Passes & Canyons Blog

There’s a 15-day ride coming up and I’m definitely planning to go.

The year 2025 is already looking like much more of a riding year than 2024 was. Starting things off in grand fashion at the RMMRC is this West Coast & Death Valley Spring Ride 2025 that will be a 15-day trip out and back. I’m definitely planning to go.

What I really like about this trip is that Alan, who planned it, is more of my type of thinking about motorcycle trips. Rather than what is usually the standard RMMRC approach, this one does not consist of day after day of long miles, with few stops at interesting places along the way. There are no days with more than 300 miles and there are even some with fewer than 200 miles.

I’ll also note that Alan has made provisions in case someone can’t manage or doesn’t want to do the full 15-day trip. You’d just be riding home on your own, unless there are others who also don’t want to do the whole trip.

The group will be leaving on Tuesday, April 22, and returning on Tuesday, May 6. Stops for the night, in order, will be Fruita (CO), Loa (UT), St. George (UT), Las Vegas (NV), Stovepipe Wells (CA), Bakersfield (CA), Monterey (CA), San Simeon (CA), Victorville (CA), Lake Havasu City (AZ), Globe (AZ), Eagar (AZ), Cuba (NM), Red River (NM), and then home.

Overall the trip will be about 3,215 miles, split out over 15 days. My kind of trip. This means there will be no need for crawling out of bed at the crack of dawn because you can leave at 9 or 10 in the morning and still have plenty of time to go 250 miles. With stops.

You can do the trip, too. Just go to the RMMRC Meetup page and sign up. You’ll need to join the RMMRC but that’s only–I forget–$10 or $12 a year. Not a big deal. Specific hotels will be selected and you’ll need to make your own reservations, though if you want to share a room with someone you can post a note on the ride saying as much and if someone else is looking to share (usually the case) you just hook up with them and either split up making the reservations or maybe that guy already made the reservations and has done all the work.

Because we’re talking late April the weather will be a potential issue. A late snowstorm would make going to Fruita that first day more than a problem. We’ll just be keeping a close eye on the weather in the days leading up to departure.

I’m pretty stoked. This is gonna be a good ride.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is like writing a beautiful story with every twist of the road.

Riding into town with a group this size and expecting to find rooms can be a very foolish thing to do.

There is a reason that in later years the OFMC planned out the year’s trip well in advance: try having 10 guys roll into town expecting to find enough rooms. Many times you’ll find them; sometimes you won’t. Make advance reservations.

In the early days of the group we didn’t even dream of such concerns. There were just the three of us–John, Bill, and me–and we carried camping gear. Good thing, because there were times we had to use it.

The earliest–and most famous and most clueless–time was 1991. We were headed for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. There was a campground there. Not a problem. Right.

My bike was overdue from the shop so I did not leave with John and Bill. They got to the campground and told the person at the gate they wanted a campsite. What a joke! Do you not understand you need to make reservations a year in advance? Oh gosh, who do we do? And how do we get word to Ken, who was coming to meet them there. Then through a stroke of luck, someone called to cancel. The ranger called them over with the good news and all was fine. But in the days before cellphones, what would they have done to connect with me?

Then there was 1992. We decided to head north and got to Laramie. John and I had been there on an overnight the year before and had had a great time. What we didn’t factor in on this occasion was that Frontier Days was going on in Cheyenne and every motel room within any reasonable distance was booked. For the first and only time ever we rolled out our sleeping bags at a KOA. Not ideal but hey, it was late at night and all we did was sleep and roll out of there.

The next year Bill was unable to come so it was just John and me. At one point we rolled in to Pinedale, Wyoming, and surprise! The Pinedale Rendezvous was in progress. The place was swarming. Fortunately we found what we believed to be the last room in town.

After awhile we started thinking about festivals going on so we could avoid them. That didn’t help us the year we went up to Glacier National Park. This place is a major attraction at all times and we got into the little town of St. Mary, on the east side of the park, and once again we just lucked into the last room in town. Man, maybe we need to think ahead at least a little.

By 2000 we were thinking ahead. The group was now larger and as we headed out we planned to spend the night in Hot Sulphur Springs. John was supposed to have made a reservation but when he called to do so he had been told they always had plenty of rooms so no need for reservations. Wrong. We got there and the town was booked. There was a bicycle race going on that weekend and we were out of luck. We rode on to Kremmling and even there the motels were all full. The only place we could find was an old-style hotel in the middle of town, with bathrooms down the hall. At least they had beds.

We never went anywhere after that without reservations but sometimes things take an unexpected turn. In 2019 we were just down to three again, Bill, me, and Dennis. We were headed for Missoula but never got there. Dennis made a bone-headed mistake at a gas station and put diesel in his bike by accident. He was on an Indian and the nearest Indian dealer was in Idaho Falls. He got a U-Haul truck and we loaded the bike in. He spoke with the folks at the dealership and they said they would get to him right away the next morning, as long as we were there when they opened.

