Passes & Canyons Blog

I’m definitely going on this trip but it’s going to cost me a bundle.

I told my wife, Judy, at lunch the other day that I had spent the morning spending an obscene amount of money. I was making my motel reservations for this RMMRC ride to California in April. I’m figuring that by the time you add in motels, gas, and food I’m going to be spending around $3,000 on this trip. Yikes!

Why so much? Mostly it’s motels. There are only four of us going and two have agreed to share rooms. I would have been fine sharing with the fourth but he prefers to have his own room. I have no idea why; I just know that some people do prefer their privacy, even if it means paying more.

What a difference from the early days of the OFMC. Back in those days, long ago, we were not anybody’s idea of flush. John and Bill and I would get into town, split up, and go check prices and availability at several motels, then regroup and choose. Most of the time we got rooms with two beds and we rotated whose turn it was to sleep on the floor. We also carried tents and sleeping bags to we could camp if we wanted to or needed to. We didn’t make reservations in those days so sometimes that camping gear saved our butts.

So affluence is a big part of this spending escalation. We never went the expensive route back then for the simple reason that that was money we did not have. Cheap was a necessity. Fortunately those days are over. I’m not crazy about spending so much on this trip but I have the money and it is money I can afford to part with.

The other thing is aging, although for myself that really is not an issue. The group of us who are going got together the other day to prepare and they all agreed that camping is well in their pasts. Gosh, I still enjoy camping, as does Judy. But beyond camping, these guys have certain standards for accommodations that rule out most of the cheaper places. For instance, we’ll be in St. George, Utah, one night and there are a lot of places where you can get a room there for less than $100. The place the group selected, however, runs about $200. This is one instance where I opted to stay down the road a couple miles and pay about $60 less. It’s still a plenty nice place and I don’t know what the reason was for choosing the higher-priced place but I just can’t see any reason to pay that price.

In other cases there really was no choice. We’ll be spending one night in Death Valley and there are not a lot of accommodations available in Death Valley. And then, the place we’re staying has much higher rates on the weekend and we will be there on the weekend. So I’ll pay about $270 for one night in a two-queen suite all by myself. The point here is that we’re going for the real Death Valley experience. I’ve never been there so I’m not sure what that consists of but I’ll pay the fee and find out.

So it ought to be a really good trip. And I suppose there is an off chance that some fifth person will yet show up who I can share rooms with. But I’m not expecting it. It’s just money, you can’t take it with you when you die, and I have no heirs. Why not spend it.

Biker Quote for Today

I don’t want to know how much your motorcycle cost, shut up and ride.

My new Cardo communicator on my helmet.

Judy and I have a couple Sena communicators we use when we ride together but these guys I’m going on this trip with soon all have Cardos. My choice was to be the one not linked together or go get a Cardo. I got a Cardo.

We had a pre-ride get-together the other day to make plans and for those with Cardos to get all synced up. I didn’t have mine yet but immediately afterward I went to Performance Cycle and got one. I had the guy install it for me, which was a really good thing because he–with all his experience–did not find it an easy job.

I have two helmets these days, one a good Shoei that has the Sena in it. The other is kind of a cheapie I bought mid-trip when the RMMRC did its Great River Road trip in 2022. If I had other options this might not be the helmet I would choose to put the communicator in but it was what I had so I did. So now I have two helmets, one with the Sena, the other with the Cardo, and I’ll decide which helmet to wear at least sometimes by who I’ll be riding with.

I’m assuming having this communicator will be a good thing. Dave said it would be because he once did a ride in Spain where everyone else was linked but he was not. He said it was terrible. They’d all do something they had discussed and he’d be sitting there wondering . . . What? He said the other guys always forgot he was not in on their conversations.

What I hope does not happen is that there is this constant chatter that disturbs my solitude. I like riding alone and when I’m riding with other people I like the solitude of the ride where it’s just you. I hope turning this thing on and off is easy because I may do that a lot. Or maybe just turning the volume down will suffice. But then they may decide something and I won’t hear it and I’ll be the one saying “What?”.

