Motorcycle Adventures Across America

I don't know much about these folks who run www.adventuresacrossamerica.com based out of Greensboro North Carolina, but it looks like some people to check out. Evidently AAA is for people who wish to take a motorcycle vacation on their own bike. They, AAA, provide transportation for your motorcycle to from the beginning point in Greensboro and back after the rip. Seems they take your bike with gear to the ride start location in advance saving you the travel time while you then fly out to begin your ride. To learn more just click the link and see what you think. It looks pretty good with some great locations that you can vacation four days and not have to worry about spending all your vacation just to get to your destination. The way things are these days this sounds like a good thing. Your bike, your gear and your fun scenic vacation.

Motorcycle Ride For Wounded Warrior Project

Here I go again. I've contacted the Wounded Warrior Project for more information on doing a fundraiser for them. My plan so far, do an article up for the local magazine that my Way of the Wind article is already coming out in. The first article will be to make people aware of the WWP and what it does for our wounded soldiers. Then after that I'm hoping to have a weekend/overnight ride with donations being accepted for the WWP backpacks that are given to the wounded warriors undergoing treatment. You see, after a soldier is wounded all of their belongings are taken and while in the hospitals many do not have any articles of clothing, toiletries or any personal items. The packs contain items for these soldiers during their initial hospital stays, which it could be some, time before they can get just the simplest of items for their personal comfort.
My followup article would be how the ride went and what was raised complete with pictures and such of the ride and people attending. The packs are $99 a piece so to make it easier on people to donate, a 4-to-1 ride concept is in my thinking. This way a group of four could pool and make a $25 donation each to cover just one pack. Thirty two riders would be able to raise enough for eight packs and for these soldiers, that's a small price for us to help them out.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Great Motorcycle Destinations

Searching the net and guide books I come upon interesting travel places to see. I'm a bit nostalgic in some ways and seeing old buildings, vehicles, road signs is interesting to me. Sometimes you can't help but wonder, in the old things, what eyes have looked at the same thing. Who these people were and what were they like. My Pop use to have this knack for catching just a glimpse of an old car sitting in an over grown field or abandoned beside some ancient place and sometimes we'd stop and have a peek. When I'd sit in one of these old relics it was hard not to look at the original dash or through the windshield, and think that I was looking at and through the same thing that someone did years ago. Where had they traveled in this car? Was it a family car loaded with kids going to school, vacation, work, even what it was like for the original owner. Did he or she wash and wax this car with loving care and take good care of it? I bet they were proud of it at one time loving to show it around, being excited about it too. But now look at it. It's sitting all alone and forgotten with no more laughing inside or carrying Christmas presents home. No more running down the road going places and seeing things.
I think about this stuff with old buildings and such too. I wonder all about who was there long before me and what were they like.

That's why I search out information for interesting places and how I stumble upon places like www.motorcycleroads.com or www.legendsofamerica.com and www.historic66.com to name a couple or three. If you click on this www.legendsofamerica.com/TX-glenrio.html you see a glimpse of what I'm going on about. On this site you will find dead towns that I think would make some great motorcycle resort destination places had I only the money. I'd bet a couple of these whole little towns could be bought for next to nothing being they're abandoned anyway.
I wonder if squatters rights would still hold up? Hmmmm.

