Passes & Canyons Blog

The dirt is calling me.

My introduction to RawHyde Adventures was excitement followed by disappointment. Back a few years ago when being the National Motorcycle Examiner was a viable gig I was contacted by someone asking if I’d be interested in participating in a media event at their then only facility out in California. This was to be–I don’t remember–a four or five day session where they would put us up and feed us and give us several days of off-road training. All I would have to do would be get myself there and get home. Of course I said yes instantly.

It didn’t pan out. This was a short-notice event and while I was totally flexible and able to leap in an instant, apparently the folks working for the more traditional magazines and such could not drop everything and go. It got canceled. I was bummed.

Well, just Sunday I discovered that as of June RawHyde has opened a Colorado facility. I can’t tell from their website just where exactly they are; all it says is “Located high in the Rocky Mountains on the Continental Divide Trail, in the heart of the best Adventure Riding in America.” So it’s somewhere up there in the hills.

If you’re looking to get some training for adventure riding–this is not just riding dirt, it’s more ambitious–RawHyde seems to have a pretty good program. The classes or whatever they call them are:

• Intro to Adventure Training Camp
• The Next Step Training Camp
• Rocky Mountain Adventure Ride
• High Rockies Adventure Ride
• The Continental Divide Ride

And they say coming soon, the Triple Nickel Test Ride Program. Not sure what that is.

It looks good. The intro unit is described as, “For experienced street riders wanting to get comfortable in the dirt.” Here’s what they say it will include:

• An introduction to dirt riding techniques and the top mistakes people make
• Body position for effective off-road riding
• Throttle, brake and clutch techniques
• Weight-shift techniques for steering
• Balance techniques
• Turning technique using counterbalancing
• Obstacle avoidance
• How to control front and rear wheel skids
• Hard Acceleration technique on dirt and gravel
• Hill Climbing
• Descending steep hills in a controlled manner
• How to ride in Sand and Gravel
• How to recover from a stall on a steep hill
• How to turn around, fully loaded on a steep hill

That sounds like that would about do it. Where do I sign up? And how much does it cost?

Oh yeah, cost. Get out your wallet, cause it ain’t cheap. If you ride your own bike (they do have rentals) the sign-up is $1,395. Ouch. Some people obviously have more money than I do. Maybe you.

What you get for that money is a two and one-half day program, food and beverages, three nights lodging, and a T-shirt. And not just any food. “All meals prepared by Cordon Bleu trained Chefs.”

So, wow. Wow, I’d really like to do this. Wow, I really don’t have that kind of money. Hey RawHyde, if you want to do a media event to help publicize the fact that you’ve got this new operation running, give me a call. I’ll say yes in a heartbeat once again. I’ll even bring my own bike.

Biker Quote for Today

That hill doesn’t look too hard…..you go first!

Have you ever whined that you’d really like to see how fast your bike can go but you don’t want to risk the ticket? Stop your whining, here’s your chance.

Erico Motorsports just announced that they are sponsoring two track days at High Plains Raceway, out east near Byers. The dates are June 4 and August 6.

The charge to just go out on the track is $250. For an extra Benjamin Erico offers “a ton of coaching from Team Erico to include classroom time. Yeah, we’re not pros but I’ll bet we can get you going much faster, staying much safer, and having a blast riding your bike how it was intended.”

Of course, you’ve got to have all the gear, and you need to drain your coolant and replace it with water. They’ll be serving breakfast at 7:30 a.m. and the track will be ready to at 8:30.

If you’re interested, you’ll need to contact John at john@ericomotorsports.com. He’s also there to answer any questions you might have and provide complete information.

I did a track day once and I have to tell you, it was humbling. There were the folks who knew they belonged in the beginner group and then some of us who couldn’t conceive that we should be in that lowly position. I went out with the mid-level group and promptly found myself the slowest guy on the track, by a long shot. But I had fun and maybe I learned enough to get at least a bit better. It definitely made me a lot more respectful of the skill those guys have who go really, really fast.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Clock ticks as Michigan’s Snyder weighs helmet repeal

Biker Quote for Today

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness has never owned a sportbike.

