done with week three...

well, i made it through another weekend... the highlight of this weekend is this is the first weekend i didn't seriously consider just walking away. i attribute that to the way the class has bonded over the last two weekends and us just not taking the instructors very seriously anymore. we're all of the belief that once we get out of class, it will get better...

okay, the weekend started as usual - me packing at the last minute. and again, i was in a debate whether to take the bike or not. weather was saying rain friday and sunday, but the morning was sunny and nice... decided to take the cage - mostly because i was last minute packing and i just wanted to throw stuff together. i know, i know, lazy on my part...

took the usual drive out... nothing to note except for the accident on 321 just north of the 40 exit. there were merging everyone to the right lane because the left lane was closed. for whatever reason, i stayed in the left lane as long as i could. i usually try not to be one of the assholes that wait to the last minute to jump in, but this time i did. and i think it saved me at least 45 minutes because traffic was backed up so far. anyway, that was about the most news-worthy item on the trip out there. weather on the trip out was fair - it did rain a little, but nothing that should have stopped me from bringing the bike. bummer...

got to the hotel and a few people were already there. after getting my stuff into the room, we all hung outside the rooms talking about how this weekend was going to unfold... some people studied the course material during the week and others didn't. i probably fell on the didn't study side - i did review some of the material, but probably not in the depth i needed to... i'm thinking the multiple guess will be on my side. after hanging out for a bit, we headed towards class.

friday night class was the usual peer teaching, running through the class room lessons. we, as a class, seemed to be more organized and smooth on our presentation - like things are finally starting to fall into place. it seems silly, but in some places i am only responsible for three or four questions. i get up for about ten minutes and then i'm done. i'm wondering how this is going to come across to the students we teach next week. it seems like it could be rather disjointed. i hope they're getting a discount on the class - not so much because i think we'll be doing a terrible job, i just don't think they will be getting the continuity or having only two instructors. oh well, we'll do our best. anyway, friday night went pretty well, with daniel and bob slinging mud at each other whenever they had an opportunity. fun to watch, but unprofessional in my opinion. then again, these doods are definitely leading by the do as i say, not as i do credo.

saturday was going to be spent on the range - a looooooong day on the range. we were going until ten o'clock!!! we got the bikes out to the range and warmed them up. of course we got them warmed up before laurel and hardy got out there, taking away any reason for them to start jumping on our cases. the morning was cool, but i think i'd rather have it cool than hot. can always put on more clothes, kind of hard to get comfortable in jeans and long sleeve shirts on a ninety-five degree day!! anyway, it was cool and overcast - if the day stayed like this, then it would make it a little easier.

the morning was the usual run through of the range exercises. just like the class room, you could tell we were starting to put things together. we had an additional ridercoach that was acting like a student - this gave us a little different perspective on things. overall things ran smoothly. except for daniel having to jump in and take over all the time. bob, on the other hand, would let the instructor speak/demo and provide feedback when they were done. daniel just wants to take over and show how he would do it. what he doesn't realize is this throws off the rhythm of the person trying to speak - and it really doesn't give them a chance to learn. oh well...

my partner george and i discussed our first exercise and decided who was going to talk and who was going to demo. we decided to switch it up from the previous week. we were wrapping up our discussion and george had his helmet on when daniel looked over and said that i was going to demo and george was going to talk. obviously he did this thinking he was going to throw us off, but what he really did was take away our opportunity to reverse roles for the exercise. oh well, we handled it and things went well. as did most of the day. george and i had two more exercises, which we did with little problem.

after the range, we finished up the day in the classroom. we went over some materials and discussed the written (knowledge) test. after going over the sample test, i felt a lot better about it. as the tests are written, if you think about it, the correct answer makes sense. then again, when you have the whole class answering the tests, all the answers seem easy. i figured studying the range cards a little more would really help with the test.

sunday started out overcast and threatening rain. we also decided to start an hour later since we had stayed so late saturday night. we started the day with the knowledge test. i was off to a good start, most of the questions seemed easy. they i got to the range questions... not so easy anymore. and i didn't think some of the questions really pertained to the objective of the particular exercise. but i guess they weren't supposed to... for example, the answer to one of the questions was that the students power walk their bikes between the riding lanes. now to me, this doesn't really pertain to the objective of the exercise. although it is part of how the exercise is conducted. luckily for me, it was one of the exercises i have, so i knew that answer. i don't know that i would have gotten that one if i wasn't familiar with the details of the exercise. of course i did struggle on some of the other exercise questions - and on those i guessed at what i thought was the best answer. overall, i figured there were about five questions i wasn't sure about. worse case, if i missed all of those, i would still pass... and pass i did - with 100%!!! i don't think i can take full credit because, as mentioned above, i did guess at a couple of those...

so now it was out to the range... surprisingly six ridercoaches showed up to be our students, including my friend susan. it was good to have other people there - a change of pace instead of always teaching each other. of course they did things to see what we might catch, and to raise our awareness of some of the things we might need to look out for. i think they had fun with it... we got through the first three exercises and started the fourth when the sky opened up. we didn't get too far into the exercise when they decided to take us inside. after some classroom work, they decided it wasn't going to let up, so they let the ridercoaches go and we got ready to wrap up for the weekend.

before leaving, we had to check out the room we were going to be teaching in next weekend. although we had been in there before, we needed to decide how we were going to set up the classroom and, more importantly, how to operate the dvd player and overhead projector. we fumbled around with the equipment for a while. it got pretty crowded around the equipment when several people thought they had to get in there to help. i just walked away and sat at the other side of the room, figuring once they get it working, they'll show the rest of the class. and they did. so now we were familiar with our lessons, familiar with the room... all that was left was to put it to practice - and that would come next weekend.

oooohhhh... daniel did tell us he was going to make it easy on us and we would use the same assignments next weekend as we did this weekend. i'm not really convinced he did it to make it easier on us - why would he make it easier on us now?? he hasn't done that at any other point in the class... no, i think he did it for the benefit of the students next week. it's only fair to give them the best opportunity for success. and having us as prepared as possible does that. since we were/are most familiar with the exercises we have, it makes sense for us to continue teaching those. i think that's the real reason he did it... at least that's what i would do...

before class broke for the day, we had to put the bikes away. lucky for us, the rain had stopped. a couple of the people that rode this weekend volunteered to take the bikes back since they had to put their gear on anyway... i decided to take one around. because i didn't have my gear on, i decided to push it around. it sounded like we have enough people to put the bikes away - we only had six bikes... as we get the fifth bike in, someone says there's still one bike left on the range. and, it doesn't appear anyone is getting it. i walk around to the front to get it and here comes wally, all geared up. i guess it took him a while to get geared up. then he starts mumbling something, and waffling about getting the bike. i'm thinking to myself, i just want to get out of here for the weekend. i decide to just walk it around - it'll be easier than trying to figure out if wally is really going to do it or not... so i push it around and put it away. after closing up, we gather everything out of the classroom and head home. yeah!!!

the ride home was long and miserable. we'll it wasn't really miserable - it just wasn't fun. i had decided to take a different way home, route 64 instead or interstate 40. my luck would have me getting stuck behind someone going slow on a two lane road with no opportunity to pass. damn... that combined with the rain didn't make it a fun drive. but, i kept thinking it could be worse - i could be on my bike like josh and doug. at this point, i think i was glad i wasn't on my bike. the first time this weekend i didn't regret not bringing my bike...

sooooo, that was the weekend. one more to go... i thought this past weekend was going to be the tough one - after this one, i thought it was all downhill. now i'm thinking this final weekend will be the toughest. just because this time it's for real. and we still have things to consider that we've never been concerned with - like the timing of the exercises. well, i'm sure we'll be okay...

guess that's it for now - been tying long enough...

peace...

week two down...

