Passes & Canyons Blog

Ongoing mechanical issues with my now 41-year-old Honda CB750 Custom some years ago had me thinking the unthinkable, as in getting rid of it rather than continuing to put money into it. It didn’t happen, but for the only time in all those years I was at least considering it.

But this is the first bike I ever owned. I had ridden motorcycles before but this is the bike that I learned to actually ride on. There really is a difference. Anyone can get on a bike and start it up and go forward. To handle that bike with skill and finesse is an entirely different matter. It takes time, and this was the first bike I ever spent enough time on to learn these things.

Thinking these thoughts had me thinking about the early days, when I had no idea how much I didn’t know. When my friend Richard heard I’d gotten a bike he commented that I must be figuring out the seeming contradiction of counter-steering. I looked at him blankly because I had no idea what he was talking about. Of course, counter-steering is that business where you put pressure on the right grip if you want to go right, the left grip if you want to go left. If you think about steering, pressing on the right grip–away from you–would seem to turn the front wheel to the left, so how does that make you go right? I’m not even going to get into that lengthy discussion here but trust me, it does. I had some learning to do.

Another thing I learned right away was to back into a curb. I read something awhile ago from a non-rider who had passed through Sturgis during the rally who wondered why it was that all the bikes were parked with their rear wheels backed in. Was this just some unspoken law of biker cool?

Hardly. Within the first week or two that I owned the Honda I ran over to the local motorcycle dealership to get something. I pulled in the parking lot, which sloped down from the building toward the street, and pulled into a space alongside the sidewalk, nose in. Guess what happened when I was ready to leave. With no reverse gear, I had to muscle this 600-pound bike uphill, backward. Of course if I had backed it in I would have just climbed on, started it up, and driven away. That’s one of those lessons you learn once and never forget.

Paying attention to the kill switch is another lesson but it doesn’t sink in quite so quickly. If you take a Motorcycle Safety Foundation rider training course they will teach you to turn the bike off every time by flipping the kill switch. I’m sure if you get in that habit you will never forget then to flip that switch back whenever you want to start. I don’t do it that way. I just turn off the ignition key.

In my mind, at least in the beginning, the kill switch was something you would use in an emergency, such as if you dropped the bike and the engine didn’t die on its own. What I had to learn is that sometimes you get all fat-fingered and hit the kill switch inadvertently. Sometimes that means you’re trying to start it and nothing is happening. Other times, you might be cruising along and all of a sudden the bike dies, and for the life of you, you can’t figure out why.

I did this once when I was setting my throttle lock and my hand grazed the kill switch. I sat there by the road for half an hour while two different bikers stopped to offer assistance. I felt pretty stupid when I finally figured out what the problem was. Eventually I just developed the habit of scanning the controls every time before starting to make sure everything is in the proper position.

I could go on; there’s a lot more. But the point is, I learned all of this on the Honda. This bike has been with me since the start, quite a bit longer even than my wife has been with me. Could I really let it go? At this point I’d say no, and back then I never had to make that choice. After getting a bunch of work done on it then, ever since it has been a dependable, good-running bike.

On the other hand, I know a number of guys who are younger than me who have decided they’re getting too old and it’s time to hang up the spurs. Do I see that happening any time soon? Not on your life! But before I hang up the spurs I’m guessing I will get rid of these heavy bikes I now ride and get something smaller. But I don’t even see that happening any time soon. Heck, Roy is 89 and still rides his big Beemer across the country. I’m planning to be Roy.

Biker Quote for Today

I’m a biker grandpa. Just like a normal grandpa except much cooler.

As I try to figure out the problem with my Concours I have visited some forums on the bike. As something of a surprise to me, after owning the bike for more than 20 years, there apparently is a common, known issue with Connies, and that is called hydrolock. One thing I read the guy said the two main causes for the deaths of the Concours are crashes and hydrolock.

So what the heck is hydrolock, and what causes it? Let me tell you a little about the Concours.

On my Honda CB750 Custom the gas petcock has three positions: On, Res, and Off. Pretty simple. On the Concours there are also three positions: On, Res, and Prime. Prime allows gas to trickle into the cylinders. I have never understood the purpose of Prime, but I do know from experience what can happen if you leave the petcock in that position.

