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NEWS
AND OTHER STUFF FROM THE MEANEST
BIKER THUGS IN NORTHEAST OHIO |
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Wednesday, October 26, 2005 |
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Winter Motorcycle Storage In the northern climates motorcyclists have two choices when winter arrives: 2. Winterize the motorcycle and put it away in storage until spring So if you are fortunate to live where it's warm year-round or you choose to ride during the cold winter, there is no need to be concerned about winterizing your motorcycle or finding storage for it. Thus, even though I live in New Jersey USA where there are cold winters, I choose to keep riding as part of the Polar Bear Grand Tour. So, at least every Sunday I can expect to ride an average of 200 miles with 500 other Polar Bears unless the snow and ice cover the road. Then I stay home. For those in the second group, there are many opinions on what should be done to winterize your motorcycle and store it. Here is a basic set of steps to winterize a motorcycle and store it.
Many approaches work. The tips provided here will get you back on the road next spring ready for new adventures in our mutual motorcycle obsession. Walter Kern, About.com |
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 |
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Podcast for bikers Our company has been playing around with podcasting as a method of delivery for training content. I thought I would look into what it is all about. My office-mate Josh showed me how to set itunes up for podcast delivery and import to an ipod. Off I went to teach myself about this new communications tool.During my search, I found a really neat podcast called V-Twin Journal. This is going to be monthly and the first episode is now available. The host covers motorcycle news, tips and tricks (the first episode has a discussion on winterizing your bike), and an interview with someone in the industry/hobby. In this installment, a lobbyist with the Motorcycle Riders Foundation talks about some of the legislation the EPA is pulling out of their ass with regard to bikes. Here is the link you can put into your itunes: http://www.vtwinjournal.com/vtjfeed2.xml You can also find it in our "Sites for Sore Eyes" links to the left. |
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Monday, October 17, 2005 |
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Motorcycle Ohio course for new riders Attention, all Marauders:The Motorcycle Ohio Basic Rider Course held at the Jackson Township Ed Center in Massillon is full for this year. I have sent an email off to the coordinator letting them know that we could have at least 6 persons who need to take the course in the Spring. With this in mind, I am going to try and coordinate a mass-enrollment with the school. The Motorcycle Ohio class is conducted around the state by the Ohio BMV and is very hard to get in to. The course is $25.00 and runs Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday. Motorcycles and headgear are provided. For more details on what you will need can be found on the Motorcycle Ohio web site. Before I talk to the coordinator further, I want to confirm those of you who need/plan to take the class. Email me by the end of the month so I can get somthing more formal organized with the course providers. |
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Sunday, October 16, 2005 |
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Marauders show up on Google It's nice to see that some things on the Internet work! The Rubber City Marauders blog can now be found on Google. When searching for "Akron Motorcycle Clubs", the RCM comes up on the 2nd page. Not bad when you consider how tough it is to fight your way to the top 10 pages. Should be interesting to see what new inquieries come our way.This morning was a cold ride to breakfast. From all the hub-bub in the group by non-bike-owners, I think we can look forward to some new wheels in the pack come Springtime. |
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Thursday, October 13, 2005 |
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Sunday ride based on weather Hey kids. Looks like we MAY get a break this Sunday (10/16). If the rain doesn't show, I am up for some chow and a ride.The usual spot for breakfast (Liberty HD in Akron, 9:30 am). I encourage you non-bike owners to come out. We have a great time when we get together. Call my cell phone that morning to get a go/no-go (330-620-2311). I myself have not ridden for two weeks and I am getting the shakes! Chris "Big Daddy" Smith |
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Wednesday, October 12, 2005 |
