Archive for the ‘motorcycle touring’ Category

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Eight Months Away But The OFMC 2018 Trip Is Set

Thursday, November 30th, 2017
motorcycles parked alongside the road.

On the road with the OFMC in 2008.

I did what I said, I just made the decisions for next year’s OFMC motorcycle trip and told the guys where we’re going. They think it’s a great plan. Fine.

And I think it’s going to be a good trip. We’ll be going some places the group has never gone before and with any luck we won’t roast in southern New Mexico in July. I suggested we move the date to a cooler time but nobody else agreed with me. Don’t complain if it gets hot, OK?

We’ll start out headed for Lake San Isabel. The lodge there has numerous cabins large enough to accommodate all of us so that will be an inexpensive night. And it’s a nice place.

Next day we’ll head on to Angel Fire, New Mexico. There are not a lot of options there so we’re pretty much stuck with the Lodge at Angel Fire.

Then on to Ruidoso, and this stop encompasses several things that are mandatory on any OFMC trip. We’ll stay at an Indian casino where there is gambling, we’ll stay two days and play golf one of those days, and it’s posh. I’m not into posh but the rest of the guys have gotten pretty snooty over the years and they like this kind of thing. I can live with it.

From there we go to Silver City and this is much more my style. We’ll be staying in one of the old, but nicely renovated, hotels downtown. Downtown Silver City is a lively, funky place with a lot of artist types. This will be nice.

Then there’s no really good option so I chose Gallup. When John and Bill and I stayed there one night many years ago, when it was just us three on the trip, we ended up in a totally skanky place because the only other options were mucho expensivo. Fortunately, over the years they have built several much nicer, run-of-the-mill chain motels so we can at least stay at a decent place without forking over our childrens’ inheritance.

Next will be Ouray. Ouray is my favorite small town in Colorado and somehow the group has never stayed there. I’m looking forward to that one. Of course, this is very near where John lives–John who is an original member of the OFMC but who has given up riding due to health reasons. So maybe John will drive on down and join us for a night.

From there we head home, going only as far as Buena Vista. Somehow we have never stayed in Buena Vista before, either, so this will be a first.

And then on home. And maybe for the 2018 trip I won’t be sick and end up cutting my ride short after the second night, the way I was forced to do this year. That was a total bummer. I’m looking for 2018 to be better–a lot better.

Biker Quote for Today

Some do drugs, some drink bottles; we solve our problems with wide open throttles.

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Biker Buddy Latest Sharing App For Bikers

Monday, October 30th, 2017
Biker Buddy website.

The Biker Buddy website.

Everyone is familiar with AirBnB, right? Well, how about something very similar aimed specifically at those of us who ride motorcycles? That’s Biker Buddy. And let me hasten to point out that the URL for this outfit is not “.com” but “.co.” (And just in case I need to be even clearer, that second period between the quote marks is not part of the quote or url, it is the end of the sentence. That’s the way we do it in the U.S., although the Brits put that period outside the quotes.)

I have written many times about the Motorcycle Travel Network and yes, Biker Buddy appears to be a direct competitor for them. The MTN is more casual and you pay less to stay with someone; Biker Buddy handles it all–including payment–via an app and the rate is higher. Specifically, for MTN you pay the host $15 for one person or $20 for two, with each additional person an added $10. With Biker Buddy the fee is $40. And that $40 is a fee, whereas with MTN the $15 or $20 is considered a gratuity to cover expenses.

Technically what that would mean is that if you had a lot of guests via Biker Buddy you would need to deal with the IRS. Presumably the MTN gratuity would not be taxable, although the IRS might differ with that interpretation.

Biker Buddy is so new that I certainly don’t have any experience to relate about it, though I have signed up. Looking at the app, so far I only see a few others signed up in this region, all in Wyoming: three in Casper, one in Newcastle, and two in Upton. Then I see one up in Dickinson, North Dakota, as well. Members also in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas; near Austin, Texas; and near Nashville, Tennessee. That appears to be everybody at this moment.

So what we’re talking here is another way to find an inexpensive place to stay when you’re on the road, with people who share an interest in bikes. We have never had a bad experience with the Motorcycle Travel Network. If you’ve ever used AirBnB you should definitely jump on Biker Buddy. But heck, you really should have been using MTN for years already. I’m going with both.

Biker Quote for Today

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know when to just go riding.

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Gerhard Was Our Latest MTN Visitor

Thursday, October 26th, 2017
Motorcycle Travel Network site.

I neglected to shoot a photo of Gerhard and his bike so I’m using this screenshot of the MTN site.

As I mentioned previously, we had another Motorcycle Travel Network visitor a couple days ago, Gerhard from Illinois. Once again we enjoyed meeting a fellow biker and were happy to have him stay with us.

Gerhard, who is 83 years old, is a serious rider. I’m not sure how many miles he has put on his bikes at this point but he told the story of renewing his driving license eight years ago. In Illinois you have to take and pass the riding portion of the motorcycle validation test. On his big BMW cruiser he was not able to navigate the cones and was afraid he would lose his accreditation. The tester, however, told him privately that he noticed his “400,000 miles” sticker on his bike and figured that if he has ridden 400,000 miles on a motorcycle and is still alive then he was not going to deny him a renewal on his license.

So that was eight years ago; I don’t know how many miles he has added since then.

It was interesting, too, because I know just what Gerhard was facing. When I first got my motorcycle accreditation on my driver’s license I had no choice but to take the test on my Honda 750. That’s a big bike to take the driving test on. I failed it the first time but passed it the second time by intuitively revving the engine, dragging the rear brake, and working the clutch to walk the bike slowly and deliberately around the cones.

I told Gerhard about this and said he could easily do the same and he surprised me saying that yes, I could do it because I’m an expert, but he is not an expert. He has ridden probably more than 500,000 miles on a motorcycles and he does not consider himself an expert? Really?

But then I think about the guys I ride with and I understand what he’s saying. Dennis is the one in our group who has ridden more than anyone. And yet I’ve seen in numerous instances a demonstration that Dennis does not understand this same simple procedure for controlling the bike at very slow speeds. I gave a demonstration once riding my bike in a U-turn on a narrow road and then watched as each of the other guys jockeyed their bikes back and forth making a series of Y’s to get turned around. Guys, did you not see what I just did? You really can do it if you try.

So Gerhard is no “expert” rider. Well, he certainly is a distance rider. He came here from Kanab, Utah, in one day–600 miles. And he left the next day headed for Lincoln, Nebraska. That’s a shorter distance, and one that I myself have ridden in a day a couple times, but still what I consider a long way. I’ve never ridden 600 miles in a day. And then Gerhard was planning to ride the rest of the way home, to Illinois the next day.

And remember, he’s 83. Good for you Gerhard, keep going as long as you can. I hope to do the same.

Biker Quote for Today

Imagine life without motorcycles. Now slap yourself and never do it again!

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Getting My Fix

Monday, October 23rd, 2017
motorcycle above lake

A rest stop on the OFMC’s first California trip.

When you’re seriously addicted to cruising on two wheels you’ll go to extremes to get your fix. I know I did when a company I once worked for sent me to Sacramento for a month. This was going to be an opportunity to ride some fabulous roads in a place too far from home for us to reach on our usual summer trips. How could I possibly spend a month in California and not have a bike to ride? I couldn’t.

My first thought was to ride my Honda from Denver to Sacramento so I would have it there. Instead, I took a simpler approach: I flew to Sacramento and bought a bike when I got there.

I arrived in Sacramento, picked up a rental car, checked into my hotel, and went to work the next day. As soon as work was over I drove to PCP Motorsports and asked to speak to the manager. Don “Badge” Bajurin, one of the owners, came out. “I’m going to be here for four weeks,” I told him, “and I’ve got to have a bike. Can we set something up where I’ll buy one of your used bikes and then you agree to buy it back from me, at a lower price, when I’m ready to leave?”

