Passes & Canyons Blog

In Cherry Creek State Park you can wonder, “where’s the city?”

The forecast for Tuesday was for a record high temperature for the date so of course I had to go ride. So did a lot of others; I saw quite a few motorcycles that day.

As so often happens I had no idea where I was going to go. I started heading south on Yosemite and had the idea to cut over to Dayton and take the road through Cherry Creek State Park over to Parker Road and then keep going south on Parker. I paid for a parks pass with my vehicle registration on the V-Strom this year and I figure I need to use it and get my money’s worth.

Of course, the last time I tried to go through the park, coming from the Parker Road side, I couldn’t get through because they appear to be replacing a small bridge. Surely that project was finished by now. Wrong.

The road goes through the park, past a lot of picnic areas and hiking trails, then past the turn-off to the model airfield, where two radio-controlled model planes were in the air. No drones on this day but I suspect this area gets used for drones now more than model airplanes. Then on to the turn-off for the shooting area, where you can take your guns and do target practice.

This was where the road was blocked going through the park. So I went up the short road to the shooting area, expecting to hear gunshots as I drew near, but I didn’t. What I did encounter was the unmistakable odor of weapons being discharged. I hadn’t expected that. And then as I turned around I did hear a few pop-pops of the guns. OK, back out of the park onto Dayton and south.

I went to Orchard and then east, to Peoria and then south to Arapahoe Road. Turned east on Arapahoe and then continued east past Parker Road. I got to wondering where Arapahoe goes as you follow it all the way east. Had I ever done that before? Maybe now is the time.

And go further east it does, on and on and on. I got to thinking that maybe I had been out this way before and that eventually Arapahoe would bend north and cross Smoky Hill Road, and the further out I got the more it looked familiar and I suspected I was right. It crossed under E-470 and eventually came to Powhaton Road, where I recognized that Arapahoe from here just went into the neighborhood across Powhaton and was no longer an arterial. So I turned north on Powhaton.

Powhaton, at least at this moment, is where the city truly ends. I rode north with houses right there on my left and nothing but prairie to my right. At first it was a four-lane road but eventually it narrowed to where it was two lanes without even a shoulder. As I went along I came upon a large, severe-looking building on the east side of the road, all by itself. What is that, I wondered? It looked like a prison. Getting closer I could see the sign out front: Infinity Middle School. OK. I’m sure a lot of the kids at that school would agree with my initial assessment.

Continuing north, Powhaton ends at Quincy. I turned west and was immediately back on familiar turf. I’ve come into town on Quincy many times. So many times, in fact, that this time I decided to do something different. At Chambers I turned north and went up to Hampden and then turned west on that. At least it was a change of scenery. Then I hit Parker, up to I-225, and home. And yes, we did set an all-time high for the day. What a great day to be out riding!

Biker Quote for Today

Twist the throttle and roll on.

The new Motorcycle Travel Network home page.

Long before the advent of this “sharing economy” as exemplified by AirBNB there was a website devoted to connecting motorcyclists to provide travelers with inexpensive places to stay with like-minded people. This was the Motorcycle Travel Network.

For $20 a night, as a gratuity, you had a place to stay with hosts who knew all the best local roads and places to visit. And in my own experience, it usually meant dinner and breakfast, although that is always up to the host.

Well, the Motorcycle Travel Network (MTN) kind of petered out in recent years and although we had stayed members, when a full year had passed and we had not used it and nobody had contacted us to stay with us we just let our membership slide. As did many others, I assume.

So–Announcing!–MTN is back.

Sometime earlier this year I received an email with this announcement in the subject line but the email was blank. I replied asking for more info but then forgot about it. Because this was via an email account I rarely use now I did not see the reply I got until just very recently. And yes, they are back, and if you are among the early folks to sign up they’re even waiving the annual registration fee for the first year.

I just signed up and I can certainly attest that the new website is significantly changed. Mainly it’s more up-to-date. The old one was pretty basic, reminding me of this website back before I got it modernized. (It really needs that again now; time marches on.)

