April is helmet awareness month, part 1

April is Helmet Awareness month, so this month I want you to take a moment to become aware of your helmet. You know, that piece of equipment that you sometimes leave at home? I’ll actually do three separate posts regarding helmets.  Future topics will cover proper fitment and care, and the ubiquitous “helmet law” debate.

First, though, I want to take a moment to advocate – not for helmet laws, but simply for wearing a helmet voluntarily.

Look, I would love to ride without one. They look stupid. They prevent me from experiencing that “wind in my hair” feeling that so many bikers speak of. They make me look stupid even after wearing one (okay, especially after wearing one).

But here’s the thing: I wear a helmet because I have direct personal experience with their benefits. In 1978 when I was allowed to buy a Honda Express on the parentally-imposed condition that I always wear a helmet, I dumped said Honda Express going around a curve in a pile of sand and whacked my head on the curb. I understood immediately the value of wearing the helmet, and I happily wore it forever-after.

Fast forward 30 years, and I’ve come to realize something: “the wind in my hair” only makes my hair a tangled, unbrushable rat’s nest and makes me feel utterly unprotected. I don’t kid myself: a helmet won’t prevent the full-body trauma that is the true killer in 63 percent of fatal motorcycle accidents. But it just might absorb enough impact to keep my brain from sloshing around if something were to happen at a slower speed.

So I wear one. A distinctive one, in fact, which makes me more visible, more findable, more memorable. I encourage you to wear one too. At least we can look stupid together!

‘Black Chrome’ exhibit showcases the black biker experience

I just learned about an interesting motorcycling exhibit the other day and wanted to share the info before it’s gone.

Black Chrome, a study of African-Americans in motorcycle culture, has been open at the California African American Museum since last fall, and closes April 12.

The museum website notes:

Through photos, interviews, objects and 16 tricked-out motorcycles that range from choppers to drag bikes, this California-focused exhibition spotlights the innovations and creativity of African Americans that significantly changed the landscape of American motorcycling since World War II.

Black Biker Magazine provided many of the photos for the exhibit.

One of the individuals featured is Marian “Miss Showtime” Peterson, a long-time LA-area biker who was recently appointed Road Captain of the Magnificent Seven, an all-male club in a heavily male-dominated bike club culture. That she achieved this rank is testimony to the level of respect she has achieved in that culture, writes Nadra Kareem in the L.A. Watts Times.

Do read Kareem’s article – she also highlights Annette “Brown T. Sugar” Collins, founder of the LA area’s first female riding club, the Hawg Divas.

Regrettably, I missed the opportunity to help promote Black Chrome during its long run. I’m working on obtaining some photos from the museum, as well as information on any of the other women featured in the exhibit.

(hat tip to LadyRayne at Talkin Stuff blog.)

BCN: The Big Nuts Blog

As a blogger, I pay some attention to the number of visitors that come to this site.  Biker Chick News started the year with just over 13,000 visitors in January, peaked at just over 20,000 in October (that’s a record!) and will end the year with about 18,300 in December.

Some of those folks, of course, check in regularly – either through Favorites bookmarked in their browsers or by subscribing to my RSS feed. I really do thank each of you who come to this site again and again!

One of the other things I can learn from my traffic reports is which words and phrases visitors typed into the search engines to get here. Because this blog is focused on motorcycling, the search terms normally aren’t too surprising – every month there are myriad variations on the ‘biker chick’ phrase, including “biker chicks,” “sturgis biker chicks,” etc.  As August approaches, I begin to see the phrases “Sturgis pics” and “Sturgis Bike rally” appear in my results. And, each month there are usually a few readers who got here having searched for “sportster ape hangers” – apparently that’s something that needs a little research before making a final decision!

There are sometimes unusual phrases too, phrases that have nothing overtly to do with motorcycling, but that happen to be reflected in something I’ve written. I always wonder what people think who come here having searched for “Alton Brown,” the Food Network host. But by far my favorite of the many search phrases that appeared in my traffic reports this year was this:

“Big Nuts.”

