Gas Savings? Sure!

Well, you hear about "gas savings" as one of the reasons people start riding motorcycles instead of their cars when commuting back and forth from work. It was, one of the main reasons I had gotten the go-ahead from my loving wife to buy a motorcycle as my main commuter vehicle since my car is quite the gas guzzler; she's got a V8 engine from 1987 after all!

Her name is Liesl

On a "good" week, my car would get perhaps 16mpg, whereas on a bad week she would get 11-14mpg. On the other hand, my motorcycle gets 40mpg on a bad week. You can see the disparity there. Of course, the fact that Liesl's engine is 5.6 liters vs Maria's 1.15 Liters....

I looked up maintenance records today and turns out I had changed the oil both on the motorcycle and on the car same day: 21JUL07. At the time, my car had 152, 138 miles on the odometer and the motorcycle had 36,000 miles on its odometer.

Since that day, I've put a grand total of 31 miles on the car and 8843 miles on the motorcycle! Can you tell which vehicle I prefer to ride? : )

So, back to the "savings" theme for this posting. I did some quick math calculations and just counting work commuting miles I came up with a total of 3872 miles which I would have had to drive from 21JUL07 till today for work.

The cost of gas, at $3.00/gallon as an average for premium gas which is what both vehicles demand came to roughly $829 for the car and $290 for the motorcycle to cover that work mileage.

"Well!" You say: "there's some obvious savings!"

However, remember that I wrote I had put 8843 miles on the motorcycle since 21JUL07? That represents about 4971 miles of pleasure riding on the motorcycle on weekends and such. That pleasure riding then cost me about $373 in additional gas money. Add that up to the cost for work commuting on the motorcycle and it comes to about $663.

So, once you do the final numbers, I save perhaps $166 in gas money after all is said and done.

I think I'll sum it up this way, a la the MasterCard commercials:

Gas Money to run the car back and forth to work: $829

Gas Money to run the motorcycle back and forth to work AND play: $663

Pleasure and enjoyment derived from riding a motorcycle vs driving a cage: PRICELESS!!!

Getting mentioned in the November edition of the BMW Owner News Magazine

Some of my pictures from the 100,000 ft Pass Ride sponsored by the ColoradoBeemers motocycle club I belong to made it into the November edition of the BMW Owner News Magazine that's put out by the BMWMOA organization! Link to the blog entry for that ride.

Glenn Hanlin, their IT guy, and his brother Brent had been fellow riders during that ride along with another rider named Dick. Glenn went and wrote up a trip report of the rally for the magazine and was kind enough to use three of the pictures I took as part of his article. Hopefully, there will be a web-accessible version I can link to but I thought I'd post the pictures that appeared in the magazine for your viewing. He even mentioned my name in the article and Maria appears in one of the shots used (see below). Good Stuff.

Here's the Rally's Lunch Site

North Pass, after lunch

Oktoberfest at Pete's

Pete Homan, an indie BMW motorcycle mechanic whom I go to for work I can't do myself, was hosting an Oktoberfest gathering at his home/shop on the west side of Denver. I spent a couple of hours there admiring the motorcycles he's got on display (all race ready it seems) and the motorcycles belonging to customers that he's working on or customers like me who showed up for the gathering.

Oktoberfest Oompah music was being played, Pete and a couple of others were in German costume, to include lederhosen! Beer and Brats were available and there was to be a drawing for a K1200LT Motorcycle for which I signed up. I left before the drawing though so hopefully I'll get notified by Pete if I win! : )

Pete's specializes in wrenching on BMW Motorcycles (but does work on other marques as well I believe) with an inclination towards the vintage models it seems as they're plenty onsite and most of the people who showed up were on vintage motorcycles. Plenty of modern ones as well like mine but the preponderance was the older models. Pete has raced motorcycles in the past and his trophy case was filled with impressive marks of achievement. He now only races in the vintage categories apparently.

Here's a link to Pete's website: LINK check it out if you've a Beemer that needs certified/expert wrenching.

Part of Vintage Row

Row of motorcycles in front of Pete's House

Pete's Racing motorcycle, on display in his living room

An R75/5 Beemer in front of Pete's shop, which is in back of his house

An old Airhead Engine, an R80/7 close up

Amusing sticker on Pete's off-roading motorcycle, which is shown below

Swedish Fairing on a Vintage Beemer, kinda cool eh?