I used MTN on my own and with Judy on our travels and we had some great times. Down in Fort Myers, Florida, we stayed with a couple who kept us regaled with stories of their rides. These were world travelers and she rides her own. We had a great time. We also hosted folks here and in particular there was a Canadian couple from Lethbridge, Alberta, who we had an absolutely fabulous time with. We really intended to return the visit but sadly have never made it to Lethbridge.

Will we have more great times now? Man, I sure hope so. Of course the more people who sign up the better the chances are that this thing will work well again. With AirBNB and VRBO this business of sharing your home with strangers is much more in the mainstream, but those sites also offer competition. What they can’t offer is the price and the in with local riders. Go ahead–sign up. I guarantee you’ll be glad you did.

Biker Quote for Today

Drop a gear and disappear.

I encountered this guy during my stop at the No Name exit in Glenwood Canyon.

Do you look at people who constantly carry a water bottle around and think they’re kind of silly? I know I have. Or maybe you are that person. Sorry, didn’t mean to offend you.

That snarky smiling on my part is from a bygone period of my life. I’ve learned a bit since then. Experience is a great teacher.

What I’m getting at here is that it really is important to stay hydrated. Maybe not so much when you’re just hanging around the office in the air conditioning but when it’s summer and you’re out on your motorcycle and the temperature is hitting the high 90s you really do need the liquids.

I got my first taste of this a bunch of years ago when I was riding old US 6 from Denver to the state line with Utah in preparation for my first article published by Rider magazine. Yeah, it’s really suffering when the research you have to do to make a living requires you to ride long distances on your motorcycle.

It was a hot day and while going through Glenwood Canyon on I-70 (no old US 6 remaining here) I pulled off at the No Name exit to check out just a little bit of old highway accessible right there. The road was shut to traffic so I walked it. By the time I got back to the bike I was not feeling great but I carried a canteen with water and I drank a bit.

Still, by the time I got to Grand Junction I had an abiding thirst that I could not shake. I drank a lot of water and it didn’t matter. Finally I bought a glass of lemonade from some fast food place and after taking one swig I felt so much better I couldn’t believe it. By the time I was half done with the lemonade I was feeling great.

It was at that point that I realized I had been dehydrated. I needed not just water by the electrolytes that are included in things like Gatorade and Powerade. Apparently you get some of that in lemonade, too.

From that point on I have made it a point to travel with that stuff in my bags and I’ve never had a repeat of that situation while traveling. I did have a repeat another time while not traveling, and this one was a lot worse.

I was taking the training to become an MSF-certified rider-coach and again it was a really hot day. We were out on the blacktop for hours and after awhile I started feeling really bad. I got through the day but didn’t do well and nearly flunked out of the course.

More significantly, when I stepped on the scale at home I found that I had lost six pounds. After the class ended I gained those six pounds back in just two days. Again I realized I had been dehydrated. Seriously this time.

Then this summer my friend Nick came out from Chicago to ride and he frequently complained about being just beaten up by all the hard (not at all hard in my opinion) riding we had been doing. And he was drinking a ton of water. I told him he needed to switch to something with electrolytes and he did buy some Gatorade but he didn’t drink much of it, continuing to drink copious amounts of water.

Nick was dehydrated. I’m sure of it. So I no longer mock people who go to lengths to stay hydrated. But I admit I do still think people who are just sitting in a climate-controlled office doing nothing more strenuous than tapping at a keyboard while never letting their water bottle out of their sight are being a bit over-dramatic about it. Who knows, maybe I’m clueless.

Biker Quote for Today

Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you.

I always have maps in that case on top of my tank bag when I travel–unless I forget my maps.

I had a very odd experience this summer when the RMMRC took a ride down into Arizona and New Mexico in that for perhaps the first time in my motorcycling life I had no maps with me. I just forgot them, though how you do that I’m not sure. But I managed to, somehow.

