Annual Ride to Work Day 2013

The third Monday in June is Annual Ride to Word Day – June 17, 2013!

June 17, 2013 Annual Ride to Work Day

Need some help rallying the troops? Head over to RideToWork.org and find all sorts of downloadable logos, web banners, signs, posters, and more!

Here’s to hoping we ALL have wonderful riding weather!

P.S. Ladies! Let me know if you’d like to share your story in The Profiles of a Female Motorcyclist! Email me at: pamela(dot)court(at)gmail(dot)com < Trying to keep the spammers at bay!

Profile of a Female Motorcyclist: Meet Zoe a.k.a. Splodz

Hang on while I take off from here in Minnesota [wish I could get airline miles for all this cyber travel] over a few thousand miles to Lincoln, UK to meet my next guest Zoe or on Twitter @Splodz! I am so glad Zoe found my blog and now I have another one to keep up with because she has one too! Splodz Blogz is her “everything blog” so there’s a lot of different topics she covers – book mark!

Side rant: Google Reader is going the way of the dinosaur as of July 1, 2013. Any replacement recommendations? I follow a lot of blogs and Reader has been so easy for me.

Back to Zoe and her story!

Meet Zoe a.k.a. @Splodz

How long have you been riding a motorcycle? Around eight years.

How did you learn to ride? I did CBT first followed by just under a year of riding a 125cc on L-plates before taking Direct Access the following Spring. I learnt to ride together with my husband (LincsGeek) after my and my father-in-law’s enthusiasm for biking rubbed off on him. I’m not sure I’ll ever forgive the weather on test day – he did his test first and they cancelled the rest of the tests for the day thanks to thick fog in the city. I had to wait a whole week to take mine!

At Lands End, England

Of course I know that even eight years on I am still learning – my confidence comes and goes depending on how much opportunity I have to ride at the time. Right now I’m feeling pretty good thanks to preparations for a long trip at the end of the month.

What was your first motorcycle? My 125 was a Motoroma Virage – it was small, light and the perfect riding position for my first few months on the road. Once LincsGeek and I passed our bike test we bought a Suzuki Bandit 600. I had to get the seat cut away for that so I could better reach the floor – being short and riding can be a pain sometimes!

How many have you owned? Four now, but actually my current bike is my first “all to myself” bike – before that bikes have been shared with my husband.  After the Bandit we bought a Suzuki SV650S which we had lowered and kept for a few years. But I really wanted my own bike so LincsGeek and I could ride together – whenever we went out together I’d go pillion as he was a much stronger rider than me (I’d never be able to take him pillion!), I felt like putting a sign on my back saying “I can ride too, we just share a bike”!! I got my BMW F650GS about 18 months ago now. It’s the factory lowered model with the low seat, just right for me, I love it.

Inch Beach, Ireland on a hired f650gs

Why did you want to ride a motorcycle? I’ve wanted to learn for as long as I can remember – I used to look at the custom Harley with gorgeous purple paint job parked outside the house at the bottom of the road with awe, vowing one day I would ride one just like that. It looked completely out of place at the end of the Terrace Street I lived on in Devonport, Plymouth, but the lifestyle that it represented appealed. Even at age six or seven I longed for the freedom, the wind in my hair, the adventure. It took me a while to get there but it’s exactly what I wanted. I might not have the custom Harley (I couldn’t be doing with the amount of polishing it would require courtesy of the British weather), but I’ve got the rest. Maybe one day I’ll complete the picture.

Tell us about your riding. I ride for pleasure. I don’t actually long for super twisty roads or long superfast highways – I enjoy simply pootling about on country roads enjoying the views and freedom. It’s a form of relaxation.

