Passes & Canyons Blog

If you read Rider magazine you may have gotten a bit of a shock when you opened the latest issue (March 2011) that arrived this past week: There’s a picture of me in it, and it ain’t pretty.

You can see it in this section of one page that I scanned and have included here. That’s me and Klaus Herder, who is with Motorrad magazine, at dinner on the last night of the EagleRider media tour we went on in October out in California.

We were sitting across the table from Donya Carlson, who is an editor at Rider, and who had been on the tour as well. She shot this picture and later sent it to me, with no hint that she actually planned to use it with her article. What a surprise when I saw the article!

Of course, we both made it into another picture as well, because it’s a group shot and we’re all in it. And then there’s the matter of one of my pictures also being used in the article. The day we rode along Big Sur I went ahead and waited for others in the group to come along so I could get pictures. I was waiting on the far side of a bridge and Donya came along with Simon Weir, who writes for RiDE magazine in England. I got a good shot of them on the bridge and sent it to both of them later. Donya contacted me to ask if they could use it with her article, so at least I knew about this one.

So anyway, it’s a silly picture of us but that’s OK. Everybody gets a laugh. And thank you, Donya, for the fun. Not to mention the opportunity to get published in a major national magazine. I usually pass my magazines along to my friends after I read them but in this case they’re going to have to buy their own copies–I’m hanging on to this one.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Delay of lead law enforcement gives kids’ bikes a breather

Biker Quote for Today

You want me to go where??? On that???? OOOOKKKKKAAAYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let’s see. If you had the chance to ride motorcycles through places like Big Sur and Yosemite, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and spend your nights in fancy hotels and eat in fancy restaurants, would you decline the offer? Me neither.

I got home last night from six days in California where I did all those things, courtesy of EagleRider, the largest motorcycle rental outfit in North America and purveyor of motorcycle tours. I was one of 18 writers and photographers invited on this media tour and I’ve got to tell you, we had a blast. Here’s a brief recap.

We arrived in Los Angeles and spent the night at Erwin’s in Venice Beach. Starting off the next morning, we rode up the coast and stopped for the night at the Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. The Madonna Inn, for those like I was who are totally unfamiliar, is a very ornate, totally unique place. Every one of their rooms is decorated differently and many are pretty darn exotic. You can get a feel for it from their website.

The next day we continued up the coast, riding through Big Sur to our stopping point in Carmel. The last time I had been to Big Sur was about 1969 or 1970 so this might as well have been my first time. As everyone who has ever ridden it can attest, it’s always a balance between trying to look around you and trying not to run off the road on the bike. Prudence prevailed and none of us suffered any mishaps. I do know I stopped a lot. A lot.

On Day Three we headed inland to Yosemite National Park. Whereas we had had overcast and drizzle the previous days, this was the day when we had actual rain. Cold rain. Now, I wrote an article a couple years ago telling people to take their own gear along when they’re renting a motorcycle, because what you get from the company may not be very adequate, but I disregarded my own advice here. I couldn’t see any way to get my full-face helmet in my gear so I didn’t take it. That left me riding in the rain with a half helmet. Did I mention it was cold rain?

Fortunately it really wasn’t as unpleasant as I recall my previous such experience being, but in the future I will find a way to take my own helmet.

Anyway, we rode on into the park and enjoyed the scenery a bit. It was cloudy and rainy but that made for some more dramatic photos than what you would have gotten on a sunny day. That photo above is of part of the group getting posed for a picture on an overlook, with El Capitan in the background.

The next day we headed for San Francisco, looping around the bay on the east so we could cross over to Marin County on the San Rafael bridge and enter the city across the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we turned in the bikes, rode limos to our hotel on Fisherman’s Wharf, had dinner, said farewells to some folks, had brunch the next morning and then all dispersed.

The People
So that’s the ride itself in brief. What that doesn’t address is the people, and the people were every bit as important in this being the great trip it was as the riding. I can’t talk about everyone here unless you want to read another 3,000 words, so I’ll skim.

John Campbell is editor of Canadian Biker Magazine, and a heck of a nice guy. Great sense of humor, very dry.

Donya Carlson is senior managing editor of Rider magazine. I have read her stuff for years so it was good to meet her. Super nice person.

Simon Weir is deputy editor for RiDe magazine in the UK. A lot of fun to hang around with.

Chris McIntyre is president of EagleRider. What an enthusiastic guy! He loves what he’s doing and it spreads easily to others on the staff.

Gunter Kykillus is EagleRider’s main man in the German-speaking countries of Europe. This guy never stops smiling. Big, big smile. He clearly loves what he’s doing, too.

I really feel like I ought to name a whole bunch of other people, so please don’t anyone be hurt that I didn’t mention you. I just know there are limits to how much people will read.

So anyway, we all understand that EagleRider put this whole thing together because they wanted to generate a whole lot of favorable publicity. Nevertheless, if it had been bungled badly I know we all would be saying so in our reports. But there was no bungling, the whole thing was well done, and we will all be writing very positive stories for the very simple reason that we all had a fabulous time. I consider that a pretty high recommendation. Thanks guys.

Biker Quote for Today

On a motorcycle, you’re penetrating distance right along with the machine. In a car, you’re just a spectator; the windshield’s like a TV. — Von Dutch

I mentioned previously that I had been invited to go on a four-day tour through the beauties of California with a group put together by EagleRider. Well, I flew to Los Angeles this morning and we hit the road tomorrow.

Tonight we’re in Venice Beach, at the Erwin Hotel. I don’t know a lot about this hotel but it’s supposed to be a classy joint. What I do know is that we’re on the sixth floor with balconies overlooking the boardwalk and the ocean. Too bad the fog hasn’t burned off today, as everyone was saying it would, because the sunset would probably be pretty spectacular but that doesn’t seem likely under the circumstances.

So anyway, I’ve ended up riding a Harley Heritage Softail, which seems to fit me pretty well. I had fears that the bike I ended up with might not be a good fit because I have short legs. Most of the Harleys I’ve ridden I’ve had an uncomfortable reach to the foot controls, but on this one it’s not a problem. It’s going to be very interesting to finally get some serious seat time on a Harley. I’ve never ridden any of them very much before.

So far I’ve met just a couple of the other writers on this ride, Natasha Dragun from Australia and Frederic Bagur (I think!) from Paris. The only person whose name I recognize is Donya Carlson, who writes for Rider magazine. Haven’t met her yet.

This is going to be an exotic few days, what with all the fancy places we’ll be staying and eating. I’m not normally a fancy-place sort of guy but I’ll do my best to make an exception this time. You can bet I’ll tell you all about it. Heck, maybe I’ll even try selling a story drawn from this trip to a travel magazine for a change, as opposed to a motorcycle magazine. We’ll see.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Setting out on a “Tour of a lifetime”

Biker Quote for Today

Never look where you are going, always look where you want to go.

Some guys have all the luck, and this time around I guess I’m one of them. I’ve been invited by EagleRider to come along on “The Tour of a Lifetime” that they are putting on for moto-journalists and, dirty jobs department, I said yes. Someone had to, you know.

EagleRider, by the way, in case you aren’t aware, is the biggest motorcycle rental outfit around, and they also do tours. You can bet they’re looking for some great publicity to come out of this and I have to tell you, unless they flub it pretty badly, which I don’t expect them to do, they’ll be getting plenty of that from me. I’ll be writing about the ride here, on Examiner.com, and on RumBum.com, so with me they’re getting three birds with one stone.

We’ll be flying into Los Angeles on Oct. 14 to get acquainted and set up, then on Oct. 15 we’ll take off on a four-day ride to San Francisco. Considering that you can do that trip in one day, that’s a pretty good indication that this is going to be a leisurely trip with “touring” being the operative word. We’ll visit the wine country, the Hearst Castle, Yosemite, and more. And yeah, you bet, I’m itching to go.

So this is just a teaser. I’ll have a LOT more to tell you once we get underway. Stay tuned.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Congressmen challenge motorcycle-only checkpoints

Biker Quote for Today

Dance like there’s no one watching, sing like no one is listening, love like you’ll never get hurt, and ride like there’s no tomorrow.