Passes & Canyons Blog

John and Bill on their Honda Shadows (years later).

It’s a whole lot easier these days to get a good handle on the places you intend to head to and the roads you’ll be on getting there than it was in the early days of the OFMC. Getting onto some dicey roads on a brand new bike is a good way to get your first scratches right away. This is a lesson John learned one year.

When the OFMC first got going, John bought a used Yamaha Virago, I bought a used Honda CB750 Custom, and Bill bought a brand new Honda Shadow. After we’d been riding about five years John decided to upgrade and he bought a new Shadow almost exactly like Bill’s, except newer. These were the bikes we set out on in 1994.

We headed toward Kremmling, where John’s Mom was living, and stopped to pay her a visit. We left town continuing northwest on US 40. Just a little further up the road we turned off US 40 onto CO134 over Gore Pass to Toponas. Nice ride. First time I’d ever been over that road.

From Toponas CO131 heads back up to US 40 but John had looked at the map and was interested in Routt County 8, which goes over Ripple Creek Pass from Yampa to Meeker. He had scoped it out and figured out (or so he thought) that it was paved all except for about 10 miles of gravel. Were we willing to do that bit of gravel? Back in those days these guys were more adventurous and we said yes; later on they concluded they did not wish to do gravel at all. I’m still willing, except on my Concours but I’ve always been more adventurous than them.

John was wrong. This road was 40 miles of gravel, much of it washboard and much of it deep with sand. It was probably the hardest riding any of us has ever done. And John managed to put his brand new bike down for the very first time.

John was leading and I was right behind. At one point he decided to stop and take a break and pulled off to the side of the road. Unfortunately for him, right at this point the side of the road was deep sand. I braked cautiously as I saw him go down. Fortunately there were the two of to help him get that bike up.

Ripple Creek Pass, by the way, is a beautiful road if you want to do it in a car or on a bike that is equipped for that kind of thing. I highly recommend it.

But that business of so much serious washboard had another impact. I noticed later that day that a couple of the welds on the sissy bar on my Honda had vibrated so hard that they broke. My sissy bar, with most of my stuff strapped onto it, was dangling precariously. But we stopped in Vernal, Utah, that night and then went on to Salt Lake City the next day and spent a couple days there. While there I went to a welding shop and got it fixed. So not a big deal. But that’s how bad the washboard was.

Heading from Vernal to Salt Lake the next day Bill was in the lead as we came alongside Strawberry Reservoir, near Duchesne. He saw a dirt road running down to the water and decided he wanted to check it out. John followed and I was right behind John.

It turned out the road was deeply rutted from erosion. Bill had no problem but John got himself in a fix and was about to lose it. He called out to me, “Ken, come help me! Quick!” I wanted to help him but I was in the same rough ground he was in and before I could do anything to help him I had to find a place to stop and park my own bike. By the time I did that he was down, his brand new bike laying on the ground.

As I recall, Bill came back on foot and helped us get John’s bike back upright, and we then rode on down the rest of the way to the water. We hung out for awhile and then managed to get back up to the highway uneventfully.

Now fortunately, neither of these two spills did any real damage to the bike, just a few cosmetic scratches and such. But it was no longer the brand new bike he had started out on just the day before.

We got more cautious about the roads we took after that.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s not the falling off that hurts, it’s the landing.

Clustered around after picking up Roy’s bike, which he dumped in the gravel.

With snow forecast for Monday but the warmest, sunniest weather yet on the year before that it was a no-brainer that the RMMRC was going to have a ride on Saturday. And this time we went some place different.

At this time of year riding options are somewhat limited. You can’t go into the mountains because of the snow and ice, not to mention a lot of sand and gravel, so east of the mountains is the only choice. Very, very often we ride out to Kiowa, to Patty Ann’s. And Patty Ann’s is great. They have really good food and it’s a nice place. But aren’t there other places?

Well, yes.

