Archive for the ‘Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Riders Club’ Category

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The Messiness Of Riding With A Large Group

Thursday, March 3rd, 2022

We had a Vanderhall Carmel autocycle with us today.

I just got home from a ride with the RMMRC. With temperatures expected to be in the 70s on this early March day it should be no surprise there were altogether 17 people on this ride.

With so many people it was basically assured we could not stick together all the way to our destination west of Colorado Springs, in old Colorado City. But we also needed to pick up three others in two spots along the way, so we just made sure everyone knew the two spots and said get there and regroup.

That worked pretty well but then, leaving the second stop, in Franktown, we were headed to a restaurant in Colorado City that nobody was familiar with and getting there was not going to be necessarily simple. So once again the deal to get into Colorado Springs, get off at Fillmore Street, and regroup. Then try to stay together to get to the restaurant.

Let’s just say we managed. Only a little bit of chaos.

After lunch we were going to essentially backtrack, but Tim said he could lead us on a nice ride up through Garden of the Gods and then on the way we were figuring. OK. Tim is the one person I know who knows the roads better than me.

So we all got on our bikes and ready to go and looked around and where the heck was Tim? Nowhere to be seen. What the heck? So someone else took the initiative and led us off on what was not a very good route and within two traffic lights we were already getting broken up. We got on US 24 headed toward I-25 and then someone got in the left turn lane. Some people were able to get over but others weren’t and I saw Susan and someone else just go on straight on 24. The rest of us turned, except the one who initiated the turn did a U-turn and went back the other way. We just went ahead.

By the time we reached I-25 at the Uintah interchange there were only four still together in the pod I was in. Then we got on the highway and very soon Gene was the only one behind me and no one in front. So we got off at the designated exit and were cruising along when I saw someone coming up behind. It was Susan. So the three of us headed north toward Denver on CO 83.

Just before we reached Castlewood Canyon State Park I checked my mirror and Gene was nowhere to be seen. In other circumstances that would be cause for concern but with everyone basically just headed home he could easily have decided to take a different route. So we kept going. Around about Orchard Susan peeled off so I was alone but just then I saw in my mirror someone who looked to be Gene.

I figured I’d take it easy and let him catch up but Gene has a way of hanging back. Finally at a stoplight he got close enough that I could see it wasn’t Gene, but Pat, who also rides a Concours 14, as does Gene. Then things took a twist.

Traffic started moving and the guy in front of me started moving, just as I was looking behind me to ascertain that it was Pat. As I turned my gaze forward I saw the truck in front of me was stopped. I later learned there was a car stalled a few car lengths in front of him. I nailed my brakes and, fishtailing wildly, tried to direct the bike to the left of the truck. I came to a stop with my front wheel past the back of the truck but to the side and his rear bumper about two inches from my fairing. I would not have gotten hurt but there would have been damage to the bike. I got lucky. You know, forget trying to see who that is, ride your damn bike.

The rest of the ride home was uneventful, thank goodness.

Biker Quote for Today

Why motorcycles are better than women: Your motorcycle never wants a night out alone with the other motorcycles.

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First Ride for 2022

Thursday, January 13th, 2022

Getting parked out in Kiowa.

I just got back about 20 minutes ago from my first ride of the new year. Nothing special, just a run out to Patty Ann’s in Kiowa for lunch. But what a great day to be out on the bike.

There have been a couple other nice days already but our street was still covered in ice and snow. Yesterday’s sun finally cleared enough that I had about a 10-inch path I could take to carry me past the ice that was still there. And by the time I’m home now that path has expanded to about three feet wide. That alone tells you it’s a nice day to be outside.

There were five of us of the RMMRC who met up at Sam’s #3 and with uncertainty about the roads we opted to stick to the main highways, figuring they, for sure, would be clear. I was leading.

Out Parker Road to Franktown and then east on CO 86. Nothing eventful, just clear roads and not that much traffic. At Patty Ann’s we were sorry to learn that due to the universal lack of workers they were cutting no slack and since we had arrived after 11 a.m. we could not order off the breakfast menu. Darn, because I really wanted the huevos rancheros. So did Roy. Oh well.

To the total shock of no one, we were approached while we were there by two guys in riding gear, asking who owned a particular bike. So there were stories to be exchanged and ride invitations extended. Roy is always good about recruiting new members for the RMMRC.

