Passes & Canyons Blog

Riding your motorcycle on old Route 66 from coast to coast. Retracing the route of the old Victory Highway. Nostalgia has never been more in vogue than it is right now for bikers exploring this country’s vanishing old highways.

The problem with many of these higher profile rides, such as Route 66, is that to do them end to end you need a lot more time than most people have. But hey, everyone’s doing Route 66 these days, in whole or in part. Why follow the crowds?

The fact of the matter is, before everything got all depersonalized with route numbers, highways had names. And there were a lot of highways, some that you may be familiar with and many that you’ve probably never heard of.

For instance, growing up in Lincoln, NE, I was well acquainted with Cornhusker Highway. Not because it was a clearly defined highway that started somewhere and ended somewhere else, but just because it was the name of a particular road.

Likewise, living in and around St. Louis I was familiar with Kingshighway. Was there a story behind that name? You bet. Did I know a thing about it? No way.

But now we have the Internet. And one of the greatest things about the Internet is that many, many people put a lot of time and effort into putting up a wealth of information about whatever is of interest to them.

It’s not surprising, then, that someone has put up a site with details about old highways all over the country. Dave Schul has built a North American Auto Trails site where you can learn about more highways than you probably knew existed. Interested in the Black and Yellow Trail? This road runs between Chicago and Yellowstone National Park. The site doesn’t have a lot of information about it but it shows the towns that it passed through and gives links to sites where you can learn more. It’s a starting point for your own exploration.

How about the Detroit Lincoln Denver Highway? Just as the name suggests, this old road ran from Detroit to Denver, passing through Lincoln.

And then there’s my old acquaintance, the Cornhusker Highway. Turns out this road ran from Sioux City to Oklahoma City. I never knew that. It was always just that road up on the north side of town.

Then there were the smaller highways, confined to just one or two states. For example, the Mayo Trail was a route that just ran between Ashland and Jenkins, KY. Is it still there? What does it look like today? Are there any surviving road signs or monuments along the route? This stuff can be very cool to investigate and explore, and it can add an interesting element to your rides.

There are a lot of other, related sites out there. I ran across one focusing solely on the old highways in Colorado, which I definitely plan to explore. In fact, I spent three days last week out doing exactly that. Now I’ve ridden parts of old US 6 that probably don’t see 10 vehicles a week.

Try it. You just might get addicted.

(Note: Dave Schul’s site does not appear to be there anymore. Fortunately, all these pages are preserved–for now–by “The Wayback Machine,” which is an internet archive.)

Biker Quote for Today

I ride so I don’t choke people.

Summer will be here before you know it and it will be time to do some two-wheeled traveling. What follows is a piece I did for Examiner while out on a long OFMC trip.

Gear You’ve Gotta Have On The Road

Riding 2,000 miles over the course of eight or nine days is not like riding your motorcycle to the local watering hole. We’ve been on the road for five days now and there are four things I am especially glad I’ve got with me or on the bike.

Ear plugs
Most bikers are familiar with the overall feeling of well-being that comes over you when you ride. That’s one of the things that gets you hooked on riding. What a surprise then to add serenity to that good feeling. That’s what happens when you put in ear plugs.

Never mind that ear plugs help you preserve your hearing, although they do. And it’s not as if they block out all noise and you’re riding deaf. You hear all the same things you do normally, but the sounds are muffled. It’s peaceful. It’s serene. If you’ve never ridden with ear plugs you owe it to yourself to try it. You’ll be amazed.
And they don’t need to be form-fitted or anything. Just pick up a pack or six or eight at the local drug store, squeeze them into little cylinders, slip them in your ears, and let them expand back out to fill in the space. And just ride serenely on.

Highway pegs

You don’t want just any highway pegs, in any position. This is something I’ve learned from my two bikes. On the Honda I’ve always had highway pegs and they’ve been nice to shift my legs to a different position, but they’ve never really been comfortable enough for me to ride like that for very far.

On my Concours, on the other hand, I only got highway pegs in the last couple years, once Murph finally figured out how to make it work without having to cut through the plastic bodywork. And what a difference. These things are so comfortable I can hang my feet out there, even both at the same time, and just cruise. I’ve seen my buddies do that but that was never me. Now it is.

You’ve got to be able to move your legs around on a long ride. A variety of pegs enables that. If the ones you have don’t do a good enough job it’s time to go shopping. All highway pegs are not alike.

Throttle lock

Some guys have cruise control on their bikes; for the rest of us there are throttle locks.