The thing about motorcycle dealers like Badge is they generally love bikes as much as or more than their customers. With the very clear understanding that if I crashed the bike the repurchase deal was off, he agreed. I seem to have gotten lucky, too, because Badge told me no other dealer in town would have made that kind of deal. But he was friends with Fay Myers, who runs a dealership in Denver, and he loves to go ride in Colorado on a bike provided by Myers. He understood the reverse was true for me. And I had a bike, a 1984 Honda Nighthawk 550.

False Start
I waited impatiently for the weekend and come Saturday morning I was rarin’ to go. But the bike was’t. Being in an unfamiliar place, with my bike parked in the open, I had taken a security measure I normally do not: I had locked the fork. The only problem was, in my unfamiliarity with this procedure, I had set it in a position where the fork was locked but the headlight was also on. Of course the battery was dead when I tried to start it.

I didn’t know that was the problem, though, so I called Badge. He sent a truck over to pick up the bike and they took it to the shop, checked it out, and charged the battery. Then they hauled it back to me, and they did this all at no charge. Nice guys!

And then I took off. With the late start I just blasted down through the Napa Valley on my way to Oakland, where I had friends and would spend the night. We went riding in the hills behind Oakland the next day and then it was back to Sacramento.

The following weekend I had to work on Saturday so that only left me Sunday. Being chronically overambitious, I figured I’d just take a quick cruise down through Yosemite National Park. That turned out to be one heck of a long day, much longer than I had anticipated, but a lot of fun just the same.

Saving the Best for Last
The best came last. On my third and final weekend I had two days and I took advantage of them. I headed west through Davis, up a canyon to Lake Berryessa. I stopped in the canyon and saw a huge blue heron take flight. I then looped around the southern end of the lake, on nice twisty roads, down into Napa Valley. I stopped at a couple wineries and then headed for the coast.

Through incredible good luck, I cut over on what proved to be a narrow, winding, often one-lane road through dense forest, along sheer hillsides, up and down, with curves galore. Following this Skaggs Springs Road I finally reached the ocean at Stewart’s Point, where I headed south along the coast on the fabled Highway 1. My stop for the night was Bodega Bay, where Alfred Hitchcock filmed “The Birds.”

In the morning I continued south to Point Reyes Station and then cut inland. From the coast to the Sonoma Valley to the Napa Valley to the Sacramento Valley it was one narrow, twisting road after another where my little 550 Nighthawk could really shine. What an absolutely glorious time!

Then it was time to sell the bike back to Badge and head home to Denver. This addict had gotten the fix of his lifetime.

Biker Quote for Today

We know you’re a poser if you’re too cool to wave at the kids in the mom-mobile in front of you.

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Wanting What You Have

Monday, September 18th, 2017
motorcycle on Royal Gorge bridge

The Royal Gorge bridge. This obviously was before the big fire a couple years ago.

One of the newer members of the OFMC commented a few years ago that a big part of our summer motorcycle trips, for him, is going a really long distance. It seems he liked returning from vacation and wowing the folks at work with how far we’d gone and the exotic places we’d been to.

The subject came up because John and I were using our weight as founding members of the group, not to mention the two most involved in planning each year, to establish the decision that our next trip would be an all-Colorado ride. Living in Colorado as we all do, it’s just not as exotic to say you went to Telluride. But hey, people come from all over the world to visit Telluride, and ride the roads of Colorado. Staying in the state would make for a more relaxed trip, and knowing the state as well as we do, we could ensure a fabulous trip. Our desires prevailed.

We chose Cripple Creek as our meeting point. With guys coming from different places and arriving at different times, that seemed like a good spot for the early birds to hang out while waiting. Cripple Creek is an old mining town now reborn as a gambling town, and the roads getting there are worth the trip even if you don’t gamble.

With the crowd together we then headed south out of town on a little county road that wanders through the forest and the hills before emerging a bit north of Canon City. Canon City is the locale of the Royal Gorge, where a suspension bridge crosses the Arkansas River about 1,053 feet below. For an added treat, we took the back way in to the park, on one of the narrowest, windiest pieces of asphalt I’ve ever seen. Heck, I didn’t even know there was a back way; I thought it was a dead end. Thank John for this bit of info.