I have tank bags on all my bikes and typically I bring maps and have them in the map case on top so that I can refer to them at a glance at any time. Back when there were a lot more guys in the OFMC and John was usually the leader it was not at all unusual for several of them to have no idea which way we were going. They just got in the group and followed whoever was in front of them. John remarked at one point that the only person he trusted to know where they were going was me, because he knew I had a map in front of me at all times. And I generally rode sweep so the other guys could just play dumb and it didn’t matter.

So there I was with no map. It was weird. And uncomfortable. Sure, I would pull out my phone and call up Google Maps before the day’s ride and check out the route. But it’s not the same.

The time it mattered the most was the day we stopped for gas–and tried to get lunch, but didn’t–in Alpine, Arizona and there was confusion about which way we were going. First the group decided to go one way, then we had to wait because one guy was missing, and by the time he showed up a few guys a bit away from the rest of us decided to go a different direction and just took off that way. So the rest of us followed but I was distressed because I knew the way we had intended to go was really nice and I didn’t now anything about this alternate route except that it was a good bit longer.

Well, if I’d had a map in front of me, especially a Butler map, I would have seen that the road we did take was one of the best in Arizona. Heck, I probably would have been pushing that route as the clear best choice. If I’d had a map.

The other time it would have come in handy we were leaving Grants and needed to head west a bit so we could go north and then east. As it was, we went west on I-40 a good ways to Thoreau and went north from there. But before we got to Thoreau we pulled off at Milan to regroup. It turns out, we could have taken the road north out of Milan and gotten where we wanted to go and saved about 60 miles of flat, straight road. I think whoever planned this day’s ride used GPS and GPS does not always give you the best route. I would have seen it on the map and I would have pointed it out. If I’d had a map.

Then later that day we planned to go one route but the guy in the lead went a different way and I knew we had varied from the planned route but I had no idea where he was headed or where we would come out. Nothing would have changed by my knowing but at least I would have been able to see where we were, and where we were headed, and I like to know.

I don’t know about you, but I love maps. I hope I don’t ever forget mine again.

Biker Quote for Today

I do believe it’s time for another adventure.

Getting ready to ride to Bennett.

The early part of this week has been great riding weather, with bad weather coming soon, so of course I was out taking advantage of it.

On Monday I took the V-Strom out and ran the regular errands I carry out each month. Not a lot of miles so I’ve got to get back out on this one again this month if I want to turn over the next 1,000 on the odometer. I’m still about 70 miles away. Maybe today after I finish this post. The weather is supposed to hit tomorrow.

On Tuesday I went out on the Concours for a longer run. I’m still waiting to get the bike in to Rowdy Rocket Garage to get this vacuum issue fixed so I’m still contending with the fact that the engine races like crazy every time I pull the clutch in to shift. I’ve started figuring out how to adapt to the problem at other times. For instance, if I’m coming to a stop I just let the bike slow down a lot before I finally pull in the clutch and downshift. Normally you would be concerned about stalling but this bike is not going to stall. In fact, much of the time I can let go of the throttle just as if I had cruise control on and the bike just keeps going.

This ride just strengthened my resolve that yes, I am going to sell this bike at some point and replace it with something newer and lighter. It just isn’t all that much fun to ride when I’m constantly having to pay attention to this problem. And yes, once I am finally able to have the problem addressed it will eliminate this negative condition but I’m past that. My mind is made up to move on. I was talking to Bruce yesterday and he was saying just go ahead and sell the bike as it is and take whatever you can get. But I don’t think I could find any buyer at this time of year so I’d like to have it fixed so I can enjoy riding it in the next few months before I sell it. At least if it’s not going to cost too much.

Then on Wednesday the RMMRC took a ride out to Bennett for lunch. I rode the CB750.

There were eight of us on this beautiful, warm, sunny day. We headed out down Parker Road, then east on Quincy and out into the country. There are not a lot of options on roads to take going out where we were headed so we just rode the straight out to where we turned north on County Road 129, jogged east and then north under I-70, and reached our destination, the High Plains Diner. We had never been there before and I was favorably impressed. The food was good–nothing spectacular–at very reasonable prices. I would not hesitate to go there again.