The difference, in case you don’t know, is that cruise control allows you to maintain a particular speed, just as in a car. A throttle lock just keeps the throttle set at a particular level and you slow down going up hills and speed up coming down them. It’s not perfect but it’s far better than gripping that grip hour after hour after hour on a long trip.

Ideally, when the lock is secured it will still have enough play that you can reach over and move it one way or the other to compensate for hills. Otherwise you might find yourself slowing down to 40 mph on the uphill and speeding up to 80 going down. That’s definitely not ideal.

But even if you have to tweak the setting every minute or two, how much better is that than constantly holding on to that grip? Let’s see, 2 seconds of adjustment with 58 seconds of relaxed hand and wrist. Compared to 60 seconds of gripping. Yeah, give me a throttle lock.

Tank bag

A tank bag with a map display on top, of course. Trying to fuss with a map while stopped on a motorcycle, especially with the wind blowing, is hopeless. The tank bag is a very convenient holder for things you want quick access to, and the map display is the ultimate in simple. Stop. Look down. Determine your route. Go.

Being the only one in the OFMC to have a tank bag, my bike often becomes the gathering point when we’re about to take off. Guys gather around my bike, we examine the map, and they head back to their bikes. And I pretty much always know where we are and where we’re going.

These four things go a long way toward making me a happy camper when I’m out on the road eating up the miles. But don’t take my word for it, try them yourself and see. I’m sure glad I did.

Biker Quote for Today

Matching all your gear to your bike? You’re not a biker, you sir are a Power Ranger.

Yeah, OK, it’s the holidays. I cop openly to the charge of taking the easy way out and putting up one of these Examiner Resurrections rather than writing something new.

Do you hate riding in high winds where the blasts nearly blow you over into the oncoming lane? That’s always been one of the most unpleasant riding situations for me but I learned something new recently that makes a huge difference.

Of course, it varies depending on which bike I’m on as to just how much of a problem it is. On the Honda it’s no big deal because it’s basically a naked bike. The wind blows right through. The Kawi is a different story. Totally sheathed in plastic body work, the bike is like a big sail or a kite when the wind is hitting me square on at 90 degrees.

I was on the Kawi heading out to Limon a few weeks ago to meet up with the Run For The Wall and the wind was howling out of the south as I headed east. It was everything I could do to stay in my own lane and not get blown over the center line.

At times like these I tend to keep both my hands clamped tightly on the grips, fighting to keep the bike going where I want it to go. But this time, at some point for some reason, I let go with my left hand. And the change was phenomenal! Using only my right hand, control was a breeze (pun intended). I could keep the bike in the lane just as easy as pie, and after some thought I figured out why.

It seems that my death grip on the left side was applying turning input to that side. Hard as I was trying to control on the right, the left was counteracting. By letting go with the left, the right was in full control.

Now, there are some of you out there I’m sure who are reading this and thinking I’m a real idiot for not figuring this out years ago. Fine, I’m an idiot. But I’m passing this information along to the rest of us idiots who still haven’t figured it out. Try it. You’ll be amazed.

Biker Quote for Today

Stop being afraid of what could go wrong and start thinking about what could go right.

The broken wing patch says to the world after a bad wreck that you have what it takes to get right back on a bike and keep on living. – 6 Gun

Back in the saddle

Randy Savely was without a motorcycle from March 2007, when his Harley was destroyed in the crash that cost him a leg, until September 2008, when his court case was concluded and he and Joan received a cash settlement. He had ridden a couple times already, however, on friends’ bikes.

The first ride was in the 2008 Commerce City Memorial Day parade. Joan was “beside myself” with fear for him but Randy had never wavered in his determination to ride again.

Coming down I-270 at the back of the group, Randy noticed that his left foot had fallen off the peg and was dragging. Not good. He hoisted his leg up and swung the prosthesis onto the peg and rode the rest of the way putting pressure on it to ensure it stayed put.

At last it was time for the Broken Wings patch. The patch is frequently given to a rider by another who has also crashed and gotten back on. Randy had received the patch before he rode, but it was only after this ride that he allowed Joan to sew the patch onto his vest.

The idea of riding behind him again was also a difficult issue for Joan.

“You’ve got to get a few miles on that bike before I ride with you,” she told him. “It was glorious and sobering. Do I really want to do this again?” she asked herself.

Still, by the time Randy had about 6 miles on the new bike Joan hopped right on.

“It felt totally safe, more so than on the old bike,” she says, unable to explain it. “Maybe it’s the law of averages.” After all, how many people suffer two major crashes?

