Passes & Canyons Blog

I keep saying this but it’s important for it to be clear up front: I am not and have never been a Republican. I used to be Democrat, but I’m not any more.

That said, I want to say a couple words on behalf of a couple Republican Colorado legislators, Don Marostica of Loveland and Greg Brophy of Wray.

Last week Marostica wore a helmet to the debate on requiring motorcycle riders under 18 to wear helmets. Asked to remove the helmet, he said, as quoted in the Rocky Mountain News:

That’s why I wore my helmet down here. I didn’t want to trip. I’m going to wear it on the way back to my desk.

His point was that people have a greater risk of dying or suffering a brain injury from tripping and falling than they do from motorcycle accidents.

As for Brophy, he is one of the leaders in the fight against allowing police to stop a driver solely for not wearing a seat belt. Right now, you can only be cited if the police stop you for another reason and you’re not wearing your belt.

Said Brophy, once again as quoted in the Rocky Mountain News:

I don’t believe you should be able to pull over someone in this country basically at will. It is another way government will be able to harass citizens.

Kudos, too, to Ron Tupa, Democratic senator from Boulder, who was the lone Democrat voting against the measure.

I really tip my helmet to the folks who rode their motorcycles in the 21st Annual Toy Run to The Children’s Hospital yesterday. It wasn’t just that it was cold. There is snow and ice on the streets, too. I admit I wasn’t planning on going on the ride anyway, but if I had been there’s no way I could have gotten out of my neighborhood.

This is the season for opportunism. When you have the opportunity you better take it or you’re likely to regret it. I make it a point to ride both my bikes at least once every single month of the year, and there are times when that has had me out in some pretty cold weather. I have an electric vest and I’m not afraid to use it. I also have thinsulate-lined gloves. And I don’t hesitate to put on seven layers of warmth. But here in Colorado you generally have decent opportunities to ride pretty regularly, if you just take advantage of them.

People who don’t live here really don’t understand about the weather here. My wife told me of a couple guys she had business dealings with who, finding themselves in Colorado in ski season and with time available, decided to hit the slopes. They were down in Denver and the sun was shining and it was comfortable so they left half their warm clothes in the hotel room. Bad choice. Go up another 4,000 feet in elevation and a warm 45 degree day in Denver turns into about a 10 degree day in the mountains, with strong winds.

At this time of year I’ve learned that if it’s Saturday, 30 degrees, and the roads are clear, I’d better go ride. Chances are it will get nicer, but if you don’t go now you have no one to blame but yourself when the clouds come in an hour later and the temperature drops 20 degrees. Or you figure you’ll ride tomorrow and overnight a foot of snow comes down.

Nope, you’ve got to do it when you can. No rain checks. What the heck, that’s why you bought the bike isn’t it?

I got an email recently from someone in Vancouver, B.C., asking about how a bike runs in Colorado, particularly in places such as Mt. Evans, when they’re tuned for lower altitudes. It strikes me that that’s a question a lot of people planning to come here might have so I figured I would reprint here the reply I sent him. Here it is.

With the understanding that my bikes are tuned for the altitude in Denver (5,000 feet, more or less) I’m happy to say that I’ve never had any problems. They start, run, and act just like they do in the city. Also, I had a note from a guy who lives in Atlanta who came out to Colorado and he went to the top of Mt. Evans and didn’t have any problem either. I’ve been all over the state and seen people from many states stopping to enjoy the view at the top of passes and I’ve never seen anyone having trouble starting their bike or had anyone mention anything about a problem. Hopefully that means you won’t have anything to worry about.

So that’s what I told him. If any of you have had bad experiences please write and let me know about them and how you handled the problem. Thanks.