Finally, today it's sunny!  From where I sit inside my snug house it appears to be a fabulous day for bike riding!  And better yet, we do need to make a 40 or so mile round trip down some of the prettiest country roads around to preview a house for real estate. So, I say to my husband, half-jokingly, " lets ride our bikes!"  He, not jokingly, shoots down that idea and suggests I check the outside temperature.   I get on my tablet and see that it is 43 degrees right now, albeit sunny, it's just too darn cold!

All this brings up memories of one of my recent rides. I rode over to Mountain Motorsports for some scheduled maintenance earlier this month.  Not so bad, the ride to drop it off,  but picking it up later at night- wow!   I guess I am just a sissy or something but I don't really like the cold.  I have respect for riders who ride regularly year round and some just wearing 3/4 face helmets, exposed wrists or no jackets.  But, I did it - I made the 25 miles home in cold, windy darkness.  Did have to make a rest stop though.  I pulled into the Alpine Bakery in Crabapple about halfway home.  My husband in the car, pulled in behind me.  We warmed up with a big cup of coffee and a humongous piece of delicious cake.

Anyway, my hat's off to you who are out riding on this bright, sunny Sunday, today!

Here I am dropping off the Shadow.  I tuck that big scarf into my jacket - gotta keep the neck warm

This is my cake.  Had such a big slice, I sent half of it home in the car!

I know that I've been off the grid recently but I have a pretty good excuse.  My husband and I took an 11 day cruise to S. America and the southern Caribbean.  We had a great time.  And just got home today from an early Thanksgiving with family in Florida.  We are done traveling for a little bit.  Hope to bundle up and take the Shadow out for a ride tomorrow.  

Here I am, out in front of  J&P Cycles, in New Smyrna Beach, FL.  We stopped in for a some shopping on our way to Miami, we just missed Bike Week in Daytona Beach, FL two days earlier.

Made a new acquaintance at J&P Cycles, Dave who was still sticking around down here for Bike Week. Our stuffed Perry is a real biker magnet.

He offered for me to try out his bike for size.

Saved the best for last, my husband leaving J&P Cycles with a few purchases.

They have a great selection at the brick and mortar store.  We got a catalog.  Wow, lot's to peruse.

They are definitely worth a look!

The leaves are changing!

Went for a nice ride in the North Georgia Mountains to look at the leaves and have a nice little road trip.  It was beautiful!  If you get a chance to ride there go soon, on a weekday is better, less traffic.  Take care and ride safe!

Spent  this evening at the bike night at ACME Rider Supply.  The turnout was great.  There were a lot of dualsport bikes there but my top two favorites were these; a 2004 Triumph turned bobber and a rare Harley Davidson Xlcr Cafe Racer

.

Here in North Georgia, we have been having some wonderful weather for riding lately.  So, if you're  from around here and looking for something to do tomorrow evening stop by ACME Rider Supply for the 1st ACME Dualsport Bike Night from 6:30pm -9pm. They will be featuring new products, providing some food and drinks, and some giveaways!  We don't ride a dualsport but we will be there!

This is a great store.  I looked around for quite awhile for a jacket and ACME was by far the place where I wanted to do business!  The selection was great and the staff friendly and knowledgeable.

They are located at 375 Winkler Drive , Alpharetta GA 30004, that's just behind the Mercedes Dealership on McFarland Rd. west of GA400.

 We were up in Jasper, GA today and stopped in at Bad Moon Rising Cycle Shop.  I knew it was there and this was my first opportunity to take Bill and myself in for a visit and we're glad we did!  It's located on E. Church St. just outside of town.  It's a nice shop, owned and run by friendly folks.  Stop in for a visit if you're up that way.

Take a North Georgia Mountain Ride

Here is a good idea for a motorcycle ride this Saturday, the 22^nd.  I was at Home Depot today to pick up some chicken wire for a paper-mache project and got to talking to the Home Depot guy about paper-macheing.  He told me that there is some serious paper-macheing going on up in Dahlonega right now. People are making paper-mache, and other mediums I would venture to guess, scary stuff. 

Knowing that Dahlonega is a beautiful ride and a friendly place to visit, I decided to investigate further.

It’s The Dahlonega Woman’s Club’s Scarecrow Stomp Contest.  All the scarecrows are currently positioned around the town square for everyone’s enjoyment and so you can vote for your favorite.  Then, this Saturday from 3pm -6pm is the culmination, the Scarecrow Stomp. The winner will be announced and a scarecrow auction held.

