Just a few newsy notes to share this week - here we go:

If you join our HOG chapter…
I will gladly introduce you to the group! Had a great time at the HOG meeting this past Wednesday, it was my first as New Member Ambassador. I had a blast introducing eleven new members to the group, even received word that one of the couples I introduced had thought I did a great job - that was neat to hear! Went back up to the Big Barn on Saturday for the “zero run” and chili feed - a few bikes showed up to ride one mile for each degree of temperature. I think it was 28 or so, I know it was spitting snow… then over a hundred members enjoyed chili and fixin’s.

If you “appear” between 18-28…
Received an email from a guy named “Peter Beer” recently - now I’m not sayin’ that’s his real name, I’m just sayin’ he sent me an email. (He did greet me by saying “Hey Corn Dog” - so he’s at least reading the blog instead of harvesting emails!) Pete says he’s a producer for “Gigantic Productions” in New York, and that he is producing an episode of the MTV “True Life” series about going to Bike Week. He’s looking for “…people who appear between 18-28, to participate in the show…”

Now by 18-28 I assume he means age-wise, which lets me out because while I like to think of myself as being perpetually 26 years old, I most definitely do not “appear between” 18-28. I’m not about to post Peter’s… er, “attachment”… lest it be found to contain a virus that may unleash itself in my email. But, he did leave this contact info so you can get in touch if you’re interested in the project: casting@gigantic.tv or call 212-343-2674. And yes, I’d definitely love to hear from you if you contact him and you find out he’s either a). full of shit, or b). on the up-and-up.

If you think your bike is giving off dangerous radiation…
The UK has granted a patent to a Canadian inventor for his ‘electromagnetic shielding motorcycle seat’. The invention is designed to protect the rider’s vital organs from the electromagnetic field created by the rumbly parts of the bike. The release states:

“‘Various types of extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic field (EMF) radiations have been linked to health disorders including cancer. Many motorcycles generate excessive ELF EMF radiation up through the seat penetrating directly into the rider’s groin and torso. The prostate is of major concern as it is one of the closest delicate glands invaded by the radiation. The colon and neighboring organs are also at risk,’ adds (inventor Randall) Chipkar.”

Now again, I’ve done absolutely no research to explore the scientific validity of the claim that a bike’s electromagnetic field radiates anything harmful. You are welcome to start the vetting process at the inventor’s website, http://www.motorcyclecancer.com.

If your pet frog is disobedient…
… give him a motorcycle! Little Nong Oui of Thailand seemed content to drop the live food he was carrying around when tempted with this hot green chopper (what frog wouldn’t be??), and even predicted a couple of lottery numbers. He was pop-pop-popular until his predictions came out wrong; now all he’s got is his bike and his cruising/boozing frog-friends. Is it his fault those crazy Thai villagers were trying to find numbers in his spots?? NO, I say… ride on, Nong Oui!

If you’re feeling out of date…
… then you probably are! “The biker-chick look is so over,” proclaims the stylist for that show on TLC where the princess and the clothes horse tell dumpy women that their clothes are horrible and they should start thinking twice about what they put on in the morning. She’s instead encouraging these same dumpy women to go for something called “The Safari Look.” Seems to me that the only people for whom the ‘biker chick look’ is over… are those who weren’t really biker chicks in the first place! Yeah, that’s what happens when you try to be somethin’ you’re not.

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Okay fellow winter-state bikers, are you going absolutely BONKERS yet, waiting for spring?? Seems we have had our usual January weather all throughout December - so I’m hoping we’ll get a break here one of these days.

A few quick thoughts to pass along:

I wanted to be sure to share a link I found recently - the photo at left probably shows that I haven’t really learned the proper technique, but the link is a humorous and instructional article about the best way to tie a doo-rag out of a bandana. The photo also shows that I look better with glasses than without, unlike most people.

As predicted, I’m hearing more rumblings that suggest our state legislature will be pursuing a mandatory helmet law this year. It frankly pisses me off considerably - I am simply trusting that ABATE will fend off the nannies for us again.

This site was recently included in a list of motorcycle-related blogs in an article at FindingDulcinea.com, an internet-based library of resources on a wide variety of topics. A happy little blurb about BCN suggested that it’s “regularly updated,” which prompted me to get in here and write an update.  

Late last year I had a lot of trouble with the files that create the color scheme and layout of this site, and I lost the file that contained links to other biker chick blogs. I’m working now on rebuilding that list, and happily found a new blog to add to it. Please take some time to check out Karen’s Riders on Adventure site, and look for the full list of biker chick bloggers coming back very soon! (Update: I’ve restored the Biker Chick Blogroll and have added several new sites! Check them out below right!)

Finally, here’s a cool story about a 70-year-old woman in Florida who’s embarking on a four-month motorcycle tour to promote awareness about breast-cancer screenings.  The self-proclaimed “Vagabond Granny” will travel 8,000 miles across the United States on her 1996 Yamaha Royal Star. Her trip is sponsored by the United Breast Cancer Foundation in New York.

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Wow, not sure what happened to my WordPress template, but sometime between Nov. 8 and today it disappeared! Guess that’s an opportunity for a re-design, eh?

