Passes & Canyons Blog

Motorcycle noise is a legitimate issue, but let’s separate the fact from the ignorance.

Will the Governator veto the California bill requiring EPA seals on motorcycle exhausts? (This Examiner post is from eight years ago, so there have been some changes.) That’s one of the biggest questions on many people’s minds at the moment. That it should be an issue at all is a demonstration of ignorance. Let’s start with a recap.

Truth
Some motorcycles make too much noise. Admit it, it’s a fact. Also, some cars and trucks and airplanes and trains and other vehicles make too much noise. This is true as well.

So the California legislature decided to copy what has been done in several other jurisdictions in recent years, notably Denver, and has passed legislation requiring all motorcycle mufflers to carry the Environmental Protection Agency stamp that certifies it does not exceed noise standards. Thus the waiting to see what Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is a motorcyclist himself, will do.

The ignorance comes in where the proponents of the bill think it will solve the problem. It won’t, and Denver again serves as a good example. In a recent CBS News article it was reported that “just 37 tickets were issued in 2007, the law’s first year. In 2008, just 4 tickets, and last year 5 tickets. So far this year, no tickets have been issued.”

It’s a matter of practicality. Generally the stamps on the mufflers are in obscure, out-of-the-way places where a police officer would have to get down on hands and knees, or perhaps lay on the his back on the ground, to spot. It’s just not very likely to happen. Plus, OEM mufflers carrying the EPA stamps are not always available for older bikes, and even if they are, why should a biker be subject to ticketing for not having a stamp if the noise the bike makes is not excessive?

In the meantime, laws like this are not needed. Laws already exist limiting noise. All that is really necessary is to enforce the laws already passed, and this is regardless of whether the source of the noise is a motorcycle, a truck, a lawn mower, or anything else. The problem with the California law and others is that they unfairly target motorcycles.

Ignorance
While controlling noise levels is a valid endeavor for cities and other jurisdictions, the people promoting this agenda have been going off the deep end of late, and they often don’t worry about getting facts straight.

For instance, on the site for NoiseOFF – The Coalition Against Noise Pollution, they offer this bit of misinformation:

Some riders join motorcycle rights organizations (MROs) that lobby against motorcycle noise legislation. These organizations include the Motorcycle Riders Foundation, and American Motorcyclist Association (AMA). . . . The AMA compromises (sic) over 300,000 members and more than 1,200 chartered clubs, with corporate representation from the motorcycle industry. Through sponsored events and organized campaigns, they mobilize their membership to lobby to defeat motorcycle noise legislation.

First off, the MRF is only involved in national lobbying and they don’t get involved in local issues. As for the AMA, all you need to do is check their site and you’ll learn that they routinely urge riders to be conscientious with noise, and that what the AMA does oppose is . . . drumroll . . . legislation that unfairly targets motorcycles.

Then of course there is Noise Free America, which recently had this to say about the Sturgis motorcycle rally and South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds:

In reality, the Sturgis event is probably the largest concentration ever of lawbreakers. And Mike Rounds, the governor of South Dakota, gave aid and comfort to this massive lawbreaking.

Is it really that hard to understand? If noise of any kind is a problem, pass laws that limit the noise regardless of the source. And then enforce those laws. Quit singling out motorcycles. The sleeper whose slumber is disturbed doesn’t care what caused the noise, they just want the noise stopped. And that includes sleeping motorcyclists.

Biker Quote for Today

The bike started up–better rev the engine a dozen times to make sure.

Jeremiah Owsley (left) and Dave Hennessy with the Suzuki sidecar rig they’ll be racing tomorrow.

“I think Dave is just gonna put a major piece of whoop-ass on John, mainly because of his experience and the loose gravel on that top section. Dave is an old MX sidecar racer with a lot of dirt skills. John is a street racer without dirt skills. Plus, Dave’s bike is more powerful.”

That’s the pre-race prognostication from Key Kyler, the mechanic supporting both sidecar racing teams competing in the 2010 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, which runs tomorrow.

The veterans
Dave Hennessy, running a 1000cc Suzuki “motard style” rig with his passenger, Jeremiah Owsley, is a veteran of the course. John Wood, running a Wasp rig with a 750cc Yamaha engine with his passenger, Giorgina Gottlieb, is in the rider’s seat for the first time on this bike. He was the passenger on the rig last year.

With such uneven competitors, beating the other guy is nobody’s main focus.

“We’re going against the records of previous sidecars,” says Dave. “We hope to improve so we’re in the hunt for the record. John and Giorgina are in a slightly different class. If they beat me, good for them. Still, I hope they don’t. We have an advantage over them.”

In Jeremiah’s mind there is no question who will come in first tomorrow, and he is focused on the record.

“I think we’ll beat last year no problem,” he says.