Most of us have learned a lot of lessons in motorcycling by doing things that make us say, “Oops, I guess I won’t do that again.” It’s called experience.

Well, the folks who work for the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) have between them an awful lot of experience. And somebody got the idea for them all to collect the tips they have picked up along the way and offer their wisdom to all riders. The result is the Rider Resources page on the AMA website. It’s worth a look.

The page has three sections, Riding, Wrenching, and Learning. Each section offers a variety of articles on different topics. For instance, under Riding they offer “33 Secrets for Smart Touring,” “Tips for Crossing the Border,” and “Keeping Warm.” Under Wrenching the topics include such as “Used-Bike Buying Checklist” and “The Bike Stopped. Now What?” “Books We Love to Read” and “Riding With Disabilities” are two of the topics under Learning.

A lot of the info is sure to be stuff most of us already know, though newbies will find it very helpful. A lot is not such common knowledge. For instance, among the 33 touring tips are some jewels like this: If you’re nearing the end of your riding day and want to set yourself up for a quick getaway in the morning, consider riding to the far side of the next city you reach before you stop for the night, eliminating urban traffic the next morning.

At the same time, I find it amusing that the piece on what to do if the bike stops on you doesn’t mention what is probably one of the biggest reasons for this sort of occurrence: the kill switch. Who among us hasn’t had the experience of the bike either dying or failing to start and after beating our heads against the wall for . . . how long? . . . realizing it was just the kill switch. It happened to me one time when I reached over to engage my throttle lock and inadvertently hit that switch. I was stopped there by the side of the road for 15 minutes before it dawned on me.

That shortcoming aside, however, a whole bunch of riders offering their best advice has to have something of value for just about any rider. Take a look and see what you can learn.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you crash your bicycle when you lock up the tire because you were trying to use the brake as a clutch lever.

For a lot of people, getting into riding motorcycles consists of simply throwing their legs over the bike and riding off. Never mind that that may be just a bit less preparation than would be good, most do eventually figure it out.

Others are a bit more hesitant. They welcome some coaching, and even once they learn to ride they still welcome coaching to move to the next level. That’s where the AMA Conference Tour comes in. Organized by my friend Alisa Clickenger (aka MotoAdventureGal) and her associate, Karen Thomson, this ride is intended to help women riders gain confidence in and learn the ways of motorcycle touring.

I’m interpreting some of this from their website but as I read it, their name for their venture is Women’s Empowerment Motorcycle Tour, and this AMA Conference Tour is one of two they are promoting this year. The other is a 10-day Pacific Northwest Tour. Their first ever event was the original Women’s Empowerment Motorcycle Tour last year. (I’m sure Alisa will clarify this for me if I’ve got it wrong.)

So anyway, this AMA Conference Tour starts out in Denver on July 20 and is a 6-day ride to Carson City, NV, where the American Motorcyclist Association will be hosting the International Women & Motorcycling Conference.

As they note on the site, “Besides the normal tour itinerary and enjoyment, the tour will include pre-trip personal coaching, confidence building exercises, and during-tour seminars to give every rider a toolbox of skills they can rely on when planning or implementing their own future trips.”

Now, there’s no mention of the return trip, so I have the idea that once the riders get the experience going out there they’re going to get to put what they’ve learned into practice immediately getting home on their own.

So hey, great time. Road trip. Just ride the dang thing.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
AMA doubles up on dirt ride series

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycles make good girls do bad things!

Senate Bill 89, which would have eliminated Colorado’s Motorcycle Operator Safety Training (MOST) program, died in committee Tuesday. But the senators who wish to give reform efforts a chance to succeed made it clear they will vote differently in the future if the program is not fixed.