...and what a rough weekend it was!!! where do i start?? at the beginning i guess...

while i was packing, i made a last minute decision to take the bike. i checked the weather and it looked good, so i decided to take the bike. now i had to pack everything in smaller bags instead of my one big bag. since i'm riding, i also like to pack my clothes in zip lock bags in case it does rain. so there i was, stuffing clothes into zip lock bags and stuffing those into my saddlebag bag. the other "problem" with taking the bike was i needed (wanted) more time for stops. now i needed to leave sooner that i was planning. turned out not to be too bad - i was able to get packed and loaded up in time to hit my earlier ais time... and no time to spare.

the ride out was good. all interstate. okay, maybe not all, but at least 200 mile out of 220 miles... it went quicker than i thought it would - not sure why, but it did. i stopped once to stretch my legs and get a drink. probably only stopped for 15 minutes before hitting the road again. made it to the hotel earlier that i expected. that's a lot better than getting there later!!

i got my stuff into the room, hung out for a bit and then decided to head to class. on my way out to the bike, here comes wally... after exchanging pleasantries, we decide to ride to class together. he's familiar with the area and knows a shorter route. that's good with me!! as we're getting on our bikes, wally tells me he has after-market pipes and they're probably louder than mine. i look at him and just say, "probably." after we get on and start the bikes, i jokingly say, don't go too fast and lose me. he says that if he took off on the twisty roads, i wouldn't be able to keep up with him. again, i look at him and say, "probably."

we finally take off and it becomes obvious quickly that wally doesn't do much, if any, group riding. we get on the interstate and the first thing he does it start switching lanes to pass traffic. of course he's doing this in such a manner that i can't stay with him!!! i make an effort to catch him. at one point, we're jockeying around two cement mixers. finally, wally's in the left lane, the two cement mixers move to the right lane and all i have to do is gun it by the two trucks to catch wally. just as i get to the rear tire of the second cement mixer, i see wally zip into the right lane. he's still got his right turn signal on and now he's giving hand signals (something he hasn't done yet) that he's making a right turn. i scan down the road further and see the exit, which i now presume we're taking... great!!! i don't have time to pass both trucks, and i don't have space to get between them. so now i have to slow down and get behind them. of course i have cage on my butt!! here i am, in the left lane, hitting my brakes trying to get back into the right lane. i'm sure the cage was thinking - asshole biker. and i really can't blame them... well, i manage to get behind the truck just in time to take the exit.

so now we're on back / residential roads the rest of the way. believe it or not, wally was able to lose me three more times. well, maybe only two. the first one, we're riding along about 45 mph. all of a sudden, no signal or anything, he pulls over to the right into a parking lot. not being prepared, i missed the turn. thankfully, there was another turn into the parking lot about 100 yards down the road. so, technically, i guess he didn't lose me that time. we conferred in the parking lot and he told me he missed the earlier turn, so now we have to go back. he pulls out of the parking lot between two cars, not leaving me enough room to follow. damn - separated again. now i was able to catch up to him when he had to wait to make a left turn at a light. but there was a car between us. in true wally fashion, when he gets a chance, he motors out of there, leaving me sitting behind a car, waiting to turn. now i would have expected him to pull over in a parking lot to wait for me - but this is wally... a couple of miles down the road, i see him at an intersection. he had already made his left turn and was waiting for me to make the turn. yeah, i can finally catch up with him... the light turns red, so i can't make my turn yet. as i come to a stop at the intersection, i see wally taking off into the distance. damn, damn, damn... i am finally able to catch up to him at another light - thankfully onto the road that the college is on. so even if he takes off, i know how to get to my destination now. somehow, we manage to pull into the parking lot together. as we dismount, i look at wally and say, "don't do much group riding, do you??"

there would be two more trips between the hotel and college with wally. each one an adventure in itself - wally always looking for the ultimate cut through. it turns out saturday night, when i didn't have to ride with wally, that i found an easier way, which seemed to be quicker. i would have tried to tell wally about it, but since he didn't "discover" it, there would have been something wrong with it... oh well...

so where was i?? oh yeah, class friday night. i got to lead off presenting unit 1, the introduction. i asked if there was anything specific i should know before i got started - nope, just get up there and do it... so i do... and as i'm presenting the material, they have me skip sections. this throws off my presentation because i wasn't expecting it. when i asked earlier, i would have at least expected them to say that they're not going to have me do everything in its entirety. oh well. this was only the beginning. and they did this to everyone. of course the final result was all the presentations looking disjointed, like we weren't prepared and didn't know what we were doing. it's like they had expectations for us, but didn't tell us what those were until we didn't meet them.

so saturday after lunch all hell breaks loose. and i think it was because two guys from the "state" office were observing us friday night and saturday morning. they left shortly after lunch. after they left, we were told how frustrating it was for them to watch us performing so poorly. they may have even said we were the worse class they've ever had. now i can go and get all defensive, but it may just sound like excuses. i have these thoughts - when you're in a class and one or two students are struggling/failing, it's probably the student. when the whole class is failing, it's the instructor. however, our instructors weren't willing to accept any responsibility.

saturday afternoon they pulled us off the range and back into the classroom. one of the instructors wouldn't even return to the classroom. the other one was saying that the reason we weren't learning may have been because when they were trying to teach us out on the range, there were always side conversations going on. this is true. however, what they failed to realize that most of the side conversations were because the instructor not teaching the lesson would start conversations with the students. in addition, the instructors would give the students conflicting instructions. we would ask one instructor how we should present something and he would advise us. after completing it the way we were told, the other instructor would say we shouldn't do it that way. of course neither instructor would stand up and say they told us how to do it.

another example that comes to mind... now the instructors have "preferences" of what color cones to use in certain exercises. bill and i were setting up cones. we had them set up and we were getting ready to walk away when bill suggested we change a set or orange cones to red. i was hesitant. and i told him that if we made them green, they'd tell us they wanted them orange. but if we left them, then they would want them green. bill laughingly agreed. i told him we could switch them if he wanted - but he said we would leave them orange. so we headed back to the staging area. not twenty feet away from the cones, here comes bob. "now this is only a bob thing, but i like to have green cones at the entrance point." i looked at bill, smiled and said "weren't damned if we do, we're damned if we don't." bill just laughed. we couldn't win... no one in class could win...

so i mentioned that one of the instructors wouldn't come back into the classroom. well that was up until about five minutes before class ended. at exactly 6:00 he announces that class is over - we should go home. one of the students asked a question. he said that he's been given a hard time for keeping classes longer than the designated time, it's 6:00, class is over. he wouldn't even answer the student’s question. i can't recall that last time i saw such unprofessional behavior from an instructor.

so saturday night we, the students, went out and bonded over a bitch session. i think we all needed it...

sunday morning didn't start out much better - we picked up pretty much where we left on saturday... we got the bikes out to the range and the instructor tells us to warm ourselves and the bikes up by riding the perimeter and doing weaves on the long side. so we're all out there, riding in circles doing our weaves - round and round we go... we stage after getting the signal and here it comes - the lecture... i expected it to be run this way, you guys weren't doing this, you weren't doing that, blah, blah, blah. as i was sitting on the bike, i started looking over to the parking lot, thinking, i should just walk over to my bike, hop on and ride off without saying a word to them... i honestly don't know what kept me there.

later in the morning and into the afternoon, we ran through all the exercises in order. we broke them down, showing where the bikes would be at the start of each exercise. we talked about the objectives, the instructions, how the demo was to be run, how the simulated exercise was to be run. after that we moved the bikes to the transition point between exercises. then we set up the range for the next exercise. as we were doing this, i kept thinking to myself, here it is, sunday afternoon of the second week and we're doing this. we should have been doing this the saturday of the first week!!! i talked to a couple of the other students and they agreed. i know if i would have said something to the instructors, they would have said that we did do that the first saturday. and i guess in a way, they're probably right - the only problem was it was so choppy and we kept doing in different directions that it never seemed that way!! either way, we know it wasn't the fault of the instructors...

actually, running through the exercises in the manner we did help. i think the instructors were pleased with what they were seeing and it helped boost our spirits. after we were done running through the exercises, it was time for the skills evaluation. by chance, i got to be first. they run all the students through each evaluation, i just got to be the first in line... i didn't do as well as i should have. and i could make up a bunch of excuses, but i'm not going to - i just didn't perform as well as i could have. however, i did pass. everyone passed - so that was great. there wouldn't be any retests!!!

the rest of the afternoon was spent in the classroom, reviewing the pre-course questions and preparing for the knowledge test. i'm a bit nervous about the knowledge test, but i'm figuring at a minimum i can guess my way through the test.

so after class i hopped on the bike and headed home. the ride home was good. i was concerned that after the class i would be tired and the ride home would be long. it didn't turn out that way... the ride home, actually, seemed rather quick. and i enjoyed being on the bike more than in the cage. after one stop, for about twenty minutes, to fuel up and grab something to eat and drink. then back on the road for the rest of the trip. traffic was good, so i didn't have to worry about any idiots... ended up putting over 500 miles on the bike this weekend. after one more trip like that, it'll be time to take it in for its 10k service.

so, weekend was good and bad. or more like bad and good. while the class definitely had it's down moments, overall i think it turned out to be a good weekend. i got to ride the bike - finally. if the weather holds, i'll do that for the remaining weekends. and as a class, we really bonded saturday night. the instructor's behavior gave us a real reason to come together more as a team. and i think we've become stronger. now, as long as the rest of the weekends aren't like that!!!

okay - enough for now... another update to follow...

ride safe

did it again...

here it is, friday morning and i still need to pack for the weekend... i've gone through the course materials, so i think i'm ready in that regard. i still need to pack - i'm going to be on the phone all morning. at least only my one morning meeting requires me to be on the phone. i guess the other meetings i can listen in and pack at the same time. i really don't like doing this - it makes me feel uneasy... i don't get the confidence that i've packed everything...

i wanted to take the bike, but at this point, i think it would be too crazy trying to pack for the bike. you would think it's easier since there's actually less to pack. the problem is making sure you have everything you need. and with the variation in weather, i feel like i need to pack extra clothes for comfort. well, at this point, i'm not taking it, so it doesn't matter...

i'll report how the weekend goes when i get back...

one down...

