me, I replied, “I know better than to take my Concours on anything rougher than hard-packed gravel.”

Milan nudged, “I’ll be leaving Golden area about 9 am. It is a hardpacked gravel.”

I demurred. My Connie does not like gravel, even hard-packed, for very long. So I didn’t go.

Good choice. I heard from Milan today, saying, “You made the right choice by not coming, there was a stream crossing (about 6″ deep) and some ruts in another part of the ride.”

But I was curious what route he took. That’s it there on the map, although there’s no detail at this scale, though it gives you an idea. According to Milan, “I rode 285 to Como, took a right on Elkhorn Road (F.R. 15) to Hartsel. Then took County Road 53 to Forest Road 175 – that dropped me right into Salida.”

So OK, if I ever get that dual-sport I have another route to check out. Some day.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Indiana governor offers motorcycle-buying advice

Biker Quote for Today

After riding in the rain thru Bosnia, I think this newfangled front fender idea wasn’t so bad. I’m not as covered in mud as I usually am. That’s an idea that may just take off in popularity. My chopper still ain’t gonna get one tho.

I had the opportunity last week to get acquainted with Lisa Price Waltman, of Colorado Springs, who told me of a fun ride she has organized and will be holding for the second time this year. She calls it the 2nd Annual Running of the Deer Ride – “Get the Buck Off the Road” and, as you might suspect, there is a story behind it.

Lisa had grown up riding dirt bikes but had never had a street bike of her own, so she rode pillion for a number of years. Then, in 2009, the bike she was a passenger on hit a deer, they went down, and Lisa was badly injured.

Not one to give up, however, Lisa was back on a bike six months later, and though she says the first 10 minutes were terrifying, after that all was good. So good, in fact, that soon afterward she bought her own bike, a 2010 Harley Softail Deluxe.

Taking lemons and making lemonade, Lisa decided to put together a run on the anniversary of her crash along much of the same route. There’s no sign-up fee, no beneficiary charity. It’s just a ride for fun, and to make a statement of defiance. I’ve listed her run on my Rides and Rallies page; it’s in October, currently the last event listed. You might want to mark it on your calendar.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Michigan governor signs helmet repeal

Biker Quote for Today

Tuck in behind me, I’ll show you where to crash.

OK, you’re going to be riding around Colorado as much as possible this year no matter what. Are you interested in an something that can perhaps introduce you to places you’ve never been, and that might also put some cash in your pocket?

Oh, caught your interest, did I?

Here’s the deal. ABATE of Colorado is doing a fundraiser, for the second time, where you can purchase ($15) a Colorado Statewide Tour 2012 Passport Book that lists 178 businesses, points of interest, events, and other things. Each time you go to one of these you document it–receipt, signature, photo, whatever–and at the end of the year you turn your book in. For every five points you have checked off you get one entry in a drawing with three prizes: $1,000, $500, and $250.

Now, we all know that the odds with a drawing are that you will not win. Although three somebodies in this case will win. So while winning would be sweet indeed, it’s only a remote reason for playing. The real reasons are two-fold: Discovering new places or revisiting cool places you’ve been before, and raising money for ABATE.

The first reason needs no explanation. Why should you care about funding ABATE? Well, it seems like every legislative session that some bill gets introduced that motorcyclists get very interested in. Some we like, some we don’t. If we like them we want to support them; if we hate them we want to fight them. ABATE is our proxy in that effort. No motorcycling group in the state has more influence down at the gold dome.

Enough about that. What are some of the spots on the list? Here’s a random selection.

• Corral Sports Bar in Brush
• Barbour Ponds near Longmont
• Beecher Island Battlefield south of Wray
• Sunset Inn in Pueblo
• R’s Pizza in Silver Cliff
• Hovenweep National Monument near Cortez
• All ABATE Campout near Ignacio Sept. 1-3
• The Bike Shop in Sterling
• Motobreck in Breckenridge

As I said, random. So how many of those places have you been to? Here’s your chance to go someplace new.

So I bought my passport book. I’ll be checking off spots any time I can. And who knows, maybe I’ll win some cash. But I’m not banking on it.

Biker Quote for Today

You can’t be lost if you still have half a tank.

John Metzger, of Boulder, is at it again and has announced the events for the Motomarathon Association‘s 2012 season. This year there will be five events–the most ever–and the Colorado Motomarathon is slated for July 27-30.

In case you’re unfamiliar, the Motomarathon, now in its fourth year, is a series of four-day rides through some gorgeous country. Every year at least one of the rides is here in Colorado, owing primarily to the fact that this is where it all started. While each day’s ride is fairly long, especially on slow-going mountain roads, they nevertheless top out at around 400 or 450 miles. This intentionally not as extreme as the 1,000-mile days that the Iron Butt Association puts on.

Mainly the idea is to have some fun riding through some beautiful country and sharing that with a bunch of other folks. As John says, “It’s not a race, it’s a vacation.”

Other events this year will be New England, New York, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Motomarathon plans ambitious season

Biker Quote for Today

Twisties: For some it’s a time to slow down. For others, it’s just a reason to get closer to the pavement.

Snow is on its way. By the time it stops, sometime tomorrow, we could have as much as a foot. Is it any surprise I was out riding yesterday?

Never mind my commitment to riding both of my bikes at least once every single month, though that was a factor as well. When I have a great day on the first day of a winter month I’d better ride, because how wretched would I feel if I didn’t and it snowed the next day . . . and I never got a chance the rest of the month.

But the bigger factor was just that it was a gorgeous February day, and who wouldn’t want to go riding on a day that? I’ve been keeping the Honda on the battery tender, so it fired right up. The Kawi took a bit to get going, so I went for an extra long ride with it to get a bit more juice into that battery.

A good bit of that was on the highway, too, where I could get up some speed. At a motorcycle mechanics 101 session Alan and Dan and I went to last fall the guy said you really only start charging your battery once revs get up over a certain level, so just cruising around on city streets probably doesn’t do a lot for it. I wonder, though, if that means that if you deliberately stayed in a lower gear so you’d get higher revs you would get more charging. I tried at one point last year to get some definitive information on this whole matter but found that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of definitive info out there. Which means that I have to wonder where this guy was getting his information and how reliable it was.

But hey, charging the battery was a secondary concern. Riding was number one. And I had one of those odd experiences I have from time to time. I took off and was out for awhile and then at one point it hit me, “Wow, it’s really good to be on a bike!” This is a winter thing, when we don’t get to ride so much. You get away from it for a few weeks and you start forgetting how great it feels. Then you get on and go and it’s a surprise: Oh yeah, I forgot how much I enjoy doing this.

I have a friend who tells me his wife is like that in regard to sex. Whenever they do it she loves it but in between times she seems to forget how much she enjoys it. He figures if she remembered she’d want to do it more often, but she doesn’t. Then she’s surprised every time.

So I felt that surprise again yesterday. It makes me wonder how people get by living in places where you have to put your bike away for the entire winter. ‘Tis a privilege to live in Colorado.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
‘Sturgis’ name ownership battle escalates

Biker Quote for Today

Warning: If you value your life as much as I value this motorcycle, don’t fuck with it!