Where Does This Road Go?

November 20th, 2017
motorcycle and dead end

Where Monarch Boulevard ends–for now.

I turned south on Quebec from Belleview, figuring I’d cruise down toward Daniels Park. It occurred to me I’d never much been south on Quebec south of Arapahoe Road so it would be interesting to take it further. Then I thought, “Where does this road go, anyway? Where does it end?” So I decided to find out.

Turns out Quebec goes a lot further. Past C-470, which I knew, but even on past where University Boulevard has bent east and become Lincoln Avenue. Is this going to take me all the way to Daniels Park?

But then a little further, when it hits McArthur Ranch Road (a road I’m totally unfamiliar with) it changes suddenly and is now Monarch Boulevard. And keeps going. From here we’re no longer going straight, but instead curving all over and the further we go the more it curves, even heading due east for awhile. Are we going all the way to Castle Pines Parkway? That’s the road that runs west from I-25 to Daniels Park.

Yes we hit Castle Pines. And Monarch was still heading south. Holy smokes, where does this road go?

Not much further, as it turned out. Yet.

Monarch curved around a bit through a neighborhood and then ended abruptly at the dead end in the photo above. But a sign nearby announced that soon it will be extended into the new Lagae Ranch area now filled with bulldozers shoving dirt around, which you can see beyond the sign.

So I found the end. I headed back to Castle Pines Parkway and went east to I-25 and then wondered where that road goes as it continues east past the interstate. Well, let’s find out.

I think I’d been on this road before, though. It arcs northeastward first above and then in front of the relatively new Rueter-Hess Reservoir, and the road itself became Hess Road apparently just on the other side of I-25. Hess Road, I knew, comes out on Parker Road a little south of the town of Parker.

But I got there and saw Hess continuing east and wondered, “Where does this road go?” I guess I’ll find out.

Hess itself does not go far at all. It almost immediately intersects with Hilltop Road and I knew where that went. It bends south and then east until it hits a north-south road that runs down to Elizabeth.

I didn’t want to go that far and just have to come back so I took the first turn I found, which led me into The Pinery. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in The Pinery but it is labyrinthine and easy to get lost in. But I knew that Pinery Parkway will take you back to 83 so I just meandered around until I hit that road and took it out of the development.

Now I was back on 83 and there was nothing to do but head north and home.

I call that a good ride. I love exploring and finding out where roads go. I’m one of those riders who doesn’t pick a destination but instead, just picks a directions and goes. And I never seem to run out of roads that make me ask that question: Where does this road go?

Biker Quote for Today

Four wheels may get you there, but two wheels will make the journey memorable.

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Embarrassing Motorcycle Moments

November 16th, 2017
motorcycle on its side

Yeah, I felt like an idiot.

Of course when you do something really bone-headed you’re sure to have a large audience. I searched the web for some stories riders have told of their most embarrassing moments, and they are presented below. Up above in that photo is one of mine. On that particular day I could not for the life of me simply rock my Concours up on its center stand. Fortunately, the people in front of whom I embarrassed myself were the ones who then helped me get it back up.

By the way, a number of these stories come from folks in New Zealand, thus the odd–for us–language used at times.

