Passes & Canyons Blog

OK, thinking out loud again.

I took two bikes out back to back this weekend, the Concours and the CB750. On the Connie first I was constantly aware of how the throttle will not back off instantly as it should. It got better later in the ride, I don’t know why, in that when I would come to a stop it would back off right away. But while moving, whether up- or down-shifting, the engine would race as I pulled in the clutch. Plus, it was like cruise control in that I could release the throttle entirely and the bike would just cruise along.

Mark over at Rowdy Rocket Garage swears it has to do with the vacuum mechanism and I have no reason to doubt that. But until it’s fixed it is extremely annoying.

Then I took the Honda out and it was so much fun to ride. The bike just ran, doing everything it ought to do. It was so nice. And that made me think: I would not put up with issues like this on my car. If something isn’t working right on my car I take it in and have it fixed. Time was when I was poor and I would live with such issues for a long time, but those days are past.

And so, OK, yeah, I could just take the bike in except it isn’t that easy. I’ve gone through all this hassle I’ve been having trying to find a new mechanic and/or find a slot to get a bike in. So it’s not that easy.

Meanwhile, I haven’t forgotten that fully dressed Yamaha FJ-09 sitting on the floor over at Vickery. I went over and looked at it at one point and I was very tempted. Did they still have it?

I checked their website and yes, it’s still there, and the price is just $8,000. I had been thinking $10,000. Is my memory wrong or have they dropped the price? Thinking 10 and seeing 8 makes it just that much more appealing. Now I want to go back over and check it out some more ASAP, like probably Tuesday.

Plus, Bill Vickery said they would take my Connie as a trade-in, so that’s good considering that it would probably be extremely hard to sell unless this throttle issue is fixed. And if it were fixed why would I want to sell the Connie anyway? Yes, I know they would give me peanuts for it but it would be off my hands. Talking with Bob at last week’s RMMRC meeting he told me he had a bike he just gave away because he couldn’t sell it. He tried to do a trade-in but the dealer said he would give him a better deal without the trade-in because they just didn’t want that bike he was getting rid of on their floor–they wouldn’t be able to sell it.

But if I would keep the Connie if the problem were fixed, why not just bite the bullet and get it fixed? For one thing, even if it cost a bundle it would still probably be a good bit less than $1,000, and that is versus $8,000 for this FJ-09. And that’s not even factoring in taxes or higher insurance rates.

I don’t know what to do. That’s why I’m writing this, to try to figure out my own mind. It works much of the time; it does not work all the time.

I’m just going to have to go to Vickery and check out that FJ-09 again on Tuesday. For one thing, it has a higher seat height than any of my three current bikes. When I got the Kawi it took me a long time to get used to that high seat. Then I got the V-Strom and it was even higher and it was just no big deal because I was already used to the Kawi. But now we’re talking 32 inches and my inseam is 29.

I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. But at some point I will know and I’ll tell you all about it then.

Biker Quote for Today

A new bike can make you excited as well as emotional.

Every year about this time I look at the odometers on my three bikes and set my goals for how many more miles I want to put on each of them before the end of the year. Which is to say, turning over the next thousand on the odos. As usual, it’s a mixed bag.

The easy one is going to be the V-Strom. That odometer currently sits at 45,880. If I can’t ride another 120 miles in 2023 I’m not trying. Not that riding prospects look all rosy at the moment. Writing this over the weekend I’m looking out the window at nearly a foot of fresh snow and temperatures in the 20s. Tomorrow is to be colder. Yikes! But this is Colorado and doubtful as it may look, we know it will get warm again and temps will reach at least into the 60s, if not higher. So it’s just a waiting game.

The other two are a lot more iffy.

The meter on the Concours is now sitting at 79,130. That’s a full 870 more miles I would need to put on that bike in the next two (cold) months. Probably not going to happen. I can try but I wouldn’t bet a plugged nickel on doing it. On the brighter side, I’ve put quite a few miles on this bike this year so not hitting another thousand this year is not a failure. I can live with that.

The one I’ll probably focus on will be the Honda CB750. That odometer currently rests at 37,365 so I’m probably not going to roll that over to 38,000 this year but the other measure I watch with this bike is that I try to put at least 1,000 miles on the bike each year. Because most of my riding is on the other two this does not always happen. But in this case, while I would need another 635 miles to roll the odo over to 38,000, I can hit the 1,000 for the year mark if I just put another 498 on it.

