Passes & Canyons Blog

Just to wrap this up, I’m not going on this RMMRC ride I’ve been talking about. Healing is just taking too long.

But as part of my exploration as to what I am currently capable of, on Tuesday I decided it was time to do a real ride and I went out US 285 and then over Guanella Pass. A beautiful day to ride and if I couldn’t handle this 150-mile jaunt I sure couldn’t handle the longer days planned for the trip.

And it was good. I got all the way out of town before I felt even slight discomfort. Big, big improvement.

So there I am tooling up 285 and a couple on a Concours 14 rolled up behind me. Very shortly afterward another guy joined us. I was chuckling to myself about how anyone who saw us was almost certainly thinking we were a group of riders on a trip together. You don’t think that about three cars in a row but you do when it’s a bunch of motorcycles.

Then in a few more miles we were joined by two more guys on bikes. Now we’re a group of five bikes and six people, for all the world like we’re traveling together. We passed a bunch of bikes going the other way, everybody’s waving, and I’m just shaking my head at how I just know that even those bikers figured we were together.

The solo guy who had been the third member of the group turned off at Pine Junction so now there were only four bikes, and we got to Grant and I turned up the Guanella Pass road and the couple on the Concours went straight. They have a sign there at Grant that I liked. It read, “This is a mountain pass, not a raceway. Slow down and enjoy the scenery.” Words of wisdom.

The other two guys had dropped out of sight behind we got to Grant but then I stopped partway up the pass to put on a sweatshirt–it was getting chilly!–and they went by. Hey fellas, fun riding with you for awhile.

Just FYI there were a lot of tar snakes on the Grant side of this pass. I figured since it was cool they would be no issue but after my rear end slid out a couple times I concluded they were not to be ignored. On the Georgetown side, which is a different county, there were no tar snakes but there was a lot of gravel in the very high switchbacks and some in some of the lower ones. So take care riding this pass at this point.

And yeah, it was darn chilly up on top of the pass but dang if my butt didn’t still just feel fine. I like this. I’ll need to stop and take the sweatshirt off when I get lower but for now it’s very welcome.

So there was no obvious spot to stop once I got down lower so I kept riding but by the time I was getting off I-70 at the El Rancho exit I was cooking. The plan was to jump on the Evergreen Parkway just a couple miles and then turn off onto Kerr Gulch Road and take that very non-busy route down to Kittredge.

Up at the top Kerr Gulch is very steep but I finally came upon a driveway and that looked like a good spot to stop. I stopped, put the kick-stand down, and got off . . . and the bike just rolled forward and fell over. Dang! I didn’t need this. What happened next is a bit of a story and I’ll tell that next time. Suffice it to say I got going again.

So, down to Kittredge, to Morrison, to US 285, and home. A good long ride and by the time I got home I knew I’d be texting Alberto to say no way am I going on this trip. By this point I was hurting and this time a hot soak in the tub was not enough to make it all go away.

Not that it mattered as it turned out. I checked my email later and he had sent me a note the day before saying he had had to cancel out. And a couple other guys dropped out, too, and it was now just down to Alan, the organizer, and Bruce. I texted Bruce to ask if they were going to go nevertheless and he said yes. Good for them. Sorry I won’t be with you.

Biker Quote for Today

Does it get any better than motorcycling with your best friends?

With four days left before we are to leave on this RMMRC ride my butt is better but not great so I took another ride to see just how bad–or good–it was. Verdict: I still don’t know.

I had taken a ride about a week earlier and that time I had barely gone a block or two and was already uncomfortable. I made it for about 35 minutes that day. This time it actually felt just fine at first, but after about a mile I felt the discomfort creeping in. But that’s a big improvement.

It was a blazing hot day so I wanted to head up into the hills. I meandered my way through the southwest suburbs heading toward Deer Creek Canyon. But then, heading south on Kipling, the bike died. Please, no!

I was on the Honda and I stopped at a traffic light but when I started to move again it just died. I pressed the starter button and it fired up but as soon as I let out the clutch it died again. I was in the middle of the intersection at this point so I paddle-walked the rest of the way across, coming to a stop next to the median.

As I said, it was blazing hot and I had visions of being stuck there in the heat with no shade anywhere, waiting for a tow truck. But I’m not stupid, or new at this, and it occurred to me that this was kind of like running out of gas. Now, the trip meter only read 68 miles and this bike generally goes to Reserve at about 125 miles. But it had been in the shop and I had not filled the tank since I’d had it back so who knows how totally off that 68 might be. I flipped to Reserve, pressed the starter, and it fired up. Yahoo! Next stop the nearest gas station.

I got to the canyon and by now the discomfort was starting to worry me. I’d never go 250 miles in a day like this. But then suddenly it was like second wind, where the burning just kind of went away. I felt fine again. Nice.