The new Harley Ultra Classic has a number of customizations designed to compensate for Randy’s limitations. First off, it has floorboards with a stirrup on the left to keep his foot from falling off again. It also has an electric shift. Buying a new pair of boots recently, Randy found he couldn’t operate the kick-stand wearing them so now he plans to get an electrically operated one.

Backing up is a struggle, especially on loose gravel.

“I plant my foot real good and push back. Backing is the hardest thing to do.”

Randy mounts from the right side so he can lift his left leg over. Weakness in the left leg makes it impossible to stand on that leg and lift the right leg over. It can be a significant problem getting on when someone parks too close to him on the right side.

Randy’s accident has also had an effect on other riders he knows. One friend’s wife made him sell his bike. Joan’s son Vince, for whom Randy has been dad since he was 9, left his bike unridden and unlicensed for more than a year after the accident. He has finally started riding again, however.

It has been a hard two years but Randy and Joan are upbeat.

Says Joan, “It will never be the way it used to be, but now, two years later, it’s pretty darn good. It’s all relative for us. We had to make a choice: give up and let it beat us or keep fighting.”

“It’s as normal as what a person can make of it,” says Randy. “Yes, it does hurt, it hurts every day, and it’s always a struggle trying to do something with it.”

Some people are hesitant to bring up the issue but Randy laughs that off.

“I know I lost my leg, it’s no secret to me.”

And there have been mishaps. Randy and Joan went dancing one night and all that movement loosened the prosthesis. As they walked out the door of the bar his leg fell off.

“We laughed pretty hard at that, and at a lot of things. You have to.”

Through it all the most important thing has been the support they have received from so many people.

“We didn’t expect any of it,” says Joan. “There’s never a way to pay that back, so we decided to pass it on and do at some other level for other people. Pay it forward, call it whatever you like.”

That’s where the Randy Run comes in.

The Randy Run

Randy and Joan were financially devastated by the accident, losing their house and most of what they had. But seemingly out of nowhere a community of friends–as well as total strangers–gathered around them to provide support and caring and to ensure that they did not sink into despair and isolation.

While Randy was still in the hospital, one friend had the idea of organizing a fundraising run to raise money to help out. Dubbed the Randy Run, Joan’s friend Deb Anderson took charge of organizing it, going so far as joining ABATE in order for it to be an official ABATE District 10 run, although Deb does not ride.

Deb and her boyfriend were “absolutely my lifeline that kept me square,” says Joan. “The Randy Run evolved out of her dedication–she didn’t know what else to do.” That first year, the money raised went to Randy and Joan.

The following year, Randy and Joan helped to organize a second Randy Run to benefit others who suffer severe injuries on their bikes. Now, in 2009, ABATE of Colorado has made the Randy Run a state-wide event, to be held annually. This year’s Randy Run is set for this Sunday, June 14, and Randy and Joan are heavily involved.

“The Randy Run is part of what has helped us get back,” says Randy. “The run is a reason for coming back.”

Joan adds, “It would have been easy to just quit, but the way people came together to help us, it humbles you and changes your perspective in a heartbeat.”

Randy bought patches for the two beneficiaries of last year’s Randy Run, but he’s still holding on to them because neither of those riders have yet gotten back on a bike.

Randy and Joan are back, however, and on Sunday they’ll be riding. You can bet I’ll be there, too.

Part 1 – The Accident and the Hospital
Part 2 – The Road to Recovery

The Randy Run for Fallen Bikers

Biker Quote for Today

Getting really old, had to get one of those mobility scooters.
—What kind?
—Harley-Davidson

Two weeks after Randy Savely lost his left leg below the knee in a car/motorcycle accident, his wife Joan and her son Vince were awakened by crashing noises. Racing to see what happened, they found Randy laying at the bottom of the stairs with two garbage bags beside him. He had been carrying one bag in each hand, trying to navigate the stairs with his crutches, and had fallen.

On one hand she was relieved that he was not badly hurt or bleeding from his injured leg, but on the other hand, “I wanted to kill him.”

“Leave those trash bags where they are, I’ll take care of them,” he told Joan and Vince. “This trash will not get the best of me.”

The road to recovery

The ramifications of losing a leg are not all as obvious as climbing stairs with crutches.

“You don’t realize the limitations a prosthesis presents,” says Joan. “He can’t crawl under the car to change the oil like he used to. He can’t get up on the roof to replace shingles the wind blew off. He wears out so much more quickly that we have to schedule things and not try to do them during the week when he’s tired out from work. It’s not that he can’t do some things, it’s just that he’ll be worn out for a couple days afterward, so we plan those things for the weekend.”

