Passes & Canyons Blog

I noted down the odometer readings on my vehicles on December 31 once I knew I wasn’t going anywhere else that day. Once again, as has been the case every year for quite a few years, I put a lot more miles on my three motorcycles than I did on my car. In fact, once again, I put more miles on one particular bike than I did on the car.

My mileage on the car was up about 500 miles last year, all the way to 3,062. That compares to 2,506 in 2022. But I put 3,940 miles on the V-Strom, which was 74 miles more than the previous year. That’s the third time the Suzuki has gone more miles than the car.

It used to be that the Concours was the bike that out-distanced the car, often by a heck of a lot. For instance, in 2010 the Concours to Elantra numbers were 10,004 and 5,581. In 2011 they were 6,875 and 3,556. In 2012 they were 9,437 and 5,061. But now apparently I ride the V-Strom more.

In fact, my Concours number was only 1,849 in 2023, compared to 2,354 in 2022. Part of that had to do with it being out of commission after overheating up by the Eisenhower Tunnel coming home from the OFMC trip. It was nearly two months before that bike was rideable again.

I know I’m not going to get big numbers on my CB750 so my target each year is to put at least 1,000 miles on it. Once again I was unsuccessful. I only racked up 672 miles on that bike in 2023, which was down from the 729 miles in 2022. I try to favor that bike for that very reason but I guess I just don’t do it enough. A new year’s resolution I’ll try once again to keep.

Altogether in 2023 I put 6,461 miles on my bikes. This is down a bit from the previous year, when I rode them 6,949. My total mileage on all four vehicles for 2023 was 9,523 compared to 9,455 in 2022. Are most people as consistent as I am?

Biker Quote for Today

Distance is just a number when you ride a bike.

Every year after the first of January I look at my mileage for the year just ended. I did pretty well in 2022; rode the motorcycles more and put exactly 12 more miles on my car than I did in 2021.

First the car, because that’s my primary basis of comparison. I drove my car all of 2,506 miles. I wasn’t far off that with the Concours and well beyond it on the V-Strom. Nowhere close with the Honda, though.

The Honda only got ridden 729 in 2022. That’s down from 1,086 the year before. Which is a bit surprising to me considering that I thought I was trying to make a deliberate point of riding it regularly. Oh well, I’ll do better in 2023. And I’m also going to put some money into some work this good old bike is in need of.

The Concours had a better year than the CB750: 2,354 miles. That is up from 2,002 miles in 2021 and, as I said, almost as much as the car. Just 152 miles shy of the car. The Kawi got to go on the OFMC trip so it got a lot of miles off that one.

The champion this time around was the V-Strom. I rode that bike 3,866 miles in 2022. It got to go on the RMMRC Great River Road Ride and that was a good long jaunt. I hadn’t planned it that way. I was going to ride the Concours but had to make a last minute change when I discovered the valve stem on one of its tires was totally rotted away. It’s good to have more than one motorcycle.

Altogether that adds up 6,949 miles on motorcycles in 2022, versus 2,506 in my car. I may not put really big miles on any of my vehicles the way a lot of people do but by gosh, I do most of my getting around on the bikes. I kind of like it that way.

Biker Quote for Today

I love being on my bike, but I don’t consider that a sport: it’s too pleasant.

I always tally up the miles I’ve put on my bikes and car at the end of the year and for the seventh year in a row I put more miles on the bikes than on the car. Not that I put all that many miles on anything this past year.

My total mileage for 2021 on the bikes was 5,419. That breaks down to 1,086 for the Honda CB750, 2,002 for the Kawasaki Concours, and 2,331 for the Suzuki V-Strom. My Hyundai Elantra only got driven a total of 2,494 miles in the year. Can you say “home body”?

I know most of this is due to Covid but it’s funny because I don’t feel like I’ve been all that restricted. Life has really been pretty much normal, with the exception that Judy and I haven’t taken a lot of trips.

Not that we haven’t traveled. We did fly to Kansas City, where we rented a car and drove around in the Midwest. That was a really nice trip. But we didn’t go camping once all year, and we usually go several times. With everyone suffering cabin fever the campgrounds have been swarming and getting a campsite reservation is tough.

And while that was Judy’s only trip for the year, I went on two motorcycle trips, with the OFMC and the RMMRC, and I also went yurt camping with the guys out at Ridgway State Park. It used to be you could go somewhere and rent a cabin but I guess now the big thing is yurts. They have to be cheaper to build so I’m guessing that’s why, but it’s pretty much the same thing.