Nevertheless, as I continued further up the canyon a bit came creeping back again. It was my intention to crest out of the canyon and down to Turkey Creek Road, where I would go right. I decided to stop at Tiny Town both to get a photo and to see how much good it did to just get off the bike for a few minutes.

I got my picture and even that few minutes off the bike did a lot of good. Then I got onto US 285 coming back down out of the hills and continuing east to home. Along the way it was getting pretty uncomfortable again so I decided to shift my position on the seat. It isn’t sitting per se that is uncomfortable, it is sitting for very long in the same position. And yes, shifting around made a big difference.

Then as I got back into town I made a point to stand up every time I got stopped at a red light. That helped, too. Altogether, this time I was out for an hour and a half and I did not feel as bad as I had after 35 minutes a few days before. I decided I now put my odds of going on this ride at 70-30, versus the 50-50 I had set it at previously. But just four more days.

When I got home I found that Alberto, my presumed roommate on this ride, had texted me asking for an update. I guess Alberto is a glass half empty kind of guy because he asked if I was still a no-go. Looking at 50-50 I had never considered myself a no-go. Surely I would get better each day–the question was how much better I would get, how fast. I was just waiting to see if I would feel sufficiently better. But now I told him 70-30.

He asked for a definite decision by Tuesday evening. Money is apparently an issue and he said if I’m not coming he isn’t going to pay those hotel bills by himself and will cancel and not go either. And of course he needs to cancel far enough in advance not to be charged. So I guess I’ll be making a definite decision on Tuesday, after riding again on Monday and then Tuesday.

My best guess at this point would be a go. I just may not ride with the rest of the group all the time, stopping whenever I feel the need to regardless of what they do. Plus, I’ll be on the V-Strom and that bike is designed to be ridden standing up, so I may stand up a lot.

Biker Quote for Today

Any day is a good day to leave some miles behind.

I hadn’t been on a bike recently because about 10 days ago I had minor surgery that makes it very uncomfortable for me to sit down for too long. But I’m planning on doing a four-day RMMRC ride in a bit less than two weeks so I was feeling a bit uncertain. Figured I’d better go for a ride.

I plan to ride the V-Strom so that was the bike I went out on. I was figuring it has a nice broad, flat seat so maybe that will be OK. Well, I got about two blocks and was already uncomfortable. Not a good sign.

So I wanted to see, would the discomfort get worse, diminish, or what, and how quickly? I checked my watch before I left.

Certainly I did not want to go a long way away and find myself in pain and have a long way to return, so I headed out, went a ways, and made a right turn. Now just go straight until I’m feeling like I ought to do another right turn. One more right turn after that and I would be home.

The good news is that the discomfort did not increase. The not so good news is that it did not diminish either. And hitting bumps was not more uncomfortable as I thought it might be. It was just a stable level of discomfort, but I have the strong suspicion that if I were to do that all day it would get a lot worse and then maybe I wouldn’t even be able to walk the next day.

OK, that answered my question. And I was only out for 35 minutes. Now, I still have 10 days before we leave. Surely I’ll be feeling a lot better by then, right? I mean, heck, I did three weeks straight on the Concours just two months after having heart surgery. This will pass, won’t it?

It better. I’m set up to share motel rooms with Alberto on this ride and I don’t want to leave him holding the bag paying in full for rooms he had expected to split. But if we were leaving tomorrow and I was feeling like I do today there’s no way I’d be going. We all know about monkey butt. Well, this is monkey butt to the max. It’s got to be better in 10 days.

Biker Quote for Today

They say treat yourself right, so I bought myself a motorcycle.

Having had three motorcycles for many years it is really odd now at home with just one. I sold one–the Concours–and another, the CB750, is in the shop for some work. I have always kept the V-Strom in the garage, parked in front of my car, while the other two resided in the workshop that runs alongside the garage.

Right now the workshop is empty of bikes and, by golly, I’ve been using it as a workshop! What a concept!

I bought a new battery-powered electric lawnmower and typically I would have waited for a sunny, warm day and unpackaged it out on the driveway, but now, despite a few days of cold and snow, I just went in the workshop and took care of it there.

And I have this old, damaged chair that I have undertaken to repair and reupholster with our grandson Jack so as to give him some experience in doing things like that and also to help him understand that just because something is broken doesn’t mean you just throw it away and get a new one. We’ve been working on it out on the back porch but that’s not a wonderful place to be making a long-lasting mess. That’s the role of a workshop.

So yeah, I’ll be getting the Honda back fairly soon so it will go back in there, but I’m thinking I’ll continue to park the V-Strom in the garage and that will leave me room to work in the workshop. I like that idea.

