Estrogen Ride 2007 – Thank-you’s!

WOW!!

I don’t even know where to begin chronicling this awesome trip – the 2007 “Dangerous Curves” Estrogen Ride! From the bikes to the people to the weather to the route to the sights to the arrangements, meals, and gas stops, it was about as perfect a trip as you can imagine.

We left Des Moines promptly at 8:30, proving to the skeptical husbands/SO’s that 30+ women CAN all be ready to go at an appointed time (the SAME appointed time, mind you!) if the occasion is worthwhile enough. And the last of us arrived home, as far as I’m aware, around 6:30 p.m. Monday night – perhaps the gang from Carroll took a little longer?

I do know that before I get to the actual ride reports, a few big thank-you’s are in order:

First, Holly N. put together this awsesome trip from start to finish. She planned three days of scenic rides, secured hotels with plenty of room, arranged for restaurants to accommodate us, ordered perfect weather, and still left enough time for a side-trip to Poopy’s!

Sue S. made sure we all looked the part with awesome denim shirts embroidered with a ride logo and a nickname – this started out being a fairly safe bet for her, because originally she was only expecting maybe nine or 10 participants. I’m sure she must have gotten a little panicky as the number of riders grew and grew, but she hung in there and all who wanted them ended up with a “Dangerous Curves” riding shirt!

And, each of our sub-groups had a ride captain and a sweep rider – I don’t think I can remember all of them… I know that Holly, Lee, Diane, Carole, and Carla all helped out in this way.  But I know there were others,  so ladies if you served in these roles, THANK YOU!!

I’ll close this first-of-several posts about the ride with a tip for anyone organizing a group ride: do what Holly did – break the large group up into smaller groups, with a captain and a sweep for each small group and a common destination at the end of the ride. It’s easier to keep ten bikes together than 30… more efficient at gas stops and potty breaks… and safer on the road because there’s less chance of cars sneaking their way into the column.

Coming next, DAY ONE ride report!

Estrogen Ride 2007

Oh.

My.

GAWD!!!!

(more later!)

Q & A: How do I handle a hubby who’s pushing me too hard?

Have a question for the Biker Chick? Just send me an email!

I am learning to ride and just have my permit at the moment.  My husband is totally ticked that I am not ready to go on long rides and am wanting to just cruise around our neighborhood. Do you have any words of wisdom to overcome my anxiety?  Is it wise to hop on and go for a long ride? 

First and foremost, stress to your husband that if you are going to ride, you are going to learn at your own pace – not his. Only you know how comfortable you are on the bike, and because of this only you have that innate sense of what you might be ready to tackle.

Keep in mind that for experienced riders, everything about the operation of the bike is already second-nature – they’ve probably forgotten what it’s like to have to learn the various aspects of riding the bike, observing traffic, and generally being safe – all while trying to get just a quick glimpse of that “freedom of the road” that everyone seems to be talking about. So just tell him you’re prepared to spend the time it takes to get good at riding, but it has to be at your own pace. Encourage him to go on solo rides or rides with experienced friends so he doesn’t feel like he’s completely dependent on your learner’s pace.
 
Having said all that, if you are comfortable on the bike riding around your neighborhood, it’s possible you are ready for a slightly longer ride and you’re just reluctant because you’re enjoying a little “plateau” in your comfort zone. I encourage you to venture a little farther out, but safely and in your own way.

So try this: get out a map and pick a destination about 30 miles from home that you really want to go to. Plan a ride with that destination as your half-way point – hopefully it will include some 45- and 55-mph roads to give you a sense of what faster speeds are like, without putting you on the 75-mph Interstate too soon. (For me personally, it’s important that I be the one planning the comfort-zone-expanding ride… it gives me a sense of ownership of the plan rather than feeling like someone’s trying to control me.) Just take that round trip once, to see how you like it. You might find you really are ready for a new challenge!
 
If you really don’t feel comfortable riding outside the neighborhood yet, by all means just keep at it and stress to your hubby that it’s important for you to feel you’ve mastered this step before you proceed to the next.

Anyone else want to take a stab at this one? Feel free to comment!

East Village Bike Night & a 3-day ride coming up

Getting fired up for East Village Bike Night this Friday night… Des Moines’ historic East Village really knows how to throw a party. The event will include a “show-n-shine,” street dance outside the Blazing Saddle, and international food vendors.

