Passes & Canyons Blog

Everyone who rides a motorcycle has heard of the classic movie, On Any Sunday. Produced by Bruce Brown in 1971, the film is the icon of motorcycle movies, depicting the joy of riding, whether in top-dollar races or around the sand lot down the street.

I’ve heard of On Any Sunday for years, and for years I have intended to rent it and finally watch it. Well, wouldn’t you know it, while looking for trailers for Dust to Glory, which is the film that inspired Chuck Shortt to enter the Baja 1000, I found On Any Sunday available for free online.

Now, you have to watch a few commercials along the way but I can deal with that. I finally get to see this movie!

You can too. Here’s the link. Enjoy.

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi2162491929/

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Breast/ovarian cancer-fighting dirt-bikers roll to conclusion

Biker Quote for Today

They cannot be built any bigger or faster without leaving the road. — Thomas Krens

I received a request from John Rollins, who is an active member of the Colorado Victory Riders Association. I’ll just pass it along verbatim.

We have a Victory rider who gave his all and we are asking for some exposure to escort his bike home. Here is the announcement if you can please let the motorcycling community know.

Sgt Clark’s bike is coming home!

I think everyone knows the story so I won’t go into the details. If you don’t please visit the following site http://www.lucasclarkeducationfund.com.

The point of this message is that the bike is back in Colorado and she is making a trip from Westminster to Fort Carson where the family will get the first opportunity to see her. Our focus is to get as many riders as possible to escort her down.

Who: We need you so if you’re in the area come join us…don’t ride a Victory we don’t care, just be a patriot.

Where: Meeting at 9:30 a.m. MDT at the McDonald’s on the south west corner of 100th and Wadsworth

When: August 9th, 2009

Thanks and ride safe….see ya on Sunday!

Here is our online conversation

http://www.c-vra.com/component/option,com_fireboard/Itemid,35/func,showcat/view,threaded/id,477/catid,4/

Here is a photo of the bike.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Doing the Beartooth on motorcycles

Biker Quote for Today

Life is short, and best savored . . . every day, hour, minute. Especially when motorcycling is involved. — Clement Salvadori

How hard must it be to be a motorcyclist in Canada? I mean, almost the entire country is north of North Dakota, so their riding season has got to be way too short.

On the other hand, when they can ride, how incredible must the riding be? There’s the Canadian Rockies and British Columbia. I’ve been there and it’s gorgeous. Then there are the Eastern Seaboard provinces, and everything I’ve read says they’ve got some great riding, too. Quebec and Ontario are also gorgeous.

In other words, Canadians do ride, and in fact, they even have their own television show, BikerTV. It shows on Canadian TV but it is also available on the web. They have a couple young ladies who emcee the thing, and they’re not terribly convincing as in-the-know biker types. They’re more eye candy. But the stories cover a wide range of topics and follow Canadian bikers doing some rides I’d sure like to do.

The show is in its fifth season and they have more online viewers than broadcast viewers: 70,000 vs. 51,000.

It’s worth a look. Who knows, maybe your next trip will be to Canada.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Motorcycle control in high winds

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t choose a destination — pick a direction and go.

You’ve probably already noticed. At least if you’ve ever been to this blog before.

After four years with the same basic design, we’re making a big change here. The blog has already changed, as you can see, but the Passes and Canyons, Motorcycle Touring in Colorado website will not get its make-over for another day or two.

This has been a lot of work for my brother and for me. He is a professional web designer and I guess he decided it was time for me to have a more professional-looking site. I built and have maintained this thing all by myself all this time. I don’t have the skills to do what he does. I’m a writer; he’s the designer.

Here’s an interesting example of what he’s done. You see this picture in the body of this post? And you see the image across the top of the screen. They are the same picture. It’s the second shot on the Hoosier Pass page.

What I saw as just a shot of the road at the top of Hoosier Pass he saw as a defining photo to make the theme of the whole site. Just crop a lot from the bottom and a lot from the top and you have a guy on a motorcycle with the mountains behind him . . .

When he asked me if I had a high resolution copy of that image I couldn’t understand what he wanted it for. I was impressed when I saw.

