Passes & Canyons Blog

We all know how many motorcycles die: they get crashed and that’s that. But what about those that don’t get crashed? If they don’t keep going, why not?

I know the answer to that now. It’s all about the Benjamins.

I bought my Kawasaki Concours new in 1999. I have ridden it something over 80,000 miles. In July of last year it overheated going up to the Eisenhower Tunnel and I had to have it hauled home. Then I took it to a shop to have that all put right. But when I got it back it was not all right. Now the throttle refused to back off properly, so I took it back to the shop. It has sat there for three months now not getting worked on.

In the meantime, the last time I went by, planning to take it for a short ride, it had developed an oil leak. After three months of not getting worked on I decided to take the bike to a different shop, so I started calling around. It appears that getting the work done that the bike needs would run me at least $1,000. Meanwhile, I had decided that the time has come to let go of this bike. It has always been a very heavy bike and I am getting older. I can still handle it OK but for how much longer? But it seems doubtful that I could find a buyer willing to pay even $1,000 for it.

The big no-brainer question: why would I pay more than $1,000 for repairs and turn around and sell it for less than $1,000?

One of the places I called about repairs was Steele’s Cycle. Yeah, they could definitely fix it; working on older bikes is their specialty. On the other hand, I could sell it to them either as salvage or, more likely in my opinion, in my hopes, so they could do the repair work and then put it on their used bike floor and sell it. Other than the throttle and the oil leak there’s not a thing wrong with it and it can easily run many, many more miles. And they will give me about $300 to $400 for it, according to Rick, the owner.

So let’s see. Pay more than $1,000 to have it running good again and then sell it for less than that, or sell it as-is with no additional costs and get a few hundred bucks. It’s really sad to say it but I’m planning to have the bike hauled over there–probably on Tuesday–and take whatever they’ll give me for it.

I have loved this bike. This bike has taken me so many places, and I have done so much on this bike. I really hate the idea of abandoning it. Walking away from it after all the good times it brought me. But what am I going to do? Keep pouring money into it? Especially when I’ve already made the decision to move on from it. This will be the first time I have let go of a motorcycle I owned.

And about that. My first ever bike was/is my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom. I still own and ride that bike. And as my first bike I am deeply in love with it. It is in bad need of some work of its own and at some point this year I will pay whatever it costs to get this work done. This is how one bike dies, while another continues to live and continues to run. Sometimes it’s not about the Benjamins.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 17. We spend more on tires than we spend on you.

A bill to permit lane filtering, after passing out of the Senate on March 13, went to the House and passed on third reading on March 18. Then it went back to the Senate for reconciliation and was repassed by the Senate as it had been amended. Unless I’m missing something I believe this means it is now headed to the governor. Holy smokes, is Colorado going to permit filtering? What’s the word Gov. Polis?

Meanwhile, a bill to prohibit use of electronic devices while driving (except for hands-free operation) was passed on third reading by the Colorado Senate on March 15 and sent to the House, where it has been scheduled for hearing at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 3. This is the big one. If you can make it down to support this bill please do so. In the last session a preceding bill made it through the Senate but died in the House. Let’s get it through the House this time.

Here’s the note sent out by Stump, legislative liaison for ABATE of Colorado:

SB24-065 (Use of Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving) passed the 3rd reading in the Senate on Friday, 3/15 and has been assigned to the House Transportation, Housing, and Local Government (H-THL) Committee. Below are the names and contact information for the members of the H-THL Committee. It hasn’t been scheduled yet (it has now–Ken), but I’ll let you know when it is. Please take a few minutes to urge your support for the bill and contact your Representative. It can be as simple as “vote yes on SB24-065” or you can elaborate as to why they should support the bill. D-5, D-13, and D-17 have members who are constituents of some of these committee members, so don’t forget to mention that if you see your Representative on the list.

