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

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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.