We met up at Performance Cycle and headed south on a route that itself was a bit different from what we’ve often taken, down to Hess Road and over to Hilltop Road. Destination Elbert, the South 40 Bar and Grill.

And what a great day for a ride! You’d be tempted to think Spring had arrived!

We got to Elbert and Bob proceeded to take us on a tour of the unpaved back streets of Elbert. It wasn’t really obvious where this place was. Heck, I’ve been through Elbert many times and never had any idea there was a restaurant. But we found it. You just have to make that right turn right after you come into town (from the north).

Lunch was OK; I’d have to say Patty Ann’s is better, but it was not bad at all. And two other groups on motorcycles showed up while we were there so this place is definitely known to at least some people. The guy we spoke with was out of Colorado Springs, and that makes sense because it’s closer to there than to Denver.

Leaving, we continued south and then turned west over to Monument and came up CO 105. I have to tell you, I declare Sturgis rules to be in effect along CO 105. If you’ve ever been to Sturgis for the rally you know there are way, way too many people on bikes top even think about waving to every one you see. You don’t wave at other bikers at the rally. Well, CO 105 on a weekend of gorgeous weather is not as biker-heavy as Sturgis but it’s close enough. Time to invoke Sturgis rules.

We started to splinter at Sedalia as people headed home in different directions. From eight, to five, to three, to one, and my ride was done. A good day.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: If your motorcycle makes too much noise, you can buy a muffler.

Some helmets are more fun than others.

I wear a helmet any time I ride now, but for years I did not. What changed that?

When I bought my first bike I had a Bell half-helmet from my hang-gliding days. I figured that was all I needed and I only needed that if it rained, if it was cold, or if I was in a state where helmets are required. I did find, however, that if I was going to wear it I also needed a visor. The helmet had three snaps across the front so I bought a visor that snapped onto those. Voila. But I didn’t wear it much; mostly I left it hooked on the helmet lock on the side of the bike.

It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the value of a helmet. In the third year of the OFMC trips I was headed for Durango and came upon a chip-seal operation. Cruising over new chip-seal, the car in front of me threw up a rock that I saw coming right at me and it glanced off my helmet as I tried to duck out of its way. I had the helmet on at that time because it was a rainy day. So I knew the value of helmets; I just enjoyed riding without one too much.

By the sixth year of the OFMC trip I had a full-face helmet. I had picked up a used Bieffe helmet at a yard sale for $25. Yeah, I had probably heard that line about if your head is only worth $10 then buy a $10 helmet. But I was poor and I still wasn’t big on helmets. But a half-helmet really doesn’t do all that much good in rain. And to this day I say, if you’re going to wear a helmet, wear a real helmet that gives you all the protection possible.

So I wore that Bieffe for a lot of years, but not very much. Truth was, it hurt. The Styrofoam liner pressed against my forehead and after an hour or more I was in pain. I only learned why that was last year. I was buying a new helmet and some that I tried on did that same thing. The sales guy explained that some helmets are shaped differently to accommodate different people’s heads. Some heads are oval shaped, others are more round. Don’t get a helmet meant for someone with a round head if your head is oval shaped.

Time passed and Bill and John started wearing their helmets more and more. I was the hold-out. I remember some year when they both wore their helmets nearly the entire time. I defiantly did not wear mine at all on that trip. More guys joined the group and more and more of them wore helmets all the time. It wasn’t peer pressure but that kind of thing does impact your thinking, if only subtly.

Oh yeah, and along the way I got ride of that painful Bieffe and bought a series of other helmets. One of the first was a new Bieffe but that hurt me the same way the old one did. I hadn’t learned about that yet. I still have that one but it’s hardly ever been worn.

Another thing that came with the passage of time is that I got married. I still was not overly concerned for myself but I didn’t like to think of what something happening to me would do to her. And then family things started happening.

