Passes & Canyons Blog

It has been a good year for this motorcyclist, and a lot of the good parts have been reflected here in this blog. Here’s a recap of the highlights, in case you missed any of these.

Having a Great Time at the Motorcycle Ice Races
The year got off to a really fun start when we went to see the ice races. Yes, it was cold, but even Judy had a blast. It’s almost January now so we’ll be heading back up soon for another dose.

Checkin’ Out the Swap Meet
This is another January tradition. I’d be going to this event if for no other reason than all the great photos I get of fancy motorcycles.

Rounding the Curves at High Plains Raceway
What a surprise to happen by High Plains Raceway and discover that it was ready to open. The last I had heard the likelihood of that had been given to me as slim or none, but there it was.

Working for Dedicated Motorcycle Parking
This was a story that I picked up on and followed that promised good things for bikers in Denver. The city was planning to set up motorcycle-only parking in currently underused spaces around downtown. Unfortunately, as with so many other things, the recession nipped that bud. While the cost would have been negligible, any cost that was not mandatory was deemed expendable. Maybe next year.

12 Motorcycling Lessons I’ve Learned
This was a series of articles I had done for Examiner.com, which I made available here in booklet form.

A Day at the Motorcycle Races, New Track Inaugural
High Plains Raceway did indeed open and I was there for the first ever motorcycle racing event held.

Meeting Up with the Run for the Wall in Limon
This was the first of what has become a series of events that I’ve covered via participants who send me reports. As this thundering horde came through Colorado on its way to D.C., I went out and met them in Limon.

Broken Wings: The Back Story
“Broken Wings: When a biker goes down hard” was one of the best pieces I’ve ever written, and as I have taken to doing, I told the behind the scenes story here, while running the story itself on Examiner.com.

Three Days on the Bike, An Exploration
I rode old U.S. 6 from Denver to the state line with Utah, seeing just how much of the old road survives what with I-70 taking much the same route.

Taylor Canyon and Cottonwood Pass Are Keepers and I Finally Make It To Kebler Pass
I finally got to some places in Colorado I’d never been to. Doesn’t get any better than that.

Heading to the Bonneville Vintage GP and Concours
Taking this moto-journalist thing seriously, I headed out to the salt flats for this event. Had a great time.

Douglas Pass Deserves to Be on the Website
Another great Colorado road I’d never been on. Now if I can ever find the time to get this up on the site like I promised.

My Chance to Ride a Racing Sidecar–Barely
Part of the reason the trip to Bonneville was such fun.

30K Harley Rider Does Iron Butt Extreme
I got a tip about this guy who rode 30,000 miles in 30 days, and called just as he got home. What a terrific story.

OK, that’s some of the good ones. There are more but I don’t want to drag on too long here. If you’ve been keeping up with these stories as they’ve been written I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride at least a little bit as much as I have. More to come in the new year.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
What’s up (Way up!) with ape hangers?

Biker Quote for Today

If you’re riding on 2 wheels then you’re OK by me!!

Motorcycle groups are known for their generosity, especially around Christmas time. Toys for Tots rides are common as well as a variety of other similar events.

I spent a good part of my afternoon today with other members of my ABATE District 10 as well as members from other districts and other organizations unloading a truck with food enough to feed 400 families for a week. The $11,000 to pay for it all came from ABATE fundraisers as well as events put on by the Frontier Club, VFW Post 3631, and the Friends of ABATE.

The event is officially the ABATE District 10 Erica Reyes Kids Without a Christmas. This is the second year D-10 has done this. The Aurora Police Department and the Aurora Fire Department will handle selecting the needy families and distributing the goods. In addition to food, this year there were two pallets of winter coats donated and Avon donated a large quantity of their products.

ABATE D-10 also shared some of the food with D-5 to help them out in their own charitable efforts. Altogether, approximately 40 people from D-10, D-5, the APD, the AFD, and the local Star motorcycles owners’ group gathered to greet and unload the truck.

Randy Savely, D-10 Representative, said, “It’s been great. We enjoy it. We’re letting them know we’re not all bad guys out here.”

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Motorcycle crash expert Harry Hurt dies

Biker Quote for Today

don’t care ’bout going fast…just want to go far…

Note: I wrote this for publication on Sept. 3 and just discovered that it never went out. Oops. So here it is just as it should have been back then.

And the beat goes on.

I started in the motorcycle publishing world by building this website, and then adding this blog to the site. That led to me being recruited to write for Examiner.com, first as their Denver Motorcycle Examiner and then as their National Motorcycle Examiner. The blog is in its fourth year and I’ve been doing the Examiner thing since May of 2008.

My standard line to anyone asking is that Examiner does not pay much but it opens doors. One door it opened is BikeBandit.com, where we have worked out an agreement where they occasionally republish one of my Examiner posts on their website, and pay me for doing so. That’s gravy because it doesn’t require anything more of me.

Now another door has opened. Starting next week I will be writing a couple times a week for RumBum.com, a website focused on fun times and people enjoying themselves. My topic, of course, is motorcycles and the motorcycle culture.

As I mentioned on Monday, I’ll be heading to Utah for this weekend’s Bonneville Vintage GP and Concours, and my first post on RumBum will be a piece on that event. Of course I’ll also be telling you about it here. I’m sure there will be enough that I won’t be duplicating myself.

