Passes & Canyons Blog

If you’ve surfed around the Passes and Canyons website you know that I have a page listing upcoming motorcycle rides, rallies, and other events. One recurring event that has moved around the metro area week to week all summer is the Road Rage Car, Truck & Bike Show, put on by Pro Players Association as a fund-raiser for a variety of charitable organizations.

Road Rage was close to me this weekend so I figured it was time to check it out and see what it was all about. My timing could have been a lot better, though.

For starters, the event had been scheduled to be included as part of Englewood Days but those plans went awry and it was moved to the parking lot of Wal-Mart just off Arapahoe and Havana. It was a nice day for a ride in the mountains so I did that first, and so I arrived at Road Rage about 2:30 in the afternoon.

What I found was not exciting. There were just a few show cars and trucks and only two motorcycles. There was also a band playing but there were not very many people around.

Heading, of course, to the two bikes, I met Chuck Shortt, who runs Rocky Mountain Custom Bikes in Larkspur. I’ve got to tell you, Chuck does nice work. What I especially liked was the (former) Suzuki Intruder he worked over for his wife. That’s the one in the picture. Chuck tells me he builds custom bikes and also does repair work, so if you have a custom bike in need of some work, you might want to look him up.

With Chuck’s assistance I identified Gary Adler, the president of Pro Players Association and the organizer of the event. I went over and introduced myself and the first thing I said was that I expected there to be more to this event. Gary sighed and filled me in on everything that went wrong for him this week. In addition to having to relocate at the last minute and the problems of making people aware of the move in time, he had competition just to the south, in the form of a big custom show going on at Arapahoe County Airport. In fact, jets were doing flyovers as part of this show as we talked. Pretty hard to compete with.

Additionally, Gary told me he normally has some former Broncos on hand at these events for people to meet and talk to, but this weekend was Broncos’ Reunion Weekend and all the guys were off playing golf. And then he showed me some photos from earlier in the day when there were a lot more show vehicles present. Apparently the guys who bring their toys to show off don’t like sticking around all day, so my coming later meant I missed a lot of them.

Bottom line, while this particular Road Rage show was a benefit for the Military Families Relief Fund, I’d have to guess the group didn’t profit all that much from it. I know Gary was feeling pretty frustrated.

So, while I would have liked to have reported that this was a great event that you really ought to hit, I guess I’m going to have to check it out again when the situation is more normal. And I’ll make it a point to go earlier in the day. That won’t be any time soon, however, because this was the last Road Rage show of this year. I guess we’ll just stay tuned for next year.

Biker Quote for Today

May all your encounters with the law start with the words . . . “Nice bike!”