Passes & Canyons Blog

We’re all familiar with these power-assist bicycles that are now pretty much everywhere. Some people hate them. Think walkers on a trail or bike path along a creek. Many people love them–look at all the people riding them.

But pair this recent phenomenon with another, the decline in sales of motorcycles, and you have to wonder: Will these e-bikes be the gateway drug to draw more people into motorcycling?

Frankly, I don’t see how they can not be. Especially if you get into riding an e-bike at an early age.

I look back to my own adolescence. As a kid I was broke. I never dated because I never had any money. I sure as heck didn’t own a car. But I know I longed to escape the confines of the city bus system or getting a ride from a parent. I had a plan to buy a 50cc Honda Cub (we only knew it as a Honda 50) when I was old enough and I saved the $30 a month I earned on my paper route to buy one when I reached the legal age. And only when I was of age and had the money did my mother get around to saying, “You’ll never own a motorcycle as long as you live in my house.”

So I considered mopeds of various kinds. Unlike today, these power-assisted bicycles had gasoline engines. Some had the engine built right on but you could also buy a conversion kit that you attached to your bicycle’s wheel and it turned the wheel for you. I forget how it accomplished that. I never did follow through on that, though.

Maybe all that’s irrelevant. I was interested in a moped because I really wanted a motorcycle. Today’s question is whether riding a moped (which is really what a motor-assisted bicycle is: motor/pedal, get it?) will lead at least some riders to want to move up to something bigger. But if you start out as a 10-year-old on an e-bike, and it’s so much fun and extends your range so much, wouldn’t it just be natural that you would want to move up to an actual motorcycle once you’re in a position to do so?

There are some voices challenging my view, though. Not a challenge, but voicing the general thinking, here’s a quote from a recent article on MOTO eMAG: “Why would you want to spend $10K on a midrange motorcycle, when you can spend $1K on an e-bike that can do 40mph and with some tweaks even 60, weighs little, costs little, requires no registration, no license, no insurance and you can throw it around and charge the batteries at home the same way you charge a phone.”

I don’t claim to know. Maybe in another five years we’ll be seeing an increase in motorcycle sales. And maybe some enterprising reporter will be asking new riders how they got interested. And just maybe the answer will be, “Oh, I had an e-bike as a kid and this is just taking that one step further.”

Time will tell.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a bike is not a phase; it’s a lifelong love affair.

We just spent five days in Barcelona (Spain) and as always, I observed the traffic scene–i.e., the two-wheeled type–closely. I’ll tell you two things: No non-California city in the US is ready for this scene, and it is then a good thing that no such city will soon be experiencing this.

Barcelona streets are packed with traffic so vehicles frequently move slowly and even when they move fast they are slow by our norms. And because traffic moves so slowly, the filtering and lane-splitting are constant.

We took a cab one day. The right-hand curb lanes on busy streets are reserved for buses and taxis so those types of vehicles can make better time. Of course motorcycles use that lane a lot. And apparently they’re allowed to, either officially or unofficially.

Let me make a side note here. In Europe they tend to use the word “motorbike” and that’s actually probably a better word for them. The highly dominant two-wheeler is the step-through scooter, like the Vespas of old. There are also real motorcycles but anything over 500cc is rare. Baggers are non-existent.

But you also have plenthy of the stand-up scooters that have become popular, plus lots of power-assisted bicycles–ebikes. And of course plain old people-powered bicycles and skateboards. All of these, for our purposes, can be grouped under the term “motorbikes.”

OK, back to the narrative. I was saying we took a cab.

The one problem with taking the right-hand cab and bus lane is that both of these conveyances are prone to making stops. And when they do you can end up sitting a while before they move again.

The obvious thing to do is go around them but that means merging into the next lane and on our cab ride, as the cab would start to insinuate its way in, the motorbikes behind the cab would dart into the opening and block the cab out of the space it had created. We missed getting through red light cycles a couple times for exactly that reason.

Our cab driver stayed totally cool, showing no frustration or aggravation. I’m sure because he deals with this all day every day. And he was vigilantly watchful for these scooters and all.

How do you suppose a typical American driver is likely to respond to something like this? Rhetorical question. We know the answer.

So no, no non-California city in the US is ready for this but it’s not going to happen anywhere any time soon. In Europe motorbikes are everywhere by the thousands. Until Americans take up two-wheeled travel in those kinds of numbers that kind of scene cannot develop. And hopefully, as it will happen gradually–if it ever does–we’ll all have time to adapt to it just as gradually. Until it feels normal.

