Passes & Canyons Blog

The first thing just about anyone who buys a motorcycle does is customize the bike to fit their own specific needs and/or wants. I generally haven’t ever gone very far down that road but I always travel it to some extent. I’m extremely pleased to say that I now have a top box on my new V-Strom.

It’s a good thing to have photos–specifically that one above–because these things don’t seem to go by any clear-cut name. I call it a top box, other people call it a variety of other things. Whatever you call it, from what I’ve seen they get the most use as a place to quickly and easily stash your helmet or your jacket–both if it’s big enough–when you get off the bike. Also a good place to carry odds and ends you might want during the day so you don’t have to go digging for them in the bigger side bags. (Presuming, of course, that you have side bags.)

It’s also a good place to put the stuff you’re carrying to work if you’re riding to work, which I do. I can wear my riding boots to work, take them off and stick them in the top box while putting on shoes that you can actually walk in, and switch back at the end of the day.

Sure the V-Strom came with side bags and they’re huge, but that’s part of why I wanted the top box. The side bags are so huge that they make parking the bike in the space I have for it a difficult thing to do. I ended up taking the bags off each time I came home before I parked, then putting them on when I was going somewhere. Now the side bags can just sit in the garage except when I’m traveling. Traveling is the only time I need anywhere near that much space.

Of course, getting the top box mounted was no easy feat. Theoretically it might have been but reality dictated otherwise. Fortunately I had the assistance (read: he did almost all the work) of Ron Coleman, the guy who runs Western Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventure. Ron has been a great help in getting this bike fixed up and because he runs a fleet of V-Stroms he knows far better than I what needs to be done. And he has the tools.

So what theoretically might have taken an hour, hour and a half, ended up taking four hours. The actual mounting was not that bad, it just took drilling out some of the sheet metal in the mount so the bolts could go where they had to go. But the trunk (that’s what some people call these things) has LED lights on it to give you greater visibility, and hooking those up was the real bear.

After putting it all together it didn’t work. So we tried one thing after another, and in the process disassembled almost the entire rear end of the bike. You can see that in the other photo. We did get it done, though, and hot diggety! I’m really pleased. Thank you Ron. Now just a few more mods and I’ll have this bike just the way I want it. Stay tuned.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom #28

Biker Quote for Today

There’s roads and there’s roads and they call, can’t you hear it? Roads of the earth and roads of the spirit. The best roads of all are the ones that aren’t certain. One of those is where you’ll find me till they drop the big curtain. — Bruce Cockburn

I recently bought a Suzuki V-Strom because I have ridden them and I like them. Ron Coleman is part of the reason for that. Ron runs Western Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventures and he rents V-Stroms. It used to be that was all he rented but now he has a BMW GS800 and several Suzuki DR650s. I’ve gone riding with Ron a number of times, usually on one of his V-Stroms. This past weekend, though, we went riding and I was on my own V-Strom.

When Ron and I ride he generally takes me on gravel roads in the hills above Boulder that, in many cases, I had no idea existed. That was the case once again.

We headed up Boulder Canyon and then turned north on the road up Fourmile Canyon. Fair enough, I’d been up that road before. But we kept on going, way beyond anywhere I had ever been before. We got up into the area where the big fire burned a couple years go and I could see there were a lot of lucky people there. Whereas a lot of folks lost their homes, especially in the Wall Street area, all along Fourmile Canyon there were homes beside the road and scorched trees coming down the slopes but stopping just shy of the houses. I don’t know if that was due to the efforts of firefighters or just plain luck, but those places survived.

Eventually we came upon a sign that warned that the pavement was ending. This is what I love about this bike: we didn’t slow down for a second. These bikes love the gravel.

So the road wound around and around, climbing ever higher, and I just had no idea so many people lived up there. From riding through the canyon we emerged onto the ridge above and now we had some really nice views. Eventually the road came out at Gold Hill. Ron had led me on another gravel road to Gold Hill another time so I was a bit surprised to discover there is another route. From there we took a road we have ridden on before to the Peak-to-Peak Highway. We turned north and headed to Allenspark for lunch.

