Passes & Canyons Blog

I’m not a procrastinator, but sometimes it looks that way. It’s just that I learned a long time ago that it frequently pays to put off making decisions because so often there will be a turn of events that makes the decision for you. In this case, I was saying just a week ago here that I definitely planned to go on the Old Bike Ride 9 this coming Sunday. Now I’m not so sure.

I have a conflict. If I want to go on the OBR I need to be in Golden at 9 a.m. or so. But I’m also an ABATE member and our district meeting is at 10 a.m. in Aurora. This might not be an issue except that I’ve missed this meeting every month for the last six months at least. Several times I was out of town, a couple times I just plain forgot it, and once or twice I got screwed up with meetings rescheduled due to holidays. I’m not the kind of guy who joins an organization with no intention of participating. If I’m not going to participate why bother joining? I was really determined to make it to this month’s meeting, but I hadn’t looked at the calendar.

This is where postponing decisions comes in. We’ve had a lot of rain and cold weather lately. If it’s raining on Sunday morning I’m going to go to ABATE. If it’s a beautiful day I’ll make my decision then.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Uno update: The most startling motorcycle you’ve ever seen

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycles are better than women because your parents don’t remain in touch with your old motorcycle after you dump it.

It’s just huge the number of rides and events for motorcyclists coming up in the near future, as demonstrated by the long list on my Rides and Rallies page, which is nowhere near complete. No one can do it all, but here’s what I have in mind for keeping myself busy.

Zero Motorcycles demo riding, May 14 — This is going on at Fay Myers Motorcycle World, at 9700 E. Arapahoe Road in Greenwood Village, as part of their annual spring Open House. Also featured are appearances by Jason Britton and Jeremy McGrath. Free food, entertainment, and prizes, too. For me, the real interest is in demo riding the Zeros. I’ve done so before but I always itch for more.

EagleRider Open House, May 21 — I’m going to have to make some choices this weekend. This event at EagleRider is something I’m interested in just because of my experience with the EagleRider crew in October. The manager here in Denver, Matt Weddle, says they’ll be “offering food, door prizes like free rentals and apparel, discounted Fulmer apparel, hosting a ride in bike show, etc…”

National Vintage Trials Series, May 21 and 22 — This is not for sure, but I’ve been interested for some time in seeing a trials competition. This is where riders do seemingly impossible things on their bikes, like going straight up boulders and such. To add a little extra interest, this is a vintage motorcycle event, so it’s going to be old bikes doing amazing things. It will be at Howard, which is in the Arkansas River Canyon, a little west of Cotopaxi, between Canon City and Salida. If I don’t make it to this event I’m going to try really hard to make it to another one later this summer.

Old Bike Ride 9, May 22 — I went on this ride last year and definitely plan to go again this year. Basically, it’s a bunch of guys with old bikes who get out and ride them. My 1980 CB750 Custom definitely qualifies as old and that’s what I’ll be on. The ride starts at 9:30 a.m. promptly at the Golden Hotel, 800 11th St. in Golden.

Of course, the main thing I’m going to be doing in the next few weeks is just simply riding. It’s the time of year when my car gets used less and less. Who could ask for more?

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Demo riding the Yamaha FZ8

Biker Quote for Today

Will Ride for FOOD

I put 2,143 miles on my Concours in 10 days going down to Arizona Bike Week, in Scottsdale, and the Overland Expo, in Amado, and there were parts that exceeded my expectations and others that fell short. It’s always that way, isn’t it?

It was some hard riding. Three of those days were in excess of 400 miles, with one of those being more than 500 miles. The weather in Arizona was blazing hot, hitting 100 some days. Nights were just as balmy as could be. If I lived in Arizona I think I’d sleep all day and be up and about all night. (That photo above is of me in the Kawasaki tent in Scottsdale, courtesy of computer simulation.)

While a large part of my riding was interstate, there were a couple stretches on the two-lane that were really good. Those would be the run from Holbrook, AZ, down to Scottsdale, which went through some forested mountains, and the route from Lordsburg, NM, over to I-25 a little south of Truth or Consequences. That last road seems to me to compete with the Tail of the Dragon for curves. I definitely recommend it.

Arizona Bike Week itself was a bit of a disappointment. There was little going on during the day, when it was blazing hot, and at night it depended on what group was playing in the party tent. The nights that Skid Row and Heart played there were a lot of people. The other nights were pretty slim. My conclusion is that this rally is primarily a local event that is primarily of interest to folks nearby who drop in for an evening.

