Passes & Canyons Blog

At the Progressive International Motorcycle Show.

One of the fun things about being a member of a community of like-minded souls is that you run into old friends and acquaintances when you go to events. That was definitely the case for me recently at the Progressive International Motorcycle Show.

At one point I was just walking through the crowd, looking around for anything interesting, when suddenly I was face to face with Alisa Clickenger. I’ve know Alisa now for about 10 years and I hadn’t expected to see her there but I probably should have. I met Alisa during the Adventure for the Cures event put on up at Keystone by Sue Slate and Gin Shear. Alisa was one of the riders. Since then Alisa has ridden solo to the tip of South America and most recently organized the Sisters Centennial Motorcycle Ride, which came through here in 2016.

Alisa is now promoting her latest project, the Suffragists Centennial Ride, another coast to coast event tied in to the passage of the constitutional amendment that gave women the right to vote. Basically all of Alisa’s endeavors are aimed at empowering women by getting them on motorcycles and realizing their ability to take charge of their own lives.

So Alisa was there. Then I saw a tall, long-haired guy I recognized but took a while to place. It didn’t take me long, though, to realize it was Dan Ballard, who runs Bitchin’ Stitchin’. I don’t really know Dan–I’ve only met him once–but he was one of my very earliest advertisers here on the Passes & Canyons website. I didn’t say hello but it was like, oh yeah, I know him.

Next I ran into Mike Langello. Mike is a member of the RMMRC who I never quite met on a ride we took “together” a couple years ago. We were all headed out to Alabama to the Barber Motorsports Museum but Judy and I left separately from the group and then got snowbound in western Kansas for three days. We never did meet up with the group but I was in contact the whole time with Mike, who was leading the ride. I finally met him in person at an RMMRC meeting about a year later.

Finally, I was tired and wanted to sit so I chose a bench with space next to this other guy. We got to talking and of course asked what each other rode and when I said I have a 1999 Kawasaki Concours he replied that he had had two of them. He got the second after he “wadded up” the first. This guy, Phil, asked if I had been involved at all with the Concours Owners Group (COG) and I said I had just for one year, twice. Phil had been very active in that group and I realized he did look familiar and I must have meet him a time or two way back then.

Talking with Phil was fun. It was like we were part of a fraternity where we both knew the same things and could talk without needing to provide details or clarification. He said he had had two ’99 Connies and I asked, “The burgundy one?” He replied yes, but you know what some people call it, don’t you? Yes, the “Barney bike,” referencing Barney the purple dinosaur.

I told Phil the best thing I got out of COG membership was assistance at a Wrench & Retch where a couple guys helped me install some highway pegs I got from Murph after he came out with the design that allowed you to mount them without cutting holes in the body work. I’m betting there are at least three items in that statement that you don’t understand but Phil needed no explanation, he knew exactly what I was talking about.

The bottom line here is that it’s nice to go to these things and run into people you know. When I was working full time as a motorcycle journalist I used to go to lots of events and most of the time I was all by myself, didn’t know anyone, and I’ve never been really good at meeting people. I spent a lot of really solitary days in the thick of large crowds. That’s something I don’t miss.

Biker Quote for Today

Life is about finding out who you are while enjoying the journey to get there.

Yeah, you really need to get a bike that fits your size.

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show always features some cool custom bikes on display, just to have eye candy. Here are some of them.

With that expensive paint job you have to wonder if this bike gets ridden.

I hope you’ve got your sunglasses.

Notice that front wheel vs. the rear wheel.

Yeah, you’re definitely going to look over that windshield.

Now we’re going a bit minimalist.

OK, this one leaves me a bit cold but I guess some people would think it’s cool.

Last one. Sorry the image isn’t sharper.

What more is there to say? Here’s the quote of the day.

Motorcycle Quote for Today

100 Reasons not to date a motorcyclist: You’ll have to come rescue us when we run out of gas on the other side of town.

Right this way to the motorcycle show.

The Progressive International Motorcycle Show (PIMS) came to Denver this past weekend and of course I went down. PIMS doesn’t generally come to Denver but I had been to the show some years ago in Greenville, South Carolina, so I was interested to see how it compared. Somehow it didn’t seem as big and there didn’t seem to be as many people as in Greenville.

No matter. There was still a lot of interest.

One thing I had not seen before that seems to have become widespread is the use of rollers to allow someone to actually ride a running motorcycle right there on the spot. The motor is running, the drive wheel is turning, you’re just not going anywhere. What I didn’t understand was where the exhaust was going because I didn’t see any hoses hooked up to the exhausts, only fans presumably to disperse the fumes.

Of course exhaust was not an issue for one growing segment of the motorcycle world: electric bikes. One fairly large area of the exhibition hall was set aside as a riding track that was part of the Discover the Ride program. This program aims to introduce new riders to the world of motorcycling. There were a bunch of Zero bikes to be ridden but there were also some Yamaha power-assisted bicycles, actual mo-peds.

Introducing new riders to electric motorcycles.

Then in the opposite corner of the hall was a much smaller track for kids on kid-sized electric bikes. Most of them seemed tentative but having fun, although there was one boy who truly knew his stuff. He was zipping past the others at full throttle, sliding his inside foot on the curves, clearly not doing this for the first time.

I was surprised to see that Moto Works Denver had a display. I did a blog post on Moto Works Denver in August of last year and their community garage program. I mean, this is a big deal show and there are plenty of small, independent shops around but they don’t have booths at PIMS. I talked to the guy, who was not King Browne, the guy I spoke with for the post in August, and he said PIMS had approached them because they wanted to promote the community garage concept. So, cool. I support the community garage concept, too.

Of course all the manufacturers had their large spaces, showcasing all their new bikes. Plus the folks selling helmets and other gear. Over in the Honda area I was particularly interested to see the new model CB1000. When Honda introduced this bike some years ago it was styled to evoke the old CBs and it didn’t look all that different from my own 1980 CB750 Custom. Well, the bike has apparently sold well enough but the styling has moved on. This latest CB1000 looks totally modern, no signs of retro. Still a nice bike, though.

I’ll be focusing on specific pieces of PIMS in my next few posts. Stay tuned.

Biker Quote for Today

He was a crazy biker in a motorcycle ridin’ daredevil show. — Nanci Griffith