Froelich, Meg – 303-866-2921 – meg.froelich.house@coleg.gov
Lindsay, Mandy – 303-866-3911 – mandy.lindsay.house@coleg.gov
Boesenecker, Andrew – 303-866-2917 – andrew.boesenecker.house@coleg.gov
Catlin, Marc – 303-866-2955 – marc.catlin.house@coleg.gov
Frizell, Lisa – 303-866-2948 – lisa.frizell.house@coleg.gov
Jodeh, Iman – 303-866-2919 – Iman.Jodeh.house@coleg.gov
Mauro, Tisha – 303-866-2968 – tisha.mauro.house@coleg.gov
Parenti, Jennifer – 303-866-2924 – jennifer.parenti.house@coleg.gov
Valdez, Alex – 303-866-2925 – alex.valdez.house@coleg.gov
Vigil, Stephanie – 303-866-2937 – stephanie.vigil.house@coleg.gov
Wilson, Don – 303-866-2191 – don.wilson.house@coleg.gov

This is all pretty amazing. Are we going to get both of these bills passed this year, finally? I’m not counting any chickens before they hatch because eggs do get broken unexpectedly. But it actually looks possible. Keep those fingers crossed. And contact your rep telling them how you want them to vote. They really do pay attention when people take the trouble to contact them.

Biker Quote for Today

God didn’t create metal so that man could make paper clips!

Over the years I have received numerous requests from folks coming to Colorado to ride, asking me for recommendations on a route. I’m always happy to oblige and each one is different, with different parameters of what they want, how long they have . . . that kind of stuff.

The most recent is from Kevin in Indiana. He said he and a buddy have ridden many of the unpaved passes throughout the state by now they want to come on street bikes with their wives and do the pavement. Rather than the hub and spoke riding they have done out of Frisco and Crested Butte, Kevin asked for “an epic continuous trip” for his buddy’s 60th birthday.

Here’s what I sent him.

OK Kevin, I have something mapped out. A couple days are a bit over 250 but under 300. Obviously you can make any changes you see fit.

Figuring on you starting in Denver you can go north to Loveland, up the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park, over Trail Ridge Road to Granby and then take US 40 on to Kremmling for the night. This is shorter than 250 but with Trail Ridge Road you’ll definitely want to be making stops. You will need to make a reservation to get into Rocky Mountain National Park. The less busy entrance is the Fall River Road entrance. Park entrance differs if you want to see the park or just go through. I believe they allow people passing through in without reservations both early and late. You’ll see plenty of the park just going through. If you don’t make a reservation you might want to spend the night in Estes so you’ll be right there to go through early. That’s what my wife and I did last year.

(As an alternative to Loveland and the Big Thompson you could go up any number of passes to the Peak-to-Peak Highway and take it north to Estes.)

From Kremmling take US 40 west a bit further and turn onto CO 134 over Gore Pass. At Toponas go south to Wolcott and I-70, then east to the Minturn exit and take Tennessee Pass to Leadville, then a bit further south to Twin Lakes and go over Independence Pass through Aspen and down to Carbondale. From Carbondale take CO 133 over McClure Pass down to Hotchkiss for the night.

From Hotchkiss go west on CO 133 to CO 65 through Cedaredge and over the Grand Mesa. When the road forks north of Mesa stay on 65 (left fork) on to I-70. Take I-70 to Fruita then take the road south through Colorado National Monument, on Rim Rock Drive. Exiting the south end of the monument find your way to US 50 south and go maybe 8 miles to Whitewater. Take CO 141 west toward Gateway, then south to Telluride. This is the Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway. Spend the night in Telluride.

From Telluride go over Lizard Head Pass down to Cortez, US 160 east to Durango, then US 550 north over Red Mountain Pass (the Million Dollar Highway) to Montrose, then east on US 50 to Gunnison. Overnight in Gunnison.

From Gunnison, run back a few miles to the Blue Mesa Reservoir and turn south on CO 149 through Lake City over Slumgullion Pass, through Creede and down to South Fork. Take US 160 west over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs, then turn south on US 84 down into New Mexico to Chama. Go northeast from Chama over Cumbres and La Manga Passes on CO 17 up to Antonito, then US 285 north to Alamosa. Spend the night in Alamosa.

From Alamosa you have several options to get back to Denver. You can just take CO 17 north to pick up US 285 and follow that all the way to Denver. Or you can take US 160 east over La Veta Pass to Walsenburg, then go right back west and north out of Walsenburg on CO 69 to Westcliffe, then east on CO 96 on to Pueblo or up to Florence, to Penrose, and on to Colorado Springs.Or make your way to Canon City and then, because you guys are comfortable on gravel, take Phantom Canyon Road (CR 67) up to Cripple Creek, CR 61 up to Divide, pick up US 24, and take that to Woodland Park. At Woodland Park you can either continue on US 24 to Colorado Springs or go north on CO 67 through Deckers to Pine to US 285 southwest of Conifer. Then take 285 on into Denver.

