Posts Tagged ‘RMMRC’

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Communicators: The Biker’s Secret Weapon

Monday, July 21st, 2025

A different day’s ride with the RMMRC.

I’m sure some folks in cars reached their destinations with stories of crazy motorcyclists they had seen that day. That day being the day the other RMMRC riders and I made the trip home from Meeker/Craig.

As we headed up Tennessee Pass, toward Leadville, there were a lot of curves, but of the eight of us, seven were linked in on our Cardos. So you come up on some slow traffic and one or two guys are able to pass, but then there’s a blind curve . . . and these crazy bikers kept passing! We had eyes around the bend.

“Keep coming; all clear.” That’s all you need to know until you hear “Traffic coming!” Then you wait while a car or two goes by the other direction and then there’s the “All clear.”

If you don’t understand what is happening you’re certain these guys are nuts.

So let’s get back to the start. Gene and I were the last to arrive at the launch point the day before so we did not have time to get our Cardos linked to the group, but we ended up linked to each other. Just a residual effect from a previous trip, I presume. Come the second morning, however, we all had time and we got everyone linked in one group. This was a first for this group, to have so many on at once.

And it was kind of fun. I like the solitude of being just me in my head while riding as much as anyone but this is a bunch of guys I know well and we could just chat. It was nice. Plus it makes it a lot easier if you need a pit stop.

I’m still not especially familiar with the operation of this thing. The first day I could talk to Gene but I was also getting music and a lot of static. We stopped in Granby for a break and gas and then the music was really coming in loud and clear. What the hey? I started fiddling around with my unit and finally figured out the music Gene was playing was not slopping over to me, this was my own music, some radio station. And all the static I had been hearing was from the radio being set on a frequency where there was no signal. Pretty basic, but if you haven’t read the instruction manual . . .

Then on the second day, leaving Craig, I could only hear the other guys faintly and they couldn’t hear me at all. So I started fiddling with things again, which is pretty hit and miss when you’re riding. But I hit on the right combination and suddenly I was part of the conversation. Nice.

We got down to Wolcott, made the run on I-70 to Meeker, and started up Tennessee Pass. And you already know what happened on that stretch.

It was good, too because we could point things out to each other, such as side roads. As we came past State Bridge I pointed out the Trough Road, which is very good gravel and goes up to Kremmling. Things like that.

I have wondered if I would find the chatter intrusive, because I do like spending time just in my head while riding. But I think I’m going to be just fine with these communicators.

Biker Quote for Today

Some people will tell you that slow is good–but I’m here to tell you that fast is better. I’ve always believed this, in spite of the trouble it’s caused me.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, motorcycle clubs, Motorcycle Gear, motorcycle touring, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club | No Comments »

Where Were We? Oh Yeah, Meeker

Thursday, July 10th, 2025


The Twenty-Mile Road. If you’ve never ridden it you should.

Before all this mess with the crash came up I was in the middle of telling about our overnight ride to Meeker. Let’s rejoin this story.

As you may recall, four guys only went as far as Craig while the other four of us went on to Meeker. Bob, who stayed in Craig, had said the run to Meeker was uninteresting and not worth it. As I said in the previous post, he is wrong. I knew from doing it in 2023 with Nick that the road from Meeker to Craig, especially in the early morning, is enchanting.

This year was no disappointment. Bob is just wrong. We got to Craig then, I got gas, and the other guys were about ready to roll. We headed east on US 40 to Hayden and then took the Twenty-Mile Road from right by the power station down to Oak Creek. What a beautiful ride, and still so green at this point. Some of the guys had never been on it and they were blown away.

Riding CO 131 we cruised south through Toponas and State Bridge to the interstate is Wolcott. We made a short hop on I-70 to Edwards for gas and then another short hop to the Minturn exit. From there we headed up Tennessee Pass to Leadville. Lunch in Leadville.

As we were parking it looked like rain, and indeed it did rain while we were in the restaurant. Just a very light dripping when we came out but we all suited up. The sky still looked threatening. On south to Buena Vista we avoided rain, then turned east on US 285.

We stopped again in Fairplay for gas for some, and after that it became pretty much every man for himself, the rush to the stable. We didn’t hit rain but did have wet pavement, with splashing. Then at Bailey we turned up Crow Hill and it had all been roto-milled, with only a little pavement. Kind of nasty. Then pavement again but now some rain.

I was constantly wiping my visor but after awhile I could not get it clear and I thought I was getting mud kicked up onto it. Then I realized it was fogging on the inside so I cracked it and the fog was gone. But now I was getting spray up under the visor. I alternated opening and closing it.

We were all separated at this point and I was only with Alan and Gene as we came into Conifer and it was raining harder. I bailed there and sat at the King Soopers until it cleared, then headed on again. Just a very short time later I came to dry pavement, suggesting we had been at the front of the storm and if I had kept going I would have been out of it in just another mile or two. No matter, I enjoyed the break and then rode all the way home—after that couple miles—on dry pavement with no rain.