I prefer longer trips, riding with a purpose to see someone, something or somewhere, and so I love to go on biking holidays. We’ve toured Ireland, Scotland, and of course England – sometimes as a couple and sometimes with friends and family. We are now planning our ultimate trip to the USA to ride Harley’s through the south-west on one of the Eagle Rider guided tours next summer – I simply cannot wait (although I have just over a year to get so much fitter and stronger so I can manoeuvre my Fat Boy where I need it to go!).

f650gs in Folkingham, England

What advice do you have for women who ride or want to ride a motorcycle? Riding is all about you. No-one else. So ride the type of bike you want, on the type of roads you like, in the style that you like. You don’t have to go fast, you don’t have to scrape your knees along the floor, you don’t have to keep up with the rider in front – unless you want to! Enjoy the freedom that biking provides, let everything else other than the bike, road and view escape your mind and relax.

Oh, and don’t worry about helmet hair. It’s really no big deal.

What is the longest trip that you’ve taken on your cycle? At this moment the longest trip I have done was Top Down – a charity motocycle ride taking me from my home in Lincolnshire up to John O’Groats, down to Land’s End, and back home again – well over 2,000 miles and raising £2,300 for charity. It was quite an experience; being a charity event we had no option to ride whatever the weather threw at us – and boy did it throw stuff at us! I was loaned a Harley Davidson Sportster Nightster 1200 for the week from a local dealer (because it was in the days when LincsGeek and I shared) which made the week even more special for me.

Harley Sportster Nightster 1200

I say “at this moment” because in less than two weeks we’re off on a slightly longer charity ride taking us to the four compass points of Great Britain. We sadly lost my father-in-law to cancer last summer just a couple of months after diagnosis, and so in tribute to him and in an attempt to recreate something of Top Down we are raising money for two UK cancer charities. I’d love to give the Memorial Ride blog a plug. [Of course! Let's kick cancer's a$$!!)

I often read these profiles and am a little jealous of the 10,000 mile / six month adventures you write about – now that would be awesome!

Do you belong to any motorcycle groups? Nothing official, no, but I do enjoy riding with a group of friends from my Church in Boston, Lincolnshire. I enjoy chatting about riding on twitter but am not in any clubs or societies.

Do you have a favorite riding story? One thing I love about riding is there is always a story to tell – so many memories.

I think I have to go back to Top Down in 2009 when I rode that loaned Harley for 2,000 miles. We were riding through Devon along the Jurassic Coast Road when the rain was so very heavy the road was just flooding in front of our eyes and we were soaked through to the skin in an instant. I could see the biggest puddle ever seen ahead of me – a pond in the road. I watched LincsGeek ride through and the water was high, so I stuck the Harley in first, relaxed my shoulders, brought my legs up onto the seat and sat crossed legged as I rode through. I wonder what the car drivers going the other way thought? We stopped just up the road at a McDonald's, emptied our boots and gloves of water and used the dryers in the loos to dry off a little. Awful awful weather but part of an experience we have not stopped talking about since. That same evening we sat outside in Penzance, Cornwall, eating fish and chips out of the paper in the sunshine. What a difference a few hours makes! (My boots never did dry out.)

I’m rather hoping the weather is much kinder at the end of the month!

f650 at Glencoe, Scotland

What do you do when you’re not riding? Life is busy but it’s all good. Work wise I’m a marketer for a University in the UK. Leisure wise I run Splodz Blogz and have loads of fun testing all sorts of stuff out to review as well as writing about my life. Music is important to me – I play trombone and bass guitar, and I enjoy walking and generally getting outdoors. And in true British style, I love to relax with a nice cup of tea.

Thank you Zoe for sharing your story! Ladies! Let me know if you’d like to share your story too! Email me at: pamela(dot)court(at)gmail(dot)com < Trying to keep the spammers at bay!

Profile of a Female Motorcyclist: Meet Sash a.k.a. @2MuchTina

I have another new cyber-friend I want to introduce to you! Her nickname is Sash and her Twitter handle is @2MuchTina. Sash is from San Diego, CA, but currently on what she calls “our Road Pickle Motorcycle Bohemia, so I’m mobile!” Sasha and her hubby are on serious road trip. You can catch her adventures on her blog SashMouth. 

Sash riding in the California desert

How long have you been riding a motorcycle? Technically, I’ve been riding for 2 years. Actually, I’ve been consistently riding about 5 months. I got my license, but didn’t have my own bike to ride. I rode my hubs extra bike, a Yamaha Roadstar, but it was too heavy for me. So I took almost an entire year off of solo riding. I just started riding this last January.

