Danger on the Road–Watch Out!

May 6th, 2013
Buffalo By The Road

I didn't come close to hitting this guy, but he was standing only about 15 feet away as I carefully slipped by him. And this was in Nebraska!

What’s the strangest thing you ever hit–or nearly hit–on your bike? That’s the question that launched a long-running thread on the Adventure Riders forum, and periodically I go there to pass along some of the more interesting things people tell about. Let’s go!

  • Hit the groundhog at 80 mph on the ’86 Connie, like jumping a log on a dirt bike!
  • Deer, deer, deer. The souther we went the deer-ier it got! Thankfully none came into the road at us. We did get spooked several times though.
  • How about a RubberMaid trash can. It was dark and a little windy. I was riding my trusty 916 Duc on to an off ramp and I saw it out of the corner of my eye rolling towards me, I thought to myself what the hell is that?, then BOOM. A big rubber trash can wraps itself around my front wheel and gets wedged between the body work and front wheel with my front tire riding on top of the trash can. Now at 70 mph trying to stop with no front brakes, steering, or front contact patch for that matter gave a huge pucker factor. To this day I don’t know how I able to follow the curve of the road, or crash. But with the help of a concerned motorist I was able to ride home.
  • The entire hood that flew over my head from a ’69 Ford pickup in front of me at 70mph. All I saw was a shadow!
  • Ran over a 8 foot fiberglass Ladder doing about 80 on the 5 south.No crash,just a tank slapper. Also had a large deer charge at me and jump clear over . That would have been the end of me if it hit me square.
  • This past summer, coming south from Ontario, entering Minnesota at the US/Canada border. Come to a stop at the US side, and the immigration guy comes out and asks a few questions. One he asked, “Did you hit a skunk?” It did smell pretty bad, but I didn’t noticed any smell until I stopped. He let me through pretty fast.
  • Bird went straight through the front wheel (perpendicular to the wheel) of my ’80 GS850 at about 90mph. Those Suzuki cast aluminum wheels have some really sharp machined edges – never did see it come out the other side, but cleaned up a whole bunch of “ground sparrow” off the headers/forks/fender.
  • Was driving down the freeway in the fast lane when I saw a red cyclindrical object bounce out of the bed a pickup that was one lane over and a hundred or so feet ahead of me. Watched it bounce up in the air two or three or three times. As I started catching up to it, the darn thing was still bouncing and was getting about 3 feet up in the air each time. It hadn’t slowed down much yet, and I had this ridiculous urge to try and pluck it out of the air. Thankfully my underutilized common sense asserted itself. I finally recognized it as a fire extinguisher just as I was getting past it. Never considered that something that could bounce as well as it did was a steel container.
  • I almost ran over a pair of boots and a hardhat before swerving to avoid a kitchen table and a truck coming the wrong way up the middle of the highway in Vietnam. Literally…
  • Coming down hill in a corner I came across a sheet of ply on the road,there was no way to avoid it,so just had to go over it.It was big enough to fit the whole bike on,and the ply slide down the road as I went over it….came off about a metre off my original line.Strange feeling going around a corner on a separate moving piece of road.

    • OK, enough fun and games for today. (Yeah, fun. Right.) As we all know, it’s dangerous out there. Be careful.

    Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
    Butler Maps Northern California map is an eye-opener

    Biker Quote for Today

    Your attitude makes an adventure out of a difficult situation. So, its all in your head.

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    Posted in Motorcycle Safety | No Comments »

    The Joys of a Used Motorcycle

    May 2nd, 2013
    Givi bag on a V-Strom

    The Givi bags on my new V-Strom come pre-scarred so I don't have to worry about doing it myself.

    My new V-Strom is new only to me; it has 17,000 miles on it from two previous owners.

    That’s OK with me. As you can see in the photo above, this bike has gone down at least once so that means I can drop it myself and not feel that horrible pang of regret from having put the first scratch on your new baby. Not that I had a tendency to go down on bikes but I’m planning on getting off the pavement on this bike, and when you do that your likelihood of going down increases.

    Heck, I’ve already dropped one of Kevin’s V-Stroms. We were going over Cinnamon Pass and came to a particularly tight switchback on what was at that point just a narrow gravel trail. I didn’t make the turn successfully. No problem. Pick the bike up, get it facing in the right direction, get back on, and go.