That’s still a lot at this time of year but I can at least try. The weather will have a lot to say about how likely I am to succeed. Speaking of which, we had some great weather this last couple weeks but I didn’t get in nearly as much riding as I would have liked. But I knew the weather was about to change and I have a lot of things to do to prep for winter each year. Things like shutting down the swamp cooler, covering the attic fan, getting the sprinkler system blown out, and getting the garden stripped and all the veggies stockpiled. For instance, I have about 30 pounds or more of tomatoes at this point, most of them green. All of that has kept me plenty busy. And now the weather has hit.

The flip side of that is that now, once the weather gets warmer, I don’t have a lot of other things crying for my attention, so I can ride when it’s possible. Don’t be surprised if you see me on the Honda.

I got the V-Strom back from the shop the day before the OFMC left on this year’s trip and then on the last day of that trip my Concours overheated going up to the tunnel in blazing hot weather. I managed to get it home finally but then I needed to get it into a shop. Some shop. Which shop? Ever since Joel got out of the business that’s a question I’ve been trying to resolve.

I had taken the V-Strom to Colorado Moto Service and they had done good, and for the most part timely, work on it. But their customer service needs some improvement and they are not close to home. It was a pretty obvious move to try again to get work done at Rowdy Rocket Garage, which is much closer to where I live. If once again the guy, Mark, couldn’t find time or space for me then I’d try CMS again.

So I called Rowdy and, as before, Mark told me to call again later. I did and this time, lo and behold, he said sure, bring it in tomorrow. Yahoo! That date was August 22. The bike had overheated on July 30 and it took me that long to get it at least semi-operational and then find a shop to get it in to. As I rode it over there that morning Nick and I were getting ready to take off on a three-day ride so we wanted to get it there as early as possible. That meant during commuter traffic–slow going, stop and start–and just as I expected, it started to overheat again. Fortunately we didn’t have far to go and I made it there.

Recognizing what a valuable resource Rowdy might prove to be, I didn’t want to risk annoying Mark by pressing him on getting the work done. But as time dragged on I did contact him now and then and very tactfully ask about the progress on the bike. These guys are super busy which means two things: One, it was definitely going to take some time, and two, they don’t need my business so don’t hack them off so they tell you to take your business elsewhere.

Long story short, I finally got the Kawi back on September 28. Almost five weeks. I didn’t care, it was done. One thing Mark noted in a text was that “It also has a tendency to be slow to lower the RPMs when releasing the throttle.” I came to understand that the instant I started it up to take it home. Mark had probably run it before I got there and so when I gave it total choke before starting it exploded to life and the revs went through the roof. I hastily shoved the choke lever all the way down. But still it raced a bit, only slowing down gradually. Hmmm.

I headed out and on the way home it was obvious there was an issue. Mark had said it had to involve the vacuum valves and that was a deeper internal issue that they had not had the time–or my prior authorization–to pursue. I was familiar with this sort of thing because I had had a similar issue about five years ago and Joel had replaced the vacuum slides on the carburetor. But it hadn’t been doing this before I took it in to Rowdy.

I spoke with Roy, my resident motorcycle mechanics guru, and he suggested that when the gas tank was lowered back into place that it was crimping the throttle cable. I figured that should be easy to check out. If I just lifted the tank an inch or so any crimping should be relieved but when I tried that, every time I lifted the tank the engine cut out. Roy also said if it had not been doing that before it was in the shop, go back there and insist that they fix it.

I did go back by the shop and spoke to Mark. He said he’s been doing this a long time and knows the proper routing of cables, plus, the throttle cable is encased in a rigid metal sheath that would not easily be crimped. No, he said, it has to do with the vacuum mechanism somewhere, and that’s a devilishly tricky problem to suss out. He said he currently had a Triumph in for which he was trying to find the leak but it was a slow process. Bring the bike back in and they would address the issue.

But are you super busy still? Do thinks slow down for you in the winter? Yes and no. When could you get it back in? Not any time in the next couple weeks. The same situation I had encountered before.

And that’s where the matter sits. Do I go through the rigamarole of calling every couple days until Mark has room to get me in? Do I just go ahead and take it CMS? Is there someone else I could turn to? Who? Where? Man, do I miss Joel.

Biker Quote for Today

F.E.A.R: Forget Everything And Ride.