  • Pulling out of Croucher st onto Queen st, right outside the Star and Garter, hit neutral, revved to max, smashed it into second gear and the front wheel took off skywards leaving me hanging off the back heading into oncoming traffic. Much excitement from all the drinkers at the windows. Ignominious.
  • 1986, Stylin it up hangin off the Benelli doing a very good Freddie Spencer imitation trying to impress a chick. Dropped it and as I slid down the road looking back thinking I may get some sympathetic concern, was horrified to see that she hadn’t even noticed.
  • 3.05 pm one busy afternoon outside high school I gave the bike a solid kick to get her running and a big handful of revs to make sure everyone had noticed me. I proceeded to give it plenty of revs and subsequently dropped the clutch to find I’d left the lock on the front wheel and dropped the bike in front of all my mates. They still take pleasure in reminding me about it 15+ years later.
    (Reply on this forum: Hard luck mate. I had a similar minor fall in a forest once but luckily there was nobody around to see or hear me fall, so did it even happen….I think not.
  • One of my better ones with an audience was going full tilt on my pushie past the girls college in Blenheim, eyes left at all the skirt on the tennis courts. Straight into the back of a parked car. Got me plenty of attention, although not quite the kind I had in mind.
  • One fine day @ the Paeroa races, I’d had a good day watching the racing & hopped on the bike to head home with the then G/F. She jumped on the back, I let out the clutch & the Disc lock stopped us dead. I managed to hold the bike kinda up, but she fell off the side & onto the grass. Of course I managed to do this with a LOT of other people that we knew around. My popularity went to zero in an instant :)
  • I have a sticker on my helmet that says “turn the gas on stupid”. It was given to me last year at bike week after trying to get the bike started in the middle of a crowd of 300 at Hooters. Damn near ran the battery down trying to get it started-with the pet**** on “off”. When I realized what was going on, I dismounted and made a big show of checking all the mechanicals, battery, etc.(fully knowing what I had done). Got back on and miraculously the bike started. I’m guessing that of the 300 people, 150 thought I was an awesome mechanic and the other 150 knew exactly what happened. Couldn’t fool my bro’s though. 30 minutes later at the next stop, I had my new helmet sticker.
  • I was leaving the local biker bar and I figured I would be real cool and take off kind of hard so everyone would hear my nice sounding exhaust. It would have been much cooler if I had buckled my helmet so I didn’t have to go back and get it out of the middle of the street.
  • I was washing the bike one day and Penny decided to help, so she grabbed the Armorall and started to shine up the seat. A couple of friends stopped by and wanted to go for a ride. Well you guessed it, Just as we were pulling out of the driveway I dropped the clutch and off went my wife right in the middle of the street.. The only thing that got hurt was her pride and now she never ever puts ANYTHING on the seat besides her butt.
  • This was back when I was young and stupid (I’m not young anymore). There were a bunch of us who used to ride dirt bikes up near the lake not too far from my house. Usually after a day of riding we would have a fire by the lake and drink some beers. Of course every now and then one of us would get on the bike and do some donuts or a wheelie, or something stupid. Well my famous trick was to ride toward the edge of the lake, where it was about a 5 foot drop to the water which was about 10 feet deep right there, and just before I got to the edge I would lock the back brake, skid sideways, and then jump on the throttle doing a 1/2 donut about a foot from the lake. Yep, you guessed it. Got just a little too close one time and went right over the edge. Both the bike and I hit the water making a big splash and of course getting a big cheer. I went back the next day with a truck and pulled the bike out, which believe it or not ran just fine after it all dried out. For years I was known as “Splash.”
  • I had just bought my brand new Vulcan 2000. I picked it up at the dealer and rode it home ahead of my wife. I decided to go around the block before she got home and had to stop at the top of the hill. The street had just been paved and had a lot of asphault gravels on it. Soooo….. my foot slides out and the bike goes down, I jammed my leg under it to keep the tank from getting dinged and was pinned. I had to yell for my neighbor to come out and help me get the bike back up. This is one heavy bike! I then pulled onto the carport and got off…..kickstand still up, rider pinned face first against the wall. Luckily, all before the wife got home.
  • Ok I too have had a moment in which I went to move my wife’s bike which was setting in front of a bunch of bikers. As soon as I let out on the clutch I went down. Now that wasn’t bad enough, so I jumped up and looked around to see if anyone saw that…..they did. So I started the bike up again and did the very same thing, this time breaking off one of my wife’s mirror’s……….Moral of the story ……Don’t forget to remove the front brake lock stupid!!
  • Well years ago, before I married I met this girl at a rally who wasn’t really into the bike scene just the party atmosphere. Got to talking about how difficult it must be for bikers to pick a one-nite-stand,and make the most of it…..well I decided to demonstrate how it could actually be done on a bike, my cunning little plan almost worked until things got a wee bit hot, the stand flipped,bike fell over, end of one-night-stand.Embarrassing wasn’t the word, and of course being half-tanked I told my best mate……needless to say he did not tell a single person at the well packed rally, he just told the lead singer of the band, who decided to share the information with everyone.

Biker Quote for Today

God made some girls perfect; the rest she put in cars.

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Are You Still Being Stupid?