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Stupid stuff Road Tales by Clement SalvadoriThe other weekend a Ducati-riding friend of mine, an extremely competent rider, was showing a new guy around some local roads. Really tight, twisty, narrow roads where a deer can jump out, a pickup truck takes up most of the space, and sand may lie in the shaded corners. "New Guy" decided that "Friend" was going too slow, whipped by, and headed off into the unknown. "This guy was going stupid fast," said the friend. No hits, no crashes, everybody got home safe, but "stupid fast" is a very real problem. Somewhere I remember a statistic saying that 60 percent of motorcycle fatalities are single-vehicle accidents. Probably the rider was going too fast, failed to make a corner, and crash! Nothing to do with anybody else, just a grievous miscalculation on the part of the brain behind the handlebar. Stupidity is responsible for most of the grief in the world. Whether it involves stupid decisions about war, or stupid notions about riding and driving, if those in charge of the ship or state, or the vehicle, thought a little more, perhaps we could diminish the misery factor by two-thirds. Last spring I was in Pennsylvania, riding on the hoary old Turnpike, and got into a long construction zone. The Penn Pike is always, always under construction, and how the state has the nerve to charge people for driving on it beats the heck out of me. Anyway, westbound traffic had slowed down to about 50 mph, but was bumper to bumper, and no place to pull off. I’m in the so-called fast lane, behind an SUV, trying to keep a safe distance while not having frustrated slow-laners, though moving at the same speed, trying to cut in. Then I notice in my rearview mirror that I have a Kenworth grill about 12 feet behind my head. That’s a big truck! If something happens, I’m going to be sandwich meat. Ordinarily I might get away by splitting lanes for a couple of cars, but everything was much too jammed together. So I pull over into the slow lane, and the Kenworth thunders by to tailgate the SUV; I did not understand his acts, because there were a hundred cars in front of us, and no way was he going to get to the head of the herd. On his big back doors was written: ALLIED VAN LINES The Safe Movers. Safe, my butt; this guy must have been way behind schedule, because he was driving stupid. Perhaps the key to my motorcycling longevity is to reduce my stupid moments to a bare minimum. Concentrate on the road. Don’t get distracted. If I want to admire the view I stop, or at least slow way down. When I have traffic all around I may not even glance sideways to see a sunset. One distracting moment I remember happened some 20 years ago, going down Interstate 5 in California’s Orange County. Rush hour, heavy traffic, moving about 40 mph, I was in the slow lane and noticed a woman hitchhiking on an on-ramp, wearing a trench-coat. A car approached the ramp, she opened the coat, and was starkers underneath. I was riveted for that brief moment as I passed, and fortunately traffic continued to flow smoothly. I don’t know whether the car stopped or not. Out in the countryside, two-lane road, 60 mph, no cars, lovely scenes, easy to turn my head to admire a few horses galloping in a field, a herd of cows heading for the barn, half a dozen kids diving into a pond. Am I aware how quickly my front wheel can be on the shoulder? Real quick. Or how quickly a car in front of you can slow, even stop, without warning? Maybe an animal runs out, or a box has fallen out of a truck and is in the middle of the road. I see these cruiser types with footpegs bolted onto the crashbars-engine guards, sorry-legs stretched out, ankles laying on the pegs, right foot a good two feet and two seconds from the rear brake pedal, and they are rolling down a freeway at 70 mph, 10 yards behind a contractor in his ladder-laden pickup talking on his cell phone. Painful to watch. Not bright. Stupid. So the cruising guy says he likes to relax like this. Not me. I’ve had enough brakelights flare up in front of me quite unexpectedly to make me keep my foot near the rear brake, my hand close to the brake lever. The delay of one second at 60 mph equals…you do the math, I’m going to concentrate on the road. Stupid has to do with maintenance as well, especially tires. If you fail to check the oil and burn up your bike’s engine, you might coast to a stop by the side of a country road, or get stuck in that breakdown strip next to the freeway fast lane, but it should not be fatal. Except to your wallet. However, if you think you need a new tire, get a new tire. And check the pressure regularly, and not with a casual kick to the tire. Nor one of those nasty little gauges you screw permanently onto your valve stems; the added weight can actually cause a valve stem to break. Put your own gauge, not that much-abused one down at the service station, on each tire at least once a week. If you have been riding your touring bike for three months without checking psi, you may not have noticed that the pressure is down to 18 pounds, and that could prove disastrous. Not all stupidity is life-threatening; it might just involve getting wet. One of the Nevada inlaw clubs, the Reno Rolex Riders, was doing its annual 10-day ride; in 2003 it was down to Southern California. It never rains in SoCal in the summer, thought Terrible Terry, as he left his rainsuit on the shelf in the garage and packed an extra bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label instead. You guessed it—it rained five of the 10 days. Myself, I still fall prey to rain. I’m cruising along on a cloudy day, and see windshield wipers moving on oncoming cars. Ah, it’s just a shower, I say to myself, I can ride through it OK. Only to find myself getting soaked in a brief but heavy rain. The wonderful thing about stupidity is that the condition can usually be alleviated. Granted, you have to focus on the cure every day, because recidivist stupidity is quite common. |
