Passes & Canyons Blog

Covid is not gone but the world is moving on and we’ll just live with it. Which is to say, after two years of not a lot of motorcycle rallies or events going on, it’s all back now. I’ve been much busier recently updating and adding events to my Rides and Rallies page and I’m a little blown away by all the many events already announced. And we’re not even into the season yet.

Let’s just look at a few.

All the racing events are back on the calendar. You’ve got a series of vintage motocross races set. And of course the big one, Monster Energy 2023 Supercross. Plus, the Motorcycle Roadracing Association is planning a full series of events, too.

The annual Molly-Dharma Run is set for June 11. This event raises money for animal shelters and is always one of the most popular poker runs in the state.

One I haven’t seen before is the Southwest Quest – Women’s Moto Retreat. This event, in June, is a focus for women riders.

In July the Christian Motorcyclists Association is having its big gathering in Hotchkiss. And shortly after that the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado is having its annual Top O the Rockies Rally just down the road in Paonia.

In August the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally returns, and it’s a good one. Then there are a couple one-off things going on in September. The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum, in Colorado Springs, is having a 30-year anniversary celebration and that coincides with a Colorado stop-over by the Motorcycle Cannonball event, which runs from coast to coast on really old machines every two years.

Those are just some highlights. There will be plenty of poker runs and fundraisers planned by a wide range of organizations. Basically, any time you’re looking for something to do on your bike you’re likely to find something going on. So get out there and ride.

Biker Quote for Today

It does not matter how slow you ride as long as you do not stop.

The first of the month was two days earlier, so that meant I had three motorcycles to ride. It was an overcast day but not particularly cold and the forecast was for much colder soon. I figured it was a day to ride; I chose the V-Strom.

I wasn’t going to be fooled this time; I wore my riding pants with the lining in plus long underwear. It didn’t take any time at all to find that this was definitely the right choice. I’m stupid sometimes but not all the time.

I had no idea where to go. I just got on DTC Boulevard and headed south. That road turns into Yosemite and I just kept going. At County Line Road I turned west. It occurred to me that it had been years since I’d gone more than a few blocks on County Line Road so what the heck, I’d just take it all the way to Santa Fe Drive.

It was a nice ride, not a lot of traffic at all. And all the way west I could see clouds bunching up over the foothills. That’s weather coming in. Maybe I could find a good spot to do a picture of the bike and the clouds. This is the kind of thing that drives a lot of my rides. I don’t have any clear destination but I decide I want a particular type of photograph and then I go somewhere that I can get that shot.

The temperature was dropping, but I had my electric vest keeping me warm so it was not at all unpleasant. Meanwhile, it was fun being out on the bike. None of us get in enough riding time at this time of year.

I blasted north on Santa Fe, to Belleview, then turned east to home. Ten minutes after I got home I looked out and it was snowing. OK, I guess that worked out pretty darn well. Now I have two more bikes that need to be ridden.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle shop is the only place riders like window shopping.

February has given us some fine riding weather and I have kicked myself for not taking advantage of more of it. So on Monday I made it a point to get out and ride.

It was pretty cloudy so we didn’t have the benefit of the warmth from the sun but the temperature was in the 50s so how bad could it be? The only cold weather gear I wore was my electric vest. I never go anywhere at this time of year without that.

But I hadn’t gotten far at all when it became really obvious that it would have been really nice to at least have put on long underwear under my jeans. It was darn chilly! I could have turned back and layered up more but I don’t like doing that. Once I leave the house I’m gone. And then as it turned out, the sun came out and the sky was full of blue. Not bad at all.

A lot of times when I go for a ride I don’t have a destination–I just ride, following any impulse. But sometimes I have a destination–heck, sometimes I manufacture a destination, just to have a place to head for. This time I was headed to a couple places down just off South Broadway at about County Line Road. I wanted to go there but couldn’t justify driving all that way just to make these two stops. But I could totally justify it for a bike ride.

One was the Wilmore nursery (Wilmore Outdoor Living Center) where I wanted to buy seeds. It’s late February and that means planting will begin in my garden in the next month or so. I frequently buy seeds from mail-order places but looking in the Gurney’s catalog I was shocked to see that seed packets that used to sell for $3-$4 each are now listed for $8. Nope, I’ll go see what I can find at Wilmore. And that made the whole trip worthwhile because I paid between $2 and $3.50 apiece for seed packets there.

Next I wanted to go to the Goodwill over on the west side of Broadway. I had been in there a week earlier when I was in the area for a doctor’s appointment and had time to kill. At that time I noticed some absolutely beautiful champagne flutes, for $2 apiece. These things were gorgeous and I would bet that new, at some fancy shop, they had cost at least $40 apiece. But I knew we had more glassware than we would ever need already so I was tempted but did not buy them.