So while I’m working on that, you all just enjoy this perfectly wonderful picture of Howard & Einstein!

UPDATE: 10 minutes later. That was weird, but it’s fixed now. I think I need to learn to develop my own WordPress templates so I don’t have to rely on the kindness of strangers for these free (but possibly unstable?) ready-made themes.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Nov. 18. Dude, WTF?? I check back a few days later and the theme is gone again. I give up. I’m using this temporary “skin” till I can find something that fits the site perfectly.

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One thing I love - in addition to my new handlebars (and the guy who bought them for me)? My new HD leather jacket! Yep, Zylstra had a great sale on leather gear this weekend, and Steve called me over to the sale tent to show me a really beautiful jacket that he knew was my size. Now I’ve written before about the lack of nice gear in women’s plus-sizes, and the merchandise manager at our local dealership has been assuring me that more plus-sizes are coming. (And, she’s been right! There are more of the really pretty women’s tops in the 1W-3W HD sizes in stock since the new Fall stuff came in, and I’ve been rewarding this as often as I can given my budget! LOL) Because most leather tends to run small, I was fully expecting that the HD 3W size would still be too snug for me - but, this jacket fit so-o-o-o perfectly, so we bought it. Now I no longer have to wear my Walgreens leather (yes - Walgreens!) - although I’ll admit, it has lasted several years and looked more stylin’ as soon as I added a cool HD patch to the back.

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I’ve started a video channel just for women who ride!

A cool new video service called Magnify.net lets me search the web (YouTube, Google, Yahoo, etc.) for bike-related videos, filtering out the “bikini bike wash” -style videos and leaving just neat stuff of interest to women who ride, and then put them all on a “Biker Chick News Video” channel.

I have about 30-some videos loaded in at present… the first group I loaded in was woman-oriented… the second group was Sturgis-oriented… and I can’t seem to find a way to mix them up a bit. They’re displayed in newest-first order, so all the Sturgis videos are on the front page. (Oh, and my cool little photo slideshow from Sturgis 2006 is first in line!)

Now here’s the thing: I’d love to add lots more videos to the “Biker Chick News” channel. If you have a ride video from a bike-mounted camera, or have made a cool photo-slideshow-with-music, or have any bike-related video you’d like to share, please upload it to YouTube and then send me a link so I can add it to the channel. I’ll be searching a couple times a week for new videos, too, so hopefully new stuff will be added frequently.

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The ol’ blog was lookin’ pretty text-heavy up top today so thought I’d share the latest “sig pic” I made for use over on the Delphi “Women Who Ride” forum. (I’m no “pro” with Paint Shop Pro but I have some fun with it.) By the way, if you want to chat it up with other biker chicks and women who ride, this particular Delphi forum is a wonderful place. Delphi has hundreds of forums on hundreds of topics and requires you to sign up for a free account to participate. (And for a small fee you can get the version without all the ads.)  It’s well worth it - lots of support and encouragement!

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Wow, I’m not sure where the summer is going, but it’s going fast! We just spent the past weekend sitting in our lawn chairs in 100-plus degree heat at the GoodGuys Rod & Custom Heartland Nationals here in Des Moines - here’s a few pictures!I’m sorry to say I haven’t ridden much in the past few weeks - we did get down to Indianola for June Bike Night, but I’ve been focused on a couple other projects that have been taking some non-work time. So aside from some short jaunts, we’ve had no major rides. We do have one with a fun group coming up on Sunday, so I’m definitely looking forward to that! And of course, the all-girl Estrogen Ride (with my HOG club gal-pals) is coming up at the end of this month. I’m also hoping Susan (Coyote) and I (Corn Dog) will be able to take another overnight trip yet this year.

One thing I did want to be sure to share here is that I am planning to move this website onto a blog platform. Over the past couple of months I’ve really learned a lot about using WordPress blog software as the basic “skeleton” of a frequently-updated website, and I’ve always known that there had to be an easier way to maintain this site other than editing the raw HTML. I finally decided to just bite the bullet and move the entire site onto a WordPress installation on my web-host. The biggest challenge will be adding back all the old content. I’m still working out how to do that efficiently since I can’t generate the usual OPML file, but rest assured that down-time will be minimal and the site will be much easier to search, read and update! And, you’ll be able to subscribe to my RSS feed so you can easily be notified whenever the site is updated! More on this coming soon.

And, more to come as July wraps up - I can’t wait to get the bike back on the road! Thanks for reading!

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First, a couple of old questions answered:
1. Scooter.
2. Rizzo on the shirt, Corn Dog elsewhere.

Next, a link: If you aren’t yet a biker chick but you think you might want to become one, check out the “Garage Parties” held for women by many Harley Davidson dealerships across the country. There’s a news release currently on PRnewswire that’s available to be picked up in publications everywhere. Look for it perhaps in your local newspaper. Or save time and just read it here.

And finally, while researching a post for my other blog I came across a website for a swing dancing club in Des Moines (my home city). I read this post about the importance of practice, and realized how universal the advice in it really was. The Cliff Notes version is that practice doesn’t necessarily make perfect, but it does make permanence. So it’s important to practice things (i.e., new physical skills) correctly.

