Passes & Canyons Blog

It has probably been 20 years since the last time I rode from Denver to Durango in one day. My recollection of that trip was an exhausting ride that was not a lot of fun. I was just trying to burn up the miles so I could catch up with John and Bill, who had left several days ahead of me because my bike was still in pieces in a cursed shop that fortuitously is no longer in existence.

I did that ride again Wednesday, except this time I went beyond Durango. The first time I was on my 1980 Honda CB750 Custom; this time I was on my 1999 Kawasaki Concours. There is a difference. The Connie is a much better highway bike, it cruises comfortably at a much higher speed, and I also wasn’t stressed out by being held up for days and being totally pissed at those jerks in the shop. In short, it wasn’t a bad ride at all, and I could have kept going, though I was glad to stop.

As I mentioned previously, I’m now down at the Overland Expo, at Mormon Lake, southeast of Flagstaff. This is an event for people who are into adventure travel, both two wheels and more, and the two-wheel portion is getting much bigger each year. If Sturgis is the place to see more Harleys than you’ve ever seen in one place, this is the place to see my BMW GSs than anywhere else, plus various other adventure bikes.

I came to this thing last year, down in Amado, AZ, but it was an afterthought tacked onto my main trip, which was to Arizona Bike Week, in Scottsdale. I only got to spend one day at the Expo then and came away feeling I had wasted my time at Bike Week and missed out on a lot at the Expo. So here I am again.

I truly am not an adventure rider type, I have no desire to ride a bike around the world, but it is so amazing listening to these speakers who tell and show pictures of their incredible journeys.

You learn all sorts of new terms. Here’s one: human dip-stick. That’s when you have to ford a river on your bike and you want two people, one to ride the bike and one to walk ahead. If the person in front, the human dip-stick, drops out of sight, you know you want to change course or else be prepared for some serious riding. Yow! I might have considered that when I was 20 but at this point I’m just not interested. But hearing other people’s stories is pretty dang interesting. And this place is full of those stories.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Heading overland to the Overland Expo

Biker Quote for Today

Full face helmets: Because you can’t get laid with dead gnats on your teeth.

I did make it to ABATE’s Motorcycle Expo at Aurora Town Center yesterday. While the cool weather and the conflict with Mother’s Day presumably diminished the crowd somewhat, the event showed a big step forward from last year.

I’m not sure if they had more booths or whether they just had the booths clustered more tightly together, but the overall effect was of a fuller, more vibrant event. In the middle of it all were cones that motorcycle cops would periodically ride, demonstrating their terrific control of their machines. I wish I could ride that well.

Off outside the cluster of booths was another slalom course and over there you could also see some non-police riders who demonstrated control right up there with the cops. Heck, I had trouble doing tight u-turns on a 250 when I was taking the RiderCoach training class last year. These guys were doing it on big baggers.

So anyway, I hung around awhile but then took off. Too many other things I needed to do.

Old Bike Ride 10

The next event coming up that I wanted to go to, but won’t be able to, is the Old Bike Ride 10. I missed it last year but did make it out two years ago. This is just a fun outing of older bikes put on by the Norton club of Colorado each year. It starts out from Golden and ends up back there sometime later. Not sure what route they’ll be taking because the announcement says it will be different this year.

It’s not that I’ll be crying my eyes out over missing it, though, because the reason I’ll miss it is pretty good. I’m heading out on Wednesday to go down near Flagstaff for the Overland Expo. This is an event for people who are serious about their adventure travel, and who are planning things such as trips around the world on their bikes. I have no such desires, but I do hope to learn a bit about things like road-side motorcycle maintenance and also hope to have the opportunity to do some dirt riding. Check back here and you’ll see just exactly how that all works out.

Oh boy, my first big trip of the summer.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Only a biker knows . . .:Motorcycle wit and wisdom, #22

Biker Quote for Today

Motorcycles are better than men because if your motorcycle is too soft, you can get different shocks.

I put 2,143 miles on my Concours in 10 days going down to Arizona Bike Week, in Scottsdale, and the Overland Expo, in Amado, and there were parts that exceeded my expectations and others that fell short. It’s always that way, isn’t it?

It was some hard riding. Three of those days were in excess of 400 miles, with one of those being more than 500 miles. The weather in Arizona was blazing hot, hitting 100 some days. Nights were just as balmy as could be. If I lived in Arizona I think I’d sleep all day and be up and about all night. (That photo above is of me in the Kawasaki tent in Scottsdale, courtesy of computer simulation.)

While a large part of my riding was interstate, there were a couple stretches on the two-lane that were really good. Those would be the run from Holbrook, AZ, down to Scottsdale, which went through some forested mountains, and the route from Lordsburg, NM, over to I-25 a little south of Truth or Consequences. That last road seems to me to compete with the Tail of the Dragon for curves. I definitely recommend it.

Arizona Bike Week itself was a bit of a disappointment. There was little going on during the day, when it was blazing hot, and at night it depended on what group was playing in the party tent. The nights that Skid Row and Heart played there were a lot of people. The other nights were pretty slim. My conclusion is that this rally is primarily a local event that is primarily of interest to folks nearby who drop in for an evening.

Of considerably more interest was the Overland Expo down in Amado. This expo is for people who want to go adventure touring, whether on two wheels or four, and there were some amazing people in attendance. Ted Simon, who wrote Jupiter’s Travels, was there, as was Lois Pryce, who is well known for her travels as reported in Lois on the Loose and Red Tape and White Knuckles.

