Passes & Canyons Blog

My Kawi has been getting wet quite frequently of late.

An appropriate biker quote at the end of this post would be, “If you don’t ride in the rain, you don’t ride.” I’ve already used that, though, so we’ll just mention it here.

I’ve done a lot of riding in the rain recently, most particularly yesterday. Judy and I had been up in Eagle over the weekend, doing some riding with Willie and Jungle and others as part of a tour they were running. As you may recall, Willie runs Ball O’ String Custom Adventure Tours and when she has only one paying customer on a particular tour, she invites friends along to make a larger, more fun group. Of course we pay our own way.

We went up on Friday, had a couple good days of riding Saturday and Sunday, and then when Monday morning dawned we found the sky grey and dripping. No problem, we have good rain gear.

As we layered the stuff on, I offered Judy my rubber booties because she just had hiking boots, while my riding boots are pretty water-resistant all on their own. Jungle had a pair of neoprene gloves–the stuff they make wet-suits out of–that are too small for him but fit me perfectly, so I also gave Judy my rubber mittens. She stood there like a little kid getting all prepared by Mom to go play in the snow and when we were done there was no way any moisture was going to reach her other than the occasional drops that do get in under your helmet.

We took off and quickly ran into what proved to be the worst of the storm. Just the day before, between Eagle and Vail, we had seen a car that had apparently hydroplaned into the guard rail, and the ruts in the road in the car tire tracks were filled with water. Now here we were on that same stretch of road with those same ruts filled with water again. Yes, I was nervous. I stuck as best I could to the crown of the road but that’s not always possible. I tip my hat to the people who design tires for doing their job well. We had no problems.

Heading up over Vail Pass it was cold and colder. It doesn’t matter that this is August, when you get up over 10,000 feet it’s cooler than at lower elevations. Once we got over the top, though, I felt good knowing that was the worst we would be encountering. The rain continued to just past Georgetown and then the sky cleared a bit. Fortunately, it didn’t actually get warm until we were in the city, or else we’d have been stopping alongside the road to peel all this gear off.

Along the way I couldn’t help but wonder about Tom and Marsha, the paying customers we had been riding with, who I knew were also headed back to Denver. I knew Tom had good rain gear but as far as I was aware, neither of them had much to wear for warmth. Plus, they only had half helmets that Mile High Harley-Davidson had supplied to them. I couldn’t help but suspect the ride was going to be much more unpleasant for them than for us. And I did hear from Willie today that they got there safely but, yes, they got very cold.

So if there’s anyone out there reading this who is planning a riding trip to Colorado, this is why this site has the Good to Know page. It opens with this paragraph:

If you’re coming to ride Colorado’s passes and canyons in the summer you may think you won’t need warm clothing. You would be wrong. With some passes higher than 12,000 feet, it is not unusual to run into temperatures in the 40s even in August. Snow is not out of the question. Be sure to bring all your winter gear: gloves, electric vest, leather chaps, whatever.

Believe it.

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Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you don’t own a rain suit.

Loading my Connie onto the tow truck.

I’ve thought for a long time that I ought to learn how to replace a tire on my motorcycle. Having a flat on the first day out of the annual OFMC trip seemed to offer the perfect opportunity. I had the bike towed to Eagle, where my friend Jungle Fuhrman would help me get moving again. Let’s do this job.

My initial intention was to tell Jungle I wanted to do the work myself and just have him give me directions. But he dove right in and I stood and watched closely. The first thing he did was remove the cotter pin from the rear axle. Then he demonstrated to me that I will never change the tire on my bike because the next step was to remove the bolt that the cotter pin held in place. The problem is that the bolt is recessed and in order to get to it you have to have a wrench with a lip that reaches down into the recess. Count me out right there.

So I watched. In order to fully access the various bolts it was necessary to remove the mufflers. That was simple enough, just comprising two bolts per muffler. Then Jungle worked the axle loose and extracted it from the left side. Here he was faced with a problem. He knew from working on his own Concours that he was not going to be able to get the wheel out from under the fender without doing one of two things. What he had done on his own bike, and what he made it clear he was prepared to with mine if I consented, was to cut the lower six inches or so off the rear fender. I didn’t like that idea so I declined to say “Sure, go ahead,” as I knew he wanted me to say.

