Passes & Canyons Blog

The home page of the A&M Moto Toys website.

This is long overdue. I have been acquainted at a distance for quite a few years now with Mark Odette. We have never met but we connected back when I was writing for Examiner.com and I was putting together a series of articles on the antipathy in the sportbike community to ABATE. (It was pretty much all about helmets.)

At one point way back then Mark suggested we meet up somewhere and do a ride together. That never came together, though. But we’ve been connected on Meetup for years now. And it was through Meetup something over a year ago that I became aware that Mark set up his own motorcycle rental outfit. I made a note immediately to contact him and do a blog post about his endeavor. This is finally that post.

The company is called A&M Moto Toys LLC and they have a website plus a Facebook page. Everything I’m about to tell you comes from those two sources because I never have connected directly to Mark.

The thing that really stands out here is that unlike so many motorcycle rental places offering street bikes, Mark is offering dirt bikes. What bikes does he have? Here’s the list from the website: 2022 Talaria Sting; 2022 GPX Moto FSE450R; 2022 GPX Moto FSE300R; 2022 GPX Moto FSE250E; 2022 Rieju MR300 Pro; 2019 Beta 390 RRS. He also list these as bikes he intends to add to the fleet: 2022 Moto GPX TSE300R; 2022 Moto GPX 450 Rally; Moto GPX Adventure 500; Kawasaki KLR 650 Adventure.

The company is located in Monument. It says they serve Colorado Spring, Denver, and Pueblo. No prices given but the banner across the home page touts “Affordable Rentals.” Considering that some Harley rentals will run you up to $200 a day, I wonder what affordable means here. In my mind I’d be looking for maybe around $100 a day, but I have no idea really.

It also appears that Mark deals in parts. He lists a variety of manufacturers being represented.

That’s kind of it in a nutshell. You can reach Mark at contact@ammototoys.com.

And then there’s one other interesting note I turned up looking over the A&M Moto Toys website. Mark generously lists information on another rental outfit run by a friend called Ride With Will Rentals. This outfit offers ATVs as well as dirt bikes and will even handle lodging for you if you’re coming in from out of town. This company is headquartered in Pueblo West.

So hey, want to go dirt riding but don’t have a dirt bike? Now you know where to go.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you can t imagine your life without riding or the memories of riding.

Photo courtesy of Exit Tours.

I’ve been having an email conversation with Mike Brown, of Exit Tours, about doing some rides with his group. To recap, Exit Tours is structured as a club and for your annual membership fee you get one free ride and then others are fairly inexpensive.

So Mike is making a big push this year to reach a higher level of participation and to that end, I’m assuming as an introduction, he is putting on a no-charge, no-membership-needed Fathers Day Ride to the Alpine Tunnel, set for June 18 and 19. This looks very interesting.

The group will gather near Greens Creek, near Salida, and camp the night of the 18th and do the ride on the 19th.

Here’s the description of the ride:

Ride to the Alpine Tunnel on Sunday June 19.
The Dual Sport ride is a 121 mile Loop with a challenging section on Tomichi Pass.
Snow may be present in late June.
We will provide an alternate Adventure bike loop option over Blacksage and Waunita Passes to Pitkin and the Tunnel site, return over Blacksage and Waunita Passes.
This route is a bit Longer, but does not include any real challenging sections.
Ride counterclockwise from Greens Creek to Old Monarch Pass, Snowblind to Tomichi Pass to the Alpine Tunnel on the Dual Sport Loop.
Then head towards Pitkin on the old Denver, Southpark & Pacific Railroad line.
Lunch & Fuel in Pitkin.
Waunita Pass to Black Sage Pass to Sargents on Hwy 50.
To over Marshall Pass to down Hwy 285. Poncha Springs on Hwy 50 to Greens Creek.
Fuel and Food available at the Silver Plume General Store in Pitkin on either loop.
Phone Compatible GPS Tracks will be provided.
This is a FREE club ride with no other Amenities provided.
Fill out the form on the Sign-Up link if you want to go on an epic ride on Fathers Day and receive GPS tracks.

If you go to the Exit Tours website you’ll notice in the pictures that all the bikes have knobby tires. I have a V-Strom and I run 80/20 Shinko tires. That’s 80% biased to street, 20% biased to dirt. I asked Mike if that would be adequate on the alternate routes that are less challenging. His answer was not reassuring.