Maria and an older cousin (an RS) posing in front of Pete's

I went home via Evans Avenue to the I-25 Slab southbound until I got to County Line Road which I took home, meadering as I went since the day was so nice for riding. Kept "missing" the turn for my neighborhood and wandered about a bit but finally went home.

A Ride to Victor, CO and Cheyenne Mountain

Temps in the low 70s to high 80s. Sunny and very little wind.

I had today off since I have to work this coming weekend so after a late wakeup and start, was headed out by 1020 just for a short ride to see if I could find a compact weather radio to take along with me on the rides with iffier weather.

Well, that was the original intent, however that was quickly thrown by the wayside and I just kept going past the shopping mall and took familiar back roads down towards Parker where I picked up CO83 and headed through Franktown towards Colorado Springs.

The day was just made to order for motorcycling in the morning and early afternoon. Traffic was very light and there were times when I was by my lonesome cruising down the two lanes which make up CO83. I got to Colorado Springs in good time and cruised on the I-25 slab for a little bit and turned off on US24 intending to go towards CO67 North towards Deckers.

Like the original intent, this too was thrown away as I neared the junction with CO67 and instead I stayed on US24 only to turn shortly afterwards south on CO67 towards the towns of Victor and Cripple Creek. The idea now was to see a good view and pictures of the "backside" of Pikes Peak. I followed the signs which led to the small mining town of Victor and it's "active mining country" and Cripple Creek with its casinos is nice and windy with some steep grades in spots. Very nice riding and the roads were nice and clear of gravel for the most part, unlike last winter when I went to Cripple Creek and spent a lot of time dodging gravel in the middle of the lane!

Here's some of the sights one sees as one approaches Victor from the North:

Historical Mining Structures one can peruse

The town of Victor is small and a bit delapidated. Still it has its own atmosphere and the people seemed friendly. Here's a rather unique way to advertise to visitors that one has arrived at the town of Victor:

Victor's Town Hall

After I went through the town, the next town along the "Gold Belt Tour" byway is Cripple Creek. It's a larger town than Victor and it's claim to fame is casinos apparently. I did not tarry here long as I'd been here before. I kept going on CO67 and some more winding roads along mountain sides and ridges. I must again repeat myself I'm afraid, some very lovely winding roads on south CO67 which ends up at the town of Flourissant and its fossil beds.

By following the signs to Flourissant, I ended up back on US24 and started heading back East towards Colorado Springs. Its while I was on this heading that I spotted what turned out to be the best view of Pikes Peak:

Pikes Peak from Woodland Park

Once I got to Colorado Springs, I spied Cheyenne Mountain to the South and decided to try and get some pics of it as long as I was this far south from home. I got on the I-25 Slab for a little bit and took the CO115 exit towards Canon City. Fort Carson, the home of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment makes its home here and I stopped by the post's Gate 1 to take these pictures at a Soldiers' Memorial site which featured some military hardware and a statue of Kit Carson for whom the post is named.

Bet no cager would cut me off with such an escort!

Soldier's Memorial Site with Cheyenne Mountain as background

Kit Carson in his "younger and wilder days"?

Across CO115 from Fort Carson's Gate 1 is the Cheyenne Mountain State Park where I got this picture of Cheyenne Mountain itself. I did not go towards the NORAD entrance which lies on CO115 right of Fort Carson's Gate 2 exit. The road is now clearly marked but full of dire warnings for "trespassers". Make sure you've your military ID or you won't get too far I think.

Another shot of Cheyenne Mountain

After the Cheyenne Mountain State Park part of the ride, I headed North on CO83 towards Academy Boulevard. Unfortunately, I did not realize I would have to do several miles of city traffic on CO83, with lots of cars and temperatures in the mid to high 80s! I had noticed that my internet-enabled phone had reported me in a 3G connectivity area so I pulled off at a sandwich shop for some water and a geek break where I checked out how much faster 3G speeds are when compared with Edge speeds which is what we still get in Denver for now. It was much faster, with speeds averaging 4 to 5 times faster! I can't wait till Denver's 3G service gets activated.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful, I was glad to leave the heavy city traffic behind and hit the open road portion of CO83 as it took me once again through Franktown and Parker and from there the usual back roads towards home.

Got home at 1730 or so, I estimate about 240 miles ridden today with about six hours of saddle time perhaps. A very nice ride day.