That meant he also needed to remove the shaft housing where the rotation of the drive shaft is converted 90 degrees to power the rear wheel. That was a matter of removing four bolts and I was pleased to find it wasn’t that much effort. Now the wheel could be pulled out and we could go to work on the tire.

Jungle’s tire-changing tools are over at a friend’s house so we went there for that part of the work. I had seen this done often enough that there was nothing new here. The tire was pulled off and Jungle applied a patch. He put the tire back on the wheel and aired it up and . . . it still leaked. Off came the tire once again and now we went to another friend’s shop to get a tool to truly prepare the inner tire surface to take good hold of the patch. With a patch applied in a way that had to be good enough, the tire was remounted, aired, and . . . it still leaked.

Now Jungle was thinking that there must be some damage to the plies allowing air to pass through and out. Which meant the tire could not be saved. A plug might work, or it might not. But it would be better to replace it.

Of course, this really hurt considering that I had just bought that tire six days earlier and had only put 1,500 miles on it, but you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Normally, getting a replacement tire in Eagle on a Saturday could have been simply out of the question, leaving me to get even further behind my friends and possibly ending my trip right there.

But this is where the amazing good fortune of having this occur just 55 miles from Eagle came into play. Jungle has a Concours just like mine so I figured he just might have a tire on hand. In fact he had two. One was a brand new tire that he had bought for another bike, but it was the right size. Only thing is it was bias ply and the Connie usually takes radials. Plus, that would mean mixing a radial front with a bias-ply rear. The other was an old tire off Jungle’s Concours. He and Willie do a lot of traveling and when the tires on the bike aren’t going to be good enough to last the entire trip he will put on new tires before the trip. Thus, he had a partially used, radial Avon tire of the right size. My tires were Dunlops so that meant mixing a Dunlop front with an Avon rear, but I figured that was the best bet.

So Jungle mounted up the Avon, got everything put back together, and I was in business! I was able to leave Eagle around 2 p.m. that afternoon and then had to do some hard riding to catch up with the guys, who had since gone on from Grand Junction to Marysvale, Utah. I arrived there around 9 p.m. and finally the OFMC was together and off on this year’s ride.

Just a word about Jungle. He’s a mechanic but doesn’t work out of a shop. He is an I-come-to-you mechanic, so if you’re in the Eagle area and need a motorcycle or auto mechanic, give him a call. He’s in the phone book.

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Biker Quote for Today

Before enlightenment, change oil and adjust valves; after enlightenment, change oil and adjust valves.

The following is a guest post provided by ProTool Warehouse.

Man working on motorcycle. Image Source: http://images.wisegeek.com/man-working-on-motorcycle.jpg

Due to misleading claims made by motorcycle manufactures/distributors regarding warranty fulfillment requirements, you may be wondering if it is possible for you to do your own motorcycle repairs without voiding your warranty. Contrary to popular misconception, you are allowed to perform repairs using your own equipment and aftermarket parts, without having to worry about violating your manufacturer’s warranty.

The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975

Almost 4 decades ago, the U.S. Government enacted a warranty-governing statute, sponsored by Sen. Warren Magnuson and U.S. Representative John Moss, known as the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The “Tie-In Sales” provision within this act actually declares it illegal for a dealership or manufacturer to imply that a warranty will be voided if repairs are performed independently or with the use of aftermarket parts. In other words, a manufacturer is not allowed to require a consumer to purchase a part/service from a specific company in order for their warranty to remain valid, as this would create a conflict of interest in which manufacturers could force artificial monopolization by coercing people to buy from them only.

Federal Trade Commission Legislation

Furthermore, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) reiterates the provisions of the Magnuson-Moss Act in an online report entitled “Auto Warranties, Routine Maintenance, and Repairs: Is Using the Dealer a Must?” which can be found on the FTC official website. In summary, the report states that you are not obligated to purchase your parts or repairs from the dealer whom you bought your motorcycle from, and that any dealer who tells you this is in direct violation of U.S. statutes.

