Passes & Canyons Blog

I always tally up the miles I’ve put on my bikes and car at the end of the year and for the seventh year in a row I put more miles on the bikes than on the car. Not that I put all that many miles on anything this past year.

My total mileage for 2021 on the bikes was 5,419. That breaks down to 1,086 for the Honda CB750, 2,002 for the Kawasaki Concours, and 2,331 for the Suzuki V-Strom. My Hyundai Elantra only got driven a total of 2,494 miles in the year. Can you say “home body”?

I know most of this is due to Covid but it’s funny because I don’t feel like I’ve been all that restricted. Life has really been pretty much normal, with the exception that Judy and I haven’t taken a lot of trips.

Not that we haven’t traveled. We did fly to Kansas City, where we rented a car and drove around in the Midwest. That was a really nice trip. But we didn’t go camping once all year, and we usually go several times. With everyone suffering cabin fever the campgrounds have been swarming and getting a campsite reservation is tough.

And while that was Judy’s only trip for the year, I went on two motorcycle trips, with the OFMC and the RMMRC, and I also went yurt camping with the guys out at Ridgway State Park. It used to be you could go somewhere and rent a cabin but I guess now the big thing is yurts. They have to be cheaper to build so I’m guessing that’s why, but it’s pretty much the same thing.

The main point is that I haven’t exactly been stuck at home. And I did put more miles on the Honda this year than last, and more miles on the car, too. More than twice as many miles on the Suzuki, but fewer on the Kawasaki. And more miles overall on the bikes than the previous year.

So I’d largely call it a good year. Still, I’m hoping 2022 will be better. And I hope it is for you, too.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if there are no wrinkled, faded, creased, or scratched areas on your leathers.

Every year about this time I start looking at what I want to get done before the end of the year. Usually that includes making an effort to turn over one more 1,000-mile point on each bike’s odometer and then any other odd objective I can identify.

Turning over 1,000-mile points is especially easy–or irrelevant–this year. On the Honda CB750 the meter is sitting now at 35,940. Can I put another 60 miles on that bike yet this year. Is the sky blue?

It’s even more of a no-brainer on the Kawasaki Concours. That meter now sits at 73,986. We’re looking at 14 miles. Yeah, I think I’ll manage that.

And then there’s the Suzuki V-Strom. That meter is now reading 38,181. You can either say that one is totally out of reach or you can look at it that I already passed that 1,000-mile mark 181 miles ago. I’ve put a lot of miles on that bike this year so I’m going with the latter interpretation.

This year I do have a different goal for the Honda, however. In the beginning this was my only bike and all the miles I rode were on it. Then I got the Kawi and didn’t ride the Honda as much, and then I got the V-Strom and the time on the Honda went way down. For a whole bunch of years I didn’t even put 1,000 miles a year on that bike. So now that in itself has become an objective.

At the start of this year that bike had 35,048 on the dial. So instead of just putting 60 miles on it yet this year I really want to go at least 108. Still totally doable, I just have to get out and do it. And if this great weather continues that will be easy.

So what else do I want to get done before January 1? Well, often as we head into winter I’m looking at my tires and figuring I need better rubber for the winter. Not this year. Already this year I’ve gotten two new back tires and one new front. All the other rubber is good, lots of deep tread. Tires are no issue.

Plus, they’ve all had oil changes and the Honda and Kawi had overall tune-ups. I guess I’d have to say all three are in pretty darn good shape at this point. That’s kind of a nice way to end the year.

Biker Quote for Today

Biker new year’s resolutions: 1. Ride bikes. 2. Look at bikes. 3. Talk about bikes. 4. Repeat.

Many years ago I bought a junker of a pick-up truck to haul materials for some landscaping I was doing at home. This was not a vehicle you would drive for any other reason. It had been in a crash and the frame was bent, so it was one of those things that look like they’re going sideways down the road. Mostly it sat parked in my garage.

