Passes & Canyons Blog

Joel, my mechanic, came by and checked out the V-Strom, then went and got his volt meter out of the truck. The battery was gone.

I had intended to look at my records and see when I last replaced the battery but had not done so. I looked then and found out that amazingly, this was the battery that came with the bike when I bought it in 2014. Wow.

So the charge I thought I gave it was of no use. There was enough to turn on the lights and try to turn the starter but with the reading Joel got he was surprised it could even do that.

A couple days later I got out and bought a new battery and once I got it installed (more about that in a moment) I turned the key and pushed the starter button . . . and it didn’t want to start. At first. Then it did. OK, that’s good.

Our road was still covered in ice so I couldn’t take it for a ride but on Wednesday things were clear and I figured I’d head out. I pushed the starter and it didn’t want to start. And then it did. This is not instilling me with confidence.

I was cautious about getting far from home but as I rode it and it continued to run, and in fact to run better, I did eventually take it out for a real spin. And when I got home I turned it off, opened the garage, moved Judy’s car, and then started it again to ride it in. This time it fired right up. So at this point I’m just going to keep a wary eye on it.

Besides that, while it had previously seemed like there was a fuel line leak or something, the paper I had underneath it showed no sign of a drip. Joel had checked what was on the floor of the garage and said it appeared to be coolant, not oil or gas. All in all he told me to put in a new battery and then let him know how it did and whether other problems persisted. We’ll see how that goes.

As for putting in the new battery, what a pain. Taking the old one out had been easy, just back out the bolts and lift it out. Why couldn’t putting a new one in be so simple.

The first problem was that the cable ends that connect to the battery were form-fitted to nest over the posts, but the new battery had larger posts and no nesting was going to happen. If I could have reached the vise with the cables I would have flattened them out but that was not possible, so I took pliers and bent them enough to get the metal in contact.

Next, the bolts were not long enough to reach down and thread into the nuts. I had some longer bolts but when I tried using them they were too long and I couldn’t get them tight. So I tore off some stiff paper and stuck that in the space below the bolts, to elevate the bolts, and finally was able to thread the bolts into the nuts and tighten them up. What a pain, but I’ve had to do that before so it didn’t require any new creativity.

So the V-Strom is running again. But now I’m going to be nervous every time I ride it for awhile until it proves itself trustworthy again. And what the heck is the deal with this leak and the fuel?

Biker Quote for Today

The keys to success: Waking up in the morning. Going to bed at night. Riding a motorcycle in between.

It’s December 31 right now so it could be a tiny bit early to lock in my 2020 mileage but it’s unlikely I’ll be going anywhere today, so here goes.

Every year I tally up the miles I put on each of my three motorcycles and on my car. Once again, as has been the case for a long time, I put more miles on the bikes than I did on the car.

Obviously this has been an unusual year and my car mileage really shows it. I only drove my car 1,979 miles in 2020. That’s amazing. In comparison, I rode the Concours alone for 2,977 miles. I also put 1,026 on the CB750 and 1,046 on the V-Strom. That’s a total of 5,049 miles on the bikes–more than two and one-half times the miles I put on the car.

While 5,049 miles on the bikes may not seem like much it is in fact more than I did the previous year. In 2019 I only rode 4,777 miles. In last year’s post where I tallied all this I set a goal for myself to ride 10,000 miles. Clearly that didn’t happen. Pretty much nobody got out and around as much as they had planned to in 2020, and I’m certainly no exception.

The one really big difference this year is that for the first time since 2010 I rode the Honda more than 1,000 miles. This was not an accident or by chance. I’ve mostly neglected that bike for a long time and I told myself in 2020 I was going to make a point to ride it more. I guess I succeeded on that goal.

So what goals to set for 2021? That’s easy. Ride a lot more. And with vaccines on the way that should be an easy goal to meet. The RMMRC had what looked like a terrific ride set up, up the Great River Road from St. Charles, MO, to the source of the Mississippi in Minnesota. That ride didn’t happen in 2020 but it is now planned for 2021. I definitely intend to go on that one.

The OFMC did take its trip in 2020 and I’m now planning the 2021 trip. And maybe 2021 will be the year I finally do the article I proposed to Rider magazine three years ago. I’m sure Mark Tuttle has forgotten I ever pitched that story to him but I’m confident he’ll accept it if I ever get it to him. But first I have to do the ride.

So here’s looking to 2021 to be a much better year. And let’s hit that 10,000 mark this time.

Biker Quote for Today

Some bikers never realize how anti-social they are until there’s a pandemic and their life doesn’t really change that much.

Judy went straight to the core: “The worst thing about renting a motorcycle is that it’s not your own.”

She was right on the money in two senses. First, unless you rent a bike that is just like the one you ride at home, you’re on an unfamiliar machine. Second, if you damage a rented bike it’s probably going to cost you a lot more money than if you did the same damage to your own.