And speaking of the Honda, I mentioned that the guys at the shop were not seeing the smoking that was the reason I took it in. I spoke with the person at the desk about the other things they say need work but I told her I’m still most concerned about the smoking. Maybe it didn’t smoke when they started it up because there was so little oil that it hadn’t seeped through. Try it again now that they added oil and ran it and now it has had a few days to sit. See if it smokes then. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ll have the carbs synced and they say that if they haven’t been rebuilt in the life of the bike that is probably going to be necessary, too. And that’s a six-hour job, and for all bikes older than 1999 they charge a higher hourly rate: $155 an hour. So that’s going to cost me about $1,000.

I’m glad to get the work done and I’ll pay whatever it takes but I’m still going to be looking for a new regular mechanic who doesn’t charge high rates like that. The really big question is who?

Biker Quote for Today

My happiest hours include a sunset and a motorcycle.

I have three motorcycles and I was just reflecting on the numerous times that as worked to my benefit. Sure, I have to spend a bunch more money on maintenance and insurance–not to mention purchase–but it’s worth it in my opinion.

Right now offers a perfect example. After getting my 1999 Kawasaki Concours back from the shop following my misadventure getting home from the latest OFMC trip I now had a throttle issue. I took it back to the shop to have that addressed and it has now been 50 days since I dropped it off and I am still waiting to get it back. If I only had one bike that would have been 50 days of no riding. Not acceptable.

There have also been several instances when I was leaving on a trip, planning on riding a particular bike, and had issues with that bike at the point when I was leaving. One time the bike just wasn’t running right and I made a detour to the shop, where they worked on it a bit but couldn’t guarantee for me the issue would not reappear. Another time I was checking the air in the tires and discovered that one valve stem was totally rotted out, so badly I couldn’t understand why the tire wasn’t flat already.

In both cases I just pulled all my things off the one bike and loaded it all on another and off I went.

On at least another couple occasions I wanted to take one bike but checking the tread on the tires there clearly wasn’t enough rubber to go a couple thousand miles. At the same time, there was plenty of rubber to go another 1,000 miles or so and I didn’t want to junk that tire prematurely. Not with motorcycle tires generally getting only 10,000 miles or less as it is. And paying to have the old tire replaced and then put back on later would be absurd. No problem–take a different bike.

Early on in the rides of the OFMC, back when I only had one bike, I had an issue and did not have this option. I needed some work done on my CB750 and took it to a shop well in advance of departure date, telling them I absolutely had to have it by a certain date, but expecting to get it back well in advance of that date. They said oh yeah, we’ll have it done well before then. They didn’t. They didn’t have it done until three days after Bill and John had already left. I ended up riding really hard for two days solid to meet up with them a long way from here. How nice a second bike would have been at that point.

Having more than one bike has also worked to the advantage of other people a couple times, too. Once the OFMC was heading out and Johnathon had problems with his bike. I loaned him my CB750; he got to go on the trip. Another time a member of the RMMRC who has moved away from Denver was back in town. The RMMRC was going on a ride. I offered to let him ride my V-Strom. He did. You’re welcome.

So yeah, I like have three motorcycles. I strongly recommend it. You have room for another, don’t you?

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle ride melts away the frustration of life in less than a mile.

I noted down the odometer readings on my vehicles on December 31 once I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else that day. Once again, as has been the case every year for quite a few years, I put a lot more miles on my three motorcycles than I did on my car. In fact, once again, I put more miles on one particular bike than I did on the car.

My mileage on the car was up about 500 miles last year, all the way to 3,062. That compares to 2,506 in 2022. But I put 3,940 miles on the V-Strom, which was 74 miles more than the previous year. That’s the third time the Suzuki has gone more miles than the car.

It used to be that the Concours was the bike that out-distanced the car, often by a heck of a lot. For instance, in 2010 the Concours to Elantra numbers were 10,004 and 5,581. In 2011 they were 6,875 and 3,556. In 2012 they were 9,437 and 5,061. But now apparently I ride the V-Strom more.

In fact, my Concours number was only 1,849 in 2023, compared to 2,354 in 2022. Part of that had to do with it being out of commission after overheating up by the Eisenhower Tunnel coming home from the OFMC trip. It was nearly two months before that bike was rideable again.

I know I’m not going to get big numbers on my CB750 so my target each year is to put at least 1,000 miles on it. Once again I was unsuccessful. I only racked up 672 miles on that bike in 2023, which was down from the 729 miles in 2022. I try to favor that bike for that very reason but I guess I just don’t do it enough. A new year’s resolution I’ll try once again to keep.

Altogether in 2023 I put 6,461 miles on my bikes. This is down a bit from the previous year, when I rode them 6,949. My total mileage on all four vehicles for 2023 was 9,523 compared to 9,455 in 2022. Are most people as consistent as I am?