Other Reasons to Repair Your Own Motorcycle

Now that you know your warranty won’t be voided if you decide to repair your motorcycle independently, consider the advantages of doing so:

Conducting your own motorcycle repairs will let you save money in two ways – you’ll be purchasing the necessary parts directly (instead of through a dealership/repair shop), and you won’t be paying for the labor involved. You’ll also gain knowledge about how your bike works, so if you ever need to perform emergency repairs in the future, you’ll be well prepared to do so. Also, once you’ve become knowledgeable about the mechanics of your motorcycle, the saying “if you want something done right, do it yourself” holds true, as you can be sure that repairs are performed to your specifications. If you’re going to be working on your bike independently, you may want to begin comparing specialty tool sets to ensure you’re equipped with the necessary hardware.

My Concours being winched onto the tow truck.

I had just had new tires put on my Concours on Sunday, in Columbus, Ohio, and I rode on home, arriving in Denver on Wednesday. And as I have mentioned previously, I got my first motorcycle speeding ticket less than 50 miles from home on that 17-day, 3,878-mile trip. On Friday I set out mid-afternoon with Brett and Randy, two of the OFMC, on our annual summer trip. We were to meet up with everyone else in Grand Junction. Jason was supposed to be riding with us but he was delayed so he would be along later.

Nearing Rifle, my bike started handling horribly. I was in the rear but I had to pull over immediately. It turned out my brand new rear tire was flat. Not a defect, as I later learned, but a puncture. I tried to put the bike on the side stand but with the tire flat the stand tipped it just past vertical, so it was inclined to topple over onto the right. To my consternation, it was totally impossible for me to rock the bike up onto the center stand. So I had no choice but to standd there holding the bike up until someone came along to help me.

Of course I figured the guys would notice I was not with them, would pull over to wait, and eventually they would come back to find me. But I just waited. Meanwhile, whenever a motorcycle came along on the highway I waved to them to help me. The first one went by without stopping and the second one did stop, though it was a tenth of a mile later before they could stop from 75 mph. As they walked back to me a guy in a pick-up stopped to help. He was a big, strong guy, but it was all the two of us could manage to get the bike onto the center stand. But we did, and I could finally do something else, like, oh, you know, call for assistance.

While I was standing there, though, I had thought about what to do and concluded my best bet was to try to reach my friends in Eagle, Willie and Jungle, to see if they could help me out. They have a Concours like mine and Jungle is a mechanic. This could be a good thing.

I called and spoke to Willie, who put me through to Jungle, and Jungle said sure, have the bike towed here and we’ll see what we can do. I called the AMA roadside assistance number and told them my situation and they said they’d check for tow services and call me back. While I was waiting, Jason came along. He was very surprised to find me standing there by the road, but by then all was taken care of and there was nothing he could do. What he did do was call Brett, who told him they were in Grand Junction. Where was he (Jason)?

“I’m here on the highway outside Rifle with Ken. He has a flat tire.” Oh. Brett said they had stopped and waited for me three times but I never caught up with them. Duh. Thanks guys.

So Jason went on and the tow truck took me back to Eagle. Jungle said it was too late to get started on the bike that night and Willie said I’d be staying with them. That was fine, and we had an enjoyable evening. The next morning Jungle and I got right on it, me watching him and asking questions so I could learn how to do this myself. Ha! Without theh proper tools I’m not doing this myself anytime.

First we tried patching the tire, but after two patches failed there were two options. Jungle had a new tire of the right size, but bias-ply. My Connie wants radials. He also had an old tire he had taken off his Concours when he was leaving on a trip that would have been too much for the tire. Rather than get new tires mid-trip, he started with new rubber. This tire was the right size and radial, but an Avon. My tires were Dunlops. No matter, the Avon went on.

I was finally on my way at 2 p.m. on Saturday, riding hard to meet up with the guys, who were now headed for Marysvale, Utah. I rolled in there around 9 p.m. and it was time for my vacation to begin. Oh, and although I had expected Brett and Randy to immediately come tell me something like, “Oh hey, we’re really sorry for being so stupid and not going back for you,” if fact, neither of them has ever said one word about it. Thanks guys. You’re real pals.

