Passes & Canyons Blog

(This is part two of a series on stripping a motorcycle for parts and listing them on the internet for sale. This is all taking place at Steele’s Cycles.)

With this wrecked 2023 Kawasaki Ninja EX650R now reduced to parts, the good separated from the bad, Tyler loaded all the smaller stuff on a dolly to haul it over to his listing station, where he would prep each individual piece for storage and listing.

But first he needed to deal with the larger parts: the engine, the intact and undamaged rear wheel, and the swingarm. These he hauled outside and doused liberally with degreaser. (He had previously sealed and taped every opening in the engine in order to prevent any water or degreaser from getting inside it.) Nothing that gets listed for sale goes out without being thoroughly cleaned, looking as much as possible like new.

Typically Tyler would use a hose to rinse off the degreaser but on this cold January morning the hose was frozen. So he brought out a large bucket of warm water and poured it over them to rinse. Then they were brought inside to his listing station along with everything else.

That was just the beginning of the clean-up, however. Starting with the rear wheel, Tyler lifted it onto the bench and went at it seriously. Every spot on the wheel was scrubbed clean and then he sprayed it all over with a gloss coating to make it look really good.

He moved to the computer to begin the listing. Steele’s Cycles uses a system called MotoLister, which is designed to simplify the whole process of preparing a part for listing on eBay and then actually putting it up as an item for sale. The screen is quite large and vertically oriented, which minimizes any scrolling that might be needed.

Typically Tyler will search for a comparable part and use that as the starting point but in this case it appears Steele’s Cycles had never broken down a 2023 EX650R, and as the first one, Tyler needed to create a new listing.

Once that was done he opened the listing for the wheel and used the connected camera to shoot more than 20 photos, from every angle and showing every bit of the wheel. In this case, the wheel had a small cosmetic gouge in one spot and he was particularly careful to document that bit of damage. He also made a note in the description of the wheel stating that the damage was there.

At times there can be issues where a customer receives the part and then complains about a ding like this that is clearly shown in the photographs. Did you not look at the photographs? Steele’s will take returns and give refunds but they do not offer free shipping on returns. Rick Steele said he wants the customer to have some skin in the game. Everyone knows these days about customers who order a lot of things online, only to return many of them because there is no cost to them. Not at Steele’s.

After the wheel was clean and the photography was finished, Tyler wrapped it with clear plastic tape and laid a red strip of plastic with an identifying number on it next to the wheel for another photo. He then printed out a tag with all the pertinent information, laid it and the red plastic strip on top of the wheel, sealed those in place with more tape, and then shot one more photo of the whole package.

With a few more entries into the listing system the job was done, Tyler pressed the Enter key, and in seconds this wheel was now available on eBay for purchase. Before his job was done he would do the same for every single part he had stripped off this bike.

When all the parts were listed, they were loaded (with the exception of the motor) into a large blue bin and hauled back into the storage room. Here row upon row of shelves filled with similar blue bins store the individual parts of many, many motorcycles. The location of the bin is logged in the computer and when someone buys a particular part it is retrieved from the bin, matched to make sure it is the right part, and then shipped.

And just like a transplanted heart, a piece of that once sad, broken motorcycle helps another motorcycle go on living.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m not a biker by choice; I’m a biker by destiny.

I wanted to see the actual process of breaking a motorcycle down into parts so over two days I watched Tyler, at Steele’s Cycles, disassemble a 2023 Kawasaki Ninja EX650R that had clearly hit something very hard. The story behind the bike? Totally unknown.

The bike was up on a lift when I arrived and Tyler, with the assistance of Kade, had it running and were testing the motor and all the electrics to determine the running condition of these items. Kade shot photos of the instruments to document their functionality.

Meanwhile, the front end was clearly headed for the trash or the scrap metal bin. While the right fork tube was bent, the left one was busted wide open, with the spring inside now completely exposed.

Naturally enough, Tyler started on the outside, stripping off the plastic body panels. The bigger ones were trash but many of the smaller pieces further back were in good shape and clearly worth resale. These were stacked on an adjacent bench, which got fuller and fuller as Tyler worked.

