Passes & Canyons Blog

OK, are you ready for more pix from the Colorado Motorcycle Expo? Well, you’ve come to the right place because I’ve got just what you want.

Let’s start here.

Next, I had never before seen this sort of thing, where there are images in the lights. Does the image project visibly in front of you? I would guess not but I don’t actually know.

Now here are a couple more show bikes that go all in on detail in paint and chrome etching. Are a lot of these by the same designer? I probably could have answered that question by looking at the sheets but didn’t think to.

This bike was a bit more colorful than most. Mostly the theme seemed to be gold and chrome.

I think you’ve got to be some kind of macho to walk around like this. This guy was doing video of every inch of all the fancy show bikes. Don’t know why.

So that’s pretty much what I’ve got. It really didn’t seem like the people shots were as plentiful this year as in the past. Then a few good shots I saw I was not able to grab in time. Oh well.

Biker Quote for Today

“A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection” – Patrick Rothfus

I went to the Colorado Motorcycle Expo Saturday and as always there were some good photos to be taken. How do you like this bike above, made out of a number of decidedly not motorcycle parts?

Among the show bikes there were a large number of them that were detailed out to the max. This one below gives you an idea what I mean.

Here’s another close-up up top.

Another theme seems to be super low rear ends. Can you say “super impractical?” Five minutes on the street would scrape the pipes off this bike. Oh yeah, this is just eye candy, not an actual functional motorcycle.

It seems that heavy metal now extends to personal jewelry. These things must weight five pounds. Kind of like finery that doubles as a weapon. “No sir, this is not a weapon, it’s just my necklace.”

I did actually see a couple people wearing these things. You’ll see one in another photo, which I may get into this collection or it may need to wait for my follow-up post on Thursday.












OK, so this next one I’m not sure what we’re looking at. Are those toy plastic motors for your favorite kid? I was going to go look but forgot.

OK, so that’s few of the shots I got. There are more and I’ll put those up on Thursday.

Biker Quote for Today

$500 spent on gasoline will make you faster than $500 on power parts.

I went to the Colorado Motorcycle Expo, at the National Western Center, as I frequently do. It seemed to me it just wasn’t as much of a show as it usually is. There didn’t seem to be as many really cool bikes in the display area and whereas I usually shoot a lot of good people pictures, this time the people just didn’t seem as out there as usual. Anyway, here’s what I got.

This was a nice bike, not as gaudy as many of the show bikes.

Can’t you just hear this bike growl?

Now we’re into the real big-time show bikes. Somebody put a lot of time and effort into this.

Another beauty, with detail worth zooming in on.

OK, are you really going to ride down the street with pipes an inch off the ground? I doubt it.

Sometimes being a performer can be a lonely affair. But the show must go on so you just get up there and pretend you’re in front of a stadium full of people.

I’ve been to motorcycle shows around the country and this is really the only one that still harks back to the concept of being a swap meet. You really can buy just about any piece of a motorcycle you happen to be looking for. Although you’ll have more luck finding it if the piece you want goes on a Harley.

Leathers, leathers, boy do we have leathers. And helmets.

The Expo is also very much the place if you want patches, and they’ll sew them on right there while you wait.

Biker Quote for Today

If my bike went as fast as the money I spend on it I’d win every race.

I had never heard of Janus Motorcycles but I got an email the other day from Grant Longenbaugh, the company’s president, complimenting me on this blog. He said he had run across it while they were here in Colorado doing filming for a ride on one of their bikes.

“If you haven’t heard of Janus, we make ultra-lightweight, classic bikes in Goshen Indiana. There are about 1500 of ’em out there, and we’re growing every year!,” he said.

Well, I hadn’t but now I have. So of course I had to check out their website and see what these bikes are all about.

The first thing that is clear from the start with Janus is that this is not a large-scale, cookie-cutter operation. As you can see from that screen shot above, you can pick from 15 different colors for your bike. Does anyone else offer that kind of selection? As for other customization, they offer a wide range of options from seat to mirrors to luggage and more. One bit of humor: On the FAQ page they go through what can and cannot be customized. Here’s one: “Can you buy ‘just’ a frame, tank, etc? Yes, but all frames come with engines attached, and all fuel tanks come with frame and engine attached.”

That reminds me of when I first bought my 1999 Kawasaki Concours and rode it to breakfast with the guys. Leaving the restaurant I told them they needed to look at the new seat I had just bought. (We had recently taken a trip to California and it was a long ride on my CB750.) When I walked them over to the bike I told them, “Yeah, the seat cost one heck of a lot but they threw in all the rest of the bike at no extra charge.”

Janus currently offers three models, the Halycon 450, Halycon 250, and Gryffin 250. The 450 has two cylinders and the 250s each have one. These are retro-looking bikes that definitely have you thinking of early Harleys and others. Which is not to say the technology is old school at all.

At the same time, these are not extremely complex machines either.

Our motorcycles are designed to be simple to understand and work on. We encourage our owners to perform their own routine maintenance and get to know their motorcycles. We believe that knowing your machine deepens the enjoyment of riding. We have an ever-growing YouTube channel of maintenance videos, and if there’s something you don’t know how to do or don’t want to do, we can help you learn, or help you find a local garage that will service our motorcycles.

So anyway, it’s always nice to have new companies coming along to build a wider variety of motorcycles. If this particular style stokes your fires you now have a source.

Biker Quote for Today

Bike may be new, but not my passion for riding.

As promised, here are some shots of some of the show bikes on display at last weekend’s Colorado Motorcycle Expo.

Let’s start out with some of the seven or so mega-trikes (my term). They were the first thing you encountered so it seems like a good place to start. What I’m wondering about these is how you turn effectively. Is there gearing or something that you only rotate the handlebars a little and the wheel turns a lot more. Kind of like a car, I guess, now that I think about it. I’d be curious to know how it works.

Then there were some odd ones. See how low this is? Can you even ride this thing? It seems like you would scrape the bottom on the tiniest bumps.

Then there were the super good-looking show bikes.

Of course there were some really radical bikes. This one was especially cool. But it looks like you’d have a scraping problem with it, too, if you actually wanted to ride it.

And finally, it’s good to see the kids can get in on the action. All you need is a really cool Mom/Dad or maybe Grandpa.

So those are some of the bikes that were on display. Next I’ll focus on the people of the Expo.

Biker Quote for Today

If your grandpa doesn’t have a motorcycle you have two grandmas.

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show always features some cool custom bikes on display, just to have eye candy. Here are some of them.

What more is there to say? Here’s the quote of the day.

Motorcycle Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: You’ll have to come rescue us when we run out of gas on the other side of town.