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Biker Quote for Today

“Remember that an enduro tests the endurance of three things: your machine, your body, and your wits. Only one has to fail to keep you from reaching the finish line.” — Cycle World March 1966

My Connie on the lift at Iron Pony, getting new tires.

That’s my Concours up on a lift, getting new tires at Iron Pony in Columbus, Ohio. Five hundred dollars later and a “free” t-shirt and I was on my way again.

The tires weren’t totally shot yet, but I’ll be cruising about 1,200 miles in the next three days coming home from Ohio, and after being home for one day I’ll be taking off again on another 1,500 mile ride. Today was the best day to get the work done and this way I have more peace of mind on the ride home. As it was, I wasn’t at all sure I’d even get home without stopping somewhere–probably at a very inconvenient point.

This is the second time in two years that I’ve had to get tires while out on the road. Last March I headed out for Arizona Bike Week figuring I had enough rubber to get home, but by the time I reached Scottsdale I knew I needed new tires immediately. That time I got lucky, though. I didn’t have to pay for mounting and the whole thing cost me about $270. This time it cost me just a couple dollars shy of $500.

Just as a point of reference, that’s double what I paid for my first car.

So the place I went to was Iron Pony, in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. I had heard about this place before and despite the price I was really glad they were there. First off, it was only just a few miles out of my way, and on top of that, they were open on Sunday. That’s really big right there.

The Iron Pony is quite a place. The building used to be a Super Kmart so as you can imagine, it’s huge. They work on bikes, they sell bikes both new and used, and they sell more motorcycle gear than you can imagine. And judging from what I saw, they have really good prices on a lot of stuff. High volume, low margin, you know.

And they were really nice. Don’t misunderstand my moaning about the price. It would have cost me just as much for tires somewhere else. I just hate the idea that two motorcycle tires cost more than four car tires and last one-fifth as long. But we all know that’s the case, so get over it.

So anyway, I’m set now. Tomorrow it’s on to Peoria, then a stop in Nebraska, and I’ll be home on Wednesday. I think I’ll be glad to get home.

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Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you leave on the bike to get some dinner and get home only to realize you didn’t stop to eat.

Notice anything funny about my speedometer in the photo above? Yeah, that’s weird. The top portion of the face of the speedometer just snapped off and slid down on the side, exposing the gears and inner workings. Anyone seen something like that before?

I was out on my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom on Friday, making a run for the Tag-O-Rama game being played on Adventure Riders, and getting annoyed at the howling coming from my speedometer. For as long as I’ve owned this bike, more than 20 years, the speedometer has periodically made this squealing sound, but it has only been occasionally. Recently, however, it has been doing it all the time, and it has been louder than before.

So I was watching it closely to see when the squealing starts (around 20 mph) and when it stops (around 15 mph). And then one time I looked down and . . . WTF?

I happened to be near Mountain Thunder Motorsports, at 2670 W. Hampden, where I take my bikes for service, so I swung on by to let Joel take a look. I figured he could see what parts were needed and get them on order. Even Joel was surprised by what he saw so I suspect this is not a very common problem. Joel did say, though, that the squealing is definitely an issue with the speedo, and that replacing it will solve both problems.

He also looked at my mileage, 84,549 when I got home later and shot this picture, and remarked that even with a used speedometer my bike is going to shed a lot of miles. Hey, someone want to buy this 32-year-old bike with only 27,000 miles on it? Ha! Not for sale.

I’ve often wondered if the speedometer was going to break some day, considering the squealing and all, but I never imagined this would be how it would break. You never know.

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Biker Quote for Today

The faster it goes the faster it breaks. And high performance=high maintenance.

Hearing that I had tried out the UCLEAR HBC 100 Moto helmet communicator and loved it, my friend Patty Davis, National Motorcycle Travel Examiner, remarked that she still preferred her CB helmet communicator because it has greater range and as many people as have them can be on the same conversation. The range with the HBC 100 is about a tenth of a mile and only two riders can be in communication.

Those are certainly valid arguments. It’s also something I discussed with Kelly Kern, my co-tester, when we put the HBC 100 through the paces. And for starters, let me just say that Kelly and I both loved the HBC 100.