First, my oldest brother was diagnosed with, and then died from, brain cancer. Next my second brother and his wife ran into serious marital issues when her sister developed serious mental illness. My sister-in-law felt she had no choice but to care for her sister, despite the extremely bad relations between her sister and her husband, my brother. That marriage ended. And then my younger brother’s wife got hit by a truck while she was riding her bicycle. She was wearing a helmet but those bicycle helmets are junk, if you want my opinion. She suffered irreparable brain damage.

At that point I was feeling like I was inviting a clean sweep. I did not want Judy to have to deal with the same issues all my siblings were facing. For Christmas that year I told her my real gift to her was that I would always ride with a helmet from then on. Actually, I had made that decision and was doing so for some months before this, but this was the first time I ever mentioned it to her. Merry Christmas, Judy. She was very pleased with the gift.

This was my own personal journey. It applies to me, and only me. I’m not one of those converts who now thinks everyone else should do the same. I still believe in helmets being the choice of the rider. And I choose to wear a helmet always.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you paint your office nick-name (like EasyRider or Bad-Ass) on your Bell open-face helmet.

A TED talk about motorcycles in Africa.

OK, that title is a bit overly dramatic but it’s also true. All of us who ride know that when it comes to pollution and infrastructure, motorcycles are a plus. And that gets more true when the motorcycles are electric. I mean, let’s face it, with electric cars growing in numbers it gets harder and harder to make the low pollution argument. Electric bikes get us back on track.

So I was interested when Judy sent me an email with a link to a TED talk video about an effort going on in Africa. The video, “Africa’s path to clean mobility — driven by motorcycles,” has this guy, Adetayo Bamiduro, talking about a start-up he and another guy have got going to help put motorcycle taxi drivers in Lagos, Nigeria, on electric bikes.

First a little background. (If you watch the video, sorry, I’m just repeating some of what he tells you.) Lagos is one of the biggest cities in Africa and by 2060 is projected to be larger than New York City or Mexico City. Also, Nigeria is projected to be bigger (in population) than the United States. So we’re talking big.

As in much of the world, motorcycle taxis are common and make sense. However, says Bamiduro, most drivers are outside of the formal economy so they have to get money to go into business from loan sharks. They then have no cash left to maintain their bikes properly, which leaves them with heavily polluting machines. Big problem in a big city like this.

So the start-up owns a fleet of electric bikes. The driver signs up on their app, takes out a company-maintained machine, cuts out the middle man (loan shark) and doubles his income while cutting pollution by a lot. A big win-win.

This is such a big change in just a few years. I remember when Zero Motorcycles first came on the scene. It was a real question whether anyone would even have any interest in something like that. I test rode some Zeros a couple times and they were fine but they were small, had a very limited range, and cost a whole lot.

But Zeros get better each year, as does the range of their batteries. And now there are a lot of electric motorcycles on the market, including one built by Harley-Davidson.

I assume that one day I’ll own an electric car, although at the moment I have only 80,000 miles on my 2006 Hyundai, so it probably won’t be any time soon. But I also assume that one day I’ll own an electric motorcycle, and I suspect that will happen sooner. The future really is now.

Biker Quote for Today

A motorcycle cannot/will not fall over without an audience.

Those are bison in the background, here at Daniels Park.

I headed out Tuesday morning on the V-Strom not knowing where to go–as usual. My inclination was to head down toward Daniels Park so I went west on Belleview and turned south on University. Along the way it occurred to me that I had not tried the V-Strom on gravel since I had new street tires put on it. I had had 80-20 street/dirt Shinko tires on before but they wore out ridiculously because I mostly ride on pavement, so I went to street tires. So great, I had a plan.

The problem came with approaching Daniels Park from this direction. Many years ago, before all that area was developed, you just headed south on University till, out in the middle of nothing, there was one gravel road branching off to the south. That was the road to Daniels Park. Nowadays I don’t think that road bed even exists. I think it got rerouted and moved around to accommodate the new houses and all. And the main thing is, there is not good signage to point you to the park from University (which becomes Lincoln Avenue along the line somewhere).

