Passes & Canyons Blog

by Matt Wessels

The Vintage movement is in full force and old motorcycles are finding their way back to daylight and backroads in record numbers. This year will mark the 5th annual Vintage Motorcycle Show in Golden, Colorado.

Heritage Square will host the event one last time before they close their doors at the end of 2015, and all of their facilities will be operational for the show. Those facilities include bathrooms, restaurants, and a bar.

Erico Motorsports, GrandPrix Motorsports Indian and Foothills Triumph/BMW will be there showcasing some of the factory retro motos. Last year they had a half-million dollar Vincent show up, by the name of the Black Prince. It might make a re-appearance at this year’s show.

The show (Sunday, June 7) is open to anybody with a vintage motorcycle following the structure of a controlled open floor. To enter, respond to the evite and drop a comment so that Bob can get an idea of how many bikes there will be. Being a part of the show is just as free as attending it. They are taking donations for Hospice care, so bring some stray bills to support a good cause!

Much like the show being a celebration of all that was good and right in the motorcycle world, the Hospice donations are a celebration of good people who make it their life’s work to increase the quality of life for those who can not completely provide it for themselves. The idea was started when a friend was immensely impressed with the Hospice workers who take care of his mom, and wanted to give back.

The VJMC is also giving back by footing the bill for the event and wants all motorcycles from all backgrounds, manufacturers, and styles to attend. This isn’t a profitable endeavor, this is simply two enthusiasts who want to bring like-minded people together and celebrate good bikes, good food, good talk, and good experiences.

If you missed the link up above, go HERE to register for attendance. IT’S FREE!

For any other questions or comments, please reach out to Bob @ superhawk65@gmail.com

Many of the same folks meet at the GB Fish and Chips on the first Thursday of every month for Old Bike Night. There are a few other Old Bike Night meetups around the front range area, but not all necessarily connected with this one.

We’ve had a phenomenal winter for snowfall in the mountains and that has an impact on some of the best motorcycle roads in the state.

The good news is that Independence Pass, CO 82 between Twin Lakes and Aspen is finally open. From what I’ve heard, though, it is still subject to periodic closures depending on conditions. I’d check first before heading that way.

CO 5 to the top of Mount Evans is also open, as is the Pike’s Peak Highway, which goes to the top of that 14,110-foot mountain.

Trail Ridge Road, on the other hand, is still closed. The Colorado Department of Transportation says the closure is “between Milner Pass and Rainbow Curve due to adverse conditions.” They don’t say when it will be open.

A couple other passes that are still closed are only of interest if you’re the sort who doesn’t mind doing some dirt.

Kebler Pass, coming down from Crested Butte toward Paonia is still closed. You can get to Crested Butte on CO 135, which is paved, but the stretch over Kebler, County Road 12, is dirt.

Likewise, Cottonwood Pass is still closed. Again, you can get up the east side of Cottonwood from Buena Vista on a paved road. Just don’t think you’re going to get down the other side, whether you ride dirt or not.

We love the snowfall. The skiers had a good winter. Our reservoirs will be full this summer. But you’re going to have to be patient before you can ride some of these roads.

Biker Quote for Today

Ride often, ride well, have fun.

I’ve always figured I was pretty good on slow, tight turns on a big bike. Heck, I passed my original motorcycle driver’s license test on my CB750. I think most people borrow little 250s or something like that to take the riding test, but not me.

Well, I saw some guys perform on Sunday that did stuff I’ll never be able to do as long as I live. This event was the annual Top Gun Symposium of the Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club. All the contestants were motorcycle patrol officers riding their regular patrol bikes. Most were Harleys but there were also BMWs and Kawasaki Police Specials.

Take a look at this guy. That’s a heck of a tight turn and sharp lean angle and he’s probably going less than 5 mph. Can you do that? I can’t.

This guy wasn’t even the winner, or one of the top three winners. Altogether there were 39 officers competing from a number of different departments, with winners in three categories to correspond with the three makes of bike. The best of the best was named Top Gun. He was one of the guys on one of the Kawasakis.

All in all, it was a pretty good show, and it drew a nice crowd, mostly on bikes. What can I say? Heck, I was impressed.

Biker Quote for Today

A good rider has balance, judgment, and good timing. So does a good lover.

Riders for Health is an organization that provides money and motorcycles to transport life-saving medical supplies to remote African villages. Adventure Riders is a web forum for motorcyclists who are “generally long distance and adventure oriented enthusiasts.”

