Passes & Canyons Blog

Contrary to what I said here before, it appears that the Colorado Legislature did indeed pass a helmet law this past session. If you are under 18 you are required to wear a helmet, either as a rider or passenger.

I have a bit of a beef with the Rocky Mountain News on this, because I read the newspaper every single day and they had stories about this as it was under consideration, but I never saw anything about it passing. So after awhile I assumed that like so many bills that get introduced, this one had just died a quiet death. Wrong.

Now, I’m not going to get all upset about this particular law. As ABATE’s Terry Howard said, because it was about kids, it was hard to oppose. The problem, as Howard also says, is what comes next. According to the story in the Rocky, Howard and ABATE fully expect Sen. Ken Gordon, this bill’s sponsor, to come back with a helmet bill for adults.

I’m sorry to say that Ken Gordon is my senator. I didn’t vote for him–and I did vote, for the Libertarian candidate–but Gordon is my senator. I’ve never had any real negative feelings toward Gordon but that could change if he tries this. I developed a strong animosity toward then-Rep. Bill Owens, back when the now-former Colorado governor was a state rep and introduced helmet bills in every session. But Owens finally gave up. What’s it going to take for Gordon to give up?

Of course, this may be a matter of jumping the gun. He may have no such intentions. Still, I intend to contact Ken Gordon and ask him flat out if that is his intent. And I will make it clear that if he tries it he will have a fight on his hands. It won’t be so easy next time.

Gordon says it’s all about the health of the people and lowering medical costs for us all. Stop right there Ken! Would it not be a safe statement that overweight people incur much higher health care costs–running costs up for us all–than non-overweight people? Overweight people such as, say, Sen. Ken Gordon? Let’s pass a law against eating junk food, or gaining too much weight, or some other measure to stop people from endangering themselves in this manner. It’s only fair!

This coming Wednesday, July 18, is Ride Your Motorcycle To Work Day. Do it!

The idea here is to get as many people on the road on their bikes on the same day to show people how many of us there are and to thereby make people more aware that they need to be aware we are there. We’ve all had the “he didn’t even see me” experience. If people are more aware that we might be there then hopefully they’ll be more careful to check to see if we are there. Wishful thinking? Probably, but what the hey, it can’t hurt and riding to work is more fun than driving anyway. I try to do it once a week. Aside from anything else, it also saves money on gas.

Oh, and here’s the disclaimer. Here I am pushing Ride to Work Day and I won’t be riding to work on Wednesday. Why? Because I’m fortunate in my current job to be able to work at home two days a week and one of my two days is always Wednesday–that’s July 18.

Here’s the URL in case you want to learn more: http://www.ridetowork.org/

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On a different note, I always welcome comments and responses to these posts but the spam bastards have made it so I had to turn off that function. I can’t spend an hour every day deleting hundreds of spam postings, which is what it had turned into. So if you want to contact me, send me an email to ken at motorcycle dot com and I’ll put your comment up, or respond to you, as appropriate. Thanks. Sorry for the hassle.

What do you do when the name of your motorcycle club no longer really fits, but you’ve got the coolest logo around and you are not about to jettison that? I mean, check this out:

Old Farts Motorcycle Club was always tongue in cheek, and in the beginning we were nowhere near old. Heck, I was still in my 30s. The original three of us are all quite a bit older now, and we’ve been joined by several other guys our age, but we’ve also been joined by sons and their friends. They’ve only borne the OFMC title grudgingly.

On this year’s trip the discussion began in earnest. We had some good proposals. For the sons it was proposed that OFMC could mean “Our Fathers’ Motorcycle Club.” For the friends it could be “Our Friends’ Motorcycle Club.” And finally, to cover everyone, it could be “Our Fuckin’ Motorcycle Club.”

So there was no decision one way or the other. More than anything, I guess the idea is going to be that the name is “OFMC,” and you can let those initials represent whatever you want. Everyone is happy and we still have our killer logo. Is this a great country or what?!

It’s hard to believe, but we’re leaving on our annual bike trip in less than three weeks, June 15. This is kind of early for us, but we’re going south, to Arizona and New Mexico and Nevada, so it will be warm. There will be nine of us this year in this Old Farts Motorcycle Club excursion.