Then after I left I thought about it and it occurred to me that I could buy them and we could get rid of some of our less nice glassware. But antique stores and thrift stores are places where if you see something you like you must buy it right then because if you come back for it it will be gone. I knew this, which was another reason I couldn’t justify driving down there, but in this case it worked to stop by again. Of course the flutes were gone. Something that gorgeous and worth so very much more is not going to stick around for long. And they didn’t.

No matter, it was a really nice day to be out riding. Then as I was headed home, I was coming north on University and as I was coming through an intersection a westbound car made the turn north onto University and — Surprise!! — started moving into my lane–with me right there. The lady did see me in time and scooted back into her lane but then she saw the lane she was in made a right turn just ahead, and she didn’t want to turn right. So she started moving back into my lane, and by now I was even closer.

I wasn’t going to get myself hurt but I made up my mind not to just cede the lane to her, and I did not drop back. She finally accepted that she needed to yield to the vehicle already in the lane she wanted–what a concept!–and just let me get past before changing lanes.

So I got on home, and by then it had clouded up and the temperature was dropping again. My timing was perfect. And I had a nice February ride.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if when you buy your bike you start calling everyone “bro.”

February has been very compliant this year, offering us good riding days right away. Of course I took advantage.

Friday of last week was looking to be the best day so I got out on the Concours. There were plenty of other bikes out, too. People know a good thing when they see it.

Nothing eventful happened on that ride but I did notice that unlike its opposite number and its predecessor, my new left-hand mirror vibrates as if I were on a Harley. That’s never been the case before. Did I just not wrench the nuts down tight enough? Getting to them is way too complicated for me to just go in and see, so I guess I’ll be living with this for the foreseeable future.

It was a beautiful day and Saturday promised to be very nice, too, so I left the other two bikes for Saturday. But Saturday proved to be no way near as nice.

I took off first on the V-Strom. The temperature was about five degrees cooler than the day before but more importantly, there was a breeze, and it was a cold breeze. I immediately turned on the electric vest, which I had worn the day before but never turned on. That helped a lot.

Unlike the day before, there were not a lot of other bikes out; I only saw a couple. I did notice, though, going over Cherry Creek Dam, that there were ice fishermen all over the lake. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen ice fishermen out there before. I guess that is a testament to how much colder this winter has been than recent years past.

I kind of had a longer ride in mind but it wasn’t long before I was getting more than a little chilly. I altered my route and got in a good ride but a shorter one than planned. By the time I got home my hands were seriously cold and all of me was uncomfortable. Fine, I have warmer gear.

After lunch I headed out on the CB750, this time having added long underwear and my riding pants with liner, and my heated gloves. Absolute night and day. I took a much longer ride and could not have been more comfortable.

The other really nice thing, which I didn’t even think about for a while, was that whereas the Honda had seemed to run poorly the last time I rode it, now it ran absolutely beautifully. Not one thing wrong. I have no idea what that business was about last month but I’m quite pleased it didn’t turn out to be something I would have to contend with.

This time I headed west and then turned south down US 85 through Sedalia. Not surprisingly, I saw a lot more bikes out this time. You will never ride down by Sedalia on a decent day and not see lots of bikes, and this day was no exception. I turned north on the Daniels Park Road, stopped and took the obligatory ride photo, and worked my way on home. Now the weather can do its worst, I’ve ridden all three bikes in February.

Biker Quote for Today

I love the sensation of being out in the open air, far away from all the distractions of modern life. I will usually disappear for a couple of hours, and that time on my bike is quite sacred, as it’s when I do all my serious thinking.

I got an email a while back from Anthony asking me for routes ideas. He said he was coming into Colorado to Durango and was heading on through to Wyoming. He wanted to do some dirt; did I have suggestions?

Of course I did so I mapped out a possible route and sent that to him. So much for that. Normally.

Then, a few days ago, I got another email. He had completed his trip and now had posted the video. Oh, I had no idea you were going to be doing that. So I had to go watch the video.

The fact of the matter was that I did not remember what we had discussed. I knew I could go reread out exchanges but I didn’t bother doing that before watching the video. I would do that afterward.

The video starts with some introductory footage that I suspect (haven’t checked it out yet) that he starts each video with, setting the scene. Then the riding begins out around Moab, and he quickly takes a fall on the Honda CB500X he’s riding. Not the last fall he’ll take along the way. Clearly Anthony is no quitter.