Rush hour traffic was really bad so getting across Hampden took a long time. Then I was home. The next day the RMMRC had its monthly meeting and those of us who had been on the ride who attended agreed all around that it was an exceptionally good trip. We need more of those.

Biker Quote for Today

Melancholy is incompatible with motorcycling.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, motorcycle clubs, motorcycle touring, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club | 1 Comment »

Excellent Two-Day Ride

Thursday, June 26th, 2025

Hanging out in front of the Meeker Hotel.

I give Charlie big kudos for putting together a terrific two-day ride for the RMMRC. The weather was good, the roads were great, and with all the recent rain, everything was incredibly green. And the folks were pretty companionable, too.

We started out Tuesday morning from the Phillips 66 in Morrison, eight riders. Kicks stand up (KSU) was 9 and I got there about 8:50 and needed gas so I didn’t have time to get myself linked in on the Cardo communicators. But Gene was the last to arrive and it turned out somehow that he and I were linked to each other, so we did some chatting during the day.

We ran up past Red Rocks to get on old US 40 running up Mount Vernon Canyon. This road serves as a frontage road alongside I-70 for a ways but frequently bends away from the interstate. Onto I-70 briefly and then off again and back to 40. Here’s where we lucked out.

US 40 goes away from the interstate for a while but then comes back as you go up Floyd Hill. Then you go down the other side and get on old US 6 just long enough to get on I-70. As we headed down we could see the interstate totally stopped. They’re doing major work on the bend at the bottom of the hill and we must have passed about 500 stopped cars as we cruised on down. When we merged onto I-70 at the bottom it was starting to move and we had to go slow but never had to stop at all. Sweet.

We only stayed on I-70 a few miles to Idaho Springs and then got off and rode old US 6 up to the Empire turn-off onto US 40 and then headed that way toward Berthoud Pass. We made a quick stop just past Empire, by the Guanella Ranch, which was good for me because I was cold and this gave me a chance to put on more layers.

Then it was a lot of fun blasting up Berthoud Pass, cruising past all the other traffic. We were rockin’!

Down the other side into Winter Park and on to Granby where we made a brief stop, then on to Kremmling for lunch.

Next it was on to Rabbit Ears Pass and down into Steamboat Springs. It had been a long time since I’d been over Rabbit Ears because I do my best to avoid Steamboat, so it was nice to see the pass again. Everything is just so incredibly green at the moment.

Steamboat wasn’t as bad as it sometimes can be and then it was on to Hayden and then Craig. Four of the guys were stopping in Craig while the rest of us were continuing on, down CO13 to Meeker. Bob, who was staying in Craig, said he saw no reason to go to Meeker because there was nothing out there and it’s a boring ride. Bob is wrong. This is a really pretty ride and we had a good time.

We got to the Meeker Hotel and checked in and proceeded to kick back. Meeker is a really nice little town–unlike Craig, which is not much of anything. And the Meeker Hotel has been completely renovated just recently and is quite nice–but incredibly cheap! Only $80 a night for a single! Can’t beat that.

So it was a sweet day’s ride. And tomorrow we get to do more.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s what I love about fast motorcycles. Because when you find yourself balancing on that razor’s edge of mortality, all the rest becomes dust in the wind.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Motorcycle Accommodations, Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club | 2 Comments »

Hot Dog! Ride Coming Up

Thursday, June 19th, 2025

I believe Loveland Pass is on the return route.

Following the let-down of my recent aborted California trip with the RMMRC I’m definitely pleased that we have another ride coming right up. Nothing like the California trip but hey, you take what you can get.

This is just going to be a two-day trip, up to either Craig or Meeker and back the next day. Craig or Meeker is dependent on where you want to go. Some guys will stay in Craig while others go on to Meeker. Then in the morning the Meeker contingent will return to Craig and we’ll ride home together.

Why the split? In one case it’s a matter of someone who is recovery from surgery not being sure what he can endure, and the shorter ride to Craig is preferable. Others just don’t see any point of going to Meeker and backtracking.

But for those of us going to Meeker–and I am–it’s because Craig is really nothing special and Meeker is a cool little town. Plus we’ll be staying at the Meeker Hotel, which is a very cool and newly remodeled old hotel on the town plaza. Plus, if you’re dollar-conscious, the Meeker Hotel is cheap–$80 a night.

Wherever each person stays, the real thing is going to be the route coming and going. You can get to Meeker quickly by taking I-70 to Rifle and turning north, but who wants to ride the slab? So we’ll leave Parker in the morning and take some smaller roads up to Empire–with a few miles of unavoidable I-70–and then take some meandering routes home. It’ll be fun. Now we can just hope this heat wave is done by then but at least if not we’ll be up in the high country where it’s cooler.

And we’ll be on motorcycles. What else really matters?

Biker Quote for Today

I’ll linger here as long as I can . . . but there’s a curve approaching, so I let off the gas, take a deep breath and let out a sign of relief. I think I found what I was looking for. It’s time to head back home.

