Passes & Canyons Blog

As a freelance writer it is standard procedure to do what you can to use the information you gather in as many different articles for as many different publications as you can. In that way you minimize your costs, maximize your earnings, and make more efficient use of your time, which in this case more than many others, truly is money.

I’ve written here about trying out this board game, American Throttle. I also wrote about it on Examiner.com. I don’t just republish the same piece; I totally rewrite and make it a different piece with a different angle.

I also wrote about it for RumBum.com, where I do a regular column once a week and some other article every other week. That Rum Bum column was supposed to have run yesterday but it didn’t. My editor surprised me greatly by sending me a note saying, “I’m sorry but I can’t run this piece. It doesn’t at all jibe with the mood of the site. (A bunch of guys sitting around playing a board game is pretty much the antithesis of Rum Bum, which is all about living, having cool adventures, etc.)”

Now, I knew she didn’t want a product review sort of piece, so I worked hard to give it a very different slant than I had done here or on Examiner. Nevertheless, it got axed. But you know, I thought I had done a pretty good job with it and I hate to let a good piece of writing disappear without ever being read. So I’m publishing it here, below. Check it out.

Playing the Game

Dennis was on a Fat Boy, Bill chose another Harley, while Dan and I were both riding vintage bikes older than us. We had a heck of a ride planned, starting in Seattle and ending up in Hollister, CA, site of the legendary Hollister “riot” that set the image of motorcycling back for about 50 years, and which spawned the Marlon Brando movie “The Wild One.”

We weren’t taking the direct route, however, straight south. We were doing an abbreviated Four Corners Tour, with stops in New England and Florida before reaching Southern California. Not to mention occasional side trips to Music City, the Middle of Freakin Nowhere, and elsewhere. And being that this was a motorcycle ride, we would hit the big rally locations, including Sturgis, Daytona, Laughlin, and a few more.

“Wow,” you might ask, “That’s one heck of a tour. How long did this take you?”

Oh, about an hour and a half the first time. Second time we made it in about an hour.

Huh?

OK, OK, we weren’t really out on the actual road on real motorcycles, fabulous as a trip like that would be. We were playing this board game, “American Throttle,” that is part trivia game, part poker run, and part a test of your motorcycle knowledge. On a Friday night in November it’s not very likely that you’re going to be out riding, so if you want to get together with your riding buddies it’s nice if whatever you end up doing has at least something to do with motorcycles.

I had acquired this game almost two months earlier and told all the guys about it and said I wanted to get together and play it. Were they interested? Everyone said yes but finding a night when we could all get together took two months. Even then I could only get five, counting myself, and at the last minute Alan called to say he had a plumbing emergency and would not be coming. So four of us played.

Was it a viable winter substitute for actually getting out and going for a ride? Of course not. But it did bring some of us together, and of course the number one topic of conversation was motorcycles. Plus, Bill and Dennis are members of the OFMC, while Dan is someone I met working on a piece about Iron Butt riders, and they had never met each other. So this brought them together for the first time.

As always happens, no ice breakers were needed. All three of these guys ride Harleys and they launched right into it. Dan, being an Iron Butt guy, immediately started probing to see if there were any potential Iron Butt riders in the group. He quickly identified Dennis, as I knew he would. Dennis’s longest one-day ride to date was about 800 miles, and that was on two-lane roads. Dan pointed out that that was hardly different than riding 1,000 miles on the interstate.

Life is often like a game, in that you put pieces into motion and have no way of knowing the outcome. I’ve always enjoyed bringing people together. We’ll see how this game plays out.

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Biker Quote for Today

I was a motorcyclist before I even rode one. I’d buy the magazines and dream.

The game was on Friday night and we played American Throttle, this motorcycle poker run board game that I spoke of last week. We were planning on five but a last-minute plumbing emergency kept Alan at home. The players were me, Bill, Dennis, and Dan.

Part of the fun of the evening was that Bill and Dennis had never met Dan–and vice versa, of course–so it was good to bring them together. Bill and Dennis are long-time OFMC members, while I met Dan back in January of this year working on a piece about Iron Butt riders. As always happens with bikers, familiarity came quickly and easily as talk turned to motorcycles.

I had read the instructions but knew there were a few things that were not stated as clearly as they might have been. We figured we’d work it out as we went along. Perhaps not in the way the guys who created this game intended, but we did.