How crazy would that be?

Biker Quote for Today

Why did the motorcycle stay at home? It was two-tired.

It happens as you get older. You eventually find you don’t need all the stuff you’ve accumulated and you start thinning the herd.

Dennis is the latest with stories to tell. He and Janice had lived up in the hills off Deer Creek Canyon Road but had decided it was time to move down into town. They bought a pretty dang nice–but much smaller–place over in Arvada and are pretty happy with it, but . . .

The “but” for Dennis is that the place they left had an oversized three-car garage. He and Janice each have a car and they each have a motorcycle. No problem at the old place. Big problem at the new place.

I was over there last week and got the tour and made a point to see the garage. I definitely understand. There’s plenty of room for the two cars but in order to get two bikes in they first have to move the car on the left out and then wheel the bikes in and line them both up along the side of the garage. Like, right alongside. As in almost touching. Whereas they used to just ride in and park the bike and get off.

It has an effect. It used to be when Dennis needed to go into town he’d just figure “might as well take the bike.” And he rode a lot. Now, it is a real effort to get the bike out. He’s not going to do that just on the spur of the moment, just because why not. No, if he needs to make a quick run to the store–something he used to routinely do on his BMW, or the Indian before that, or the Harley before that–it’s going to be in the car. Every time. Dang.

His situation makes my situation, which I have always thought of as quite nice, seem really, really nice. We have a large two-car garage with an attached workshop. I park one bike in the garage and when I had three bikes I parked two in the workshop. Now I just have one in the workshop. And yeah, I have to pull my car out to get the V-Strom out and then pull Judy’s car out to get it back in, but there’s no issue with cramming it into a tight space. I just pull in front of the cars and park. Then with the bike or bikes in the workshop, I just open the door and roll it/them in or out.

As reasonably convenient as that is, it has nevertheless deterred me from riding as much as I might have over the years. It’s the idea of gearing up and then getting a bike out, just to make a quick run to the store, that just doesn’t work for me most of the time. So I totally understand Dennis’s disinclination to go to all the trouble he has just for a quick run to the store. Dennis has always been the guy in the OFMC who has ridden way more than anybody else. I think that has changed.

Of course, my prospective answer to this issue has for a long time been that I want a little electric scooter. But I’ve never bought one. And now they have these electric power-assisted bicycles. A moped, actually, although the name “moped” has been appropriated by scooters, which are not in fact mopeds. Sooner or later I’m convinced I will. Then it will be the easiest thing in the world to hop on and cruise off on some small errand. Fun. What am I waiting for?

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 18. The bike gets washed and waxed twice a month. The car never.

The coolest thing I saw in Hawaii (yeah, we were just there), and I was really sorry I didn’t have a chance to get a picture, was two young guys on scooters, headed for the beach. They had their boogie boards with them, laid length-wise on their seats, and they were sitting on the noses of the boards with the tails sticking out behind. What a great idea.

OK, so backing up, we just spent 10 days in Hawaii, on the Big Island and Oahu. Of course I paid attention to motorcycles. And the islands have lots of narrow, winding roads that motorcyclists tend to flock to, but you don’t see motorcycles there. Any you do see are probably tourists; the locals seem to stick to the cities. I mean, when there are 150 miles of highway on the whole island, how many times can you ride those roads? And it’s not like taking your bike to another island is much of an option. I wouldn’t want to live in Hawaii.

So anyway, in the Kona area, the main tourist area on the Big Island, on the western, leeward side, there are a lot of scooters. That makes total sense because parking is in short supply and gas is expensive.

Other than scooters what you tend to see is big Harleys. Those guys almost universally ride without helmets and frequently without jackets, despite the fact that rain falls almost every day. A lot more of the scooter riders wear helmets but certainly not all of them. A very sparse middle range consists of smaller sport bikes. Those guys almost universally wear helmets and jackets. And boots and gloves.

On the rest of the island, even over in Hilo–a larger city–it was pretty much all Harleys. One night at dinner there was a couple at another table that caught my eye. She had a puffy jacket but had taken it off. He–in a place where everyone else was in T-shirts and many in shorts–was wearing a leather motorcycle vest over a hooded sweatshirt, and a wool hat on his head. I never got a chance to see if he had anything on under the sweatshirt. The only thing he took off, when their food arrived, was his wool stocking cap. Dude, are you not roasting?

I didn’t know for sure if they were on a bike till they left. Then from outside there was this explosion of aftermarket pipes as he fired it up. Yep, definitely on a bike.