So anyway, I hope you think the change is good. There have been a few mishaps along the way and it has been a lot of work for both of us. I doubt you’ll see another major change for at least another four years.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Motomarathoners cruising some of the best Colorado has to offer

Biker Quote for Today

When you feel like playing hooky, play it. When the sun is shining, go for a ride. If you need a motorcycle, just buy it. Sooner is better than later.

Oh man, I’m blown away. I track unique visitors to this website each month and last month, May 2009, the traffic nearly hit 10,000. There were 9,754 unique visitors last month, to be exact.

Just to give you an idea of how big that is, the best month the site has ever had before was July 2008, where traffic hit 6,051 unique visitors. I was thrilled in May 2008 when it topped 4,000 for the first time, 4,024, and then it only went up to 4,504 in June 2008.

After four years I know the pattern here. Traffic climbs from December through July and then tapers off. What that means is that this 9,754 record is destined to fall, and soon. And the numbers show it. Already this month, only 3 days and 21 hours in, the total of unique visitors is 1,579. That works out to about 12,000.

This all just blows me away. I built this website out of passion and my own interest, and hoped that at least a few other people would like it and my work would be appreciated. Hitting these numbers leaves me in awe. Thank each and every one of you for your interest. This is so rewarding.

Recent from the National Motorcycle Examiner
A terrific motorcycle sidetrip in southwestern Utah

Biker Quote for Today

HEY! Let’s go ride our BIKES!!!!

Do what you love and the money will follow.

Have you ever heard those words? Do you believe them? Well, I’m putting them to the test. First some background.

I’ve been a writer all my life, and I’ve been riding motorcycles for more than 20 years. That doesn’t count the numerous times when I was a kid when I had the occasional chance to ride. By 20 years I mean since I bought my first bike. So what could be more natural than to put the two together?

OK, I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ve been in the newspaper business and various other lines of work but the one thing they all had in common was that I was a writer. Most recently I’ve been doing contract work as a technical writer. On my most recent gig I knew first of all that it would end. That’s the nature of the beast. I also knew the economy was in the toilet and that getting the next gig could be very difficult. So I put aside as much cash as I could while I had the income and when the end came I was ready.

I’ve been “unemployed” for a couple months now but I’m working harder than ever. But no, I’m not looking for a job. I’m working to make a living as a biker.

First off, I’ve turned my gig at Examiner.com into an almost full-time effort, and as of yesterday I’ve moved from Denver Motorcycle Examiner to National Motorcycle Examiner. Second, I’m doing what I can to make more money off this website. I’ve always had the Google ads, and they’ve always paid enough to support the website without me having to dip into my pocket just to pay the hosting fees. But now I’m actively trying to sell ads on the site, which has the potential to provide serious income. We’ll see.

Third, I’ve been talking with Dan Patino at Monkey Gripper Motorcycle Tours about working for him this summer as a motorcycle tour guide. Considering the focus of this website, that seems a perfect fit. Now all we need is for the economy not to totally crush the tourism industry and to get some people signed up for tours.

And fourth, I’m considering the possibility of becoming a motorcycle riding instructor. To that end, just this weekend I took the Beginning Rider Course from T3RG Motorcycle Schools. The possibility of becoming an instructor was really only one of four reasons I had for taking the course, but because the course is required if you want to be an instructor, it was fortuitous to be able to do so just at this time.

So we’ll see. I’m doing what I love and while I’m not making nearly enough to live on so far, things do seem to be moving in the right direction.

And doors do seem to be opening up. For instance, in my work with Examiner.com I have helped build a group of the motorcycle Examiners around the country. We try to coordinate our efforts and work together whenever the opportunity presents itself. Well, there is a new East Bay Motorcycle Examiner who just started, Gabe Ets-Hokin, who just today posted his second ever post, which is part two of his introduction. It turns out to my extreme interest that he has been a motojournalist since 2004 and is currently the Online Editor for Cycle World magazine. Holy smokes! I now have a contact with an outfit I’d love to become involved with. It may never happen but you never know.

Rest assured, I’ll keep you up to date on how this progresses. I’m not saying you should be all that interested in how I make my living, but I would think just about anyone would be interested to see whether you really can do what you love and end up making it your job. Who knows, it might be the inspiration someone else needs to do so as well.

Recent from the National Motorcycle Examiner
Emotional day ends Run For The Wall

Biker Quote for Today

You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze.