We’ve got a mobile edition!

I bought a Motorola Droid for use with my Verizon wireless service this past weekend, and discovered a neat website called www.womenwithdroids.com. What I noticed was that the site had a “mobile edition” that appeared by default on my new phone, while still giving me the option to view the full site in a browser. I loved the idea of offering a fast, slimmed-down version of the blog content on the small device, so decided to create one for BCN.

So – if you’re visiting Biker Chick News on an iPhone, Droid, or other smart phone, you’re probably getting our new mobile edition! I’m excited to provide this feature – it offers “just the basics” of BCN in an easily readable format for smaller screens:

• The top 10 most recent blog post headlines – a click takes you to the full articles complete with photos.
• Links to the full “About” and “Archive” pages
• The text of the “About page” in its own little box.
• A link to exit the mobile edition and view the full website.

Of course, the full site includes so much more – that’s what your device’s web browser is for – but for a quick and easy way to keep up with the blog, hopefully you’ll dig BCN Mobile.

(By the way, if you blog using WordPress and have the capability to use plug-ins, try the plug-in available from AlexKing.org which auto-generates the mobile edition.)

World of Wheels great fun, but where are Fonzie and Foos?

While last Sunday I was celebrating the arrival of Spring by taking the first ride of the season, this weekend we watched with amusement as Mother Nature tried to stick us with another 4 inches of snow. She succeeded on Friday night, but today is Sunday and it’s all gone already – so, “nice try, Old Girl, but better luck in December.”

The family and I did take advantage of an indoor activity on Friday night – the “World of Wheels” hot rod and custom car show.

Now car shows are nothing new to us – my husband has been a car nut forever, and for many years we were very active in the car show scene around Iowa and through the National Street Rod Association. (Talk about great road-trip stories – we were just reminiscing not too long ago with Garry and Shirley about the trip we took to a show in St. Paul, which was followed by a week of traveling to another show the following weekend in Pueblo, CO. What a blast!)

Anyway, we saw some ads on TV for this show – it promised special guest appearances by Chip Foose and Henry “The Fonz” Winkler – so we decided to go. (Hey, what gal who grew up watching “Happy Days” wouldn’t want to spend Friday night oggling The Fonz? Fortunately, our daughter also knows Winkler through HD re-runs and for his role in the movie Holes, so it wasn’t a tough sell.)

It was dumping a nice snow by the time we arrived, but that was okay because I think it kept the crowds at bay. We got lucky with a close parking spot, hustled in through the snow to the exhibition hall, stepped up to buy our $13-apiece tickets (yes, almost $40 to get three of us in!), got the tickets… and THEN looked up to see signage that said Chip and the Fonz would NOT be there until Saturday.

Well that was a downer, but by then we already had our tickets so in we went. It took the best part of about 3 hours to see the whole show, including a 20 minute dinner break. LOTS of really cool cars, some showpieces and some “rat rods,” and also several bikes. I took a TON of photos – you can see them all in the World of Wheels album over on Webshots – but here are a few of the highlights:

For Stephanie, there were many examples of the mid-50’s Bel Airs and pickup trucks – rest assured if there are photos in the album of a tri-five Chevy, Steph took them. She has very good taste!

A couple of really cool conversion vans – yes, that 70’s trend is hangin’ in there! – the neatest of these having a deep blue “Pirates fo the Carribean” theme.

Several nice motorcycles, including a custom vintage-looking red Harley with a sidecar, a restored  ’45 Flathead, and a neat old-school looking custom Sporty with deep red metalflake peanut tank.

A pair of veterans who had built commemorative vehicles honoring fallen vets.

A 1911 Stanley Steamer.

A cool little Ford Festiva cut into a pickup truck, complete with matching trailer.

SO much more!

We had a nice few hours of family time walking around looking at the cars – neat to see our daughter taking an interest in some of the details her dad was explaining about the Bel Airs (of course, now she wants him to help her build one – nice!).

I just wish The Fonz had been there, because the weather was just nice enough the rest of the weekend that he might have been disappointed with the turn-out of his Iowa fans.

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha… I WIN!!

Take THAT, Winter – I have officially taken the first ride of the new season before going stark raving mad, and that means I WIN!