In Hawaii it rains a lot, though not very hard most of the time. One time we were driving through heavy rain but came out of it. It was just then that we passed a guy on a Harley going the other way. No helmet, just a T-shirt. Oh man, you are in for it.

He’d probably just call me a wimp.

OK, and I’ll leave you with a thinker: Why do they have interstate highways in Hawaii?

Biker Quote for Today

“Universal” accessories are so named because that is where you must search to find the bike they will fit.

Is there anyone who rides a motorcycle who does not understand why so many people are enthusiastic about these new electric power-assist bicycles, or E-bikes? I mean, aren’t they really just very small motorcycles? Sure, maybe you prefer a bigger bike, but isn’t it still pretty much the same thing?

It used to be the non-biker’s option for doing it small was the scooter. Although still, even years ago there were mopeds. Those were gasoline-powered motor-assist bicycles. Wait, isn’t that what E-bikes are, swapping electricity for gas?

Of course the terminology has gotten all twisted around in recent years. These boards you stand on are now called scooters and what are truly scooters are now called mopeds and real mopeds are now called E-bikes. Fine. It doesn’t have to make sense, it just is.

Certainly there are issues that need to be resolved to accommodate all these new E-bikes on the road and on the bike paths. The Denver Post recently had a lengthy article about all of this (E-bikes coming quicker than the infrastructure for them). One reader followed that up with a letter to the editor saying that E-bikes going 25-30 miles an hour have no place on paths with mothers with strollers and folks walking their dogs. “Motorized vehicles belong on the streets!”

I’m not even going to try to sort that all out. My point in all this is simply that this surge of E-bikes can only help those of us on motorcycles.

How? Well first off, you’re probably aware that it has been clearly established that motorcyclists are better car drivers. We pay more attention to our driving and we’re vastly more aware of motorcycles on the road with us. It stands to reason that people who get out on the road on an E-bike are going to see the things we have seen for so long, and it is going to change them as drivers. That can only be good. At least some of them are sure to realize they need to just put their damn phone down and drive. Hallelujah!

Certainly as they now are thinking a lot more about their own safety they will come around to our side in terms of supporting safety measures such as banning using cellphones while driving.

Others may start thinking that as fun as it is on the little bike, maybe it would be really fun to be on something bigger, something like . . . a motorcycle. And they’ll join our ranks.

It will also help that people in cars are seeing more and more people on bikes of all kinds. The more of us they see–E-bike, scooter, bicycle, motorcycle–the more they will realize we are there and they need to be alert for us. Again, hallelujah!

So I welcome these E-bikes. In fact, I wish I had one. I’ve thought for a long time that sooner or later I’d have a scooter but with three motorcycles I really don’t have room for one. I would have room for an E-bike, however. One of these days . . .

Biker Quote for Today

My biggest fear is not crashing on a bike. It’s sitting in a chair at 90 and saying, ‘I wish I had done more.’

Covid 19 has changed a lot of things. The real question is, will these changes last or will they stick around long after the virus is no longer an issue.

For instance, after being stuck at home interminably, people are hungry to get outside and do stuff. Judy and I like to camp but when we went out last year we had trouble finding a campsite because everyone else was out camping, too. And from the reports, this included a lot of people who had never camped before, not just those of us who have done it since forever.

Will this continue to be the case? Will all these new campers decide they really like this, and will they continue to jam the campgrounds? We’ll find out, won’t we.

A similar thing has happened in the motorcycling world. Motorcycle sales are through the roof.

In a report from the Motorcycle Industry Council, dated May 13, new bike sales increased 37.2 percent in the first quarter of 2021, compared to last year. And the increases were reflected in all of the on-highway, off-highway, dual-purpose, and scooter categories.

That’s incredible. And unlike camping, where lots of new campers can crowd out those who have done it for a long time, getting one new motorcyclist on the road doesn’t negatively impinge on us old-timers at all. It’s definitely a case of the more the merrier.

It could get a little congested on the off-road areas, however. The MIC report says that “Year-to-date sales of dual-purpose motorcycles were up the most, by 47 percent.” Wow. But maybe these folks are more like me, not necessarily wanting to go off on trails so much as just not wanting to pass by all these gravel roads and never finding out where they go.

There are so many ways that Covid has changed things and some of them are for the better. Let’s hope we can hang onto the good ones.

Biker Quote for Today

Look at that badass on that Can-Am Spyder said no one ever.