After the first two weeks with your new motorcycle and your new helmet, the day will come when you start getting tired of carrying your helmet into the grocery store or flopping it down on the restaurant table, announcing to the world that , “Yeah Buddy, that’s my bike outside and I am the real deal!” Relax, nobody is noticing you and your helmet is not turning any heads. The helmet thrill is gone and now you want to know what do you do with your helmet when you leave your bike unattended at the cinema, the grocery store or the swap meet. You first solution is to take your new, expensive, shinny helmet with you when you leave your bike. But after lugging your helmet around with you for a couple of hours, you start looking for a more practical solution.

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Tips | 8 Comments »

I am absolutely, 100% convinced that the key to safe riding is maintaining your focus. The weather, your skill level, your psychological well being and most of all, the traffic that surrounds you is exactly what you need to be focused on to ride safely. Accidents do happen but if you remain totally focused on what you are doing, you can minimize your rise and enjoy your ride.

Lets focus on the traffic around you. No matter if you are on city streets or on the interstate, your safety threat are the cars next to you. You can do a lot more than just watch out for these cars, you can try to anticipate which of these card/drivers are your biggest threat.

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Experience, Tips | No Comments »

Just when you thought everything was going great, your husband announces that he is thinking about getting a motorcycle. Somehow you manage to keep a passive face while inside you are thinking “That’s not going to happen, no way, no how, uh-uh, no motorcycles in this family.” Or maybe you have always had a secret desire to get a motorcycle yourself and this announcement fits right in to your fantasy.

Whatever your initial reaction, once you sense that he is dead serious (oops, bad choice of adjective), you should probably get serious about what to do with this new obsession. In this blog I will give you all of the information you need and maybe some information that your husband should know. At the very lease you will be in a position to discuss motorcycle riding from an informed point of view. Read the rest of this entry »

Experience, Tips | 1 Comment »

1) LOST FOCUS — You are not in a car. You cannot afford to go ten miles daydreaming about your sweetie or your job or anything else but the task at hand. Stay focused on riding. I cannot say enough about this. It can be a life and death mistake!

2) NO ALCOHOL, NO DRUGS, NEVER — 50% of all motorcycle fatalities are alcohol or drug related. You need all of your senses to be in full working condition when you ride. No exceptions. Read the rest of this entry »

Mistakes, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Famous Geezers or baby boomers or older than baby boomers, famous and infamous, whenever I hear about some old person who is famous and rides a motorcycle, I get one of those half-smiles. You know, the one that says “But of course!”

But of course it is only natural that someone who has become an icon (and survived to become a living baby boomer or older) amongst us mortals, should ride a motorcycle. But of course! Read the rest of this entry »

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“Driving along you notice the graybeard motorcycle rider in the lane next to you. The wind is blowing his beard back and you can see the wrinkles on his face. You figure he must be fifty or sixty years old. It gets you thinking…”

Well hello, here’s another one of my articles which I wrote for the Aging Hipsters web site. Aging Hipsters is the place for baby boomer trends, research, comment and discussion of and by people born from 1946 – 1964. Very Cool…Check It Out!

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OK, BB King calls his guitar “Lucille” and we all know Kevin Costner played a character named “Dances with Wolves“  The story is that the “Dances with Wolves” name came from what he was doing the first time they saw him. Cool. But what about naming your motorcycle? Using that “first time I saw it” logic, I guess I would name my motorcycle “Sitting in the Showroom Looking Cool” or maybe “Plop You Butt Down Here, Big Boy“. Naw, too long, how about “Unaffordable” or “Dream On, Alice“? Read the rest of this entry »

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“You’ll kill yourself on that damn motorcycle!” I remember my mother’s words. And today?…

Check out my article just posted on the “BoomerCafe” web site! Now in its 10th year, BoomerCafé is one of the most popular online magazine for baby boomers! So go check out my article and then browse around Boomercafe and you will be surprised at all of the neat stuff you will find there. Very interesting and unique site. Check It Out!

Experience, Tips | No Comments »

Statistically, a lot of motorcycle accidents are lone rider accidents. No car involved, just a lone rider crashing. Riding beyond your ability results in things like;

Overshooting the curve because you came in too fast and are unable to correct without going down. You end up on the wrong side of the road riding right into the traffic or off the edge of the road.

Inexperienced at splitting lanes and just generally riding too aggressive for your skill level can bring you down in traffic with disastrous results. Read the rest of this entry »

Experience, Mistakes | No Comments »

A couple of years ago I was the local Harley shop checking out the new bikes. I was talking to a salesman, an older guy, whose sales technique was very laid back. He was not pushy, just giving me information. Just the kind of salesman that I like.

We were going from bike to bike and he was telling me about the pros and cons of each different model. When we came to a new Wide Glide, he commented that he has been riding this particular motorcycle back and forth to work every day for the last week. Read the rest of this entry »

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