Archive for the ‘Honda motorcycles’ Category

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Touring On The V-Strom

Thursday, May 7th, 2026


Me on the V-Strom.

I used to have three motorcycles so when it came to riding I could choose the one that would be best for the particular ride. Now I’m down to just one, so that’s no longer a choice.

Apropos to that, Clif made this request: “Now that you’re down to only the Vstrom, I was wondering if you would consider doing a post about how that is working for you on longer trips. Thanks.”

Hey, happy to oblige. Here we go.

In the beginning I had only the 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. When the OFMC went on our annual week-long trips that was the bike I rode. But then in 1999 I bought a new 1999 Kawasaki Concours. That was a fine road bike and became my main touring bike for many years. Some years later I picked up the 2006 Suzuki V-Strom 650 but I still favored the Concours for travel because it was just supreme on the highway.

It wasn’t the bike I always took, though. There were a number of years when, for a variety of reasons, I rode one of the others. Like when I was set to leave with the RMMRC on the Great River Road trip in 2022. I went to check my air pressure and found that the valve stem was totally rotted out and would surely have failed somewhere along the way. I quickly transferred all my gear to the V-Strom and headed out.

The thing is, there was never an occasion when I regretted being on the V-Strom. And at times I was really glad I was.

For instance, on the Great River Road trip we were going through some very hilly country in Missouri. Dave was leading and I was right behind him. Dave is a very good rider, on a very big bike. I figured my bike had to be more agile than his, and so anything he could do I should be able to do. So I made a decision to just stick right with him. And I did, and what a great day of riding that was! I don’t normally ride that aggressively, but I did this day. What fun.

Then there was a ride I did, also with the RMMRC, the next year, down into New Mexico and Arizona. I was on the V-Strom again and everyone else was on much bigger bikes. We did some hard riding and several people commented on how “that little bike just kept right up.” Well, yeah, it does just fine. But then there was a day when we were on a super twisty bit of two-lane and as I put it then, I watched all these guys wrestle their big machines through these turns and meanwhile I was dancing. That light, agile bike was a dream.

Now, I will say, the nice thing about the Concours was that I could go high speeds and it just cruised, so smoothly. Going that fast on the little 650 it just feels like the bike is really busy. I get the impression something just a bit bigger might be nice. That’s why I’ve been looking at a couple Yamahas, the FJ-09 and the Tracer 9. At 800cc, either of these bikes would be just enough bigger to be a little smoother without having all that weight that even bigger bikes have.

What has stopped me so far from getting either bike is that I hate buying without actually riding a bike to see how it actually feels for real. I had plans to go up to Cheyenne last fall to test a Tracer but then I got hit on the Honda and was prohibited by my neurosurgeon from driving–much less riding a motorcycle–for 12 weeks. Of course that demo days event was during that 12-week period. Now this year I’m looking at making a road trip out of going to some demo days event somewhere, maybe in Boise. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, I’m quite happy with the V-Strom. It’s a really good little bike.

Biker Quote for Today

“A motorcycle is a bicycle with a pandemonium attachment and is designed for the especial use of mechanical geniuses, daredevils and lunatics.” — George Fitch

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, motorcycle clubs, motorcycle problems, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club, Suzuki motorcycles, Tales of the OFMC, V-Strom | 2 Comments »

Wow. Blogging For 20 Years!?

Thursday, April 30th, 2026


I got a lot of blog posts from my trip to Arizona Bike Week.

I was just scrolling down the home page for this blog to get to the Login link and noticed that I launched this blog in April of 2006. It has been 20 years that I’ve been doing this. Wow.

I didn’t do it regularly back then. Looking at that first month I published on April 8, 11, 12, 13, 18, and 25. Then I read that to be well regarded you needed to publish regularly and the best was three times a week. So I did that for a while but I was also posting then to Examiner.com at least three times a week as well as twice a week to RumBum.com. It was a bit much and I cut back to twice a week and that is what I have done ever since, posting on Monday and Thursday.

You might wonder how many posts that comes out to. I have the answer. This post will be number 1,973. Which means I will soon be celebrating number 2,000. In about 14 weeks to be exact. Of course, that is not as exact as it seems. There have been just a very few posts I have removed for whatever reason. But that’s close enough.

People ask me “How in the world do you keep coming up with ideas of things to write about?” Sometimes it’s really easy and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes I really scrape to find something. My wife has suggested at times that I just skip it and she thinks it’s a little silly that I take posting twice a week, every single week, so seriously. And yeah, I have missed a few. Like when I got hit head-on on my Honda CB750 Custom last year. I was still in the emergency room on Monday.

Most of the time, though, blog topics come easily. I go for a ride and I constantly observe. Many, many times I make an observation that ends up being a post, in addition to a post about the ride itself. When I go on long rides, multi-day rides, I get so many blog post ideas I have to write them down at my first opportunity to keep from forgetting them. And then there are the times, especially in winter, when I fall back on a few standards, such as the thread on Adventure Rider that asks what crazy things you have hit or almost hit while riding.