Probably within the first year after I bought the bike I had cause to go to reserve. After getting gas, without looking at the markings, I pushed the lever all the way in the other direction. That’s what I would do on the Honda. All the way one way was On, all the way the other way was Res, and in the middle was Off.

That’s not how it is on the Concours. On the Connie, On is the middle position. Switching to reserve, if you go the correct direction you move to reserve. If you go the wrong direction you go to prime. And apparently the bike will run on prime.

But when you stop, if you leave it on prime it will allow gas to trickle into the cylinders but because it is not getting burned it just seeps past the rings into the oil pan. And the bike does not run well with gas mixed with the oil. It was after the second time I did this that I figured it out. And apparently I’m nowhere near the only Concours owner who has made this mistake over the years, although from most of the discussion of hydrolock that I’ve seen the larger problem is failure of the petcock, not carelessness.

Well, all these years, I thought the only issue with inadvertently switching to prime was the engine not running well and that the solution was to dump the oil/gas mixture and put in new oil. That has always worked in the past. So this time, when I apparently had a brain fart and pushed the petcock to the wrong position I assumed changing the oil would solve the problem.

And it sort of did solve the problem. I could now fire the bike up and ride away on it, but it doesn’t run well at first. Which is what brings me to where I am now.

So trying to figure this out I go looking and for the first time I start seeing all this discussion of hydrolock. Hydrolock occurs when there is fluid in the cylinder and you fire the bike up. On the up stroke the cylinder is compressing the fuel/air mixture. Fluid does not compress as well as gas (as in oxygen, not gasoline). And what can result is that the connecting rod that links the cylinder head to the crankshaft gets bent. Not good; not at all.

Is this my problem? I’m still not sure, though I sure hope not. I need to find out one crucial thing. With all the discussion I’ve read I still haven’t seen definitively whether the bike will still run after a hydrolock event. I get the idea it won’t, and if that’s the case then that’s not my issue because my bike does run.

Judy says just call Joel and let him figure it out; that’s the purpose of money and we have money. To which my response is that the only thing worse than doing something stupid is having to pay a bunch of money to correct for your stupidity. But unless I get real smart real soon I guess that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if one area of your house (other then the garage) is decorated in a motorcycle motif.

OK, me, the non-mechanic, trying to trouble-shoot my Concours. I looked into what would happen if you had too much oil in the machine and my first lead was to the air intake, which is where excess oil presumably would be pushed out. Is the air filter saturated with oil?

First I had to figure out how to get to the air filter. I was going to change the spark plugs on this bike once but then I found that to do that I would have had to lift the gas tank. To do that would have required sealing off the gas line and who knows what else. I left it for Joel to do once I finally got around to having him do a tune-up. Would I need to lift the tank to get to the air filter?

Happily, the answer was no. I have a shop manual and looking in there I found that all I had to do was remove the left side panel, then take out two screws to remove the plate to get to the filter. Easy enough. So I pulled out the filter and found myself with a definite maybe.

The thing is, I don’t know what a new Connie air filter should look and feel like. This thing, seen in the photo, seemed to be a bit oily, but not so much as to be anything close to saturated. Is that normal? Plus, there was certainly no oily residue in the air box.

The only thing I know to do is take it over to Vickery and ask them if this is how it should be, and if they have one in stock, compare it to a new one. It is Sunday as I’m writing this so it will be Tuesday before I can do that. Nothing to do but wait.

If this proves to be the answer it will be a godsend. Because if it is not the answer I have no idea what to look for next. Of course I can always give Joel a call but man, I’ve really been giving him a bunch of my money lately. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

A little later: Nope, I did some more reading in my shop manual and it says to lightly coat a new air filter with oil. I guess my next move will be to go to the Concours Owner’s Group forum and see if I can find answers there.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you have at least one ashtray that is actually a motorcycle part.

We had some fabulous weather to start off February so I got out on all three bikes right away.

Of the two bikes I’ve recently had issues with the situations varied. The V-Strom, which I put a new battery into, started and ran just great. It still drips something but that is a longstanding issue that I’ll just continue to live with.