This was all very much on both our minds a few years ago as we spent two days riding in British Columbia on a rented Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Classic. We chose the Electra Glide because it was the only bike the company had that came with full passenger accommodations and I wanted Judy to have the ultimate in comfort. The consequence of that choice was that we were not only on an unfamiliar machine, but on an extremely heavy unfamiliar machine.

I consider my wife to be the most precious cargo I ever carry and I had never before taken her on a bike I was not already thoroughly familiar with. The idea of climbing on this bike for the first time, her climbing on behind me, and riding off made me a bit nervous. But I took it easy, and was cautious, and all went well at the start.

I quickly started learning about the quirks of the bike, however. I’m accustomed to coming to a stop and putting my feet down at a point where I can plant them for maximum stability. On the Electra Glide, I would put my feet down and think I had solid footing but with the bike still rolling just a bit the passenger floorboards would run up against my calves and push my feet forward. That doesn’t happen on any of my three bikes. The buddy pegs are back further on all of them.

Things like that I could adjust to but I never adjusted to the extreme weight of this bike. It has a low center of gravity so it’s very stable on the highway, but at slow speeds it can tip and if that much weight once gets going sideways there’s nothing I could do to restrain it.

The issue really presented itself in the parking garage at the place we were staying in Whistler. The floor was very smooth, slippery concrete and the turns to get to where we needed to park were numerous and very tight. With either of my bikes I could navigate that route easily, and with a lot more experience on the Electra Glide I could probably do the same, but I didn’t have that experience. After a couple times we made it easier by Judy getting off or on at the entrance to the garage.

The issue of cost was also ever present in my mind. My Honda is old and is only worth maybe $700. If I did damage to it that would cost $2,000 to repair I’d probably just buy another old, used bike for a lot less. My Kawasaki is also getting older but I carry collision insurance on it, with a $250 deductible. And I only paid $3,000 for the Suzuki.

With this rental we had the option of paying $18 a day and having a $2,000 deductible, or $24 a day and having a $1,000 deductible. We went with the lower deductible but that still meant we could be liable for $1,000. Our rental was costing us $350 for two days already and the thought of it costing $1,350 was not comforting.

Of course, I never expected to do any damage to the bike, but that’s why they call them “accidents.” And while we never did have even any close encounters with other vehicles, there was one time when I came perilously close to dropping the bike.

We were on a very scenic stretch of road and turned into a pull-out to have a better look. The pull-out was gravel, and the gravel turned out to be deeper than I anticipated. With that big, heavy machine that I was not all that familiar with, it was an incredibly tense moment.

Within the space of six heartbeats I alternated between believing we were going down, to profound relief that I had recovered it, to certainty that we were going down, to elation that we weren’t, to horror once more, and finally to breathing a huge, huge sigh of relief as the bike finally came to a stop upright. I’m sure the only thing that enabled me to keep that bike up was adrenaline.

Bottom line: We’ll never rent that heavy a bike again. And while it’s great to be able to fly off somewhere far away and then have a bike to ride, it’s not all pleasure. We had a great time but next time we’ll have a much better idea of what to expect.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m not addicted to my motorcycle, we’re just in a committed relationship.

I maintain the iron rule that I ride each of my motorcycles at least once every single month. (I did finally miss two months following heart surgery two years ago.) As such, when we get to this time of year it pays to be preemptive. You never know when the weather will turn and your plans to ride next week get shot to pieces.

The weather so far in November has been spectacular. Plenty of time to get in at least three rides. So on Monday I was planning to ride one bike, then a second on Tuesday, and the third on Wednesday going on an RMMRC ride. Then life stepped in.

Judy and I had been hoping to squeeze in one last camping trip this year and on Monday she said let’s go camping–today. There was no way I could say no to that, nor would I want to, so Pawnee Buttes here we came. I can ride later.

Of course, that shot Tuesday as a day to ride as well but I could still go with the RMMRC on Wednesday.

Then I woke up on Wednesday feeling decidedly under the weather. Of course probably the first thing most people think of at this moment when they feel sick is, is this Covid? I didn’t figure it was but even if it was just a cold I saw no reason to share it with others so I did not ride with the RMMRC. Besides, I felt like crap.

Now the situation was turning. The weather forecast said the nice days were going to end soon. Snow was projected for Monday. Fortunately, on Thursday, I was feeling quite a bit better. Is that all this cold has to throw at me? Hah! That’s nothing. So I went out on the CB750. Then on Friday I rode the Concours.