I’m eager to see how this thing works and how well. From what people say, a lot of these guys in the RMMRC have tried Sena and have not been happy with them, which is why they switched to Cardo. And in the meantime, a box of Sena equipment that was no longer wanted has made it to me, which could be a good thing if the ones Judy and I have ever crap out. I try to keep them fresh by plugging them in every couple months, rather than letting the batteries drain dead, but who knows. Of course, the batteries in these ones I just got are probably dead and may not work all that well. Who knows.

Anyway, you can bet I’ll report here on how this thing works on this trip. Stay tuned.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle can sing on the streets of a city.

Arriving at the South 40 Bar and Grill in Elbert.

By now you know the drill: The temperature was supposed to be about 70 and that demanded a ride. Bruce put out the call through the RMMRC and seven riders showed up to head down to Elbert for lunch.

Five of us were regulars but we also had two new guys. Cool. We need new guys. Seven of us headed south. Bruce led us down Peoria to Lincoln Boulevard, east to Chambers, and south to Hess Road. It’s always interesting going through this area because there’s so much construction going on and you get to see what’s new and how much farther the urban sprawl has spread. At Hess it used to be a T intersection, and still is, but not for long. A lot of homes are going up south of Hess and a big road has been plowed. It’s just dirt now but not for long.

At Hess we headed east, crossed Parker Road, and got onto Hilltop, angling southeast. At Singing Hills Road we turned due east and here we were in for a new surprise. Somewhere out there was a new road being built to the south. More sprawl. Pretty soon houses will sprout. Something new to watch.

We worked our way around and got to Elizabeth, then turned south. That road eventually turns east, then south again and you’re in Elbert. The South 40 Bar and Grill was our destination. We got seated and just a moment later another guy in motorcycle gear walked in. Turned out he was a friend of Bruce’s who was just out riding aimlessly and decided to stop here for lunch. The more the merrier.

After lunch we started to disperse. Yoel, one of the new guys, had somewhere to be. I also had an appointment back in town and so I headed back the way we came. Paul, the other new guy also had somewhere to be. The rest were planning to go south a bit further and then cut over to pick up CO 83 back to town.

It was a good day for a ride. Good day to meet some new folks. A good day in March. We love this weather.

Biker Quote for Today

Good vibes and motorcycles will get you anywhere.

There’s a 15-day ride coming up and I’m definitely planning to go.

The year 2025 is already looking like much more of a riding year than 2024 was. Starting things off in grand fashion at the RMMRC is this West Coast & Death Valley Spring Ride 2025 that will be a 15-day trip out and back. I’m definitely planning to go.

What I really like about this trip is that Alan, who planned it, is more of my type of thinking about motorcycle trips. Rather than what is usually the standard RMMRC approach, this one does not consist of day after day of long miles, with few stops at interesting places along the way. There are no days with more than 300 miles and there are even some with fewer than 200 miles.

I’ll also note that Alan has made provisions in case someone can’t manage or doesn’t want to do the full 15-day trip. You’d just be riding home on your own, unless there are others who also don’t want to do the whole trip.

The group will be leaving on Tuesday, April 22, and returning on Tuesday, May 6. Stops for the night, in order, will be Fruita (CO), Loa (UT), St. George (UT), Las Vegas (NV), Stovepipe Wells (CA), Bakersfield (CA), Monterey (CA), San Simeon (CA), Victorville (CA), Lake Havasu City (AZ), Globe (AZ), Eagar (AZ), Cuba (NM), Red River (NM), and then home.

Overall the trip will be about 3,215 miles, split out over 15 days. My kind of trip. This means there will be no need for crawling out of bed at the crack of dawn because you can leave at 9 or 10 in the morning and still have plenty of time to go 250 miles. With stops.