    About two switchbacks later I came to another really tight one and this time I stopped to study it. I could see that the steeply sloping rock face that was the corner of the turn had tracks across it. I figured other people in this spot had just powered through and around, so that’s what I did. I gave it some revs, let out the clutch, and hit that rock face with power and just carved that turn around and was on my way up the trail again, all in an instant.

    I want to do more of that kind of riding. That day was one of the best riding days of my life, and it was that ride that totally sold me on getting off the pavement.

    So I took the new bike out for a ride Saturday. Not a very long ride at all, because I don’t have plates on it. But I took a little jaunt through the neighborhood just to get on it and get a feel for it. Fired up great and ran beautifully. Hey, oh boy–fun times to come!!

    Biker Quote for Today

    Adventure riding has been good for my attention deficit diso….Hey, what’s down that road?

    Tags:
    Posted in Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | 3 Comments »

    I Do Get Mail–Odds and Ends

    April 29th, 2013
    V-Strom in garage

    A tight space for my third bike to live in.

    Of course I’ll start out with another picture of my new V-Strom. If you’ve seen the last one, this is obviously shot soon afterward because it’s now in the garage and the snow is still on it. I’m going to have to do some rearranging because that door beyond it in this photo is my access to where I keep the other two bikes. The door to the outside from there only opens from the inside so clearly I’m going to need to set things up so I can get in there.

    So yeah, as I say, I do get mail. Most recently I got a note from Steve who asked for some assistance. I can’t offer him anything but maybe you can. Here’s his email:

    I own a 2005 HD Softail that is fuel injected with a Powercommander. I had the engine bored out in 2009 to 95” and am running the same map that Dynojet recommended for break in. But now I’d like to find a good tuner to get the most out of the bike. I live in Silverthorne, but would go the distance for the right guy. I’m wondering if you could recommend anyone?

    OK, I don’t know any Harley tuners. I don’t ride Harleys so it’s not something I pay attention to. But what about you? Any recommendations you have I’ll pass along to Steve. Thanks.

    Then here’s another. A guy named Kevin (not my friend who brought my V-Strom) sent just a quick note asking, “How much is a computer for a 2005 big dog?” I replied I had no idea and wondered why he thought I might. He pointed me to a piece I wrote on Big Dog a couple years ago. So anyway, if anyone can answer the question let me know and I’ll pass the info along.

    Also, I got a note from Todd, who is coming to Colorado with his brother and sister and their spouses to ride. He sent me a Google mapping of his proposed route and was asking for any suggestions I might have for tweaks. You can take a look at his route here.

    It looks like a good trip. Starting out from Colorado Springs they’ll go down to New Mexico via Cuchara Pass, then do the Angel Fire loop out of Taos before coming back north. Out of Colorado City they’ll go up through San Isabel, stopping at Bishop Castle of course, and on to Canon City. From there they’ll hit Buena Vista and take Independence Pass over to Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

    Then it’s east on I-70 to pick up US 40 and over Berthoud Pass, to Grand Lake and over Trail Ridge Road, and then to Denver on the Peak-to-Peak. From there it’s back to the Springs with a sidetrip up Pikes Peak.

    Sounds pretty good to me but I did offer some suggestions:

    Your southern leg will definitely be good. In Canon City be sure to ride Skyline Drive. You might also want to take a side trip to the Royal Gorge. It’s cool to ride across the bridge and the best thing is to keep going out the other way. Most people go in and double back, but the road on through is very narrow, twisty, and pretty.

    Leaving Canon City, as an alternative, you might consider going out US 50 to Salida and then catching 285 to Buena Vista. Both routes have their attractions; US 50 takes you up the Arkansas River canyon.

    Heading east on I-70 you really ought to go over Loveland Pass rather than through the Eisenhower Tunnel. The descent is breathtaking.

    Coming from Denver it will depend on what you do there as to what makes sense. If you’re coming around the city take C-470 south from I-70 on the west. If you do go into town, then coming out by I-25 makes the most sense, but if you make your way over to CO 105 through Perry Park and Palmer Lake that’s much nicer than the interstate.