However, I mentioned the ride to Bruce, who checked it out and immediately signed up, and he said he has ridden most of those routes before and he thinks I could do it OK.

So I’m not sure here. I would definitely like to do this, and I suppose I could have some more dirt-capable tires put on the V-Strom but I just had new tires front and back put on, and mounting tires is a real expense. Gonna have to think on this.

If you, on the other hand, are totally prepared for this kind of ride you may want to seriously consider signing up.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you won’t ride down a gravel road.

The Shelf Road is rougher but more scenic than Phantom Canyon Road.

I came down to Canon City from Victor on the Phantom Canyon Road. Now my plan was to go back up to Cripple Creek on the Shelf Road. This was part of an all-day dirt-riding run I did on my own. My thinking was that maybe this would be a good ride to lead some of the RMMRC folks on, those with dirt-capable bikes at least.

I headed north out of Canon City on Field Avenue, which became Garden Park Road. I was surprised, actually, at how far the road is paved. I guess I hadn’t been on this road in a lot of years. It does ultimately become the Shelf Road and the pavement ends.

This is one snaking road. And it is much narrower than the Phantom Canyon Road that I rode down to Canon City on. It’s also a lot rougher–a lot more potholes, bumps, and just generally uneven, loose gravel. I was glad I rode Phantom Canyon first because that allowed me to get back up to speed with my dirt-riding skills, such as they are.

One thing that was good about both roads is that there was not much traffic on either. That doesn’t mean I didn’t have my close call with oncoming traffic. You’re basically riding on a shelf cut into the hillside with a sheer drop on the other side and the turns are often very tight. So of course some guy is coming the other direction, around a spot where the road juts way out, and he wants to get a better view. So he drives right out to the edge, which is to say, directly into my traffic lane. Dude, did you not understand that it’s a blind curve? What if someone is coming the other way? And I was. I hit the brakes as hard as I dared and he very sheepishly quickly swerved back into his own lane.

The road from Canon City to Cripple Creek was only about 26 miles, compared to the 34 miles of the Phantom Canyon Road, but there had to be 10 times as many bumps. I had forgotten one thing I knew about riding dirt, which was to stand up on the pegs on the rougher stuff. Of course, on the Shelf Road that would have meant standing up most of the way. I paid for this the next day–my back really hurt! Fortunately it felt fine by the following day.

So the Shelf Road is probably the more scenic of the two. There’s even a spot where you see a natural arch or hole in the wall.

There’s a hole in the rock wall at upper right.

I got to Cripple Creek and was headed home but my dirt riding for the day was not quite over. I had seen on the map that as I headed north on CO 67 to Divide that there is a road a bit to the west that covers much of that same distance. This is Teller County Road 61. It diverges from and then rejoins 67 as they go north. Perhaps, I thought, this road would go through some unexpected beautiful spots, through some canyon maybe. So I took it.

Sorry to say, no, it’s just a dirt road through the woods. Oh well, I wasn’t going to be satisfied until I had seen it. Now I’ve seen it.

It was getting late and I was heading home and I had considered taking US 24 all the way into Colorado Springs and blasting to Denver on the interstate, or at least part of the way. But by now I would have been hitting the commuter traffic. You wouldn’t believe how many people commute between Denver and Colorado Springs for work. It’s ugly.

So I changed my mind and went back the way I came down, going up CO 67 and CO 126 north out of Woodland Park, back to US 285 and then home. That turned out to be a great choice. There was hardly another vehicle on the road; I had it all to myself. And let’s just say that I didn’t dawdle. It was a fun ride. In fact, the whole day was a fun ride. And I even got home in time for dinner (barely).

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if one of your children or pets have either “Harley” or “Davidson” in their name.

This is actually one of the wider spots along the Phantom Canyon Road–and notice how smooth it is, at least now.

Most of this website was built more than a few years ago now but it’s never really finished. There is always stuff that needs to be updated and there are always roads I want to pay more attention to. And more and more those roads are unpaved. I mean, let’s face it, I’ve already addressed most of the paved roads in the state that are worthy of attention, but there are lots of unpaved roads, and some of them are fabulous.

One area that has had my attention lately is the area around Cripple Creek. Unlike the pages I’ve built for passes and for canyons, the page I envision for Cripple Creek would focus on all the roads leading to it. Because there are quite a few of them. And there’s not a one of them that’s not interesting or worth riding. But they’re not all paved.