November 13th, 2017
motorcycles on top of the Beartooth

Yeah, we did things differently way back then.

Do you ever ride stoned? I mean, hey, we can talk about these things. Marijuana is legal in Colorado. (Riding stoned is not!!)

We used to, some of us in the OFMC. A long time ago. Boy, you better believe we don’t any more. And I really don’t think it’s so much because we realized that riding impaired is stupid. I think it happened because we just got to where we couldn’t imagine riding stoned. “I can’t ride–I’m freaking high!”

But we used to. At least John and I. John had this thing where we’d head out in the morning but stop pretty soon, usually both to “drain the unit” and so John could pull out his pipe. Bill didn’t generally partake, but would on the rare occasion.

And then we’d get back on the bikes and head off again. It was not a problem. We never had a crash or any other issues.

Then I remember one time we were headed up to Encampment, Wyoming, and were in the Snowy Range and stopped at an alpine lake. Friggs surprised us by pulling out some weed that he told us his ladyfriend had confiscated from her son. Of course we were happy to toke at the kid’s expense, but a short time later I realized that wow, I was really stoned. And I wasn’t exactly enthused to get back on the bike.

But I did and we went on and all was fine. For me, I think that was the point where smoking and riding didn’t seem like such a good idea any more. I can’t speak for John on where it hit him but I do know that nowadays he just doesn’t even consider riding stoned, either. (Of course, John just sold his bike, so he’s not riding at all now.)

So am I saying it’s really cool to get high and ride, and you should just ignore all the “Ride Sober” warnings you see? Heck no, riding high is stupid. I know that now. Just like I know now that riding without a helmet is stupid, but I used to do that. Used to ride without eye protection. Just how stupid can you get?

I see this as proof that society does make progress. Or at least it can at times. I’m not anything close to the only one who used to do all these things. People learn. People change. Public attitudes change. It’s really not appropriate to judge ideas from an era long ago on the basis of current thinking, although a lot of people do. That doesn’t mean some of these ideas were any less wrong then than they are now, but they were prevalent and accepted. We’ve gotten smarter. Now they’re not accepted. But they were then.

Is there a point I’m making here? I had to ask myself that question. Maybe this: You had an excuse before; maybe not a good one but an excuse nonetheless. You don’t have any excuse now. Get with the century. Welcome to this century.

Biker Quote for Today

Bikers don’t go gray, we turn chrome.

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Letting It Rip On Track Day

November 9th, 2017
Do yourself a favor and do a track day.

Do yourself a favor and do a track day.

Have you ever wished you could get out on your motorcycle and just let her rip? No worry about speeding tickets. No worry about hitting that pocket of gravel as you carve that turn. No worry about that idiot cager who’s just about to pull out in front of you at the intersection.

That’s why God invented race tracks.

The really cool thing is that race tracks are not just for the pros. As a matter of fact, there are a lot of days when race tracks sit idle and you’d better believe the people running them welcome additional users. The perfect scenario is for your riding club to hire the track for a day, bring in a couple riding instructors to give pointers and offer critique, and then each of you pay your share of the cost to go ride the track for a day. Alternatively, sometimes the tracks themselves set it up and provide the instructors. Then all you have to do is sign up and pay.

The Concours Owners Group that I have intermittently belonged to organized a track day at one point and I jumped at the chance. The day was set up in segments, alternating classroom instruction and parking lot practice with track time. They divided us up into three groups based on skill level. I knew I wasn’t in the top tier but I sure didn’t want to think of myself as bottom tier, so I went for the middle. My thinking seemed to predominate, so there were more than could be accommodated in the middle, but I was not one of the ones forced to join the lower group.

My group started in the classroom, and in many ways it was very much like the Experienced Rider Course (ERC) sanctioned by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, just omitting the portions on looking out for other traffic. They talked about braking before entering the turn, late apexing, where you go deep into the turn before initiating a sharp turn, and other such techniques.

Then we moved out into the parking lot. We practiced swerving, turning our heads to look as far into the curve as possible, standing the bike up before braking, and modulating braking to achieve maximum stopping power without skidding. Then it was time for the track. Hot dang!