So what was the first post about back on April 8, 2006? The title was “Passes and Canyons Enters the Blogosphere” and it was pretty much an introduction. I had launched the main website in November 2005 and it had been well received so I was expanding the reach. And I ended it saying, “Thanks for visiting. Come again. Tell your friends. And ride, ride, ride.” That’s just as good an ending now as it was back then. So hey, thanks for visiting. Come again. Tell your friends. And ride, ride, ride.

Biker Quote for Today

I have rarely taken a direct path or a shortcut. Instead, I methodically wander. I explore with enthusiasm. — Eric Trow

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

Impressing Babes With Your Bike–Or Not

Friday, April 24th, 2026


I don’t have to try to impress Judy. And no, she does not ride her own.

I’m digging back in my memory now because Judy and I have been married for 30 years. Before that, however, one tool in my kit that I used to try to win the attentions of a fair young lass was my motorcycle. You never did that, did you? Or course not.

Yeah, how cool to suggest you take a ride on the motorcycle. Only, sometimes it doesn’t work out the way you planned.

Early on I had designs on Donna, a friend I had wanted to be more than friends with for a long time. I thought I might finally get my chance. She was going to be at some camp for a few days up in the Red Feather Lakes area, northwest from Fort Collins. We arranged that rather than coming back with whoever she rode up there with, I would come up on my bike–the CB750 Custom being my only bike at that time–and we would go for a ride and just generally have a nice time. And hopefully more.

I figured how long I thought it should take to get there and headed up her way. It took longer than I expected, though. By the time I reached the camp there was not a soul around. Certainly no Donna. Rats! So I headed on back ended up at the intersection where the road up the Poudre Canyon meets US 287, Ted’s Place. I paused for a minute before turning south on 287.

If I had looked in my mirror–I learned later–I might have seen Donna running toward me. She had gotten a ride to there but now was waiting for someone she called to pick her up. With me being late to the camp she had feared being stuck there alone and me not showing up, so she had not taken the chance of assuming I was just late, but definitely coming. And now there I was but I didn’t see her and I went on alone. Rats.

Then there was the time I was riding with Shelley. It was our first–and only–time on the bike. We were just out cruising around when the bike sputtered to a stop. I reached to flip the petcock to go to Reserve only to find it was already in that position. Oops. We ended up walking a mile and a half to a station and then that same mile and a half back. Shelley was not all bent out of shape about it but suffice it to say we never rode again and nothing ever happened between us.

And then there was that time when I was riding with a different Donna down by Deckers. Also our first time riding–and also our last.

I didn’t know the roads up there as well as I do now so it was unexpected when we found ourselves on gravel. No problem, I’ll just take it slow.

Good thing. We were passing a couple parked cars on the left side of the road, going maybe 5 miles an hour, when a big dog walked out from between them right into our path. I hit the brakes hard and instantly we went down. (This is the only time I have ever gone down while in motion; I have dropped the bike in parking lots and such numerous times.)

The dog was unhurt, we never touched him. And fortunately, other than some small bruises, neither were we. But we were both shaken and the fact that we had no recourse but to run several more miles on gravel didn’t give either of us a lot of confidence. And Donna never rode with me again, though we did connect romantically for a period. At least there was that.

Oh, and by the way, the owner of the dog, who was totally apologetic, promised to pay for any damage and proceeded to give me completely fake contact information. Nice guy.

Later on there have been a couple times I ran out of gas with Judy riding with me but we were married by then so it was OK. Besides, by then I wasn’t trying to impress her, we were just out having a good time. She tolerates me making mistakes now and then.

Biker Quote for Today

“It’s the ride of life the journey from here to there living and loving every moment like we have none to spare.” — Jess “Chief” Brynjulson

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Posted in Day Rides, Honda motorcycles, motorcycle humor, motorcycle memories | No Comments »

My Travels With Charley

Monday, March 23rd, 2026


Charley on my Honda CB750 Custom.

I was going to go on the RMMRC ride on Wednesday last week but then we had a family emergency. I wasn’t going to go but Judy urged me to, saying there was no reason to skip it and she would be fine without me. So I did go.

The emergency involved her son, Charley. I can explain it in one word: fentanyl. After being on life support for 11 days he died this morning. His organs were donated to families that needed them.

While my relationship with Charley was never better than cordial, we did share some motorcycle history.

It has always been an amusing image in my mind of one time, when he was still a teenager, when he wanted a ride somewhere. I was going to go for a motorcycle ride but I told him I would give him a lift on my bike, the Honda CB750 Custom. Charley was much bigger than me so picture this big guy on the back of a bike with his knees splayed widely outward. He felt silly, and it did look silly, but I got him to where he wanted to go so he wasn’t complaining. He did remark later that his friends found it laughable.

Later, when he was living on his own, he had his own motorcycle. We never knew this, though, until after he had sold it. But one day, I don’t remember how it came about, he and I decided to take a ride. I was on my Concours and he rode the Honda. And yes, it really was too small a bike for him.