You can do the trip, too. Just go to the RMMRC Meetup page and sign up. You’ll need to join the RMMRC but that’s only–I forget–$10 or $12 a year. Not a big deal. Specific hotels will be selected and you’ll need to make your own reservations, though if you want to share a room with someone you can post a note on the ride saying as much and if someone else is looking to share (usually the case) you just hook up with them and either split up making the reservations or maybe that guy already made the reservations and has done all the work.

Because we’re talking late April the weather will be a potential issue. A late snowstorm would make going to Fruita that first day more than a problem. We’ll just be keeping a close eye on the weather in the days leading up to departure.

I’m pretty stoked. This is gonna be a good ride.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is like writing a beautiful story with every twist of the road.

Eating at Rosie’s on a different ride.

If projected temperatures of the 60s in early February are not an outright invitation to ride I don’t know what is. The RMMRC made plans.

We met up Sunday at 10 a.m. at Performance Cycle with our destination Rosie’s Diner in Monument. A lunch ride.

There’s one trick to fabulous weather in Colorado, however. If it’s not sunny it can be quite a bit different. Saturday also had a warm forecast but it was cloudy and was not nearly as comfortable as it might have been. Sunday at least started out sunny.

I was smart enough this to bring my heated gloves with me. I didn’t think I’d need them so I just stashed them but at least I had them if I needed them. Too many times I have not done this and regretted it.

We started off heading down Quebec to Daniels Park and on to pick up US 85 south of the park. It was only at that point that I turned on my electric vest. I wasn’t cold yet but it was getting cooler and I knew once we were up on the Palmer Divide the temperature would drop.

We scooted over to Sedalia and then resumed going south on Perry Park Road (CO 105). We started seeing a lot of bikes. You always do on that road.

And it got cooler. Still, the road was clear of ice and snow so that’s what matters. Then we got into Palmer Lake and the main road through town was extremely wet from snow melt. I had to wonder if we had come this way a couple hours sooner it would have been ice.

On through Palmer Lake to Monument and lunch. There were four of us on bikes but also three in a car. Two of those are overcoming health issues and could not ride so the third, Roy, drove them all so they wouldn’t entirely miss out. Good. We like these guys and we’re glad they came.

Heading out we split into two twosomes. Bob and Steve retraced the route while Tom and I headed east to pick up CO 83, to head north that way. We were pleased that the wind that had kicked up just as we had arrived at Rosie’s seemed to have abated. Wrong. We reached CO 83 and made a left turn and were instantly blasted by the powerful wind that had until then been at our backs. And a cold wind at that.

We worked our way north and as Parker Road got busier north of Parker we inevitably got separated. No matter. This always happens on the way home. We’re all going to split off somewhere, it doesn’t matter if it happens sooner.

Of course we were by now coming down from the Palmer Divide heights and as we did it got warmer and warmer. Before I got home I had turned my vest off–too warm.

So it was a good day to ride but nowhere near as nice as we had hoped. Oh well, it is February, after all. Be thankful for what you get.

Biker Quote for Today

What’s a motorcyclist’s favorite movie? Gone with the Wind!

Here’s the whole gang that showed up for my first ride organizing effort. Me.

Well I did it. I’ve been talking for some time now about how, with activity and membership in the RMMRC declining, I needed to step up and take on some of the organizing. With the weather forecast for Thursday looking positively fabulous I set up a ride and posted it on the site. Nothing special, just an easy ride out to Kiowa for lunch at Patty Ann’s, an RMMRC favorite.

I did this on Wednesday so it meant that there was not a lot of lead time. It also meant that anyone with a day job was out of luck. But it couldn’t wait for the weekend; the weather was in for a huge change for the worse.

The first thing I did after posting the ride was to call Roy and give him the word. Roy is perhaps the only person in three states who does not use a computer these days so the only way to inform him was to call. Plus, I knew he would spread the word further.

Roy regretted to tell me that his bike is not in running order so he would not be coming, but he promised to pass the word along immediately. He noted that he had just talked with Bob not long ago and Bob was looking to do a ride on Thursday as well. Great. It might just be me and Bob but hey, we’re riding.