How did you learn to ride? I took a course to learn and loved every minute of it. But I’ve spent many, many years riding pillion. First with my Daddy, then my high school boyfriend and now with my hubs.

What was your first motorcycle? My current motorcycle, Kawasaki Ninja 500, Katie Scarlet

How many have you owned? Just one! But I sold my Mercedes to buy her. I don’t even own a car now.

Why did you want to ride a motorcycle? My Daddy rode when I was a girl. He had many friends that rode and I wanted to ride with him all of the time. That feeling of flying, being free, never left me. I think it’s natural for most passengers to wonder from time to time what it is like to be the rider. But I always knew that one day I would ride. My time just finally came! Riding is the closest to being at one with my soul as I can get while still being alive. It is the most “alive” thing I do. Every sense is heightened and I take in all the world in a single breath while riding. I can’t imagine life without it now.

Tell us about your riding.  We are riding a 6-month motorcycle road trip around the U.S. currently. We ride about 250-300 miles a day, riding only a couple of days a week. We try to stay in one city for a week at a time and then go exploring while we are there. I love riding, but I deal with chronic pain from fibromyalgia, so I have to pace myself.

What advice do you have for women who ride or want to ride a motorcycle? Ride your own ride. Don’t try to keep up with anyone, be like anyone, ride like anyone. Be You. Boldly Embrace Your Own Uniqueness and while doing so Ride Your Own Ride. Listen to advice, but weigh it with your own good sense.

What is the longest trip that you’ve taken on your cycle? I’m currently 3500 miles into our Road Pickle Motorcycle Bohemia Trip, so that’s the longest.

Do you belong to any motorcycle groups? I belong to a few online through Google+, but none offline yet.

Do you have a favorite riding story? Riding from Bisbee, AZ to the NM border on Route 80, I saw the most beautiful scenery. My hubs Highway was in front of me, and I followed him on this two lane road for over 100 miles, taking in all of the wilderness. I saw a snake slither across the road in front of me, I saw two deer, and then a fawn, simply munching in the meadows. But at one point we came over a ridge and all I could see for miles was golden grasses flowing in the wind. I’m from California, so we don’t see things like that. I started to weep, really weep, with gratitude that I was in that place, in that moment, being so grateful that beauty like this existed somewhere, always.

What do you do when you’re not riding? I’m an internet publisher, author, marketer, sales director, motivator and pain in my hubs’ ass. I spend most of my time writing or selling advertising. I give motivational speeches to groups, mostly women and with my hubs we coach clients to build their own blogs and earn an income from them. I’m the very proud mother of a 23-year-old beauty Olivia, who recently married the man who was made for her, David. My book, “Finding Christ Inside” was published in 2009 and it is my poetic narrative explaining that I’ve found spirituality within me, not within the confines of religion.

The many faces of Sash!

P.S. Ladies! Let me know if you’d like to share your story too! Email me at: pamela(dot)court(at)gmail(dot)com < Trying to keep the spammers at bay!

To Courageous Mothers

To the courageous mothers the world over. Happy Mother’s Day!

What gift did your mom give you? Here’s an old post I wrote as a tribute to my mom.

Profile of a Female Motorcyclist: Meet Crystal a.k.a. @cbarnwolf

I am so pleased to be able to share another profile of a female motorcyclist courtesy of Twitter! My next guest Crystal, nicknamed Crys, was commiserating with me about missing the International Female Ride Day last Friday because of the weather. Crys a.k.a. @cbarnwolf (on Twitter, Instagram, and Plurk) lives in Central Wisconsin and was experiencing the same cold, ice and snow that hit here Minnesota. She is also blogs, My Crystalline Life. Crys admits she hasn’t updated it in a while, but it is on her to do list!

Meet Crystal!

How long have you been riding a motorcycle? I’ve ridden on the back of motorcycles with my dad since I was in grade school. I thought I was the coolest kid in school when I’d get picked up on his white 1976 Harley full dresser. I started riding my own almost 17 years ago.

