A merry Christmas to you all.
I hope you all have good holidays. I know I’m not working today.
Biker Quote for Today
The journey is what makes a biker; the destination is just a bonus.
Ho Ho Ho
December 25th, 2025Contracted Expansion Joints
December 22nd, 2025
A good day to ride.
Concrete is such a solid material that the idea of it moving or flowing is kind of hard to imagine. Except it does move.
When bridges are built they are designed with gaps between the bridge and the abutment it rests on. That way, in the summer when it gets hot there is room for the concrete and metal to expand with the heat. In the winter it contracts with the cold.
This is winter. All the expansion joints on bridges and in concrete roads have contracted. That leaves gaps in places, sometimes really big gaps. If you’re on a motorcycle at this time of year, watch out!
I’m talking about this now because last week when I was out on the V-Strom I was seeing gaping expansion joints everywhere. Head out southeast on Parker Road and they’re all over the place. And some of them look like they’re just waiting to trap my front tire into the groove, with possibly very bad results.
The thing is, paving roads is not an exact science. Most expansion gaps are small enough that they are no problem. But some are a lot bigger.
I think the first time I started noticing these large joints was on I-225 where it runs into I-70. As you get off onto the lane that feeds onto eastbound I-70 you really need to watch out. But then the other day I was coming up Monarch Boulevard, which becomes Quebec, from Daniels Park and they were all over down there. Some that must have been two inches wide. That’s certainly enough to channel a wheel in a direction you don’t necessarily want to go.
Nothing we can do about it. Just pay attention and stay alert. And cross those babies at as sharp an angle as you can.
Biker Quote for Today
A biker’s heart beats to the rhythm of the engine.
This Is Not Where I Was Going
December 15th, 2025
Blue sky, sunny day–a great day for a December ride.
Have you ever started out heading to a particular place and found yourself somewhere else, asking, “How the heck did I get here?”
That was me on Sunday.
Sunday was sunny and warm and there was no way I was not going out on the V-Strom. A lot of other people had the same idea. I saw you out there.
I was very uncertain which way to go other than I clearly was not heading into the hills. That’s over for this season.
So I concocted a route, a pretty standard route. I would go out Parker Road to Parker and the go west on Main Street. At Motsenbacher Road I would go south and follow it to Crowfoot Valley Road, to Castle Rock, and then get on US 85 (Santa Fe) going north until I reached Sedalia. Then some route home. Simple.
Except one thing. As many times as I’ve been on the Crowfoot Valley Road I still have trouble finding it on the Parker end. It’s easy on the Castle Rock end but trickier up in Parker. But I figured now I had finally got it clear in my head.
I did what I planned. I got to Parker, turned onto Main Street, and then turned south on Motsenbacher. Nothing to it.
But then Motsenbacher ran out at a T intersection at Todd Drive, a street I was not familiar with. I took the turn to the west and soon ended up on Jordan Road. Fine. I turned south again on Jordan Road.
And then Jordan ended at a T with Hess Road. I turned west again and found myself a bit later at Hess Road and I-25. What?
It’s only now, looking at the map, that I see where I went wrong. I knew I wanted Motsenbacher but that road is one of those that stops and then picks up again later. I needed to pick it up further south than Main Street. If I had it would have simply flowed into and become Crowfoot Valley Road. Or I could have gone east on Hess and gotten back to Motsenbacher that way.
Anyway, no matter. Once I got to I-25 I crossed it and was on Castle Pines Parkway, which I followed to Daniels Park, then I turned north to home. It was a really nice ride.
There’s a quote I’ve seen, I believe it’s from The Lord of the Rings, that says “All who wander are not lost.” Nope. But sometimes they’re sure as heck turned around.
Biker Quote for Today
Riding a motorcycle is an art; every twist and turn is a brushstroke.
Lemonade From Lemons
December 11th, 2025
I paid a visit to my old Concours, sadly not back on the road as I had thought.
I knew when I went to Steele’s on Tuesday that I had screwed up pretty badly, but it was not until Matthew laid out for Judy and me the impacts they had suffered from the post I had put up that I realized just how very badly I had screwed up. Trust me, that is not a good feeling.
In planning for this meeting I had thought hard about how, while the past cannot be undone, the future can be what you choose to make it. And this thought occurred to me: Big deal motorcycle salvage operations are not a dime a dozen. Steele’s, I figured, has got to have an interesting history. As a writer, that was something I would really like to sink my teeth into. I’d like to tell that story. And at least it would be some sort of compensation.
