Passes & Canyons Blog

Kevin and my new bike were waiting for me at home on Monday.

I got home from work on Monday and Kevin was sitting in his truck waiting for me. I was glad to see him because I had had some fears that he might be stuck in a white-out on the prairie east of town. As it was, it was snowing and rolling that bike down Kevin’s narrow ramp off the trailer was made extra dicey by the fact that our footing on the trailer was very slick due to the snow.

But we got it down safely and wheeled it into the garage where it’s going to sit for awhile. I need to get it registered and get plates and that’s not going to happen right away because I don’t yet have the title. I’m buying the bike from Kevin’s brother-in-law in Tennessee and he hadn’t found the title by the time Kevin was leaving. They did find it, though, and it’s in the mail.

In the meantime, I’m in possession and that means I needed to get it insured. I logged in to my insurance company’s website and it showed me the policy I had on the other two bikes. I clicked on “Add a vehicle” and it stepped me through the process.

I was a little surprised when I found that the insurance on the new bike would be more than the insurance on the other two combined. I guess that’s because one of the old ones is 33 years old and the other is 14 years old. But I fiddled with the coverage, increasing my deductible a little, and knocked the total down enough to satisfy me. So I got that taken care of. Of course, it never hurts to shop around any time you’re changing your insurance coverage–you never know where you might find better coverage for less money.

Just as soon as I get plates on it I need to spend a little more money. As Kevin had told me, the front tire is pretty much shot and he says the chain is in bad shape. In my experience that means I’ll probably be replacing the sprockets, too. The really, really nice thing about having a job these days is that I have a paycheck coming in and that means I have the money to pay for these things. Hallelujah!

Of course then, the other thing that needs to happen is that it needs to stop snowing. I was talking to my friend Dan the other day and he was saying that due to two foot surgeries over the winter he hadn’t had the chance to ride in five months. Now he can ride and it just won’t stop snowing! One way or another though, he said, he’s leaving here on May 5 to ride to Maine by way of Florida. Can you tell he’s an Iron Butt guy?

My time will come. Patience is a virtue. And then I’m figuring on seeing a whole lot of Colorado I’ve never seen before.

Biker Quote for Today

There is something wrong about pics of motorcycles in the snow that is just wonderful….

My V-Strom as it prepares to leave Tennessee.

Mine, that is.

See that photo above of that 2007 V-Strom 650 on that trailer? That’s my new bike and at the moment this post is being published it is on that trailer on its way to me here in Denver. Here’s how this whole thing came down.

As anyone who knows me or who reads this blog is aware, I’ve been wanting a dual-sport bike for a long time. Working full-time as a motorcycle freelance writer, however, I never had the money. Since November I’ve been working a contract gig as an editor at the National Park Service so I finally have some spare cash.

In the meantime, my friend Kevin Smith, who runs Colorado Mountain Moto out of Gunnison, had gone down to Tennessee to do some remodeling work for his sister. He drove down and took his trailer with him because his brother-in-law had a V-Strom he wanted to sell and Kevin figured he could use it in his motorcycle rental business. Kevin favors V-Stroms and it is largely through him that I have ridden V-Stroms quite a bit. I like them quite a bit.

As Kevin tells it, however, he got down to Tennessee and the more he thought about it the more he got to thinking that money was tight and he really needed the money more than he needed another bike. So he sent me the following email:

Hey Ken if your still thinking about another bike I found a Vstrom in TN. Not sure I need it yet 07 17000 miles I could bring it with me if your interested. $3500. Cheers Kevin

I quickly did some checking to see how that price matched up to others locally and it looked pretty good, although some local bikes had extras this one does not, and Kevin said it will need a front tire and a new chain soon. I hesitated. I’ve finally got a bit of a financial reserve again and draining it significantly was a hard thing for me to decide to do.

However, much to the envy of a lot of guys, I’m sure, my wife Judy was all for it. She kept pushing me. “Come on, you’ve wanted this for a long time. Do it!”

So I did it. And now it’s on its way here. Kevin will be here later today and will spend the night with us before heading on to Gunnison. And I’ll add a Suzuki to go with my Honda and my Kawasaki. People who I meet and to whom I mention that I ride invariably ask, “Do you have a Harley?” No I don’t. Harleys just don’t interest me. I guess that’s pretty clear by now. Not dissing you guys who do; it’s just not my kind of bike. But oh boy, I’m going to like having this V-Strom.

My friend Dan, who does ride a Harley, also has a GS800 from BMW. He’s been wanting to sell it but hasn’t yet. I was telling him on Saturday about the V-Strom and he said “let’s go ride.” I’ll definitely be taking him up on that.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Butler Maps Northern California map is an eye-opener

Biker Quote for Today

I’m not lost. I’m explorin’.