This would be a heck of a good ride. Pick and choose what you like.

Besides being a nice guy and mapping this out for Kevin and his crew, I’ve done myself a favor here. First off, I got this blog post out of it. At this time of year it is harder than during the summer to keep coming up with blog ideas. But I may make it a triple. I figure this might well be a good basis for planning the 2025 OFMC trip. The 2024 trip is already planned but I might incorporate a lot of this for 2025. Also, I’ve been thinking for a long time about putting a ride together for the RMMRC. This might also go a long way toward that plan. We’ll just have to see what develops.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if your only scoot has been a Knucklehead & you don’t even know what that is.

A bill (SB24-079) to allow lane filtering by motorcycles when traffic stopped was passed out of House committee Tuesday and will now go to the floor. Let me back up, though, before I go forward.

I reported on this bill passing the Senate committee in February but I had been oblivious to later events. The situation is that apparently I depend too much on Stump, the ABATE of Colorado legislative liaison, to keep me up to date on these things. I assumed Stump would keep us advised on the progress of the bill but I guess maybe his main focus is on getting people to come in support of bills when they come up for hearings.

What that means in this case is that while I reported that the Senate committee OKed it on February 7, I did not know that on February 13 the entire Senate passed it, sending it over to the House. Oops. Big omission.

So it came to committee hearing in the House Tuesday, March 12, where it was passed on an 8-3 vote, sending it to the House as a whole. Its fate on the House floor is beyond my ken. I have no idea how the other members feel about this. But this time I’ll be watching and when it gets scheduled for floor debate I plan to be there to hear what is said.

In Tuesday’s hearing the list of witnesses wishing to speak pro or con was largely the same as in the Senate hearing. Several Colorado law enforcement agencies expressed their strong opposition, as did one fellow who is both a rider coach and an accident investigator. ABATE of Colorado maintained its neutrality, although State Rep Larry Montgomery, in his remarks, seemed to me to be leaning pro in that he said ABATE sees both sides but ABATE is a motorcyclist rights organization that strongly adheres to the philosophy that the rider should be able to choose. You can’t legally choose to filter if filtering is not legal.

Speaking in favor again were Nick Sands, representing the American Motorcyclist Association, and other individuals, including Tiger Chandler, representing the Coalition of Independent Riders and the Colorado Confederation of Clubs.

Several of the representatives expressed concern and two indicated they will seek to have amendments made on the House floor to address their concerns.

In the most forceful statements offered, the rider coach/accident investigator, Ed Shoenhite argued that Colorado motorcyclists are more privileged than they deserve or need to be and that they’re doing a “terrible job of keeping themselves alive.” He said that making helmets mandatory would do more than anything else to cut motorcycle fatalities in the state.

Countering such statements in their summation, one of the bill’s sponsors, Javier Mabrey, pointed out that no one in the opposition had pointed to any data from other states where filtering is allowed that show an increase in crashes or fatalities. In fact, most such data show a decrease in these incidents.

So now we’ll see what the House as a whole does, and then, if it passes, whether the governor will sign it. Neither is a certainty.

Biker Quote for Today

“It’s about the time I was riding my motorcycle, going down a mountain road at 150 miles an hour, playing my guitar.” — Arlo Guthrie

If you want to support–or oppose–the bill currently in Colorado’s legislature that would legalize motorcycles filtering through traffic when traffic stopped, then get down to the Capitol on Tuesday at about 1:30 pm. I know I’ll be there.

Stump, the ABATE of Colorado legislative liaison, sent out the following action alert that I’ll just copy and paste in.

SB24-079 (Motorcycle Lane Filtering & Passing) has just been scheduled for a hearing with the House Transportation, Housing, and Local Government (H-THL) Committee for Tuesday, March 12th. It will be at 1:30 pm in room LSB-A (1st floor in the building across 14th St., south of the Capitol – you must enter through the basement). Below are the names and contact information for the members of the H-THL Committee. Please take a few minutes to voice your concerns about the bill. The latest version (reengrossed) of the bill can be read at http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb24-079.