...three more to go...

just completed my first weekend of ridercoach training... whew!! a recap and some of my observations...

well, it started friday... as i think i mentioned in an earlier post, i was totally unprepared - at least packing wise. as far as the course materials, i was pretty much set there. so i was rushing around on friday, juggling work related phone calls, packing and trying to make sure i didn't forget anything. i think i was done packing about the time i needed to load up the cage and take off. yes, i took the cage because of the forecasted weather.

expecting the trip to take anywhere from three and a half to four and a half hours, i left about 12:45pm. i figured worse case that would put me there are 5:15pm leaving me enough time to check into the hotel and get to class for the 6:00pm start.

i pulled into the hotel around 4:30pm. the place reminded me of a motel you'd see along a not so traveled road. not to say the building wasn't in good shape and didn't look nice, it did - for whatever reason, it just wasn't what i was expecting. so i check in, unload my stuff into the room and hang out until it time to leave for the class. as i'm transferring stuff to the room, a guy pulls up on his ultra classic. we eventually pass each other, so i ask him if he's taking the class - kind of a no-brainer as we're all staying at the same hotel and he's riding a motorcycle. he is indeed taking the class - introduces himself as skip. he tells me he rides the bike everywhere, he doesn't own a cage. his wife does and the only time he uses the cage is when it's snowy or there's ice on the road - can't say i blame him. i forget how long skip says he's had the bike, four or five years, and it's got 88,000 mile on it. now that's some riding.

so i head back to the room to kill some time... before long my roommate, wally, shows up. now wally can hold a conversation - we talked about all sorts of things. turns out wally writes for southern motorcycle times, won a 2005 883 sporty and is a warranty administrator for rockwell automation. we chat for a bit and then head to the community college for class...

we arrive at the college and realize there weren't any clear directions/instructions of where the class would be help. wally seemed to know the building we were supposed to be in. we walk in the building and start poking around the rooms. with the amount of heavy equipment and machines in the classrooms, they definitely teach mechanics around here. now i'm thinking to myself, i need to take some classes to learn to weld so that when i decide to build my own bike, i can do some welding on it. well, that's another day and most likely far, far away. right now i'm here for a motorcycle instructor class.

we finally find the classroom - of course it's the last one on the hall. a couple people we already in the room and it looked like the instructors were scrambling around to get things ready. after the rest of the students arrived, they started class. the instructors seemed a little unorganized, like they were winging it. i don't know if they wanted to come off that way or not, but they did. it seemed to start when they couldn't decide if they were supposed to have twelve or thirteen students in the class. this was a discussion they would hold on and off through the first night and into the next morning.

the rest of the night was spent as it would have been for a "normal" class, with the instructors adding advice on how you would teach the course. while there was some structure to what they were presenting, they seemed to be referring to the manual a lot. it just wasn't as polished as i would expect it to be. i don't know if it was intended or not. anyway, friday night was spent doing the first three lessons of the book.

saturday started with the range exercises. actually, it started with us having to get the bikes from storage to the range. not necessarily a big deal, but everyone wants certain bikes. and of course no one wants the bikes at the front. which makes it hard to get the rest of the bikes out. it's amazing to watch the amount of effort people will put into maneuvering a bike around another one in a confined space as opposed to just taking the other one!! so we get the bikes out of the storage area and start firing them up to take them to the range. let me just say they weren't the best bikes around. i don't think any of them have been spared from dropping. so we get them on the range, ride around a bit and then park them in the staging area.

the instructors start talking about how to teach the range exercises, stressing, obviously, safety and coordination between the two coaches on the range. then they tell us to set up the cones for exercise one. it must have looked like a comedy of errors watching us try to figure out which were the right markings and where to put the cones. only being somewhat familiar with the range set up, it took us a while to get them all set up correctly. this would be repeated for almost every range exercise on saturday. but as the day went on, we got better at figuring out where the cones should go.

we start the first exercise, covering the controls on a bike and the differences between the bikes. something that is probably very important to know when you're actually teaching the class. we go all the way through exercise one and two. through the rest of the day, we would partially complete other exercises. we always performed the demo portion of the exercise and sometimes the actual exercise itself. of course we all know we can do the riding portion of the class, otherwise we wouldn't be here. however, when you have to perform the actual demo, it's a lot harder than it seems. i guess because you are showing how to perform an exercise, you want it to be the best it can, so you concentrate a lot harder, which actually makes it hard to perform the demo.

rain really only affected us once on saturday. it rained right after we broke for lunch, but since we were done, that wasn't much of a problem. in the afternoon, it rained again and we ended up leaving the range. i think if this had been a real class, we would have stayed on the range. but we went inside and finished all the book work. in the afternoon, we took turns teaching portions of the course. needless to say, we were unprepared so we did a lot hemming and hawing presenting the materials...

sunday was pretty much spent on the range with the exercises... we wrapped up in the classroom where they gave us assignments for the following week. this should be a lot of fun - now i have to try to find time to get the studying done...

okay - some of my observations from the weekend. the instructors seem very disorganized. they do seem to know their material, but it seems like they are just throwing it at us as they remember it or as questions are asked. as they are presenting the material, they jump and skip around a lot, so it makes it very hard to find continuity in what they are presenting. it would have been nice for them to provide a little more hands on guidance instead of letting us fumble around so much. i believe their thinking is we'll learn more by doing - which is true. but we're making so many mistakes and wasting too much time correcting the mistakes. if they would provide more guidance, we could learn a lot faster.

i can see some people already rising to the top and some sinking. i'm probably floating somewhere near the middle, closer to the top. i can't figure out why some of these people are in the class - money, ego?? i don't know, but they just don't seem to fit. and there are just some natural leaders in the class who will make good instructors. now we'll wait to the end and see how dead wrong i was about the observations i've made about the people.

seems i had some other stuff to add, but i guess this is long enough for now, huh??

ride on...

instructor training...

well, my motorcycle instructor training starts today... while i think i'm prepared for the class as far as reading the materials and completing the assignments, i'm totally unprepared as far as packing!!! i haven't even started to pack, and my morning is full of meetings. guess i'll have to hang on the phone and run around packing. i really don't like to be unprepared like this, but i did it to myself...

also wanted to ride the bike to class. but they're expecting severe thunderstorms this weekend. not sure it's worth trying to ride in the thunderstorms. while i'm bummed about it, there will be other weekends to ride out there. i think my wife will be relieved that i'm caging it instead of riding.

guess my next post(s) will report back on how the training is progressing... good luck to me...

doh!!!

long story short: my neighbor is (planning on) riding to sturgis with us... he is also planning on going to myrtle beach this spring. i'm not going to myrtle but my brother and his crew are. i figured since my neighbor and brother are both going to be in sturgis, the two groups could hook up and meet each other in sturgis...

at the beginning of this week, i sent an introduction e-mail to my brother and frank telling them to add my neighbor to the e-mail list of anything regarding sturgis. i also explained everyone would be in myrtle and they might try to hook up. my brother sends a nice e-mail response welcoming my neighbor. frank does the same, including his contact number as well. then frank sends an e-mail to the larger biker group telling them my neighbor is now in the mix. well, knowing the biker group as i do and not knowing my neighbor tooooo well, that could be a recipe for disaster. as it was!!! it didn't take long for someone to start slinging the mud. and of course it gets pretty crude...

at first i was a little shocked. but then it started to settle in, this is the way the group normally acts - it's going to get to this point sooner or later... and if people don't like it, they don't have to hang around...

well, i hadn't seen my neighbor all week and he didn't respond to any of the e-mails... so now i'm thinking he was offended and that will be the end of that...

i was sitting on the front porch tonight when i hear my neighbor call my name... i wave, get up and head over to talk to him... we meet in the street, shake hands and exchange pleasantries... then he brings up the e-mails - i'm waiting for his reaction... he laughs at it and says that he just hasn't had time to respond to them yet. he thought it was funny and is looking forward to meeting them in myrtle next month...

i tell you, these guys may act like assholes sometimes, but you couldn't find a better bunch of guys to be on your side...

long rides...

my wife and i went for a walk tonight. after our walk, we were in the front yard discussing what we wanted to do with the flower beds. along came one of our neighbors, out on his walk. we exchanged pleasantries and then he says to me i should be out riding the bike. of course it was a beautiful evening, a perfect one for a ride. just with everything going on and me wanting to spend time with the family, i wasn't going out for a ride tonight. then he says that if i don't get out riding, i'll never be in shape or prepared for the ride to sturgis. i took a little, okay, maybe a lot of offense to this. i know it's going to be a long ride and there are going to be some rough days, but he doesn't know anything about me or my riding habits. of course he's been to sturgis and ridden his bike all everywhere else - just ask him, he'll tell you. now i'm sure he's done his share of riding, but he's one of those guys that will ride his bike somewhere. or at least ride it until he gets tried. then he'll pull over and load his bike onto the trailer that his wife's been following him in. or he'll trailer his bike to the edge of some bike rally, unload it and ride in like he owns the place.

now i'm not going to get in big discussion about people trailering their bikes. i understand people do this and they have their reasons - i'm not against people trailering. what i don't like it people trailering their bikes, unloading then at the edge of town and riding in like they've been riding for days. if you're going to trailer - then trailer, fine. but trailer all the way in...

now i know i haven't made any all day, eight, nine, ten hour trips yet. but i think i've been on some longer rides and i don't think i've felt utterly exhausted when i was done. in fact, i can't remember really being too tired after a trip. i enjoy riding - i find it relaxing. i'm looking forward to the sturgis trip. i think the toughest part of the trip is going to be being away from my family.

how far would you go...

...to buy cheaper gas??

i was out riding the other day, passing gas stations and looking at the rising cost of gas... of course different stations had different prices, which got me to wondering how far people would drive to save money on gas...

now i'm all for saving money on gas. and i'll usually drive a little further to save a couple cents on the gallon. but there is a break point - a point at which it's just too far to drive to justify the savings. and everyone has a break point...

on my way back, i passed a station that was selling gas for $2.839 per gallon. less than a mile away, i passed another station selling gas for $2.819 per gallon - a two cent savings. would you drive the extra mile, possibly out of your way, to save two cents per gallon?? i think i would... about another mile away, two miles from the original station, another station was selling gas for $2.759 per gallon. now, would you drive an extra two miles to save eight cents a gallon?? again, i would. luckily for me, the station selling the cheapest gas is closest to my house...

soooo, how far would someone drive out of their way to save money on gas?? how far would you drive?? i realize it's dependent on a combination of the distance and the savings, but i wonder what the average break point is for people...

flame thrower...

was cruising around the web and came across roscoe's flame thrower. pretty cool video - the guy turned his pipes into flame throwers. looks like it would be fun to do... i guess i have a fondness for it because it's a road king classic with a leather tour-pak. don't see many of those. at least not as many as the orange screaming eagles, huh frank??

after watching the video, read the comment. it really is a shame that today's society doesn't take more responsibility for their own actions. roscoe's right, if he told someone how to do this and they hurt themselves, who do you think they'd turn to. quicker than roscoe could say "flame on," he'd be in court. probably along with harley davidson and everyone else that made the parts to enable the flame thrower. of course if roscoe hurts himself with it, who do you think he'll blame?? no one. well, maybe himself... it is too bad that as a society we don't take more responsibility for our own actions. we're always looking for a quick out - someone else to blame for our stupidity... come on people, grow up - have some courage to admit when we screw up and not try to blame everyone else in sight...

okay, enough about that - i need to get out on the bike and relax...

enjoy the video...

horny brothers...

got an e-mail the other day titled horny brothers. opened it up and found these two pics... they were taken at myrtle beach last year... we had a lot of fun... i'm sure i'll be getting some e-mails and phone calls from the guys while they're at myrtle beach.

ride to work day...

kinda hard for me since i work at home!!! i guess i could ride out the driveway, around the cul-de-sac and back up the driveway... if i did that, would i have to drive back at the end of the day??

on the serious side... i was reading through one of the motorcycle rags and saw an ad for ride to work day. i went to the ride to work day web site to find out more. i found out that ride to work day is always the third wednesday in july, which would make it july 19 this year... taken directly from their web site, the purpose is to demonstrate:

• the number of motorcyclists to the general public and to politicians


• that motorcyclists are from all occupations and all walks of life


• that motorcyclists can reduce traffic and parking congestion in large cities


• motorcycling is a social good

it all sounds good and i'm sure it helps raise awareness, but do we need a day designated to ride our bikes to work?? again, if i didn't work at home, i would ride to work as often as possible - it wouldn't take a purpose like 'ride to work day' to make me ride in. but maybe there are people out there that don't or normally wouldn't ride to work. my first instinct is to say these people aren't real riders, but that's probably not fair. they have their reasons not to ride every day and they're just as valid as my reasons to ride as often as possible. so this obviously is less an effort to get more people to ride to work and more an effort to raise awareness to non-riders and cage drivers.

anyway, i guess when the day gets closer, i'll have to schedule lunch with some buddies so that i can get out and ride. either that or just hop on the bike, ride down the driveway, around the cul-de-sac and back up the driveway. believe me, if it comes to that, i'll go a lot further!!!

ride on...

another hog meeting...

so i went to the local hog meeting last night. pretty good meeting - i like the events we do to raise money for the local charities...

but tonight, as i was looking around the room, i was noticing the way people dressed. typical harley wear - harley t-shirts, most for the local dealership, jeans, do-rags. that's not to say there weren't some people there that were dressed "nicely," there were. i'm just looking and thinking about the general clothing... then i started to wonder if these people dress this way all the time or do they get dressed up (or maybe down) for the meetings?? me, i pretty much dress the same way all the time - t-shirts or casual button shirts. about the only change in attire i'll make when i ride is to put jeans on instead of shorts. but i don't throw on my harley shirt just because i'm going to a meeting. if i have it on, i have it on. if not, i wear whatever to the meeting...

so now i'm left wondering what these people wear normally, when they're not at the meeting, or riding or hanging out at scooters... i can tell you think much - i won't be loosing any sleep over it!!!

ride on...

priorities...

i was on the phone with my wife, getting ready for a bike ride. well, not really a full blown ride, just taking my daughter to the doctor... my wife tells me she had talked to said daughter the night before and she didn't want to ride the bike. i thought that was odd as she always seemed to enjoy the ride before. anyway, i decide i'm taking the bike anyway.

as we're leaving the house, i ask her if she doesn't like riding the bike anymore. she said she does - she just didn't want to mess her hair up!!! of course i respond with a smart-ass comment saying "oh yeah, i forgot, we're going to the hair doctor..." she gives me this funny smirk...

we ride to the doctor's office - and what a beautiful day for a ride... as we're checking in, the receptionist asks if i rode and brought daughter on the bike. i say of course. the receptionist says it's a nice day for a ride and she likes motorcycles. i told her i enjoyed the ride in but my daughter didn't because of her hair. looking over to daughter, the receptionist tells her not to worry about her hair - riding a bike is worth having messy hair...

i guess people's priorities are different. i'd take a bike ride over messy hair any day... but i guess there are others that don't feel that way... it's all in your priorities...

sturgis 2006 - planned route

update 07/10/2006: unfortunately i won't be going to strugis this year. you can read more about the reasons...

this is the route we're planning to take to sturgis this year... for the first leg of my trip, i'll head north to manassas and meet up with the rest of the riders. as plans stand now, my neighbor and some of his buddies will be riding with me... for the last leg of the trip, knoxville - home, i'll break off from the pack and head back into youngsville...

really looking forward to this trip...

i decided to add "polylines" to the map to show a little cohesiveness between the points. it's not exactly what i was hoping to achieve - actual routes between points - but it's not as bad as i thought either...

new link...

you may (or may not) have noticed the frankgrimes.net link to the right... as some background, frank is one of the guys in the group my borther rides with. because of the distance between us, about the only chance i get to ride with them is on the longer, bike week type trips. anyway, frank tends to organize - or at least take over leadership - of the rides these guys go on... i think this is mostly because frank is very outspoken, likes to be heard and, let's face it, it's just easier to ingore him!! frank also likes to stir the pot and create mischief... his web site is the culmination of both these traits - organizing and creating mischief... take a look and you'll see he's starting to put details about the myrtle beach and sturgis trip... but he also likes to instigate trouble - take a look at his asshole biker friends page. luckily i'm not on there yet, but i can only figure it's a matter of time...

anyway, enjoy the site. i'm sure it will become more interesting as the bike trips get closer and take place...

i haven't been riding...

...as much as i want...

i planned to take a trip up to northern virginia last week, but the weather had different plans. or the threat of the weather... the plan was to head up there tuesday night and ride back on wednesday. the weather down here was a little gloomy and overcast. i called my brother to check what the weather was like up there. he said they were calling for cold temps and snow tuesday night. now i don't mind riding in the cold, but when it comes to snow, you can count me parking the bike. so, there went that trip...

as it turned out, the trip up to northern virginia turned out to be the trip from hell, so it's probably good i wasn't on the bike. although if i was on the bike, some of the hellishness wouldn't have happened. it started a little over an hour into the trip when i got a flat tire. oh, let me back up a little bit... one of the reasons i wanted to take the bike up to virginia was because my car has developed wobble, which is extremely noticeable as slower speeds. i've been reserving use of the car for chores around town and have been dreading the day i have to take it on a longer trip - like this one. my confidence in the car hasn't been the greatest - in fact, it's been less than average. i delayed taking it to the shop to figure out what was wrong, because i didn't want to dump a bunch of money into it. anyway, here i am with a blown tire on the shoulder of i-85. in the back of my mind, i'm wondering if the wobble/vibration from the car damaged the tire and caused it to blow.

it was dusk and luckily i had an emergency light i used when changing the tire. when i looked at the tire, one side on it was completely bare, exposing the wire belts that are supposed to be on the inside but were, in this case, on the outside. all i could think of was how lucky i was to not lose control of the car when the tire blew.

so i change the tire and jockey to get back onto the interstate. you know, as you're changing the tire, no one passes... as soon as you want to get back out onto the road, everyone is there. after nervously and quickly pulling out between some cars, i realize the car doesn't seem to be shaking quite like it did before. unfortunately i was too intent on pulling back onto the interstate that i didn't bother to pay attention to how the car handled at the slower speed.

i start to wonder about the durability of the donut i just put on my car. i know it says that you're not supposed to drive over 50mph or over a certain length of time without stopping. now i'm driving 60, which is 10 over the tire's rating and 5 under the posted speed limit. now i'm worried about being a road hazard to other drivers - after all, i have become the driver i always yell at for going slow!! i start a debate with myself about whether i should attempt the rest of the trip to northern virginia on the donut, or attempt to find a place to replace the tire. i know there are truck stops along the way, but i don't want to get ripped off either. about twenty minutes later, i see a shopping center with a sears. figuring they have an auto center, i stop in... thankfully they were able to get me in immediately and replace the tire. after dropping $70 and spending 30 minutes, i was on my way again. as i'm driving away from sears, in the parking lot, at slow speed, i notice there is no wobble!!! damn, it was a bad tire that cause me all problems/worries to begin with. now my confidence in my car is fully restored and i have learned a valuable lesson - it's not just good enough to check the air pressure in your tires, you also need to check the tread. had i done that months ago, i would have saved a lot of worry and inconvenience with replace the tire in the middle of the trip.

now i've got the tire replaced and i'm on my way again. but that wouldn't be the end of my hassles on this trip. north of richmond, before fredericksburg, traffic comes to a near screeching halt. after close to an hour of inching forward but mostly standing still, traffic picks up again. as i finally got to speed, i passed an area with a lot of sand that's used to soak up gas and oil on the road. i'm guessing there was an accident the shut down the lanes.

the final bit of fun was the snow that started just north of fredericksburg. it wasn't bad, but enough to make drivers panic and make the driving stressful. the snow was light and wasn't sticking to the roads. by the time i got to manassas, the snow was starting to stick on the grass and parked cars.

looking back, i guess the trip wasn't so bad after all. i never really let the flat tire, the stopped traffic or the snow bother me. in fact, the blown tire was probably a blessing in disguise - i didn't think a flat tire would be such good news!!! i wasn't on a time schedule, so whenever i got there, i got there. and while i would rather be on my motorcycle, being in a car was probably better for this trip...


while i didn't take the bike on the trip up to virginia, i have been able to ride around town a little. as i mentioned before, not as much riding as i want to be doing, but some. and for now, i'll settle for that...

i've been riding...

...just haven't been posting much... haven't been on any good long rides lately, so that's probably been affecting my post rate. well, that and work. work has been getting busy lately. but this isn't about my work, it's about my escape from work on my bike!!! unless of course i'm riding to some work related activity - like lunch or the dreaded account meetings...

most of my riding lately has just been around town. to/from the grocery store, the dealership, etc. started to take a longer trip last week, into virginia. but compounding events got in the way and ended the trip early... the plan was to ride down to the dealership to collect a rebate for spending too much money on a new jacket. then i was going up to virginia to pay for my in-laws county sticker. it's an easy hour drive, maybe hour and a half from my house to where i needed to get the sticker. the dealership, which is in the complete opposite direction, is about 45 minutes away. now i had to complete all this before 1:00pm because i had meetings for work. yikes, there i go mentioning work again!!!

to start all this off, i didn't get a good night's sleep because i was stressing over these meetings for work. my afternoon was going to be stacked with them - and i was leading several of them. as i'm not sleeping, i'm thinking being out on the bike is going to be real therapeutic - i'm going to need it... so the morning rolls around and starts off by me leaving late. strike one. i wanted to hit the dealership as soon as they opened so that i could get my bizness done and head up to virginia. my other problem was i didn't consider the time - i'd be riding to the dealership in rush hour traffic. strike two. i get to the dealership - longer than expected, but no longer than i should have expected had i been thinking about what i was doing - and get my rebate. no problems there.

now i head north to virginia. i start calculating the time - will i have time to make it there and back. probably so - it'll be tight, but i can probably do it. wouldn't you know it?? an accident!!! blocking the middle lane, so all the traffic has to divert into the other two lanes... first i can't figure out why it's taking so long to get around the accident. i mean i know it's going to take time, but this seemed ridiculously slow. especially considering there were police directing traffic. so i'm waiting to get around the accident, thinking about my time dwindling away. and my ride being cut short... strike three...

after finally getting around the accident, heading north and figuring the time in my head, i decided i didn't have time to make it there and back in time. i was disappointed, but it was probably the right decision. that last thing i need while i'm on my bike is to feel hurried, stressed or frustrated. i mean being out on the bike is a chance to get away from all that... i show up at home and my wife is wondering what i'm doing there. she asks why i didn't go to virginia. after realizing the time, she agreed that i wouldn't have time to make it...

so - the riding day ended sooner than expected. but i am planning a trip up to virginia next week. an overnight trip. maybe that one will go as expected... i'll let you know...

ride on...

msf motorcycle instructor

the reality is setting in... this is going to be a lot of work... the materials for my msf motorcycle instructor course have arrived. it's basically the rider handbook for the basic rider course, the range cards, course outline and teaching guides. we're also required to get a certified copy of our driving record before the course begins and have to get certified in cpr and first aid before we can teach. i have to take time to review all the material before i go to the first class. in addition, the instructors will be giving us pre-course assignments which we have to be prepared to discuss the first weekend. oh, did i mention the class is taught over four consecutive weekends??

yeah, this is going to be a lot of work. but i'm looking forward to it... i better start figuring out what i need to do to get a certified copy of my driving record and start looking for some cpr and first aid classes...

is it any wonder the nra has a bad name??

as i mentioned in an previous post, i was going to tell you about my run-in with the nra. okay, maybe not so much the nra itself, but some dood who's on a power-trip.

now let me start off by saying that i'm not against the nra. to be honest, i'm probably ambivalent about them - and it's probably my ignorance that makes me ambivalent about them. sure, i think people have the right to keep and bear arms. but i also believe a private individual doesn't need some high powered, automatic military weapon capable of wiping out six hundred people stashed under their bed.

now that we have that out of the way, let me explain how i came upon my encounter with ego-trip man. just for clarification, the dulles expo center has (at least) two buildings. this particular day, a bike show was going on in one building while a gun show was going on in the other. while i was at the bike show, i had to hit the atm machine. the atm in the building i was at was out of order. so i headed over to the other building - where the gun show was going on. i get to the other building and see they're selling tickets to get in. instead of just walking up to the entrance doors, i get in line to talk to the ticket guy. as i'm waiting my turn, i read a sign full of rules - no loaded weapons, no this, no that, no cameras. guess what?? i have my camera. it's finally my turn to talk to ticket guy. i explain that i just want to go in to use the atm, i don't plan on attending the show. he says no problem, just tell that to the people guarding the door. then i explain i have my camera and ask if he thinks that will be a problem. he says no, it won't be, just tell the people guarding the door. (btw, guarding the door is my phrase, not his.) so i head for the door. as i walk in, i scan the room for the atm. it's to the right, about 20 yards away. i tell someone that i just want to use the atm, i talked to ticket guy and he said it would be no problem. they say sure, go ahead. i then tell them that i have my camera and just wanted to let them know so that there wasn't any problem. oops... they say i have to talk to one of the other guys guarding the door. you guessed it, i have to talk to ego-trip man. he's busy flexing his power rifling through someone's gun. i'm sure he's making sure it's not loaded, that it meets the necessary requirements to be brought into the building. after he's done with the guy, i approach him, tell him i i'm only there to use the atm, i've talked to ticket guy, junior guard on the other side and was told to talk to him. i finish up by saying i have my camera. mistake. this puts his powers into overdrive. immediately he says i can't bring a camera into the building. i told him i was aware of that, but i just wanted to use the atm, i would be happy to remove the memory chip, the battery, leave the camera with him, whatever. i said i wasn’t there to attend the show, i just wanted to use the atm. like the dolt that he was, he just repeats i can't bring the camera into the building. i said i realized that. he responds by asking why we're having this conversation?? i said that i was thinking he might be reasonable and we might work out a compromise so that i could use the atm. nope, ego-trip man was too busy flexing his power. he tells me he's too busy to watch my camera and that cameras aren't allowed in. well, i wouldn't let it go, i just stood there "discussing" it with him. after a couple minutes, he finally decided it would be okay if i left my camera on the table where he was standing while i used the atm. the only thing i can figure is he realized i wasn't going away and there was probably a line of victims forming behind me. of course before i set my camera down, i removed the memory chip. i don't know why, probably a gesture to show that i was sincere in trying to be honest. i headed over to the atm, took out my money, picked up my camera and was out of there in less than two minutes - once i got past ego-trip man.

as i was walking away, all i could think about was how this incident just reinforces the notion that the nra are just a bunch of gun toting boneheads. here i was trying to be upfront and honest. ego-trip man had a bad attitude and he was only there to enforce the rules. i know, i know, rules are in place for a reason. but i wasn't interested in breaking the rules, i was interested in a compromise so that i could use the atm without breaking the rules. i could have just as easily, no, more easily walked into the building with my camera, not saying anything and gotten away with it. i was tempted to walk back to ego-trip man and tell him that i saw a couple people stuffing cameras in the pockets, trying to sneak them in. i'm sure they would have put the place in lock down. but, i had better things to do; i had a bike show to get back to.