The idea that the program has problems was not contested by anyone. The only discussion was on whether to kill the program outright or first let those involved with MOST do what they can to fix it. On a party line vote, the majority Democrats on the committee voted for the latter while the minority Republicans voted to kill the program.

In arguing for killing MOST, Sen. Scott Renfroe, the bill’s sponsor, challenged the need for such a program and said it was an area in which the government need not get involved. Sen. Renfroe made it clear he supports rider training, pointing out that he himself rides motorcycles, but that he feels the program has outlived its usefulness.

Opponents of the bill expressed concerns that killing MOST could result in the loss of an annual $100,000 grant for motorcycle safety efforts from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. They also said that in talks with the Colorado Department of Revenue (DoR), DoR had made it clear that if MOST was killed, the department would no longer accept Beginning Rider Course certification in lieu of the department’s own testing of riders seeking to get licensed. Sen. Renfroe said he questioned whether DoR would in fact do that.

If DoR did do that, opponents pointed out, it would mean that the expense of testing, which is currently borne by the riders taking the courses, would fall on DoR, driving up government expenses.

Sen. Renfroe pointed to results of a survey conducted among riders who had taken the courses, saying that the riders themselves stated overwhelmingly that an increase in the price of the class would not have deterred them from taking them. Speaking for the Colorado Department of Transportation, which supported allowing time for the program to be fixed, Herman Stockinger pointed out that in fact, the survey showed that nearly 50 percent had said a $70 increase would indeed have caused them to reconsider. Seventy dollars per student is the amount that rider training is subsidized through MOST.

“That’s perhaps 4,000 plus people (per year) who wouldn’t have taken the training,” said Stockinger.

So MOST has a reprieve but it is not out of the woods. It is now up to those involved with MOST to put into effect the recommendations of a legislative audit report. And if those recommendations are not enacted, the next time this issue comes up the outcome could be very different.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Colorado motorcycle training program gets reprieve

Biker Quote for Today

It’s our job. Burnin’ gasoline, killin’ bugs, and wearing out tires! — StevenE Fristoe

OK, it has taken about five months but I’ve finally gotten re-energized about becoming a RiderCoach and teaching other people to ride motorcycles. You may recall that I took RiderCoach training way back in June, and I passed it successfully, but my experience was rather dismal and discouraging. There were more steps to take before I could actually become an instructor but I didn’t take any of them, until now.

I was calling over to ABATE of Colorado a couple weeks ago to speak with Terry Howard, the state coordinator, and Ben Hochberg picked up the phone. Ben is the head of ABATE’s rider training program, and was the lead instructor in the RiderCoach class. I figured what the heck, I’ve got Ben on the line, I might as well talk to him about moving ahead.

So I did, and he told me a bit about what I need to do next, and said he would send me the paperwork they need. One thing I knew they needed was for me to get affiliated with the state’s MOST program, the Motorcycle Operator Safety Training program. I contacted Paul Peterson, the honcho over at MOST, and he emailed the materials they need back from me. So now it’s a matter of getting all this pulled together.

It has taken me till now to do all this because I ended the RiderCoach training feeling very discouraged. I didn’t feel I did very well in the class, despite passing, because I had several major screw-ups. I guess I finally worked my way through understanding and accepting those screw-ups. For one thing, the kinds of things I did wrong were things that I’m never likely to do again. Learning is a matter of trial and error. I made my errors; now I know not to do those things again. I know I can do this, I just needed some time for my confidence to return.

Additionally, though, the training was a very unpleasant experience because we were standing out on hot asphalt all day on blazing hot days. I was feeling pretty bad, which may have contributed to my poor performance. The training ended on Sunday and I went, as I always do, to the gym on Monday for a work-out. Stepping on the scale at the gym I found that I was down six pounds from my normal weight. That was odd. Then, two days later, back at the gym, having done nothing out of the ordinary, I had regained all of those six pounds.