As each group took to the track, the instructors also mounted up and rode with us. Singling out each rider individually, at times they would ride behind and observe your technique, and at other times they might pull ahead and motion for you to follow them as they demonstrated what you should do.

It turned out you really couldn’t blast your way down the track at warp speed because the straightaway was not long enough to reach that speed before you needed to start backing off. And no, there were no worries of gravel in the curves but there was one spot coming into a curve where an asphalt patch was much softer than the area around it and, of course, target fixation lead me to hit that spot consistently. One of those times my rear wheel would have slid out from under me in a low-side get-off but I planted my left foot well enough to recover and stay up.

I also found that my riding ego was a bit puffed up. While I had not wanted to be relegated to the low-skill group, I was the slowest rider in the middle group. Everyone else kept passing me, and I never passed anyone. Time for a little humility.

After lunch we repeated the circuit, with the added input of the instructors’ critique of our earlier riding. We each now had a better understanding of our strengths and weaknesses, and what we needed to work on. But the track day is only a beginning. Techniques do not become skills unless you continue to practice them. I have, and I believe I’m a better rider because of it, but nothing beats a refresher course once in a while.

Biker Quote for Today

This is a motorcycle rock. Throw the rock into the air. If it hits the ground, go ride.

Motorcycle Link for Today

Heading to Australia? Check out Procycles.

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Riders Who Don’t Ride Any More

November 6th, 2017

We don’t stop riding because we get old, we get old because we stop riding.

I’ve heard that line for years but now I’m starting to question it. People I know are no longer riding and while age is not the reason in and of itself, the more specific reasons are directly related to age.

John with his bikeJohn is the perfect example. John had a Cushman scooter when he was a kid but then went years without a bike. Later, when he bought a 750cc Virago he opened the door for a lot. First he took me riding on behind and then before long I bought my own bike, my CB750 Custom. Then Bill got a Shadow and the OFMC was born.

That was a long time ago. Well, John has hung up his spurs. More specifically, he sold the Harley. He’s done riding.

John’s decision is based on health. He has started suffering from esophageal cramps, which basically render him almost comatose. He got hit by one while riding on this year’s OFMC trip. Scary situation. On top of that, he is suffering macular degeneration, which is causing him to lose the vision in the center of his eyes. He sees around the edges but when he looks directly at something it disappears.

This is very sad, and the OFMC will not be the same. This might be John’s motto: When I was younger I was afraid I’d die riding. Now that I’m old and falling apart, I’m afraid I won’t.

Dan with Iron Butt medallionThen there’s Dan. With Dan it was more direct–he suffered a stroke. More than a year later he’s still struggling to perform everyday functions; riding a motorcycle is out of the question, and the bike was sold long ago.

Mind you, this is a guy who used to routinely ride more than 30,000 miles every year. Dan had a decal on his bike that showed a map of the 48 states with the label, “My riding area.” He meant it. But now he doesn’t ride. So very sad, and so unfair. He had seemed to be in great health until one day he wasn’t.

This might have been Dan’s motto: Young riders pick a destination and go. Old riders pick a direction and go.

I know a bunch of other guys who used to ride but don’t any more but for them it was a decision; in some cases the dad decision, as in “I have a child and he needs a father–I’m giving up the bike.” Maybe in later years they will be back.

What this has meant for the OFMC is that this year there were only 6 riders on the trip. Not long ago we had had 10-11.

So don’t take it for granted. Get out there and ride every chance you get. And I’m going to take seriously the motto Roy told us he has subscribed to all his life. Roy just turned 86 but he’s as spry and active as someone 40 years younger. Here’s his take on life: Does as much as you can for as long as you can.

Yeah, what he said.

Biker Quote for Today

Hop on your steel horse and go find your soul in the wind.

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Examiner Resurrection: Sidecar Racing: High-Speed Ballet

November 2nd, 2017
sidecar racers prep

Wade Boyd and Christine Blunck gear up to race their #6 Formula 2 sidecar.

Money and horsepower do not produce winners in sidecar racing. It takes teamwork, and a good team can make a poor machine very, very fast.

So say the folks who ought to know, the sidecar racers I spoke with (and rode with!) at last weekend’s Bonneville Vintage GP and Concours.