Heading back, Roy had the idea to head north on the Kiowa-Bennett Road but Harlan offered what we all thought was a better route. With him in the lead we headed west on CO 86, through Franktown to Castle Rock, across I-25 and then turned north on Daniels Park Road. Where the road splits at the entrance to the park we turned east and then at that first roundabout turned north on the road that eventually becomes Quebec St. Shortly after, we started shedding riders as each person turned toward home.

And that was that. Chalk up one motorcycle now ridden for January with two more to go.

Biker Quote for Today

100 reasons not to date a biker: 7. It’s perfectly natural to have a motorcycle parked in the living room.

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What The Hay?

Monday, December 27th, 2021

We encountered the hay truck shortly after this rest stop in the Snowy Range. Sorry, no photos of the hay trucks.

I find it pretty amazing how those container ships stack those things so high above the ship’s deck. It looks really top-heavy but clearly there has got to be a lot of ship below the water to keep it stable.

On dry land, the seemingly comparable situation is the way you sometimes see loads of hay stacked to tower way, way above the truck hauling it all. The difference being that there is no truck out of sight down below the road so that top-heavy load better be well stacked. Sometimes it is not.

Twice this past year, out on motorcycle trips, I encountered situations where those bales were not well stacked and secured.

The first was on the OFMC trip. We had been in Wyoming, having left Torrington, and were headed to Walden, back in Colorado. At Laramie we took US 230 southwest as it passes through just the southern edge of the Snowy Range.

Coming around a bend there was a warning cone in the road and a quick glance ahead showed why. A truck loaded to the sky with huge bales of hay was part-way off on the side of the road with its load leaning menacingly toward the highway. Oh my gosh, there’s a real mess trying to happen. We gave it all a wide berth.

At least that guy didn’t lose his load. He had folks there to help and they were doing whatever it would take to put it all back to right. But clearly somebody didn’t do their job all that well when that truck was loaded. Or maybe that driver was just going way too fast.

It was a very different case, however, when, on the Colorado Cruise with the RMMRC, we were crossing Grand Mesa on our first day out. As we came down CO 65 toward I-70 in Debeque Canyon there were warning cones in the road. And there ahead was another hay truck. But this one didn’t have any hay on it. It’s entire load was scattered on and around the highway. Somebody had a real mess to clean up. And somebody probably got seriously reamed out by their boss.

Gosh, the things some people will do just to keep life interesting for us traveling motorcyclists!

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if you have a refrigerator in the garage just for beer.

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Conspicuity

Thursday, December 9th, 2021

Little Susan, on the left, was the most visible member of this group.

Conspicuity: the quality or state of being conspicuous

One of the really big issues when you ride motorcycles is being seen. We all know how this goes. How many times have we heard drivers who caused, or nearly caused, crashes with motorcycles say “I didn’t see him.”

They’re not lying. I myself have twice been in situations where I nearly caused an accident with a biker because I did not see him. So there are two things we all need to do: make yourself as visible as possible and then ride as if you’re invisible.

In the RMMRC there are a good many people who make a point to wear the eye-catching bright yellow or orange vests that go on over your riding jacket. Roy, the club’s safety director, has spoken to me more than twice about my black helmet and black jacket. Roy always rides sweep and he has told me that as he looks ahead he can see this rider and that rider but that I frequently blend into the scenery. Now, I do have reflectors on the sidebags of my Concours and a couple of my helmets but I guess that really doesn’t amount to much. I put more focus on riding defensively, as if I were invisible, as I said.

And so far that has worked out pretty well for me. The closest encounters I have had have generally involved people changing lanes without turning to actually look to see if there was someone in the lane they wanted to shift to. If you’re–even just for an instant–in their blind spot, and they don’t look, nothing you wear will make them see you. I pay a lot of attention to that sort of thing.

So I found it interesting riding with the RMMRC on the Colorado Cruise, hanging out in the rear of the group, that many of these guys in their fluorescent vests were barely visible, at least from behind. Why? Because they had dark top bags and such rising up behind them that almost totally blocked my view of their bright vests.

And who was the most visible of all? It was Susan, a very short lady on a small bike whose white helmet and fluorescent-striped jacket stood out vividly. And the funny thing was that Susan told me she preferred to be in the middle of the pack because she was afraid, being so small, that it was too easy for people not to see her. But in fact, nobody was more visible than her. And of course, she didn’t have bags stacked up behind her.

So who knows, maybe I ought to get another jacket, this one with blazing yellow stripes or something. Like I don’t have enough jackets. We’ll see.

