Passes & Canyons Blog

You couldn’t ask for a nicer day for a December 31 ride.

Hey, this year (last year now) people actually got to ride to ABATE of Colorado‘s Last Brass Monkey Run. Always held on December 31 as the last ride of the year, it’s no surprise that many times riding is just not an option. But this year Denver came just one degree short of the record high and it was a warm, sunny day. Yahoo!

I headed west on the V-Strom and while it was warm and the streets were clear in east Denver, where I live, I wondered about out west by the foothills. Golden. But out there it was just as warm and the streets were just as clear. Considering we had a bit of snow just three days ago this had not been a certainty.

As always, it was good to see the folks. I used to attend my ABATE meetings each month but have not done so for a few years, so I only see folks at events like this. The Last Brass Monkey Run used to be an actual poker run but these days it is all held in one place so you get your sheet and then move from station to station picking up your cards. I did well. I got a full house, queens over nines. Could be good.

But no. It was best five of seven cards and both the first place winner and the second place winner had four of a kind. So much for my full house.

They also hand out door prizes. Last year my ticket was the absolute, very last one to be drawn. Think about it. Someone has to have the last ticket drawn, and last year that someone was me. You don’t get much to choose from when literally everyone else has already taken all the good stuff. This year I was still late in the draw but not the very last. I got a card game that we hope our seven-year-old grandson will like. That’s OK, you don’t go to these things looking to bring home a bounty. That’s just a bonus if you do.

Heading home I couldn’t help but notice as I pulled up at a red light that the guy to my left was on his phone. Illegal in Colorado these days. His lane moved faster than mine so I watched as he drifted out of his lane to the left. You dip. Hang up and drive!

But I got home safely and got out of 2025 alive. Obviously you did too. Congratulations to each of us. Here’s to an even better 2026.

Biker Quote for Today

Live Free and Ride

Who knows, if they did the Elephant Ride this year they might make it over to Georgetown.

Monday before Christmas and it’s 73 degrees and my piano lesson got canceled. Need I say more?

It’s funny how I no longer need to specify that I was on the V-Strom. It’s my only bike now. Still a bit odd.

I wondered where to go and it hit me: do what I tried to do last time. Figure out how, in Parker, to get onto Motsenbacher Road south to Crowfoot Valley Road down to Castle Rock. By golly, this time I was going to get this clear in my head once and for all.

I started out on the same route, south to Bellview, east to Peoria, south on Peoria and the east on Bronco Parkway. This time, though, instead of taking Bronco Parkway all the way to Parker Road I turned south on Jordan Road. Parker is a major highway and there’s a lot less traffic on Jordan. At Main Street I turned east to get right back to where I had gone wrong before.

Reaching Parker Road I did as I should have done before, continuing southeast on it. This time I got to Twenty Mile Road and I didn’t really want to turn on that but the street signs are so small in this area that by the time I could read it I was committed. Fine, I’ll do a Uey if I need to.

But then I saw ahead on the left a bridge, now open and in use, that I had seen last while it was under construction. This was Dransfeldt Road and I took that left. I crossed over this new bridge, this brand new connection, and as I approached the upcoming intersection saw a sign that read “End Dransfeldt, Begin Motsenbacher.” Yahoo!

So essentially, I didn’t figure out how to get to Motsenbacher the way I would have needed to before, I discovered the newest, more direct way to get to it. And what’s more, I had crossed Twenty Mile Road going east on Main Street. It takes off from Parker Road heading west but soon bends north. So in the future I can skip going all the way to Parker Road and just go south on Twenty Mile Road to get to Dransfeldt to get to Motsenbacher. I’ve got this baby nailed now. And I can go all this way without once getting on super busy Parker Road. Nice.

As I knew it would, Motsenbacher became Crowfoot Valley Road and I soon came to Castle Rock. Along the way, as I so often do, I marveled at the development. When I first started riding Crowfoot Valley Road, not that many years ago, it was all rural and there was a little farmhouse out there that was all alone. Now you go mile and mile with hundreds upon hundreds of homes everywhere. That farmhouse now seems to be converted to a construction operations site. Further along you come to an area of large houses on large acreages but there is also open land with For Sale signs. This is all gonna pass, and sooner rather than later.

I passed through Castle Rock, across I-25 to catch US 85 northwest and made the turn onto Happy Canyon Road. I had forgotten that when that road reaches I-25 there is nowhere to go but onto the highway, so I found myself briefly on I-25 northbound.

I got off at the next interchange, Hess Road, and intended to jog east and then go north again on Havana, running alongside I-25, but there was construction and Havana did not appear to be accessible. So I continued east on Hess, finally turning north on Chambers, and from there worked my way on home.

Was this the warmest day on record here for December 22? I don’t know but it might as well have been. Heck, our mailman was wearing shorts and a short-sleeve shirt. I love Colorado.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcyclists are always happy but never quite satisfied.

A merry Christmas to you all.

I hope you all have good holidays. I know I’m not working today.

Biker Quote for Today

The journey is what makes a biker; the destination is just a bonus.

A good day to ride.