I had gone this route before and missed my turn, and another time I had spotted the sign–just barely. This time, if it is even still there, I missed it again. When I reached Quebec I knew I’d gone too far, but I also knew I could get to Castle Pines Parkway, run west about a tenth of a mile, and turn north through the park and hit that same patch of gravel from the other direction. And that way I could then follow the road back north and determine exactly where it meets University. And maybe remember this time.

That’s what I did. I have to say right here that it was only a semi-warm day. I had my electric vest on and that makes all the difference but by the time I got to the park I was up high and it was darn cold, and windy. My hands were getting numb. If not for that vest I would have been an ice cube.

I got to the park, got to the gravel, and had no issues whatsoever. This was not that much of a test because they use magnesium chloride on that road, which makes it almost paved, although they clearly had not put any on it recently. But the tires worked fine.

So I got back on the pavement continuing north. When it hits the pavement, Daniels Park Road becomes Grig’s Road. Grig’s Road hit McArthur Ranch Road and I knew I needed to go left, but I wasn’t sure what to do after that.

I hit Wildcat Reserve Parkway and crossed that and my road became Fairview Parkway. I took that a good ways and finally reached Highlands Ranch Parkway, turned right, and was back at University. So I turned right to try it again. At this point I was pretty sure the road I had wanted was Wildcat Reserve Parkway so as I approached it again I looked hard for a sign. I saw no sign at all. But I went ahead and turned south on Wildcat.

By now I had no idea what road I had been on when I crossed Wildcat Reserve a short while ago (McArthur Ranch Road) so I missed it and just followed Wildcat. And followed and followed and followed it. Highlands Ranch is really big. I wasn’t lost–I knew I could easily find my way to some place I knew, but I had no idea where this road was leading me. That’s OK, I like to explore.

After awhile it looked like I would be coming out on US 85, which was fine, but then Wildcat hit Highlands Ranch Parkway. Fine. I knew that road comes out on US 85, so I made that left.

Getting onto US 85, from there it was all familiar ground. I cruised past Sedalia, to the Daniels Park Road turn-off, went north to Castle Pines Parkway where I brought the two sides of this very squiggly figure-8 together, and from there made my way home.

It was a really nice ride, probably the best I’ve had yet this year. Yes it was cool but if you have the right gear you can do just about anything. And maybe next time I try to get to Daniels Park from University Boulevard I’ll be successful. Or not.

Biker Quote for Today

Straight roads never make skillful motorcycle riders.

There is a lot of riding going on this summer.

Covid is not gone but the world is moving on and we’ll just live with it. Which is to say, after two years of not a lot of motorcycle rallies or events going on, it’s all back now. I’ve been much busier recently updating and adding events to my Rides and Rallies page and I’m a little blown away by all the many events already announced. And we’re not even into the season yet.

Let’s just look at a few.

All the racing events are back on the calendar. You’ve got a series of vintage motocross races set. And of course the big one, Monster Energy 2023 Supercross. Plus, the Motorcycle Roadracing Association is planning a full series of events, too.

The annual Molly-Dharma Run is set for June 11. This event raises money for animal shelters and is always one of the most popular poker runs in the state.

One I haven’t seen before is the Southwest Quest – Women’s Moto Retreat. This event, in June, is a focus for women riders.

In July the Christian Motorcyclists Association is having its big gathering in Hotchkiss. And shortly after that the BMW Motorcycle Club of Colorado is having its annual Top O the Rockies Rally just down the road in Paonia.

In August the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally returns, and it’s a good one. Then there are a couple one-off things going on in September. The Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum, in Colorado Springs, is having a 30-year anniversary celebration and that coincides with a Colorado stop-over by the Motorcycle Cannonball event, which runs from coast to coast on really old machines every two years.

Those are just some highlights. There will be plenty of poker runs and fundraisers planned by a wide range of organizations. Basically, any time you’re looking for something to do on your bike you’re likely to find something going on. So get out there and ride.

Biker Quote for Today

It does not matter how slow you ride as long as you do not stop.