Passes & Canyons Blog

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.

A bike from the 2013 Motorcycle Cannonball.

Can someone please clone me? I don’t know how many times I’ve said here that I’m going to do something or be at some event only to have those plans fall through because I have a conflict. Here we go again.

As I announced way back in April, the fifth annual Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Run is coming through Colorado this weekend and while I want like the dickens to go see this rolling museum, I’ll be out of town. But that doesn’t mean you should miss it.

To recap, this thing is a ride from the East Coast to the West Coast on motorcycles that were built in 1937 or earlier. They’ll be stopping at the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum in Colorado Springs mid-day on Sunday and then will come to Golden for the night. Either would be a great place to catch the scene.

A Conversation

On a totally different note, I had an interesting ride to work the other day. I head east on Hampden (US 285) and just keep going when it turns into highway, getting off at Kipling.

Shortly after crossing I-25 I picked up someone on two wheels behind me, and when we came to a traffic signal at Dahlia this scooter pulled in alongside me and a little back. I turned and said hello and we chatted a bit while the light was red, then took off again.

We got stopped again at Colorado and chatted some more. It was a People brand scooter, a GTi300 and I asked if the 300 meant it was 300cc. He said it did. Does the i mean it is fuel-injected? Yes. Cool. So it goes pretty fast? Yes.

We cruised on and as we passed a street that turns into one of the ritzy developments on the south side of Hampden we saw a bunch of police cars and a motorcycle lying on its side with broken pieces all around on the ground. Not pretty at all. When we stopped for the red light at University (we caught all of them) we both shook our heads and shuddered at what we had seen. No blood and gore, no broken bodies–those apparently were already off to the hospital–but no one who rides likes seeing something like that.

At the next stop we talked our plans for the day. I was going to work. He was meeting some folks at a gas station in Lakewood and they were riding to the top of Mount Evans. Boy, did I want to come along with him.

But I didn’t. At Kipling I turned north and he blasted on past. And now it’s too late to go up Mount Evans any more this year. They just closed the road for the winter on Tuesday. Next year . . .

Biker Quote for Today

I rarely think of motorcycles without a little yearning. They are about moving, and humans, I think, yearn to move – it’s in our cells, in our desires. We quiet our babies with cyclic movement, and we quiet ourselves by going. — Melissa Holbrook Pierson (I think)

The Motorcycle Cannonball logo.

It was such a hit as a one-off idea that it has become a yearly event. This is the Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Run, a coast-to-coast ride that is restricted to bikes that were built in 1936 or earlier, which is to say, that are at least 78 years old. This is an event you’re going to want to turn out for just to see all this old iron actually out running.

The riders will be crossing Colorado on their way west from September 13 through September 16.

I heard about this thanks to Gary Wright, from Falcon, who will be one of the riders. If you see someone with the #57 that will be him.

I’ll let Gary give you some of the details.

it’s the 2014 Cannonball Endurance Run. being the third one ran. over 100 Pre 1937 motorcycles (78 to 102 year old bikes) with riders from 11 different countries in a coast to coast timed endurance run from Florida to Washington this coming Sept.. Sept 5th. threw 21st.. it enters Colorado on the afternoon of Sept. 13th in Burlington Colo.. leaves early am 14th., makes its way to a mid day stop in Colo. Springs at the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum then ends its day in Golden Colo.. early morning (15th.) leaves Golden Colo. crossing the Continental Divide Three Times before that days end in Grand Junction Colo.. leaving the state early morn of Sept. 16th 2014. there may be folks interested in seeing this moving museum?

No one is claiming that these bikes are all stock; being that old that would be pretty much impossible. However, “The bike must be powered by an original engine. Many things could be changed on a machine, and updates made for safety sake, but the core of the machine must be 1936 or earlier.”

Brakes are one thing that not only can be changed, but which you are encouraged to upgrade. “We are all aware that 100 years ago brakes were not that good. If in any way you can improve your braking ability, to the point of even adding a front brake, then it is highly recommended.”

This ride started in 2010, so this will be the fifth year.

Gary will be on his 1930 Indian Chief. Scanning the list of riders it looks like most of the bikes will be Indians, Harleys, and Henderson, with a reasonable number of BMWs mixed in and a lot of onesies: a 1929 BSA Sloper, a 1931 Sunbeam M9, a 1928 Velocette, a 1935 Sokol 1000, a 1923 Neracar, and a few others.

A particularly interesting rider is Claudia Ganzaroli, #105, who will be shipping her 1928 Moto Frera from Italy, where she lives. And she’s not the only one coming from another country. These folks are out for an adventure!

I’m looking forward to this. They’ll be coming through on a weekend so there’s no reason in the world why everyone close by shouldn’t come out to see this rolling museum. It’s gonna be great.

Biker Quote for Today

The older I get, the faster I used to be.

A BSA that rode in the 2012 Motorcycle Cannonball Run.

This presentation on the 2012 Motorcycle Cannonball Run could have been better if the acoustics had been better. I mentioned to the guys afterward that I only heard about half of what was said, and Dan replied that I had done about 10 times better than he did. That’s too bad, because what I did hear was pretty interesting.

This thing was held up in Frederick at High Country Harley-Davidson, and there was a reason for that: Michael Lichter, the photographer who rode the entire ride sitting backward, was on a bike under the command of Dave Przygocki, whose card says he holds the title of Cycle Therapist and Sales Manager at High Country H-D. Lichter and Przygocki both shared in the telling, as did several others on hand who had made the ride.

Route guidance on this thing was pretty interesting for starters. Each bike had a scrolling sheet that the rider had to advance, telling them things like, “go 6 miles and turn left at the gas station.” One of the speakers–I forget who–told how there were times when he wondered if he had missed a turn, but would pull in to a gas station and see the oily drips and other detritus of this band of ancient motorcycles and be reassured he was on the right route.

And can you imagine riding 3,000 miles on a bike that is 75 years old? Those things broke down a lot when they were new; what do you thing they do now? There were tales of splitting the crankcase and doing entire engine rebuilds overnight, and we’re not talking about just one or two such instances. Another speaker noted that they had left a trail of irreplaceable parts across the country. You know, they’d be riding along and something would fall off, never to be found. Then the rider had to compensate in some way. Sometimes they had spares; other times they jury-rigged.

While some of the riders took advantage of modern riding gear, others went all the way and wore the kind of things that were available way back then. Things such as leather helmets.

Then there was the 5-foot, 1-inch woman whose bike had to be push started–that was how it worked when it was new. So she push started this bike the entire way across the U.S.

There was a lot more. You should have been there, if you weren’t. And there were a bunch of people there. I saw Linda and Russ McCartney, of Thunder Roads Colorado; Jerry Pokorny of the British Motorcycle Association of Colorado; and Todd Wallace, also of the BMAC and a restorer of old bikes. Alan ran into the guy he bought his current Harley from. It was old home week.

The word is that the next Cannonball should be in 2014. Just in case you want to join in.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Butler Maps goes east to the Ozarks

Biker Quote for Today

It takes less time to do things the hard way than to be too nervous to even start at all.