Passes & Canyons Blog

Conspicuity: the quality or state of being conspicuous

One of the really big issues when you ride motorcycles is being seen. We all know how this goes. How many times have we heard drivers who caused, or nearly caused, crashes with motorcycles say “I didn’t see him.”

They’re not lying. I myself have twice been in situations where I nearly caused an accident with a biker because I did not see him. So there are two things we all need to do: make yourself as visible as possible and then ride as if you’re invisible.

In the RMMRC there are a good many people who make a point to wear the eye-catching bright yellow or orange vests that go on over your riding jacket. Roy, the club’s safety director, has spoken to me more than twice about my black helmet and black jacket. Roy always rides sweep and he has told me that as he looks ahead he can see this rider and that rider but that I frequently blend into the scenery. Now, I do have reflectors on the sidebags of my Concours and a couple of my helmets but I guess that really doesn’t amount to much. I put more focus on riding defensively, as if I were invisible, as I said.

And so far that has worked out pretty well for me. The closest encounters I have had have generally involved people changing lanes without turning to actually look to see if there was someone in the lane they wanted to shift to. If you’re–even just for an instant–in their blind spot, and they don’t look, nothing you wear will make them see you. I pay a lot of attention to that sort of thing.

So I found it interesting riding with the RMMRC on the Colorado Cruise, hanging out in the rear of the group, that many of these guys in their fluorescent vests were barely visible, at least from behind. Why? Because they had dark top bags and such rising up behind them that almost totally blocked my view of their bright vests.

And who was the most visible of all? It was Susan, a very short lady on a small bike whose white helmet and fluorescent-striped jacket stood out vividly. And the funny thing was that Susan told me she preferred to be in the middle of the pack because she was afraid, being so small, that it was too easy for people not to see her. But in fact, nobody was more visible than her. And of course, she didn’t have bags stacked up behind her.

So who knows, maybe I ought to get another jacket, this one with blazing yellow stripes or something. Like I don’t have enough jackets. We’ll see.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if your only three piece suit is a leather jacket, leather vest and chaps.

We were riding up on the Peak-to-Peak Saturday. Think about that. It was December 4 and we were up in the hills. That tells you everything you need to know about the weather we’ve had so far in this late fall. Generally by this time of year those roads are either icy or treacherous with sand and gravel.

Not that there was no sand–we encountered a fair bit of that coming down through Golden Gate Canyon. But that was the only sand we ever saw and there was no ice at all. How could there by ice? The day-time highs have continued to be in the 60s.

The only thing that surprised me when I received the notice of the ride, an RMMRC ride, was that it hadn’t come sooner. You can’t have this kind of great weather and not have rides getting planned.

There were nine of us who took off from a 7-Eleven in Golden. We headed north on CO 93 toward Boulder but then skirted around the city to the east, following Marshall Drive to Cherryvale Road and north, then Baseline Road further east to 75th St. and north on 75th to Niwot. Then Niwot Road and Neva Road took us west to US 36, which took us north to Lyons. Time for lunch.

After lunch we tried to go up South St. Vrain Drive (CO 7) to the Peak-to-Peak but it was closed for construction. So we headed back south on US 36 to Lefthand Canyon Drive. That road brought us to the Peak-to-Peak at Ward.

It had been warm down in front of the foothills but now up higher I was very glad to have my electric vest. I had dressed warmly because I didn’t trust it would be warm the whole ride and that was a good thing on my part.

We headed south on the Peak-to-Peak, through Nederland, and on to CO 46, down Golden Gate Canyon. This was where we encountered the only sand of the whole ride. Most of the time it was right in the middle of our lane, although sometimes there would be two lines of it and you’d need to be careful to stay in between them. The worst was in a really tight turn but again, if you stayed in the track you were OK. So be advised if you head up that way. This is not the road that hot-shots on sport bikes should go blasting down any time soon.

Once we were back at CO 93 in Golden it was every man for himself and we scattered quickly. Great day for a ride.

Biker Quote for Today

Whenever I ride my motorcycle I always keep an excess of hay with me. I use hay to increase the horsepower of my bike!

In the early days of the OFMC we were notorious for the lateness of our starts. We’d sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and maybe get on the road by 10. Or 11.

Not any more. First of all, none of us sleep that late these days. My normal time to get up is in the 7 to 7:30 range. Dennis and Bill are both early risers who are up long before me. Now about the latest we get going is 9. But that’s still not really what you could call morning riding–that’s already mid-day riding.

When I went with the RMMRC on the Colorado Cruise we had to get an actual early start one day because the road south out of Ouray was going to be closed for construction at 7:30 up near the top of Red Mountain Pass, and would not reopen until lunch time. To play it safe we were rolling out of Ouray about 6:45. That’s early morning riding.

