GWRRA - GA - Chapter A Blog

On the Motorcycle Views Forum there has been a discussion of the Can-Am™ Spyder™ Roadster. This is a so-called reverse trike with two wheels in front driven by one wheel in the back. I decided that I would test ride a Spyder™ at Americade 2008 at Roaring Brook Ranch (RBR) and report on it here.

The Spyder is made by a Canadian company, Bombardier Recreational Products, Inc. (BRP), located in Quebec. Another of their products is the Ski-Doo® snowmobile. In fact, I had commented before in the forum discussion that the Spyder looks strangely like a snowmobile.

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2008 Honda Hoot Day 1

Our very first day of Honda Hoot action was everything a motorcycling enthusiast could ask for: perfect weather, excellent riding, great new friends, site seeing, and even some American Motorcycle History 101. Our day began early at 8 a.m. as we loaded up our Honda CBR1000RR and our fully decked out Gold Wing and set off eastward towards the Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

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More About Honda Hoot

The decibels will be entirely different when motorcyclists gather at two Wisconsin cities this summer.

Harley-Davidson’s 105th anniversary celebration in Milwaukee at the end of August will feature thousands of motorcyclists firing up their Harleys with the “potato potato potato” engine rumble and roar.

But this weekend in Chippewa Falls, 400 to 500 riders on Honda Gold Wing motorcycles will cruise around with hardly a sound at their rally.

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Voicesofsandiego.org suggests renewed interest in bikes have led to a recent climb in motorcycle theft, and that high gas prices are fanning the flames of thievery. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, motorcycle theft already increased 135% nationally between 2000 and 2005, but bikes have become more coveted than ever because of their fuel efficiency.

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It’s 10PM, do you know where your bike is?

“This is my daughter. We started in Staunton, Va., and we’re riding the length of the Blue Ridge Parkway — it’s our first father/daughter trip.”

“Share the journey,” read my dad’s souvenir T-shirt. And that’s just what we did. We shared six days and the 469 miles of the splendor of the parkway, which winds through Virginia and North Carolina. We shared picnic meals on the side of the road wherever and whenever we felt like it. We shared tales of the adventures we’ve both experienced since I moved away from home, and my dad told me stories about his life I had never heard before.

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Reuters  June 3, 2008  - Local residents hold part of a fence to shelter against the rain while riding a motorcycle in the streets of Jinan, Shandong Province China.

While 98 percent of Americans claim to be safe drivers, 72 percent of all drivers admit to partaking in some form of distracting behavior while driving, from cell phone use to eating.

“Drivers need to be aware of the hazard they pose when they are inattentive,” said Bill Windsor, Associate Vice President of Safety at Nationwide. “Distracted driving is a danger to all sharing the road – but motorcyclists in particular will benefit from more conscientious motorists.”

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Motorcycles all queued up at a gas station in Indonesia.

From Greenville Online.com - The moving vendors who track major conventions around the country won’t be able to set up shop in city lots when a Honda Gold Wing motorcycle group comes to town next month under a city moratorium on “transient merchant” business licenses approved Monday.  click here for the article

Click for this article on Best Westerns

The article says its for Harley riders, but I think all bikers can get this deal.

According to their website, “You can elect to transfer your Gold Crown Club International membership to Gold Crown Club® International Ride RewardsTM by calling 1-888-BW2BIKE. As a new Gold Crown Club® International Ride RewardsTM member, you will receive a new Gold Crown Club® International Ride RewardsTM themed membership card with your original Gold Crown Club International account number.”

MAY 2008

Date - May 31
DoW - Saturday
Meeting Time - 9:45AM
Assembly Point - CITGO (I-75 @ Exit 216
Event - Ride to Benton Lee’s Steak House (click for web site)
Notes - Altamaha River in Uvalda, Georgia
Ride Leader - Don Severs

Come one come all we’re going for Steaks. We’ll be doing back roads and interstate down and back. The planned trip will be down 23/42 to Macon and then pick up I-75 to I-16. We’ll have a bathroom and gas break at the Dublin exit 51 then proceed on to Benton Lee’s. The Return trip will be back roads from Benton Lee’s and then I-16 and I-75 home with a rest and gas stop again in Dublin. If more stops are needed they can be done. I know that some of you have been there before and can attest to the size of the steaks and if you doubt it just click on the link to Benton Lee’s Steak House above. I plan on getting there around 1:30 to 2:00 PM and leaving around 3:00 to 3:30 PM, according to Mr. Garmin its 155 miles each way and about 2:46 hours each way. It will be a long day, but you won’t come home hungry

All of us (men & women) get a little preoccupied with things inside the car at times.  With me it’s the XM radio.  But, this morning was someone in front of me.  Yeah, she was putting on make-up.  But what was so bad was she had Jones County (Gray, GA) tags, meaning she lives in the sticks, but she waited until she was in bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-75 to start applying her make-up!!!!!!  All over the road.  Driving slow, in the fast lane.  That alone would pi$$ me off, but make-up in the fast lane????  And, it was really nice that she waited until she was in a metro Atlanta county so she could affect as many other drivers as possible while performing her morning ritual.

Sorry, but I just had too comment on this one.

Taken Thursday night, April 3, 2008 - Lariat # 2 – Sandridge Energy - South of Ft. Stockton , TX

At about 7:55PM tonight, the Phoenix lander touched down (apparently) safely on Mars.  Signals are being sent from the surface at this time. 

Not really too much about biking here, but then I’m a techie so it means something to me.  Congrats to the folks at JPL in Pasadena and Tucson!!!! 

Like many, today I’m watching the Indy 500.  It’s amazing to think that the company that built most of the engines powering today’s race was born so many years ago in Japan.  In 1949 Soichiro Honda had a dream, a dream about a motorcycle.  Many youngsters driving all those Accords & Civics today don’t even realize that, if it weren’t for these first motorcycles, the Honda car company wouldn’t even be here.  Just a little something to think about.

Here’s something like the Honda that got me started back in 1969 - a 1965 305 Honda Super Hawk.  Many think this was the “300 Dream” but it’s not.  The Dream had a welded steel unibody, no frame.  The Super Hawk (and it’s brother, the 250 Scrambler) had regular steel pipe frames.

I have an Airrider Cell Phone Interface.  It was installed for 5 days and I didn’t use it so I took it off the bike.  I paid $129, but you can have it for $50.  I put this back in the original box and have had it for a couple of years now, just sitting around the house.  Call me to get it @ 770-954-1924 or email bobmccroskey(at)mindspring.com  I will remove this post when the unit sells.

I bought the wrong printer ink - DUH!!!!!  Contact me if you’d like 3 each Light Magenta ink jet cartridges ( T033620 ) for an Epson Stylus Photo 960 printer.  Half price ($15 for all three).  Call me @ 770-954-1924 or email bobmccroskey(at)mindspring.com - I will delete this post once these are sold, so right now I still have them.

We now have a new Motorist Awareness Coordinator, one that hopefully can devote a little time to it than I can.  Dick Hopkins is an experienced presenter and has a real desire to help make motorcycles and motorcyclists more visible to the motoring public.  Please see our web site for contact info for Dick Hopkins - Motorist Awareness.

We can give FREE presentations to your company or any group that needs vehicle safety presentations.  Please contact us.  770-954-1924 or http://gwrra-gaa.com

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