This phrase appeared not once, not twice, but several times over the course of the year, in several different months. I’m not sure if people were looking for guys with big nuts, or those fake big nuts you can hang from the back of your car, or what.  But I certainly know which article people find when they come here looking for “big nuts,” and since it’s one of my favorite rides, I’m okay with that!

Wrapping up another year – where the hell’d it go?

Well I can’t say I will be sorry to kiss this @#$ year good-bye! The Picky Bitch is put away in the new garage (which isn’t heated like the old one so Santa needs to bring me a battery tender…), and we just attended our local HOG chapter’s annual Christmas party. I wanted to mention a few things that deserved mention this year, but that I never got around to mentioning:

First, a few of the gals in our HOG club organized a really neat event this year – they put together a scavenger hunt, where you were supposed to ride to various towns in Iowa (based on clues), and figure out a “theme” that bound each of the towns together. Well turns out the theme was music, so you also had to tell what each town had to do with music. While I didn’t get to participate to the extent that I wanted to, it was still a great idea and a real challenge for those who did it – and a lot of work for the organizers. GREAT JOB!!

Also, our chapter’s sponsoring dealership, Big Barn Harley Davidson, had a neat ongoing project this summer – it’s an idea similar to one I had a few years ago, and never put together. I called it a World Tour – there are several towns in Iowa that have the same names as famous Places: Jamaica, Peru, Orient, etc. Well the dealership put together a little passport booklet and the idea was for you to ride to each of these towns and snap a photo with your bike against the backdrop of a welcome sign or other town marker. We were able to do a few of these, and although those days seem really far away now (heck they were back in May!! LOL), they were absolutely the best days of this past summer. We rode with some awesome folks, including new friends Nate & Kate and Austin & Shannon. 

We also had a nice ride to Pella back in May (li’l windy, right Garry??), and of course the Toy Run closed the season for us.

Needless to say, riding took a backseat to flooding… and then moving… in 2008, so we are definitely looking forward to trying again in 2009!

More soon… for now, here’s wishing you all a warm, happy and beautiful Christmas, and a safe, healthy and prosperous new year!

Yes, I’m alive and kicking…

…and I wish you the warmest, loveliest Thanksgiving!

What I’ve been up to…

Summer has mostly passed – hubby and I did take a brief ride up to Ames last weekend (lunch at Hickory Park – YAY!!)… but that has been about it for bike stuff. On the housing front, we are ALMOST at the end of our flood journey. This week we received the proceeds from the sale of our house and we are getting ready to close on the purchase of our new home. I hope we will be moved in within two weeks, and then this long horrible odyssey will be over. And, I recently headed down to Lasting Impressions, where Laura created this absolutely perfect peacock tattoo using just some pictures I had printed out for inspiration. I obviously still need to finish it up… I got through 2-1/2 hours’ worth of work on the tail, then the ol’ adrenaline ran out and I couldn’t stand it anymore. I will be going back to finish up in a week or so.

More soon… I sure hope there is something bike-related to talk about soon!

 

Our Memorial Day visit to the Iowa Wall

Here’s two things that happened over Memorial Day weekend that I feel bad about. For the past three years, we’ve made a point to go on a large-group ride to our state capitol’s memorial grounds, for a service at the Viet Nam memorial that’s hosted by a local ABATE member. It’s not an official event – just his own personal ride each year – but it has grown quite large. It’s usually held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. Well this year, I didn’t receive any notifications about it like I usually do so on Saturday I went online to check the start time – and discovered it had been held a full week earlier. We missed it!Determined not to miss our own annual “moment of reflection” at the Iowa Wall, we rode up to the capitol on Sunday anyway (what a perfect, beautiful day!) to leave some flowers. As we approached on our (noisy) bikes, we discovered a large crowd gathered around the Viet Nam memorial where we focus our efforts – there was a service in progress! Embarrassed, we coasted as quietly as possible into the parking lot… we cut our engines off as soon as we were positioned to back into a parking spot, and then discovered that they were in the middle of playing “Taps.” Which, ideally, I’m sure they would have liked to have been played with a noiseless background. We felt awful about interrupting the ceremony, having had no idea that it would be taking place.