bike show...

well, didn't do any riding this weekend but i did manage to attend the mid-atlantic cycle show at dulles expo center. mainly went to see russell mitchell from exile cycles. we got there early since we had other things to do during the day. it wasn't crowded, but i don't know if it would have gotten packed.

so we get there, wait a couple minutes for the doors to open, get in and head straight for the exile booth. i was planning on wandering around and "stumbling" on the booth, but my wife had another mission - find russell. what the heck, i'm not a hard one to convince... we deciced to start at one end of the building, scanning the aisles until we find him. as we're walking, our son, who loves motorcycles, wants to sit of every bike he sees and doesn't quite understand why he can't... so we're pulling him along heading to the end of the building to start our search...

as luck would have it, exile was in the first row... now the only problem with getting there early is that sometimes the builders aren't there yet - i'm figuring they like to party and stay out late... so we look at the bikes, loiter around and finally ask when russell might get there. they tell us he's on his way in. of course, as we're looking around, our son is desperately trying to climb on the bikes and we're doing what we can to keep him off. finally, one of the ladies working with exile says he can get on a bike. as he's climbing on russell's pure sex bike, a guy working for exile comes over and says he's got a better bike to put him on. he walks him over and helps him get on the trike. he was so thrilled to be on the trike.


well, before we knew it, russell showed up. he was busy getting some music cranked up. i missed the opportunity to see what was on his playlist, but it started with abba's dancing queen. not quite what i would have expected and it made me curious as to what else was on the playlist.

my wife wanted to get a couple exile shirts. i had to hit an atm to get some cash, which took a little longer than expected and was an adventure in itself - which will be the story of another post. anyway, while i was gone, i left her to talk to russell, which might have been a mistake since she thinks he's so hot. no need to worry though, when i (finally) got back, i found she hadn't even talked to him... anyway, we finally purchase some shirts, talk to russell, get some pictures and autographs.

(me doing my best russell impersonation)

here's our son trying to pick some money up. apparently russell thought it would be funny to glue some money to the ground and watch people pick it up. our son couldn't figure out why he couldn't get the money off the floor. russell was chuckling at him. he did manage to pry a penny up, which made him happy he didn't leave empty-handed...


after visiting exile, we checked out the rest of the show. stopped by d.c. cruisers to buy a raffle ticket for a mini bike. it would be really cool to win the mini bike - especially since they're only selling 100 tickets. but i'm not holding my breath... so we walked around the rest of the show. overall it was mediocre. it was smaller than i expected. not as many builders, but more vendors. not crowded, which was nice. after about two hours, we saw all that we were going to see, so we headed out...

here are a couple other pictures from the show...

ridercoach preparation...

found out earlier today that i've been selected to participate in the ridercoach preparation - which basically means the motorcycle instructor course. i'm excited and nervous. excited because this is something i've been wanting to do. nervous because it would be so embarrassing if i don't pass the course.

the course is going to be conducted over four consecutive weekends. that's a lot of learning... i realize there will be a lot of classroom time, but i hope there's even more bike time. i get the feeling my hopes will be dashed. oh well, i'll do my best in the course. and of course there's the part that comes after the training - teaching. i won't worry too much about that right now - i have to get through the training first!!!

speaking of training - i've been trying to brush up on my riding skills. back in december, i got a copy of a self-study motorcycle training program. part of the first lesson is to stop with only putting one foot down. and as soon as you start, to pick the foot up and not drag it. sooooo, lately as i've been riding around i've been practicing only putting on foot down when i come to a stop. surprisingly, it only took a couple tries before i started getting the hang of it. i feared that i would have problems balancing the bike when i was stopped - not so. i also notice the i can pretty much stop and put my left foot down all the time, keeping my right foot on the brake/floorboard. i would have thought that i would have used the right foot a bit more. i guess that means i have more control over the balance than i thought i had. the other thing i noticed about stopping with one foot down is that starting is easier. as soon as the bike starts moving, i put my foot onto the floorboard. and amazingly i take off rather easily... now i'm really looking forward to running through more of the lessons. the more comfortable i am on the bike, the more enjoyable it is to ride...

okay - that's all for now...

kerr lake...

finally got out and did some riding this weekend... wasn't out too long, just a couple hours. but, considering it's (supposed to be) winter, it was nice to get out. it was a little later in the day than i wanted to take off, so i did consider not going. however, my wife coaxed me into going - isn't she wonderful??

so i took a ride up to the kerr lake - virginia side. i was on a little bit of a (self imposed) time schedule, so i didn't explore the back roads up to the lake as much as i might have. weather was great - clear, sunny sky, temps in the 60s. there wasn't that much traffic, so it was a more peaceful ride. lot of time to look around, soak up the scenery, reflect on the thoughts that float around my head...

as i pass through the small towns with one two lane road running through them, i wonder what people did to thrive. what did they do for a living, for fun, to pass the time?? i can't be sure, but it seems like they had a much simpler life... i wonder if time has passed them by. or maybe progress... as i get closer to the lake, i notice more land for sale. more housing developments going in. it probably won't be long before the farm land, the countryside, the little corner markets are gone. replaced by housing developments. i notice there is a new development in north carolina just before the virginia boarder. it's only a matter of time...

anyway, i made it up to the lake and stopped by the dam to take some pictures...




and a couple of the bike...




on the way home, i noticed i was on the bicycle 1 route. i know bicycle 1 runs a little west of home - my question was how far out of the way was this route?? since i was interested in getting home quickly, i only followed it for a short bit. enough to find a shorter route to the lake as well as giving me another road to explore on a future ride...

overall, it was a great day for a ride... nice to be back out on the bike again...

been a while...

...since i've written... or even ridden...

the weather around here the past two weeks has been great. the only problem is my back has been bothering me. not sure what or how it happened. the real bummer was that we've probably had some of the best winter weather we've ever had. of course by "best" i mean warm and sunny. and i got to miss all the wonderful riding because of my back. lately it's been a little colder... hopefully i'll get some riding in this weekend - or maybe even this week...

new google map...

so i've decided to play around a little and see what i can do about adding a google map ... this is/will most likely be a work in progress for the next couple days or so as i learn all the different functions/capabilities of the googlemap api. if i can get this working, i plan on making a map plotting our trip to sturgis this year - assuming i make the trip to sturgis!!!

anyway, here's the first map...

i would like to thank ron for his excellent post on getting google maps to work in blogger and some additional information i found here.

first ride - 2006

took my first ride of 2006 last night - not that i plan on keeping track of every ride i go on this year!!! since it was the first wednesday of the month, it was hog meeting time. i hadn't been on the bike in a couple weeks, so i was a little nervous - not sure why. maybe more cautious instead of nervous. anyway, it felt good to be on the bike. traffic wasn't bad, weather wasn't as cold as i had expected. it was just nice to be riding again.

hog meeting wasn't anything spectacular... never really are unless i win the 50/50 raffle. last night they had the head coach and a couple of players from the raleigh rebels. the rebels want to encourage participation from our local hog club. apparently before each home game, they're going to have five or six motorcycles from our club ride in. they're really trying to boost support for the rebels. and i guess since they are a new team, i can understand that. don't know if i'm much of an indoor football fan, but i can see attending a game or two.

after the coach spoke to us, it was the usually business - talking about the budget, upcoming rides, etc. then the 50/50 raffle. although i didn't win the big prize, $186, i did manage to win a bottle of champagne!! guess that's another bottle to add to my growing collection...

ride back was good. i rode back with hans, who lives about ten minutes from me. other than rides back from meetings, hans and i haven't been on any rides together. we've threatened to go on rides, but things just haven't panned out yet. we'll probably get something worked out for the spring or summer.

so, that's it. a quick recap of the ride last night. actually, less about the ride and more about other things, huh?? oh well...

ride on...

damn!!!

earlier (today) i was talking about becoming motorcycle instructor... well, this afternoon i got a call to attend a class in goldsboro. only problem is it's a monday through sunday class at the end of february. with all the other vacation plans i have for this year, i won't be able to attend this training... i hope turning down this running doesn't hurt my chances for another class.