I took the V-Strom to Colorado Moto Service for fluids and chain alignment and I knew they were busy but at least expected to hear from them soon as to what work they felt was needed and the cost. I was going to be leaving soon on this year’s OFMC bike trip but I was planning to ride the Kawi so it was not urgent. Still, I was expecting some sort of follow-up.

A week went past and I heard nothing. So I called. The guy working the desk said they were about to take a look and he’d send me an estimate right away. This was a Thursday. I got the estimate on Tuesday, 12 days after I had dropped the bike off.

The estimate called for all kinds of work to be done, a lot of which I felt was unnecessary, such as new tires front and back. Their criteria for recommending this was that based on the date of their manufacture they were old. Never mind that they had plenty of tread and the rear tire was new (on the bike at least) last year.

I called, said do this, don’t do that and told the guy I was leaving town on Friday. He took it to mean that I was leaving town on the bike they had in the shop and while that was not true I figured it didn’t hurt to let him think that. He promised to have it for me on Thursday.

On Thursday at about 11 a.m. I called. The guy at the desk said blah, blah, and we’ll have it for you by the end of the day tomorrow, does that sound good? I said loudly, adamantly, “No!” I reminded him I had told him I was leaving town the next morning and he said he would look into shifting the shop schedule to get it done and said he’d call me to tell me what would happen.

He didn’t call. At 4:20 I called. He said it would be done by close of business. When is that? 5 p.m. I explained that my wife was not there to give me a ride and I would need to take the light rail to the Broadway Station and get the bus heading out Mississippi and walk the last five blocks. It would be some time past close of business before I could get there. And it was raining hard at that moment. We did an e-pay and he said the key would be in a lock box. OK, not convenient but it would do.

I hung up and almost instantly our highly esteemed handyman, Dale, called about coming over to eyeball a job he was to be starting on the next morning. Would that work? I said I didn’t know and explained about the bike. He offered to take me there. Wow. Thank you. So he came, eyeballed the job, and we headed out. The guys at the shop were still there when we got there at 5:05 and the mechanic was just taking it for a test ride. So it all worked out and I got home dry.

Now, if the guy had just called me back as he said he would I could have simply gotten myself there before 5. I like these guys but their follow-through sucks. If you tell someone you’re going to do something you should do it. But they did a good job, the charge was reasonable, and I wouldn’t hesitate to take one of my bikes to them again. Although I would want to have a conversation with someone there about the need to follow through on promises.

All that said, they remain a good distance from where we live and getting there is not at all convenient. I would still be open for other options. And I would have an opportunity to explore other options sooner than I would have hoped. This story continues in my next post.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s not a new bike. It’s a new member of the family.

When I bought my first motorcycle, my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom, I would take it to Aurora Honda for service. At some point, however, many years ago now, they fired me as a customer. They told me they didn’t want to work on a bike as old as mine.

So I looked around and found an independent mechanic who welcomed my patronage. This was Joel Brown, who ran his shop, Mountain Thunder Motorsports, over on old Hampden just east of Federal. Joel was my guy for the Honda, and then when Vickery fired me as a customer with my 1999 Kawasaki Concours I started taking that bike to him as well. When I bought my 2006 Suzuki V-Strom 650 I never took it anywhere but to Joel.

Now Joel has gotten out of the business of wrenching for customers; he needed to have health coverage for his family and so he took a job as the house mechanic at Aces Motorcycles in Littleton. It took a bit for me to finally get clear that Joel is done with outside work. I think he’s the kind of guy who hates to say no, so when I would call him needing some work done he would tell me he only has one day a week now to do that kind of work and maybe he could recommend me to another mechanic “so I could get the work done quicker.”

Joel recommended me to a guy named Mark who ran a shop just a few blocks from Joel’s old shop, and I took the V-Strom there one time and was pleased with the service so I figured this would do. Then the time came when I needed work done on some bike and surprise . . . Mark’s shop was no longer there. It turned out, as Joel told me, Mark had some serious health issues and had to close the shop. Now I was back to square one.

OK, not a huge deal. There are plenty of other motorcycle mechanics out there, aren’t there? Umm, actually no. In fact I was aghast to see just how few shops there seem to be any more. But I identified two that looked promising. One was Colorado Moto Service, over on Lipan, a few blocks south of Mississippi. That’s a good bit further away than Joel’s or Mark’s shops were but you do what you have to do. The second was Rowdy Rocket Garage, which I was surprised to find is quite close to me. I read some good reviews and so decided to try Rowdy first.