The Concours is a different matter. It fired right up and I ran it a good while to make sure it was warm. That bike has always needed to warm up before heading out.

Previously I had apparently left the reserve lever in the Prime position, an error that led to gas trickling into the cylinders and seeping past into the oil pan. In that state the bike wouldn’t run and I ended up making a real mess changing the oil. And once it was changed, although the bike fired up and ran, it didn’t initially run well. I rode around the neighborhood to be sure it didn’t crap out on me a long way from home, but eventually it did fine.

Well, same thing this time. I pulled out of the driveway and there was very little power. Again I rode around the neighborhood until it seemed to be doing OK and then I took off. This time, however, in two instances when I was coasting downhill and not revving the throttle at all the engine died. Now, it started back up right off when I pushed the starter button but this bike has never just died on me before. For the rest of the ride, anytime I was slowing down I made sure to give it a little more gas so it would not die. That’s a pain.

Maybe the business with dying could be remedied by just cranking up the idle speed a bit, I don’t know. But what the heck is the issue with the poor running in the beginning? Could there still be gas in the oil? Certainly not much–would just a tiny bit have that effect? Is there some other issue? I’m convinced that my mechanic put too much oil in when he changed it back in June. Could that have blown out a seal? What happens if a seal is blown? I just don’t know the answer to these kinds of questions. I need to do research.

Of course I could change the oil again–it certainly helped to change it before. I hate to do that because motorcycle oil is not cheap and changing oil on this bike is not a simple operation. And if I did that and it still was not running right, then what?

I just did a quick Google search and it appears I ought to check the air filter to see if excess oil has been through out that way. Now I need to look into how I get to the air filter. Sigh. I’ll let you know what happens.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: Disassembling the motorcycle is done out of pleasure rather than need.

Coronavirus or not, the OFMC took its annual trip in 2020, and we’re all still alive and healthy. So you can bet we’re planning a trip for 2021.

As the designated trip planner I have asked the guys what they want to do and then worked out a route and itinerary. They guys are good with what I came up with and here it is.

Our destination for the first day is Scottsbluff, NE. The guys mainly wanted to go to the Black Hills this year and this is a good midway point. You can ride all the way in one day–I have–but it’s more leisurely to take it in two. Plus, if you’ve never been to Scottsbluff and gone to the top of the bluffs you should. The actual park is Scotts Bluff National Monument. So this short ride will give us plenty of time to do that.

The next day we’ll ride on up to Custer, SD, which will be our home base for three nights. The OFMC always likes to spend two days in one place in order to have a day for golf. It turns out there are very few places in the Black Hills where there are public courses, and Custer is one. On the other day we’ll just ride around in the Black Hills.

Then leaving Custer we’ll have a short day’s ride up to Spearfish, SD. That’s a really short ride but the OFMC also always wants to do some gambling, so we’ll take a very short ride to Deadwood, give the casinos some of our money, and then complete the leisurely run to Spearfish.

The next day’s run is also very short, so I had to figure a good way to extend it. We’ll run up from Spearfish to Belle Fourche, then west through Hulett and on to Devil’s Tower National Monument. We’ve been to Devil’s Tower before but never gone in and up to the monument, this time we will. And then we’ll ride on to Newcastle, WY, for the night.

Following that we’ll cruise on down the eastern side of Wyoming to Torrington. That’s another short day but when you look at the map there’s not a lot of places to go without going a long way. And in recent years we have made a deliberate effort to stay in towns we’ve never stayed in before. We’ve never stayed in Torrington. Who knows, maybe we never will again.

The day after that will be the most scenic of the whole trip, as well as one of the longest. We’ll head south to Cheyenne and then take the state roads between Cheyenne and Laramie. Most people take the interstate but the state road is much nicer. Then we’ll head southwest out of Laramie down through the Snowy Range and back into Colorado for a night at Walden. That’s our last night out and the next day we’ll head home. So that’s the trip this year. Only about 1,000 miles.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s your road and yours alone. Others may ride it with you but no one can ride it for you.

I’ve read that pilots make better motorcyclists, or motorcyclists make better pilots – I can’t remember which. Probably the latter. Both go beyond the basic right, left, forward, backward movement that you get in a car. Both have to lean.