And it’s so nice! Now, in this case it was cold, and I could have done without that. But it was so beautiful! We all see the sunset most days but many people–including me–rarely see the sunrise.

The world at sunrise can be an enchanted place. The colors, perhaps the sparkling of dew, the smells, and more.

I’ve ridden all over Colorado many times and I don’t have many specific memories of particular stretches of road–except a few morning rides.

I was heading to Arizona Bike Week one year and I camped for the night somewhere east of Mesa Verde along US 160. I woke up with the sun and got going and enchanting really is the right word. Cool, fresh, delicious, and a wide open road with almost no traffic.

Another time we spent the night in Monticello, Utah, and it rained early in the morning. We got an early start very soon after the rain stopped and again, enchantment. And this time the color was really brought out by the wet, as were the smells. Have you really smelled sagebrush? You generally won’t on a hot, dusty afternoon but on a cool, wet morning it’s overwhelming.

Then there was another time, also on US 160, between Fort Garland and La Veta, going over La Veta Pass. You don’t want to hurry; you just want to cruise and savor it all. And with almost no traffic you can.

I’m just not that much of a morning person to do this sort of thing all the time, but when circumstances put me into that situation I’m never sorry. Try it. You might find that you love it.

Biker Quote for Today

In the motorcycle safety course they tell you that target fixation is bad, where your eyes are looking is where you usually end up. Must be why I keep running over female joggers.

Every year about this time I start looking at what I want to get done before the end of the year. Usually that includes making an effort to turn over one more 1,000-mile point on each bike’s odometer and then any other odd objective I can identify.

Turning over 1,000-mile points is especially easy–or irrelevant–this year. On the Honda CB750 the meter is sitting now at 35,940. Can I put another 60 miles on that bike yet this year. Is the sky blue?

It’s even more of a no-brainer on the Kawasaki Concours. That meter now sits at 73,986. We’re looking at 14 miles. Yeah, I think I’ll manage that.

And then there’s the Suzuki V-Strom. That meter is now reading 38,181. You can either say that one is totally out of reach or you can look at it that I already passed that 1,000-mile mark 181 miles ago. I’ve put a lot of miles on that bike this year so I’m going with the latter interpretation.

This year I do have a different goal for the Honda, however. In the beginning this was my only bike and all the miles I rode were on it. Then I got the Kawi and didn’t ride the Honda as much, and then I got the V-Strom and the time on the Honda went way down. For a whole bunch of years I didn’t even put 1,000 miles a year on that bike. So now that in itself has become an objective.

At the start of this year that bike had 35,048 on the dial. So instead of just putting 60 miles on it yet this year I really want to go at least 108. Still totally doable, I just have to get out and do it. And if this great weather continues that will be easy.

So what else do I want to get done before January 1? Well, often as we head into winter I’m looking at my tires and figuring I need better rubber for the winter. Not this year. Already this year I’ve gotten two new back tires and one new front. All the other rubber is good, lots of deep tread. Tires are no issue.

Plus, they’ve all had oil changes and the Honda and Kawi had overall tune-ups. I guess I’d have to say all three are in pretty darn good shape at this point. That’s kind of a nice way to end the year.

Biker Quote for Today

Biker new year’s resolutions: 1. Ride bikes. 2. Look at bikes. 3. Talk about bikes. 4. Repeat.

Many years ago I bought a junker of a pick-up truck to haul materials for some landscaping I was doing at home. This was not a vehicle you would drive for any other reason. It had been in a crash and the frame was bent, so it was one of those things that look like they’re going sideways down the road. Mostly it sat parked in my garage.

It didn’t take me long to figure out, however, that for what I was paying in insurance on it each year I could save money by paying to have this rock and compost and other stuff delivered. So I sold the truck.

A lot of people who have motorcycles don’t really ride them all that much. If you only ride the bike about 1,000 miles a year but you’re paying $200 for insurance that would come to 20 cents per mile ridden. If you put 10,000 miles on that bike you’re only looking at 2 cents a mile. What if you could get insurance where you pay for the actual mileage you put on the bike?

This is actually an option in some states (Arizona, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana). There is a motorcycle insurance company called Voom Insurance that does exactly that. Ron Khirman from Voom contacted me recently asking if I would like to work with them on getting the word out about their company. In exchange for putting up a blog post (this post) they would pay me $50. Check them out, write whatever I feel is appropriate. I said I was interested in their offering but if they were going to pay me I would need to let you, the readers of this blog, know that. “Fine by us,” Ron replied.

So I checked them out. Ron sent me to a link that is presumably a dummy page so I wouldn’t accidentally purchasing insurance that would do me no good–I’m in Colorado and they do not yet operate in Colorado. The first thing that happened was that Norton Antivirus deemed this a dangerous choice and I had to tell it no, I really do want to go to the site. I got no such response when I went to the actual site in the link above. In the meantime I was able to get the information I needed.