Unfortunately the Mountain Meadow Cafe was closing when we got there. Ron said he goes there a lot and it is a terrific place but they close at 2 p.m. and it was about 1:56 when we walked in. Oh well, another time.

So we headed back south and took the turn-off to Jamestown. From the Peak-to-Peak the road is unpaved, so once again it was just cool to turn off onto the gravel without giving it a second thought. I’ve been on that road before but I’m not sure I’ve ever been on it on a bike. Maybe once on my Honda. Not sure. Anyway, it’s a nice ride, a bit steep in places, and perfectly comfortable on the Suzuki.

We were headed for the Mercantile in Jamestown and it was a busy place when we arrived. We walked in, though, and the waitress told us that, sorry, they were just closing. Rats–again!

What to do, where to go . . . We were hungry. There has to be someplace we can eat. So we continued on down Lefthand Canyon to where it came out to U.S. 36 and turned north to Lyons. Here, on a straight and fast piece of road, I finally got to try out this little throttle lock device Ron had loaned me, which worked amazingly well considering how simple it is. I’ll tell you more about that soon because I’m buying one. We finally ate at Smokin’ Dave’s in Lyons and then headed back toward our various homes. On the way we zig-zagged across Boulder County avoiding the heavily populated areas and at one point Ron led the way off the pavement onto another piece of gravel that cut a diagonal and was therefore a short-cut. Again, it was no hesitation, just go. I love that. You don’t go another route in a car when you come to gravel. Why should you do so on a motorcycle?

And then we parted ways and headed on home. Another good day of riding.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
OFMC heads home, more dirt en route

Biker Quote for Today

Getting lost on purpose . . . again.

Having just ridden 1,611 miles over nine days on my new V-Strom 650 I’m finally able to state some opinions and give an appraisal. Here’s my take.

I know for certain I’ll be spending some money on this bike to make it fit me. It didn’t take very long before I found myself reaching repeatedly for highway pegs that were not there. I reckon it’s going to take installation of a case guard–not a bad idea on its own–to have something to mount highway pegs to. That’s exactly what I did with my Honda CB750 Custom many years ago and its definitely going to happen with the V-Strom.

I did find that it’s a reasonably comfortable alternative to shift my feet to the buddy pegs. On the Honda I do that all the time and it’s probably the most comfortable position of the three. On the V-Strom it’s not as good, but it’s OK. Better than nothing. But highway pegs will be very good.

The next thing I’ll be getting is a throttle lock. We had pretty short days on this trip but it still got to my right wrist after numerous hours. This will be simple and cheap.

Third, I’ll be getting a top bag for the rear. The side bags on the bike now are huge, so much so that I loaded everything I needed and had a phenomenal amount of space empty. In fact, they’re really too big for daily needs. I park in a pretty tight space at home and it’s much easier to do so without the bags on the bike. But a top bag won’t get in the way and will be plenty to carry all the day to day stuff I need. The side bags will just be for traveling.

The bike has incredible range. Suzuki says it holds 5.8 gallons of gas and I never got less than 52 miles per gallon. That’s a minimum range of just over 300 miles. And one time I got 70 miles to the gallon, so at that pace you could go more than 400 miles on a tank of gas. Amazing.

The seat is very broad and reasonably comfortable for quite awhile but it’s not as good as the seat on my ’99 Concours. The Connie will continue to be my main traveling bike, especially when I’m going a long way. But that’s not what I bought the V-Strom for anyway. I bought it to ride on gravel roads.

The seat is a little high but so is the one on the Connie so that didn’t even take any getting used to. It feels perfectly normal.

The little bikini windshield does remarkably well. I’m used to the big, full fairing on the Connie but I was never uncomfortable. I guess as long as the main blast of wind is deflected that’s all that matters.

On the gravel, where I intend to use it, the bike handles very nicely. I got a little nervous one time when the loose gravel on the road surface started getting pretty thick but there were no problems. And I’m sure the more I ride it on those kinds of roads the more comfortable I’ll get.

In the twisties the bike really shines. It’s so light and agile that it’s really fun to ride fast. After I met up with Brett and Jason in the Poudre we stopped to say hi and then I took off in the lead. They said later that they saw me for about 15 seconds before I disappeared ahead of them. I was having fun.