With all this in mind, I headed out last week by myself to refamiliarize myself and to shoot photos to go on this new page. It turned out to be a longer day than I had anticipated, but man did I have a good time.

I headed out of Denver on US 285 as far as the turn-off at Pine Junction, going south on CO 126 through Pine and down to Deckers, where the road becomes CO 67. Up to this point, amazingly, it had been cool enough that I wore a down vest over my t-shirt inside my mesh jacket. I stopped at Deckers to use the john and stretch my legs and I took the vest off now.

CO 67 continues south from Deckers until it reaches Woodland Park and there I turned west on US 24. This took me the short distance to Divide, where I turned south once again on CO 67. Actually, it was CO 67 all the way; US 24 and CO 67 are the same along this stretch.

Heading south on CO 67 is the main road into Cripple Creek and all by itself it is quite scenic. The road rides high and there are numerous view points with nice scenery. And to top it off, as you crest the hill and descend steeply into Cripple Creek you have just gone over Tenderfoot Pass. Not that it’s well marked or anything, but it’s there.

But I didn’t go that route. Just a few miles before Cripple Creek CO 67 does a hard right but if you go straight you’ll be on Teller County Road 81, which goes to Victor. I don’t know why but I’ve always had the idea this road was unpaved, but it isn’t. It’s paved all the way. And, of course, the paved road goes on around to Cripple Creek so it’s a loop.

Victor was where I was to pick up the first of the day’s gravel roads: the Phantom Canyon Road. Coming this direction you actually come to the Phantom Canyon Road before you even get into Victor. I saw the sign for County Road 86 and thought that might be it but went on into town before I stopped to check the map. Sure enough. No matter, it wasn’t more than half a mile.

So I turned down County Road 86 and I had a little trepidation. The truth is, although I’ve had this V-Strom for a number of years now, and I got it specifically to be able to ride off the pavement, I just haven’t done all that much of it. Certainly not as much as I have wanted to do. And at this point, what dirt-riding skills I have developed were a bit rusty.

Not to worry. The road was amazingly smooth. So smooth, in fact, that it appeared it had only recently been graded. That impression was confirmed in a short while when I encountered the road grader at work.

The Phantom Canyon Road used to be a narrow-gauge train route so there were a couple tunnels cut through sheer rock walls and a lot of the road hugs the cliff with canyon way down below–and of course no guard rails and not so wide that two cars can pass comfortably unless one hangs back in wider spot when they see the other one coming. Absolutely fine for motorcycles, though.

Altogether, from Victor to where you hit US 50 east of Canon City it’s about 34 miles. It’s slow going so figure on an hour minimum. And it really is a pretty good road all the way, especially right now. You won’t be disappointed in the scenery.

I stopped in Canon City for lunch and that’s where I’ll leave this today. I’ll pick up the tale next time.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: If your Motorcycle is too soft, you can get different shocks.

Kevin and I were on V-Stroms but Janet rode her Ninja.

Sometimes the best tool for the job is not the one designed for that purpose, but the one – the only one – you have.

Take dual-sport riding, this business of taking a motorcycle down the highway to get somewhere, and then taking that same bike onto the dirt when you reach your destination. Years ago, when motorcycles were less specialized than they are today, riders were far more ready to take their street bikes in the dirt. Nowadays we have dirt bikes and dual-sport bikes, and most street bikes never see more than a short stretch of gravel here and there. Many never see anything but pavement.

I went dual-sporting awhile back in the area around Gunnison. The two Suzuki V-Stroms we were on were provided by my friend Kevin, who used to rent V-Stroms out of Gunnison. And there was a third person with us, Kevin’s wife, Janet, and she was riding her Kawasaki Ninja 500R.

The Ninja is a sportbike, the antithesis of a dual-sport or dirt bike. Whereas the V-Strom has 6 inches of suspension travel in the rear, the Ninja is limited to 3.9 inches. On rough roads those 2 inches make a huge difference. And ground clearance on the Ninja is only 4.9 inches, compared to 6.5 inches on the V-Strom.

We headed out of Gunnison on the highway, went up and over North Cochetopa Pass, and then coming down the other side we turned off on an unpaved county road. It was pretty good gravel, hard packed and stable, and well maintained. The V-Stroms, like any good dual-sport bike, were right at home. And the Ninja just cruised along, too.

As we began to climb up to Carnero Pass things got a bit rougher. There was washboard, a few ruts, and some stretches of badly disturbed surface. The V-Stroms ate it up. The Ninja took it slowly, navigating around the bigger holes, following the smoothest path. Not a problem.