We rode down to Franktown, to the Stagecoach. That’s where this picture was shot. We just had a beer and rode home. No big deal, nothing eventful. But that’s the only time we ever rode together.

Just about a week before his fateful event he was telling me he figured it was time for him to have a motorcycle again. Would I help him pick out a bike? Of course I told him I’d be happy to.

Then a week later he went missing. After three days Judy filed a missing person report with the Denver police. Later that day he was located, in an intensive care unit in Thornton, on life support with irreparable brain damage.

And now you fentanyl merchants have brought tragedy to one more American family.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m sorry, I don’t have one today.

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki | 3 Comments »

The CB750 Makes It To Steele’s

Monday, February 23rd, 2026

I spotted my old CB750 at Steele’s.

As I had pretty much expected it would, my old 1980 Honda CB750 Custom has made it to Steele’s Cycle.

I was at Steele’s awhile ago following Tyler as he broke a Ninja down into parts and we were out in the yard at one point. Walking along a row of bikes I saw a bit of blue, a shade of blue that I’m extremely familiar with, and I looked closer. It was my Honda.

The funny thing was that I did not immediately recognize it as being my bike; I only thought it was another bike of the same vintage. I pointed it out to Tyler and he asked if this was in fact my bike and I told him no, it was just another like the one I had.

It wasn’t until that evening over dinner when I was telling Judy about it that it dawned on me that no, of course it was my bike. I had noticed that, hmmm, this CB750 has the same kind of sissybar my bike had. But somehow that had not jarred me awareness. But telling her I realized it was my bike. And I went back to look at it the next time I was at Steele’s and it was so obvious I can hardly believe I didn’t realize that the first time.

There was the same case guard, the same highway pegs, the same side panel on one side from a different year’s model. Of course this was my bike. But when I first saw it it did not have so much that I had come to associate with the bike, stuff I had stripped off the bike at the tow yard when I went to look at it after the crash. Without all that stuff it just didn’t seem like mine.

I pointed it out to Rick Steele and he said that considering I got hit head-on the bike didn’t suffer as much damage as it might have. But when I mentioned the cost of bailing it out of the tow lot he got it instantly–way more to bail it out than it would be worth. He said he gets a lot of bikes from that particular tow lot.

As I said, I was not at all surprised. I expected it would end up there and in fact it has probably been sitting there ever since last summer. Now two of my old bikes are at Steele’s. They’ve had my old Concours for a couple years now and at least it’s sitting inside and may eventually be fixed up and sold. It looks like the Honda is just destined for parts.

If anybody needs some parts for a 1980 Honda CB750 Custom I know where you can find them.

Biker Quote for Today

New Year, New Dreams, New Roads

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Posted in Honda motorcycles, Kawasaki, Motorcycle repair | No Comments »

How About A Harley For $35?

Thursday, January 15th, 2026

I can’t say for sure but I suspect the $35 Harleys were similar to this one.

I’ve spent a good bit of time now talking with Rick Steele, not just about the history of his business, Steele’s Cycles, but rambling across the history and memories of the motorcycle community in Denver. Several things Rick has mentioned brought back memories to me that had been long buried.

We talked about the D.U.M.P., Denver Used Motorcycle Parts, which used to be just east of downtown. That was the shop I went to when I first started riding. My first leather jacket came from there as did my riding gloves, the visor for my first helmet, and the windshield for my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. Other stuff, too. It was always fun to watch people’s faces when I would say, “Oh yeah, I got this at the DUMP.”

We talked about the fire that devastated the old Fay Myers location on West Alameda. Steele’s bought all those burned bikes and then had two days to get them out. Rick said it was the city’s parking requirements that made it impossible for them to rebuild on that site and so Fay Myers moved to its current location on East Arapahoe. I had forgotten all about that fire.

The real memory jolt, though, was when Rick mentioned the $35 Harleys. Oh yeah, I remember that!

There was a point, years ago, when the government was looking to clear out a lot of old World War II gear. Amongst all this was a large number of Harley-Davidson motorcycles that had been purchased for the war effort but were never needed. They sat in crates, disassembled, brand new. The decision was made to unload them. The price they put on these bikes was $35.

I heard about these bikes back in the day. At that point in my life I had never owned a motorcycle but I had wanted one for years. A $35 Harley was truly a temptation.

I was totally unprepared to do anything with one if I bought it though. I had nowhere to haul it to to take it out of the crate and assemble it. I had no experience at all in the kind of effort it would require to assemble it. And I had never ridden a bike bigger than a 250; I had serious doubts about my ability to handle something a lot bigger. Oh, but the temptation!

Needless to say, I did not take advantage of the opportunity. Then over the years the memory faded and I forgot all about it. And then Rick brought it up. Oh yeah, I remember that! I do remember that!

Biker Quote for Today

This bike will pay for itself with the great gas mileage!

Posted in antique motorcycles, Honda motorcycles | No Comments »

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