The Adventure Riders have organized a fund-raising event to benefit Riders for Health and that event is coming through Colorado June 7-9. As the group’s letter of intent states, the goal is to gather sponsors and contributions to riders.org while riding in and through:

• Each of the United States
• The Canadian Provinces and Territories
• New Zealand
• Australia
• India
• Turkey
• Scotland

Riders participating in the event are passing off a “baton,” which is a waterproof case containing a “mascot,” pictures, logs, and other items.

This relay starts May 16th 2008 at one of our Rallies in North Carolina with the US and Canadian legs finishing in August of 2008 and will continue on to many other places. During each leg of the relay, riders will take photographs, write online journals, log points of interest or include something about their region or the ride; Motorcycle rallies and enthusiast gatherings get special attention. These photos and stories will be prominently featured in an accompanying thread.

The baton is scheduled to enter Colorado on June 7 for hand-off at Burlington. It will come to Denver and on June 8 make its way to Buena Vista and on to Ridgway. On June 9 it will go to Pagosa Springs, where it will be handed off to New Mexico riders. Go to this thread on the Adventure Riders forum to see the whole route.

If you want to help out, here is the info on donations:

The ADVRider Relay, including the volunteer rider’s expenses, is completely self-funded. 100% of the donations less PayPal expenses or other funds transfer fees are forwarded directly to Riders.org. Please donate via Paypal at advriderrelay@aol.com or contact us there for other options.

I think I may be taking a ride on Sunday, June 8.

Biker Quote for Today

It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.

I don’t have details yet but will pass along this warning that just came to me:

Please inform your readers, Berthoud is in extremely poor condition. Rode it today, and even had it not been raining and snowing, the road would be very bad!

I replied asking if the problem is that the pavement is in bad shape, or what. I’ll add that info when I receive it.

OK, here’s additional info:

The road was in terrible shape. Lots of potholes, cracks, and still a lot of sand all over.

So there you go. Be careful out there.

There was a comment on a previous post from Gianluca Pezzi, who is involved with Blogo.it. In case the name and the “it” at the end of that website name didn’t give it away, Gianluca is Italian. He mentioned two things that caught my interest.

First, he was calling my attention to their Two Wheels Blog, which he describes as “for readers interested in what’s happening on the motorcycling scene in Italy.” If you click on these links you’ll see that the blog is in English, but the website is in Italian. Unless you read Italian I guess I’d stick with the blog.

Anyway, the blog is a variety of information, including a lot of videos of bikes and such. Interesting to check out if you’re a big fan of Italian bikes. Says Gianluca:

Two Wheels Blog is a new initiative from Blogo.it, and is dedicated to the motorcycling sector in Italy: with everything from championships, to new models released, our favourite brands, photos and videos, we’re hoping to give voice to the dedicated motorcycling community around these parts.

So far we’ve written about our testing of the new Beta Urban 200 pre-series, included a video on a new BMW, written about the new Halley, and reviewed all the style of the Italian scootering tradition. We have a photo of the day spot, where readers can send their best pics from around the world, and you can point us to news or make comments.

The other thing Gianluca mentioned was that he couldn’t find any way to contact me directly on the blog. Now, on the main motorcyclecolorado.com website there are a number of places where I have placed javascript no-spam email links so people can contact me directly, but I had not thought to do the same here on the blog. I’ll need to do something about that right away but in the meantime, if you want to email me just send to either ken at motorcyclecolorado.com or to webmaster at motorcyclecolorado.com. Thanks. I always love to hear from you.

Biker Quote for Today

Tomorrow is uncertain, so today I ride.

One thing I really love about running this website and publishing this blog is the way I learn about new places to ride from the folks who visit the site. I’m not always able to go check them out right away but they definitely go on my list to get to as soon as I can.

The most recent road to add to my list is the Kebler Pass road coming over from Crested Butte to CO 133 coming down off McClure Pass toward Hotchkiss. I’ve mentioned Andy Simons several times recently and Andy gets credit for this one, too. He sent me some photos from the road and described it as “dirt road but suitable for all bikes (well graded and packed).” Here’s one of his photos that confirms his description.

Now, I have never taken this road, not even in a car. In fact, I didn’t know it was there and that you could go anywhere on a good road from Crested Butte other than back down the road you came in on. So I did some checking to find out more about this road. I found one site with a lot of photos where they had this to say:

This is a beautiful drive, forest road 12, that connects Crested Butte highway 135 with Paonia Reservoir and highway 133. Suitable for any vehicles. If you like aspens, mountains, and many photos ops this is the road for you.