Over the top and down and we followed a ranching canyon to its outlet onto the prairie. The road was once again good hard-packed gravel. Then we turned onto an unpaved county road that was broad and flat . . . and deep in loose gravel.

“That sucked!,” Janet said when we stopped in town. “That mountain road was fine. I had no problem with it. On that flat road I didn’t feel comfortable going above 40. I knew that if I screwed up it would hurt.”

“Deep, loose gravel is hard, I don’t care what you’re riding,” Kevin replied in agreement.

So the rougher, less-maintained road was really better for the Ninja.

“The suspension on the Ninja was fine. I absolutely felt confident on it. I feel very maneuverable on that bike. I can move it anywhere I need it to move to avoid obstacles in the road,” Janet explained.

That said, she added, “I’d rather be on the (paved) road.”

Janet is a serious mountain bike rider, but has only started riding motorcycles in recent years. She chose the Ninja because it was one of the only bikes she could handle considering how short her legs are.

“Now I’m thinking, ‘Oh, I want a dirt bike because I want to start doing all these gnarly roads around in the mountains.’ I want to get up in there without having to be in a car. It just catches me off guard because I didn’t expect motorcycling to get under my skin. And when I ride it gets under my skin. When I’m not riding I’m like, ‘No I don’t want to do that, I want to ride my bicycle.’”

Janet has taken her Ninja over other mountain passes on gravel roads. “It’s the only bike I’ve ever had. If I want to go somewhere it’s the bike I ride.”

It’s just that simple. For Janet, it’s the best tool for the job.

Biker Quote for Today

I need men for some things; riding a motorcycle is not one of them.

This is the kind of flying I can get into.

I’ve read that pilots make better motorcyclists, or motorcyclists make better pilots – I can’t remember which. Probably the latter. Both go beyond the basic right, left, forward, backward movement that you get in a car. Both have to lean.

You do get some lean in a car when you turn sharply, but it is centrifugal force trying to throw you in the opposite direction of your turn, while the seat you’re sitting on essentially remains in the same plane. On a bike, as in an airplane, the entire vehicle rotates clockwise or counter-clockwise on an axis running from front to back. You remain firmly planted on your seat, which rotates with you, and you lean in the direction of the turn, not the opposite.

What this adds up to is fun. Anyone who rides, or who has spent much time with bikers, knows that bikers love “the twisties.” Whereas car tires are shaped like a bowl, with a flat bottom, motorcycle tires are more circular. You roll the bike to the left and to the right and the patch in contact with the road moves up the left side and up the right side and it’s all good because you’re supposed to use the sides of the tires, not just the bottom.

In the twisties, it all comes together into a dance. In a series of s-turns you go into a right-hander and you lean right and the bike rolls right, then, with a left-hander immediately following, you straighten the bike back up and keep going over on the left. Then it’s back up and over on the right and back up and over on the left. There’s no better feeling than rolling those tires all the way across their profile, side to side, and back again, again and again. You set up a rhythm, your body and the bike move gracefully to the music of the road, and the world is a wonderful place. It has to be the closest thing to what pilots feel that you can experience on the ground.

Of course, if you’re a dirtbike rider or a motocross rider you also get the ups and downs that pilots get, and you even catch a little air now and then. But I’m a bit leery of that business of going up in the air more than just over whoops. I like the fact that if a motorcycle’s engine stalls you just coast to a stop, as opposed to being in the air praying you can either restart it or find a place to land safely.

I do like to fly, but I’m happy to do my flying on the ground.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycle riding gives you a sense of freedom that you don’t get in a car. Your senses take on a different significance.

The road up Cumberland Pass is rough but no problem at all on a dirt bike.

Judy and I wanted to go camping and we had not been over Cottonwood Pass since they finally paved the whole thing last year. I discussed that in this post.

So we got up on the east side of Cottonwood and found a campsite. The next day we went over the top and down to Taylor Park Reservoir. The day was still early so what do we do now?

Looking at the map we could see that another road ran from the reservoir up to Tin Cup, a so-called ghost town that I thought I would never get to because I thought the only way there was over a really difficult four-wheel-drive or dirt bike pass. That’s Tin Cup Pass. But the drive from the reservoir is easy on a gravel road treated heavily with magnesium chloride. So we went.