The gas tank was in excellent condition so that came off and had to drained. Tyler removed the gas cap mechanism from the tank and set that aside with the keys. Later when the ignition switch came off the frame it was bagged with the tank cap and the keys. On other bikes, with keyed elements such as helmet locks, those, too, are included.

The muffler came off and would have presumably worked fine but it was dented so it became scrap metal. Is this axle good or is it bent? It looked straight and it rolled smoothly on the floor. Salvage, not scrap.

Piece by piece the bike came apart with everything salvageable set aside with all nuts, bolts, and washers carefully collected. Tyler might start on removing one item but then find that to get it off he first had to remove something else. The construction of the bike dictated the sequence of its deconstruction.

The oil pan came off and the oil had to be drained. The cooling system came off and the coolant had to be drained. Sometimes it was not a clean job; shops rags are close at hand when needed.

Finally it was time to remove the swing arm. Tyler put a jack and a block under the engine and raised it to take the weight off the rear wheel. First the wheel came off and then the swing arm.

Out at the back end, the taillight assembly was in excellent condition—salvage.

One of the very last things to come off was the wiring harness. Pretty nearly everything else had to be removed because that octopus of copper and rubber winds its way through everything.

Now it was time to release the motor, leaving only the frame attached to the front fork and wheel. The triple clamps seemed not to be bent but they would be examined more closely before the decision was made as to scrap or salvage.

Nothing else was good. The wheel itself was shattered on one side and the brake disks were bent.

Amazingly, the front lights and mirrors were undamaged. This bike hit something really hard but that object must have been no more than two feet high and the upper portion was unscathed.

The very last thing to come off the frame was the ignition. And this, Tyler said, was “The most painful frame ever.” Up to this point Tyler knew the words and had been singing along to practically every country/western song that came on his Pandora feed. For the next 20 minutes Tyler did not sing.

The box with the ignition switch was bolted to the frame with bolts designed not to be removed. The only way to get them out was to drill into them and then tap them with reverse bits and back them out that way. But Tyler drilled and tried the bits, drilled more and tried again—over and over and over. They just would not come. Until they finally did.

What had been a motorcycle was now a collection of larger parts—engine, rear wheel, frame—and two benches of smaller parts. The job was half done.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you think a wrench is a bitchy woman.

OK, are you ready for more pix from the Colorado Motorcycle Expo? Well, you’ve come to the right place because I’ve got just what you want.

Let’s start here.

Next, I had never before seen this sort of thing, where there are images in the lights. Does the image project visibly in front of you? I would guess not but I don’t actually know.

Now here are a couple more show bikes that go all in on detail in paint and chrome etching. Are a lot of these by the same designer? I probably could have answered that question by looking at the sheets but didn’t think to.

This bike was a bit more colorful than most. Mostly the theme seemed to be gold and chrome.

I think you’ve got to be some kind of macho to walk around like this. This guy was doing video of every inch of all the fancy show bikes. Don’t know why.

So that’s pretty much what I’ve got. It really didn’t seem like the people shots were as plentiful this year as in the past. Then a few good shots I saw I was not able to grab in time. Oh well.

Biker Quote for Today

“A long stretch of road will teach you more about yourself than a hundred years of quiet introspection” – Patrick Rothfus

I went to the Colorado Motorcycle Expo Saturday and as always there were some good photos to be taken. How do you like this bike above, made out of a number of decidedly not motorcycle parts?

Among the show bikes there were a large number of them that were detailed out to the max. This one below gives you an idea what I mean.

Here’s another close-up up top.

Another theme seems to be super low rear ends. Can you say “super impractical?” Five minutes on the street would scrape the pipes off this bike. Oh yeah, this is just eye candy, not an actual functional motorcycle.

It seems that heavy metal now extends to personal jewelry. These things must weight five pounds. Kind of like finery that doubles as a weapon. “No sir, this is not a weapon, it’s just my necklace.”

I did actually see a couple people wearing these things. You’ll see one in another photo, which I may get into this collection or it may need to wait for my follow-up post on Thursday.