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Getting Sick Of The Guys

Thursday, June 5th, 2025

When you have a group of bikers out on a road trip you end up with some group shots.

Do you ever just really want to get away from the guys you’re hanging out with? Like your riding buddies? Like you’ve been on a trip and while you love the trip you’re really looking forward to getting home so you won’t have to be with these guys for awhile?

I keep a journal and I’ve been reading back through it and there have been a number of times when I have remarked that I was really sick of being with the guys. Now, these are my best and closest friends–excluding my very closest friend, my wife–here in town. (I do have really close friends in other towns.) These are the guys I go camping with, play poker with, meet out for coffee. And after a week on the road with them I’m really sick of them.

Here are some remarks from my journal, circa 1992:

So I got really tired of being with XXXX but it wasn’t like last year when I came home with an active dislike for him. Our relationship really is shallow, to the point where we ran out of things to talk about and sat around bars at night not saying a word. This was a good trip but clearly I would rather have been on one bike with a lady friend.

Wow. Yeah, I guess just because you hang out with someone for a lot of years that doesn’t necessarily mean you are close to them. Doesn’t mean they’re not your friends. They are.

My good friend Jungle told me emphatically a few years ago that I need to get some new friends. But that’s the thing. When it’s these guys who you discovered the wonderfulness of motorcycles with, and they like to ride, you kind of go with the guys who like to ride.

Anyway, I know just from memory–I haven’t gotten that far reading my journal–that on most OFMC trips by the time I got home I was really glad to get away from the others. I always presumed they were equally glad to get away from me. It’s a test of any relationship to be together that much. In the early days we always, the three of us, shared one motel room. We were together all day, and all night.

So it was the desire to find some new riding buddies, people interested in riding more often, that led me to join the RMMRC. I do feel like I’m making friends in this group and like I’m a core member of the group. It’s good to have riding buddies. And maybe in 20 years I won’t personally be any closer to any of these new friends than to my old ones, but I will have been on a whole bunch of really good rides. With people I enjoy being with.

Biker Quote for Today

It’s a dangerous game we’re playing here. Walking the tightrope between nirvana and disaster, with no margin for error. But that’s when things really start to get interesting.

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Adventures In Pairing

Thursday, May 22nd, 2025

My Cardo mounted on my helmet.

It seems to be a general rule that connecting helmet communicators is not easy. Judy and I have owned a couple sets and neither has been something you just do and that’s that. It’s always a matter of relearning how it’s done and then making more than one attempt to do so until you get it right.

In preparation for this recent RMMRC California trip I bought a new communicator, a Cardo, because that’s what all the other guys had and that would enable me to hook in with the group. It was agreed that on departure date we would get together earlier to get me paired in. What could go wrong?

In a group like this someone needs to be the main guy and the main guy here was Alan. Everyone else already was hooked in.

So Alan pulled out his phone, fired up the app, and opened the group. I installed the app on my phone–though that is not supposed to be necessary–and we tried following the steps as spelled out. No dice. We tried again. I shut my phone completely off and then booted up, with hopes that now everything would be fully settled and in order. Still no dice.

Was it a problem with my communicator? It was brand new and had never been used. They do manufacture lemons now and then, where something doesn’t work right out of the box. I tried creating a group myself and paired one of the guys in with me. That worked. So it’s not a problem with my unit.

I can’t remember what else we tried but nothing worked. Fine, we’ll give up for now and then tonight at the motel in Fruita we’ll try again.

So we got to Fruita and we’re sitting around in our rooms with our helmets on. Surely between the bunch of us we can figure this out. The Cardo can link together up to–I think–19 units. We were only trying to get 5 on one link.

Insanity is reputedly doing the same thing over and over expecting different results and we did the insanity thing for a while. There was no way, apparently, that I was ever going to get linked in to this group. OK, let’s take a different approach. Alan, create a new group and then link us all in on that group. Delete the old one.

And you know what? It worked. Finally. It still wasn’t necessarily working great until we figured out that I needed to move my microphone boom closer to my mouth. Once I did that they could hear me and I could hear them. Great. We’re ready to go.

So the next day we took off and now my concern was, was I going to find myself feeling invaded by hearing everything everyone had to say all day? I’m used to the solitude of being in my own head even when in a group of riders. Would I miss that solitude. Sure I could turn the Cardo off but that would defeat the whole purpose of having it.

It was OK. I even did a bit of the talking because I had been all these places we were going through this day and I had information to share.

Then the following morning the Cardo came in handy, too, as I sprawled across my gas tank telling the guys “I can’t do this. I’m really sick.” Dave replied that “Yeah, if it makes you feel any better, you look lousy, too.”

I just hope next time I try to use this thing it goes a lot more smoothly.

Biker Quote for Today

Faster . . . sixty, seventy . . . the engine growls, and the wind is now howling in my face trying to rip me off the back of the bike. But to outrun the demons I keep pushing it into fifth . . . seventy-five, eighty-five, ninety . . . and now I’ve got a white-knuckled grip on the handlebars as they vibrate up my arms and I tuck my head down for speed.

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