My conclusion is that I must have become seriously dehydrated during those days out on the range, despite drinking a lot of water. And of course, that would have affected my mental performance. So OK, let’s learn from this. I figure that if when I go out on the range on hot days like that, I make sure to drink a bottle or two of GatorAde or some other drink to restore electrolytes, I’ll probably be in much, much better condition. And do a better job.

Presumably I’ll find out if I’m right about all this. I’m sure you’ll be able to read about it here in the next few months. Wish me well.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #20

Biker Quote for Today

Look for their eyes, that way you know if you are about to be in an accident or if they are going to do it on purpose.

This whole thing is a little confusing. I’ve always known the pass on CO 114 between Gunnison and Saguache as North Pass, but my friend John calls it North Cochetopa Pass. On top of the pass it uses that name on the sign. But I find it called by both names in various places. Go figure.

Either way, I had been over it but when we rode over it yesterday I was very surprised to find it much nicer than I remember. Just as I remembered, it was a gentle climb through pine forests from Saguach, and no spectacular views. Nice, but I’ve never considered it worthy of giving it its own page here on this website.

What I had forgotten was going down on the Gunnison side. The road quickly descends from the heights and exits the pine forest to wind its way down a ranching canyon. You have brown hills rising on both sides and the bottom land is covered in meadows, hay fields, and pasture. The home of many happy horses and cows.

Then the canyon narrows. All of a sudden you’re riding some great twisties between towering rock canyon walls, with the narrow canyon bottom taken up equally by the river and the road. The canyon then opens up again, and later it gets tight and steep. One road sign tells it all: Trucker beware–tight turns next 8 miles.

The bottom line is that if you’re out this way it’s worth riding this pass. It’s an alternative to Monarch Pass, and while Monarch is more spectacular, if you’ve been over Monarch before and haven’t been on North Cochetopa, and particularly if you’re coming up from Alamosa, you can go wrong taking this road. Enjoy.

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Biker Quote for Today

Chrome don’t get ya home.

It was not a motorcycle trip but my wife, Judy, and I were out running around the mountains last weekend and had a chance to really compare some maps I had brought along. We were in her new Subaru Forester, which is an all-wheel-drive vehicle with high clearance, so we wanted to do some dirt, and take some roads we hadn’t been on before.

I brought along three maps that I figured would be useful. One is the Colorado Motorcycle Skill Rating Map that was put together largely by ABATE of Colorado and the Motorcycle Roadracing Association for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Another was the Colorado Bicycling and Scenic Byways Map, also produced by CDOT. The third was the Butler Motorcycle Maps Colorado map.

With Judy playing navigator, I drove. We went over Ripple Creek Pass, on the Flat Tops Trail Scenic Byway, which runs from Yampa over to Meeker. Later we went partway back along that road to Buford and took the Buford to Newcastle Road. Then we drove the Colorado River Road from Dotsero to a little north of State Bridge on CO 131, and finally over the Trough Road, which runs from State Bridge to Kremmling. The first two are rough roads that you would not want to take a street bike on (though we have in fact ridden the Flat Tops Byway on street bikes–bad idea!), while the other two are just fine for street bikes.

All in all, we had a great time, saw some great scenery, and gathered a lot of information that will eventually end up in the Dirt Roads section of this website. What I hadn’t really thought about, though, was what a good test this was for the maps. They all three were helpful in their way, but the word from the navigator is very clear: The Butler Maps Colorado map is the best.

What that means, very simply, is that the one you pay money for is better than the two free ones. That stands to reason, and is appropriate, but of course was not something you could just assume. But we put them to the test and that’s the verdict. And let me make the point here as well that this is not a verdict biased by the fact that Butler advertises on this site. I’m not sure Judy is even aware of that. She just switched back and forth between the three again and again and at one point told me in no uncertain terms that I should tell everyone that the the Butler map was the best. So there you go. I’ve passed the word along.

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Biker Quote for Today

I’m slower than a dude riding one-handed on a DR350 while running a video camera. -Bk.Rd.Rnr