Passes & Canyons Blog

I rode one of these and loved it but Jungle says he would never own one.

My friend Jungle was for many years a big fan of the Kawasaki Concours. He owned several and put many miles on them. Of course, I ride a Concours, too, so that may have contributed to our bonding.

A few years ago I had the chance to test ride a then new Concours 14. I didn’t like that it had a smaller gas tank or that it was heavier than the old one but the ride was wonderful. I loved it.

So of course I had to tell Jungle about it the next time I saw him.

He surprised me telling me that he would never own one. His issue: they use a key fob, which, as a security measure, makes it impossible to start the bike unless the fob is nearby. I know a number of bikes have these now but Jungle is dead set against them.

His complaint is that it is electronic, and anything electronic at some time or another will not work. As he said, at some point you will try to start your motorcycle, everything will be in perfect working order on the bike itself, but the fob will fail to work and you will be stranded. Inevitably, in his estimation. It will happen, sooner or later.

That conversation comes to mind because in the latest issue of Rider magazine that showed up in my mailbox the other day there is a letter about fobs. The letter writer encountered a fellow walking along the road with a helmet in his hand and figured something was definitely amiss.

Long story short, this guy was one of two who had rented bikes for a few days and at one point they decided to swap and ride the other bike. This guy left his running and got off. His friend turned his bike off. The friend jumped on the running bike and took off. When the first guy tried to start the other bike it wouldn’t.

They had not traded fobs. Once the buddy realized his friend was not behind him he stopped to wait. Turned off the bike. When his friend did not show up he decided to head back to see what the matter was, but the bike would not start.

The letter writer was the savior in this misadventure.

Not exactly Jungle’s postulated difficulty but one to keep in mind.

I remember when I bought a new car many years ago and was considering whether to pay the extra for a car with extras, such as power windows. I was convinced that sooner or later those windows would fail to work–it was just a matter of time.

I bought that car anyway and I drove it for 207,000 miles. The windows always worked perfectly. Then I got another car, and this time thought nothing of the power windows. Well, I have about 71,000 miles on this newer car and . . . drumroll . . . one of the power windows no longer works.

Bottom line: you never know. At least with user error you can think ahead and avoid it (swap your fobs!).

Biker Quote for Today

Anybody who could ride a 500cc GP motorcycle well enough to qualify on Grand Prix grid is a hero, Anybody! because these things are the most evil devices if your treat them wrong they will bite. — Julian Ryder

Stopping to regroup on the downside of Guanella Pass.

Wednesday morning and I went by the Original Pancake House again and this time the other folks from the RMMRC were there. It turned out the last time that the ride had been canceled because pretty nearly everyone who normally goes on these impromptu rides was gone on a ride to Alabama. I just didn’t get the notice of the cancellation because it was put out via the group’s recently added Meet-Up group, of which I was not yet a member.

I’m a member now. And it turns out that apparently this Meet-Up thing is a good recruiting tool. There were several other guys who are not RMMRC members who came via Meet-Up, and who may now become members. In this particular case, let’s hear it for social media.

The ride this day, the decision was made, was to go up through Evergreen, across Evergreen Parkway to I-70, to Georgetown and over Guanella Pass. Just an easy 140 or so mile jaunt. There were nine of us on a bunch of BMWs, a couple Concourses, a Gold Wing, and a V-Strom 1000.

Figuring it might be chilly in the morning, and would definitely be cool up on top of the pass, I wore my newest mesh jacket with a fleece vest underneath. I was right about the morning chill but by the time we got out of town I was very warm and looking forward to higher altitude. It definitely was cool up on the pass so my thinking was good.

Riding with a bunch of guys you’ve mostly never ridden with there is always the question of how well you will do together. At breakfast I sat next to the guy on the V-Strom (can’t remember his name) and he told me of another Meet-Up group he had ridden with where in his opinion the ride leader was a bit crazy and at times he found that ride scary. Yeah, you’ve just got to ride your own ride.

This group went together well, though. After a lot of shuffling and getting separated in city traffic we regrouped out by Morrison and headed up the hill. Everyone just naturally arranged in staggered formation and nobody was crowding anybody. A good riding group.

Guanella was a good ride. There had been talk about encountering snow on the road up high but it was completely dry. Be aware, however, if you’re heading up there soon, that there is considerable gravel in some of the hairpin curves. I took those at about 5 mph.

There were a good number of bikes on the road over the pass, so other people had the same idea we did. It was definitely a good day to ride.

The only thing I thought was a bit lacking was that when we got to the top of the pass we paused to regroup but then just kept riding. It seems to me that the top of a pass generally calls for stopping and getting off and looking around a bit, stretching your legs. Certainly I could have gotten off my bike and walked up to the ride leader and suggested we do that, and I didn’t, so I can’t blame him. But it just felt a bit gratuitous to me to not stop a bit. I mean, I like to ride, but I like to make stops, too.

So then it was down the other side, picking up US 285 at Grant, and on back into town. (Where I roasted with that fleece vest on!) And we scattered and went our separate ways.