And, one thing I feel GREAT about: We approached the dispersing group looking as apologetic as possible just as it was breaking up to leave. My husband took the small bunch of silk flowers I’d fashioned and left them at the foot of the wall and then stepped back to study the names. This is, for him, a traditional visit that gives him the opportunity to remember why he carries on despite depression, diabetes, weight problems, divorces, etc. etc – because other guys didn’t get the chance to carry on. As we were standing there, a woman who was there quietly asked him if he knew how many Iowans had died in Viet Nam. We did a quick estimate of the number of names on the wall and guessed it to be about eight hundred. As she turned to walk away she said to him, “Thank you, sir, for your service. I appreciate it.” He was barely able to sqawk a “thank you” in return – he carries enough survivor guilt and all the baggage of a less-than-welcoming return, and to actually have someone thank him for years of service he’d been conditioned not to talk about was almost too much. Having lived with him for almost 18 years now, I know a little something about how much her words might have meant to him, and I believe it was good for him to hear it.

Then a little while later, back at the bikes and getting ready to leave, another woman was visiting with another couple on a bike – the man was wearing his Viet Nam veteran cap, and the other woman was relating a story about her brother who had been killed in combat during that time. Steve and I listened and joined in, Steve and this other man swapped a couple reminiscences. And again, as this woman turned to leave, she said, “Thank you both for your service. It was important and it means a lot.” And again my poor hubby was just ready to cry. This has never happened, I realize. No one has ever said “thank you” or “welcome home” to him.

I’m proud of him in so many ways – for coming out of that horrible time with his head screwed on fairly straight, for having a heart when it would be easy to become bitter, for continuing to be a courageous man who treasures esprit de corps and means it when he tells another marine, “Semper Fidelis.” I think this Memorial Day was really for him, more than any other we’ve shared in our 18 years together.

Welcome home, honey, I’m glad you’re here.

Chap my hide! A brief history of biker chaps

In the “Just In Case You’re Curious” department, here’s a brief bit about a popular bit of biker leather – chaps! We can all guess that biker chaps have evolved from what the cowboys out on the range historically wore (and still wear), and we’d be right. But, the style bikers like – the kind that zip up the side and cover the entire leg – are only part of the historical picture.Wikipedia says, “The word is recorded in English since 1844, as an abbreviation of chaparajos, from Mexican or Spanish chaparreras. Words with similar background include chaparro or chaparral, the evergreen scrub vegetation that can tear at a rider’s legs and gave rise to the need for chaps.” Styles of chaps include:

• Batwing, which are cut wide with a flare at the bottom and have only with two or three fasteners around the thigh. This gives plenty of room for movement for the lower leg.
• Shotgun, are the type bikers wear. They fit snugly and completely around each leg, and the two legs are joined by a built-in belt at the waist. So-named because the legs resemble the double-barrel of a shotgun.
• Chinks are a half-length chap that usually come to just below the knee, with a couple of fasteners up around the thigh.
• Half chaps protect the lower portion of the leg only and are usually worn by English-style riders in place of tall boots.

Of particular interest to bikers, this little bit about shotgun-style chaps appeared recently on a Harley owners’ newsgroup.