    OK, for anyone who knows Colorado that’s not rocket science, but for someone who doesn’t know the area I hope those are some good ideas. I get these letters all the time and it’s one of the things I enjoy about running this website that I get to help people plan their trips. Sometimes I even get to meet them!

    Biker Quote for Today

    That road is fabulous, I wish to test it .

    Tags:
    Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides | No Comments »

    My New V-Strom Is Here

    April 25th, 2013
    Kevin and the V-Strom on his trailer

    Kevin and my new bike were waiting for me at home on Monday.

    I got home from work on Monday and Kevin was sitting in his truck waiting for me. I was glad to see him because I had had some fears that he might be stuck in a white-out on the prairie east of town. As it was, it was snowing and rolling that bike down Kevin’s narrow ramp off the trailer was made extra dicey by the fact that our footing on the trailer was very slick due to the snow.

    But we got it down safely and wheeled it into the garage where it’s going to sit for awhile. I need to get it registered and get plates and that’s not going to happen right away because I don’t yet have the title. I’m buying the bike from Kevin’s brother-in-law in Tennessee and he hadn’t found the title by the time Kevin was leaving. They did find it, though, and it’s in the mail.

    In the meantime, I’m in possession and that means I needed to get it insured. I logged in to my insurance company’s website and it showed me the policy I had on the other two bikes. I clicked on “Add a vehicle” and it stepped me through the process.

    I was a little surprised when I found that the insurance on the new bike would be more than the insurance on the other two combined. I guess that’s because one of the old ones is 33 years old and the other is 14 years old. But I fiddled with the coverage, increasing my deductible a little, and knocked the total down enough to satisfy me. So I got that taken care of. Of course, it never hurts to shop around any time you’re changing your insurance coverage–you never know where you might find better coverage for less money.

    Just as soon as I get plates on it I need to spend a little more money. As Kevin had told me, the front tire is pretty much shot and he says the chain is in bad shape. In my experience that means I’ll probably be replacing the sprockets, too. The really, really nice thing about having a job these days is that I have a paycheck coming in and that means I have the money to pay for these things. Hallelujah!

    Of course then, the other thing that needs to happen is that it needs to stop snowing. I was talking to my friend Dan the other day and he was saying that due to two foot surgeries over the winter he hadn’t had the chance to ride in five months. Now he can ride and it just won’t stop snowing! One way or another though, he said, he’s leaving here on May 5 to ride to Maine by way of Florida. Can you tell he’s an Iron Butt guy?

    My time will come. Patience is a virtue. And then I’m figuring on seeing a whole lot of Colorado I’ve never seen before.

    Biker Quote for Today

    There is something wrong about pics of motorcycles in the snow that is just wonderful….

    Tags:
    Posted in Dual sport bikes, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | 1 Comment »

    ‘Your New Ride’

    April 22nd, 2013
    Suzuki V-Strom on a trailer

    My V-Strom as it prepares to leave Tennessee.

    Mine, that is.

    See that photo above of that 2007 V-Strom 650 on that trailer? That’s my new bike and at the moment this post is being published it is on that trailer on its way to me here in Denver. Here’s how this whole thing came down.

    As anyone who knows me or who reads this blog is aware, I’ve been wanting a dual-sport bike for a long time. Working full-time as a motorcycle freelance writer, however, I never had the money. Since November I’ve been working a contract gig as an editor at the National Park Service so I finally have some spare cash.

    In the meantime, my friend Kevin Smith, who runs Colorado Mountain Moto out of Gunnison, had gone down to Tennessee to do some remodeling work for his sister. He drove down and took his trailer with him because his brother-in-law had a V-Strom he wanted to sell and Kevin figured he could use it in his motorcycle rental business. Kevin favors V-Stroms and it is largely through him that I have ridden V-Stroms quite a bit. I like them quite a bit.

    As Kevin tells it, however, he got down to Tennessee and the more he thought about it the more he got to thinking that money was tight and he really needed the money more than he needed another bike. So he sent me the following email:

    Hey Ken if your still thinking about another bike I found a Vstrom in TN. Not sure I need it yet 07 17000 miles I could bring it with me if your interested. $3500. Cheers Kevin

    I quickly did some checking to see how that price matched up to others locally and it looked pretty good, although some local bikes had extras this one does not, and Kevin said it will need a front tire and a new chain soon. I hesitated. I’ve finally got a bit of a financial reserve again and draining it significantly was a hard thing for me to decide to do.