Concrete is such a solid material that the idea of it moving or flowing is kind of hard to imagine. Except it does move.

When bridges are built they are designed with gaps between the bridge and the abutment it rests on. That way, in the summer when it gets hot there is room for the concrete and metal to expand with the heat. In the winter it contracts with the cold.

This is winter. All the expansion joints on bridges and in concrete roads have contracted. That leaves gaps in places, sometimes really big gaps. If you’re on a motorcycle at this time of year, watch out!

I’m talking about this now because last week when I was out on the V-Strom I was seeing gaping expansion joints everywhere. Head out southeast on Parker Road and they’re all over the place. And some of them look like they’re just waiting to trap my front tire into the groove, with possibly very bad results.

The thing is, paving roads is not an exact science. Most expansion gaps are small enough that they are no problem. But some are a lot bigger.

I think the first time I started noticing these large joints was on I-225 where it runs into I-70. As you get off onto the lane that feeds onto eastbound I-70 you really need to watch out. But then the other day I was coming up Monarch Boulevard, which becomes Quebec, from Daniels Park and they were all over down there. Some that must have been two inches wide. That’s certainly enough to channel a wheel in a direction you don’t necessarily want to go.

Nothing we can do about it. Just pay attention and stay alert. And cross those babies at as sharp an angle as you can.

Biker Quote for Today

A biker’s heart beats to the rhythm of the engine.

Blue sky, sunny day–a great day for a December ride.

Have you ever started out heading to a particular place and found yourself somewhere else, asking, “How the heck did I get here?”

That was me on Sunday.

Sunday was sunny and warm and there was no way I was not going out on the V-Strom. A lot of other people had the same idea. I saw you out there.

I was very uncertain which way to go other than I clearly was not heading into the hills. That’s over for this season.

So I concocted a route, a pretty standard route. I would go out Parker Road to Parker and the go west on Main Street. At Motsenbacher Road I would go south and follow it to Crowfoot Valley Road, to Castle Rock, and then get on US 85 (Santa Fe) going north until I reached Sedalia. Then some route home. Simple.

Except one thing. As many times as I’ve been on the Crowfoot Valley Road I still have trouble finding it on the Parker end. It’s easy on the Castle Rock end but trickier up in Parker. But I figured now I had finally got it clear in my head.

I did what I planned. I got to Parker, turned onto Main Street, and then turned south on Motsenbacher. Nothing to it.

But then Motsenbacher ran out at a T intersection at Todd Drive, a street I was not familiar with. I took the turn to the west and soon ended up on Jordan Road. Fine. I turned south again on Jordan Road.

And then Jordan ended at a T with Hess Road. I turned west again and found myself a bit later at Hess Road and I-25. What?

It’s only now, looking at the map, that I see where I went wrong. I knew I wanted Motsenbacher but that road is one of those that stops and then picks up again later. I needed to pick it up further south than Main Street. If I had it would have simply flowed into and become Crowfoot Valley Road. Or I could have gone east on Hess and gotten back to Motsenbacher that way.

Anyway, no matter. Once I got to I-25 I crossed it and was on Castle Pines Parkway, which I followed to Daniels Park, then I turned north to home. It was a really nice ride.

There’s a quote I’ve seen, I believe it’s from The Lord of the Rings, that says “All who wander are not lost.” Nope. But sometimes they’re sure as heck turned around.

Biker Quote for Today

Riding a motorcycle is an art; every twist and turn is a brushstroke.

I paid a visit to my old Concours, sadly not back on the road as I had thought.

I knew when I went to Steele’s on Tuesday that I had screwed up pretty badly, but it was not until Matthew laid out for Judy and me the impacts they had suffered from the post I had put up that I realized just how very badly I had screwed up. Trust me, that is not a good feeling.

In planning for this meeting I had thought hard about how, while the past cannot be undone, the future can be what you choose to make it. And this thought occurred to me: Big deal motorcycle salvage operations are not a dime a dozen. Steele’s, I figured, has got to have an interesting history. As a writer, that was something I would really like to sink my teeth into. I’d like to tell that story. And at least it would be some sort of compensation.

The meeting was tense. Matthew was angry and he had good reason to be. But finally the moment came when I offered my ideas on how to take some lemons and make lemonade, and the mood shifted. To my immense relief, Matthew was not only favorable toward my idea, he himself had had the same thought. And to top that off, it turns out that Steele’s is coming up on its 40-year anniversary of being in business early next year so the idea of telling the history becomes quite timely.

So now I’m downright excited. By the end of our discussion Matthew was proudly taking us on a tour of the whole operation. And I’ve got to say, if you think of an operation of this sort as just a junkyard with rusting vehicles sitting and waiting for random parts to be stripped off you are way, way off base.

I’m already brimming over with ideas for what in a magazine would be considered sidebars but on a blog simply become addition posts that are related to the main story. For instance, I want to be there one day when they break a bike down and observe the whole process. I want to explore how computers have changed this entire business. And a lot more.

I’m not sure just how quickly you’ll start seeing these pieces but they’re going to be coming. I promise you they are going to be interesting.

Biker Quote for Today

The open road is my therapy; the wind is my healer.