Well now, don’t I feel better! As you may have guessed, I got to take a ride today – the FIRST ride of 2010! What a blast… a relief… a pleasure.

Accuweather predicted 54 degrees today, and since the sun was peeking out periodically I decided to step out and start the bike – you know, just to hear the rumble. Well she started right up so I rolled her out into the driveway and puttered around a bit… took my rain suit out of the saddle bag and folded it all back up into it’s self-contained pouch (that was a victory in itself – do these things EVER fit back in the pouch??)… cleaned the windshield, held my new gauge trim ring up to where it will be positioned to see what it will look like (SA-WEET!).

The sun seemed to be hanging around so I decided to go ahead and take a short ride. Past experience has shown that 54 might be a fine temperature for working out in the yard, but on the bike it’s damn chilly. So I went in the house and gathered up all my leather gear. Glad I did – I ended up going a little farther than I originally planned, about 60 miles total, and most of it was highway.

I headed south down Fleur Drive in Des Moines, which is a nice four-lane that goes past the airport on the South side of Des Moines. At the south end of the airport I headed west on Army Post Road, down to Highway 28, and turned south. This road goes through Norwalk and then Martensdale, and ends at Highway 92. Took 92 east to the point where a nice county road (R63) intersects, and then took R63 back up to Des Moines. In the city, this road becomes S.W. 9th Street which is another major north/south road.

The problem with S.W. 9th Street – and with much of Des Moines – is potholes. Man, they are killer this year! I managed to complete that obstacle course and made it home safely… rode about 60 miles total, definitely feeling the chill but SO glad to have had the opportunity!

Riding season is here so Old Man Winter can officially kiss my *ss!

Ready for Spring: cleaning the bike

A couple of years ago I posted a piece on how to prep the bike for the first ride of the season, with tips courtesy of our local dealership. This year, I noted a round-up of bike cleaning tips in the latest issue of the Harley Owners Group magazine, HOG, and thought they were worth sharing.

Two caveats: of course, the article itself was full of references to and recommendations for Harley-branded cleaning products. I don’t personally invest in all of those, but I do admit I really like their “Sunwash” product.

And, there are likely tips and techniques you’ve gathered over the years that work best for you – maybe you don’t feel the need to baby the bike so much and just want to occasionally get the bugs off. That’s cool (because that’s honestly how I do it)… but the only hard and fast rule of bike cleaning should be this: “First, do no harm.”  Meaning: sometimes it’s good to just recalibrate your brain and make sure your bike-cleaning short-cuts aren’t causing damage.

So for what they’re worth, here are some bike-cleaning don’ts offered up by The MoCo.:

• Don’t use a pressure washer – the garden hose works just fine. (I guess this means I should stop takin’ it to the car wash.)
• Don’t get dirt in your cleaning products – I think this means if you drop the polishing rag on the ground, get a different one.
• Don’t use rags that contain nylon – because it’s abrasive. They recommend micro-fiber, which for the record, I hate.
• Don’t use common household detergents – again, because they’re abrasive and have chemicals that can react with your bike’s surfaces.
• Don’t wash your windshield with gas station fluid, which is formulated for glass.
• Don’t blow dry your bike with a leaf blower – because they blow dirty air. That’s assuming you use the same leaf blower you use in the yard. Maybe if you had a leaf blower just for the bike?
• Don’t use car products on your bike – or at least, read labels carefully.
• Don’t use nylon scrubbing tools on your bike.

Now it’s your turn: Add your bike-cleaning Do’s and Don’ts in the comments!

Ladies Night at Big Barn HD was a blast!

Had a fun Saturday night this past weekend enjoying Ladies Night at Big Barn Harley Davidson – a nice opportunity to socialize and shop, but with the added bonus of food and drink.

The evening event included in-store specials on apparel and parts, music by One Night Stand (GREAT group, managed to turn “Another Brick in the Wall” into a funk song, then paired it with “Shake Your Booty” – more funk with “Brick House,” Prince’s “Let’s Go,” and oddly enough one of my least favorite funk tunes, “Flashlight,” which I  thought had mercifully faded into the annals of music history), door prize drawings, and entertainment by aerial artist Ann Stimmel.