We’re going to ride the Unaweep Highway, which several of us have been on, but other haven’t, and it’s a good one. Then we’ll head on down through the Monument Valley and on to Fraser, AZ. In case you’ve never been to Fraser, let me tell you about it. It’s an old mining town not far from Sedona, and it sits up on the side of a mountain so steep that the road zig-zags back and forth through town. The front of a building faces the street in one direction and the same street passes by on the back side of the building. There’s no such thing as a cross-street.

From there we’ll head on to Laughlin, NV, where we’ve been a couple times before. It’s a lot like Las Vegas was before it got huge, and it’s on a river just down from a dam and reservoir. Nice place. Then we’ll work our way on home again, spending a couple days in places in Colorado that we’ve passed through but never stopped at.

Less than three weeks! Hot dang!

OK, I forgot to tune in USA Biker Nation last week but I had it on my Palm to remind me this week. Well, I tuned in to KKZN-AM 760 at 10 am, just a few minutes ago, and it was just ending. So apparently they changed the time. Presumably it now starts at 8 am. I went to the web site and all they have is info for the show two weeks ago. This is not an auspicious beginning but we’ll give them time to work it all out. I hope this turns out to be a show worth listening to.

Well, I had to listen to the first airing of Peter Boyles’s new radio show, USA Biker Nation. It was this morning at 10 am on KKZN-AM 760, which I didn’t even know existed. It’s local here in Colorado but they’re going national in two weeks, he said. They were broadcasting live from the Easyriders V-Twin Bike Show going on today at the Merchandise Mart.

Tuning in early I caught a bad infomercial–I didn’t even know they had those on radio. Then lots of commercials and the news and finally, to the strains of Arlo Guthrie singing “The Motorsickle Song,” followed by Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider agreeing to ride with Fonda and Hopper, and finally “Get your motor running . . .” the show began.

Boyles started with two guests, Pastor Gary Davis of Church of the Wind, and a guy named Nick who is a former member of Sons of Silence. They talked, there were more guests, and after two hours the show wrapped up.

How did it go? I really didn’t think it was all that interesting. Hey, it’s a first show so it takes time to start rolling and hit your stride, but I hope they do exactly that. It’s also supposed to be a call-in show but apparently they figure to get it started first and then let people start calling in. As it was, they didn’t even mention a phone number.

They did mention a website: www.usabikernation.com. There’s nothing much up there yet but I’m sure that will change.

So we’ll see. I’ll tune in again next week but they’re going to have to fire it up to keep me coming back.

(Comments are welcome, but the blog spammers forced me to turn off that function. Please send any comments to ken at motorcyclecolorado dot com.)

That’s the question I got from M Rockey. With all the motorcycle roads I have posted info about on the website, where is the road up Mount Evans. Actually, I’ll let him speak for himself:

Nice site, very enjoyable…but where is MT Evans? :) It’s the best ride of them all in my opinion….I couldn’t find it if it is there..:)

But thanks..this gets me all worked up for this summer’s CO trip!

He’s right, you know, and I had realized that last fall. I’ve spent so much time putting up info on routes that get you from A to B that I forgot about rides where you just go and come back. So I’ve had it on my list of things to do soon to add Mount Evans. The thing is, I can’t do it now because that road is closed for the winter, and is probably under six feet of snow at the moment. But check back in June or so and you’ll see Mount Evans. Thanks for the prodding.

This just in:

The Rocky Mountain News reported yesterday that long-time local radio personality Peter Boyles, in conjunction with Jones Radio Network, will be launching a two-hour weekly radio program on motorcycling. The show will be called USA Biker Nation, and apparently the intent is to start locally here in Colorado and then expand nationally.

Presumably Boyles rides. I hadn’t heard that he does, but that’s no shocker. I haven’t spoken to him in many years, and haven’t heard him on the air in quite a few years.

So anyway, the show is to debut on KKZN-AM radio at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 7. Heck, I didn’t even know there was a KKZN radio. That’s AM 760 on your dial. So I hope it’s good and he and the network succeed with this. I’ll be tuning in, and I’ll report back about what I hear.