The main point is that I haven’t exactly been stuck at home. And I did put more miles on the Honda this year than last, and more miles on the car, too. More than twice as many miles on the Suzuki, but fewer on the Kawasaki. And more miles overall on the bikes than the previous year.

So I’d largely call it a good year. Still, I’m hoping 2022 will be better. And I hope it is for you, too.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if there are no wrinkled, faded, creased, or scratched areas on your leathers.

It’s December 31 right now so it could be a tiny bit early to lock in my 2020 mileage but it’s unlikely I’ll be going anywhere today, so here goes.

Every year I tally up the miles I put on each of my three motorcycles and on my car. Once again, as has been the case for a long time, I put more miles on the bikes than I did on the car.

Obviously this has been an unusual year and my car mileage really shows it. I only drove my car 1,979 miles in 2020. That’s amazing. In comparison, I rode the Concours alone for 2,977 miles. I also put 1,026 on the CB750 and 1,046 on the V-Strom. That’s a total of 5,049 miles on the bikes–more than two and one-half times the miles I put on the car.

While 5,049 miles on the bikes may not seem like much it is in fact more than I did the previous year. In 2019 I only rode 4,777 miles. In last year’s post where I tallied all this I set a goal for myself to ride 10,000 miles. Clearly that didn’t happen. Pretty much nobody got out and around as much as they had planned to in 2020, and I’m certainly no exception.

The one really big difference this year is that for the first time since 2010 I rode the Honda more than 1,000 miles. This was not an accident or by chance. I’ve mostly neglected that bike for a long time and I told myself in 2020 I was going to make a point to ride it more. I guess I succeeded on that goal.

So what goals to set for 2021? That’s easy. Ride a lot more. And with vaccines on the way that should be an easy goal to meet. The RMMRC had what looked like a terrific ride set up, up the Great River Road from St. Charles, MO, to the source of the Mississippi in Minnesota. That ride didn’t happen in 2020 but it is now planned for 2021. I definitely intend to go on that one.

The OFMC did take its trip in 2020 and I’m now planning the 2021 trip. And maybe 2021 will be the year I finally do the article I proposed to Rider magazine three years ago. I’m sure Mark Tuttle has forgotten I ever pitched that story to him but I’m confident he’ll accept it if I ever get it to him. But first I have to do the ride.

So here’s looking to 2021 to be a much better year. And let’s hit that 10,000 mark this time.

Biker Quote for Today

Some bikers never realize how anti-social they are until there’s a pandemic and their life doesn’t really change that much.

I make note of my odometer readings on all three bikes and my car at the end of the year and once again I put more miles on my bikes than I did on my car. It has been quite awhile, actually, since the last time I put more miles on the car than on the bikes. I try to ensure that the bikes get the bulk of the miles.

That said, my mileage overall for the year was down. In 2018 my total mileage was 10,158 (7,230 motorcycle miles); in 2019 it was 8,011 (4,777 motorcycle miles). I guess I just don’t leave the house as much as I used to. Still, that was 4,777 miles on the bikes versus only 3,234 miles in the car. But there have been years when I’ve put more miles on the Kawi alone than I put on all my vehicles last year.

So which one got the most riding? Once again it was the V-Strom. This has totally to do with tires. I was getting set to go on the OFMC ride last year and looking at the tires on the Kawi I was not confident. I wanted to take the Kawi but the tread was getting thin. But it was not thin enough for me to want to get new tires yet. I briefly considered taking the CB750 but it has the least luggage capacity so I took the V-Strom.

All told, I put 3,494 miles on the V. That compares to 2,425 the year before.

The Concours was the one that really got short shrift last year. That wonderful highway bike was only ridden for 688 miles, versus 4,336 the previous year. That has got to be the least it has ever had. (Nope, I checked my records and I only rode it 666 miles in 2013.) I want to ride it on the OFMC trip this year so I’ll make sure to wear out those tires and get new ones before that trip comes around.

In last place as always is the CB750. I only put 595 miles on it last year. But that’s up from 469 miles the previous year. I made a special point of riding that bike more.

So what am I looking for in 2020? By golly, I will put more miles on all three bikes, I swear. And if I can put fewer miles on my car that will just be a bonus. In particular I want to put more than 1,000 miles on the Honda in one year, something I haven’t done since 2009. That used to be my only bike and it always got lots of miles.