The one thing that does not excite me is that this bike has a chain that needs oiling and adjustment. So does my Honda, and it’s done in exactly the same manner, so it’s not onerous. But it is an annoyance. Shaft drive is so nice.

The riding position is just about perfect for me. I like to sit up straight and I like my feet underneath me. None of this feet-forward, slouched back sort of thing. On my Concours even after I added risers there is still a slight reach forward. That’s OK, I’m not unhappy with that. But on the Suzuki I sit bolt upright and that’s very nice. Of course, being a dual-sport bike, it is also designed to be ridden standing up on the pegs and the fit there is perfect as well.

All in all, I’m extremely pleased with it. If I didn’t already have the two other bikes I might not buy either of them, except, as I say, the Connie is the better traveling bike. Not that I’m going to get rid of anything; I’ll just get by with three motorcycles. It’s that old business of a dirty job that someone has to do, you know? And I’m glad to have added this third one to the fold.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
OFMC is off on its 2013 ride

Biker Quote for Today

That road less traveled is a toll road, and sometimes the charge is more expensive than we ever expected. Most of the time, it’s a one way road. Make the decision, hope for the best, and start traveling. Carry lots of coins. — PecosBill

It’s not a challenge in any way but I’ve now ridden Kebler Pass on the V-Strom.

After spending the night at Powderhorn, at a ski condo, we ran over Grand Mesa and down to Cedaredge and turned east. At Hotchkiss all the other guys headed south through Crawford, to the north rim of the Black Canyon, over to Gunnison and up to Crested Butte. Me, I kept going at Hotchkiss, through Paonia, and turned off to ride Kebler Pass to CB.

I told these guys Kebler is a great gravel road but I had no idea just how great it would be at this time. My friend Kevin, in Gunnison, who I called once I got here, said they went hog wild with the mag chloride on Kebler this year and it’s practically paved. I would agree. Heck, there was even a guy on a bicycle. You don’t ride bicycles on really bad gravel roads.

Of course I’ve been on Kebler before, too, so the only thing noteworthy about this whole thing is that once again I’m getting out on unpaved roads–the reason I bought this dual-sport bike.

I did have a little trepidation heading for Kebler, however. Talking with a guy at a gas station at Cedaredge, he told me they had had a lot of rain lately and there had been mud slides and roads had been blocked. He thought Kebler Pass might be bad. He told me to take it easy because I might come around a curve to find a boulder lying in the road.

Then I pulled off at a station in Paonia and spoke to some guys there who were on dual-sports and they said they had just been over Kebler recently and it was the best they’d ever seen it. That was reassuring. And they were right.

So it wasn’t an adventure, but it was fun nevertheless. And of course it was gorgeous. Kebler Pass runs through some terrific country and if you haven’t been up there you owe yourself that treat. And if you’re on a Harley, do it anyway. You won’t find a gravel road in better condition.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you won’t ride down a gravel road.

There is no better way of getting truly familiar with a new motorcycle than living on one for a week. Today is Monday of our OFMC weeklong trip, having left on Friday, and I’m really getting to know this V-Strom that I bought two months ago.

The first thing that hit me was that I have got to get some highway pegs on this bike. After a few hours on the road I’m looking for a place to move my feet to in a different position, and where the heck are those highway pegs? I’ll probably need to put on a case guard–which won’t be a bad thing–and then attach some pegs to that. That’s what I did with my CB750 all those many years ago and that’s still how the bike is equipped today.

The second thing to hit me was that I need a throttle lock. Again, after a few hours, your hand is starting to protest against hanging onto this grip all this time. That one will be easy and cheap to address.

We headed out on Friday, meeting up in the Poudre and that gave me an opportunity to try out the bike’s capabilities a bit, too. I rode up the Buckhorn road, over through Stove Prairie to the Poudre, and was heading up the Poudre when I saw for an instant, a couple curves ahead of me, two bikes. Not just any two bikes, but two Harleys with suitcases mounted on top of the top bags at the rear. Nearly all these bloated OFMC biker types have those on their luxocruisers these days.