It was fascinating to see all the specialized gear–not to mention the incredible vehicles–that the vendors brought to show. It was also very interesting to speak with the organizers, Roseann and Jonathan Hanson, about their vision for the expo. I’ll have more on them and the expo later.

In truth, I had never seen all that much of Arizona before, so it was great to see so much of it now. Arizona has its own sort of very real beauty, but I have to say, I was glad to get into New Mexico where the beauty is less harsh. I could live in New Mexico but I don’t think I’d ever want to live in Arizona.

Most of all, though, the trip was a chance to escape the winter doldrums. It was, after all, the first bike trip of the year. It got me out of my day to day routine and away from this computer. The writing I do for a living is mostly about my motorcycling experiences in one way or another, and now I have a lot of new experiences to write about. I’d say that counts as a successful trip.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Arizona Bike Week builds up slowly (with photos)

Biker Quote for Today

Ahhh…the sound of a bike far off in the distance, late on a clear evening, calls to me, saying rise up and catch the wind under the moonlight’s embrace.

Some people do amazing things on motorcycles. You know, like go around the world, or ride from Alaska to the tip of South America. Serious adventure riding. To them I say, more power to you! Go for it! Just don’t ask me to come along.

I’ve been down in Amado, AZ, at the third annual Overland Expo, which is for folks who do like to do those sorts of things. (That picture above is in the motorcycle “corral” at the expo.) Some of the people there are those folks who we’ve all heard of for their renowned exploits. There was Ted Simon, who wrote the book Jupiter’s Travels about his four-year ride around the world in the 1970s, back before this kind of thing got popular. Lois Pryce was there, the author of Lois on the Loose, about her ride from Alaska to Argentina. And others.

I sat in on Ted’s and Lois’s presentations and what they did is truly amazing. Awe-inspiring. Incredible. They showed pictures and talked about the extreme troubles they overcame, as well as the extreme joys they experienced, and I came away from it all with the very definite thought in my mind that I just don’t want to do that. I don’t want to subject myself to the incredible hardships they faced. I don’t want to spend hours and days wrestling overloaded motorcycles through mud up to the seat. I don’t want to end up in jail in some foreign country. I’m sorry, you’re just going to have to count me out.

The whole basis of the Overland Expo is to bring people together, people who have done these things and people who would like to do these things. To inspire people to just make up their mind and do it. And it’s not just this kind of extreme adventuring. Maybe you just want to ride through Mexico but don’t know how to go about planning and preparing. That’s the kind of thing you’ll get out of Overland Expo. And that’s the sort of thing I could get into. Just because Ben Slavins quit his job to take six months and ride from New Hampshire to Ushuaia, Argentina, doesn’t mean you have to quit your job to go adventuring, or overlanding as the activity is called.

Actually, the way I see it, I was out overlanding myself this last 10 days. I packed up the bike and took off for places I’d never been before, met new people, saw new sights, learned a whole bunch, and had a great time. It’s not Ted Simon extreme, but it’s really just the level of the adventure. I’m not at his level and I don’t want to be. But it was still an adventure. And I’ll do it again. You should, too. You know, quit dreaming and just do it.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
Arizona Bike Week comes to life, with photos

Biker Quote for Today

If you can’t pick it up by yourself, it is not an adventure bike.

Each year I plot out where I’m going to go, which motorcycle rallies I’m planning to hit, what trips I’m going to take. This year I got lucky when I learned one trip can do double duty.

In a little over two weeks I’m going to be heading down to Scottsdale, AZ, for Arizona Bike Week. Of course that’s providing that Ma Nature lets me. Last year when I went to the Laughlin River Run, in Laughlin, NV, I didn’t actually know if I’d be able to go until the night before I planned to leave. The weather cooperated, I had a great trip, and it snowed the day after I got home.

I’ll be heading further south this time so that should help, but a blizzard on departure day will still require a change in plans. Fingers crossed.

So anyway, here I had my plans made for Scottsdale and I discovered that another event, the Overland Expo, will be taking place in Amado, AZ, on the last three days of Arizona Bike Week, April 1-3. Amado is a tiny burg a little south of Tucson. The Overland Expo is a gathering for two-wheelers and four-wheelers who are into adventure touring. A lot of the sessions and classes are how-tos on adventure touring. Sounds very interesting.

Not that I’m planning on going adventure touring. I followed Alisa Clickenger, aka MotoAdventureGal, on her ride through Central and South America about a year ago and I concluded that that’s just not something I want to do. But I still find it extremely interesting and I have no doubt it will provide some great topics to write about.

So great. I’ll go down to Arizona Bike Week as early as possible, stay there most of the week, and then on Saturday go down to Amado for the last day or so of Overland Expo. That could actually benefit me on my return trip because from Tucson I’ll be able to take Interstate 10, a more southerly route, back east as far as the center of New Mexico, and then head north on I-25.

I don’t normally care to ride the interstates but in this case I have a lot of distance to cover. Plus, I figure if there is weather to contend with, the interstates should be in the best shape of any road. As I say, fingers crossed.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
More Daytona Bike Week in words and photos

Biker Quote for Today

Adventure is just bad planning. — Roald Amundsen