Biker Quote for Today

“I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating; the BMW GS handles in ways a two-story building was never meant to.” — AZ_ADV Rider

Some people get off on writing about the poetry of motion.

I was casting about for a topic for this post and I thought about motorcycle poetry. Was there something like that out there?

Turns out there definitely is. In fact there is even a Wikipedia page titled “Biker poetry.” According to whoever put up this page, “Biker poetry is a movement of poetry that grew out of the predominantly American lifestyle of the Biker and Motorcycle clubs following World War II.” Turns out there are even “notable biker poets.” I’ll let you explore those on your own if you’re interested.

So I started out doing a search for “motorcycle poetry.” That returned only, oh, about 22.5 million links. Really?

The top of the pile was allpoetry.com. This very broad site breaks out into subject matter and https://allpoetry.com/poems/about/motorcycle is where I ended up. Here’s a sampling of the titles.

• 2 wheel death machine
• Two Wheels To Heaven
• The ride
• Parade of Dog Voices
• Well, that’s what I gave you a key for, isn’t it
• Wear A Helmet
• Motorcycle Madness

There are a lot more. Are they any good?

I will say this: If you are a regular reader of this blog you know I close each post with a “Biker Quote for Today.” Reading through these poems I picked up a few lines that will be gracing that feature sooner or later.

But is the poetry good? Well, I would have to say, in my opinion, not much of it. No Pulitzer Prize winners here. But some of it is interesting, and the variety of subject matter is interesting as well.

For instance, that one I listed above, Parade of Dog Voices. The idea is of a biker going down the road and dogs in the yards he/she passes barking at the passing bike. Parade of Dog Voices–get it?

So anyway, if you’re interested to see what else is out there here are a few more links.

Hello Poetry (https://hellopoetry.com/words/motorcycle/)
Poetry Soup (https://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/short/motorcycle)
Poetry By Chuck (https://www.charlesallenjohnson.com/motorcyclepoetry.htm)
Triumph Rat (https://www.triumphrat.net/biker-hang-out/179739-best-motorcycle-poetry.html)

Biker Quote for Today

A poem is a verbal artifact which must be as skillfully and solidly constructed as a table or a motorcycle. — W H Auden

It’s safer to ride in some states than in others.

Be careful if you’re riding your motorcycle in Mississippi. The most current numbers show that state as the one with the highest number of motorcycle deaths per rider in the country: 14.22 deaths per 1,000.

Colorado is right in the middle of the pack, at number 27: 5.42 deaths per 1,000. Is that crazy or what? Mississippi has three times the fatalities Colorado does. What’s going on down there?

These figures come courtesy of QuoteWizard Insurance News, an arm (I presume) of Lending Tree. You can find the complete list at https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/dangerous-states-for-motorcycles.

The safest state is Montana, with only 0.75 deaths per 1,000. Presumably that is due to the wide open spaces up there. Still, that means the Colorado fatality rate is about seven times as high as Montana’s. Is there something else they’re doing right?

I decided to take a look at fatality rates vs. helmet laws. Is there any correlation?

First I looked at states where helmets are required for everyone.

State / Deaths per 1,000
Alabama / 7.04
California / 6.28
Georgia / 6.82
Louisiana / 8.45
Massachusetts / 3.02
Mississippi / 14.22
Missouri / 8.75
Nebraska / 4.84
Nevada / 7.10
New Jersey / 5.43
New York / 3.70
North Carolina / 9.32
Oregon / 3.99
Tennessee / 8.07
Vermont / 4.20
Virginia / 6.03
Washington (state) / 3.46
West Virginia / 4.29

Only three states have no helmet law at all.

Illinois / 4.85
Iowa / 2.47
New Hampshire / 1.90

OK, so this is only a very cursory look. Who knows what other factors come into play. But I find it interesting that in those states with universal helmet requirements the fatality rates are all over the board, from the very worst (Mississippi) to one of the very best (Massachusetts). Meanwhile, two of the three states with no helmet laws have better fatality rates than even Massachusetts.

Don’t ask me what lessons to draw from this but I would definitely say these numbers show that anyone who thinks requiring helmets is a silver bullet cure for motorcycle fatalities is deluding themselves. Anyone care to offer their thoughts on all this?

Biker Quote for Today

It’s just like a video game that has… the element of danger. — Kenny Roberts

I wrote for Examiner.com for eight years but they went out of business and took everything down from the web. A lot of stuff I wrote–I think–was good and is still relevant. That’s what these Examiner Resurrections are.

Judy climbs on board the Electra Glide while we were stopped in a canyon.

For two days last week my wife, Judy, and I rented a motorcycle so we could do some riding in British Columbia while we were there on vacation. Renting is something I’m sure a lot of people have considered so I figure I’ll go through the pros and cons and how these things play out in the real world.

Our first decision was who to rent from. We identified two outfits, Cycle BC and EagleRider, although I see now that there were other options. While EagleRider charged more per day for the kind of bike we wanted than Cycle BC, I knew we could get one day free from EagleRider on my birthday, which coincidentally fell during the time we would be there. Plus, Cycle BC offered only 300 km per day and 20 cents per additional km, whereas EagleRider was unlimited km. Cycle BC offers a variety of bikes, while EagleRider only offers Harleys in its Vancouver office.