So I figured I needed to catch up and see if it was really who I thought it was. Now there were a couple cars between me and them but these are motorcycles, so even if the center line is yellow a quick flip of the wrist and two seconds later you’re ahead of the guy you used to be behind. And I was. So it was a pleasure to see that the V-Strom had that pep. And it had it in spades.

I caught up and it was indeed Brett and Jason and they recognized my jacket, even though the bike was unfamiliar, and pulled off. When we took off again I was in the lead and they said it was about 15 seconds before I was gone out of sight. This bike is so light and agile that I just blasted up the canyon and it was fun.

Nothing particular to report about Saturday, just a few passes and then a night in Dillon where one of our group is the sax player in the featured band at some summer festival they do in Dillon. We left there Sunday morning, headed up CO 9 along the Blue River to Kremmling, west over Gore Pass, up to U.S. 40, and then for them, to Craig and down to Meeker.

Not for me. I saw that a road heading south out of Hayden looped around through some little nothing town called Pagoda and met highway 13 coming down from Craig somewhere north of Meeker. And there were about–by my judgment–8 miles of gravel. I went that way. As it turned out, there were closer to 11 miles of gravel but no problem. I was riding a dual-sport bike and it likes gravel.

So I got to see more of Colorado that I’ve never seen before. In this case, high cliffs on both sides with a lush green valley down the middle with a few ranch houses, some hay fields, some cattle, some horses, and a stream meandering down the middle. Nothing special, just the typically beautiful thing that ranch valleys normally feature. Has anyone ever noticed that ranchers live in some of the most beautiful places imaginable?

My route was probably half the miles that everyone else rode but I got to Meeker about 10 minutes later than they did because I was going slow on the gravel and they were blasting on the asphalt. That suits me just fine. It was a really nice ride. I love how I have so many more options now.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re becoming addicted to riding when you find yourself gravitating to the center of the lane, only to remember that you are not sitting in the center of the vehicle!

I hate how this business of working 40 hours a week interferes with my riding time. I may have been broke most of the time while I was a full-time freelance but at least I got to ride plenty.

This weekend was looking like more of same. Saturday went by with every hour claimed and I was determined to get out on the V-Strom on Sunday. But Sunday came and every hour seemed to be claimed as well and I was getting pretty disheartened. And I said no.

I decided that no matter what else didn’t get done, I would ride. And I got on and off I went.

It wasn’t any kind of big deal ride. I had wanted to head up into the mountains and take some gravel road I’d never been on on a bike before, but I didn’t have that much time. Instead I just cruised west through town, doing what I could to dodge raindrops. I actually put my rain jacket on at one point but was pulling it off again five minutes later. Hot!

Made my way out to Golden and then turned south. At Morrison I decided to run over to Red Rocks and get some pictures. I wanted to be able to say “see what cool places I’ve been on my new bike.” Sure, Red Rocks is not exotic, unless you’ve never been there. Chances are someone will read this who has never been there and will look at that picture above and think, “Wow, that’s not exotic? What kind of incredible place do you live in?”

But I have an ambition now. On Adventure Riders they have a “Wee-Strom” thread (that’s for the 650cc V-Strom as opposed to the 1000cc V-Strom) with the title, “Let’s see your Vstrom OFFROAD!” On this thread a lot of guys have posted a lot of terrific shots of their bikes in some fabulous places. I want to add a bunch of my own photos to this thread. I just have to go shoot them first.

Anyway, I headed back home, having been out for two hours. It wasn’t much but I did ride the dang bike! I guess the first serious miles I’m going to get on it will be on the OFMC summer trip which is coming up very soon. None of the guys have seen the new bike yet. Time to do something about that.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .: Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #27

Biker Quote for Today

Everyday is a good day for a ride! But Sunday is perfect!

No, I did not get a plate for my new V-Strom on Friday as I expected I would. I had so much to learn!

I did get it registered and got a plate today, as you can see in the photo above. Maybe you already know all this; maybe my experience can save you some trouble when you go to register your next new bike.

My first mistake on Friday was to head out without the proof of insurance slip. I was halfway to Motor Vehicle when I realized I had left it at home but I went on anyway. Maybe I wouldn’t need it.

