Passes & Canyons Blog

It’s not that we hate advertising on television or radio, it’s that we hate boring, who-gives-a-damn stuff that just interferes with the show. If an ad is really entertaining, heck, people will go to YouTube just to watch it.

The Allstate Garage is an online ad for Allstate Insurance, and it is one of those you actually want to watch. It’s called viral advertising, and in this case it works.

You can see from the image here that you’ve got three guys in a shop, and what they’re doing is building a motorcycle right before your eyes. They actually do it and it takes about 15 minutes, so you might want to do something else and check back in every couple minutes.

But there’s a lot more going on than just building the bike. For instance, the TV fritzes off and on periodically and if you click on it it takes you to some information about Allstate insurance. Likewise, you can click on the telephone, the yellow warning sign, and a whole lot else to bring up other information.

Most interesting, however, is clicking on the link that opens when you move your cursor to the bike being built. That link will allow you to custom build your own bike. Pick the frame. Pick the tank, the seat, the fork, and on and on. Don’t like your selection? Pick something different. Customize to your heart’s content.

This thing is really kind of fun. It’s advertising, but who cares?

Biker Quote for Today

Practice wrenching on your own bike.

I have to tell you, I’m amazed. You may recall that I announced in early April that this Passes and Canyons, Motorcycle Touring in Colorado website had had more than 3,000 unique visitors in the month of March, the first time it ever hit that level. It took 2 years and 5 months to go from zero to 3,000, so I was pretty excited.

Then I was really excited to be able to announce in June that the total of unique visitors for May had passed 4,000. That’s 29 months to go from zero to 3,000, but only 2 months to go from 3,000 to 4,000.

So you might be thinking now that I’m going to tell you the number went from 4,000 to 5,000 in July, but you would be wrong. It went over 6,000! I am just blown away! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your interest. I do this website as a labor of love and it matters immensely that someone out there appreciates my efforts.

Now, knowing the month to month trends, I have every expectation that the numbers will drop off in the immediate future. That’s the way it has worked every year up to now, so I see no reason to expect anything different. But that’s fine. I have a lot of new material that I’m in the process of adding, so when next year’s surge comes you and all the other visitors will have a lot more hopefully useful information available.

Thank you.

Biker Quote for Today

I only feel like riding my motorcycle on days that end with the letter “Y.”

If you’re interested in some terrific old motorcycle videos I strongly recommend you visit helmethairblog.com. Not all of this blog is videos but the author, Jesper Bram, of Denmark, is good at finding really fun and interesting stuff and posting it.

Here’s one of the recent videos he posted. See for yourself.

Biker Quote for Today

Life may begin at 30, but it doesn’t get real interesting until about 110.

Hey, this is just a quick note to let you know that I’ve got a ton of interesting things to discuss in the next few posts. We just got home tonight from two weeks in Europe and, you know, it’s like a whole other country. We were in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and the whole concept of motorcycling over there is very different than over here.

I’m not going to get into all this just now, it’s late and we’re jet-lagged. Stay tuned!

Biker Quote for Today

The higher the price of gas, the more you’re going to see motorcycles on the road. At least in that regard, high gas prices are a good thing.

Today is joke day. I’ll admit unabashedly that I found these jokes on other blogs or websites and copied them down. So hey, when was the last time you invented a joke? Here, enjoy.

A rookie police officer pulled a biker over for speeding and had the following exchange:

Officer: May I see your driver’s license?
Biker: I don’t have one. I had it suspended when I got my 5th DUI.
Officer: May I see the owner’s card for this vehicle?
Biker: It’s not my bike. I stole it.
Officer: The motorcycle is stolen?
Biker: That’s right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner’s card in the tool bag when I was putting my gun in there.
Officer: There’s a gun in the tool bag?
Biker: Yes sir. That’s where I put it after I shot and killed the dude who owns this bike and stuffed his dope in the saddle bags.
Officer: There’s drugs in the saddle bags too?!?!?
Biker: Yes, sir.