He reaches the Million Dollar Highway, US 550 running up to Ouray, and is not impressed. Mostly it was the traffic and the fact that it was raining pretty hard, but he called it “kind of boring” and said he really preferred the McKensie Highway, up in Oregon. I haven’t been on that so that could be something to check out some day.

After a stop to do laundry it was time to hit the dirt. He was still on US 550 and when he turned off to the right I immediately recognized that he was headed for Owl Creek Pass. It turned out when I did go back and read our emails that this was a route I suggested. I sure didn’t remember that, though. But I recognized that turn-off.

Through the course of the video you see all these nice views of the bike and while some shots are clearly from cameras mounted on the bike, others look like they were shot by someone else on another bike. On this stretch you really get a chance to see at least some of the cameras. Apparently enough people asked that he put up a video just showing his camera set-up. Very interesting but I wish he had explained why, when the camera is mounted on a selfie stick “the selfie stick disappears.” Really? How?

So he made it to Gunnison that day, which is where this episode (there are four of them, so far) ends, but as a teaser he includes a preview of crossing Wyoming . . . and another spill. This time it was tipping slowly sideways in a mud hole.

I totally identify with that. I did exactly the same thing once coming across northern Kansas. Your front wheel goes splooshing into the deep mud and you just fall over in slow motion. Then getting back up is super hard because you don’t have solid footing to lift the bike.

Anyway, it’s kind of a fun ride to go along on. And I’m glad I was able to contribute in a small way. Check it out if you’re interested.

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t know if it’s illegal to be handsome and ride a motorcycle at the same time but whatever, I live dangerously.

I make a point to ride each of my bikes at least once every calendar month, year-round. But so far here in January 2023 I had not been able to get out of the neighborhood because our street was covered in ice.

Last week we had a few warm days and I saw my opportunity approaching. There were patches of exposed asphalt but other big patches of impassable ice. But lanes of asphalt were starting to appear. So I went out with my shovel to give nature a helping hand.

I got out there and was surprised and pleased to see the neighbor three doors down out with an ice breaker busting up the ice in front of his house. We joined forces and after maybe an hour and a half we had carved a passageway most of the way down the block. All I needed was to get to the end of the block because the cross street down there was already clear.

Mick said he had other places he needed to go and I was tired so we weren’t going to do it all right then. He said he would leave his ice breaker leaning against his garage so I could use it. I rested for about an hour and then went back out to finish the job. I was following the path of least resistance so the last stretch I cleared had some curves in it. You can see that in the photo. But I figured I could handle that sort of maneuvering.

The next day, Saturday, was the day. Around noon I got on the V-Strom, fired it up, and headed down the street. It turned out that twisting path was not as easy on the bike as I had expected so I did end up clipping a bit of ice on the tightest corners but I got out and did a short ride. Coming home I took it really slow and managed the pathway but decided to come back with my shovel and clear some more.

That was when I noticed that nature had opened up much of a better route than mine and all I needed to do was scoop away some soft ice that separated that lane from mine. Now I had a good path. I went back and got on the Honda.

I got out on the Honda but didn’t go far. Something just didn’t feel right. It didn’t seem to be running properly. Not wanting to get too far from home in case I had problems, I just rode around a bit close by until the engine was fully warmed and then headed home. I still don’t know what’s going on; I’ll deal with that later.

Then it was time to take the Kawi out. And while it readily turned over, it just did not want to catch. I kept cranking and cranking and cranking and while it did catch at one point, it quickly died. Now what the heck? But I kept trying and it finally did start and keep running. And once I got out on the road it ran beautifully. It was just that trouble starting. I’ll just hope that it was because it hadn’t been run since early December.

So it was a beautiful day to ride, and I saw a bunch of other guys out on their bikes. Judging from the weather forecast this was going to be the last good day to ride for at least another week so lots of people took advantage of it while they had it.

It’s always iffy at this time of year; you take your opportunities when they knock. I may not get out again this month, who knows. But at least all three bikes got a January run, even if they were short.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.

I’ve said numerous times before that if you are going to ride all year round then you have to be opportunistic in the winter. On December 3 the temps were in the 50s and the fierce winds of the last two days had died down. Falling temps were predicted in the days ahead and that was all I needed to get out on all three bikes. I hope it’s not the last time I’ll be able to get out but if it is at least I did get each bike ridden a little this month.

I started out on the V-Strom, in the middle of the day. The V has the least protection from the wind so I wanted to use the warmer part of the day. Wearing my electric vest was a no-brainer and I turned it on right away. I very quickly concluded that another layer on my legs would have been nice.

If you’re going to ride three motorcycles in one day it kind of means you’re not going a long way on any of them. But I don’t just go out and ride around the block. (I did that one time years ago but at that time the run around my block was about six miles long. And the temperature was about 20. But I had to get my ride in for that month.)