Me a Girl and a Firetruck

Way, way back when I was a kid of about four or so I had this bright red pedal firetruck that Santa brought. There were two ladders with it that hung on the sides and a chrome bell to ring on my fire calls. Many a mile was put on that truck with me proudly pedaling as fast as I could around the dead end we lived on. When Pop would have the hood up on his car or giving it a wash, of course I had to tinker with my imagined engine or give it a bath too. My truck was tough and cool.
That summer, my grandmother came to visit and she watched me ride around and talk to me as I passed by. I'd pull up to her for a moment in the driveway and then be off on another fire call. Lots of fires in my dead end street those days. Well, we'd been out there for awhile when this really cute girl from a couple houses down came over to see me and my truck, but being a man with his machine I payed her no mind. She wound up sitting on the brick wall talking to my Grandmother and I got jealous. Somehow, don't remember exactly how, but somehow I got her interested back in me and my fire truck and away from Grandma. Cutie wanted to ride it some and I told her that if she'd push me awhile then it would be her turn. So cutie agreed and pushed me, then pushed me some more. Grandma just kept watching.
Cutie got hot and tired so Grandma went and got us some Kool-aid or lemonade, not cause I was thirsty but really to give cutie a break I believe. We drank our drinks while Grandma listened to cutie and I sipped down my drink. Deciding it was time for break to be over I got back in my truck and waited on cutie to push me some more. Cutie thought it was her turn now but I insisted a couple more turns around the dead end circle. She looked at my Grandma in hopes she would make me let her ride. Grandma tried to convince me it was cuties turn but being a stubborn little dude I sat fast in my seat. Grandma gave me that look of disapproval then said she didn't want to be with me anymore if I was going to be like that. She said something in the way of "You shouldn't always be letting the little girls push you around; sometimes you should be pushing her too." and she went inside.
Cutie went back to her house and left me sitting there in my little red fire truck confused.
Didn't Pop always say it wasn't nice to push little girls around?
I never did learn my lesson though, I've been letting girls push me around a long time. I mean, don't they say that behind every successful man there is a woman pushing him on?

It's k.t. Dids Fault

I'm needing to work on my story as I have not written any pages for to long. I'll never get the novel finished this way. There are certain blogs I try to keep up with and k.t dids is usually the first one I check. I had planned on sitting down with a cup of coffeeee to work on the next chapter but went to read k.t dids for a moment. Then from her I went to fasthairs blog and spent some time there, he had another blog he recommended called http://bigdaddynelson.blogspot.com/ so I went there. Reading his stuff had me tied up, and laughing so hard at some of his stuff that I nearly choked on my coffee. I also read there that he is hearing impaired and from early childhood what he went through. It made me wonder if I should make my own confession. Hell! If he can do it I recon I could do it to. But it's tough to write it let alone say it out loud. Well, I'm hearing impaired as well but was not always. Mine began in my late twenties but I did not realise it until much later. It's tough on a person and people who are not in this boat just do not have any idea how hard it can be. I remember one time at work this delivery guy said something and I did not hear him so I asked him to repeat it twice. He gave me an eat shit look then said "Get the wax outta your ears. What are you, fucking deaf or something?" I could feel my face turning red with anger but I just looked at him and told him point blank "As a matter of fact asshole, I am." There were about four others near us and they stopped and were looking over at us. The guy had been standing around talking to them but now he just turned and left to get on with his route. I mean, what could he say.

It's tough when you know people talk behind your back and make jokes about you like it's something you can help. It's not like wearing a plaid suit or something that you can change. There are also the assholes that talk low behind you saying shit thinking it's just hilarious as hell you can't hear them. Or how about when they know you have a problem so they speak with their backs turned so you miss clearly what they said and you answer something totally off base. Then they act like your a dumb shit because of your answer (I have people close to me that do this) is off base. It's a disability damn it I have no control over. It's also something that a Doctor told me I could get permanent disability for but I have not. Your not in my shoes so don't tell me not to worry what others say and do because it does matter in the real world. When your on the outside looking in and your not the one with the hearing problem, don't tell me how I should feel. People think your stupid because you can't hear and in crowd's and noisy situations it makes it worse. Being uptight at times I've had people tell me to "get over it" or "your just hearing what you want to hear." You think I like going into a panic when the hearing aid ain't working right? You think I like not being able to be around water for fear my expensive hearing aid could get ruined and insurance does not cover it? You think I like being around a bunch of people when you can't hear all of the conversations so you can keep up and join in?
I have a hearing problem damn it, I'm not a dumbass so quit acting like I'm one.

Well, anyways, I've said it and it's out there and only because it's K.T. Dids fault by turning me on to Big Daddy's Idle Thoughts and his blog gave me the courage to lay it on the web table. And I can say something really positive about his blog and that is, I'm older than he is and a whole lot more damn good looking too. lol
Thanks K.T. Did it was time well wasted.