    However, much to the envy of a lot of guys, I’m sure, my wife Judy was all for it. She kept pushing me. “Come on, you’ve wanted this for a long time. Do it!”

    So I did it. And now it’s on its way here. Kevin will be here later today and will spend the night with us before heading on to Gunnison. And I’ll add a Suzuki to go with my Honda and my Kawasaki. People who I meet and to whom I mention that I ride invariably ask, “Do you have a Harley?” No I don’t. Harleys just don’t interest me. I guess that’s pretty clear by now. Not dissing you guys who do; it’s just not my kind of bike. But oh boy, I’m going to like having this V-Strom.

    My friend Dan, who does ride a Harley, also has a GS800 from BMW. He’s been wanting to sell it but hasn’t yet. I was telling him on Saturday about the V-Strom and he said “let’s go ride.” I’ll definitely be taking him up on that.

    Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
    Butler Maps Northern California map is an eye-opener

    Biker Quote for Today

    I’m not lost. I’m explorin’.

    Tags:
    Posted in Dual sport bikes, Suzuki motorcycles, V-Strom | 2 Comments »

    Becoming A Better Rider

    April 18th, 2013
    BMW S1000RR

    A BMW S1000RR I rode once.

    My Concours is a sport-touring bike so it kind of qualifies as a sport-bike. For that reason and a variety of others I am a member of the Sportbikes.net forum and I recently got a notice of a thread on that forum that I thought would be worth sharing.

    The question posed was, “Becoming a Better Rider – What helped you?”

    Here are some of the replies.

    • Safer: A bunch of mistakes etched into my memory. I do things and afterwards think “if X had happened, I would have been screwed!” Then I commit it to memory to avoid that possibility in the future. Crossing my fingers and hoping X never happens on the first time a situation arises.
    • Definitely hanging out with people who were better than me. Its the same thing I’ve found with being a musician… you’ll tend to plateau after a while, but playing with some new people that force you to sharpen your skills helps a ton. This doesn’t mean squids doing stupid stuff on public roads. It means friends that actually have skill, do track days, etc.
    • Crashing.

    Wow? Really? I guess if you live to learn the lesson, the lesson does stick.

    • MSF course – It picked out fundamental flaws in my riding.
    • Track days – #1 thing I learned from trackdays is to look up. This is a valuable life lesson. Look up, it works!!!
    • American Supercamp – I learned that people online preach an ideology about riding that may not be the best for me. I learned a lot just talking to real racers about riding motorcycles at Supercamp as well.
      Riding a dirtbike – Reinforced a lot of the things I learned at Supercamp, but helped me loosen up on the bike.
      Then I read a book called “Total Control,” which taught me how to be a faster/controlled rider and encouraged me to practice what I had read. Then trackdays, and hanging out with trackday junkies instead of squids.
    • Track. Easiest way to learn your limits and the limits of your bike/tires. Best thing to do is to get behind someone slightly faster than you and try and keep up with them.
    • Keith Code California Superbike School for me.
    • Two things I think… I’m constantly experimenting with different techniques on the same road to see what works and what doesn’t. But that’s just how I learn, doesn’t work for everyone. I also only work on one thing at a time. Like at the beginning of the season I focused a lot on upper body placement, where my head should be and what my hands and arms should be doing. Then I moved on to lower body, which I struggled with a lot. Now I’m currently working on foot placement and the most effective way to move my feet when transitioning. The other thing that really helped was riding in crappy conditions. Once I learned how to relax while riding in sand my awareness improved overall.
    • Wrecking also helped to make me a safer rider. It slowed me down and kept me from taking needless risks (not that I was really all that reckless before).

    OK, so I get it. Crashing really can teach you a lot, as long as it doesn’t end your riding days. I don’t think anyone would recommend this approach, though. You just have to take advantage of it when the opportunity presents itself.

    Here’s one more I like.

    • I learned by not being too proud to seek training.

    Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
    Butler Maps Northern California map is an eye-opener

    Biker Quote for Today

    The twisties – not the superslabs -separate the riders from the squids.

    Tags:
    Posted in Motorcycle Safety | No Comments »

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