On Saturday the cold–which is what I had deemed it to be by this point–came back to bite me and I was not feeling good. But I had that V-Strom to ride and snow was still being forecast for Monday. Sure the likelihood is that after a brief cold spell things will get nice again, but I’ve learned not to trust that assumption. So on Saturday I rode the V-Strom. I made it serve double duty as I stopped off at Walgreen’s to pick up some throat lozenges and Tylenol. And then Sunday I was still feeling like crap, spending most of the day on the couch trying to breathe through all the sinus congestion.

But I got the bikes ridden. I sure hope that’s not the last riding I do in November, but if it is, I did get each one out.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker when you make your bike payment before any other bills are paid.

I was riding with the RMMRC recently and there was a new guy on his first ride with the group. I didn’t catch his name. What I did catch was that he had a throttle lock I’d never seen before.

Of course, the large percentage of modern touring bikes come with cruise control built in. Cruise control is superior to a throttle lock because you set the speed and the engine revs more going up hills and less going down so you stay a constant speed. With a throttle lock, unless you adjust it, you’ll slow down going up and speed up going down.

Plus, in my experience, they have a tendency to slip so you periodically have to adjust them.

And I do have extensive experience here. I have throttle locks on all three of my bikes. Two of them are the type that clip on the bar and to set it you snap it shut. With a flange braced against the box that houses your kill switch and starter button it stays in place and keeps the throttle from backing off.

The other kind, which I have on the V-Strom, is just a lever that rotates when you turn the throttle. To set it you push it forward with your thumb so when you release the throttle it rests against the brake lever, blocking the throttle from backing off.

The first kind, which I have on the CB750 and the Concours, works best. It can slip but you can tighten it. Still, I’ve never been able to get it set on the Concours so it doesn’t slip. The second kind would probably work best if it tightly grabbed the bar but at least on my V-Strom it does not. So it slips a lot and there is no adjustment. Basically I have to speed up more than I really want, set it, and then I have a short time to relax my grip before I have to do it again.

So I was very interested in this throttle lock on this Honda ST. It is made by Kaoko and it’s more expensive than the others: about $130 versus $15 to $20. What the guy told me is that he had to take the weight off the end of the bar and then jam the coned end inside the plastic tube that allows your throttle to rotate on the bar. Then to use it you push the knob forward and set the throttle where you want it. Then let go.

How well does it work? He didn’t say a lot about that but he sure didn’t complain about it. If you ask me about my throttle locks I’ll tell you about their deficiencies and well as their benefits.

So will I try one? Oh, maybe, but spending $130 on something that might not be better than what I have is a hard choice to make. What I would really like would be if the company offered to either give me one or let me try one so I can then test it and write about it. That’s how I get a lot of my gear. But if I do end up with one, one way or the another, you can bet I’ll be telling you about it here.

Biker Quote for Today

If I was a motorcycle, a Vincent red Rapide, I’d ride around to your house, baby, get you up to speed. — Mark Knopfler

Kudos to Bob for planning and leading an RMMRC ride that went well off the beaten track and introduced me to roads close to town that I had never known existed. One over-riding aspect of this route was the demonstration of just how fully built out the hills west of Denver are. I had heard before that if you flew in a small airplane above the foothills you would see that there are people everywhere. This ride really proved that out.

We started out from Morrison, jumping on C-470 briefly to get over to U.S. 285 heading southwest. Very shortly we turned off at the Tiny Town exit onto Turkey Creek Road. Just past where Deer Creek Canyon Road runs off to the left we made a right turn that took us up into the heavily developed (relatively speaking) area between Turkey Creek Road and 285. Following a variety of local roads we looped through the area and ended up back on Turkey Creek Road probably only a mile or so from where we got off. But in the interim we would around through a very nice area on some nice roads. With houses all along the way.

Continuing south and west on Turkey Creek Road we then turned off to the south on Hilldale Drive and into another area of houses. Here, though, the road climbed and we ended up on what is aptly named City View Drive. The city and the plains are clearly visible from up here, as is U.S. 285 off to the north.

This is where things got a bit out of kilter. Looking at the map today I see what I think must have been Bob’s planned route. If you make the right turns–GPS probably your best bet–you can work your way over to Pleasant Park Road and back onto 285 at Conifer. Bob’s GPS was not serving him well. We made several wrong turns, ended up on dirt roads and generally groped our way until we found our way back to where we had turned off Turkey Creek Road.

But we were still seeing some roads and some views we had never seen before. I had no complaint. I was on my Concours, which generally hates gravel, but in fact it really hates loose gravel. Because this was hard-packed dirt I had no problem.

Besides the demonstration of just how full the hills are of homes I was also struck by how very many people we saw out walking, either on their own or walking their dogs, along these roads. They were everywhere and for the most part they were very friendly and waved–and in one case even cheered– as we went by. I suspect they don’t get many motorcycle groups cruising through their neighborhoods.