Kelly does a lot of group riding and she made note that a lot of people on these rides do use CB systems. She also noted that they are a lot more expensive. We didn’t discuss, but a bit of searching suggests to me, that CB systems generally come with boom microphones. A boom, in case you’re unclear, is one of those arms that sticks out from the unit and needs to be positioned in front of your mouth.

Judy and I have used a boom microphone communicator and we found the boom to be a big pain in the butt. We had to be sure it was properly positioned each time and for me that meant that much of the time I actually rode along with it grasped lightly between my lips the whole time. The HBC 100 has microphones built into the speakers, which are placed inside the helmet by your ears. The mics pick up your voice when you speak, plain and simple. And the clarity is vastly superior to our old system, which, by the way, just up and quit working a couple years ago.

I totally understand Patty’s interest in having multiple people in on the conversation. In my review of the HBC 100 on Examiner.com I made the point that if I was a honcho at UCLEAR it would be my top priority to make that available on my next product upgrade. And if that is a top priority for you then you probably need to look at a different product.

For Judy and me, however, our interest is in rider to passenger communication. In that case, range is immaterial, since she’s sitting right behind me. Having more than two on the conversation is immaterial, because we just want to talk to each other. And meanwhile, not having a boom, not having to make some sound to activate the voice-activation, having crystal clear sound quality–all of these things are huge for us. With the units installed, all we have to do is put on our helmets, turn the units on, and talk. Just talk. Nothing more. Add to that the fact that the HBC 100 is affordable at $200 for one unit and another $50 for an accessory pack that lets you connect two helmets, and there’s just no reason we would even look at anything else.

So as with any purchase, it really depends on what you need. If what you need fits with what the HBC 100 offers, I would strongly urge you to check it out. There may be comparable units on the market, I don’t know. But this is one unit I now have some familiarity with and I like it. A lot.

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Biker Quote for Today

The “better” rider waves first.

I was first out of bed on Saturday and when I saw how the wind was blasting I started reconsidering doing the Last Brass Monkey Run. Then when Judy got up, her first words were “I’m not going with you on the Last Brass Monkey Run.”

I had already decided not to ride when I got an email from Alan Baumbach that he sent to several people saying he wasn’t going to ride in this wind. Said he lost a friend a while back due to a crash presumably related to strong winds. So I guess I wasn’t the only one.

Still later I heard from other people who did ride, and did do the run, and they said it wasn’t all that bad. Good for you guys, I was still glad not to be out in that.

By Sunday the wind had died down and I was ready to ride. It was cold, only around 33 degrees, but we’ve got electric vests and other warm clothes. Besides, I had finally received the second UCLEAR HBC 100 Moto helmet communicator and I got them installed in our helmets. We wanted to take a ride and test them.

As I mentioned before, these communicators do a lot more than let the rider and passenger talk. They also connect with your cell phone, your GPS, or your iPod. I’ll be testing all those things later, but on Sunday we were just trying out the rider to passenger communication. And really, we need to do a lot more testing than we did. We didn’t stay out too long because it was cold and our fingers were really feeling it after not too long.

So just from what we found, these communicators are pretty sweet. They installed pretty easily and they work very well. There’s no boom in front of your mouth and yet they pick up your speech very nicely. The sound coming out of the speakers is amazingly clear. We just rode and talked. That was it. It was that simple.

Now, we did have a little trouble coming through at higher speeds, and that’s one of the things we want to play with. The units are supposed to automatically compensate for higher and lower levels of noise, but we had manually turned them down before we took off. Around home we were getting a lot of random noise and that was less annoying with the volume turned down. Once we got out on the road, however, that noise went away entirely. I suspect it’s a lot of stray signals from other devices on or near that same frequency. Get away from population and you get away from the noise.

So this is just an interim report. Now in the next few days, which are supposed to be very nice, I’m hoping to get together with someone who has a bluetooth-enabled cell phone to try out the other features on these communicators. Once that happens I’ll have more to tell you.

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Biker Quote for Today

Whatever it is, it’s better in the wind…