So I did a nice little scoot and came on home but then I had other things I needed to do. Maybe I would get to the other two later, maybe not.

Several hours later I could get out again so I took the Concours. It has the best weather protection and at this point I had put on long underwear. It’s always interesting to me how it feels getting on the Connie after being on the V. There’s just a lot more power; it’s an impressive motorcycle. I never notice any shortage of power when I’m on the V but in comparison the Connie makes it seem weak. Whatever.

Another fairly short ride this time because now I was thinking about getting the third in. And it was getting later in the afternoon.

I got home and switched to the CB750 Custom and headed out. Very little wind protection on this bike and it wasn’t long before even the long underwear was feeling like not enough. Pretty quickly the sun went behind a bank of clouds, never to reemerge on this day, and the temperature starting dropping fast.

I took a different route than I have before and was coming up University Boulevard, figuring I’d go east on Yale. But I was thinking Colorado Boulevard, not University, so I was looking for the Colorado and Yale intersection. That meant I blew right on through the University and Yale intersection. No problem, I’d just go on up to Evans.

But then as I was coming up alongside the University of Denver, nearing Evans, I decided to turn east on Harvard. I hadn’t been down through that University Park neighborhood in many years to this would at least be something different. Oh my gosh! We’ve all seen areas where a lot of houses have been scraped off so new, big homes can be built in their places. Also the pop-tops, where they take the basis of the house and enlarge it hugely. Well, this entire neighborhood has been scraped. Not a pop-top in sight and hardly a single original home still standing. Every now and then there would be on old original but I have never seen any area so completely scraped and rebuilt.

And many of these homes are gargantuan. There was one in particular what looked like it extended all the way from the sidewalk in front to the alley in back with zero footage given to yard. Huge!

So that made my ride at least a little more than just an obligatory running of the steeds. It’s all about exploring. You can explore even in the middle of the city you live in if you just turn at a different corner than you typically do.

Biker Quote for Today

Guys on motorcycles are just cyclists too lazy to peddle.

I went recently with the RMMRC on a fall color ride and Ralf was the leader and organizer. I know Ralf and I’ve ridden with Ralf. And I know Ralf is very much a go-fast kind of guy.

Sure enough, we hadn’t gone all that far and the folks ahead of me were moving at a clip I just was not all that comfortable with. I can ride fast when I choose to but frequently I just don’t choose to. So I just went my own pace and that was fine. Ralf had been very clear that he would not turn off the road we were on without waiting for everyone to catch up so no one would get lost.

One of the folks ahead of me, though, was Maynard. Maynard kept up with Ralf but when we stopped for a couple minutes in Conifer he spoke up, saying that he felt the pace to that point had been a bit excessive. Good for you Maynard, it’s good to speak up and let your opinion be known. Ralf replied that he didn’t feel the pace had been all that fast but he asked how the rest of us felt. I spoke up and said I agreed with Maynard but that I knew beforehand that Ralf was fast and I had just made up my mind to ride my own ride, and if I got behind, I was OK with that.

I will note, however, that there was one particular curve where I went into it too hot and did some emergency hard braking. And I wasn’t even trying to keep up.

No one else said they thought the pace had been all that excessive, although of course some of them had been behind me.

The consensus was as I had suggested, that everyone should just ride their own ride, and we went on. Ralf gave no indication he felt he ought to slow down, and he reiterated that he would not let anyone get separated at a turn. Whether it was for this reason or just because he often does this (he does, and he may have planned this from the start), Maynard peeled off from the ride a bit later when we got to Evergreen and headed off on his own.

But this is a real issue, and it’s one everyone needs to think out on their own. Some people just like to ride faster than others. If a group you ride with always goes faster than you like, then maybe you need to find another group. Alternatively, you could take the role of leader and then lead at the pace you feel comfortable with.

I’m personally not a go-fast guy, to the point that on the recent OFMC trip Bruce asked at one point why we so frequently would ride at five miles below the limit. We just like to take our time and enjoy the ride. Bruce said he had never ridden with a group that didn’t generally go as fast as they could. Or at least go the speed limit.

However, there are several people in the RMMRC who lead a lot of the rides who are go-fast guys. If you go on many rides with this group you are going to find yourself in this situation. And I have. Many times. And I just ride my own ride. If someone wants to go faster they can go around me and catch up with the group ahead.

No one should out-ride their own abilities. Safety is more important than conforming with the group. If you’re not comfortable, slow down. The life you save may be your own.

Biker Quote for Today

So today I went on a motorcycle ride and I forgot to post a picture on Instagram about it. Then I remembered I was too busy riding my motorcycle.