On Thursday I headed over to the meeting spot a little early with the intention of sticking around a while. Typically when RMMRC rides get posted they give a gathering time and a time 15 minutes later for kick stands up. I had not done that. Being a lunch ride I just said meet here at 11 a.m. I got there at 10:50.

There were no bikes there when I pulled in so I parked in a prominent spot and started scanning the roads for other bikes. Eleven o’clock came and went with nobody else arriving, and at 11:15 I was still the only one. I decided to give it five more minutes.

At 11:20 I concluded it was just me but by golly I was going for a ride. And it was a gorgeous, warm day!

I could have just gone anywhere since it was just me but I figured Patty Ann’s still sounded good. Plus, maybe Bob had found someone else to ride with and they had not wanted to start as late as 11 but perhaps they would also shoot to be at Patty Ann’s around noon. Or someone else could just show up there on their own. As I said, Patty Ann’s is a popular spot in the RMMRC.

So I headed out down Parker Road, picked up Hilltop Road, and continued south on Flintwood Road as Hilltop arced off to the east. I hit CO 86 and turned east. Coming into Kiowa I was eager to see if any other bikes were parked outside Patty Ann’s but there were none. Oh well. I’m going to have a good lunch.

And I did. It used to be, in many of our opinions, that the best things on the menu here were the Mexican items. Patty Ann’s had killer green chile. But for unknown reasons, awhile back they revised their menu and eliminated all the Mexican items. Dang. But they still have a bunch of other good things on the menu.

I ordered the chicken, apple, walnut salad and it was terrific. I’m no restaurant critic but that chicken was beautifully prepared and the whole thing was really good. I’ve thought for a long time I ought to ride out here with Judy for lunch some day, and when we do it’s pretty likely at least one of us will order this.

So I sat and ate and once my ears perked up at the sound of a bike but they must have just been going by because no one came in. And when I was leaving there were still no other bikes parked out front.

My ride home was 86 to Franktown, Parker Road (CO 83) north to Broncos Parkway and on in. By the time I was getting back into the metro area it was so warm I turned my electric vest off. That’s how nice a day it was. All along the way I saw six other bikers out but boy, there should have been a lot more. You people are missing out.

And now it’s 15 degrees out there with Monday forecast to have a high of 7. Yikes!

OK. My first time organizing an RMMRC ride went great for everyone who came. Maybe next time that won’t be just me.

Biker Quote for Today

Under my ass or in my garage. (Where I keep my motorcycle.)

From left, the V-Strom, the CB750, and the Concours. Good-bye to the Connie, I’ll need now to do a shot of just the remaining two.

It’s that time where each year I look at the mileage on each of my bikes and set some goals for riding the remaining few weeks. This year is a pretty darn odd year.

For one thing, I sold the Concours. For another, my car got smashed and I got another. And third, for the first time in a lot of years it appears I will have put my miles on my car than on my bikes. How did that that happen?

Just for starters, it’s been a low-mileage year for everything. To date I only have put about 3,100 miles on my cars this year. I’m fine with that. But last year I put about 6,500 miles on my bikes. So far this year I’m at about 2,500 miles on the bikes. Seriously?

I think a lot of this has to do with the markedly less activity going on with the RMMRC. Ever since I joined that group I have gone on a whole lot of rides with them, but this year there just haven’t been that many rides. And one ride that did happen that I intended to go on–a Colorado four-corners ride–I had to drop out of because I had had minor butt surgery that made riding just too painful.

I know Bruce, one of my friends from the RMMRC, also rides with a couple other groups and has suggested I join them. I may do just that. It looks like the RMMRC may be fading away.

So what goals can I set for the rest of 2024? I try each year to put at least 1,000 miles on each of my bikes. That may not seem like much but for a long time I have had trouble getting that many miles on the Honda CB750 Custom. I’ve just ridden the other bikes a whole lot more. But with the sale of the Connie I figured for sure I’d put a lot more miles on the Honda.