The Cons
Then we found the true cost. I haven’t had the chance to check this but I believe it is because we were in Canada. Taxes were incredibly high. On the $199 one-day rental (with the second day free) we paid taxes of about $100. Add to that the insurance we purchased and our two-day rental came to more than $350–and that’s with one day free! Yikes!

Oh well, we were determined to do this so we gulped and made the commitment. Of course, from that point forward there was no cancellation allowed. If medical reasons dictated a delay we would have up to one year to use what we had paid for, but no refunds.

We arrived to pick up the bike and the manager, Stephen, was very good. He had the Electra Glide Classic all prepped and ready for us and offered to leave the GPS unit on it at no extra charge if we desired. We figured what the heck, and were later glad we did because it definitely helped us getting around in Vancouver.

Before setting out, Stephen and I went over the bike carefully looking for any damage. I found it a bit unnerving that he made note of several very minor scratches that I could hardly see. If that was the kind of attention he paid to even those things that would generally be considered normal wear and tear, would he ding us seriously for any new nicks when we brought it back. I mean, rocks do get kicked up and cause tiny scrapes, but that’s life on the highway. And he gave us a sheet where all the charges related to different damages were spelled out in detail. Plus, he noted that the crash bars up front were unscratched, indicating this bike had never been dropped.

For the next two days it was never far from my thoughts that an already expensive rental could cost us a whole lot more if anything happened. And the insurance we paid for didn’t exactly put me at ease. For $18 per day we could have bought insurance that carried a $2,000 deductible but we paid $24 per day for insurance with a $1,000 deductible. That meant that theoretically our two-day rental could still end up costing us as much $1,350 in total. Ouch!

And it’s not as if I never came close to dropping that very heavy bike. I did come very close. One time in particular on some deeper than expected gravel in a turn-out along the highway I could hardly believe I got the thing stopped and we were still upright. There I was carrying what I consider the most precious cargo there is (Judy) and I’m sure it was only adrenaline that enabled me to keep it up. Afterward she patted my arm in recognition of the difficulty and all I could say was, “That wasn’t fun.”

The Pros
On the positive side, when we turned the bike in Stephen didn’t do the meticulous examination he had done before. He merely gave it a quick once-over and said “No damage.” And that was that. Of course, I hadn’t dropped it, and the only damage there could have been was, as I said, the normal wear and tear.

More importantly, we got to spend two days riding around in the awesome beauty of British Columbia on a motorcycle. We drove some of these same roads later in the car we rented and I was acutely aware of how constricted my vision was. There’s just no comparison between a TV sort of view and a total 360-degree view of everything.

And it was fun. That’s why we all ride, isn’t it? Because we enjoy it so very much? Take away the few less-than-wonderful moments and we had a great time. It’s the sort of thing you just can’t do on your own bike if your time is limited. Sure, it would have been great to have taken several weeks, ridden out, ridden around, and ridden home. And someday maybe we’ll do that. But if you don’t have that time you can still do the riding around part, it will just cost you a bit.

So if you can afford the bucks, renting can be a good option. Just plan on paying some serious bucks. And next time, we’re going to go with something lighter than an Electra Glide, even if the passenger accommodations aren’t as cushy. Of course, that’s another benefit of renting. You can try a bike out and see if it’s right for you or not. The Electra Glide is definitely off my list for good.

Biker Quote for Today

Your wits and senses fade after a long day in the saddle. On the freeway you don’t really need either, but on a two lane the wage of sin is wadding your skeleton through the grill of a Kenworth.

Just out for a ride.

At least the last time I went on a ride that wasn’t it had a simple explanation. I went to take part in the Old Bike Ride and found nobody there. I got back home and checked and found I had gone on the wrong day. Doh!

Yesterday, however, I made plans to go with the RMMRC to breakfast and then on what they call an “impromptu” ride. The idea is to meet at the Original Pancake House, have breakfast, and then decide where to go. Breakfast at 8, ride at 9.

So I got to the pancake house about 8:05 and was puzzled not to see any bikes in the parking lot. Perhaps I’m the first to arrive. I went in and asked the hostess if there were some motorcycle guys there–we’re easy to spot, you know–and she said no, but you can look around. I did and there was no one.

I hung around awhile. Nothing. The hostess suggested perhaps I had the wrong location. I was at 8000 E. Belleview and there is another at 5700 S. University. I didn’t think I was at the wrong place but no one was showing up here and that place was only 10 minutes away and I had time. So I headed on over.

Got to 5700 S. University and nada. Not one bike. So now I’m thinking maybe I was the only one figuring on breakfast so I headed back to the first place, still with enough time to get there before 9.

Back at 8000 E. Belleview–nada. What the hey? I was hungry–I hadn’t had breakfast–so I just came home. Of course the first thing I did was to check to make sure I hadn’t gone on the wrong day, as I had before. Nope. And it was definitely the Belleview location.

So where the heck were the other guys? I still don’t know.

Biker Quote for Today

We don’t know where we’re going, but we’re going!