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Many of us probably dream about quitting our jobs to take the motorcycle journey of a lifetime. Well today I found this article about a new book by a woman who did just that: Lois Pryce, who chronicles her 20,000-mile bike journey from Alaska to Argentina. The book is called Lois on the Loose and I can’t wait to read it! Also be sure to check out the Lois on the Loose website!

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Sometimes, shit happens that just leaves you shaking your head. An Iowa Appeals court declined to overturn an OWI conviction this week for an individual in Black Hawk County who, in 2003, crashed his motorcycle into a semi-truck causing injuries to his passenger. He was found to have a blood alcohol level of .14 at the scene of the accident, but he pled not-guilty on the grounds that he had only begun to drink after the accident, while sitting on the curb apparently waiting for help to arrive. He noted in his testimony that he kept a bottle of vodka strapped with bungee cords to his fender for just such an emergency.

Thinking that this story qualified for “news of the weird,” I mentioned it to my boss whose husband is a county attorney. She assured me this strategy was nothing new. “Marty had a case where a guy was found drunk at the scene with his bike in a ditch, but insisted he’d only started drinking while waiting for a ride home,” she reported, noting that cops actually found him first. Ultimately the charges were dropped because there was no evidence to suggest he’d been drunk while on the bike. All the beer cans were there at the scene with him, and the officer had not thought to check the bike’s engine to see if it was warm. Without concrete evidence, he was released.

Of course, the lesson we can all learn from this is that if you’re going to drink on a bike, it’s best to take the containers with you in case you need to stage an alibi later. But there’s an additional, more important lesson here, and that is that bungee cords are an effective way to secure a bottle of vodka to a motorcycle fender. (I mean, just how long did that guy ride around like that, waiting for an accident to happen so he could take a nip?)

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Had a nice weekend on the bikes; Friday night traveled about 20 miles down to Indianola Bike Night… this is a once-a-month event that usually draws about 2,000 bikes. Food, music and BIKES on the square in a small Iowa town… very nice! Saturday went up to the dealership to sit on bikes (I’m thinking about a Dyna or Softail), then went on a nice 60-mile-or-so ride, including some quality time on the Interstate, which I *hate*. But, we are planning to ride to Sturgis in August so I need to get used to it. On Sunday we rode to breakfast and put some new highway pegs on Steve’s Heritage.Speaking of Sturgis, Steve has a story he likes to tell about a previous trip he’d made out to Rapid City, on which he and his then-wife actually got so low on gas… with no stations in sight… that they had to ask at a nearby farmhouse if they could siphon some gas. Turns out no one was home, so they took the gas, and left some money and a note. Along those lines, a friend of ours who trailered their bikes to Sturgis last year cautioned us to always top off the gas, because there were stretches out there where no gas was available. So I got to thinking… there’s a publication I’ve seen that truckers use that gives information about all the various Interstate exits on I-80, which runs across Iowa. I wondered if there might be a similar pub about I-90 that runs across South Dakota, so I went to Google and found a page that gave me the info I wanted. So now on my atlas, all the exits that have gas stations available are highlighted in yellow, and I was able to figure the mileage between each to pre-select our gas stops so we wouldn’t have any problems. I feel SO organized!

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The 2005 riding season is coming to a close here in the Midwest, at least for this “fair weather rider.”

I’m sure all the usual sources will be providing their “year in review” articles in the very near future (I sure miss the ones Dave Barry used to do!), so I thought I’d get a jump on them by providing you with my 2nd Annual “Season in a Nutshell.” Here are some of the stats and highlights of 2005: 

Stats:
Miles logged: 2,180
Most miles in a day: 365 on 7/23
Hottest Day: 7/23/05, 101 F
Coldest Day: 3/6/05, 45 F
Drops: 0
Other ‘rolling blunders’: 1
$ spent on HD clothing & bike accessories: 1175
Highest gas price paid: 3.01 per gallon

Most Improved Skills
Using head and eyes to “look where you want to go.”
Overall awareness of traffic, surroundings, & potential hazards

Best mod or accessory added to bike:
Buckhorn handlebars for improved riding position
Willie & Max saddlebags for carrying STUFF

Bonehead Move of the Year:
Tangling with the gate arm in the parking garage at work (don’t ask)

Milestones reached:
Purchased first HD
First overnight trip in July
First girls-only trip in July
Most miles in a day, ever – 365 on July 23
Most hours on the bike in a day, ever – 12 on July 23

Best Day Riding:
Saturday, July 23 – awesome day!

Worst Day Riding:
No major mishaps this year… worst “day” was the whole month of September when I didn’t ride even ONCE til the 30th, for no good reason!

Prettiest new vista:
Hiway 6 & County Road F45 from Altoona to Newton through Colfax.

Locations visited:
Albert Lea, MN
Boone & Scenic Valley RR – Boone, IA
Clear Lake, IA
Livonia, MO
Newton, IA
Pella, IA (Cordova State Park Observation Park)

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