Archive for the ‘Colorado motorcycle rides’ Category

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Two Chances to See Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route Video

Monday, January 14th, 2013

Going backcountry on adventure motorcycles

This photo is from the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route ride, and is by Jonathan Beck. It was provided to me for the RumBum piece; I hope Jon doesn't object to my reusing it here.

Are you interested in crossing Colorado, border to border, on an adventure motorcycle on unpaved roads and trails? That’s what the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route is all about and the folks who mapped it out will be showing a video of their riding of this route.

The first showing will be this Saturday, Jan. 19, at BMW of Denver, 2910 S. Havana. The show starts at 5 p.m. They ask that you RSVP to save a seat. The second showing will be the following Saturday, Jan. 26, at Performance Cycle of Denver, 1990 S. Broadway. No further info on their showing. There’s no admission fee.

The Colorado Backcountry Route is another in a series of such efforts headed up for the most part by Touratech, a company that specializes in creating and selling tough gear for adventure motorcyclists. The backcountry route thing is great for off-road riders because it helps establish routes (free GPS files are available) and good for Touratech because it helps them sell more gear.

Paul Guillien is general manager of Touratech and I spoke with him at the time that the non-profit group they formed released the Utah Backcountry Discovery Route. I’d link to that article but unfortunately it was published on RumBum.com and RumBum has shut down operations and it’s not available. I’d republish it here except that I sold all rights to the piece to RumBum, so they own it, not me.

Too bad, it was a good piece. I will, however, excerpt the opening two paragraphs. That’s fair use under copyright law.

By the standard of “It’s not an adventure until someone says, ‘WTF are we doing here??’,” Paul Guillien and his riding companion were pretty certain they were having an adventure coming down from Reservation Ridge.

“Two of us were out scouting away from the group and we got stuck on Reservation Ridge. It’s about 9,000 elevation, we were buzzing along, and next thing we know a rain storm opened up on us and within minutes the bikes were falling down.”

Suffice it to say, this Colorado video is likely to be well worth watching. Even if you don’t ride in the dirt.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
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Biker Quote for Today

We have always taken “very dangerous” and “not recommended” as indicators of where some good riding was to be had.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Dirt biking, Dual sport bikes | 1 Comment »

Another Year When I Didn’t Make It To The Last Brass Monkey Run

Monday, December 31st, 2012
motorcycling in the snow

If you can ride in this I ought to be able to get down my street.

I seem to be really bad about this. I had every intention of going to the Last Brass Monkey Run. The fact it was cold was a plus because that meant I’d get to really test out my new electric gloves. But just as has happened in the past, my plans did not work out.

The problem is the weather. We had snow quite awhile ago now but it has been cold and colder and our street is still a sheet of snow and ice. There was no way in the world I was going to ride my bike down that street. Heck, I slip and slide on it in my car. And I don’t know about you but the idea of going to a motorcycle run in a car just doesn’t cut it.

So once again, my plans fell through.

Now it’s going to get interesting, though. Tomorrow is January 1 and that means I have 31 days to at least get in one ride on each bike. I never miss a month ever and you would think this would not be a problem. But hey, if it doesn’t at least warm up enough to melt that snow and ice on the street, it could be a problem.

It’s way too early to be getting worried, but you better believe the first chance I get to get out I’ll jump on it. At this time of year you’d better not snooze or the chances are very good you will lose.

So Friday is supposed to be 40 degrees, the only day this week higher than the 30s. Maybe Saturday will be the day. (I’ll be at work on Friday so that won’t be a day to ride.) Time to start keeping fingers crossed.

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

Biker Quote for Today

Don’t stop riding until you get to the crash , you might save it!

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides | No Comments »

Weather Looks OK For Last Brass Monkey Run

Monday, December 24th, 2012
Last Brass Monkey Run in 2008

Riders starting out from the Frontier Club for the 2008 Last Brass Monkey Run.

Yeah, it’s cold and gonna get colder the next couple days, but then we’re supposed to get a little warmer. Just in time for this year’s final organized motorcycle ride, the Last Brass Monkey Run.