We got to Idaho Falls and for who knows what crazy reason there were no rooms to be had anywhere. But some local we spoke to suggested one other place we try, which the local Chamber of Commerce had not thought to suggest. We called and they had exactly one room. We got there and walked in and another couple came in right behind us. We got the room and they did not.

And that brings one other instance to mind. This was in 2015. We made reservations for our first night at Oak Creek, a bit south of Steamboat Springs. No problem. Well, we were comfortably ensconced when the skies opened up and the rain pounded down. Our cabin had eaves so we were enjoying sitting outside watching the rain. Then a motorcycle carrying a couple came slowly through the parking area, only to see the “No Vacancy” sign. And off they went through the downpour.

That’s how you learn, I guess. We sure did.

Biker Quote for Today

Been through a lot, my motorcycles and me. Heat, darkness, wind, rain, fences . . .

Weaving in and out won’t do you any good when there’s no chance you’ll ever get ahead of the guy in front–somewhere way up there.

Judy and I have a really nice shawl that was given to us as a wedding present by one of her nieces. Kate wove it herself. Thank you Kate.

Yeah, weaving on a loom is a great thing. On the road, in and out of traffic, not so much. This is one of the things people in cars hate about motorcyclists, the way some people blast along in and out, in and out.

When I first got my first bike I was pretty much a novice. My friend John was much more experienced. John had one particularly good piece of advice for me. He told me the more you change lanes the greater your risk of bad results. Just pick a lane and stay there, he told me. That way the guy in front of you becomes aware there is a motorcycle behind him and the guy behind you becomes aware there is a motorcycle in front of him. Your chances of something bad happening diminish substantially.

The other thing is that all that weaving and trying to get some advantage usually amounts to little or nothing at all. I’m not an aggressive driver so I have watched other people over the years and I see one thing again and again. Some guy blasts past me–car or bike–weaving in and out and then when we come to the next red light there he is right next to or immediately in front of me. You accomplished nothing, dude.

I saw this sort of thing in action just recently, on this latest RMMRC ride. After lunch at Rosie’s in Monument, Tom and I headed east to catch CO 83 back into town. As traffic got heavier closer to town it became pointless to try to stay together, especially since we were headed home and Tom and I do not live together.

But then Tom started doing some weaving, racing ahead, trying to get some advantage over the rest of the traffic. I was unconcerned and just said to myself, “See you later Tom.” And then there we were at Parker Road and Orchard and I rolled right up behind Tom. Just as if we had never gotten separated.

How utterly pointless. The way I see it, the only thing these folks gain is more time to sit idling at a red light. No thanks, I’ll just take it easy and I’ll bet I’ll get there just as quickly as you do.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycling is like sex. When it’s great it’s great. When it’s bad it’s still great.

Eating at Rosie’s on a different ride.

If projected temperatures of the 60s in early February are not an outright invitation to ride I don’t know what is. The RMMRC made plans.

We met up Sunday at 10 a.m. at Performance Cycle with our destination Rosie’s Diner in Monument. A lunch ride.

There’s one trick to fabulous weather in Colorado, however. If it’s not sunny it can be quite a bit different. Saturday also had a warm forecast but it was cloudy and was not nearly as comfortable as it might have been. Sunday at least started out sunny.

I was smart enough this to bring my heated gloves with me. I didn’t think I’d need them so I just stashed them but at least I had them if I needed them. Too many times I have not done this and regretted it.

We started off heading down Quebec to Daniels Park and on to pick up US 85 south of the park. It was only at that point that I turned on my electric vest. I wasn’t cold yet but it was getting cooler and I knew once we were up on the Palmer Divide the temperature would drop.

We scooted over to Sedalia and then resumed going south on Perry Park Road (CO 105). We started seeing a lot of bikes. You always do on that road.

And it got cooler. Still, the road was clear of ice and snow so that’s what matters. Then we got into Palmer Lake and the main road through town was extremely wet from snow melt. I had to wonder if we had come this way a couple hours sooner it would have been ice.

On through Palmer Lake to Monument and lunch. There were four of us on bikes but also three in a car. Two of those are overcoming health issues and could not ride so the third, Roy, drove them all so they wouldn’t entirely miss out. Good. We like these guys and we’re glad they came.

Heading out we split into two twosomes. Bob and Steve retraced the route while Tom and I headed east to pick up CO 83, to head north that way. We were pleased that the wind that had kicked up just as we had arrived at Rosie’s seemed to have abated. Wrong. We reached CO 83 and made a left turn and were instantly blasted by the powerful wind that had until then been at our backs. And a cold wind at that.

We worked our way north and as Parker Road got busier north of Parker we inevitably got separated. No matter. This always happens on the way home. We’re all going to split off somewhere, it doesn’t matter if it happens sooner.