Joan explains that amputees require as much as 50 percent more oxygen than before, which is where the exhaustion comes from. Randy’s leg is also permanently weakened, and there are limits to how much he can lift.

Dealing with the artifical leg, the prosthesis, has its own issues. Randy has different feet for different functions, and “my walking foot is spring-loaded, and pushes me into the next step. I’m fortunate to have my knee and be able to do what I can.”

Every time Randy changes shoes he must readjust the prosthesis to compensate for different heel heights, using shims.

“Each morning I spend 45 minutes walking around getting the shims just right. I take them with me everywhere I go and adjust things several times a day.”

Physical adjustments were not the only issue the family had to deal with, and the friends who gathered in support at the hospital continued to show their concern afterward.

“They brought an enormous amount of food, and raised a lot of money,” says Joan. “They made sure we didn’t just fold up, made sure I was still functioning on the planet, staying engaged.”

Friends came by frequently and took them boating and camping. “We went tent camping, and both air mattresses went flat so we slept in the car,” Randy laughs. “I’m going to try this year to get out bird hunting.”

Support came from all directions. When Joan’s car broke down her boss handed her the keys to his Hummer and told her to just drive it until her car was fixed. Then a friend, Tim, took her car for repair, and when it was ready told her where to go to pick it up. When she asked how much the repairs would cost the folks at the shop told her “It’s paid for” and would not tell her by whom. She finally learned that Tim and another friend had covered it.

Although Randy’s medical care was covered by health insurance, he did not have disability coverage and the loss of income was crippling. Told by the doctors that it could be a year before Randy would walk, they knew they could not make their house payments. They informed the mortgage company of the situation and went into foreclosure. Ultimately they also filed for bankruptcy.

Losing the house wasn’t all negative. It had four levels, which made things pretty hard for Randy with all those stairs. The rental they moved into is all on one floor. And when the day to move arrived, friends in eight pick-ups and trailers showed up and “We made it all in one trip. We started at 8 a.m. and were done by 2 p.m.”

Part 1 – The Accident and the Hospital
Part 3 – Back in the Saddle

Biker Quote for Today

Bikes are like wives; if it ain’t yours don’t touch it.

OK, it’s Thanksgiving week and I’m going to give myself a break and go completely with these Examiner Resurrections. But that’s great, because this three-part piece that I will post on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday is what I consider one of the very best things I ever did in eight years writing for Examiner.

A bit of an update is in order, however. Randy and Joan have since divorced, and Randy is no longer active in ABATE. He does still hold the Randy Run for Fallen Bikers.

Broken Wings: When A Biker Goes Down Hard – Part 1

When everything finally came to a stop, Randy Savely sat up, thinking, “Well, I’m alive.”

A couple moments later he noticed his boot laying in the middle of the intersection.

“That boot don’t come off,” he thought. Then he turned to the driver who had hit him and asked for his belt to use as a tourniquet on his leg.

At that early morning hour on March 8, 2007, life changed forever for Randy and Joan Savely. Randy lost his left foot and lower leg, and he and Joan gained an understanding of what is truly important in life: friends and family and people who care about you.

The accident and the hospital

Randy needed to be at work early that March day, so, with only one car, he decided to let Joan sleep and take the Harley. They worked close to each other so normally they went together.

Riding east approaching an intersection, Randy saw the car coming the other way, looked to the left at the car stopped there, and looked back to see the oncoming car was turning into his path.

Awakened by the phone, Joan hurried to the hospital. Randy and Joan are ABATE members, and word flew out through the ABATE grapevine so that by 7 a.m. Joan was joined by 15 friends who sat with her the entire time until Randy came out of surgery at 3 p.m.

Before going into surgery, Randy informed the surgeon that “I will walk and I will ride again.”

The doctor replied, “You do understand that we’re going in the operating room and I’m going to amputate your leg?”

Randy replied, “Doc, you do what you’ve gotta do, I’m going to ride again.”

Under other circumstances, they learned later, the surgeon probably would have removed the leg to above the knee. Considering Randy’s determination, the doc worked extra hard to save the knee, and he was successful.

“The doc was awesome,” says Randy. With the knee still attached, he is able to bend his leg, which makes a world of difference sitting on a motorcycle.

Joan was with him through it all. “She put up with more than I did,” Randy says, and when Joan came in his room one time looking obviously exhausted he told her to climb in bed next to him and sleep.