Sportster Starter Button Pain in Butt


Alright, so everyone already knows my starter button fried on my bike last week. Today I went all around trying to find a manual to have a look see at the schematics. Well, as my luck always goes one could not be found. Drove from one end of town north and south to the other of east then west, nothing, no luck at all. Then I finally had to go and order one from a local bike shop I'd remembered seeing some time back. Of course he didn't have the one I needed for my bike so, like I said, I had to order one. "Should have it by Tuesday of next week" he tells me. We'll see.
Getting back home I was determined to make a temporary fix. Using my tester it was found that everything else was working fine like the starter, solenoid, generator and all that rot. What was found was that the starter button and the rocker we're fried definitely. While using the testers probe on the starter button the probe touched both sides of each of the wires going in and the starter worked. But, it was intermittent at best. So looking closer at the rocker, which was hard to work from off to on position anyway, one of the wires just fell loose.
Okay. I retrieved a another little toggle switch and hooked that up then attached a temporary, large automotive race car type, button after messing with wires that are to short and got her to turn over and fire up. The carburetor needs a good cleaning from sitting all winter but my rats nest temp switches worked. The stock ones I don't like much and there are things going into the housing, five feet of wire crammed into a one foot space, (being sarcastic but it's just to little space for all that stuff) that I don't want. So now is to try and figure out how and where to mount new switches and do away with the garbage I don't want. All I really need is just a simple, straight forward starter button on there and nothing else. Might just take off all the turn signals especially after looking at the way they had been wired by a previous owner. What a mess and only one signal works.

Why do Women Do This?

"whats wrong?" you ask

"Nothing." they reply

"Somethings wrong. What's the matter?"

"Oh. It's Nothing and you wouldn't understand anyway."

"Ahhh, Come on ... what has you upset?"

"Never mind. Forget it."


And later that evening in the kitchen:

Crash! Bang! Rattle, rattle, Slam!!

"?????" You think to yourself. Was today Valentines Day.

Avoid this and get something now. Anything ... before it's toooo late.

Somebody Just Made Off With It

I can remember hearing this "Somebody just made off with it" growing up. This phrase usually referred to a person coming home to an item being missing. Or a local eatery opening up in the morning to find chub-oh the clown had been taken over night. This same phrase was put to most anything that got to wandering off when nobody was watching.
"Where did my bicycle go? I was only in the store a few minutes and when I came out Somebody just made off with it."
It's just kinda ironic to me for some reason that this phrase now has a person/s name to go with it, Bernie Madoff and his wife Ruth Madoff have made off with millions of other peoples money.
I wonder if there is something to the name ... hmmmm ... could it be that Madoff took my first Harley back in nineteen eighty four?
I also wonder if any Newspaper headlines read "Bernie and Ruth Madoff made off with millions"
Personally I think someone should just make Bernie and his wife be at their victims beck and call twenty -four- seven for the rest of their lives. Lets just see how long the judicial system drags it's heels on this one. If it were you or I we'd already be in the slammer with a sentence of ten to twenty for taking five dollars from a paper box to get our kid a gallon of milk. The hammer needs to come down now, and hard, on all of these big huge corporate execs and swindlers with their high end suits, five hundred dollar hair cuts, extravagant office parties and vacations, four and five homes while robbing their investors of everything.

Remember what Grandma and Grandpa use to always say "If it sounds to good to be true then it probably is." Like zero down for a home or no interest loans and such. There's always a catch or built in hidden fees somewhere, Ohhh yeeesss, always. There have been times slick talking fast thinking people have tried to get me in one thing or another. And when you say no they try to tell you and make what a fool you are. Why, we've even had them laugh out loud at us. I've been burned a few times on small things, like a certain home delivery food service years ago, so I keep my guard up. Don't forget the sales pitches on these pyramid schemes that they start off telling you how it works but it's not a pyramid but actually it is and I don't care what their new name is for it. It's still a pyramid when you have to send your share to the top and the only way for you to make money is to sign up more suckers under you. Another tip is them telling you that "Your family and friends are your hot market group to get on board first" what a sham. You want to lose all your friends and have your family dis-own you fast? I've had friends at different times try to reel me in on these so-called-ground level deals. I think a lot of these other shady dealers studied under Bernie Madoff cause their tactics are the same at some point.
When these slick talkers like Bernie can slick talk a slick talker and other highly educated persons out of his/her money, just think what easy targets we are. See, if you can convince a top dog your deal is good then the underlings will follow suit much easier. Just like sheep to slaughter. And someone just Madoff with your money.