The early Texans (mexicans and Anglos) of 1830-40′s designed the first full length leather britches, that completely encircled the legs and by the early 1870′s were called SHOTGUNS, because these seatless pants resembled a double barrel shotgun. The plain variety which were not adorned with fringe or conchos were called CLOSED LEGS. For big legged cowboys they fit snuggly around the legs and for some were difficult to remove with your boots and spurs on. The waistband is the defining characteristic of the period it came from. The early pairs had a belt that went all the way around the waist and buckled in the back. Most of these chaps were made of lightweight leather, doe, kid, calf, even shaved seal was offered in this style. By the 1880′s some chap makers were making two pieced chaps that were lased up the front, with a square waistband, up until the turn of the century when the curved or contoured waistband was introduced. Although these were the most popular style until the turn of the century, there were still many working cowboys that preferred this style. The 1900′s also added another feature, zippers. Most modern shotguns include zippers for a tighter tailored fit and are popular with cowboys and motorcycle enthusiasts.

Just thought you’d like to know!

Is Harley still missing the point with women?

I thought that Harley-Davidson was really getting good about engineering their bikes for women… well, not necessarily for women, but doing things to the bikes (lower seat heights, easier-pulling clutches) that made them more appealing to a lot of women. But it’s possible they are still missing a big share of the market. Why? Because they seem stuck on an out-dated notion of “what bikers want.” Business management guru Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) spoke on Friday 3/16 to the Quinnipiac University Business Leadership Forum. The New Haven Register of Connecticut reported that Peters named a few of the most pressing problems corporations are facing (among them failing to recognize women as one of the single most important markets in the world economy) and stated: “…the solution is to change the corporate mindset from selling raw materials or other goods and services to providing businesses and consumers with comprehensive solutions to problems and offering customers ‘experiences and dreams.’”

As an example, Peters “quoted a Harley-Davidson executive who said the company doesn’t just sell motorcycles: ‘What we sell is the ability for a 43-year-old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.’”

Now the Register did not report the name of the HD exec who said this, and maybe that’s because Peters didn’t name his source outright. But whoever it was, clearly was only delivering part of the picture. Yes, some bikers might want small town-folk to fear them as part of their alter-ego fantasy. But HD needs to be careful in trying to characterize their entire customer base as male 43-year-old accountants. There are a lot more types of people than that buying Harleys, many of them women, and I’m willing to bet that “fear me” is not the statement the majority of them are trying to make – even in jest.

“Lose the Watches…”

I am a shopper. In fact, shopping for bike accessories is one of my favorite past-times. There is, however, a disturbing trend I’ve noticed recently.

Timepieces for motorcycles.

I first encountered this a couple years ago while shopping online. One of the neatest “new products” was a clockface that could easily be mounted to my handlebars. It was simple, sleek, attractive, and inexpensive. And my first reaction was, “How clever! How useful! I must have one!” I had my finger on the “submit order” button when the tiniest speck of doubt crept in. It wasn’t a fully formed opinion, it was just a nagging feeling. But it was enough to make me abandon my virtual shopping cart.

A few months later, I was in my local Harley Davidson showroom. The first of the ’07′s were finally on the sales floor, in all their 96-cubic inch glory. My favorite sales rep, who was always so friendly even though he’d been trained to know I wasn’t in buying mode just yet, immediately pulled me over to the new Sportster 1200, flipped on the ignition, and announced, “You’re going to love this – look: a built-in clock, built into the speedo!”

I took a reactive, involuntary step away from the bike. Uttered some non-committal things simply as a way to extricate myself. And went to hide among the HD pet-wear so I could ponder in relative peace: why is everyone pushing timepieces for motorcycles? And why do I instinctively, almost primordally, resist??

The answer’s really kind of a no-brainer. Like that handlebar clock, it’s beautiful in its simplicity. I don’t want to know what time it is when I’m on the bike. Keeping time is synonymous with schedules. Pressure. Real life. And I use the bike to escape all of that.

One of the best moments in “Wild Hogs” occurs at the end when Peter Fonda, in his cameo role as the wise old biker dude, advises our heroes to ditch their wrist watches. So I’m confident I’m in very good company on this one. And I’m still searching for that next simple, sleek, attractive, and inexpensive chromey bit to put on my bike. Something that doesn’t remind me of the world I’m trying to leave behind.

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