Passes & Canyons Blog

I got wind of this Colorado English Motoring Conclave 2011 from Jerry Pokorny, who has his share of Brit bikes. It was held over the weekend up in Arvada. Figured I’d go up and check it out.

First thing I’ll say is that while there were some nice bikes there, there weren’t nearly as many as I’d hoped. Second thing, there were a lot of very, very cool cars.

Not a whole lot to say about it. I’ll just give you some pictures.

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New tech on motorcycles not always a good thing

Biker Quote for Today

Ducati: Making mechanics out of riders since 1946.

Periodically I have the pleasure of thanking you, the visitors to this blog and website, for your interest. This is one of those times.

Now, traffic can be good or bad. When you’re out on the road, heavy traffic sucks. When you’re running a website, however, more traffic is a good thing.

It’s Sept. 1 and that means the monthly web traffic numbers for August are in, and they are spectacular. I’ve been running this website for 5 years now and the biggest months of the year have always been either June or July. In June this year there were an all-time record number of unique visitors–the metric I follow–coming to the site: 13,966. Then July went on to surpass June, upping the record to 14,756.

I figured that was it, that would be the maximum for the year and the record until next year. I was so wrong.

As August progressed I watched an amazing thing unfold. August numbers were exceeding July. That has never happened before. And now the month has ended, and yes indeed, August 2011 now holds the record for the most unique visitors ever: 14,860. What’s more, August surely would have been the first month ever to exceed 15,000 except that there was one day when, as near as I can figure, my web host had issues and the site was apparently offline for half a day or more. All I know for sure is that the numbers that week went like this: 658, 495, 623, 146, 546, 428, 484. So, 146? What?

I look at these numbers and I think about all the people who have contacted me with questions and looking for suggestions as they plan their trips to Colorado, and I have to smile. Some time ago a friend remarked to me that he really didn’t understand why my website wasn’t successful, because it was a good site. Not successful? I think there are more than a few people out there who would dispute that characterization.

And it’s you who have made it the success that I personally consider it to be. It’s frustrating because I still have a lot more information I want to add to the site and I scarcely have time to do that. But I’ll keep plugging away at it bit by bit, working to make the site even better. And thank you for making it all worthwhile.

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Biker Quote for Today

Carpe the living shit out of the diem.

It took an extra year but I’m pleased to announce that this website just set an all-time record for visitor traffic. In June 2011 there were, according to Stat Counter, the tracking software I use, 13,966 unique visitors to the site. That surpasses the previous record, set in June 2009, or 13,302.

So why do I say it took an extra year? If you’re a regular reader you may recall a couple posts I did a little over a year ago about the site getting hacked. That happened right during the period when traffic generally ramps up for the summer and for the first time since the site has existed the traffic numbers were down year over year for three months.

Before that, every May had been higher than the previous May; every June had been higher than the previous June. Et cetera. But last year, April, May, and June were down from the previous year, although they were still substantially higher than in those months two years earlier. It took until July for the effects of the hack to pass and July numbers were finally higher than the previous July.

Now, for the first time in two years, we’ve set a new record. Of course I’m pleased. I love it that this site I’ve built has proven so valuable to so many people. I frequently get emails from visitors seeking additional information and I’m always happy to provide what I can. Occasionally I meet someone who has been on the site. That’s a real thrill.

So welcome, and welcome back again and again. You’re the key in all this. If nobody was visiting the site there would be no purpose for operating it. Thank you!

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On the motorcycle scene with Diva Amy

Biker Quote for Today

Flags and handlebars should never touch the ground.

It didn’t earn me anything except gratification, but Cycle Source magazine just published one of my photos. That image above is what I sent them and the way it was cropped and adjusted can be seen below. As you can see, it was a horizontal shot that they made into a vertical, plus they rotated it a bit to give the rider more of an angle. All good design techniques.

This whole thing came about because Tim Bussey, one of their staff writers, was covering Arizona Bike Week but had trouble with his camera. He found my pictures on Examiner.com and contacted me to ask if he could use some with his story. I said yes and sent him several. This one shot is the only one they used.

I like that they used this shot. I selected it to send to them because the guy is wearing a Big Dog Motorcycles T-shirt and I presume he’s riding a Big Dog. Of course, Big Dog went into bankruptcy very shortly after the rally.

So it may not be as big a deal as getting one of my photos published in Rider magazine but it’s still cool. Buzzy sent me a couple copies of the issue and I’ll stash them away for posterity. Now if only Rider will publish that story of mine they’ve been sitting on for seems-like-forever!

Biker Quote for Today

Any day spent riding motorcycles is a great day.

It almost slipped by me that this blog just reached its fifth anniversary. It was April 8, 2006 when I first posted Passes and Canyons Enters the Blogosphere. That’s pretty amazing, at least it is to me.

I’ll come back to that in a moment but I also want to pass this bit of news along. I was contacted recently by Lenore Bates of the Colorado Dept. of Transportation asking if I would include a link from my Great Roads page to their site where they have some good information on Colorado’s scenic and historic byways. I said sure, you bet, and gosh, it would sure be nice if you could link to my site from yours as well.

Well, sure enough, she did and now the CDOT website is directing people to Passes and Canyons as a resource for people looking for information on scenic roads in the state. That’s pretty much guaranteed to boost traffic on the site a bit. Thank you CDOT.