Besides rolling the die, you move ahead in this game by landing on particular spaces and by correctly answering questions on the two decks of cards, “What the Hell Is That?” (WTHIT) and “Two Wheeler Trivia.” You can put money in the pot to be divided between the player who finishes first and the player with the best poker hand, but we chose not to. It didn’t seem to affect our enjoyment of the game.

Many of the cards were really tough. For instance, I got a WTHIT card with a picture of a stator on it. I’ve heard of stators for years but had never seen one. Suffice it to say I didn’t get that one right. And while all the cards are supposed to relate to motorcycles in some way, some were a bit of a stretch. For instance, 50 of the WTHIT cards were pictures of the various state flags, the idea being that if you’re out touring you’re going to be going to numerous states and might be familiar with their flags. Except for the really easy ones, like Colorado or New Mexico, we mostly shook our heads asking “What the hell is that?”

The trivia cards were much more closely tied to motorcycles so in those cases we mostly just showed our ignorance. Or knowledge. That’s what trivia is all about.

Some of the spaces have you doing silly, crude biker-type things like belching a name. Bill was the first to land on one of these and he impressed us all by doing so successfully. The rest of us either passed and took the penalty or tried and failed. I went to Music City one time and had to sing a song but the guys were all glad that I kept it very short. They were lucky I didn’t know that one very well.

I think it was Bill again, but maybe Dan, who ran into what seemed like an endless loop at one point. He landed on a WTHIT space, answered the question correctly, and moved ahead one space, as directed by the card. The cards tell you to move either one, two, or three spaces ahead and one is the most common. The problem was, moving ahead one space put him on a space that said “Sparks plugs fouled. Go back one space.” That put him back on the WTHIT space. He answered correctly again and moved ahead one space . . . and right back to WTHIT. That happened about six or seven times in a row. Yeah, we all had a good laugh about that. He finally did answer a question correctly and got to move ahead two spaces.

Overall then, what’s the verdict? Well, we definitely had a good time. Part of that, of course, was just getting together with friends but we did have fun playing the game, too. The game made for its share of laughs, as games should. We were a pretty tame lot, with Dennis and Dan both having long drives to get home and Bill needing to work in the morning, so we broke up fairly early, after only two games. As host and not needing to drive, I was the only one of us who had two beers. Can you tell we’re not young kids anymore?

If you like board games and you like motorcycles, American Throttle might be right up your alley. With winter approaching it could be a motorcycle-related activity to get together with your riding buddies. But here’s a hint: Bone up on your state flags before you play.

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Biker Quote for Today

The shortest distance between two points isn’t always the most fun.

It has taken a couple months but I’ve finally managed to pull together a bunch of guys to come over on Friday evening to try out this new board game I’ve got. It’s called American Throttle — The Game, and the box describes it as “The trivia poker run board game for motorcycle enthusiasts.”

I ran across it on an online forum and sent a note to the guys that if they’d like to send me a copy I’d be happy to try it out and write about it. The funny thing was that when they replied affirmatively, and asked for my address, it turned out they live right here in Denver, so David Veal brought the thing to my house himself and we had a chance to meet.

David told me he and his partner, Steve Schader, have had a good bit of success in marketing this thing, and I’m guessing they had a bit of fun creating it. For game pieces you get to choose from cruisers, sportbikes, a cafe racer, some customs, and some vintage bikes. The square board shows a route across the U.S. with stops at some of the major rallies, including Daytona, Sturgis, and Laughlin.

If you land on a “Two Wheel Trivia” space you draw a trivia card and, if you answer correctly, move ahead the additional spaces indicated. Of course the trivia questions have to do–at least to an extent–with motorcycling.

Elsewhere on the board are “What The Hell Is That?” spaces. On these, you draw a card and have to identify the item in the photograph which, again, will be at least somewhat related to bikes.

There’s also a deck of cards, and the point here is that you’re on a poker run. The best poker hand at the end presumably wins something. I haven’t played this yet so I’m not clear on the details but I guess I’d better read the rules before the guys start arriving on Friday.

Should be interesting; hope it’s fun. I’ll let you know.

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Biker Quote for Today

I accept no responsibility for swearing, drinking, motorcycle riding or your pregnant teenage daughter.

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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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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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