Of considerably more interest was the Overland Expo down in Amado. This expo is for people who want to go adventure touring, whether on two wheels or four, and there were some amazing people in attendance. Ted Simon, who wrote Jupiter’s Travels, was there, as was Lois Pryce, who is well known for her travels as reported in Lois on the Loose and Red Tape and White Knuckles.

It was fascinating to see all the specialized gear–not to mention the incredible vehicles–that the vendors brought to show. It was also very interesting to speak with the organizers, Roseann and Jonathan Hanson, about their vision for the expo. I’ll have more on them and the expo later.

In truth, I had never seen all that much of Arizona before, so it was great to see so much of it now. Arizona has its own sort of very real beauty, but I have to say, I was glad to get into New Mexico where the beauty is less harsh. I could live in New Mexico but I don’t think I’d ever want to live in Arizona.

Most of all, though, the trip was a chance to escape the winter doldrums. It was, after all, the first bike trip of the year. It got me out of my day to day routine and away from this computer. The writing I do for a living is mostly about my motorcycling experiences in one way or another, and now I have a lot of new experiences to write about. I’d say that counts as a successful trip.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Arizona Bike Week builds up slowly (with photos)

Biker Quote for Today

Ahhh…the sound of a bike far off in the distance, late on a clear evening, calls to me, saying rise up and catch the wind under the moonlight’s embrace.

Some people do amazing things on motorcycles. You know, like go around the world, or ride from Alaska to the tip of South America. Serious adventure riding. To them I say, more power to you! Go for it! Just don’t ask me to come along.

I’ve been down in Amado, AZ, at the third annual Overland Expo, which is for folks who do like to do those sorts of things. (That picture above is in the motorcycle “corral” at the expo.) Some of the people there are those folks who we’ve all heard of for their renowned exploits. There was Ted Simon, who wrote the book Jupiter’s Travels about his four-year ride around the world in the 1970s, back before this kind of thing got popular. Lois Pryce was there, the author of Lois on the Loose, about her ride from Alaska to Argentina. And others.

I sat in on Ted’s and Lois’s presentations and what they did is truly amazing. Awe-inspiring. Incredible. They showed pictures and talked about the extreme troubles they overcame, as well as the extreme joys they experienced, and I came away from it all with the very definite thought in my mind that I just don’t want to do that. I don’t want to subject myself to the incredible hardships they faced. I don’t want to spend hours and days wrestling overloaded motorcycles through mud up to the seat. I don’t want to end up in jail in some foreign country. I’m sorry, you’re just going to have to count me out.

The whole basis of the Overland Expo is to bring people together, people who have done these things and people who would like to do these things. To inspire people to just make up their mind and do it. And it’s not just this kind of extreme adventuring. Maybe you just want to ride through Mexico but don’t know how to go about planning and preparing. That’s the kind of thing you’ll get out of Overland Expo. And that’s the sort of thing I could get into. Just because Ben Slavins quit his job to take six months and ride from New Hampshire to Ushuaia, Argentina, doesn’t mean you have to quit your job to go adventuring, or overlanding as the activity is called.

Actually, the way I see it, I was out overlanding myself this last 10 days. I packed up the bike and took off for places I’d never been before, met new people, saw new sights, learned a whole bunch, and had a great time. It’s not Ted Simon extreme, but it’s really just the level of the adventure. I’m not at his level and I don’t want to be. But it was still an adventure. And I’ll do it again. You should, too. You know, quit dreaming and just do it.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Arizona Bike Week comes to life, with photos

Biker Quote for Today

If you can’t pick it up by yourself, it is not an adventure bike.

I’ve been to enough motorcycle rallies now that I’m getting to have a feel for their ebb and flow. They’ll say they start on one date but there’s a whole lot of activity in the days leading up to the first day, and then on the first day there’s kind of a let-down. You look for the crowds to come flocking in but they don’t. Basically they start with a rumble, not a roar, and then that rumble builds and gets louder. Literally.

So I got down here to Scottsdale for Arizona Bike Week on Monday, while the actual rally started yesterday, Wednesday. (This photo is sunset over West World, where the rally is held.) That was a good plan because I’m camping and I figured if there were any choice spots with shade that those spots would be taken first. I wanted to be one of the takers. Turned out there is one big tree in the middle of this detention pond area and I was the fourth tent, taking the last prime spot.