Then on Saturday morning, I’m leaving along with about 30 other Harley-riding women for the “Dangerous Curves” Estrogen Ride! I’m pretty excited about this one… it’s a 3-day trip to northeastern and eastern Iowa organized by some gals from the Big Barn Harley Davidson Ladies of Harley group.

Look for photos and ride reports!

Honda and Harley Davidson merger

Harley-Honda merger? Leveraged buyout?

Didn’t think so.

Just in time for Sturgis 2007!

Just in the nick of time, I’ve got all my Sturgis materials from 2006 loaded into WordPress so you can enjoy them leading up to, during and after the Sturgis Rally 2007!

Photo galleries are linked in the right-hand column, and full ride reports are categorized under “Sturgis 2006.”

Enjoy and comment!

Poker run and HD dealer’s open house

More great riding this weekend – man the weather has been beautiful! Mid- to upper-80’s, sunny, no humidy… which is so unusual for July in Iowa! Last weekend we had the nice group ride up around Brushy Creek State Park, and this weekend we went to Indianola for Bike Night on Friday and then up to the local Harley dealership on Saturday to celebrate the grand opening under the new owners. They had a poker run, BBQ feed, carnival games and of course in-store specials.

Here’s the Webshots album with the photos from the weekend!

We arrived around 10:30 a.m. and met up with Garry and Shirley to do the poker run. The way this works is you follow a prescribed route to various stops along a 100-mile route, and a person is waiting at each stop (usually the clerk at a convenience store) to mark your poker ballot with a highlighter marker. You get your last mark back at the dealership, and then you get to draw a poker hand out of a box of cards. The person who draws the best hand, of course, is the winner – although none of us even came close to having best hand. Didn’t matter, the ride was really the point and it was just a perfect day to be out on the bikes. The ride took us west through Granger, Minburn, Perry, Woodward and Madrid, then back to Des Moines. We got off the prescribed route a couple times, but it was all Iowa countryside so it was all beautiful.

Big Changes!

August 11:
FINISHED!! I’ve now loaded all the content from the complete Biker Chick News original website into the WordPress installation. All four years’ worth of content is now searchable by date and category.

August 3:
I now have all the items from the Biker Chick Buzz page re-loaded. If you want to be featured, just send me an email with a snippet and photo!

July 25: 
I’m almost done with the content move. Everything from the old site, including the photos and ride reports from Sturgis 2006, has been loaded into the blog system and categorized (with appropriate back-dated timestamps to maintain the chronology of the posts) except for: Biker Chick Buzz photos, ride reports from 2005 and 2006, and homepage archives from 2005 and 2006. Those will be coming soon!

July 22:
I’ve just replaced the entire architecture of BikerChickNews.com with an installation of the WordPress blogging platform. I’ve got the entire 2007 front page re-loaded – you can now comment on every individual article! – as well as some of the sidebar material. More will be added back in the coming days – for now, enjoy reading and commenting! And, if you’re a Biker Chick who keeps a blog, please drop me a note with your blog address so I can create the Biker Chick Blogroll!

Biker Chicks in the news

In the “Just an FYI” department, here’s a link to a neat story about bikers doing something they do really well: support others in their time of need.

And another cool story about a growing group of women riders who take an annual trip beginning in Manitowoc.

New 2008 Harley Davidsons are a disappointment

I don’t know about you, but I’m REALLY disappointed in the ’08 lineup from Harley Davidson. There are no awesome new must-have colors on any of the bikes I’ve been considering, and in fact the only shiney color on the ’08 Street Bob is black. All the other colors are that God-awful “denim” flat color. (Look, if I wanted to ride a bike in primer, I’d prep mine for re-painting and ride it a season in primer.)

And what the hell is that “Rocker” model? Ugly, ugly, ugly – and again too many “flat-finish” surfaces. (Yuck – give me chrome!!) There must be some pretty nifty advanced engineering in that rear assembly to make the pillion seat hover above the fender like that… I’ll certainly do some reading and figure out what that is, but just based on looks? The only bright-spot as far as I’m concerned is that the 2008 Low Rider still comes in that gorgeous light-blue and black combination. That’s the bike I saw and loved at first sight at the dealership in Sioux Falls, SD, on our way to Sturgis last year. It’s still my best hope for a new bike – only the copper-and-black Sportster 1200 is a second possibility.

« PREVIOUS PAGE — NEXT PAGE »