Passes & Canyons Blog

A motorcycle/scooter dealership in Dubrovnik, Croatia.

So it has been three weeks since I received the title for my V-Strom and tomorrow morning I’ll be stopping by motor vehicle to register it and get plates. Finally.

Why did I wait so long? I’ve been out of the country. We were gone for 17 days to Italy and Croatia. You can bet I’ll be writing about the nature of motorcycling in those countries in the weeks to come. Just as a teaser, that photo above is a dealership in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Not at all what dealerships here look like. But riding over there is not what riding here looks like, either.

I have some odds and ends here to throw out. I got another email asking for ideas for a ride. I may be able to address this one reasonably well on my own but maybe someone out there has something to offer as well. Here’s the question:

Hi Ken,, I was hoping you could help me out,, Not sure if you got my last email,,, I am looking for a guided D/S Off road ride, in Colo possibly ghost town to ghost town,, with a support truck,, either staying at a lodge/motel/hotel.b&b/RV, anything with showers, and FOOD,,,, Not being from the area, don’t want to waste ower time figuring out where to ride on ower own,, I ride a KTM450exc, my buddy rides 510 Huskey,, It could be either the two of us or possibly up to 6 riders,,Dont know at this time,, If you have any ideas please give me a call or email,, Thanks

As before, offer anything recommendations you have as a comment or email them to me at kendbin at yahoo dot com.

Oh yeah, the spammers are back. I had made it tough for comment spammers to leave junk comments but that cut my legitimate comments to zero so I loosened it up. Checking for the first time now is several weeks there were more than 40 spam comments waiting to be deleted and not one single legitimate one.

I got a surprise email the other day from Craig Vetter. Yes, that Craig Vetter, the guy who made all those fairings, among other things. Seems Craig saw an article I did last fall where I talked about his Fuel Economy Challenge at the Vintage Motorcycle Days event in Ohio, and he sent a note thanking me for it. That was very fortuitous because I’ve been owing Rider magazine a feature about Vetter and his challenge for some time now and haven’t followed up on it. I emailed Craig back and asked if we could talk sometime once I got back to the U.S. and he said sure. So that will get me off the dime.

One more thing: this Sunday is the Old Bike Ride. You’ll want to be mounted on a bike at least 1980 or older, although if you want to volunteer as a corner worker you can ride anything. I don’t have any idea what they would use corner workers for at the Old Bike Ride, though. Anyway, here’s what Jerry Pokorny sent out about the ride:

Old Bike Ride 11, this Sunday. Information can be found at http://www.nortoncolorado.org/obr/OBR11.html.

Remember, if you want to participate but don’t have a motorcycle that qualifies (pre 1980), you can volunteer to work a corner and ride anything you like. Contact Bob Ohman to discuss it (303) 570-9333 or reohman@q.com. Bob would appreciate hearing from a few more of you about volunteering for corner duty. It will not detract much at all from your enjoyment of the day.

BMAC members and supporters in Colorado Springs will meet at the parking lot of the North Campus of Pikes Peak Community College (Hwy 83 next to the New Life Church) between 7 – 7:30 am. Departure for Golden at 7:30 am (come with full tank of gas – we won’t be stopping on the way).

Arrival in Golden about 9:00 am, riders meeting at 9:15 am and departure for OBR 11 at 9:30 am SHARP!

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Biker Quote for Today

Soaked to the skin, chilled to the core but alive. I left a puddle at the hotel desk as I checked in … this is how adventures end … not with a bang but a puddle on the carpet!… — SkyRiderman

A tight space for my third bike to live in.

Of course I’ll start out with another picture of my new V-Strom. If you’ve seen the last one, this is obviously shot soon afterward because it’s now in the garage and the snow is still on it. I’m going to have to do some rearranging because that door beyond it in this photo is my access to where I keep the other two bikes. The door to the outside from there only opens from the inside so clearly I’m going to need to set things up so I can get in there.

So yeah, as I say, I do get mail. Most recently I got a note from Steve who asked for some assistance. I can’t offer him anything but maybe you can. Here’s his email:

I own a 2005 HD Softail that is fuel injected with a Powercommander. I had the engine bored out in 2009 to 95” and am running the same map that Dynojet recommended for break in. But now I’d like to find a good tuner to get the most out of the bike. I live in Silverthorne, but would go the distance for the right guy. I’m wondering if you could recommend anyone?

OK, I don’t know any Harley tuners. I don’t ride Harleys so it’s not something I pay attention to. But what about you? Any recommendations you have I’ll pass along to Steve. Thanks.