Now she’s worth a paragraph all her own – this gal is amazing! I had thought, when Big Barn promotions manager Amy Shane-Nichols had promised an aerial artist, that we’d walk in and see a high-wire strung across the rafters of the barn. Turns out that’s not the act at all. Instead, Ms. Stimmel shimmies up a pair of floor-to-ceiling silk  fabric drapes, then proceeds to twist, turn and flip about (to music, of course) by virtue of being wrapped up in the drapes in various ways. I posted a couple of pictures on Facebook, and tried to shoot a little video with my cell phone camera (which, not surprisingly, didn’t turn out all that well). For a better understanding of what Ms. Stimmel was “up to,” see this Facebook album by Ann Martineau Breier.

The best part of the evening though, was getting to meet my fellow biker chick blogger, Stephanie – aka, Iowa Harley Girl. Now she and I have been attending the same events for years, and commenting on each others blogs for a few of those years, but had never met in person. So, it was a delight to get to hang out with her for the evening. We were also BOTH thrilled to meet a couple of fans of both our blogs – now that is a hoot, when someone steps up to you and says “Hey aren’t you that girl with the blog?”

Oh – and one other thing… something called a Mango Margarita… yeah.

How was your weekend?

Late winter musings

We All
by Corn Dog

The road calls to each of us.
It separates us, it unites us.
It shows us the distance, then invites us to close the gap.
It promises a destination, but also a journey.

I have heard the call.
And having heard, consider it my joyous obligation
Not only to answer by taking the journey
But indeed to cherish all the gifts of the road
Each in due measure.


Capital City Customs Swap Meet & Bike Show

(See my full album of swap meet photos over on the Biker Chick News Facebook Fan Page!)

Having had at least five inches of snow on the ground since early December, the rallying cry in Iowa right now is “I’M SICK OF WINTER!” The long, snow-covered season has really elevated the importance this year of the annual Capital City Customs Swap Meet and Bike Show.

Held in February, this event is always a sort of mile-marker along the winter highway – a “wake-up” call that Spring is coming, and it’s always as much an opportunity to just meander among “like minds” as much as it is a chance to shop for parts and leather and look at a few bikes.

The swap meet is an interesting mixture of new stuff (rude/ sassy t-shirts, patches, leather gear of every type, bike dealers represented including Harley, Yamaha, Victory and others), used stuff (tubs and tubs, rows and rows of parts), miscellany and even art. (I’ve got a post coming up introducing you to a local gal who makes beautiful hand-tooled leather seats.)

We’ve been there at times when there was plenty of room to move around, and also when you couldn’t even really stop to look because the crowd kept moving you along. This year our experience on Saturday was the latter – apparently the entire riding population of central Iowa was ready to shop!

Got a chuckle out of a sign at the entrance – “Free H1N1 in the Annex”… noticed good bargains on used windshields, unused Sturgis t-shirts from past years, leather gloves, and several other items. Stopped as often as we could to look and consider purchases, but ultimately we didn’t buy anything except our entrance fee. (Which, by the way, was up by two bucks this year – worth it!)

The bike show portion of the event is always interesting, too. These are not usually the concept bikes and high-dollar customs you’ll see at Rat’s Hole – although I have no doubt they were each a major investment for their owners. Rather, they are highly personalized bikes by people who just love to build and ride. Sometimes a bike seems like it’s been entered just to show off a paint scheme. Other times you can tell the whole machine has been built from some kind of visionary scratch.

In every case, the bikes in the show are earnestly built by folks who just want to show you what they’ve done to their machines. I especially liked the memorial bike built to honor those killed in action (KIA) in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the pair of bikes by Jason Crooks featuring his signature “jelly bean tank.” (Okay, Jason probably doesn’t call it a jelly bean tank – that’s just me. And I admit I’m biased here – Jason’s been a family friend for almost 20 years.)

SO – bottom line, it’s been a hell of a winter around here. And the swap meet was one big, fat “WE MADE IT!” – a finger-flipping, you could say, offered collectively by the winter-weary bikers of central Iowa.

And now that it’s past, even as the snow continues to fall, it feels like we’re finally on the downhill slide to Spring.