And yet, here we are in mid-November and I have put almost the same number of miles on the Honda this year as last year. I still have time and the weather has been pretty good so I do expect yet to surpass last year but more than 1,000? It doesn’t seem likely. But surpassing last year looks like the best I can hope for. And as for turning the odometer over another 1,000, that really looks like it’s off the table because I just did that, sitting now at 38,136. I don’t think I’m going to be putting another 864 miles on that bike this year. I’m just going to have to do better next year.

As for the V-Strom, I’m about 2,000 miles behind last year on it. What I can shoot for is at least turning over another 1,000 yet, as the odo now sits at 47,930. If I can’t get another 70 miles on that bike this year I should hang up riding gear.

I don’t think there’s any doubt what my New Year’s resolution needs to be come January 1: Ride. And ride some more. And ride some more. And then some more after that.

Biker Quote for Today

“The road never ends . . . only our vision does.” — Amit Reddy

The RMMRC taking a break on a ride several years ago.

For the first 20-some years of my motorcycle riding the only “club” I rode with was the OFMC. And I put that in quotes because we weren’t really any kind of organized club, we were just a group of friends who liked to ride motorcycles. But over the years a lot of the guys gave up riding, and those who didn’t give it up just seemed less interested in doing much of it except for the annual trip.

That’s not me. I generally ride a lot and if I have someone to ride with that’s great, if I don’t I never hesitate to take off on my own.

But it is nice to have a group to ride with, if for no other reason than having group rides set up by numerous people gives you a lot of opportunities and also can take you places you didn’t know were there.

Enter the RMMRC, or Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club. I joined the RMMRC in 2016 and right from the start I suddenly had a lot of great riding opportunities and also was meeting a whole bunch of good guys. Also some women but mostly guys.

Now, I have been a member of ABATE of Colorado for more than 20 years and they do some rides and I’ve been on a few but those are almost entirely the large group, poker run type of rides. And I’m not interested in that kind of thing. So even though I attended monthly meetings for years I never really got to know most of those people and there were plenty who I know on sight but even now don’t know their names.

Not so with the RMMRC. All it takes is to go off on a four-day ride, eat meals together, share motel rooms, and just generally hang out and you learn people’s names and you do get to know them. So I’ve made a bunch of friends and had some really good times.

But things are changing. As opposed to every other summer since I’ve been a member, there have been precious few rides being planned. As a consequence, I haven’t been riding nearly as much as I usually do. And why is this?

I hate to say it but it’s age. The RMMRC has dwindled seriously since I joined. A number of the members have died. Others have just reached the point where they physically cannot ride any more. And now there are several of the really core members who are battling cancers and other serious–and deadly–illnesses and lord knows how long they’ll be with us.

And we’re not getting new members. The only new member I can think of in the last couple years was John. He was a great addition to the group, very enthusiastic and eager to ride a lot. And he is one of those now facing serious health issues.

When I joined I would go to meetings and there would be between 30 and 40 people attending. We would have special rooms of our own at restaurants to hold the meeting. At the August meeting this year there were 8 of us and we were at a couple tables out in the main restaurant. The restaurant was no longer willing to give us a separate room with a dedicated server; we’re just an eight-top.

So I’ve told myself a thousand times that if no one else is organizing rides then I should set some up. But it doesn’t happen. I beat myself over the head for it, saying just do it you idiot, but I don’t obey myself.

Recently we did a joint ride with the local BMW club, which is now headed by Sara and Sean, who used to be RMMRC members. I wondered if this was the beginning of a move to merge the two. But that was a big group on that ride, 30 or more, and again, I really don’t like riding in that big a group. So I soon peeled off on my own. If we do end up merging I’ll give it a shot but I’m not enthusiastic.

Which gets me to the title of this piece. Is this how a club dies? I know Judy is facing a similar situation in a club she belongs to. All the core members are getting old and there are few new, younger members to keep it going. I guess time will tell.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when your butt hurts, your back is killing you, you can t feel your hands or feet, and when your buddy asks you if you want to take a break you look him straight in the eyes and say HELL NO LET’S RIDE!!!!!