And let’s see if I can exceed 10,000 motorcycle miles this year. You know what they say about a dirty job that someone has to do. Well, I’m more than willing to do the dirty work.

Biker Quote for Today

The cost of not following your heart is spending the rest of your life wishing you had.

Once again last year my motorcycle mileage totally kicked the butt of my car mileage. I only drove my car 2,928 miles, while I put 7,230 miles on my three bikes. Heck, I put more miles on the Concours in one trip than I did on the car the whole year. In comparison, I put 5,043 miles on the bikes in 2017 and 3,004 on the car.

The lowest mileage–as usual–was on the Honda. That was just 469 miles, compared to 713 the year before. Every year I promise myself I will ride the Honda more and every year I prove myself a liar. Maybe this time at least I can claim that, “Oh, I would have ridden the Honda more if I weren’t off the bikes for two months due to heart surgery.” And that’s certainly true because minus the surgery I would have ridden the Honda in both those months at least a few miles. But that’s still not much of an excuse.

The V-Strom got quite a bit more riding. We went 2,425 miles together and that compares very favorably to the year before when we only went 1,588 miles.

The big boy, also as usual, was the Connie. I put 4,336 miles on that bike; the 2017 total was only 2,742. So once again, that one trip to British Columbia put more miles on this bike than it got all of the previous year.

In other words, if you really want to put some miles on your bike it pays big time to go somewhere–somewhere far away.

So what’s on the agenda for 2019? Of course the OFMC ride will happen, and that looks to be about 2,300 miles. And once again we’re hoping to join members of the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club on one of their long trips, but that will all be determined by timing and conflicts.

And I’m not planning to be off the bikes for two months due to surgery. Of course I wasn’t planning that last year either but it happened. On the other hand, if I hadn’t had that surgery I might easily not be alive this year to do any riding at all.

Beyond all this we’ll just have to see. I do have an idea, however, that I might get out on at least a couple longer solo rides. You see, Judy is very preoccupied at this point and for the forseeable future playing grandma to her new–and first!–grandchild. There may just be times when I tell her I’m figuring to head out for a few days. I don’t want to leave her behind if she’s interested in going but if it’s a choice between Jack and a ride, I’m figuring she’ll choose Jack. Or I could be wrong; we’ll see.

Biker Quote for Today

Time on a motorcycle is unlike time spent anywhere else. There are moments lost in the landscape, seconds devoted solely to balance, and long stretches spent spiraling inward. — Barbara Schoichet

I’m not one for patches; I don’t have a riding vest covered with those things the way a lot of people do. And I don’t care about reaching artificial goals just for the bragging rights. Nevertheless, I do like events and programs of that sort for their ability to give me ideas about riding I might like to do.

In this case I’m thinking about the LongRider program organized by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA).

Here’s how they describe it:

The AMA LongRider program is your chance to show others that you’re serious about riding your motorcycle. AMA members are invited to earn patches for various mileage milestones.

Mileage awards are available at 10,000, 25,000 and 50,000 annual miles. In addition to the awards, AMA LongRiders will be recognized on the AMA website.

If you don’t get a chance to ride that often, let your miles accumulate for a Lifetime Mileage award at 25,000, 50,000, 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, 750,000 and 1 million miles. Riders who achieve 1 million miles will earn a special AMA LongRider plaque.

OK, so this thing doesn’t actually offer ideas about where to ride so much as an incentive to get in some extra miles. There have been a couple years when I could have earned a 10,000-mile patch, and certainly I would now be holding some of the lower lifetime mileage awards. Shooting for that 250,000-mile award would definitely demand that I get serious. Please don’t throw me in that briar patch!

The AMA has rules about participating, such as AMA membership, registering for the program, and abiding by their verification rules. All that info is on that page linked above. And heck, for me, I make note of my mileage every January 1 anyway. All I’d need to do is sign up and register my current mileage.

Maybe I will. As I said, I’m not big into patches and such but it’s still kind of a fun idea to do an I’ll-show-you-mine-if-you-show-me-yours thing. I know lots of riders will outdistance me by many miles but I don’t care. Just something to think about.

Biker Quote for Today

You’re a biker wannabe if you carry a lap-top in your saddle bags. (Hey, I do carry a lap-top. I don’t always agree with these quotes, I just collect them and put them out there.)