OK, so this next one I’m not sure what we’re looking at. Are those toy plastic motors for your favorite kid? I was going to go look but forgot.

OK, so that’s few of the shots I got. There are more and I’ll put those up on Thursday.

Biker Quote for Today

$500 spent on gasoline will make you faster than $500 on power parts.

Little bits on a couple things today.

I hear from Stump, ABATE of Colorado’s legislative liaison, that there is a draft bill coming from Rep. Brandi Bradley, tentatively titled “Concerning a Requirement that a Minor have Written Permission to Obtain an Instruction Permit to Drive a Motorcycle.” The intent here would be to close a loophole in current law. According to Stump:

In CRS 42-2-108 it states that the application for an instructional permit for a minor under 18 years of age, must be accompanied by an affidavit of liability which can be signed by “a responsible adult”. So, hypothetically, if your parents don’t want you to get a motorcycle permit, you could get your biker neighbor to sign an affidavit and get a permit without your parents’ permission. This bill would change that, requiring written permission from a parent or legal guardian.

In a separate note Stump said he had spoken with a legislator he did not name, but who I presume to have been Bradley, saying she also “mentioned interest in creating legislation to increase training access.” That would be good. That’s what the MOST program used to do.

In other news related to ABATE, word went around that Terry Howard, long-time ABATE State Coordinator, has died. Terry was the state coordinator when I joined ABATE and we had worked together very closely on a lot of things. Then during some audit she was accused of theft regarding ABATE funds and went to trial. She was acquitted and the judge expressed considerable exasperation at the idea that this thing had ever come to court. But Terry was forced to leave her position at ABATE.

I had not kept touch with her in the years since so it was with some surprise that I read in this death announcement that she had since become mayor of Kiowa. Wow. Good for you Terry.

No information on cause of death. On Saturday, February 7, at 10:30 a.m., in the AG Building at Elbert County Fairgrounds there will be a memorial service for her.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you carry a camcorder instead of a knife.

ABATE of Colorado has been forced out of the motorcycle rider training business. Once the largest training organization in the state, the future of the organization’s property and trainers remains unclear.

I first heard about this at the Last Brass Monkey Run on December 31 and had hoped to get more information about it but have not had the time. So I’ll give you what I can. Actually, I’ll quote you a bit of what ABATE State Coordinator Larry Montgomery had to say about it in the latest issue of ABATE’s newsletter, the Spokesman.

As most of you have heard by now, ABATE will no longer be allowed to provide motorcycle training in Colorado due to a supposed contract violation from MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) and CSP (Colorado State Patrol), this went into effect November 3rd, 2025. . . ABATE tried to respond in numerous ways to the concerns MSF had regarding our quality of training for citizens of Colorado. This process was only done by email from MSF and CSP. They have never discussed in person any problems with anyone associated with ABATE. . .

The whole process seems strange to me as there were many people that knew about the decertification before I or the ABATE board received the letter of suspension from MSF and CSP.

As we move forward ABATE will continue as a SMRO (state motorcycle rights organization) organization and will continue to fight for motorcycle rights.

I’ve heard a number of things. The one most people seem to subscribe to is that ABATE had been a thorn in the side of folks at the state level running the rider training system in the state and they decided to put a stop to it. I don’t claim to know what the motivation was. I certainly was not aware of ABATE’s training program being out of compliance with the rules.

What does it mean for ABATE to lose its certification? Can’t the organization offer training on its own? Yes, it can. The issue is that with state certification you can train someone and test them on the riding portion of the motorcyclist licensing process and they can then take that certificate to the DMV and all they need to do to finish getting motorcycle certified is to pass the written test. Without certification, ABATE trainees would need to take the written and driving tests. Because other organizations offer the certification, students would presumably be more inclined to sign up elsewhere.

The other thing it means is that Colorado is likely to be severely short of riding training programs, making it harder for those who want training to find someone nearby who offers it. ABATE was just about the only organization to offer training in several large portions of the state. Those people in particular will be hard hit by this situation.

It’s hard to say what happens from here. I’ll pass along what I hear.

Biker Quote for Today

Never breathe within forty yards of roadkill.