It is a detention pond, by the way. It’s green and grassy, but if we had a heavy rainfall we could all drown.

So Bike Week opened yesterday but it was still pretty quiet around here until about 6 p.m. That’s when the bikes started pouring in the gate. That probably had partly to do with the fact that the Miss Arizona Bike Week Pageant began at 6 and partly because it was locals who had gotten off work and had now ridden over to check out the rally and catch the performance by Skid Row. Not a lot of people with gear packed on their bikes.

That’s the other thing I’m coming to see. Rallies seem to divide into two classes. You have the big ones that take over a town, like Sturgis or Daytona, where there’s no fee or anything, you just show up. Then there are the ones like Arizona Bike Week where all the action is within an enclosed space and you have to pay to get it. The Sturgises and Daytonas are definitely the most interesting.

Doesn’t matter. I’m here, I’m actually able to relax a lot more than I normally do at these things, and it’s a hugely welcome relief from the day to day routine imposed by winter. Plus, it’s great riding weather.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Arizona Bike Week begins with a rumble, with photos

Biker Quote for Today

“The idea of putting a jet engine on a motorcycle is so stupid it appeals to me.” – Jay Leno

I’ll be leaving on my first big motorcycle trip of the year in about a week so I’ve been getting that nagging feeling that I need to be figuring out where I’m going and especially where I’m going to stay along the way. That staying part really matters to me because I’m on a very tight budget and if I don’t limit my spending this whole thing will end up costing me money. Ideally I’m supposed to make some money off it selling the articles that I write about the trip and the events I’m going to. (Although that campsite in the photo above, in Laughlin, NV, was too gritty event for me, so I only stayed there one night.)

Right off the bat I got a bit of a surprise. I use Microsoft Streets & Trips to map out routes, and if you want it to it can show you the shortest route between any two places. I put in Denver and Scottsdale and was surprised to find that it routed me west on I-70 and then south to Scottsdale. I had in mind going south on I-25 and, catching I-40 at Albuquerque, and then going south from Flagstaff to the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. I don’t normally like taking the interstate but in this case I need to cover distance and I just want to get there as quickly as possible. Plus, the weather is still an unknown and I figure going south first is my better bet.

So I added Albuquerque to the route and presto, there’s what I had expected–sort of–and it was only 9 miles longer. What was the sort of? What I hadn’t considered–because I really don’t know Arizona all that well–is that the more direct route leaves I-40 at Holbrook, AZ, and cuts southwest to Scottsdale across some desert, some forest, and a mountain range. Cool! Whatever I lose in speed by leaving the interstate I’ll surely regain by the shorter distance, and I’ll be riding a two-lane road through some places I’ve never been before. That’s more my idea of a fun motorcycle trip.

Then where to stay. Last year going out to the Laughlin River Run I spent three days getting there. I stayed the first night at my brother’s in Grand Junction, and the second night at the home of some people in Cedar City, UT, who I connected with through the Motorcycle Travel Network. I checked the MTN first thing but there are no members along my route.

If I ride to Albuquerque the first day it’s going to be a long ride but that will also leave me just as long a ride the next day. Plus, at interstate speeds on my Kawasaki Concours, a highway-loving machine, that should only take me five hours of actual riding time. The fact is, if I really wanted to push it I could probably go the entire 850 miles to Scottsdale that first day but that would be truly extreme. Besides, when I ride that leg between Holbrook and Scottsdale I want to be able to enjoy it. So I looked for somewhere between Albuquerque and Scottsdale as a likely place to spend the night.

First I checked Gallup. I’ve stayed in Gallup before and what I’ve found there are semi-expensive motels and super-cheap ones where I would fear getting bedbugs. There is a KOA there that would run me $24. That would be OK. But what are my other options?

A little east of Gallup are the two towns of Prewitt and Grants. Both of them seem to have camping, for less than the KOA. I’m thinking that by the time I get to either of those towns I will be so ready to get off the bike that not going that extra 50-60 miles on to Gallup will be extremely attractive. And if I get to each of them and the camping isn’t available or whatever, I can still go on that extra distance to Gallup.

So OK. I guess I’m set. I always have some trepidation before I set out on one of these trips and this one is no exception. On the other hand, I’ve been feeling kind of down and discouraged lately, I think from being cooped up all winter, and this would seem like the perfect antidote. I’m itching to get on the road.

Biker Quote for Today

If you owned a plane would you trailer it, too?