For starters, Voom offers three plans at varying price points: Essentials, Popular, and Extended. With Essentials the monthly base rate is $4 and 1 cent per mile. For Popular it is $9 a month and 4 cents per mile. With Extended it is $35 a month and 13 cents per mile. If you go with Popular it adds in comprehensive and collision and going to Extended also includes uninsured, underinsured, and body injury.

Each plan is customizable depending on what coverage you want. For instance, I chose Essentials and used my V-Strom as the bike. It gave me a base rate of $2.10 and a penny per mile. (The last two fees are consistent for all policies.) This includes $25,000 coverage per person, $50,000 coverage per incident, and $20,000 property damage per incident. These coverages meet Colorado’s requirements. If I added comprehensive and collision that went to $7.76 per month and four cents per mile. All the standard choices you always make with insurance were there for your selection.

They also offer the usual deductions for things like having a motorcycle endorsement on your driver’s license, taking a rider safety course, and that sort of thing. I have those so I took those deductions.

So how does this work out for me? Would I benefit by paying per mile for my insurance?

Well, last year I rode the V-Strom 1,046 miles. Taking the basic coverage that would work out to $35.66, whereas I now pay GEICO $145.02 per year on that bike. (OK, an update on Dec. 1: I did the math wrong. I think I misread that quote. By my recalculation it would cost me $60.62 per year. That’s still a heck of a savings.) I tried adding my other bikes onto the policy and it didn’t alter the general equation very much. It would seem that I could save a good bit of money going with a policy like this.

I don’t know. Maybe there’s something I’m missing here but this looks like a pretty sweet deal. If it was offered in Colorado I would definitely check it out further. But it isn’t, so for now I won’t. Get back in touch with me then, guys, OK? If any of you readers give this a shot let me know how it turns out. Thanks.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you only took the job to pay for your trip to Sturgis.

I was discussing gloves last week and made the point at one spot that with my heated gloves I need never ride with freezing hands again–as long as I actually have the gloves with me. Which is a pretty significant if. You can have the best riding gear in the world but if you don’t wear it or take it with you it’s of absolutely no good.

I had a perfect example of that on the Colorado Cruise when we needed to leave Ouray early to get over Red Mountain Pass before it was closed for construction work. I had not anticipated riding is really cold weather so of course my heated gloves were sitting–uselessly–at home.

We went up over the pass and down to Silverton, where we stopped for gas and for breakfast. My hands were so cold it took several minutes warming them up before I could undo the latches on my tank bag so I could get to the gas cap, and then it took more warming before I could manipulate the key in the gas cap to open the tank.

Was I so fully loaded on this trip that it would have been an issue sticking the gloves in a bag somewhere? Oh heck no. I was on the V-Strom and besides the tank bag and top bag it has two huge Givi sidebags that are so big that even when I go on longer trips I never fill them more than half full. No, it was just stupidity.

This is a recurring theme with me. On this same trip I wore one of my mesh jackets because, you know, it was still summer, right? Mesh is for summer and leather is for winter. It was still summer. OK, but even mesh jackets have liners you can put in or take out. And it’s not like they take up a lot of space.

So I wore the mesh. Did I take the liner? No. Did I seriously regret this as we repeatedly went over passes where the temperatures were really low? You bet. Did I feel really stupid? You bet. At least in this case I finally figured out on the last day that I should just put on my rain jacket and that would provide the wind-blocking function the liner otherwise would have.

Of course I can’t count the number of times I have gone out on just day rides and figured, oh, it’s plenty warm, I don’t need to take a sweatshirt or my electric vest. And then found it much too cool for comfort but there I was out there and there was my warm clothing sitting at home. Just put the darn thing in the side bag. If you don’t need to pull it out there’s no harm done. It’s not like it weighs 50 pounds and you’re carrying it on your back as you walk across the desert.

It does work the other way. Just the other day I was out riding and out of an overabundance of caution I bundled up. And I roasted! But you know what? I stopped and took over the unneeded layers. How hard is that?

The bottom line is, I have a lot of really good gear. I’m prepared for pretty much anything. Nevertheless, I continue to find myself in situations where what I really need is sitting at home. Some people are hopeless and sometimes I have to think I’m one of them.

Biker Quote for Today

I would love to buy a Harley Davidson motorcycle… But I can’t afford all the shirts.

Gloves, gloves, we got gloves. Boy, do we have gloves.

If you’ve been riding motorcycles for any good length of time you probably do, too. As with helmets, eye protection, and so many other things, many years ago gloves were not considered essential riding gear. Nowadays, I don’t know about you, but I usually wouldn’t think of riding without them.