Of course we were by now coming down from the Palmer Divide heights and as we did it got warmer and warmer. Before I got home I had turned my vest off–too warm.

So it was a good day to ride but nowhere near as nice as we had hoped. Oh well, it is February, after all. Be thankful for what you get.

Biker Quote for Today

What’s a motorcyclist’s favorite movie? Gone with the Wind!

CSP and ABATE testimony at the hearing. Thanks to Sen. Byron Pelton who came over to me and offered to get a shot from in front of the speakers. How nice!

Wow, did I ever get things wrong. I’m talking about this supposed bill to sunset Colorado’s MOST program and I just got home from the first hearing.

Just as the committee was getting going on another bill that preceded the MOST bill I was sitting with Larry, the state coordinator for ABATE of Colorado, and he handed me the text of the remarks he intended to make to the committee. I was struck by one sentence:

Per the Sunset Review for 2024 the MOST program has been recommended that this continues for 9 more years.

OK, there’s a little grammatical mix-up in there but you get the picture. I asked Larry if the recommendation was to continue MOST and he said yes.

Wow. Oh wow. That’s not what I’ve been telling you. Or anyone I talked to. What’s the deal?

I first got wind of this when I was talking with Stump on December 31 at the Last Brass Monkey Run. I would swear he told me the recommendation was to sunset MOST, but not altogether, just for nine years. And I asked him, for nine years? I thought when a program got sunset it was over, done with, fini. But he said no, it was usually for three years but in this case it’s for nine.

Clearly I misunderstood something Stump said and also as clearly he misheard something I said. My new understanding makes a whole heck of a lot more sense.

So the gist of it all is that they are recommending continuing MOST but ABATE is pushing to have changes made, to get it back more to its original configuration where the money we pay in on license renewals goes to reduce the cost of training for the students. And that issue was raised in the hearing. One senator asked if there was money stashed away for the program that could support this sort of subsidy and Larry told him absolutely yes, there’s more than $1 million sitting there in the account.

The bill was approved by the committee so now I believe it goes on to further development. As in, it does not appear there even is a bill yet, that remains to be written. And now the effort will be to make revisions in the program. That should be interesting.

Meanwhile, here’s another thing Larry told me that was news to me. I had told him that if the program can’t be redirected to subsidizing students taking riding courses then perhaps MOST should be killed. What he told me is that as of about five years ago, the Department of Motor Vehicles no longer administers driving tests when people come in for new licenses. Whether you want a license to drive a car or to ride a motorcycle, you have to go to a third organization to do the driving test. So if MOST went away there would be no system for those third-party trainers/testers to be certified to pass people on their driving tests.

Easy to see why the committee voted unanimously to continue MOST. Crazy that DMV no longer administers driving tests. Great for companies offering driver training.

So fine. Now we sit back and wait to see what in included in the bill when it gets written.

Biker Quote for Today

As addictive as cocaine and twice as expensive.

The legislature is back in session and it is time once again to protect what is ours. In this case it’s rider safety training money we pay in.

And the 2025 legislative session begins. The first order of business of interest to motorcyclists is the bill calling for the Colorado MOST (Motorcycle Operator Safety Training) program to be sunset.

This bill will be discussed on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. in the Senate Transportation & Energy Committee. If you wish to contact any committee members here are their names and email addresses:
Sen. Winter (Chair)–faith.winter.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Cutter (Vice Chair)–lisa.cutter.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Catlin–marc.catlin.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Exum–tony.exum.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Hinrichsen–nick.hinrichsen.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Mullica–kyle.mullica.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. B. Pelton–byron.pelton.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Simpson–cleave.simpson.senate@coleg.gov
Sen. Sullivan–tom.sullivan.senate@coleg.gov

This bill would shut down the MOST program for nine years. Meanwhile, the money we–nobody but us motorcyclists–paid in would be dumped into the state’s general fund. No way, dude. That’s our money. I say go ahead and shut down MOST if you feel it out to be shut down, but before it goes spend that money as intended. And call a halt to the extra fees we pay each year with our motorcycle registrations and any time we renew our driver’s licenses.

Clearly the worst-case scenario would be that they take our money, end the program, but continue the fees. If you’re interested in seeing to it that that doesn’t happen maybe you ought to show up for this hearing. I’ll be there. And of course afterward I’ll let you know what happened, in case you’re not there.

Biker Quote for Today

No matter how slow you go you’re still lapping everyone on the couch.

A different winter, not today.

Yesterday the temps were in the high 40s. In a day or two they’re calling for the 50s.

Time to be out riding, right?

Nope. Our street is still covered in ice. Maybe in a couple days. These are the days you hate to see going to waste.

Biker Quote for Today

I lost a good riding buddy in an accident–his finger got stuck in a wedding ring.