Then here’s another. A guy named Kevin (not my friend who brought my V-Strom) sent just a quick note asking, “How much is a computer for a 2005 big dog?” I replied I had no idea and wondered why he thought I might. He pointed me to a piece I wrote on Big Dog a couple years ago. So anyway, if anyone can answer the question let me know and I’ll pass the info along.

Also, I got a note from Todd, who is coming to Colorado with his brother and sister and their spouses to ride. He sent me a Google mapping of his proposed route and was asking for any suggestions I might have for tweaks. You can take a look at his route here.

It looks like a good trip. Starting out from Colorado Springs they’ll go down to New Mexico via Cuchara Pass, then do the Angel Fire loop out of Taos before coming back north. Out of Colorado City they’ll go up through San Isabel, stopping at Bishop Castle of course, and on to Canon City. From there they’ll hit Buena Vista and take Independence Pass over to Aspen and Glenwood Springs.

Then it’s east on I-70 to pick up US 40 and over Berthoud Pass, to Grand Lake and over Trail Ridge Road, and then to Denver on the Peak-to-Peak. From there it’s back to the Springs with a sidetrip up Pikes Peak.

Sounds pretty good to me but I did offer some suggestions:

Your southern leg will definitely be good. In Canon City be sure to ride Skyline Drive. You might also want to take a side trip to the Royal Gorge. It’s cool to ride across the bridge and the best thing is to keep going out the other way. Most people go in and double back, but the road on through is very narrow, twisty, and pretty.

Leaving Canon City, as an alternative, you might consider going out US 50 to Salida and then catching 285 to Buena Vista. Both routes have their attractions; US 50 takes you up the Arkansas River canyon.

Heading east on I-70 you really ought to go over Loveland Pass rather than through the Eisenhower Tunnel. The descent is breathtaking.

Coming from Denver it will depend on what you do there as to what makes sense. If you’re coming around the city take C-470 south from I-70 on the west. If you do go into town, then coming out by I-25 makes the most sense, but if you make your way over to CO 105 through Perry Park and Palmer Lake that’s much nicer than the interstate.

OK, for anyone who knows Colorado that’s not rocket science, but for someone who doesn’t know the area I hope those are some good ideas. I get these letters all the time and it’s one of the things I enjoy about running this website that I get to help people plan their trips. Sometimes I even get to meet them!

Biker Quote for Today

That road is fabulous, I wish to test it .

My V-Strom as it prepares to leave Tennessee.

Mine, that is.

See that photo above of that 2007 V-Strom 650 on that trailer? That’s my new bike and at the moment this post is being published it is on that trailer on its way to me here in Denver. Here’s how this whole thing came down.

As anyone who knows me or who reads this blog is aware, I’ve been wanting a dual-sport bike for a long time. Working full-time as a motorcycle freelance writer, however, I never had the money. Since November I’ve been working a contract gig as an editor at the National Park Service so I finally have some spare cash.

In the meantime, my friend Kevin Smith, who runs Colorado Mountain Moto out of Gunnison, had gone down to Tennessee to do some remodeling work for his sister. He drove down and took his trailer with him because his brother-in-law had a V-Strom he wanted to sell and Kevin figured he could use it in his motorcycle rental business. Kevin favors V-Stroms and it is largely through him that I have ridden V-Stroms quite a bit. I like them quite a bit.

As Kevin tells it, however, he got down to Tennessee and the more he thought about it the more he got to thinking that money was tight and he really needed the money more than he needed another bike. So he sent me the following email:

Hey Ken if your still thinking about another bike I found a Vstrom in TN. Not sure I need it yet 07 17000 miles I could bring it with me if your interested. $3500. Cheers Kevin

I quickly did some checking to see how that price matched up to others locally and it looked pretty good, although some local bikes had extras this one does not, and Kevin said it will need a front tire and a new chain soon. I hesitated. I’ve finally got a bit of a financial reserve again and draining it significantly was a hard thing for me to decide to do.

However, much to the envy of a lot of guys, I’m sure, my wife Judy was all for it. She kept pushing me. “Come on, you’ve wanted this for a long time. Do it!”

So I did it. And now it’s on its way here. Kevin will be here later today and will spend the night with us before heading on to Gunnison. And I’ll add a Suzuki to go with my Honda and my Kawasaki. People who I meet and to whom I mention that I ride invariably ask, “Do you have a Harley?” No I don’t. Harleys just don’t interest me. I guess that’s pretty clear by now. Not dissing you guys who do; it’s just not my kind of bike. But oh boy, I’m going to like having this V-Strom.

My friend Dan, who does ride a Harley, also has a GS800 from BMW. He’s been wanting to sell it but hasn’t yet. I was telling him on Saturday about the V-Strom and he said “let’s go ride.” I’ll definitely be taking him up on that.

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Biker Quote for Today

I’m not lost. I’m explorin’.