I needed some service again on the V-Strom. I wanted all the fluids flushed and replaced–oil, coolant, transmission fluid–and I wanted the chain adjusted. I called Rowdy and Mark told me he was swamped, that his garage has limited space and so in order to take a bike in he first has to get a bike he has finished with out. Could I call him back on Monday? (This was a Thursday.) Fine. I called on Monday and he said call him on Wednesday. I called on Wednesday and he said call him on Saturday.

At this point I was getting ready leave town for about 10 days on a bike trip so I just wanted to get the bike in. I called Colorado Moto Service and they said sure, they could get the bike in and out right away. Could I bring it by and drop it off on a particular day. I said yes and I did. The follow-on to this is another post, my next one. This whole story is going to take at least three posts. Check back for part two on Thursday.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride Big, Ride Long, Ride Free.

This came out of the blue. Per the email above, somebody wants to buy this domain name, www.motorcyclecolorado.com. They have made an initial offer of $500. Do I have any interest in this?

Right off the bat I said no.

Thanks, but I’m not interested in selling.

I got a follow-up:

Hi Ken,
Thanks for the response – it’s greatly appreciated.
All domain names are for sale at a certain price, even if it’s at a much higher price than the initial offer.
Can you think about this and let me know a dollar amount that would make sense for you?

Now, the simple fact is that this website is something I care a great deal about. I have worked on it for more than 15 years and writing this blog is my number one creative outlet. OK, along with my piano. But I wondered, and asked for clarification.

You know, this could depend. Is the buyer interested in the site or just the URL? Because if I could just move the site to a new URL and keep it going I might be willing to sell the URL, though the price would have to be enough to compensate me for all the work that moving it and getting it established with the search engines would entail. If, on the other hand, they want the site, first, that’s flattering, second, I really don’t want to let go of it.

And this was the response.

Hi Ken,
Thank you for the response – it’s greatly appreciated.
This would be strictly for the purchase of the MOTORCYCLECOLORADO.COM domain name, you would still have the website content to operate on a different domain name if you’d like.
Can you let me know a counter offer that you would consider?

That latest email came about three and one-half hours ago as I write this. So it becomes something I have to actually think about; if they wanted the whole site it wouldn’t take any thought.

What would it entail? First I’d have to select a new URL. That could be easy–I could just go with www.PassesAndCanyons.com. I checked just now and it is available. But that’s just getting started. You can put up a site but people have to know about it to visit. When I built this site I spent a lot of time and effort building up recognition of its existence. One way that happens is to get links to your site on other sites. All those links out there now would be broken, except for the home page, which would take the visitor to a totally different site.

Then there would be the edits needed on every single page of the site. And all the links internally. It overwhelms me just to think about it.

Really, I think that’s my answer. I have often said that I write in order to understand what I’m thinking. Writing, for me, is an exploration of my thoughts. And just laying this out here for you has persuaded me that I have to say no. I mean, sure, if they offered me $50,000 for the URL I could take it and just pay someone else to do all the drudge work. But I don’t think they’re going to offer $50,000. And I just don’t want to do all that work.

So my decision is made. Thanks for lending me your ear.

Biker Quote for Today

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

As I have remarked previously, I’ve seen yellow leaves before, so going for a fall color ride for me is more about the riding than the color. But if it’s a really nice show of color I certainly appreciate it. Well, apparently the place to go for color this fall was the southern part of Colorado, not the northern part.

Last week the RMMRC did one more fall color ride, this time down to Victor and Cripple Creek. It was a much smaller (seven) and therefore more comfortable group that headed south from Lincoln Avenue down Daniels Park Road, over to Sedalia, and down CO 105 to Monument and then I-25 into Colorado Springs.

We stopped just before turning onto US 24 to shed some layers, though it seemed odd to be taking layers off just as we were about to climb. But I did take off my sweatshirt knowing I could always turn on my electric vest if I needed to. I needed to, and as the temperature dropped as we climbed I soon wished I had left the sweatshirt on. Follow your instincts, not the crowd.

We took US 24 to Divide and turned south on CO 67, but took the fork to the left toward Victor (Teller County Road 821) rather than going into Cripple Creek. The plan was to have lunch in Victor. However, we got to the intended restaurant only to find it closed. This was the second Wednesday in a row that we got somewhere for lunch and found the restaurant closed. Note to all: Any time you plan a lunch ride, call the restaurant first to make sure they’re going to be open.