Hearing this, the rookie immediately called his captain. The biker was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the biker to handle the tense situation:

Captain: Sir, can I see your license?
Biker: Sure. Here it is.

It was valid.

Captain: Who’s motorcycle is this?
Biker: It’s mine, officer. Here’s the registration.
Captain: Could you slowly open your tool bag so I can see if there’s a gun in it?
Biker: Yes, sir, but there’s no gun in it.

Sure enough, there was nothing in the tool bag.

Captain: Would you mind opening your saddle bags? I was told you said there’s drugs in them.
Biker: No problem.

The saddle bags were opened; no drugs.

Captain: I don’t understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn’t have a license, stole this motorcycle, had a gun in the tool bag, and that there were drugs in the saddle bags.
Biker: Yeah, I’ll bet he told you I was speeding, too.

*************

A Highway Patrolman waited outside a popular biker bar, hoping for a bust. At closing time everyone come out and he spotted his potential quarry. The man was so obviously inebriated that he could barely walk. He stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, looking for his motorcycle. After trying his keys on five other bikes, he finally found his own bike. He sat on his motorcycle for a good 10 minutes, as the other patrons left. He turned his lights on, then off, and again on and off. He started his engine and pull forward into the grass, then stopped.

Finally, he pulled out onto the road and started to drive away. The patrolman, waiting for this, turned on his lights and pulled the man over. He administered the breathalyzer test, and to his great surprise, the man blew a 0.00.

The patrolman was dumbfounded. “This equipment must be broken!” he exclaimed.

“I doubt it,” said the man, “You see, tonight I am the designated decoy . . . I haven’t had a drink all day!”

*************

A woman and her husband were riding their Harley Electra Glide on vacation, but had to interrupt their trip to go to the dentist.

“I want a tooth pulled and I don’t want to waste any time with any pain killers because we’re in a big hurry,” the woman said. “Just extract the tooth as quickly as possible and we’ll be on our way.”

The dentist was quite impressed. “You’re certainly a courageous woman,” he said. “Which tooth is it?”

The woman turned to her husband and said, “Show him your tooth, dear.”

*************

This biker went to a store the other day, and was in there for only about 5 minutes. However, when he came out there was a cop writing a parking ticket.

So the biker went up to him and said, “Come on, buddy, how about giving a guy a break?”

The cop ignored him and continued writing the ticket.

So the biker called the cop a pencil-necked Nazi.

The cop glared at him and started writing another ticket for having worn tires!

So then the biker called the cop a piece of horseshit.

The cop finished the second ticket and put it on the car’s windshield with the first.

Then he started writing a third ticket! This went on for about 20 minutes and the more the biker abused the cop, the more tickets he wrote.

Of course, the biker didn’t care. His motorcycle was parked around the corner.

*************

When I was young I used to pray for a Harley. Then I realized that God doesn’t work that way. So I stole a Harley and prayed for forgiveness.

Biker Quote for Today

I’d rather be riding my motorcycle thinking about God than sitting in church thinking about my motorcycle.

I’ve always figured I was pretty good on slow, tight turns on a big bike. Heck, I passed my original motorcycle driver’s license test on my CB750. I think most people borrow little 250s or something like that to take the riding test, but not me.

Well, I saw some guys perform on Sunday that did stuff I’ll never be able to do as long as I live. This event was the annual Top Gun Symposium of the Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club. All the contestants were motorcycle patrol officers riding their regular patrol bikes. Most were Harleys but there were also BMWs and Kawasaki Police Specials.

Take a look at this guy. That’s a heck of a tight turn and sharp lean angle and he’s probably going less than 5 mph. Can you do that? I can’t.

This guy wasn’t even the winner, or one of the top three winners. Altogether there were 39 officers competing from a number of different departments, with winners in three categories to correspond with the three makes of bike. The best of the best was named Top Gun. He was one of the guys on one of the Kawasakis.

All in all, it was a pretty good show, and it drew a nice crowd, mostly on bikes. What can I say? Heck, I was impressed.

Biker Quote for Today

A good rider has balance, judgment, and good timing. So does a good lover.