And if that’s not enough, every Saturday from 2pm – 5pm through October 13 the Appalachian Jam is scheduled!  It’s an afternoon of North Georgia mountain music, pickers and singers, acoustic bluegrass and string music held on the public square.

Not much beats a Saturday ride in the Georgia Mountains in the early fall! 

Finally, I get my light bar installed!  The install took Bill and myself about 2 1/2 hours to complete, but that included figuring everything out so it should go quicker for you after watching the videos!


Some key points to remember:

   use liquid soap to slide the cushions into place on the light stays,
   slide the little tie wrap between the stay and plate before tightening the bolt,
   you may find the headlight difficult to initially unplug - it just unplugs right there at the
   back of the light,
   just snip and tape off the blue wire on the sub harness to enable the light bar to stay on with
   both high and low beams,
   remove one bolt at a time when adding the aux. switch because the clamp may fall off,
   adjust, if necessary, the position of your clutch after loosening it to add the switch,
   you will have six bolts left over, these are original they are replaced by bolts in the kit

Good luck and good skill with your own install!

part 1 Honda Shadow Aero OEM light bar install

part 2 Honda Shadow Aero OEM light bar install

The Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall

This past Thursday, The Patriot Guard Riders and American Legion Riders escorted the Traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall from Alpharetta,GA to Canton, GA.  My husband and I are members of the Patriot Guard Riders and we both participated in the escort.  Here is a video that I made of the event.

Honda Shadow Phantom with a Vance & Hines exhaust

 A cool Phantom rider I met at Academy Sports. He had a Vance & Hines exhaust on his bike. His friend had a V-Strom with no baffles in his exhaust.

http://cycle-ergo.com/

me, riding a bonneville

This is a fun website that I happened to find when I was shopping for my first motorcycle.  It’s called cycle-ergo.com.  It is a tool that will simulate the riding ergonomics of many different motorcycle brands and models.  All you need to do is choose the motorcycle and supply your height and approximate inseam length and it does the rest.  Another window will pop up with a stick figure showing the riding position and it gives you the seat height!.  You can add several different motorcycles and compare them.  Or adjust your height and see how you would look if 7 foot tall!  It’s a lot of fun but it’s also really helpful. I like it.  Check it out. 

Here is a little video that we shot yesterday, riding my Aero.  I have edited and cut out much of the footage because I am not happy with how the audio turned out.  The GoPro mounted on the handlebar of Bill’s Victory vibrates.   So, all I hear when I play the footage is the resonance resulting from the vibration of the Victory.  Therefore, back to the drawing board. Might need to get some rubber to put between the handlebar and the mount before shooting the next video.  So, what is left is some footage showing the Shadow up close so you can hear it, pulling into the Parking lot at Norman's Landing and some footage driving home through the Avenues.

Norman's Landing, this restaurant hasn’t changed one iota in the past 16 years, it’s still a good place to eat and it’s nearby, decorated like a fishing lodge.  And the Avenues, an open-air shopping mall located nearby here in South Forsyth.

By the way, don’t think that I have forgotten about my light bar.  I hope to install it this weekend.

riding my Shadow Aero

Reflective Night Ride

My wedding anniversary was yesterday. Bill and I celebrated 17 very happy years, and to cap off the evening we rode our motorcycles to Menchies for frozen yogurt!  I on my Shadow and he on his Victory Cross Roads.

It was a good opportunity to try to get a video of me riding after dark.  I wanted to see how reflective my helmet and jacket are.

My jacket is an Olympia Airglide mesh jacket.  The color is called toxic, a very fitting name for the orange and neon green combination that it is.

My helmet started out a solid matte black but didn’t stay that way for long.  We were able to cover both our helmets with reflective decals using a $34.95 reject package from http://www.streetglo.net/   They send you at least $34.95 worth of decent rejects and then throw a lot more usable rejects.  A great deal!

So, I wanted to see how they looked and see how visible I was.  I am all about visibility!  