I hate Motorcycle Electrics


Use to be once upon a time I was good at this kind of stuff but now I'm just old and cranky. When I want to use something I expect it to work, the first time, everytime and always.
Yesterday I went out to crank up the bike. In the morning I'd hooked up a trouble light next to the oil bag to get the oil nice and heated up. My battery tender has been on so the battery is at full charge. When my wife came home she parked her car in the side yard so I could get the bike out, which was a nice little surprise. Anyways, going out and checking to see it had gas, I put the key in, set the choke, made sure it was in neutral and hit the starter button. Nothing happened until the button was pressed several times in which the starter gave a rotation then stopped. The button does not feel right as if there is no resistance. Pushing the button at different angles finally the starter tried to turn again but with me pushing the button trying to get a connection I wasn't ready for it to catch and pulled off to quick. Well, she won't click anymore no matter how hard I push the button and then smoke started coming from the switch housing. DAMN!!
I can also tell the button has given out because there is no draw when pushed from the dash lights or headlight. But now I wonder if the on/off rocker switch is bad because with the switch housing off and working the rocker off and on it sometimes gets a small spark but then quit.
I have no patience with electrical crap and it has always been my weak spot in mechanics.
Searching the net has led me no where as nothing at all can be found on replaceing the starter button switch. I have spent around six or seven hours total searching the net for this solution. Everything keeps leading to starter, relay, battery and the like and there is nothing wrong with those on mine, it's the dang blasted starter button and rocker ... jeez.
Messing with it yesterday got me so aggravated and I shouldn't let it get to me like that. At least I stopped short of beating the hell out of it with a hammer.
Now, who's bike needs some work done on it???

Motorcycle Retro is a go.

Okay, my friend, Mitch Boehm, is pushing forward with the magazine and I'm putting a piece of his email to me here so hopefully people will check Motorcycle-Retro out. He also sent me an early copy of the press release but it's not going out until next week so I'm sittin on it for now.
If you grew up with these older bikes like I did then this will be a real treat for you. Mitch is working his tail off to get this going full tilt with a lot of his own money and sweat. It's a quarterly print magazine, for now, and is chocked full of great information and pictures. Oh! And if your thinking about resurrecting an older bike and can't find information to make it period correct ... this magazine IS for you. Please give the website a look, which is in it's infancy, but should give a great idea of things to come. Your gonna love this magazine like I did my first issue when it was "Motorcyclistretro" but is now being Re-launched as Motorcycle Retro. It will still have the same great concept with perhaps a few extras thrown in. Mine, I read it, the whole thing, from cover to cover in one night because it was hard to put down.

Thanks,
Wooley

"The big news is twofold: Our website is finally live (in limited scope at this point), and we’ve begun taking subscription orders! Yep, all true. You can now subscribe to Motorcycle Retro! The easy way is click on the website – http://www.motorcycleretro.com/ - and download the PDF order form, which you then fill out and mail along with a check or money order to the address on the form. (The address is also below.) Once our full site goes live sometime at the end of February we’ll add secure credit-card transaction capability. I’ll be sure to contact you when that happens.

We’ve got a heck of a story list lined up for this year’s issues, including features on Malcolm Smith, Hodaka, Honda’s Interceptors, Roger DeCoster, Suzuki’s MX history and T-series/GT two strokes, 50 years of Honda ads, The Roberts Chronicles, Yamaha TZ750, Jeff Ward’s early years, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer, Team Honda’s domination of the 1970s and ’80s, Suzuki’s Water Buffalo, the Japanese Turbos, Honda’s CBX, Mini Trail and Trail 70, Tecumseh/Briggs and Stratton minibikes, and a whole lot more. I’d also like to hear what stories you’d like to read, so ping me with your ideas."

Mitch Boehm
Editor/Publisher
Motorcycle Retro
PO Box 202
Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274
http://www.motorcycleretro.com/
mitch@motorcycleretro.com