Passes & Canyons Blog

This was a good trip a few years ago. I shot photos of where I was every 100 miles and this was the last 100-mile stop on the trip. Burned a lot of dinosaurs.

“My goal is to see how many gallons of dead dinosaurs I can send through my bike.”

I used that for a “Biker Quote for Today” several years ago and you know, it really rings true. I pride myself on putting as few miles as possible on my car each year, but then I turn around and pride myself equally on how many miles I can put on my bikes.

Let’s keep this in perspective, of course. For my friend Dan, who is an Iron Butt guy, hitting only 30,000 miles in a year is an off year. For me, a really, really good year is in excess of 10,000. I’m probably looking at something between 6,000 and 7,000 this year. And when you consider that I’ll probably only put about 6,000 miles on my car this year, that’s not bad. As far as I’m concerned, any year where I put more miles on my bikes than on my car is a good year.

So the end of the year is not far off now and as always I’m identifying some goals that I may not achieve but that I want to at least shoot for. Some are fairly arbitrary: get each bike up to the next 1,000 on the odometer by year’s end. This year, however, that’s going to take some doing. The Honda right now is in the 100s, while both the Kawi and Suzuki are in the 200s. That’s a good bit of riding when you’re not going on any trips soon.

Now, I am going to be taking the Honda up to Boulder on Saturday, and that will be about 100 miles altogether. But most of the simple riding around that I do is a lot shorter: go to the dentist–18 miles; go to the bank–3 miles; go to the wine story–19 miles; run to the grocery store–4 miles. Those kinds of trips don’t add up very quickly. When I just go out for a cruise on a nice day those rides generally run between 25 and 75 miles. It will take a lot of those to get to the next thousand on any of the bikes.

And then there’s riding to work. Yeah, I know I said I had ridden to work for the last time but maybe that’s not the case. The National Park Service has asked me to come back on an emergency, 60-day basis. The emergency is that they have a little more than 400 of these foundation documents to get completed and the deadline is past the 75 percent point but the work is only around the 65 percent point. “Can you help us catch up?”

So I said yes, and I’ll try to get in as many days riding to work as I can. It’s a 35-mile round trip. But this also means these are days when I can’t just go out for a cruise.

Whatever. It’s no big deal if I don’t turn over the next thousand on any of the bikes. The point is to ride as much as possible. I just want to maximize dinosaurs.

Biker Quote for Today

Reason takes a holiday as Dr. Horrible spends money he doesn’t have, on a motorcycle he doesn’t need, in a misguided attempt to recapture his youth which, upon reflection, wasn’t all that great in the first place.

Having three bikes reduces the number of miles you put on any one bike.

My mileage numbers were up on all three bikes in 2014, so that’s the good news (at least as far as I’m concerned). And down on the car. I would have liked the numbers to go further in each direction but at least they moved in the right directions.

The Honda was up the most percentagewise, although it had the lowest base to start from. I rode it 712 miles last year, compared to a paltry 327 miles in 2013. That’s the thing with having three motorcycles: time spent on one is often time not spent on another.

The Concours numbers were still a tiny fraction of what they had been the four years I spent freelancing full-time, but at least I put in more than 1,000 miles on it, which I had not in 2013. Total miles for 2014 were 1,037, compared to a piddling 666 in 2013. Compare that to the 9,437 I put on the Connie in 2012. I’ll point out though that I took the Suzuki on the OFMC trips in 2013 and in 2014, so that reduced the Kawi numbers substantially. The Connie is the bike I normally like to take on that trip.

And how did the Suzuki do? It rang up 2,596 miles compared to 2,294 the previous year. So that was respectable.

Meanwhile, I only put 7,558 miles on my car, compared to 10,109 in 2013. Match that with the total of 4,345 for the three bikes versus 3,287 the year before and you get more than 1,000 more miles on the bikes and about 2,500 fewer car miles. I’ll take that.