The meeting was tense. Matthew was angry and he had good reason to be. But finally the moment came when I offered my ideas on how to take some lemons and make lemonade, and the mood shifted. To my immense relief, Matthew was not only favorable toward my idea, he himself had had the same thought. And to top that off, it turns out that Steele’s is coming up on its 40-year anniversary of being in business early next year so the idea of telling the history becomes quite timely.
So now I’m downright excited. By the end of our discussion Matthew was proudly taking us on a tour of the whole operation. And I’ve got to say, if you think of an operation of this sort as just a junkyard with rusting vehicles sitting and waiting for random parts to be stripped off you are way, way off base.
I’m already brimming over with ideas for what in a magazine would be considered sidebars but on a blog simply become addition posts that are related to the main story. For instance, I want to be there one day when they break a bike down and observe the whole process. I want to explore how computers have changed this entire business. And a lot more.
I’m not sure just how quickly you’ll start seeing these pieces but they’re going to be coming. I promise you they are going to be interesting.
Biker Quote for Today
The open road is my therapy; the wind is my healer.
Not A Good Assumption
December 6th, 2025OK, this is a huge mea culpa. I wrote last year about how I sold my 1999 Concours to Steele’s Cycle and then a couple weeks later I looked on their site and they had a 1999 Concours listed as sold. Long story short, I assumed–there’s that word–that this bike was mine and they had cleaned it up a bit and had already sold it. Good for them.
I did note, however, that the odometer reading was not what mine showed. I assumed–there’s that word again–that if you sold a bike to a salvage yard they would want to pull from their parts inventory to make the bike as cherry as possible for resale. Which may well be true.
But I also assumed–again!–that in order to make the bike more appealing they had swapped out my instrument cluster for one showing fewer miles. Big mistake.
I got a call today, Saturday, December 6, from Steele’s. Matthew was most unhappy and insists that I come over so they can show me my bike still sitting in their warehouse. He would not make that demand if it were not true so I have already deleted the offending post. And I will go over there on Tuesday, the next day they’re open, and we will have a discussion. And I am posting this as soon as I finish writing it.
This is a huge public apology to Steele’s. I hope you can understand how I made this mistake. I sold you a bike, a couple weeks later I see on your site a bike just like mine–not a particularly common item 25 years after it was made–and assumed it was the one I sold. I was wrong. I apologize sincerely. I’ll see you on Tuesday.
Ride Before The Snow Falls
December 4th, 2025
If I had waited a day this is what I would have been faced with.
Tuesday was sunny and nice. Snow was forecast for Wednesday. It’s a new month: December. With the stage set like that how could I not go for a ride. The only gear I didn’t wear was my heated gloves. I figured my fingers might get chilly but they’d be OK.
I had no idea where I was going. I headed south to start with and got to where I thought I might go east but didn’t. On further south and I got to Arapahoe Road. Here I turned east. Going west is out of the question now till next spring, except if I just want to stay in town.
I knew I had been out as far east on Arapahoe as you can go but I didn’t remember where it ends up. Guess I’ll find out again and decide where to go after that when I get there. So. Cross Parker Road, on past E-470, and then I remembered this was going to bring me up onto Smoky Hill Road. OK.
When I left home the thermometer out front, in the sun, had read 60. The one in back, in the shade, had read 50. That’s a fair representation of how much effect sunshine offers. And it was sunny when I left. By the time I reached Smoky Hill Road the sky had totally changed. It was fully clouded over and not a bit of blue sky to be seen. And the temperature had dropped. OK, I had never expected to take a long ride and this seemed like good spot to turn toward home.
As I’ve been out riding lately I have noticed again and again road work aimed at installing medians on major streets. I had just gone past some on Arapahoe Road but now, heading west on Smoky Hill Road I saw some of the strangest medians I’ve ever seen. Usually they put in planters and vegetation or else just some smooth concrete or concrete stamped to look like brick. Not on Smoky Hill.
In these new medians they’re putting in it is all rough, sharp, loose rock. Sharp, jagged rock about the size of a football and just spread out thickly on the dirt. This is the kind of thing that would eat your tires almost instantly. Nobody is going to willingly drive onto these medians. But I bet this is a heck of a lot cheaper than even the simplest concrete. Is that all it is, a cost-saving matter? It’s definitely not aesthetically pleasing.
Anyway, I got home and was not too chilled and I had gotten my December ride in, in case the bad weather persists. Not a day too soon.
Biker Quote for Today
Make noise with your Harley Davidson bike and work in silence to achieve it.