The rookies
For John and Giorgina the challenge is simply to finish the race. They didn’t do so well in the first day of practice.

“Somebody put a ditch in the raceline,” says John. “I’m a roadracer and tried to use a roadracing line, dive to outside to apex, but there was no traction out there. Still, I thought I had it till the last 30 feet.”

It was a bit of a rough landing but the bike was back together for the next day’s practice.

“The passenger was back together, too,” adds Giorgina.

Practice on the mountain is divided into three sections, with each group of racers working a different section each day. Some parts of the road are paved and some are not. On the second day it was a paved section.

“I was back in my element, and we were able to work on technique,” says John. “Every time we went out we got faster. I was trying to ride smooth and let the fast come, and that had tremendous results.”

This is Giorgina’s first race ever so for her there is a great deal to learn.

“Every time we go out I’m learning a lot. It’s fun. Now it’s a matter of making transitions smoother. You lean left for left, right for right. It makes more sense the more I do it. When you turn left you want weight on the left side, either the back for traction or the front for steering. Turning right you want to keep the chair down for traction. My job is traction control.”

In sidecar racing, the job of the passenger, or monkey, is to shift their weight to add traction to whichever tire needs it at the moment. Rough movement from one position to another can make it harder on the driver to maintain control, thus the need for smooth transitions.

The race
On Sunday the sidecars are scheduled to run second in the back half of the program. The first half is the vintage cars, stock cars, open wheel, unlimited and others. The second half is exhibition powersports, sidecars, quads, and motorcycles. Racing starts at 9 a.m., which means everyone will be up by 3 a.m. to get to the mountain and settled in. Once racing starts there is no traffic on the road except for the racers. As racers reach the top they remain up there until racing is completed and they come back down in three groups.

Why do they do it?

“I ask myself that each morning at 3 a.m.,” says Dave. “When you get to the top it feels pretty amazing.”

Rick Litt, a friend of Dave’s for more than 30 years, adds, “His main motivation is he just loves racing.”

For John, this year is all about learning the track so he’ll be ready to come back with his roadracing sidecar when the road to the top is fully paved, in 2012. This year, “As long as I don’t make a fool of myself it’s OK. I just want to see the top.”

And then there is the coming down. In a somewhat new tradition at the Pikes Peak, as the racers come down the mountain, spectators all along the route stand with their hands outstretched to high-five them. For the racers it’s a pretty emotional affair.

“From what I hear, it’s moving,” says Giorgina. “The fandom for this race is amazing. The people who actually watch are passionate about it.”

Many of those fans camp on the mountain the night before in order to get a great view of the race. It is the only night each year when camping is allowed on Pikes Peak.

Today, Saturday, is a day of rest for the racers. Tomorrow is the big day.

Biker Quote for Today

If I could marry my motorcycle, I’d roll her right up to the altar. — Flip Wilson

Giorgina Gottlieb, riding with John Wood, demonstrates the position she’ll take on the sidecar on right turns.

It’s not really a race without competition, so it’s no surprise that the only two competitors in the sidecar class at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb are essentially one team. Dave Hennessy, last year’s winner, has returned with his 1000cc Suzuki rig. He will face off against John Wood, who will be piloting the Wasp/Yamaha rig run by Dave’s brother last year. John was the passenger, or “monkey,” on that rig last year.

Jeremiah Owsley is Dave’s monkey and John has enlisted Giorgina Gottlieb, a sidecar novice, to ride with him.

Wrenching for both teams is Ken Kyler, who is building his own sidecar rig and hopes the experience this year will serve him well when he competes next year.

While Dave and Jeremiah are an experienced team, it’s all new for John and Giorgina. John has his own sidecar rig that he has raced, but it is one of the F1/F2 models designed for road-racing. The MX sidecar rig he will be steering on the mountain is a different animal.

Giorgina has had an introduction to the sport on John’s rig but the first time she ever laid eyes on what she’ll be riding on Sunday was Monday of this week when everyone arrived in Colorado Springs. While John and Giorgina are from California, Dave brought both rigs up on a trailer from New Mexico, where he and his brother live. Ken came in from his home in Maryland.

Demonstrating the moves she’ll be making on the rig, Giorgina explained that the technique is mostly the same as on the F1/F2 sidecars, but “I’ll be closer to the ground, I’ll have to throw myself around more. It’s like a jungle gym.”

Thus the “monkey” designation. Sidecar monkeys move between left, right, and neutral positions, using their weight to counter centrifugal force as the rigs go racing around curves, helping keep all three wheels in touch with the ground.

John, at the helm, says the MX rig is “crazy at first, but it makes a little more sense once you get used to it. The hardest part is being in the dirt.”

While the two have helmet to helmet radio communicators, they don’t work well enough to be much use.