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Sunday, October 09, 2005 |
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Triumph introduces throw-back Scambler  In 1965 Honda introduced the 305 Scrambler CL77. The engine was a 305cc 4-sroke OHC, parallel twin with a 4 speed transmission. The CL77 was Honda's very first dual purpose motorcycle. Built for both the street and trail, this bike had many special features.Fast forward, Triumph introduces the 2006 Scrambler 900 that could pass as its grandparent unless you look closely. Featuring an 865cc air-cooled engine, this bike is an example of the popularity of the cafe racer style motorcycle and its return to the production line. The recent sale of vintage cafes from Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and Triumph to collectors and beginner bike owners has created a new market for this type of motorcycle. Honda's press room has been buzzing with a new CB looming for 2007. Look out big cruisers and fast crotchies. The roads may again be occupied by the bike style that started the motorcycle craze for the mass public. |
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A few new resources  Just updating the Marauders web site today and have added a couple of resouces for our group.First is our own "stuff" featured on the Marauders Stuff page. The link can also be found down our left navigation. Let me know if there are any requests for other "stuff". I always have my eyes open looking for goodies. Next is a neat web site I found called OhioBikers.com. This has some pretty cool resources including a list of Ohio motorcycle dealers and businesses. Have a good Sunday. Too crappy to ride! Chris |
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Saturday, October 08, 2005 |
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Camping trip scrubbed Due to schedule conflicts, the Marauders overnight ride and camp has been scrubbed for the season. Let's look at Spring to reschedule. |
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005 |
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A place to call our own For those of you who keep saying "what is our web address again?". We now have our own domain name that should be easy to remember.www.rubbercitymarauders.com Know it. Learn it. Live it. Chris |
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Saturday, October 01, 2005 |
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New DVD release of "The Wild One" hits stores  The Wild One (1953), a landmark film of 50s rebellion by director Laslo Benedek, producer Stanley Kramer, and screenwriter John Paxton. It was the first feature film to examine outlaw motorcycle gang violence in America. The film had its U.S. premiere, under the title of Hot Blood, on December 30, 1953. One of the film's taglines on its posters stated: "Hot feelings hit terrifying heights in a story that really boils over!"The tale was inspired and loosely based on a real-life incident over the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 in Hollister, California, (publicized in an issue of Harper's Magazine in a January 1951 article titled "The Cyclists' Raid" by Frank Rooney), when about four thousand people, composed of motorcyclists and other visitors and enthusiasts, roared into the town over a two day period, and overwhelmed the facilities. However, they did not ransack the town, confront the locals, or cause civil unrest (except for some arrests for drunkenness, or urinating in public - often due to a lack of restrooms). In the film, most of the action was located in Wrightsville, somewhere in Middle America. Because of the controversial nature of the film, public screenings were banned in England by the British Board of Film Censors for fourteen years (until 1968) after its release. Even in America, it was feared that the shocking, 'Communist' movie glamorized a anti-social subculture in revolt, would set a bad example, and cause impressionable viewers to copy-cat its plot and incite deliquency and riots. In fact, it took many years for pacifist motorcyclists to overcome stereotypes and fabrications promoted by the film. James Dean's disaffected, frustrated youth Jim Stark in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Elvis Presley's anti-hero character in Jailhouse Rock (1957), and even the significant counter-cultural Easy Rider (1969) - plus a spate of exploitation biker films (i.e., Roger Corman's trashy B-film classic The Wild Angels (1966) - owe their existence to this original, cult classic film. Although Marlon Brando portrays a stunning, brooding, nomadic character in one of his central and early roles (his fifth screen role), the film lacked Academy Award nominations. The film also stars a young Lee Marvin. The sale of black leather jackets and motorcycles reached new heights after the film's release, and motorcycles became a symbol of youth rebellion. The film's poster of Brando leaning on his motorcycle remains a best-seller. |
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