Meanwhile, backing up, the fall colors along CO 67 were by far the best I’ve seen all year. This is where you needed to go to see fall color. It was definitely beautiful. An unexpected treat.

In the middle of the week there apparently are not very many restaurants open in Victor so we had little choice but to cruise on over to Cripple Creek. But I wondered because I’ve been in Cripple Creek quite a few times and I’ve never identified any particularly good places to eat, unless you want to do some fine dining place in the evening and pay $40 or more for your meal–not what we look for in a lunch stop.

We did see one place, however, that looked like it might be good so that’s where we headed. Funny thing: I can’t remember the name of the place and I stroll down the street on Google Earth and the images are all old, there’s a lot of construction going on, and I can’t find the place. Sorry, I’d like to recommend it because I ordered a pulled pork sandwich and it was one of the best I’ve ever had. Also, Tom ordered an avocado toast and said it was exceptional. It’s on the north side of the street, at the western part of where the street is elevated on one side. If you’ve been to Cripple Creek you know what I mean.

Gearing up before leaving Cripple Creek I was putting my sweatshirt back on and mentioned to Roy how I had thought it odd to remove layers before going up. He said he had that same thought and he did not take anything off. Yeah. Follow your instincts, not the crowd.

We headed straight up to Divide, then east to Woodland Park and then turned north on CO 67 up toward Deckers. Heading toward Divide the sky to the north was starting to look ugly. But where we were it was blue sky and sunshine. OK, enjoy it while you’ve got it.

Heading north out of Woodland Park rain was threatening and soon it was falling. But we rode through it for about a minute and came out on the other side and once again it was blue sky and sunshine. Nice. Up through Deckers and Buffalo Creek to US 285 at Pine Junction and we turned east. Oh boy. Now off to the east the sky didn’t just look threatening, it was black. But there was one spot of lightness on the horizon right exactly where I knew we were headed and I’ll be danged if our luck didn’t hold.

We got all the way to Denver, and I crossed the city on US 285/Hampden and just as I crossed I-25, now two miles from home, it finally started to rain. But even that stopped before I covered those two miles. What a nice day to be out riding! Maybe one of the last really good days we’re going to have for a while.

Biker Quote for Today

If motorcycle riding were a job, I would be the most hardworking employee.

We had a lot of long stretches on this recent OFMC trip and these are the times when cruise control or a throttle lock come in really handy. Some people just carry it a bit too far, though.

Bill is one of these people. Bill almost always has his cruise control engaged. Sometimes that is not a good thing.

I led most of the trip and I can’t count the times I looked back and Bill was way, way behind. And it’s not like I was going super fast. He just sets his cruise control and lets it go. He really hates to have to touch it. If Dennis was behind him I could tell immediately where they were because of Dennis’s super bright lights. If Dennis was in front of Bill I sometimes had to just assume Dennis was keeping tabs on him because I sure couldn’t see him back there.

What was worse, though, was when we were on multi-lane highways, when the speed Bill had set brought him up behind someone going moderately slower and he would then just creep past them. Never mind that other traffic was piling up behind him also wanting to go around this slower person, Bill wouldn’t touch his cruise control, they would just have to wait for him to finally get past and move over. This happened a lot.

Meanwhile, none of my bikes have cruise control. I have throttle locks on all of them but this is a less than perfect solution. Of course you slow down going up hills and speed up going down hills so I just nudge the throttle to compensate. Not a big deal as long as the thing holds you at speed.

Which they generally don’t. Usually they slip and you gradually go slower so you have to frequently tweak it to get back up to speed. But for some reason, on this trip, the throttle lock didn’t slip very much. There were times when I could go half an hour without touching my throttle lock, just cruising along. How nice. Wish it was like that all the time. That’s how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it?

So it was with all this in mind that, following having the Kawi overheat coming up to the tunnel on the last day of the OFMC trip, that I started thinking that maybe I could consider trading the Kawi for something newer, lighter, and with more modern equipment–such as cruise control. That is an ongoing issue. I really don’t know what I’ll end up doing. But one thing I know for sure is that you’ll hear about here whenever any decisions get made.

Biker Quote for Today

Dreams and handlebars are two things worth holding onto.