8092

so, i'm beginning the year with 8092 miles on my bike... not as many miles as i thought; although i'm not sure how many miles i was expecting to put on...

my plans for riding this year include the usual brunch rides, a few trips to motorcycle shows and at least one rally. i also plan on becoming a motorcycle safety instructor, if i'm accepted (which i should learn later this month). i don't know how/why, but i'm thinking becoming an instructor will provide me more opportunity to ride. i'm not sure how much instructing i'll actually do - it probably won't be more than once a month, if that much.

i am planning on riding to sturgis or myrtle beach this year. right now, two factors will influence my ride to sturgis: 1) cost; 2) if someone can talk my wife into going to myrtle beach. if i don't make it to sturgis, i'll be at myrtle. i can't go to both myrtle beach and sturgis - too much time away from the family and time off work. so if my wife decides to go to myrtle, then that's where i'll be!! if not, and it doesn't cost too much, then i'll be riding out to sturgis.

i would really like to make the trip to sturgis - not so much to be at sturgis but for the ride back... my bro and his group are planning to beat feet to sturgis, stay a couple days and then spend the next week and a half riding back - hitting twenty two states in two weeks. sure, it'd be great to be able to look back on day and say i was at sturgis, but being on the road, riding through different states and towns is was gets me going. that's what i really look forward to... it would be even more awesome if i could take my wife along... it will be a few years before we'll be able to take a trip like that. i'm sure we will one day - and it will be more than worth the wait.

my wife has also talked about taking a vacation in the mountains this year. if we do that, which i really hope we manage to swing this year, i'd like to take my bike along. i've dropped hints to her but we'll have to see how that goes...

this year i also plan on doing some self teaching/learning. a guy in colorado developed a self-study course based on the harley davidson police motor course. it was pretty cool that he put it together and is willing to share it for the asking. when i get some free time on the weekends, i plan on running through the exercises. i've looked over the first couple of exercises and am mixed. i want the exercises to be easy. but if they were easy, i wouldn't learn and improve my skills. for example, part of the first lesson consists of only putting one foot down when stopping. one of my fears is dropping the bike when i only have one foot down. but i know it will only benefit me to be able to put one foot down when stopping. so, i'll have to work at it - and work at it quite a bit. with work, reward will follow...

so, those are some of my plans for this year. we'll see how things shape up...

ride safe...

2006 rides

once again, a map of the places i rode in 2006...

2005 rides

here are the non-brunch rides i went on in 2005. i think i got them all... whatever i didn't get will be added when i remember...

it happened again...

well, got a letter from the dealership... another discount offer. the odd thing about this one is that this offer is being given to me because i took the rider's edge class. that may not seem odd at first, but i took the rider's edge class well over a year ago. and they didn't offer me a discount last year because i took the class...

these two offers lately only make me feel the dealership is desperate to get me in there and spend money. i know in the winter sales slow down and they try to make offers to get people in. but come on, make me some good offers. 15% off doesn't make me want to rush down there and spend money - the harley stuff is expensive enough to start with. maybe if they were offering 50% off... is that too much to ask?? i might consider 35% off if there was something i felt i needed.

the funny thing is i still have fifty dollars to spend at the dealer. you'd think with the discounts, i'd be rushing in there... nope... oh well, guess i'll be passing on this offer too...

another ride...

wasn't planning on taking a ride yesterday - it just kind of happened... it all started with having to return a work shirt to exile. well, that and wanting to get our christmas (yes, i said christmas) cards in the mail. well, if i had to go out, might as well take the bike. it was sunny, in the low 50s... decided i didn't need the heated gloves, just the winter ones. also decided to wear the chaps. it wasn't going to be a long ride - just to the post office and back. i knew i wouldn't get real cold, but what the heck, why get too cold at all??

so i get everything all together and head out... well, i thought i had everything... forgot the letter to go with the shirt i was returning. it wasn't critical, but i did want to put a note in there. another dilemma - do i go around the "block" or do i make a quick u-turn at the intersection. i decided to make the u-turn because of time - not something i usually worry about on the bike... anyway, i approach the street, which is a left hand turn, where i'm going to make the u-turn. there was a cage behind me, but it was far enough behind me that i didn't feel pressure to go into the turn quicker than i wanted. however, as i started making my turn, i noticed a cage coming in the other direction. because i was watching where i was going, i wasn't able to determine exactly how fast the cage was coming. i did figure that if i made it through the turn quick enough, i would have enough time to continue without cutting the cage off or worrying about it riding up on my butt. well, the u-turn went very well. i was confident going into the turn and i walked through the steps in my head - i think that helped me execute the u-turn very well. once i completed the turn and was back on the road, i accelerated so that i wasn't a hazard to the cage. in didn't really matter though, because the cage was far enough away that it wasn't a factor. you know, it's making successful maneuvers like this that build up confidence in one's riding skills.

okay, so i make it back home, pick up the letter and head to the post office. the rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. which i guess in certain terms is a good thing - it basically means that nothing bad happened on the ride. it was a great ride. nice cool temps - i was dressed appropriately for the amount of time i was out. if it would have been a longer ride, i would have definitely opted for the heated gloves.

now i'm thinking about my next ride... hopefully i'll get out this weekend. the temps are looking like high 40s / low 50s. but, most importantly, clear - no rain, sleet or snow. i'll be a little bummed if i don't get out this weekend as yesterday will have been the last ride of the year for me... it would be great to get one more ride in.

that's it for now...

no, no, thank you...

i got a christmas/thank card from my local dealership the other day... actually, it was probably a "holiday" card because they don't want to offend anyone by saying "christmas." what offends me are the people the don't have the courage to say christmas or merry christmas and the people who don't believe in christmas that don't have the self-esteem to just let it roll off... but that's a whole different diatribe that i won't go in to here...

so, about this card... as i mentioned, it was a thank you card as well. i guess they were thanking me for all the money i've spent in there for the overpriced goods... i know, i know - it's my own fault, i shop there, it's my money, i can spend it somewhere else if i don't like it. but i do fall into the trap and do spend my money there... damn!!! as part of the thank you, they included a card for 25% off leather good for the month of november and december. i have two basic problems with this card.... first, and most obviously, the promotion is about three-quarters over. now they send it to me!!! what happened to sending it out at the beginning of november when it would give me more of a chance to use it?? or maybe that was their plan; i wouldn't be able to take advantage of it. i was thinking about taking it in and asking if i could use it for january and february as it's pretty much done now - but i don't think it's worth my time...

the second problem i have with this is its too late!! a little over a week ago i spent close to two hundred dollars buying heated (leather) gloves. it would have been nice to save some money. and i guess if i would have shopped around, i could have saved - but a lack of planning on my part constituted me spending full price. a purchase i don't regret after riding in the cold... i thought about taking the discount card in and asking for the discount on the gloves - but again, i don't know if it's worth my time. let's see, fifty bucks... it probably is worth my time. okay, chalk this one up to laziness.

so i ended up tossing out the note and the discount card... doubt i'll buy anything before the card expires!! at least anything leather... for myself...

ride on...

hog meeting...

rode to the hog meeting last night... it was a cold night - not as cold as it could have been, but cold enough... my new electric/heated gloves have either made me brave or crazy. actually, whether i had the gloves or not, i would have most likely ridden to the meeting last night. now january or february might have been a different story.

i had to stop for gas on my way to the meeting. good thing i had to stop, i forgot to plug my gloves into the battery before taking off. i didn't realize that until i was about three minutes into the ride. i guess i would have pulled over and plugged them in if i didn't have to stop for gas. anyway, i get to the station and pump gas. it wasn't as cold as i had anticipated - at least on the ride there. the ride home may be a different story. after pumping the gas, i put my helmet on, jump on the bike and start putting my gloves on. as i look up, there's a guy on the opposite side of the pump i was using peering his head around at me. as we make eye contact, he starts shaking his head. he comments that it must be cold on the bike. of course, since i was pulling on my gloves i held up a glove and said the beauty of electric gloves. he said something about it still being too cold to ride. i just said it was better than being in a cage... we said our goodbyes and i took off for the meeting.

the ride to the meeting was pretty uneventful. something i noticed on the last ride to the meeting that i confirmed last night - part of the ride is definitely warmer than other parts. and this makes total sense... the stretch of road is capital boulevard between 540 and 440. it's so congested with stores and traffic. it really isn’t surprising that it's warmer along this part of the road. i guess what i find surprising is how much warmer. but maybe that has to do with the fact that it's just so much more densely populated and the traffic never continuously moves. so we don't get as much chance to get cold like we would if we kept moving. who really knows?? just something i did notice again while riding...

we had a full agenda at the hog meeting. lots-o-money going to charities, more charities than i can remember in one evening. we probably had at least eight charities and two or three weren't even there. the charities are a good thing. they are very thankful for our help. sometimes i think an organization like ours should actually be giving more - the standard amount seems to be a thousand dollars. but then i think of the number of charities we give to. the charities seem to be really appreciative of the donations. so maybe one thousand dollars is good - and by giving that much, we can give to more... anyway, it's really a good part of the meeting to watch the donations being made.

the other big agenda item was voting for new members for the board. correction, new member... everyone except the director ran unopposed. i thought about running for a position but i don't know that i would be able to commit the time right now. plus i'd probably lose - not too many people know me and these things are usually a popularity contest. so we have a new director...