We then followed Turkey Creek Road to where it terminates back at U.S. 285 over by Meyer Ranch Open Space Park. That ended the first segment of this ride and the other segments warrant their own space so I’ll save them for later blog posts following this one. There is one other thing I want to mention here, though.

This was a fairly lengthy ride altogether. Bob had promised “111 miles, 1 million curves” and that really gives you an idea of what this ride was like. With that kind of promo I knew I would be most comfortable on the V-Strom but I had not yet ridden the Concours in September so despite knowing the V would be the better bike for the ride, I rode the Connie.

That was OK because I’m a pretty skillful rider and I had no problem maneuvering that big bike through the many switchbacks and tight curves we traversed. To my surprise, though, by the time I got home I was exhausted. Riding a motorcycle is not a passive activity the way that driving a car can be, and hours of steering a big bike through serious twisties adds up to significant effort. I got home just in time to go to my appointment at the gym and by the time I was walking home from the gym I found myself stopping every place I found shade to rest. I was tired!

Biker Quote for Today

Top 10 signs that a computer is owned by a Harley rider: 03. — Expansion slots have Genuine Harley-Davidson bike parts installed in them.

It sure was sweet, wasn’t it, when gas prices dropped so low. Those days are over.

Back when everything was shut down AND Russia and Saudi Arabia were having a price war I watched as gas prices at the pump dropped lower and lower. Holy cow, what a great opportunity to save some money. Only problem was, like everyone else, I wasn’t going much of any place to use the gas I had. And I didn’t need gas. Between my car and three bikes, none of them were anywhere near low. But I really wanted to buy gas.

I finally reached a point where it made sense to fill my Honda. On May 8 I put 3.57 gallons in the Honda, at $1.189 per gallon. Total for the fill: $4.24. Terrific.

Then four days later I filled the Concours. It took 5.38 gallons and I paid $1.339 per gallon: total $7.21. I could get to like this.

I rode the Honda a good bit and filled it again on May 13. This time I paid $1.6999 per gallon. It took 3.35 gallons for a total of $5.69. Still not bad.

By June 14, when I filled the Kawi again I paid $2.269 a gallon. This time it cost $7.96 to put in 3.51 gallons. I don’t like the direction this is heading. And then on June 24 I put 3.09 gallons in the Suzuki and it cost $7.72, at $2.499 per gallon.

Welcome back to the real world. We knew it wouldn’t last but it was nice while it did. And I’m glad I got to buy at least a few gallons really cheap. I mean, $1.189 per gallon? In 2020? No one would have believed that a year ago.

In the meantime, the last time I put gas in my car was February 23. That’s the one I wish had been close to empty on May 8.

Biker Quote for Today

It takes both pistons and cylinders to make a bike run. One is not more important than the other.

There were about 10 guys but only 4 motorcycles showing up Wednesday morning for the RMMRC‘s regularly scheduled breakfast and ride. I was on my V-Strom while the other bikes were two Goldwings and one Shadow. It was definitely cool but if you wore the right gear it was a very nice day to ride.

I sure wore the right gear. I had my electric vest and my heated gloves, plus my Rev-It riding pants with long underwear underneath. I’ve got to tell you, the more I wear those pants the more I fall in love with them. This was a really, really good purchase.

One of the four of us riders was Don, who got connected to the group via the Meet-Up site. Don came all the way down from Louisville. It was his birthday and he had taken the day off from work, so he wanted to ride. Welcome Don, I hope we see you again.

Having Don join us was indicative of a shift in RMMRC thinking. The group for years had maintained a standalone website but the member who was supposed to be tending to it managed to let the hosting contract lapse. We had already added the Meet-Up page and that has the advantage of exposing other people to the fact of the club’s existence and, at times at least, bringing them to the rides. After some discussion it was decided not to reestablish the old web site, just use Meet-Up. So if you have any old bookmarks for www.rmmrc.org you might as well delete those.

The ride was no big deal; we didn’t have anything great in the way of ideas–just let’s go ride. We wound our way, avoiding highways, to the underpass under I-25 just north of the Castle Pines exit and then over to Daniels Park, down to US 85, up through Sedalia to pick up C-470 and then went our separate ways where that road intersected US 285. Robert and I headed east and home from there while Don continued north toward home. Bob had split off for home back at Daniels Park.

The thing is, the route was not important. It was just a great January day to be out on the bikes. It was windy, especially along the foothills, so I had chosen the V-Strom. I really wanted to ride the Concours but with all its body work it acts like a sail in high winds. I still got blown around on the V, just not as much.

So, we’ve had a lot of cool but clear days so far this January. You don’t have to have electrics, although I strongly recommend them. Just dress with all the warmth you can and get out there. There’s a lot of good riding to be done.

Biker Quote for Today

Why bikes are better than women: When riding, you and your Motorcycle both arrive at the same time.