I arrived just after the office opened at 8 a.m. and there was a long line of people already filing in and taking numbers. The manager of the office was greeting people at the door and explaining the process to them again and again. She gets good marks for customer service.

I asked about the insurance slip and she urged me to go ahead and take a number because they might have already received notification from the insurance company. I didn’t know that happened. But they were serving numbers 1 and 2 at that point and my number was 44 so I decided not to wait and then find that they had not heard from my insurance company.

Work was slow that day so I left early and swung back by Motor Vehicle just in case I could get through the line quickly, but at 3:30 p.m. there were a lot more people than had been there in the morning.

Friends had told me by now that Monday and Friday are the worst days to go to Motor Vehicle. So I decided I’d go again on Tuesday, even earlier and with my proof of insurance.

Come Tuesday there I was. My number was 8 so I didn’t have to wait long. I handed my paperwork to the clerk and he sorted through, then asked for the VIN verification. The what? Well, it seems that if you are registering a vehicle that comes from another state (Tennessee, in this case) you have to take the bike and the title to either a dealer or to an emissions check facility to get the VIN verified. No registration and plate for you today!

On my way home that night I swung by Vickery Motorsports to inquire. They guys there were very helpful and said I just needed to bring the bike by with the title and they’d do the verification. But, I asked, how do I do that? It doesn’t have a plate on it. We all kind of went, “Hmmm,” and then I said, “I’ll take the plate off one of my other bikes and put it on.” The Vickery guy grinned and said, “I didn’t hear a thing!”

So the following day I went to work early so I could leave early and have time to get home and take the bike to Vickery. I got to Vickery, “You’re totally legal, right?” he chuckled, and the VIN verification form was completed. I asked while I was there what kind of payment Motor Vehicle wants. Do they want cash, check, credit card? I was told they do take checks and cash and only recently started taking credit cards, although they add on a 2-3 percent fee if you use a card. I’d rather pay by check anyway.

Now it’s back to Motor Vehicle.

I got up early again today to get there before the crowd but by the time I got in line my number was 32. And they had some clerks who didn’t come to work so they were short-staffed. It took an hour and a half but I finally got up to the window.

While the clerk went through my paperwork I found that my heart was pounding and my hands were shaking. I just had this dread that she would tell me something was wrong or I needed some other piece of paper or something. But no, it was all good. I wrote a check and she handed me the plates and registration, telling me I will receive the title in the mail in about six weeks. Success!

So I got to work way late but as soon as I got home this evening I put the plate on. Gosh, maybe I’ll go for a motorcycle ride this weekend. Or would that be silly?

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Where are the Ducs?

Biker Quote for Today

Bikes are better than women because motorcycles don’t care about how many other motorcycles you have ridden.

My new V-Strom is new only to me; it has 17,000 miles on it from two previous owners.

That’s OK with me. As you can see in the photo above, this bike has gone down at least once so that means I can drop it myself and not feel that horrible pang of regret from having put the first scratch on your new baby. Not that I had a tendency to go down on bikes but I’m planning on getting off the pavement on this bike, and when you do that your likelihood of going down increases.

Heck, I’ve already dropped one of Kevin’s V-Stroms. We were going over Cinnamon Pass and came to a particularly tight switchback on what was at that point just a narrow gravel trail. I didn’t make the turn successfully. No problem. Pick the bike up, get it facing in the right direction, get back on, and go.

About two switchbacks later I came to another really tight one and this time I stopped to study it. I could see that the steeply sloping rock face that was the corner of the turn had tracks across it. I figured other people in this spot had just powered through and around, so that’s what I did. I gave it some revs, let out the clutch, and hit that rock face with power and just carved that turn around and was on my way up the trail again, all in an instant.

I want to do more of that kind of riding. That day was one of the best riding days of my life, and it was that ride that totally sold me on getting off the pavement.

So I took the new bike out for a ride Saturday. Not a very long ride at all, because I don’t have plates on it. But I took a little jaunt through the neighborhood just to get on it and get a feel for it. Fired up great and ran beautifully. Hey, oh boy–fun times to come!!

Biker Quote for Today

Adventure riding has been good for my attention deficit diso….Hey, what’s down that road?