The difference this year had an awful lot to do with the fact that I just simply rode to work more often in 2014 than I did in 2013. I also went to work less, having cut back from five days a week to four days a week in about June. And I still ride the light rail to work a couple days most weeks.

I’m looking for things to change seriously in 2015. My job at the National Park Service will be drawing to a close around the first of May and I just don’t see any way in the world that I’m not going to ride a heck of a lot more and drive my car a whole lot less. Plus, the OFMC is looking at taking several trips this summer instead of the usual one.

I have a strong expectation that 2015 is going to be one heck of a good motorcycling year. Bring it on!

Biker Quote for Today

I’d rather be a rider for a minute, than a spectator for a lifetime.

The riding champion for 2013.

OK, this is embarrassing. While it’s not yet January 1, I’ve gone ahead and checked my riding mileage for 2013. I’m pretty confident I won’t be getting out on any bike in the next day. And the numbers are sad.

Last year, 2012, I rode my Concours alone almost 10,000 miles. In 2013 I only hit a total on all three bikes of 3,287. Yeah, I’m embarrassed.

For the Honda it was a piddling 327 miles. At least in 2012 I rode that bike 504 miles–not a lot, but a good bit more than 327. Of course, having a third bike means less mileage on the other two, for the most part.

The Concours really shows the drop. Hitting 9,437 in 2012, this dropped to only 666 miles in 2013. When I first figured that total I thought I must have read the odometer wrong and went out for another look, because I knew we rode further than that on the OFMC trip alone. But then I remembered I took the Suzuki on that trip. So yes, a scant 666 miles on the Connie. Ouch.

The champion for the year was the new bike, pretty much because of the OFMC trip. I rode the V-Strom 2,294 miles in 2013. And altogether, that comes to just 3,287 miles on the three bikes.

In comparison, I have so far this year–and the year isn’t quite up yet–put 10,077 on my car. That compares to just 5,061 in 2012 and 3,556 the year before. In those years I was putting double the miles on the Concours that I did on my car. Not this year. That’s what having a full-time job will do.

It would not be an impolite question to ask why, if I only rode that much, I think it necessary to have three motorcycles. I could–and will–offer the response of, “wait till next year.” I swear all those numbers will be higher next year. But when it comes to the Honda I’m feeling pretty conflicted. That is my first bike. Unlike nearly everyone else, I still own my very first bike. I’ve had it for a long, long time. And I love that bike. Nevertheless, if I didn’t have it I wouldn’t go out and buy it. I would feel the other two are plenty for all occasions. Plus, ever since I started riding the Suzuki, whenever I get on the Honda it feels old and slow. And so for the first time I’ve started at least thinking about letting it go.

It’s certainly not a money consideration. I’d be doing well to get $600 for the Honda, while insurance and registration only cost me about $150 total per year. Pretty small numbers on both sides of the calculation.

No, it’s just sentiment. So here’s what I’m telling myself: I won’t have any trouble justifying keeping all these bikes if I get out and ride each of them a lot each year. So what I have got to do is get out and ride each of them a lot. It’s a dirty job, and only I can do it. I accept this job. Now I just have to live up to my commitment.

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcyclist prayer: Oh lord if I die, please don’t let my wife sell my bikes for what I told her they cost.

My Connie at the Mackinac Bridge, one of the farther points I reached this year.

I thought for sure I had set a personal record in 2012 for miles on a motorcycle in a year but I was wrong. Not by much, but I guess I did a bit more riding in 2010 than I remembered.

My total on the Concours was 9,437. That compares to 6,875 in 2011, but in 2010 I rode that bike 10,004 miles. I know that’s nothing for you Iron Butt guys but I’m not an Iron Butt guy, so that’s a lot for me.

As seems my norm, I put a scant 504 miles on my CB750 Custom in 2012. That means that bike has just over 85,000 miles on it, though the odometer only shows 29,774. That’s because I had to replace the old one this year when it broke and the salvage item I picked up came with 29,375 on it.