The Last Brass Monkey Run is put on each year by ABATE of Colorado and it starts out at a couple spots, The Frontier Club in Aurora and Susie’s in Golden, and comes together at the Grizzly Rose.

Registration at the starting points begins at 9 a.m. and the party at the Grizzly Rose begins at noon. Registration is $10 for ABATE members and $15 for non-members. Plus, if you’re an ABATE member and you renew your membership at the event it only costs you $5 to get in.

Goings-on include food and live music, a chili cook-off, cash prizes, door prizes, 50-50, and of course the chance to catch up with friends and get in your last ride of the year.

Of course, if the weather turns nasty or you just can’t motivate yourself to get on the bike, you can come in your car. What the heck.

So hey! I’ll see you there, right?

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Biker Quote for Today

Trailering your bike is a sickness. Call 1-800 2 SCARED TO RIDE

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Posted in ABATE, Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides, motorcycle events | No Comments »

My First (Sorta) Cold Day’s Ride This Fall

Monday, November 19th, 2012
My Honda in the King Soopers parking lot in Aspen Park.

My Honda in the King Soopers parking lot in Aspen Park.

What a gorgeous day Sunday. I rode the Kawi to the ABATE meeting and then in the afternoon I took off on the Honda for a real ride. Time to give that battery a good charge.

It was so nice that the mountains called. I knew as I went up in elevation the temperature was going to drop but I was dressed warmly and had my electric vest on. Upward!

I cruised up through Morrison to Idledale, to Kittredge, and on to Evergreen. Lots of bikes on the road. Lots of bikes parked in Morrison and Evergreen.

And yes, it got cooler. It didn’t take long for me to be glad I had the electric vest on. It was sunny, but with the sun low in the south, the canyon was mostly in shadow. And the higher I went, the lower the mercury dipped.

By the time I reached Evergreen it was getting cloudy. I had wanted to stop but didn’t. You know how you have intentions and yet sometimes you never act on them. That was me. I turned south on Highway 73, the road to where I would meet U.S. 285 at Conifer. Now I was getting cold, especially my hands. I realized the time had come to switch to my winter riding gloves and I wished I had done so already. By the time I reached Conifer I was starting to wonder if my vest had stopped working; I was that cold.

So I cruised on down to Aspen Park and pulled off to get something hot to hold and drink. There’s a Starbucks in the King Soopers there and that was just the ticket. Feeling reasonably warm again, I rolled on back down the hill. By the time I got back to the city it was a comfortable temp again but I kept the vest turned on anyway. Felt good. And yes, it was still working.

The moral of the story, or lesson or whatever: It’s that time of year. I probably won’t be riding into the mountains again until sometime next year. And I really do need to get some electric gloves on my hands, sooner rather than later. Judy said she’d get me some for Christmas, and if I tell her specifically what I want she won’t wait for Christmas. I had forgotten to do that. No more forgetting.

But oh man, what a great day to be out for a ride. After doing all this riding this past summer I haven’t been on the bikes all that much this fall. And now I’ve started a job, for the first time in more than three years. I’m back at the point where when I occasionally go for a ride it hits me that, “Hey, this is really fun! I should do this more!” From here on it’s all about the weather.

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Biker Quote for Today

The world belongs to those who can laugh at it.

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Day Rides | No Comments »

Getting Acquainted With United Dirt Bike School

Monday, November 5th, 2012
United Dirt Bike School

The banner on the United Dirt Bike School web site.

I’m not much of a glad-hander, so even though I’ve been an ABATE member for several years now and I go to my district’s monthly meetings as often as possible, I still don’t even know most of the people’s names, and I’ve never spoken to most of them. So I was very interested to figure out recently that one woman who has been coming for awhile, and whom I had never met, is Kathy Banning, one of the co-owners of United Dirt Bike School. And so at the meeting last Sunday I approached her afterward and we spoke.