So I invite you to click on over to RumBum and catch me there. Who knows, there’s probably other stuff over there you’ll find interesting as well.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Demo riding the BMW K1300GT

Biker Quote for Today

When life throws you curves, aim for the apex.

This is another back story post. I’m working on a feature article on deaf motorcyclists and in the process of doing so I’ve been finding out something a bit surprising. Deaf riders don’t see themselves as any different from those of us who can hear, they just can’t hear.

In the picture above, we see Jasmine Bluecreek-Clark (left) conversing with Cody Weese (second from right) during a motorcycle mechanics training class, while Roger Clark and Tom Crawford (right) observe. Cody is completely deaf and Jasmine is 80 percent deaf in her left ear. Tom is mostly deaf and has been riding for 35 years. Jasmine taught Cody to ride 2 years ago.

Now think about this for a moment. In rider training courses the instructors use hand signals. Why? Because with the noise of the bike, and all students wearing helmets, it can be hard to hear what they’re saying.

And it’s no different on the road. Unless we have bike to bike communication systems, we tend to use hand signals a lot. If anything, deaf riders have an advantage over the rest of us in that regard because hand signing is their native tongue.

But what about when an ambulance, fire truck, or police car comes screaming up behind you with lights flashing and siren wailing? Well, there is that part about the lights flashing. Deaf riders depend far more than the rest of us on their vision. They are far more focused than we are on checking their mirrors and being visually aware of their surroundings. And of course, one aspect of that is that if they see other traffic pulling over then they know they probably ought to do so as well, even if there are no flashing lights to be seen.

Many people wonder how it is that deaf people can even be allowed to drive but again, think about it. Nancy Soccermom drives around in her SUV with the radio blaring, the kids screaming, perhaps talking on her cell phone, with the windows rolled up and the air conditioning on. It’s not as if she’s going to hear much going on outside either, is she? Plus, she’s probably not paying anywhere near as much attention to her driving as deaf people do.

So this is an interesting story. I’m still researching it so it’s not ready for publication yet but I’ll let you know when it is.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Mods and Rockers roll again in Colorado Springs

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is an ego-driven venture. Whether it’s our quest for freedom and the open road, the need for speed, group riding or solo, motorcyclists are living life on the edge and know it. Some revel in it. The trick for any rider is to find a healthy balance between that drive to live on the edge, and the sensibility to step back from the edge before it’s too late.

The best thing about being the National Motorcycle Examiner for Examiner.com is the doors that are constantly opening for me because of it. One of the odder opportunities to come my way recently was the question, would I like to speak to singer/songwriter Andy Chase. And oh yeah, Andy is a motorcycle lover.

Mind you now, I’d never heard of Andy Chase, of Brookville, which is what he calls himself in his solo project, or Ivy, in which he is part of a threesome that includes the bassist from Fountains of Wayne. I thought it was pretty odd to get this email but, because music is another passion of mine, I figured what the heck. The worst I could do would be waste an hour of my time, and in the meantime, it might turn into something really interesting. Not to mention different. I like different.

So we ended up setting yesterday as the day to talk. The date is significant because Andy’s latest Brookville release came out today and tonight he’ll be in San Francisco playing the first gig in his tour to promote the new album.

Tracy, Andy’s publicist, had suggested in her initial email that she’d be happy to “set up a time to chat with Andy Chase about his bikes, and how the lifestyle affects his art.” OK, I figured, my first question to Andy would be along the lines of, “How does your lifestyle affect your art?” I mean, I’m a motorcycle guy, writing for an audience of motorcyclists. Make me care. Make my readers care.

Andy’s short answer was simply, it doesn’t. OK, think fast Ken, what do you ask now?

Fortunately I thought to ask him if there were any interesting and/or amusing stories to tell from the taping of his video for “Great Mistake,” the first single from this album, “Broken Lights.” Bingo. I was in the money. You can read his amusing tales of the shoot in the Examiner piece, “Talking motorcycles with Brookville’s Andy Chase.”

We talked about riding, too. Andy has a Ducati ST4S, a Moto Guzzi Stone, and a BMW 650 GS. The bike he’s riding in the video is the Guzzi, but don’t spend too much time watching the video to get a good look at. Andy told me they weren’t sure if there would be issues using a recognizable bike in the video so they put the tape together with shots that make it nearly impossible to tell what he is in fact riding.

Although he grew up riding dirt bikes, Andy told me he has gotten into road riding primarily due to the traveling he has done with bands over the years. He’s a New York kid and I guess he didn’t see too much of the country. Once he started seeing the whole U.S. he wanted to see more, and started doing motorcycle touring so he could really see it. The Ducati is his tour bike of choice.

All in all, it was an interesting conversation and it gave me some good material. As a writer, good material is one of the best things you can have. Who knows. Maybe I’ll start doubling as a music critic. I’m already getting emails from his publicist about other acts. Thank you Examiner for opening another door.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Model on-highway sound legislation drafted by AMA–if only cities will use it

Biker Quote for Today

Every time I start thinking the world is all bad, I see some people on motorcycles, it makes me take another look–Steve McQueen

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.