It didn’t take me long to figure out, however, that for what I was paying in insurance on it each year I could save money by paying to have this rock and compost and other stuff delivered. So I sold the truck.

A lot of people who have motorcycles don’t really ride them all that much. If you only ride the bike about 1,000 miles a year but you’re paying $200 for insurance that would come to 20 cents per mile ridden. If you put 10,000 miles on that bike you’re only looking at 2 cents a mile. What if you could get insurance where you pay for the actual mileage you put on the bike?

This is actually an option in some states (Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana). There is a motorcycle insurance company called Voom Insurance that does exactly that. Ron Khirman from Voom contacted me recently asking if I would like to work with them on getting the word out about their company. In exchange for putting up a blog post (this post) they would pay me $50. Check them out, write whatever I feel is appropriate. I said I was interested in their offering but if they were going to pay me I would need to let you, the readers of this blog, know that. “Fine by us,” Ron replied.

So I checked them out. Ron sent me to a link that is presumably a dummy page so I wouldn’t accidentally purchasing insurance that would do me no good–I’m in Colorado and they do not yet operate in Colorado. The first thing that happened was that Norton Antivirus deemed this a dangerous choice and I had to tell it no, I really do want to go to the site. I got no such response when I went to the actual site in the link above. In the meantime I was able to get the information I needed.

For starters, Voom offers three plans at varying price points: Essentials, Popular, and Extended. With Essentials the monthly base rate is $4 and 1 cent per mile. For Popular it is $9 a month and 4 cents per mile. With Extended it is $35 a month and 13 cents per mile. If you go with Popular it adds in comprehensive and collision and going to Extended also includes uninsured, underinsured, and body injury.

Each plan is customizable depending on what coverage you want. For instance, I chose Essentials and used my V-Strom as the bike. It gave me a base rate of $2.10 and a penny per mile. (The last two fees are consistent for all policies.) This includes $25,000 coverage per person, $50,000 coverage per incident, and $20,000 property damage per incident. These coverages meet Colorado’s requirements. If I added comprehensive and collision that went to $7.76 per month and four cents per mile. All the standard choices you always make with insurance were there for your selection.

They also offer the usual deductions for things like having a motorcycle endorsement on your driver’s license, taking a rider safety course, and that sort of thing. I have those so I took those deductions.

So how does this work out for me? Would I benefit by paying per mile for my insurance?

Well, last year I rode the V-Strom 1,046 miles. Taking the basic coverage that would work out to $35.66, whereas I now pay GEICO $145.02 per year on that bike. (OK, an update on Dec. 1: I did the math wrong. I think I misread that quote. By my recalculation it would cost me $60.62 per year. That’s still a heck of a savings.) I tried adding my other bikes onto the policy and it didn’t alter the general equation very much. It would seem that I could save a good bit of money going with a policy like this.

I don’t know. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here but this looks like a pretty sweet deal. If it was offered in Colorado I would definitely check it out further. But it isn’t, so for now I won’t. Get back in touch with me then, guys, OK? If any of you readers give this a shot let me know how it turns out. Thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you only took the job to pay for your trip to Sturgis.

I got the V-Strom back from Joel and what a difference!

The chain and sprockets were badly worn and I guess that can contribute to a loss of power but the real factor seems to have been the air filter. You can see in that photo just how bad that was. When I started looking into when I had last had that replaced I was more than a little embarrassed to find the answer was, oh, maybe seven years ago.

I had been out on a four-day Colorado Cruise with the RMMRC about a month ago and really noticed that the bike had trouble going over the higher passes and also in keeping up with the rest of the group on their big, powerful bikes. One night on that trip I did some googling and ran across something that said a worn chain will reduce power, and that was what got me thinking about that.

But when I mentioned it to Joel he said yeah, that might have a tiny impact, but not all that much. That’s when I started thinking about other possibilities. When I hit on the air filter it all made a lot more sense. It’s really hard to give your all when you’re struggling just to breathe.