We had the GoPro camera on a mount and attached it to the Victory’s gas tank. Not the best location hence the speedometer in the foreground obscuring the view of me. But you could see our speed. We had a lot of fun, as usual,  making it. Check out our resulting video, I hope you like it.  We will do some tweaking with the mounting for future videos and try it again. 

an interesting Cb350 that I saw

The other day, when I was at Mountain Motorsports picking up my light bar and I saw this motorcycle on display in the showroom. It is in great shape, I like it's cafe racer good looks. I'm pretty sure it is just on display for all to enjoy and not for sale!

HONDA OEM Chrome Light Bar Shadow Aero - first look inside the box

I was thinking, for anyone such as myself who was wanting to own and ride their own motorcycle that I should talk about the Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) classes. Specially, for new riders that would be the Basic Rider Course (BRC).

While Bill and I were out perusing a lot of different motorcycle shops in our area and beyond, I met many fine sales people whose goal was not just to help me realize my dream of motorcycle ownership but to make sure I did it safely and skillfully!  They all recommended the MSF classes.

Over the next couple of months, all the while still checking out motorcycle shops, I logged onto the MSF website http://www.msf-usa.org many times.  Finally, I pulled the trigger and scheduled a class for early April.  The BRC is a 2 1/2 day class, either a full weekend or Tues-Thurs.  I chose the weekday class, it saved me $25 and I thought it might be more low-key and might be people more my own age.  

So, first day of class rolls around.  There were nine of us in my class; I believe the max is twelve.  We were a cross section, one woman motorcycle rider -me, two women scooter riders, a husband of one of the scooter riders who was an experienced rider but felt he could learn from this class, a young military vet, a man who had raced cars and now wanted to ride with his friends, an older retired vet who had flown helicopters, a young guy planning to buy a sport bike, and another retired man who just wanted to ride - like me!  They were all a bunch of very nice people.

The two instructors were absolutely great.  We had instruction in the classroom and outside on the course.  We were assigned loaner motorcycles, CBR250's I think.  They would also loan you a helmet, I brought my own. 

So what makes this such a great class and why do I think everyone should take it?  

You will learn mental and physical skills and tactics to be a safer motorcyclist.   There is a wealth of information and discussion in the classroom that was invaluable.  You will practice riding and learn maneuvering on the outside course. I learned many things that hopefully will keep me safer on the road.  

The first time you drop your motorcycle as many new riders do, it will be theirs and not yours.  I did this and I learned why I did it and hopefully I won't do it again.

Upon passing the written test and the riding test, you will receive a certificate. Here in Georgia this certificate allows you to waive any road or written test at the DMV to get your motorcycle endorsement on your driver's license.  Just walk up to the counter and show the certificate, pretty slick.  Show your certificate and many shops will also give you a discount on your first accessory purchase from them.

In hindsight, am I glad I took this class - absolutely!  I don't think my early days of riding would have gone as well without this class.  It was a lot of fun.  It was also a personal challenge (I love a challenge).  My son's friend's wife had just completed the class with a 100 on the written test and a 95 on the riding test and I wanted to at least match that and I did!

How to remove the pillion seat on a 2011 Honda Shadow Aero

I am a lucky one.  I have a great husband who was happy to have me riding two up with him on his bike.  However, I sensed that he was kind of stressed with me back there, concerned about my welfare.  I think he imagined me falling off or falling asleep so I decided it was time to really concern him and get my own motorcycle.  Don't worry, he is fine with this.

I did a lot of internet research and we visited many local dealerships and shops.  So, after quite a few weeks of thinking and planning, I took the next step.  I enrolled in a msf, motorcycle safety foundation, beginner rider's class.  I'll go into more depth, as well as other topics, about the class in a future entry. I got my motorcycle endorsement on my license.  

We shopped for my first motorcycle.  One choice recommended to me, was the Vulcan 500, no longer in production but the prices we found for a used one seemed a little high.  I ended up with my first bike, a Suzuki S40. I chose to start with a smaller bike and I am glad I did. The S40 only weighs about 380 lbs. so easy for me to maneuver but it felt too light at high speeds.  The aftermarket mods available for it are pretty much nonexistent. 

Which brings me up to the present, 4 months later, and my second motorcycle which I am really crazy about.  It's a Honda Shadow Aero VT750C.  It is a 2011 model, brand new, so the price was right especially after trading up just 4 months later. It's bigger, 560 lbs., fits me great and has a beautiful solid candy dark red color paint job.  I have some mods already in mind and look forward to making my Aero very much mine! 

Ride safely!