the other highlight of the meeting was winning the fifty dollar gift certificate!!! yup, i won the gift certificate tonight. everyone who goes to the meeting is entered. tonight was my night... the club also does a 50/50 drawing that we always enter. my wife and i both throw in five bucks and we get twenty tickets for the raffle. we've been pretty successful at the 50/50. twice, maybe three times, we've won the pot - each time over a hundred bucks. lost count of the number of t-shirts and hats i've won. won a six-pack of beer once too... anyway, that's another fun part of the meeting - the anticipation and excitement of watching and matching your numbers as they're called out. of course the more numbers they call and you match, the more excited you get. of course there's also the disappointment when you've matched the first five numbers called but not the sixth!!! i've had the happen too... last night i wasn't even close on any of the 50/50 numbers. but i matched all six for the gift certificate. and when i match then all and stand up and say something like yeah, i got it, there's a moment of fear... fear that i've transposed my numbers and someone else it actually going to win. but then winning wouldn't be the bad part - it would be my embarrassment over having to sit back down after announcing that i was the (wrong) winner. i think i've seen it happen before and everyone just laughs and no one takes it seriously, but there's still that moment of fear...

the ride home was a little colder, but not as cold as i had anticipated. don't know if it was because i was anticipating it or if it just wasn't really that cold. or the fact i had my gloves cranked all the way up... don't know why i cranked them, i guess i just wanted to see how hot (warm) they may get. unlike before, when i had the thermostat set in the middle and my hands didn't get cold (as opposed to actually feeling warm), i could feel the warmth on my hands and fingers. it was neat actually feeling the warmth. although i don't think i would want this on longer rides - i think my hands would start sweating... but last night it was good...

to draw my ride to a close, i had some a$$hole cage run up on me - enough so that i was starting to reach into my pocket for the marble... i was approaching my turn off capital and was cruising about 62-63 in the left lane. apparently this wasn't fast enough for the cage and he thought i should be in the right lane. i don't know how close he got to me, but it was very close - i could have easily hit his windshield with the marble. i guess he figured he could force me over to the right lane by riding up on me. when people do this it really pisses me off, there was no one in the right lane, why couldn't he just use the right lane to go around me?? but obviously if he isn't smart enough to stay off my butt, he's not smart enough to use the right lane. like i said, i started reaching in my pocket for the marble when he suddenly pulls into the right lane and starts passing me. then his final act of stupidity is to swerve back over into the left lane, nearly hitting my front tire. what an a-hole!! as soon as he gets in front of me, the light in front of us turns red. so he has to stop (there's another cage in front of him) and i pull into the left turn lane. as i was approaching him i was wishing my balance and skills on the bike were a little better - i was thinking of kicking his door as i went by. instead i just glared - but i don't think he noticed. anyway, these people just really piss me off...lucky for me that i'm aware of my surroundings and i ride like i'm invisible - this guy definitely wouldn't have cared if he hit me... oh well - i was aware and i made it home safe...

so that's the tale of another ride... peace...

msf ridercoach screening part 2...

went to the ridercoach screening in asheboro today... although it was slightly colder than i was expecting and threatening rain (later in the day) i decided to ride out there. it turned out to be a bit cooler than i expected. thankfully my wife talked me into getting some heated gloves last night.

when i first took off, i had to get gas, so i didn't plug the gloves in (since i would have to remove them to pump gas anyway). got to the gas station and pumped my gas. my hands were fine, but i knew that i would be happy to have heated gloves for the longer ride - if they worked. i've never used them before, so i didn't know what to expect. i get all suited up, plug in the gloves and take off... as soon as i get on the road, i realize i didn't fasten the strap on my helmet. yikes - not good... go down the road a couple of miles to pull over at a safe place. i pull my gloves off to fasten the strap and the first thing i notice is how much cooler it is with the glove off. wow, i guess these gloves are working!!! i fasten the strap and put the gloves back on - i could already feel the warmth of the gloves!!! but, would they keep my hands, or more importantly my fingers, warm for the whole ride??

the answer is most definitely yes!!! in the past when i've ridden and it's been cold, the only real problem i have is with my fingers getting cold. the rest of my body seems to stay warm - or at least it doesn't get freezing cold. as it turns out, the gloves worked so well keeping my fingers warm, now my toes and knees were getting cold!! i think in the past, my fingers got so cold, i never realized other parts of my body were getting cold as well. now that my fingers aren't a problem, the focus shifts to other parts of my body. i guess in the future, i wear warmer socks and warmer pants. still have to give props to the gloves - they are great!!!

okay, so after enduring the cold ride to asheboro, it's time for the screening. i got there about an hour early, so i rode to the facility to make sure i could find it. the facility is for fire and firearms training. as i approached the lot, i could see the parking lot was sectioned off with cones and you had to follow them around to a specific parking area. when i got through the gates, i could head gun shots. as i looked to my left, i could see a bunch of people lined up at the firing range, shooting away. at this point, since i was an hour early, i decided to head back to a gas station, get some water to drink and call my wife to let her know i made it safely. got to the station, bought some water and called my wife. there were two little tables inside the station, so i sat there, warming up a little and listening to the locals talk about the latest happenings. after killing some time, i head back to the facility.

while riding to the facility i get behind a guy on a bwm. i follow him in, weaving around the cones to a parking area. i stop, unplug everything - okay, only my heated gloves and myself from the battery harness. pack everything into the tour-pak and head inside. when i get inside, they ask for my license. i hand it to dave and he recognizes my name from e-mails and phone calls. i figure that's a good thing. after writing some stuff down, he hands my license and a package or papers to me. i proceed to find an empty spot to fill out the forms. there are more people here than i thought there would be. i don't know how many i was expecting, but it turns out there were twenty-one of us.

so while we were filling out the forms, they told us that we would be selected based on the forms we filled out and the skills test. there was no guarantee on who would be picked. it partially depended on where we lived, where they needed instructors and how far we were willing to travel to instruct. well, those and the skills test we were about to take.

i had two problems with filling out the forms - first, the pen they gave me wouldn't write. so i exchanged it for another one that wouldn't write!! good thing i brought my own. the second problem i had was writing why i thought i would be a good instructor. i put some corny reason about motorcycle safety, blah, blah, blah... i actually thought that there were going to speak to each one of us individually, so i was expecting to talk about it, not write about it. oh well... after filling out the forms, they gave us numbers. these would be the order we went in for the skills test. since there were so many of us, they broke us into two groups. i was number ten in the first group.

we got outside, picked a bike and headed out to the range. in my head, i went through all the fine-c steps, ensuring i turned the gas on!!! one or two people forget - at least i wasn't one of them. as we headed to the range, i could feel the bike pulling as i made my turns. i realized how much more my weight affects the turning on a smaller bike. so we get out to the range and start weaving in and out of two sets of cones to warm up. this is good. i'm getting a good feel for the bike and getting more confident that i can do the box easily on this bike. after about five minutes of weaving, they line us up for the skills test. no practice runs - straight into the evaluation. we don't need it, we're already experienced riders - at least that's the reason they gave us. the first skills test was the box followed by a swerve to miss an obstacle. the second was a quick stop. the final one was a timed turn. i think i did pretty well on all the tests. at least i didn't do the box backwards, lock up my tires on the quick stop or go through the turn too slowly.

now i'll have to wait to see if i get the call. he said we won't hear until january. no big deal. if i make it good. if i don't, that's fine too...

after the evaluation, it was time to head home. i was expecting to stay until three o'clock, but it was only one o'clock. getting out early!!! i was suiting up and started talking to a guy who was from rolesville. i hate it when i do this, but i couldn't remember him name. doh!!! it was really nice talking to him - seems like he would be fun to ride with. he gave me his e-mail address so i should hook up with him to do some riding. i'll shoot that e-mail off later today.

so now time for the ride home. called my wife to let he know that i would be leaving but probably stopping for some food before making the journey home. at least the ride home was warmer - no cold toes or knees. i did use the heated gloves again. why not, i have them, i might as well use them!! the ride home was good - uneventful. no crazy cages or real hazards to worry about today. just smooth riding. another successful ride!!

msf ridercoach screening...

i'm heading out to asheboro tomorrow for ridercoach screening. i'm not sure what to expect at the screening. i know there is an overview of the ridercoach training program, an interview and a skills test. i'm a little nervous about the interview - i just want to make sure i'm prepared for the questions. i don't know what kind of questions they may ask. will it be more personal questions or rider/safety question?? i'm thinking about reviewing some of the training materials tonight - just to brush up. for example, i had to be reminded yesterday that it is fine-c and not fine-t. i don't know if that's the type of stuff i need to know for the interview.

with regard to the skills portion of the test - i should be able to handle that. the box has me a little concerned - i know i can do it, i've done it before. it's just that i will be on a different bike - thankfully a smaller bike. i don't know if i could do it on my bike!!! especially the smaller box - i don't know that i've ever done the smaller box. once i get used to the smaller bike, i should be fine. the trick is going to be remembering things like turning on the fuel before i start the bike - i don't have to worry about that on my bike now. and i guess that's what things like fine-c are for...

i'm also thinking about riding out there tomorrow. will that be to assuming?? my wife has talked me to purchasing some electric gloves for the ride tomorrow. the high tomorrow is supposed to be in the low 50s. that's not too bad. but i'll be leaving in the morning, so it will be a bit cooler - maybe in the 30s. and it's about a two and a half hour drive. i'm thinking it might be nice to have warm fingers - or at least not freezing fingers - when i get there. going to pick up the gloves this evening - already called the dealer and have some on hold.

okay - guess that's it for now... i'll report back with my results and the ride... looking forward to it...