This is the kind of road you don’t want to run out of gas on.

Dennis has a saying we all like: The only time you can have too much gas is when you’re on fire.

Yeah, we’ve all run out of gas a time or two, right? I certainly have. Little things like forgetting to reset your trip meter after getting gas. That sort of thing. Too much optimism about how far what you have will take you.

Well, there’s thread for that. Over on the AdventureRiders site. I like to check in on it now and then. Especially at times like now when riding is out of the question and I’ve got a blog post to write. So here are a few people’s stories.

• I had the tank off to check the valves and change the air filter. Put the bike back together and rode it like I usually do. I used the trip counter as a fuel gauge. I noticed that I had gone well over my usual range before the light normally came on. I congratulated myself on improving my fuel mileage by looking after my bike…. and it sputtered and died. Apparently the idiot light needs the idiot who took the tank off to remember to plug the wires back in on reinstall. Girlfriend at the time brought me fuel and had a great time telling everyone about it for weeks afterwards.
• The Triumph Daytona, on the first ride home from the dealership. $h…s must have filled the tank with a cup of gas and told me to “have a nice ride.” Had to knock on a strangers door for “lawnmower gas” to get home.
• Most adventurous fuel flame-out was in Moab with a rental dirt bike. Coming out of the White Rim Trail, I was trying to make a gas stop in Moab. The bike had no fuel gauge and I was trying to make this happen using memories of the odometer. Ran out a mile from the station and had to bum lawnmower fuel.
• 1984, I switched my Seca 650 to reserve ten miles from home at the end of a two week tour. It had been a long, wet, 800 mile day (and night) and I just wanted to see my own bed. Had to work the next day, made a mental note to get gas in the morning. (Yeah, that did not happen.) After work, in rush hour traffic on the freeway, bike starts to stutter. Oh, now I remember!
  Between Ft Morgan and Julesberg CO I ended up chilling on the side of the road for entirely too long not realizing what the problem actually was. It wasn’t a stretch where I ever had an issue before, but apparently had enough headwind and weight to drop my range a good 15-20 miles. I was also caught off guard not realizing that I’d forgotten to flip it off reserve from the last stretch, and the Shadow doesn’t die quite the same. Normally low on fuel is a quick loss of power but plenty of time to go to reserve, if you’re already on reserve it’ll cough a couple times and then just die. So I call my brother in NP, he comes out with a trailer, and the next day I fart around with it trying to figure out what I broke or wore out for at least an hour before I notice that the plugs have solid spark but are bone dry. D’oh.
• I was 16. My friend was taking me as pillion on my 1984 Yamaha 400 Maxim to do my driver license test. I filled the tank the day before. Little did I know that my sister had conveniently drained most of the gas from my tank that night to fill her car and left me only just enough to ride about 10 miles. We ran out of gas, at the bottom of the hill, had to push the bike nearly 2 miles to the next gas station. I missed my scheduled appointment for my drivers test and had to reschedule for two weeks later. Guess who I don’t call for Christmas every year.
• The last time I ran out of gas was in 1973 when I overestimated how far I could go on a tank of gas with my RD350. I was close to home so my dad (who just happened to go by) picked me up. I didn’t have tie downs so I sat on the bike in the back of his truck. I had rather long hair at the time and wasn’t wearing a helmet. My Dad was laughing at me the whole way home because I looked like an Indian Chief with a headdress on.
• Our day started out great, we were on an ADV ride from Northern CA in late May headed to Oregon and had tracks we were following around the backside of Mt. Shasta on a Forest Service dirt road when after 30 miles of riding we were blocked by snow. Unfortunately, the blockage occurred 10 miles from our intended gas stop, but turning around meant gas was almost 45 miles the other direction routing us on roads, with the gas gauges all having come on simultaneously on our BMW R1200GS’ with a “low fuel” warning flashing 40 miles of range left on the gauge. The funny thing is we hit ZERO miles remaining 5 miles from the gas station and decided to chance it (nothing to lose at this point and our fortune favors the bold attitude). When we arrived (yes we did not run out of gas) the gauge on the bike showed negative (-) 5 miles of range left which we all laughed about as we had never seen a negative number on the gas gauge before and thanked the BMW engineer who had designed it with the “Pushing Your Luck Attitude” in mind.

Here’s a story of my own. Sometime, many years ago, Judy and I were out on the CB750 and ran out of gas. Don’t remember where. As we wondered what to do a guy in a car pulled up and asked if he could help. You bet! So he drove us to get gas, and he even had a gas can with him. Along the way he explained that he was kind of a professional good Samaritan. That is to say, he would very much appreciate us paying him for his assistance. Man, at times like that you are so glad to have assistance. We readily gave him a large “tip.”

Biker Quote for Today

The road to hell is very grippy, with fabulous camber and some wicked left-handers.