And did you look at that filter? All those bugs and other debris embedded in it? Not to mention the whole load of dirt! Man, if anyone ever wondered why you need an air filter, just imagine all that crap being sucked into your combustion chamber. Yikes!

So within an hour after Joel dropped the bike back at my place I was out on it seeing how it would run now. Night and day. Joel told me he figured it would have a lot more zip and boy was he right. Plus, with the new chain and sprockets all that slapping I had heard for so long was just gone. Yahoo!

I can’t say enough about having machines that work well. Not to mention having the money to keep them working well. Too well I remember my younger days driving crap cars because that was all I could afford. I don’t miss those days.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if it’s impossible to see out of your car or trucks rear window because of all the Harley stickers.

I can’t even remember how long ago it was that my Concours started giving me trouble, but it seems like it’s been all summer. I packed it off to Joel before the OFMC bike trip but when he brought it back Joel said it still needed more work. But there wasn’t time to do that before the trip.

Once I got back from that trip I ordered the necessary parts and called Joel to let him know they were in hand and I was ready for him to come get the bike again, and this time bring it back really, truly fixed.

Well, Joel brought it back the other day and first I took it on a brief errand run to the wine store and then a few days later I rode it with the RMMRC to Daniels Park. And there was just one word for it: normal.

How wonderful it is for that bike to be operating normally again, finally. Normal is so great.

No more racing at a screaming pace when I pull up to a stop. No more dying as I coast to a stop. No more needing to ride around the neighborhood first to get the bike running halfway smoothly before getting out on the less forgiving main roads.

It was also nice once again to have the feeling of power. I had never noticed a lack of power in my other bikes before but lately I have. On the Colorado Cruise with the RMMRC I was on the V-Strom and for the first time it seemed like it was struggling for power going over the highest passes. That bike is currently with Joel and I hope it feels more back to normal when he brings it back. And then the other day I rode the Honda CB750 with the RMMRC up to Kremmling, and that bike was totally left in the dust by those other bigger bikes. The Connie has the power to keep up with any of these other guys.

Yeah, normal can often be boring. We crave some change, some variety. But when you’ve had a steady diet of not normal, and it hasn’t been fun, it’s amazing how wonderful normal can be. We all know that old Chinese curse: May you live in interesting times. Right now I’m really hoping to be living in some boring times.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 19. We “need” a bunch of expensive riding gear, usually 2 or 3 of each item.

I’m still counting on taking the Kawi on the OFMC trip very shortly but nothing has happened yet on the carburetor issue. For insurance I got a new rear tire on the V-Strom a couple days ago.

I got this recommendation from both Bill and Dennis, that I get the tire at Let It Ride, on 8425 W. Colfax, and then take it next door to 1 Down, Four Up Motorsports, at 8427 W. Colfax, to be mounted. That worked out great. I called ahead about the tire and they had it in stock. I asked them to hold it for me and made an appointment so I could have it mounted while I waited.

Mid-way through the job, the guy (whose name I can’t remember–I really should make note of these things) asked if I wanted new rear brake pads because with the old ones, “there’s almost nothing there.” That didn’t surprise me; I had been thinking about that possibility. So sure, put on new pads. He said the front pads are fine.

Then as I was paying he told me they had adjusted the chain as good as they could but there was some stretching and really, the chain and sprockets need to be replaced. That didn’t surprise me either.

The ride home proved interesting then. Of course I was doing some swerving to scuff up the edges of the new tire but I wasn’t so busy with that as not to notice something else. A noise I had wondered about for quite awhile was not there.

This noise is something I’ve always thought of as maybe the chain slapping. I’ve tried adjusting the tension but never made a difference. I take it now that the shop did a better job of adjusting it than I did and at least for now that slapping–which is apparently what it was–is gone. At the very least, the noise is gone. So OK, that’s something to take care of after the trip.

Biker Quote for Today

I was born intelligent, but my bike ruined me.