“We’ll be telecommunicating through the frame. The passenger needs to know by feel how far out to lean to meet the driver’s need.”

Changing complexion of the race
Ken Kyler is eager to compete next year, figuring it will be his last chance to race Pikes Peak in the old fashion. In response to lawsuits, Colorado Springs has been gradually paving the road to the top of the mountain and that paving must be complete in 2012.

“The loss of the dirt will change the entire complexion of the race. The F1s and F2s will show up and take over. The same will happen with the bikes.”

Ken figures that if he can learn the logistics and get familiar with the course this year it will reduce the stress he’ll face next year.

“I’ll be scared enough about riding.”

He also hopes he’ll have competition. While he sees the possibility of as many as five sidecars competing next year, at this point there is no assurance there will even be two.

“It’s the greatest race in the world of this type,” he says. “There are 150 turns in 12 miles. You won’t find that anyplace else.”

Tuesday was the day for all competitors to run their machines through tech inspection. After crawling over and around Dave’s Suzuki rig, the judge commented that “I wrote the engine numbers down, I’m looking at it, and it looks really nice.” He then handed Dave a bag of absorbent material to use in case of an oil spill and wished him well.

“Now,” said Ken, “it’s time to walk around and drool over everybody else’s equipment.”

Biker Quote for Today

Told him it was me or the motorcycle. That was the longest wheelie up the street I’d ever seen.

I’m going to resurrect a series of Examiner pieces about some folks riding in the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb a few years ago. This is long past but their stories are timeless.

Andrew Phillips with his BMW R1200GSA.

Andrew Phillips has never raced the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb before. And yet he has, many times.

When Andrew competes in the 450 Supermoto class in Sunday’s race, for the first time he will be doing so from the seat of his BMW G450X. All the other times have been at the controls of an XBox. Andrew has also watched numerous YouTube videos of previous Pikes Peak races, all in an effort to learn the course and get as familiar with it as possible without actually being there.

“It’s hard to practice on the bike when you don’t have access to a race course. It is taking away a lot of the unknown,” he said. The course is no longer completely unfamiliar. And familiarity counts. “When you’re going that speed you want to know where the curves are, when to slow down.”

Andrew’s first actual day on the mountain was Monday of this week, and this morning was his first opportunity to run part of it with his race bike. The bikes, sidecars, and quads in the event did practice runs this morning on the lower third of the mountain, while other classes ran the upper two thirds. Tomorrow they’ll move to the middle and then on Friday they’ll practice on the top third.

Back home in Vermont and along the East Coast, Andrew has participated in a number of hill climbs and some rally moto stuff, riding for the MAX BMW team. He did well in several and even took a first in a rally moto in Tennessee. This is his first shot at a big race.

“I probably won’t be winning this thing,” he says. “My goal is to finish safely and have the experience.”

Although he has been riding motorcycles since he was 17, Andrew, now 43, had ridden mostly on the street. In 2004 he got his first dirt bike, a BMW 1150 GS Adventure. That’s a big bike for riding dirt and he describes that as something of an awakening. When he picked up the G450X from the dealer, a bike with half the weight of the 1150, he headed straight for an event, racing it right off the showroom floor.

He has considerably more experience on the bike now, and is working to get some experience on the mountain. In addition to the practice runs in the morning, he has ridden the road to the top several more times on his R1200GSA, which he brought along, too, to explore Colorado and have fun when he’s not practicing.

Andrew’s wife, Jen, is blogging about his Pikes Peak preparation and experience, and will be flying in Thursday evening to be here for the big event. On Saturday they’ll be riding to places like the Shelf Road, the Royal Gorge, Skyline Drive in Canon City, and visiting Bishop Castle. And then it will be race day.

Biker Quote for Today

So if you’re on the motorcycle, on the track you’re not thinking at all about what’s happening next week or tomorrow or anything. You’re literally thinking about the turn you’re setting up and there’s something about that I find very cathartic and meditative. — Dax Shepard

This is a bit dated but it was a fun event.

Hot scooters on display at Cushman Club of America rally in Sturgis, SD.

More than 1,000 Cushman scooters and a variety of service vehicles (think golf carts and more) have descended upon Sturgis, SD, this week, for the Cushman Club of America’s annual rally.

Lured by the chance to “Come play where the big boys play,” the Cushman aficianados have responded affirmatively and are putting a very different face on this small town, which is generally associated with images of much larger two-wheelers.

“This is gonna be the meet to remember,” said rally organizer Jeff Bartheld, obviously savoring the arrival of the event he has put so much work into.

Registrants hail from 45 states, and one came from Australia.

Tomorrow, June 14, Main Street will be open only to scooters and at 3 p.m., when a group photo is planned, it should be engulfed in the manner Main Street is every year during the motorcycle rally. During that time, representatives of the Sturgis Chamber of Commerce, the Jackpine Gypsies, the rally committee, and the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum will each pick five scooters to receive medals as the best of the bunch.