This all still stands up well against my car. I only put 5,081 miles on my car in 2012, and that’s even with having started a job on the other side of town. And my motorcycle miles still came out almost double my car miles. I’m sure that car mileage will go up in 2013, but once the new west light rail line opens in April I plan to take the train to work, so that will have a counter effect.

In the meantime, I’m sure my motorcycle miles will be way down this year. Having a regular type office job will do that to you. Oh well, I do like the paycheck.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
A motorcycling year in pictures – 2012

Biker Quote for Today

Speed has never killed anyone – suddenly becoming stationary, that’s what gets you. — Jeremy Clarkson

For the second year in a row I put more than twice as many miles on my motorcycles as I did on my car. And on this gorgeous January day I was out doing what I can to make that happen again in 2012. What a fabulous day to be out on a motorcycle! And I saw a lot of guys out there, too. At one point there were four of us going three ways at an intersection. You’ve got to love Colorado.

On the Kawi in 2011 I rode a total of 6,875 miles. That’s actually down from 2010, when I put 10,004 miles on the bike. I also rode the Honda 506 miles, which gives a total of 7,381 on the bikes. The total on my car was just 3,556. Working at home has a way of reducing the miles you put on any and all of your vehicles. Have I ever remarked on how much I love not having to commute to work?

Of course, these figures don’t include things like the miles I put on the rented Harley up in British Columbia, but they also don’t include the miles we put on the rental car we had either. Nor does it include the miles I cover in my wife’s car when she and I go somewhere together in it. I just keep it simple by considering only my own vehicles. Doing anything else would be too much brain damage.

If my plans work the way I hope, I do expect to get a lot more miles on the Kawi this year. I mentioned previously that I’m hoping to make it out to Ohio for the AMA’s Vintage Motorcycle Days, and if I do, that trip should put as many as 3,000 miles on the bike, depending on which side trips I take along the way.

So here’s to a great year of riding in 2012. Just ride the thing!

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Noise–and lights–that might really save lives

Biker Quote for Today

The life of a vagabond isn’t always riding, sometimes you have to stop & pose for pictures with the natives. It’s not much fun, but how could I disappoint these poor Kazakh girls? — rtwdoug

For the first time in more than 20 years on motorcycles I rode more miles than I drove last year. In fact, nearly double. I’m pretty amazed.

Every year on January 1 I check my odometers on all my vehicles to see how many miles I covered on each. This year I rode my Kawasaki Concours 10,004 miles. Not surprisingly, that’s also the first time I’ve ridden more than 10,000 miles on a bike in a year. In 2009 I rode the Kawi 5,016 miles.

My car, on the other hand, racked up only 5,581 miles. That compares with 8,660 miles in 2009.

I didn’t do much on my Honda CB750 Custom, partly because it spent too much of the year in the shop. Mileage for 2010 was only 662 miles, compared to 1,037 the year before.

Altogether that puts my bike mileage at 10,666 or a bit less than double the car. Double the car would be 11,162, so that’s about 500 shy.

I’m happy to say that a lot of those miles came from the fact that I took a lot more trips this past year. I went out to the Laughlin River Run, I went to the Sturgis Rally, and of course I went on the annual OFMC trip.

But all those miles also mean I rode more at home. I made it a point to use the bikes for transportation as much as possible, even when it would have been more convenient to drive my car. And I’ll continue doing that, too. I like being on the bike more. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Riding the dang thing!?

Oh, and by the way, those figures actually don’t even represent all the miles I rode this past year. They do not include the four days I spent doing the EagleRider media tour in California, the dual-sporting I did on other people’s V-Stroms, or the week I got around exclusively on a scooter. So if you add those miles I did ride more than double the miles I drove in 2010.

I don’t know about you but I kind of like the sound of that.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
New motorcycle-related laws kick in with the new year

Biker Quote for Today

Warning: If this bike is on a trailer it is being stolen.