Heading out after the meal we didn’t have a lot of choices. We could go back the way we came or we could go east about a mile and take the Kiowa-Bennett Road south. Heading west without going south didn’t offer any attractive options, although I guess we could have gone east on US 30 to Watkins and then south on Watkins Road. We took the Kiowa-Bennett Road.

Two of us were inclined to go on all the way to Kiowa and then turn west but the other six decided just to go south as far as Quincy and then retrace our route there. So we did, then home. But man, it was a great day to be out on a bike.

Biker Quote for Today

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching.

Rider training not only helps you learn to ride, it can weed out those who really don’t belong on a motorcycle.

There is a quote I used at the end of one of these posts that reads, “The only thing better than a motorcycle is a woman riding one.” There have been others as well in a similar vein. Yes, I love seeing women riding.

That said, not everyone–man or woman–is really cut out to ride.

For instance, my wife Judy is OK with riding behind me but only because she trusts me. The only time I’ve been able to get her on a bike on her own was when I was test riding an electric scooter. We went over to the parking lot of the local elementary school and she got on and tentatively twisted the throttle. She was unsteady at first but in a couple minutes she was doing figure 8s and had the biggest grin on her face.

But that was it. She had no desire to do it again and never has.

Someone a bit more game was Davey. Long before I ever even met Judy I was seeing a woman named Davey. Davey enjoyed riding on the bike with me–my CB750, the only bike I had at that time–and decided maybe she’d like to try it on her own.

She signed up for a Beginning Rider course up at Front Range Community College, in Westminster, close to where I was then living. I knew she was doing it and I knew how long the class runs so I was surprised in mid-afternoon when she appeared at my door, rushed in, and hugged me and cried. Things had not gone well.

Of course, the first part of the class is in the classroom and that went fine. But then, after lunch, they went out to the course and she mounted the little 250cc bike they use in these classes. I don’t know how long it took but somewhere along the way she rode the thing right into a curb and was sent sprawling on the grass. She got up, said not a word to the instructor or anyone else, ran to her car, and drove straight to my house.

What I had not thought about, and I’m not sure if she had or not, was that she drove a car with an automatic transmission. She had never driven a stick, so not only was she trying to learn to ride a motorcycle, she was trying at the same time to learn to use a clutch and to shift gears. Yow! That would be a challenge for anyone!

So yeah, if you want to ride motorcycles you really should probably know how to shift gears beforehand. Although there are some bikes these days where shifting is not necessary. But most scooters don’t have gears either, so there is that option. But, if we’re honest with ourselves, some people just really ought not to get on a motorized two-wheeler more powerful than an e-bike. It’s just true.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m that crazy biker chick that everybody warned you about.

I found a lot of points of interest in this particular issue of Rider.

I don’t usually write about what is published in magazines but in the case of the November issue of Rider there were just too many things that caught my eye. So I diverge from my norm.

It started right off the bat with the magazine cover. It’s a picture of a Can-Am three-wheeler on a dirt road, kicking up a lot of dust, and with one of the front wheel off the ground (see photo). I thought it was a terrific photo, especially with the rider flying that wheel.

I was also interested in the machine because while I’ve long been familiar with the Can-Am Spyder, just recently I had seen a couple of these much smaller ones and had wondered about them. They are called Ryker and they’re much smaller and sportier. I test rode a Spyder and did not like the handling but was wondering if these would be different.

Well, reading the article about the Ryker answered my question and confirmed my impression from the Spyder: “On the street, the Ryker Rally is quick and responsive, but it requires muscle and aggressive body positioning when tackling curves at speed.”

By “aggressive body positioning,” in my experience, this means when you turn you have to brace your outside foot against the rear-set peg and then lean your body to the inside forward and across the machine. Otherwise it wants to throw you off. I guess that hasn’t changed.