So back to the blog. It’s not like I started out with a lot of energy. I was still building the Passes and Canyons website and figured I ought to include a blog but I really didn’t feel I had much to say. In fact, for the rest of 2006 I only managed to post to the blog once, twice, or three times a month, and didn’t post anything at all in November. I had had the same experience as a newspaper editor. I occasionally ran personal columns but only when I was really driven to say something, which wasn’t often.

Finally I got serious about it and told myself I had to post three times a week. I had to! And an amazing thing happened. I opened my eyes and looked at everything from the perspective of whether it could be a blog post and suddenly I was flooded with ideas. Then I started writing for other publications as well, until I concluded I had to cut back on the blog to twice a week because I was just too busy elsewhere. That’s where we stand today and I have no intention of cutting back any further, no matter how busy I get doing other things.

So thanks for helping make this website and blog the successes that they are. I look forward to continuing with them for many years to come.

Biker Quote for Today

The older I get–the bigger my rear sprocket gets

I was just looking at my 1999 Kawasaki Concours a few minutes ago and it’s amazing. It’s so clean and shiny! So totally unusual.

I’ll admit it: I am not fanatical about keeping my bikes clean. A lot of guys keep theirs spotless but I’m pretty nearly at the other end of the scale. The way I see it, I’d rather be out riding my motorcycles than cleaning them. Especially when, after you spend all that time cleaning, the next time you take it out for a ride it just gets dirty again.

I broke down on Saturday and spent about an hour and a half thoroughly cleaning the Kawi because after this last trip to Arizona it was just too filthy even for me. And even now it is not as clean as a lot of guys insist on getting their bikes. Despite serious efforts, there are still bugs firmly bonded in places and I just gave up on them. My wheels were just caked with dirt and I got rid of most of it but not all.

The bottom line is, it’s not spotless but it’s a heck of a lot cleaner than it was. Call me lazy if you like, but I figure that’s good enough. And even now, with my less than perfect cleaning job, I look at the sky and see possible rain and am reluctant to take the bike out for fear of getting it all dirty again. That’s just wrong.

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The non-cruiser guy’s cruiser: Vulcan 900 Classic LT demo ride

Biker Quote for Today

If you don’t get wet once in a while you are not riding enough!

Making a living as a freelancer can be tough. Making a living as a motorcycle freelancer can be very tough. But I keep pushing ahead and there always seems to be some bright spot on the horizon.

Regular readers know that I write about motorcycling for Examiner.com, RumBum.com, CycleConnections.com, as well as this blog. Recently I had a photo published in Rider magazine and Rider has also accepted an article for publication that will see print sooner or later.

Well, maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but that’s not enough so I’ve been trying to develop several new contacts recently. I learned that Throttler magazine was looking for some more writers so I contacted the editor there and pitched him some stories. He liked my ideas and said he’ll let me know the calendar of when he’d like them from me. So far so good, but I’m still waiting for the calendar. In other words, I’m still keeping my fingers crossed on this one.

Then while I was at Arizona Bike Week my friend Sue Slate, who runs the Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation with her partner Gin Shear, had the idea to connect me to the editor of Kawasaki’s magazine, Accelerate. I’ve been in touch with her and sent her one story and a proposal for another. Again, keeping my fingers crossed.

Another opportunity came my way a few days ago to get some photos published in Cycle Source magazine. I don’t see this as having any likelihood for being more than a one-shot affair, but it helps build my credits.

Lastly, I may have a good shot at doing some work for U.S. Rider News. It wouldn’t pay very much but they all add up.

It’s a darn good thing I enjoy writing and I enjoy motorcycles. I used to write about software applications and it’s a whole lot easier–and more fun–to write about something you have a passion for.

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Biker Quote for Today

You like motorcycles, beer, and ladies. I’m afraid I have the same illness. — Thierry

We all have misconceptions about those things we know little of. Me, I don’t know a lot about Southern motorcyclists so I have what are probably a lot of wrong ideas. I seem to have cleared up one of them, though.

I’m down in South Carolina right now visiting my mother, and over the weekend I went to the Progressive International Motorcycle Show. The show itself was no big deal; kind of a disappointment actually. What surprised me was the parking lots.

Never having ridden a motorcycle in the South, or very much east of the Mississippi River, I had the idea that nearly all these old southern boys would be sitting astride Harleys. I’m not sure why I had that idea, but I did.

Well guess what? Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure there were a lot of Harleys in the parking lot of the show, but it was amazing how many other bikes there were. Unlike big events in Colorado where, unless it’s a brand event such as a BMW rally, Harleys outnumber everything else combined, it wasn’t so here. In fact, while I have no hard numbers, I’d estimate that there were no more than 20 percent Harleys and the rest was everything else.

For one, there were just a ton of sport bikes. Maybe this has to do with how popular racing is in the South. Not too many Harley baggers to be found in the races, except perhaps some Sportsters.

But even for the baggers I saw a lot of Gold Wings, Stars, BMWs, FJRs, you name it. Plus plenty of dual-sport bikes, which makes sense when you figure all the great unpaved roads there are around here. Kind of like in Colorado.

So I stand corrected. Now I wonder what other misconceptions I have about Southern riders. Probably what I need to do is spend a few weeks riding through this part of the country. That would be nice. I just need to fit it into my schedule; that’s always the hard part. Maybe next year.

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>More on helmets and visibility

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t die wondering, die wandering.