Passes & Canyons Blog

Every year about this time I look at the odometers on my three bikes and set my goals for how many more miles I want to put on each of them before the end of the year. Which is to say, turning over the next thousand on the odos. As usual, it’s a mixed bag.

The easy one is going to be the V-Strom. That odometer currently sits at 45,880. If I can’t ride another 120 miles in 2023 I’m not trying. Not that riding prospects look all rosy at the moment. Writing this over the weekend I’m looking out the window at nearly a foot of fresh snow and temperatures in the 20s. Tomorrow is to be colder. Yikes! But this is Colorado and doubtful as it may look, we know it will get warm again and temps will reach at least into the 60s, if not higher. So it’s just a waiting game.

The other two are a lot more iffy.

The meter on the Concours is now sitting at 79,130. That’s a full 870 more miles I would need to put on that bike in the next two (cold) months. Probably not going to happen. I can try but I wouldn’t bet a plugged nickel on doing it. On the brighter side, I’ve put quite a few miles on this bike this year so not hitting another thousand this year is not a failure. I can live with that.

The one I’ll probably focus on will be the Honda CB750. That odometer currently rests at 37,365 so I’m probably not going to roll that over to 38,000 this year but the other measure I watch with this bike is that I try to put at least 1,000 miles on the bike each year. Because most of my riding is on the other two this does not always happen. But in this case, while I would need another 635 miles to roll the odo over to 38,000, I can hit the 1,000 for the year mark if I just put another 498 on it.

That’s still a lot at this time of year but I can at least try. The weather will have a lot to say about how likely I am to succeed. Speaking of which, we had some great weather this last couple weeks but I didn’t get in nearly as much riding as I would have liked. But I knew the weather was about to change and I have a lot of things to do to prep for winter each year. Things like shutting down the swamp cooler, covering the attic fan, getting the sprinkler system blown out, and getting the garden stripped and all the veggies stockpiled. For instance, I have about 30 pounds or more of tomatoes at this point, most of them green. All of that has kept me plenty busy. And now the weather has hit.

The flip side of that is that now, once the weather gets warmer, I don’t have a lot of other things crying for my attention, so I can ride when it’s possible. Don’t be surprised if you see me on the Honda.

The miles I covered on my bikes in 2015 totaled more than a 50 percent increase over 2014. That’s a really good thing. And the miles I put on the bikes far surpassed what I put on my car, too, which is another good thing. The only somewhat negative thing about last year is that I still didn’t come close to my best years on the bikes, where in some cases I just simply rode a lot more than I did in 2015, even though 2015 is an increase.

Every year at this time I check and record my mileage and see how the year went. This year’s numbers:

I only put 4,957 miles on my car, which is part of why the bike miles totaled more. That’s down from 7,558 in 2014. On the V-Strom I covered 3,849 miles, which is up from 2,596. For the CB750 it’s actually down, 531 in 2015 vs. 712 in 2014. I wouldn’t have thought that was the case but the numbers don’t lie. And for the Concours it’s 2,121 in 2015 vs. 1,037 in 2014. Total for the bikes: 6,501.

Just to put that in perspective, in 2012 I rode the Concours alone more than that: 6,785 miles. And in 2011 I rode the Concours alone 10,004 miles. Then add miles for the other bikes. But at least I’m back on an upward trend. And I expect those numbers to really surge in 2016. I mean, I have a lot more time to ride now. How could they not increase?

Right now, of course, the weather is the issue, blocking me from my first ride of the year. But the weather is in my favor now. Saturday was warm and sunny. Sunday was warm and sunny. Monday is warm and sunny. I went out on Saturday and inspected the streets around our house and concluded that by Tuesday the snow and ice would be melted sufficiently so I should be able to get out of the neighborhood. I’m really counting on it because the forecast is for more snow starting on Thursday. Let’s get this year started!

Biker Quote for Today

The engine charges the bike’s battery, and the ride recharges my own batteries. — Clement Salvadori