If you’ve been reading this blog you know that for some time I have had a growing interest in riding off the pavement. I’m not necessarily interested in the serious, really difficult trail riding that some people do, I’m just tired of missing out on all these great roads that Colorado has that don’t happen to have asphalt on them. I’ve ridden a bit with Kevin Smith, of Colorado Mountain Moto, and Ron Coleman, of Western Dual Sport Motorcycle Adventures, but I want more. And most especially, I want my own dual-sport or dirt bike.

What I don’t want is to get out somewhere, all on my own, and get in trouble. Now, I’m a confident sort of person and I think I’m pretty good at recognizing my limitations, so I don’t really think that is all that likely. But what if it did? One way to improve my odds would be to improve my skills. I’ve taken the MSF Beginning Rider Course and the Experienced Rider Course, so why not take a dirt-riding course? And Kathy and her partner, Michael St. John, are both MSF certified to teach dirt riding. I told Kathy that I’m interested.

An interesting thing is that apparently, so are a lot of other people. They have limited access to the training course they use and from what Kathy tells me, they have a line of people waiting to get in their classes. That’s a good problem to have, I guess, though you would actually wish you could accommodate everyone who wants to pay for your services.

So I got the scoop on it all. They provide the bikes and the gear. You need gloves and proper footwear. A full-day class runs $175 if they provide the bike, $150 if you bring your own. Get on their email list and they’ll keep you apprised of class opportunities. And even with winter coming on, that doesn’t pull the plug on classes. As long as conditions allow it and they have interested students, they teach all year round.

I’m not saying I’m definitely going to do this, but I’m definitely thinking about it. And after working totally as a freelance writer for the past 3-1/2 years I have now taken an editor position, on contract, with the National Park Service, so I’m going to have some money again, at last. As always, you’ll read about it here if it happens.

Recent from National Motorcycle Examiner
More articles published in Rider and Accelerate

Biker Quote for Today

Paved roads…… Just another perfect example of needless spending by the government.

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Posted in ABATE, Colorado motorcycle rides, Dirt biking, Dual sport bikes | No Comments »

A Parallel Route to Taylor Canyon

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Completing our recent weekend on the Western Slope, Judy and I were coming home via Gunnison and figured that rather than go over Monarch Pass again, as we had just a couple weeks before, that we would take Cottonwood Pass. Of course that means going north from Gunnison to Almont and then east up Taylor Canyon.

Heading up Spring Creek Canyon

Heading up Spring Creek Canyon.

But Judy had been looking at the map and had spotted an alternative. If you start up Taylor Canyon, there is a spot where a road forks off to the left that goes up through Spring Creek Canyon. It’s all gravel whereas Taylor is paved up through Taylor Reservoir, but hey, we’re into exploring the unpaved roads these days. Let’s do it.

Spring Creek Road is comparable to the gravel part of Cottonwood Pass. I’ve seen plenty of Harley cruisers doing Cottonwood so it’s not a question of could you do it, it’s a question of would you want to. It’s a beautiful canyon. Of course, when was the last time you saw an ugly canyon? And if this is your first time in the area, Taylor Canyon is probably prettier. But if you’ve done Taylor Canyon before, Spring Creek is a nice change of pace.

The one issue, of course, is that you would end up doing a lot more gravel. You might be fine with doing the little bit of gravel coming down Cottonwood. This extra 25 miles or so might not be something you’re interested in. (Update: Cottonwood Pass was paved all the way a few years ago. It’s a great road for all bikes now.)

Unless you’re on a dual-sport bike. Then it’s a no-brainer. It’s a nice road, it’s a place you’ve never been before–what else matters?

After cruising up the canyon you come over and down to where you hit the road coming down to Taylor Reservoir from the north. The Taylor Canyon road comes up along the reservoir on the south. At the east end of the reservoir you meet up with that road, and turn left to go up Cottonwood.

So it’s an option. We enjoyed it.

Biker Quote for Today

“Improvement makes strait roads, but the crooked roads without Improvement, are roads of Genius” — William Blake 1757-1827

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Posted in Colorado motorcycle rides, Dual sport bikes, motorcycle touring | No Comments »

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