Wade Boyd and Christine Blunck are the points leaders for both driver and passenger as this racing season nears its end, and they were the ones I chanced to strike up conversation with as I sought to learn more about this sport. I also spoke with Rick Murray, the outgoing president of the Sidecar Racers Association-West.

Wade got into sidecar racing unexpectedly when he showed up at the Isle of Man TT one year expecting to race in three events. Finding that he had been shut out of two events, “I told my girlfriend to find me a sidecar.” He had never ridden a sidecar before but she found a driver in need of a passenger and he agreed to take Wade.

“I had a dynamite time, and then for four years it was like I had my thumb out. I’d go without having anything set and I’d find someone who needed a rider. Then I got to drive . . .”

Christine’s first involvement with racing was as an umbrella girl at various races, but she had a friend who ran a motorcycle shop, and who said of sidecar racing, “We could do that.”

That’s often how it happens, says Rick. “Quite often you have two friends or relatives who want to race together. We have many husband/wife, father/son, sister/sister teams. We have a fairly high percentage of women in the sport.”

Wade concurs, saying “Where else do you get to take a buddy for a ride?”

Wade is a steel fabricator by trade and he built his own rig for the most part, although “Mr. Bill” Becker of Becker Motor Works helped him out putting the motor in and with some of the other big stuff. Mr. Bill is known by all U.S. sidecar racers because he helps nearly all of them keep their rigs running.

That sort of helpfulness is characteristic of sidecar racing. “We’re competitive but friendly,” says Wade. “We want you out there and I want to pass you fair and square.”

It’s all about teamwork
The key to running a fast race is the teamwork. Each team pre-rides the track and then maps out their strategy for each turn on the course. On most turns the passenger will hang their weight out to enable fast turns without the third wheel rising off the pavement, or floating. That loss of traction cuts speed. However, in some instances, “letting the chair float” allows the rig to cut the corner sharper in order to get up speed in a hurry for the straightaway.

The passenger needs to know his or her position on each turn and the driver needs to be aware of the passenger’s location. On occasion the driver will look back but usually, “I feel her, the ESP is strong,” says Wade.

The passenger also needs to make their moves smoothly and gracefully. Harsh, forceful moves from one position to another will negatively affect the handling of the rig. Wade calls this coordinated, smooth movement “high-speed ballet.”

Despite the seemingly dangerous risks the passengers take, leaning far out of the rig just inches above the ground, sidecar racing in the U.S. is actually very safe. By comparison, Wade says, at the Isle of Man TT “they put a bale of hay in front of a telephone pole. After doing the TT, this (the track at Miller Motorsports Park) is easy. We rarely touch, but if you do touch you’re probably going to spin out, and if you spin out the passenger can get launched.”

According to Rick, the last sidecar racing fatality in the U.S. occurred in the 1980s, and there have been only three fatalities since the 1960s.

Passengers do sometimes get “spit off.” Christine’s most memorable such occasion came in Ramsey, on the Isle of Man when her driver clipped a curb in an S-curve. “It spit me off and I flipped through the air and landed upright on my feet in some gentleman’s front yard. I said ‘Hi’ and introduced myself.” She adds that there are times when the passenger wishes he or she was a monkey, and had that tail as a fifth hand to hang on with.

Sidecar racing is an inexpensive way to race, Rick notes, because you split the cost two ways. Plus, using wide, slick tires, as modern sidecars do, the costs are low because a set of tires will last one to two years. And most racers run stock engines so reliability is very high.

Still, there aren’t that many sidecar racers in the U.S., and they’d love to see that change. That’s one reason Rick and others love to offer “taxi rides” to spectators when they can. These taxi rides let non-racers suit up and take two laps around the track with an experienced driver at the controls.

“I tell people you’ll love it or hate it,” says Rick. “I’ve never seen anybody go half way. They’re either ‘Get me off’ or ‘Where can I buy one?'”

And if you do love it, says Rick, “You can spend $4,000 to $5,000 and have something to have fun with.”

Biker Quote for Today

Sometimes your knight in shining armor turns out to be a biker in dirty leathers.

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Posted in Examiner Resurrection, motorcycle racing, Motorcycle sidecars | No Comments »

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