There really wasn’t much at Tin Cup but there was a crossroads where you could go straight or else turn left. Left was over Tin Cup Pass, down to St. Elmo on the other side. We were in Judy’s Subaru Forester. We weren’t going over Tin Cup. Straight ahead, however, was Cumberland Pass and the map showed it to be in better condition than Tin Cup Pass. OK, we figured, we’ll go as far as we can and if it gets too rough that will be the time to turn around.

It’s needless to say that the drive was beautiful. Basically what you’re seeing is how this part of the world looked long before the white man ever came on the scene. Except for the road, of course.

We took it slow, and the Subaru was up to it. Along the way, however, numerous dirt bikes and ATVs went blasting past us as we pulled over to let them by. Those are definitely the kind of vehicles you want out here. We were generally going about 7 or 8 miles an hour and they must easily have been doing 20 mph or more. Of course, on the other hand, most of them were eating dust or wearing masks and goggles to keep the dust out. We enjoyed our closed windows and AC.

It was not a bad road. There were a couple times when it got rough enough I started having doubts but those stretches passed and all was fine. We got up on top of the pass and there were a slew of ATVs and dirt bikes. One of the ATVs was having problems, and this is not a place where you want to be calling AAA to. They finally got it running and that guy headed down with another behind him for security.

Up on top there were several roads going off to the surrounding hilltops and there was a group of bikes and ATVs up on one of them. Heading on down the other side the road went into a deep valley that looked like more nice riding. That goes on to Pitkin, over near Gunnison. We didn’t want to push our luck and we really didn’t have time anyway but I have no doubt it would be a great ride.

So, bottom line here, if you’re into dirt biking, and especially if you’re not an expert dirt biker, Cumberland Pass definitely gets my recommendation. Would I do it on my V-Strom? Yeah, I would. I’ve been on rougher roads than this on the V. I wouldn’t touch it on my other two bikes, though.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if every magazine you subscribe to has the word “Biker” on it somewhere.

Riding on gravel took me a while to get used to.

Motorcycles are inherently more unstable than cars. When a car comes to a stop it stops. Period. When a motorcycle comes to a stop you’d better put your foot down or you’re going to fall over. Something about two wheels versus four, you know?

Now magnify the instability by adding a curve in the rider’s trajectory. Motorcycles lean in order to go around curves, so you’re already cocked to one side. And then add gravel in the curve. There’s nothing quite as thrilling as feeling your rear tire break loose in gravel on a curve, and this is not the good kind of thrill such as what you get on a roller coaster.

Give credit to the people who design motorcycles and motorcycle tires that losing traction on gravel, or ice, or wet leaves doesn’t automatically mean you go down. All it takes is to hit a wee patch of pavement again and you’re back in control. You’ll probably want to take it easy for a while, though, and let your adrenaline subside.

Motorcyclists generally fall into two categories, those who learned to ride on dirt and those who didn’t. It’s a huge difference. Dirt riding is all about breaking traction, riding the slide, and keeping the bike up. Those who never rode in dirt are at a significant disadvantage.

I never rode in dirt. While I had the opportunity to ride several bikes from time to time over a lot of years, I never got good at it until I bought my first bike, my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. I learned to ride on the road and gravel was a particular nemesis. I hated gravel roads and gravel in a curve scared the bejeezus out of me.

The very first trip Bill and John and I took, before we even named our group the OFMC, we camped one night at Rifle Gap State Park, outside of Rifle, CO. It was probably 8 to 10 miles from the campground to town and we needed to ride in to have dinner. I had noticed when we first rode out to the park that there was a lot of gravel in some of the curves so I was already in high-caution mode. Heading into town the other guys left me way behind and I picked my way carefully along. Heading back to camp after dinner it was now dark, and thus even harder to pick out the hazards. They were back at camp long before I got there.

The difference, of course, was that they had had scooters and dirt bikes as kids.

“Didn’t you slide on some of that gravel in the curves?”

“Oh sure, but when you ride dirt bikes you learn how to stay in control.”

It took me a long time to get comfortable riding my street bikes on gravel roads, but I do it pretty well now. (Except for the Concours, which HATES gravel.) I still hate gravel in a curve. But I’ve been on the dirt more since I got my V-Strom. Maybe someday I’ll feel that rear wheel slide out and smile. But I’m not holding my breath.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m not the biggest motorcycle fan – they’re cool and a lot of fun, but they’re scary as well! — Taylor Lautner