Were you there? What’d you like? Who’d you see? What’d you buy?

Steampunk bikes, spirited women riders, and more snow

I have officially crossed the threshold of “I hate winter” and am beginning to allow myself the occasional “Spring is not THAT far away.”   I know my optimism might be premature – we’ve had more than 5 inches of snow on the ground since the first of December, and we are supposed to get 8 more inches on Monday. But, I’m more sick of feeling depressed than I am of winter. I need to get my cheerful back, so I’m determined to talk myself out of these doldrums.

Of course, one of the ways I’m passing the winter evenings is by web-surfing. I thought I’d share a couple of the more recent bits I found that really caught my eye.

First, from Rippin-Kitten, here’s a look at some ridiculously cool steampunk motorcycles. What’s steampunk? Well it’s a fashion/culture/design movement that takes elements from the days of Victorian-era steampower and makes them look futuristic – from their own time. Take a look at Lizzie’s post (note the steampunk computer), and maybe peek at the Steampunk Fashion Group over on Flickr, and you’ll get it immediately.

Next up, over on Twitter, somebody shared a link to this post on the Cyril Huze blog about new art by David Uhl. Be sure click through to Uhl’s website – and take a look at his “Women of Harley Davidson” collection. I found the whole series spirited and beautiful, just like the women I know who ride! (I’d love to hear your thoughts – be sure to leave a comment!)

Finally, here in Des Moines I’m looking forward to the Capitol City Motorcycle Swap Meet and Bike Show, coming up the weekend of Feb. 13-14. The swap meet serves as a dose of much-needed biker socializing and shopping at a time when it’s still too early to think about getting the bike out of the garage. It makes you think you are going to survive the winter after all, and I could really use that boost right about now.

(Oh look, it’s snowing this morning – isn’t it PRETTY??)

Rules for talking to woman bikers

Although the number of women who ride their own motorcycles is growing (aren’t we up to, like, 13 percent now? I think that makes us THIRTEEN PERCENTERS!), I’m still astounded at the reactions some people have when they learn I am a rider. Most of them are well-meaning, I’m sure. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t take a step back and reconsider their words. Here are a few “rules of the road” when it comes to communicating with women bikers:

DO NOT share your gruesome stories right off the bat of friends/relatives/mythical figures who have died in motorcycle accidents. It’s not helpful. And if you do, be prepared to hear about someone she knows who died a horrible death doing that thing you love.

DO ask her what make/model she rides. DO NOT ask her if that’s considered “a girl’s bike.”

It’s perfectly okay to ask her how long she’s been riding her own. But, DO NOT start a conversation with, “Do you ride that big ol’ bike all by yourself?” Because you’re bound to get this in return: “No, I have my big strong husband run along behind and push it for me.” Or maybe this: “Do you see a sidecar, Douchey?”

DO NOT chastise her for riding just because she has children. Anyone who has children could die stepping out the front door or driving their car, so don’t blather on about “greater responsibility.” DO congratulate her for showing her kids that life was meant to be lived doing things you love, and that it’s never too late to discover or learn something new.

Okay, women riders, it’s your turn – what are some of the reactions you’ve had to the fact that you ride your own motorcycle?

Fan, follow BCN around the web!

Been spending a little time lately setting up some tools to help folks find Biker Chick News in a few more places on the web.

First, I created a Facebook Page, Biker Chick News. I like Facebook a lot for connecting with old friends and keeping up with everyone in my life. The blog’s “fan page” is a little different from my personal Facebook page – it’s designed especially to keep “fans” updated on what’s new at the blog, AND I’ve also enabled the “discussions” feature so if you want to ask a question or just start a topic for conversation among other “fans,” you can do that too!

I’m also an occasional user of Twitter. Conan’s late-night scoffing aside, I found that twitter was really useful in my previous line of work. But, I was “tweeting” a combination of things from work and personal life, which I think was a bit confusing to the friends who were (are) following me. I don’t tweet much for work anymore, and most of my personal stuff is bike-related. So I decided to set up a new account under the name of the blog so the bike-related stuff I’m sharing would be associated with the blog. So, short version: if you use Twitter, you can follow @BikerChickNews and that will be me!

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