Biker Quote for Today

Distance is just a number when you ride a bike.

The early part of this week has been great riding weather, with bad weather coming soon, so of course I was out taking advantage of it.

On Monday I took the V-Strom out and ran the regular errands I carry out each month. Not a lot of miles so I’ve got to get back out on this one again this month if I want to turn over the next 1,000 on the odometer. I’m still about 70 miles away. Maybe today after I finish this post. The weather is supposed to hit tomorrow.

On Tuesday I went out on the Concours for a longer run. I’m still waiting to get the bike in to Rowdy Rocket Garage to get this vacuum issue fixed so I’m still contending with the fact that the engine races like crazy every time I pull the clutch in to shift. I’ve started figuring out how to adapt to the problem at other times. For instance, if I’m coming to a stop I just let the bike slow down a lot before I finally pull in the clutch and downshift. Normally you would be concerned about stalling but this bike is not going to stall. In fact, much of the time I can let go of the throttle just as if I had cruise control on and the bike just keeps going.

This ride just strengthened my resolve that yes, I am going to sell this bike at some point and replace it with something newer and lighter. It just isn’t all that much fun to ride when I’m constantly having to pay attention to this problem. And yes, once I am finally able to have the problem addressed it will eliminate this negative condition but I’m past that. My mind is made up to move on. I was talking to Bruce yesterday and he was saying just go ahead and sell the bike as it is and take whatever you can get. But I don’t think I could find any buyer at this time of year so I’d like to have it fixed so I can enjoy riding it in the next few months before I sell it. At least if it’s not going to cost too much.

Then on Wednesday the RMMRC took a ride out to Bennett for lunch. I rode the CB750.

There were eight of us on this beautiful, warm, sunny day. We headed out down Parker Road, then east on Quincy and out into the country. There are not a lot of options on roads to take going out where we were headed so we just rode the straight out to where we turned north on County Road 129, jogged east and then north under I-70, and reached our destination, the High Plains Diner. We had never been there before and I was favorably impressed. The food was good–nothing spectacular–at very reasonable prices. I would not hesitate to go there again.

Heading out after the meal we didn’t have a lot of choices. We could go back the way we came or we could go east about a mile and take the Kiowa-Bennett Road south. Heading west without going south didn’t offer any attractive options, although I guess we could have gone east on US 30 to Watkins and then south on Watkins Road. We took the Kiowa-Bennett Road.

Two of us were inclined to go on all the way to Kiowa and then turn west but the other six decided just to go south as far as Quincy and then retrace our route there. So we did, then home. But man, it was a great day to be out on a bike.

Biker Quote for Today

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.

Every year about this time I look at the odometers on my three bikes and set my goals for how many more miles I want to put on each of them before the end of the year. Which is to say, turning over the next thousand on the odos. As usual, it’s a mixed bag.

The easy one is going to be the V-Strom. That odometer currently sits at 45,880. If I can’t ride another 120 miles in 2023 I’m not trying. Not that riding prospects look all rosy at the moment. Writing this over the weekend I’m looking out the window at nearly a foot of fresh snow and temperatures in the 20s. Tomorrow is to be colder. Yikes! But this is Colorado and doubtful as it may look, we know it will get warm again and temps will reach at least into the 60s, if not higher. So it’s just a waiting game.

The other two are a lot more iffy.

The meter on the Concours is now sitting at 79,130. That’s a full 870 more miles I would need to put on that bike in the next two (cold) months. Probably not going to happen. I can try but I wouldn’t bet a plugged nickel on doing it. On the brighter side, I’ve put quite a few miles on this bike this year so not hitting another thousand this year is not a failure. I can live with that.

The one I’ll probably focus on will be the Honda CB750. That odometer currently rests at 37,365 so I’m probably not going to roll that over to 38,000 this year but the other measure I watch with this bike is that I try to put at least 1,000 miles on the bike each year. Because most of my riding is on the other two this does not always happen. But in this case, while I would need another 635 miles to roll the odo over to 38,000, I can hit the 1,000 for the year mark if I just put another 498 on it.

That’s still a lot at this time of year but I can at least try. The weather will have a lot to say about how likely I am to succeed. Speaking of which, we had some great weather this last couple weeks but I didn’t get in nearly as much riding as I would have liked. But I knew the weather was about to change and I have a lot of things to do to prep for winter each year. Things like shutting down the swamp cooler, covering the attic fan, getting the sprinkler system blown out, and getting the garden stripped and all the veggies stockpiled. For instance, I have about 30 pounds or more of tomatoes at this point, most of them green. All of that has kept me plenty busy. And now the weather has hit.

The flip side of that is that now, once the weather gets warmer, I don’t have a lot of other things crying for my attention, so I can ride when it’s possible. Don’t be surprised if you see me on the Honda.