Passes & Canyons Blog

I mentioned last week in a post entitled “Prying New Doors Open” that I had made a connection with the editor of Kawasaki’s Accelerate magazine, and that I had sent her one story on spec and a proposal for another. Well, I got a reply a few minutes ago and she declined the story I sent her but did say, “I hope you will stay in contact and feel free to run additional story ideas by me. I’m sure we can come up with something for you to work on in the future.”

That sounds pretty darn good to me. You can bet I’ll be sending story ideas.

So anyway, I did this piece that she wasn’t interested in and rather than let it go to waste, I’m going to run it here. Here you go.

My Ticket to Ride with the Vulcan Nation

Kawasaki rolled into Scottsdale, as did I, and we both had the same destination in mind: Arizona Bike Week. Team Green had the jump on me, so when I rolled up the tents were in place and all those shiny new motorcycles were parked haphazardly, awaiting set-up completion. I especially took note of three Concours 14s and promised myself to get better acquainted with at least one of them.

My ’99 Concours and I came down from Denver in two days of fairly hard riding. We were ready for some R&R. Connie was headed over to GOAZ’s Kawasaki dealership for new tires. I was happy to find one tent site remaining in the shade of the one big tree in the camping area at WestWorld, the huge Scottsdale events complex where Bike Week is held. Nothing much to do but relax for a couple days until the rally opened.

Camping just down the hill from the demo area, I was first in line when registration for demo rides opened, and for my first ride I selected the C-14. I inquired about the differences between the Ninja 1000 and the Ninja ZX-10R. “Night and day,” I was told. “What kind of riding do you do?” I’m primarily a touring rider. “Then you really ought to try the Ninja 1000.” OK, sign me up. That will be my second ride.

“Have you ridden the new Vaquero 1700? We’ve got almost a dozen of those and it’s our top-of-the-line cruiser.” No, I haven’t. Let’s make that number three.

With my ride tickets in my pocket and a stamp on my hand I had a little time. Nice of these Kawasaki folks to provide coffee, cold beverages, fruit, and munchies for us. I partook.

Soon the call was given to assemble for the pre-ride briefing. It was the usual spiel, don’t pass, no sling-shotting, etc., but also a heads-up about filling out a form to get $250 back on any Kawasaki purchased in the next month. And be sure to get a ticket from your ride leader for a free T-shirt, please do the survey, and afterward, go get your picture taken on that Vaquero back by the blue screen.

Throwing my leg over the Concours 14 I was struck, as I had been other times I had looked at them, by the seemingly massive size of the machine. With its 7.5-gallon gas tank way up high, my own Concours is pretty top heavy, but it handles well at speed. How was this one going to handle?

We took off and my answer came right away: Like a dream. We got out on the road and I was right behind the ride leader. He would take off like a rocket and so would I. He’d go swooping around curves and I was right there with him. We wrung those machines out and I got an excellent taste of the C-14’s abilities. Upon our return, as I dismounted, the only thing I could say was, “I love this bike!”

I rode the other two and over the next few days I rode several more bikes but my fascination was with the Concours 14. I did like the upright riding position of the Ninja 1000 far more than I’ve liked other sportbikes, plus, the power was awesome. And the Vaquero is a terrific “we’ve got it all” cruiser, but I’m just not a cruiser kind of guy. (Although that Vaquero T-shirt I got is very cool–one I will actually wear.)

What I especially appreciated was the opportunity I had in one place to try so many different Kawis. I have a second bike, a 30-year-old standard, and for years I told myself that whenever it retired I would replace it with a ZRX1200R. But Kawasaki stopped producing that bike awhile ago and I haven’t settled on anything else. I’ve started doing some dual-sporting so the KLR650 and the Versys are both of interest to me, and now I’ll add the Ninja 1000 to the list of possibilities. I got to ride them all at Arizona Bike Week.

It was my good fortune that both the Ticket to Ride tour and the Vulcan Nation tour were together there in Scottsdale, because they would be going their separate ways when they left. Sue Slate, one of the ride leaders, told me they had the complete Kawasaki line-up on hand and they loved to give rides. In the Kawasaki tent it was the practice, if a ride was preparing to leave and there were bikes unclaimed, to announce that “If you’ve got a helmet and a stamp on your hand, climb on any available bike and go.” That’s a marked contrast to other brands offering demo rides in that one of them limited each rider to no more than two rides a day, while another wanted $50 to let you demo their bikes.

So the rally ended and, with good new rubber on my ’99 Connie, we headed home. She’s still got a lot of miles in her so I won’t be doing any trading any time soon, but this trip settled one question for certain. I know now what my next touring motorcycle will be.

Biker Quote for Today

I can tell better stories when I ride alone, but I have better time when I ride with friends.