We touched down in Denver after 27 hours flying and transiting, hitting the ground running by meeting our kind host Alex Lafleur for lunch and going straight to Sun Enterprises, the dealer for the first of two Honda CB500X motorcycles we were purchasing. After jumping through the relatively straightforward loops of signing paperwork for the motorcycle purchase and handing over USD$7200 in cash, we had a heart stopping moment when the staff processing the insurance paperwork declared that we couldn't be insured after checking her workstation computer.
Thankfully, we had the Progressive Insurance covering us for USD $300 for the first month for 2 people, and a monthly recurring charge of USD$250 for the subsequent months. We would terminate the insurance payment once we were out of the United States. When the time came to renew the insurance for annual registration which was necessary for the issuance of Carnet De Passage, we would get a policy for a month again.
We quickly realized our plan for installing the equipment ourselves was going to consume more time than we originally estimated, given the social activities lined up and kit we still had to purchase to be ready to ride. Furthermore, our maintenance skills learnt was enough to perform routine servicing, but we really had little confidence in improvising on installation works ourselves. There are no dry runs, no shakedowns, and a snowstorm was coming to Denver soon.
This was the morning view when we woke up the next day. I'm 34, and I have never seen snow in my life. So it was perhaps time for a bucket list item moment - throwing snow. I couldn't feel my fingers after I did this the second time.
We brought our purchased Pelican luggages, Oxford heated grips and K&N Air Filter, and sponsored Puig crashbars, windshields, handguards and fender extenders to the dealers to install them for us, and also completed the paperwork for the 2nd motorcycle dealer, Fay Myers. The labour cost at Sun Enterprises was USD$330 for 5.5 hours, after a 50% discount was thrown in as the bike was purchased from them. However, at Fay Myers, my eyes went wide open when Debbie and I were quoted USD$1100 for the installation of the same parts on the 2nd motorcycle.
My mind was telling me this was a daylight robbery and the stress levels were racketing up, but I also knew I had no leverage in this negotiation. I didn't had the time to find another shop to finish the job. So, I took out the newspaper article written by Zaihan Mohamed Yusof and explained to Chris Ortega, the sales staff our itinerary and the labour prices we paid at the first dealer, Sun Enterprises, persuading hard for a discount and appealing to his kindness to do us a favour and consult his superiors. After some tense moments waiting, we were informed they would bring the price down to USD$660, matching the labour hours quoted by Sun. We paid up in relief.
This meant that on day 2 in Denver, we could leave in the afternoon for Granby, Colorado where our host, Alex and his wife Carli had a home in the mountains, with stunning views.
The Colorado mountain silence is etched in my memories, and the walk in the woods cleared the fog in my mind. There is something healing about walking on snow in silence, with no ambient noise, nothing but woods ahead of you and on the sides. Alex explained how he tracked elk and deer, with a grin about his successful kill last year. We spent the weekend cooking, chatting over meals and soon it was time to fly to Vancouver, Canada, where 2 special people were going to pick us up from the airport. The motorcycles can wait in the Denver snowstorm in -9 celcius (16F). We were not going to ride anywhere in that weather. Denver was facing record cold weather that came early.
Written by Kelvin
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