But just as my three bikes are each best suited to particular niches, gloves are as well. Which is why I have three motorcycles and a whole bunch of gloves.

In the beginning, I bought a pair of doe-skin gauntlets, which is to say, gloves with deep, flaring cuffs that allow room for your jacket sleeve as they extend back beyond the wrists of the jacket. A very good all-around riding glove. In warmer weather these are still my go-to gloves.

But those gloves aren’t lined or insulated so it wasn’t long before I bought a very similar pair, except that the new ones are lined with Thinsulate™. When the weather turns cooler I turn to these gloves. It’s kind of how I mark the turning of the seasons.

Thinsulate alone doesn’t cut it though when it gets really cold. So next I bought some heated gloves. Now we’re really cookin’! (Yeah, pun intended.) Now it doesn’t matter how cold it is, if I’m riding I’ve got warm hands (as long as I have the heated gloves with me–I sometimes don’t).

But I have a GoPro camera and while I’ve shot some video, where I set it to record and just go ride, I really have more use for individual still photos. To do that, I need to use a remote controller that connects via Bluetooth, and I need to press the button each time I want to take a shot. Well, I can do that with gloves on but it’s hit or miss; the gloves make it hard for me to feel the slight click as I successfully press the shutter button. So I’ve ridden at times with no glove on my left hand. That can get cold.

The answer: fingerless gloves. Judy had given me a pair of fingerless gloves a long time ago but I never wore them because they were really stiff and not at all comfortable. I wondered if treating them with oil, the way you do a baseball mitt, would soften them up and make them usable, but I couldn’t find them. I probably (discreetly) got rid of them a long time ago. So I went and bought some new ones. This is definitely the type of thing you need to pick out for yourself, not allow someone else to choose them for you when they have no idea of what makes a good product and what does not.

What else could I possibly need? Well, what about when it rains?

OK, so somewhere along the way I bought some waterproof mittens that are large and can be pulled on over regular gloves when it rains. They work great but one time I was up in Eagle heading home and it was wet, and I did not have the mittens with me. Jungle gave me a pair of scuba gloves. They not only are waterproof, they are also insulated. Nice.

And then Robert moved to Panama, and gave away everything he wasn’t taking with him. I got the top bag that I now have on my Concours and I also got . . . drum roll . . . several more pair of gloves.

One pair is made by Icon and has some armor on the knuckles. Another is made by Rev-It! and has a lot more armor in a variety of places. Both are nice and I wear them at times.

The last pair is made by Olympia and while I have worn them on occasion I don’t like and won’t keep them–for the smallest, most unlikely reason. The way they’re stitched there is a seam that comes to a point right between the thumb and forefinger where your hand wraps around–and presses against–the grip. On any ride of more than half an hour, this little bit of seam becomes very uncomfortable. It’s just poor design.

So yeah, I’ve got gloves. And did I ever tell you how I came to have five riding jackets? Or five helmets? Those are other stories for other times.

Biker Quote for Today

Harley-Davidson has invented a flying motorcycle. The old bikes will henceforth be known as ground Hogs.

“Discovering” here is a sorta, kinda thing. I’m pretty sure I rode at least part of this road once before but could not have taken you back there and only stumbled on it then.

I’m talking about Lake Gulch Road, which runs south out of Castle Rock and meets up with CO 83 south of Franktown.

I’ll make an aside here, telling you that I’m playing with Google Maps to show you the entire route we took last week when the RMMRC rode down to Colorado Springs to visit the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum. I’ve never delved deeply into Google Maps so I’m not real sure how to make it do what you want but as you can see I had some success, although there are two spots (probably obvious) where the software added bits I didn’t want and I can’t figure out how to get ride of them.

So anyway, we headed out from Performance Cycle over to Sedalia where we were meeting up with a few more riders. We headed south on CO 105 to west of Castle Rock, where we turned east on Wolfensberger Road. I had been on this before but had gone straight on into Castle Rock. This time we turned southeast on Plum Creek Parkway, under I-25, and on to where we turned right onto Lake Gulch Road.

At this point I was extremely interested. I’m always interested in finding new roads. This one was great. We quickly were out of town and going along a very pretty highway with very little traffic, winding and climbing and just generally being the kind of road motorcyclists always like.

I could tell it was angling southeast so after awhile I figured we would eventually meet up with CO 83, but where? And then we did reach 83 and I now knew that I had taken this road going the other way once. Even now, though, I don’t know if I came out where we got on it or if maybe I got off onto South Ridge Road, which would have taken me into Castle Rock at a different place. I suspect I did.

Regardless, what a nice alternative route this road is. And so far it is still undeveloped, although with Castle Rock exploding that probably won’t be the case for long. So go ride it now while you can.

Biker Quote for Today

I was hit by a moose driving my motorcycle yesterday. How he managed to drive it is a mystery to me.