Attendance at the hearing would show that ABATE is concerned with legislation affecting motorcyclists whether you personally are for or against the bill. If you plan on testifying, either in person or remotely, you must register on line before the hearing. Here is the link to register: https://www2.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2024A/commsumm.nsf/signIn.xsp. If this doesn’t work or for future reference, you can find this link at www.leg.colorado.gov. On the home page, cursor to “Committees”, then “Public Testimony Options” in the drop-down box. Easy-Peasy! The sign-up list is already available.

Froelich, Meg – 303-866-2921 – meg.froelich.house@coleg.gov
Lindsay, Mandy – 303-866-3911 – mandy.lindsay.house@coleg.gov
Boesenecker, Andrew – 303-866-2917 – andrew.boesenecker.house@coleg.gov
Catlin, Marc – 303-866-2955 – marc.catlin.house@coleg.gov
Frizell, Lisa – 303-866-2948 – lisa.frizell.house@coleg.gov
Jodeh, Iman – 303-866-2919 – Iman.Jodeh.house@coleg.gov
Mauro, Tisha – 303-866-2968 – tisha.mauro.house@coleg.gov
Parenti, Jennifer – 303-866-2924 – jennifer.parenti.house@coleg.gov
Valdez, Alex – 303-866-2925 – alex.valdez.house@coleg.gov
Vigil, Stephanie – 303-866-2937 – stephanie.vigil.house@coleg.gov
Wilson, Don – 303-866-2191 – don.wilson.house@coleg.gov

Thanks in advance for your participation in the legislative process.
Stump

As of today no hearing date has been set for SB24-065 (Mobile Electronic Devices While Driving). I’ll be putting that date up here when it has been set.

Biker Quote for Today

You might be a Yuppie biker if you have never kick started a bike before.

I saw an interesting chart the other day showing motorcycle ownership per person in each state. It’s not really information you can do much of anything with, it’s just interesting.

Colorado, for instance, ranks 14th with 173,120 bikes spread among 5,047,692 people. That comes out to one motorcycle for every 29 people. Of course, with people like me owning multiple bikes the actual number of motorcycle owners is necessarily lower. Still, the figures give you a general indication of the level of motorcycle interest per state. And it should not be a surprise that Colorado ranks high considering our weather and all the great places there are to ride in the state.

First on the list is South Dakota, with 69,284 bikes spread among 816,598 people, for a total of only 12 people per bike. It would be interesting to know how the bikes are concentrated across the state. Does the Sturgis area have, say, 3 people for each bike, while the eastern part of the state has something like 20 people per bike? There’s an awful lot of flat, wide-open country in South Dakota once you go east from the Black Hills.

At the other end of the listing, the District of Columbia has only 3,523 bikes for 604,912 people, leaving them with 172 people for every bike. I’m not at all sure how to interpret that. Is it just that a dense population with decent public transportation discourages people from owning their own vehicles? Who knows; surely I don’t.

In case you presume that more southerly states have more motorcycles simply because they have better weather for riding more of the year you would be wrong. The number 2 state with the most bikes per person is New Hampshire. There, they have 79,266 bikes amongst 1,316,807 people, for a ratio of one bike to 17 people. Is that related in some way to the Laconia Rally?

Filling out the top 10 are (rank, state, # of bikes, population, people per bike:
#3 Iowa: 173,929; 3,050,202; 18
#4 Wisconsin: 317,276; 5,691,659; 18
#5 Wyoming: 30,351; 564,554; 19
#6 North Dakota: 32,654; 674,629; 21
#7 Vermont: 30,070; 625,909; 21
#8 Montana: 46,996; 990,958; 21
#9 Minnesota: 240,288; 5,310,658; 22
#10 Alaska: 30,983; 714,146; 23

On the bottom end, leading to DC, we have these states:
#41 Kentucky: 98,475; 4,347,223; 44
#42 Hawaii: 30,098; 1,363,359; 45
#43 California: 801,803; 37,338,198; 47
#44 Utah: 59,355; 2,775,479; 47
#45 Maryland: 120,069; 5,785,681; 48
#46 Georgia: 199,586; 9,712,157; 49
#47 New York: 345,816; 19,395,206; 56
#48 Texas: 438,551; 25,253,466; 58
#49 Louisiana: 67,486; 4,545,343; 67
#50 Mississippi: 28,067; 2,970,072; 106

Does it surprise you to see states like Kentucky, California, Utah, Georgia and Texas so low in the ranking? I’d love to see some information explaining what factors lead to that result. I don’t think we’re likely to see that kind of info though so we’ll just take it for what it is.