Crossing the bridge is a thrill. It sways and shudders and if you’re afraid of heights it can be more than a little scary. Of course we stopped and shot pictures of us and the bikes on the bridge. Then we cruised on to Canon City where we made a point to ride Skyline Drive.

To picture Skyline Drive, think of a 200-foot tall brontosaurus and riding up the very ridge of his back. The road itself is barely 12 feet wide and it’s most definitely one-way. At the top you overlook downtown Canon City and it’s a great view.

Our next stop was Bishop Castle, a ways south of Canon City. This life-size castle is being built by one man, Jim Bishop, and it’s straight out of your wildest imagination of the medieval ages, complete with fire-breathing dragon. Forget about building codes because this is officially a work of art, not a building. Jim Bishop went to court to establish that fact. Translated that means it takes more and more guts to keep going higher and higher in this thing. And you can. You can climb all over it.

Lacking space here to go into detail, I’m going to list what came next. We crossed over Independence Pass to Aspen and then took McClure Pass over into the Grand Valley. We skirted along the north rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, rode past Blue Mesa Reservoir, and up to Lake City. From there it was over Slumgullion Pass down to Creede and then over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs.

At that point we did exit Colorado just for a bit, dipping down into New Mexico, to Chama, and then back into Colorado along the road to Antonito. In Antonito we visited Cano’s Castle, sort of smaller version of Bishop Castle built almost entirely out of cans and other scrap. From there it was south to New Mexico again, to Taos. Then we went northwest, back into Colorado, to Durango, over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray, to Montrose. At that point the trip was over and we scattered each in our own directions.

Biker Quote for Today

The only thing better than a biker chick is . . . absolutely nothing!!

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Too Much Like ‘The Shining’

Thursday, September 14th, 2017
Bear Lodge

The place John was headed, not the creepy place we stayed.

Have you ever been out on the road and stayed at a really creepy place? I’m not talking about dumps. Heck, we’ve stayed in plenty of those, like the place in Kemmerer, WY, where it turned out the three rooms next to ours didn’t have roofs. You see, they’d had a fire awhile back . . .

No, I’m talking about places that make you think of that old Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall flick, “The Shining.” Or maybe the Bates Motel from “Psycho.” The OFMC stayed in one of those places some years ago.

Some years prior to that, on our annual OFMC motorcycle road trip, we had been crossing the Big Horn mountains up in Wyoming going east on US 14. We were pressing on to Sheridan that day but coming around a bend we scooted past a lodge with some cabins that struck me as very appealing and perhaps a place to plan on stopping in the future.

Skip ahead some years and our route was taking us back over the Big Horns, this time from east to west. John and I agreed that there was this place up there where we wanted to spend the night, but when I pulled in to the lodge I had in mind it wasn’t the same one he had in mind. Didn’t matter; it was a nice-looking place.

Shall we just say the people running the place were a little odd? Taking care of prospective guests seemed to be the last thing on their mind, and we kind of got the feeling we weren’t welcome. It almost felt like, to them, we didn’t even exist. At John’s suggestion we mounted up again and went on another 10 miles or so to the place he had been thinking of.

The problem with that place, however, was that it cost more than double what the first place was asking. Reluctantly, we headed back. Standing at the front desk, no one seemed interested in taking our money. And again it was like we didn’t exist. I finally got very pushy, corralled someone and demanded to be registered, and they deigned to check us in and give us keys.

Getting dinner in their restaurant was the same. Hello, is there anyone who would like to wait on us?

We finally ate and spent some time shooting the bull on the deck outside our rooms, talking about how weird this place was. Would “Here’s Johnny!” be awakening us from our slumbers? But the night passed uneventfully, with the exception of Dennis’s Gold Wing falling over as its sidestand sunk deeply into the rain-saturated gravel of the parking lot.

In the morning we agreed to eat breakfast up the road. Good-bye. So long. We won’t be troubling you any further. Just one final chill down our spines as we left, to send us on our way.

Biker Quote for Today

You can’t always go back but you can always go further.

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