Then there is this site where people can post their comments on various roads and such, where one person says:

i lived in colorado for about five years, traveled as many back roads as i could in that time, and Kebler Pass was by far my favorite…for one, it’s a little out of the way so it tends to not be crowded…it is also breathtakingly beautiful…the aspens in this area are huge, and the aspen stand is enormous, mile after mile of aspens…

I will note that another person on this same site had this cautionary remark:

The road is heavily washboarded in places and was very muddy after several days of rain, but was easily passable with our Subaru and wouldn’t present much of a problem to any vehicles if the driver is paying attention. I wouldn’t recommend towing over this pass however. Big snows at high elevation would be a problem – something to consider if weather is severe. Take your time as some of the curves are tight and the road drops a lot of elevation on the west side of the pass. We saw plenty of deer, but no other large mammals this trip.

So it sounds like it should be no problem as long as it’s dry. If it has rained recently don’t even try it. Fair enough. You probably won’t want to try it in May or June but by July or August it sounds like a go. I know I’m going.

Biker Quote for Today

The only good view of a thunderstorm is in your rearview mirror.

I’m following up today on a couple other questions posed by Barry, from Alabama, who is coming with some buddies to Colorado this summer to ride.

Barry asks, “We have to make some decisions about where to start in Colorado, north around Denver, or along the New Mexico border. We are definitely going to ride the train in Durango. Also is it fairly secure and safe to leave your bike parked while you are gone for a day on a train ride?”

I don’t know if there are any clear-cut answers to either of these questions but I’ll speak in generalities. First of all, these guys are coming in September, when the aspen trees will be displaying their fall colors. As I said Monday, that means the weather can be bad at times. The problem with any predictions this far off is that while it is generally warmer and dryer in the southwestern part of the state, there could still be a storm that hits that area just when they’re going to be there. Nevertheless, on the whole, you would probably be better off doing the northern part of your trip first and moving gradually south. That would also put the return portion of your trip through the more-southern states, where you would also be more likely to avoid bad weather.

While some of the higher passes and roads, such as Trail Ridge Road or Mount Evans, do close for the winter, they won’t be closing yet in September. So that’s not an issue. On the other hand, you could get snowstorms on those roads that would make them impassable momentarily. You’re going to want to check the weather forecast and keep your plans flexible.

Keep in mind, too, that while Durango is in the southwestern part of the state, that is a mountainous region and Durango is one of the coldest spots in Colorado in winter. The only realistic thing to do is plan for the worst and hope for the best. And remember that the weather is changeable, and snow at 10 am does not mean you won’t see 60 degrees and sunshine by 1 pm.

As for the safety of leaving your bike for the day, by and large there is not a lot of crime in Colorado. At least not compared to a lot of places. When we first started taking our trips we wondered how safe it was to leave our bikes fully loaded and go in somewhere, or wander off down the street. But in all the years we’ve now been doing this we have never had a single problem. Nothing on any of our bikes has ever been touched.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take precautions. If you have a motel room I would leave my stuff in the room. Then take your normal security measures with your bike. It never hurts to talk to someone at the establishment you’re patronizing to see if they can recommend a secure parking location. Of course, putting a cover over your bike is never a bad idea. What someone can’t see they generally are not tempted to steal.

When I was wrenching with the Concours Owners Group recently the guy, Steve, who helped me install my highway pegs had a ’99 Connie just like mine. But that’s like saying a Macintosh apple is just the same as a Red Delicious apple, just because they’re both apples. Steve has every electronic gadget imaginable on his bike, while mine is nearly stock. He has all his electrics wired to connect to his tank bag, where all the controllers live. When he parks the bike he disconnects a wire or two, zips the tank bag, and takes it with him. That means he leaves his GPS and radar detector and everything else on the bike. They’re bolted on but they’re there. He told me when he is nervous about leaving it he just covers it, and he has never had a problem.

Don’t get me wrong, people do steal motorcycles in Colorado, just like everywhere else. My buddy Bill had his Harley stolen from outside a restaurant where he was eating. That was in Denver, though, where I think you tend to have more dishonest people than you do in a place like Durango. The key point here then, again, is to use common sense. If you take reasonable measures you’ll probably be fine. And then don’t spoil your trip worrying about what might happen.

Biker Quote for Today

There are two simple rules for riding smoothly and safely in snow and on ice. Unfortunately nobody knows what they are.