Biker Quote for Today

A clean visor is a wonderful thing.

Judy and I had just finished eating lunch, after I had been out taking the Honda CB750 for a run. The phone rang and Paul on the other end said “I have your motorcycle bag. I picked it up off the road on Belleview.”

What!? Yes I had just been on Belleview but I ran out to the bike and the saddle bags were there. But Paul told me there were tools and other things in the bag and only then did I see that the bag that normally hangs off the back of the passenger rest was gone. Oh my gosh.

I took a quick look and saw that three of the zip ties that held the bag on had broken and the fourth had held, which meant that instead of breaking, the weight of the bag after the other three did break pulled the loop that all the zip ties were looped through right out of the bag. The zip tie and the loop were still there.

Of course that complicates putting the thing back on. If all four zip ties had broken I would just put it back on with four sturdier zip ties. Now I’m going to have to somehow get that loop stitched back into the bag.

How had this happened? In fact, I had just inspected the zip ties before I took the bike out and all looked fine. Those zip ties do break occasionally but I’ve never had more than one break at any time. I carry an extra one in that bag just for that purpose.

So I pondered all this as I headed over to Paul’s and once I had gotten it from him and was headed home it all started to gel. It was right about at the spot along Belleview where he found the bag that I had thought I hit one of the worst potholes ever, though I hadn’t noticed it riding along. Was it not that I hit a pothole, but that the bag fell off and its bouncing off the rear of the bike sent that jolt that I took to be a pothole?

Or did I perhaps in fact hit some really bad pothole and the force of the jolt momentarily lifted the bag up and then when it came down hard it managed to snap the zip ties all at once and then rip the fourth loop off?

I’m sure I’ll never know, but what a surprise. And thank you Paul for stopping to pick the bag up and looking inside to find my registration and then calling.

Biker Quote for Today

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.

One thing after another. I’m feeling now like my Concours is not even my bike any more and all I want is to be done with it. Anyone want a free motorcycle?

The bike has been over at Rowdy Rocket Garage since December 29. Every time I call and talk to Mark over there he tells me he’s hoping to get to it today or tomorrow. Every time. At the end of January I went over and took it out for a short ride just to get a January ride in on it. It’s now the end of February and I went over there on Wednesday to do the same thing. No dice.

First off, I pressed the starter button and nothing. The battery–a new battery–was dead from sitting there for two months. So Mark hooked a charger up to it and it started up but now it started emitting smoke. Not from the exhaust, from the engine. Mark said he could tell by the odor that it was oil, that there must be an oil leak dripping down onto the exhaust and burning. It should all burn off shortly.

After several minutes it was smoking just as much as ever. Looking in through the slots on the body work I could see where it was coming from, with big plumes of smoke rising up and dispersing and coming out everywhere. What the heck?

I’m not blaming Mark for this–the fact is he hasn’t worked on the bike. But it wasn’t doing this before. How does an oil leak just spontaneously happen?

So I did not take the Connie for a ride, so no February ride. So much for never missing a month over 25 years (other than two months off for heart surgery). At this point I just don’t care, I just want to be rid of the bike.

Of course now it’s up to Mark to finally get to it for the throttle issue I took it in for but now also to see what’s up with the oil leak. Presumably throwing good money after bad. Whatever I spend, if it finally gets the bike running well again, I’ll only turn around and put it up for sale for perhaps as much as I will have just spent.

Right now the $200 Vickery offered me for it back when I was lusting for that FJ-09 they had is looking pretty nice. How good hindsight is. I wish I’d taken them up on that.

Oh, and then, as if all this wasn’t enough to make my day less than wonderful, I got home and sat down to put all this into this blog post and could not get to the blog. All I got was a page with an error message, and I couldn’t even get it to see what the problem might be. I did get to Google Analytics, however, where I learned the blog and the mobile side of the site had both been down for two days. Great.

Nor, for some reason, could I get to my web host online, so I called. After working with three different techs they found the issues and got it all fixed and here I am writing this. What a freaking hassle!

Biker Quote for Today

I’d rather be splitting lanes.