Biker Quote for Today

You know you’re a biker if your only three piece suit is a leather jacket, leather vest and chaps.

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Gotta Love This December Riding

Monday, December 6th, 2021

We were riding up on the Peak-to-Peak Saturday. Think about that. It was December 4 and we were up in the hills. That tells you everything you need to know about the weather we’ve had so far in this late fall. Generally by this time of year those roads are either icy or treacherous with sand and gravel.

Not that there was no sand–we encountered a fair bit of that coming down through Golden Gate Canyon. But that was the only sand we ever saw and there was no ice at all. How could there by ice? The day-time highs have continued to be in the 60s.

  Bikes on CO 46 through Golden Gate Canyon.

The only thing that surprised me when I received the notice of the ride, an RMMRC ride, was that it hadn’t come sooner. You can’t have this kind of great weather and not have rides getting planned.

There were nine of us who took off from a 7-Eleven in Golden. We headed north on CO 93 toward Boulder but then skirted around the city to the east, following Marshall Drive to Cherryvale Road and north, then Baseline Road further east to 75th St. and north on 75th to Niwot. Then Niwot Road and Neva Road took us west to US 36, which took us north to Lyons. Time for lunch.

After lunch we tried to go up South St. Vrain Drive (CO 7) to the Peak-to-Peak but it was closed for construction. So we headed back south on US 36 to Lefthand Canyon Drive. That road brought us to the Peak-to-Peak at Ward.

It had been warm down in front of the foothills but now up higher I was very glad to have my electric vest. I had dressed warmly because I didn’t trust it would be warm the whole ride and that was a good thing on my part.

We headed south on the Peak-to-Peak, through Nederland, and on to CO 46, down Golden Gate Canyon. This was where we encountered the only sand of the whole ride. Most of the time it was right in the middle of our lane, although sometimes there would be two lines of it and you’d need to be careful to stay in between them. The worst was in a really tight turn but again, if you stayed in the track you were OK. So be advised if you head up that way. This is not the road that hot-shots on sport bikes should go blasting down any time soon.

Once we were back at CO 93 in Golden it was every man for himself and we scattered quickly. Great day for a ride.

Biker Quote for Today

Whenever I ride my motorcycle I always keep an excess of hay with me. I use hay to increase the horsepower of my bike!

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Riding In The Morning

Thursday, December 2nd, 2021

This wasn’t super early but the sun was still coming up as we went over McClure Pass.

In the early days of the OFMC we were notorious for the lateness of our starts. We’d sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast, and maybe get on the road by 10. Or 11.

Not any more. First of all, none of us sleep that late these days. My normal time to get up is in the 7 to 7:30 range. Dennis and Bill are both early risers who are up long before me. Now about the latest we get going is 9. But that’s still not really what you could call morning riding–that’s already mid-day riding.

When I went with the RMMRC on the Colorado Cruise we had to get an actual early start one day because the road south out of Ouray was going to be closed for construction at 7:30 up near the top of Red Mountain Pass, and would not reopen until lunch time. To play it safe we were rolling out of Ouray about 6:45. That’s early morning riding.

And it’s so nice! Now, in this case it was cold, and I could have done without that. But it was so beautiful! We all see the sunset most days but many people–including me–rarely see the sunrise.

The world at sunrise can be an enchanted place. The colors, perhaps the sparkling of dew, the smells, and more.

I’ve ridden all over Colorado many times and I don’t have many specific memories of particular stretches of road–except a few morning rides.

I was heading to Arizona Bike Week one year and I camped for the night somewhere east of Mesa Verde along US 160. I woke up with the sun and got going and enchanting really is the right word. Cool, fresh, delicious, and a wide open road with almost no traffic.

Another time we spent the night in Monticello, Utah, and it rained early in the morning. We got an early start very soon after the rain stopped and again, enchantment. And this time the color was really brought out by the wet, as were the smells. Have you really smelled sagebrush? You generally won’t on a hot, dusty afternoon but on a cool, wet morning it’s overwhelming.

Then there was another time, also on US 160, between Fort Garland and La Veta, going over La Veta Pass. You don’t want to hurry; you just want to cruise and savor it all. And with almost no traffic you can.

I’m just not that much of a morning person to do this sort of thing all the time, but when circumstances put me into that situation I’m never sorry. Try it. You might find that you love it.

Biker Quote for Today

In the motorcycle safety course they tell you that target fixation is bad, where your eyes are looking is where you usually end up. Must be why I keep running over female joggers.

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