A second, juried scooter show will take place in the community center, with prizes to be awarded on Thursday.

On Tuesday the more rugged scooterists, numbering around 120, will make a grand ride through the Black Hills, presenting what is sure to be a memorable spectacle.

Maury LaRue, mayor of Sturgis, noted that it will be very easy for the town “to accommodate a three-day rally that wasn’t going to sprawl all over the town.” Because Sturgis has numerous buildings and facilities that are only used two weeks out of the year, for the biker rally, the town is making a major effort to attract other groups. The Cushman Club event is one, and in just a few days a club of Ford Mustang lovers will have their rally here. Then there will be a bluegrass festival.

“This is a very different crowd,” Maury said, referring to the Cushman group. “They’re here to look at Cushmans and to ride. They’re also not here to camp. They’re here in their RVs.”

Jeff Bartheld remarked that, “These folks are here thinking, ‘I want to relive my youth. Oh boy, here we go!'”

Biker Quote for Today

Only cool grandfathers ride motorcycles.

Motorcycle maintenance doesn’t always prevent breakdowns.

Biker Brotherhood: A Tale Of Two Breakdowns

My old 1980 Honda CB750 Custom gave me trouble the other day. Twice. And others bikers came to my aid. Twice. Thanks guys. Stopping and helping another biker is a time-honored tradition and it’s one of those things that makes our group special.

Starting out from home, I had only gone about a mile and she died. I knew I had switched to reserve near the end of my ride a couple days ago, but that should have meant I had plenty of gas to get to a station. But “ought to” and “should have” are meaningless in the face of reality.

Happily, as I rolled the bike onto the sidewalk to get it out of the busy intersection where it had chosen to die, another rider came along and asked if everything was OK. No, it was not OK. So Roger gave me a ride to my house to get a can of gas and then stuck around to see if that would do the job.

It didn’t. I poured the gas in, turned the key, and thumbed the starter and while it turned over just fine, that was all. The only other thing I could think of that might be a problem was the fusible link. This part of my electrical system requires removal of the seat to get to, which is not an easy proposition on this CB, so I only do it when I need to. I figured I needed to.

Roger stuck around meanwhile, and when I got to the link it was fine. So now what? As I put it all back together and put the seat back on Roger was fiddling with the gas line down under the tank. He called my attention to a translucent portion of the line, and how when he nudged it with his finger a bit more gas moved into the line. He did that several times and each time more gas filled the line until it was full.

“Try it now,” he suggested. I turned the key and pushed the starter and it fired right up. Wahoo! I would never have thought to look at that, and Roger swore he’s no mechanic but was just following intuition. Only once I was up and running again did he depart, having done a very good deed for a total stranger.

Problem No. 2
So I filled up and headed off to Loveland, where I was going to test ride some Triumphs. I’ll be telling you all about that soon but suffice it to say for now that I loved the Bonnevilles!

I headed back to Denver and thought the bike might not be running quite right about the time I got back into the metro area. It was rush hour and I was going south on I-25 right through the heart of town, so it was slow going. I was in the far-left lane right at the 8th Avenue exit when the bike just died. We were moving slowly so I coasted only about 10 feet before I came to a stop. Fortunately, there was a spot just 10 feet ahead of me where the concrete barrier dividing north- and southbound traffic separated, creating a space just big enough for two motorcycles to tuck safely out of the way. I rolled up into that space.

Clearly I wasn’t going anywhere any time soon on my own. I was stuck in the middle of the interstate with traffic not about to subside. Within just a couple minutes, however, a guy on a Kawasaki, whose name I did not get, pulled into the space (that’s how I know there was room for two bikes) and asked if I needed help.

Yes, I certainly did, could I use his cell phone to call for assistance. I made the call and also called my wife to tell her I wouldn’t be meeting her as planned. And then the Kawi guy took off, having done his good deed for the day. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Long story short (and leaving out some interesting details), I was rescued and hauled off to the shop. There my bike remains as I wait to get the word on what caused the problems.

Bikers helping bikers
I have to say that this practice of bikers helping bikers is a very special thing. I know it arose out of the vagaries of undependable machinery in the early days but that it continues today, when bikes are much more dependable, is a testament to how people really can get along if they choose to.

We may not share political opinions and may have a lot of different ideas about a lot of things, but when you see someone stopped by the side of road you don’t ask who they voted for. You ask if they need help. And if they do, you provide whatever you can. What a wonderful thing it could be if we incorporated this attitude into the other parts of our lives.

Biker Quote for Today

When I hit the open road the ride becomes meditation, the sound of my pipes become music, the rolling through turns becomes a dance, and riding becomes a celebration of freedom!