“I hadn’t slept in three days,” Joan says. Randy kept the nurses away and Joan slept there the entire afternoon.

During his hospital stay, Randy has a constant stream of visitors. Most were friends and acquaintances, but one day he noticed someone he did not recognize in the hall in leathers, just standing there.

“Do I know you?” Randy asked.

“No,” the stranger replied, “I just heard a brother had gone down and I wanted to see how you are.”

The two talked awhile and Randy has never seen him since.

“It choked me up, holy for crying out loud. You feel so insignificant, but then you feel so important to some people.”

“It’s changed what’s important in our lives,” says Joan. “There are so many things that are just not important any more.”

Randy had four surgeries in the week following the accident, and whereas most patients would have stayed in the hospital for three weeks, he recovered so well and so quickly that he was released after one week. Far from being the end, however, this was just the beginning.

Part 2 — The Road to Recovery
Part 3 — Back in the Saddle

Biker Quote for Today

I’m a biker’s wife. Just like a regular wife but way more badass.

OK, this is the last of these Examiner Resurrections to focus on great roads in Utah; I’ll move on to other things next time.

I told you about Kolob Road, the best motorcycle road in Utah that nobody knows exists. Here’s one more that everyone knows, with a twist.

Utah 9 crosses through Zion National Park from just east of Springdale. As soon as you enter the park you reach Zion Canyon Road, which goes up Zion Canyon. This is the main part of the park that all the tourists go to. And you should, too. It’s worth it. This is the Zion that most people know.

During peak season you can’t drive this road any more. It’s a deadend and there used to be hordes of traffic and it was not pretty. Now they put you on free shuttle buses that run frequently, making the the canyon a lot more enjoyable. I’ve got some pictures in the slide show below (sorry, no slide show carried over from Examiner) that gives you an idea of some of what you’ll see.

But that’s not the road I have in mind. What you’re really interested in is Utah 9. If you look at the map you’ll see a bunch of switchbacks followed by broken lines for a bit. This doesn’t mean the road is gravel, it shows that you’re going through a tunnel. A long tunnel. With windows cut out of the rock.

It’s at the east end of the tunnel when things really get interesting, not that the switchbacks weren’t. You come out of the tunnel and there’s a ranger shack and a parking area. Park here.

Then cross to the north side of the road and take the trail you’ll see there. It’s a steep climb right at first, but you don’t climb more than 100 feet or so and then it levels out the rest of the way. This trail takes you back over the saddle of the hill you just came through in the tunnel and the view back into the canyon is spectacular. Again, check the photos in the slide show. It’s awesome. And I mean that in the original sense of that overused word.

Once you’re back to the road, the run on out of the park is still pretty darn scenic. There’s a reason there are so many parks in such a small area. Southern Utah is fabulous. So many roads, so little time.

Biker Quote for Today

Freedom: Getting lost on your motorcycle and enjoying every minute of it.

I’m here to blow the cover off the best motorcycle road you’ve never heard of. Somebody’s probably going to hate me for this.

This is such a minor road that, as you can see, the mapping software doesn’t even show it when I zoom back enough to get it all in. Trust me it’s there.

And where is there? This is Kolob Road, going north out of Virgin, Utah. It runs up into Zion National Park but there is no sign of any kind telling you that. The only reason we found it was that my wife did some research before we headed for Utah last month, and she discovered it.

What a discovery! I would rank this hands down as the highlight of our entire trip. You can take a look at the pictures in the slide show below to get an idea of what I mean. (Note: Sorry, the Examiner slide show is lost to the world.)

This little strip of two-lane, red(!) asphalt climbs and winds high into the park and the views are incredible. At one point you want desperately to look at the view but the road is narrow and steep and you don’t dare. Find a place to park and walk back down if you want to see it.

I’ve been through Zion quite a few times and I have got to rank this as the best part of the entire park. And almost nobody knows about it! There’s even a campground up at the top and they don’t charge a fee to use it. Probably too much trouble to go all that way to collect the fees.

By the way, it’s not a motorcycle-accessible road to the campground, so don’t try that unless you’re really into that stuff.

So it’s 20 miles up and 20 back and altogether 40 miles of some of the best riding in all of Utah. The pictures don’t do it justice; you’ve got to see it for yourself. But don’t tell the locals I told you.

(Note: If it seems I’ve been putting up numerous Examiner Resurrection pieces about Utah recently it’s true. I’m taking these more or less chronologically and back in 2009, when they were all written, we had just been on an extended trip to Utah.)

Biker Quote for Today

Sometimes you need a really crooked road to get your head straight.