Another item of interest in this issue was one by a woman, Ellie Cooper, who rode her 2009 Royal Enfield Machismo 350 across India from north to south–solo. Yow! I would be seriously skeptical of doing something like that and she has the added disadvantage of facing the hazards that men don’t face but that are all too well known to women. I’m sure it helps that she has apparently lived in India for a long time, and thus is vastly more familiar with it than me, but I’ve got to say, this lady has guts.

And then there is an article by Steve Larsen titled “19 Motorcycle Myths.” These generally include the well-known bits like “Loud pipes save lives” and “I had to lay it down” as well as some I hadn’t heard, like “Real riders never wash their bikes.” But one in particular struck me: “Raingear keeps you dry in the rain.”

In this bit of discussion he says, “My experience, however, is that rain almost always soaks into small cracks or seams, and before I know it, I’m soaked.”

What? That’s a myth? Says who? I have rain gear and I don’t mind riding in the rain for the simple reason that . . . drum roll . . . it keeps me dry. Sure I get a bit of spray at times up around my neck where there is space between my helmet and the collar of my rain jacket, but that’s all. Steve, maybe you need to invest in some better quality rain gear.

I’ve been reading Rider for about as long as I’ve been riding motorcycles. At this point it’s one of the few motorcycle magazines that have both survived and continue to be put out on paper. Keep them coming fellas.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding is my addiction, and I’m a savage at it.

Outside of Oatman–watch out, donkeys on the road ahead.

It’s been a long time since I’ve tapped into this thread of what is the strangest thing you ever hit–or missed–on your motorcycle. The amazing thing is how there is always something new that is unlike any previous incident.

• Me and my wife on her first long distance tour. We are from Michigan and were somewhere in N.C. The day turned into an all day rain. Got on xway to get to motel. Merged behind an open bed pickup with a new refrigerator in the back, still in manufacture cardboard box. As soon as we merged in behind it my “that’s not good” hairs started to raise. I merged to the left. Before wife could the wind opened up the rain soaked cardboard and it was flying through the air like a blanket about to encapsulate the wife at 65 mph. She dodged it or it dodged her but what an unexpected event.
• There has been a large ratchet strap, the kind used on semi flat bed trailers, on the morning commute side of the freeway. Been there for the past week. I spotted it the first morning in my lane, and was able to dodge it, and each morning since, it has been migrating a few yards down the freeway, and one lane over to one side or the other. I’ve been mindful to watch for it, but have been thinking of how many cars have hit this stupid thing.
• I hit a 4×4 post that was ejected from a pickup…in a turn at 70mph on I-610 in Houston. I gassed it and yanked the bars, and after shifting over a lane that old Norton went right back on line.
• Strangest thing, a whole pickup truck bed filled with scrap metal, slid right off the frame of the truck….
• Rotor wash from an H-53 helicopter. I used to teach MSF at NAS Alameda, and our training range was right next to the flight line of a helo squadron. I was demonstrating an exercise on my K100RS when an H-53 came in over the lagoon and turned right over our range before landing. The rotor wash hit me broadside and knocked me right off the bike. All I could do was laugh. Who gets knocked off a motorcycle by a helicopter?
• While riding on US-395 near Mammoth late at night, a large jackrabbit appeared in my headlight. I executed a perfect swerve to avoid the rabbit, and just as I passed it an owl bounced off my knee armor. So I think technically I saved that rabbit’s life twice.
• I was at a stop light on a road perpendicular to the intracoastal waterway in FL when a fairly large Mullet (pound or 2?) bounced off my helmet, glanced off my tank, and then began flopping around on the ground next to me. I pulled over, grabbed the fish, ran across the street, and two hand lobbed it into the water. As best I could tell, it survived the ordeal. The look on the faces of the cagers stopped at the light watching a guy in a helmet and leather moto jacket running by with a live fish was priceless. About the only one not entertained by the whole thing, was an osprey (with a bigger appetite than talons apparently) sitting on the billboard next to my still running bike.

OK. I’ve never encountered any of those on my rides. That’s fine with me. Be careful out there.

Biker Quote for Today

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.