You do get some lean in a car when you turn sharply, but it is centrifugal force trying to throw you in the opposite direction of your turn, while the seat you’re sitting on essentially remains in the same plane. On a bike, as in an airplane, the entire vehicle rotates clockwise or counter-clockwise on an axis running from front to back. You remain firmly planted on your seat, which rotates with you, and you lean in the direction of the turn, not the opposite.

What this adds up to is fun. Anyone who rides, or who has spent much time with bikers, knows that bikers love “the twisties.” Whereas car tires are shaped like a bowl, with a flat bottom, motorcycle tires are more circular. You roll the bike to the left and to the right and the patch in contact with the road moves up the left side and up the right side and it’s all good because you’re supposed to use the sides of the tires, not just the bottom.

In the twisties, it all comes together into a dance. In a series of s-turns you go into a right-hander and you lean right and the bike rolls right, then, with a left-hander immediately following, you straighten the bike back up and keep going over on the left. Then it’s back up and over on the right and back up and over on the left. There’s no better feeling than rolling those tires all the way across their profile, side to side, and back again, again and again. You set up a rhythm, your body and the bike move gracefully to the music of the road, and the world is a wonderful place. It has to be the closest thing to what pilots feel that you can experience on the ground.

Of course, if you’re a dirtbike rider or a motocross rider you also get the ups and downs that pilots get, and you even catch a little air now and then. But I’m a bit leery of that business of going up in the air more than just over whoops. I like the fact that if a motorcycle’s engine stalls you just coast to a stop, as opposed to being in the air praying you can either restart it or find a place to land safely.

I do like to fly, but I’m happy to do my flying on the ground.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycle riding gives you a sense of freedom that you don’t get in a car. Your senses take on a different significance.

Getting you from one place to another is only a small part of what makes for a great motorcycle road. More importantly, a great motorcycle road twists and winds, climbs and descends, allows you to take your time, and offers a fresh experience that affords numerous interesting stops.

Check, check, and check. Add the High Road to Taos to your list of top two-wheel routes.

The “Low Road” to Taos is the main one, and it’s a busy highway that mostly follows the Rio Grande Valley. The High Road is small and quiet and offers a taste of Southwestern culture that can make you feel like you’re gone to another country. Unfortunately, until recently that culture also included the Third World mentality that “the world is my trash heap,” but an aggressive anti-litter campaign appears to have turned that attitude around.

Starting out from the general vicinity of Espanola, northwest of Santa Fe a few miles, the High Road at first passes through small communities that afford a glimpse of life in this region before the advent of electricity and technology. Homes are hidden deep in the shade of towering trees that keep the otherwise oppressive heat and vicious sunshine at bay, offering a coolness that is delicious in its relief.

The road then rises to the brown, arid hilltops, riding a ridge line that passes above the lush green farming valleys of towns with names such as Rio Chiquito and Cordova. The architecture gives a sense of place that is lost in the ticky-tacky sameness of modern housing developments.

Approaching the small community of Truchas a cemetery alongside the road displays a colorful aspect more common south of the border than north, including one grave site flanked on both sides by sheet metal cutouts of the V-twin hog the deceased once presumably loved.

On through Ojo Sarco, Las Trampas, and Chamisal, the road – NM 76 – winds until it ends at NM 75 near Rio Lucio. East through Penasco and beyond you follow a river canyon, and then at Rock Wall a left turn of about 160 degrees puts you on NM 518, where you start to climb and then climb some more.

Now the road earns its title of the High Road to Taos. Coursing high through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the vegetation is dense pine and spruce forest and the vistas, when they present themselves, are of neighboring mountains and the deep valleys in between. Then you descend into one of those valleys and soon encounter the congestion and fast-food franchises that make the outskirts of Taos indistinguishable from any other American city.

Biker Quote for Today

I want to take you on a motorcycle ride through the sugar cane and the countryside — Michael Franti

Not a whole lot going on at this time of year, and not a whole lot of riding, either. So I’ll make this short and just pass along a video Jerry Pokorny sent out.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: You can choke your motorcycle.