How did you learn to ride? I went through a rider class held at our local community college and spent a lot of time on side streets. I still feel like a beginner every spring.

What was your first motorcycle?  I bought a 1983 Honda 650 Nighthawk.  I had to have a friend ride it home because I didn’t have a license or the first clue how to ride it.

How many have you owned? I’ve had three motorcycles.  That first Honda got sold early on due to finances and having young kids running around. About seven or eight years ago I bought my 1986 883 Harley Sportster. Two years ago I traded my Harley in on a 2006 Honda VTX1300R. I bought the Honda so that I could start doing longer rides.

Why did you want to ride a motorcycle? I have always loved motor vehicles of all kinds especially motorcycles and classic cars. I love the freedom I get when I’m riding. The feeling of being in control of my destiny. I decided to get my license when I got fed up with waiting around for someone else to take me for a ride.

Tell us about your riding. I do mostly commuter riding. I took a break from riding for several years when my children were younger. I am planning on doing more pleasure riding and eventually would like to take vacations on the bike.

What advice do you have for women who ride or want to ride a motorcycle? The main thing I’d like other women to know is the one thing that I wish someone would have told me when I got on that first bike. Which is “Yes, it’s scary and that is okay. But it is well worth riding through it. You can do it!”  The only advice I have is go take a class, get your license and just do it. The only regret that I have had is not riding when I could have.

What is the longest trip that you’ve taken on your cycle? The longest I’ve ridden hasn’t happened yet. I hope to do some longer rides this summer. But up until now the longest I’ve ridden is about three hours worth of back country roads around south central Wisconsin.

Do you belong to any motorcycle groups? I don’t currently belong to any groups. I think online or IRL groups are great and I hope to be more of a participator someday. But for now I tend to do more lurking in groups as I have time and following people on Twitter.

Do you have a favorite riding story? Fortunately since getting my license, ridding has been mostly uneventful. However, my family’s favorite story about me and riding happened when I was 12 and taking a weekend trip to upper Michigan with my Dad. We went for a three day weekend with another father/daughter. The first afternoon we hit rain. It was storming so hard that the rain was going sideways and I couldn’t see the edge of the road. We ended up pulling into a hole in the wall bar to get out of the rain. We walked in to this place looking like drowned rats. I’m sort of surprised they served us. We had Pepsi sitting at the bar while drip drying. By the time the rain had passed we were mostly dry and got on our way. It was a trip of a lifetime for a young girl. However, as pre-teen girls are apt to do, the other girl and I stayed up late the first two nights giggling and laughing. By the third day, I was so tired that I was falling asleep on my Dad’s bike. Luckily for my he caught me as I fell so soundly asleep that I nearly fell off the bike. I scared myself awake and got a very stern lecture. Needless to say I was awake the entire rest of the way home. And my family still tease me about being able to fall asleep on a motorcycle.

What do you do when you’re not riding? I am currently busier than I’d like to be. I have two children, one that is grown and one that is half way there. I enjoy knitting and textile crafts. And if that doesn’t keep me busy enough, I’m going back to school for an associates degree in accounting.

P.S. Ladies! Let me know if you’d like to share your story too! Email me at: pamela(dot)court(at)gmail(dot)com < Trying to keep the spammers at bay!

Profile of a Female Motorcyclist: Meet Janis a.k.a. @PerfettoJanis

I am so happy that it is finally riding season here in Minnesota! And I am happy that I have another woman rider to feature here on the blog. I met Janis via Twitter a.k.a. @PerfettoJanis. She is an avid motorcyclist from Perry Georgia, but her heart is in her hometown of Tampa, Florida. And she is a blogger on MySphereIsYourSphere writing on many things including motorcycling, cooking and eating … some of my favorite subjects! Without further ado, here’s Janis!

Janis with her Triumph

How long have you been riding a motorcycle? Longer than I will admit – gives away my age. Let’s just say I was 12 years old the first time I swung my leg over.

How did you learn to ride? Funny you should ask, and I do not recommend this method. At the age of 12, I took my first ride on a Honda 125 with my very sadistic cousin who was about 14. I can remember how bad I just wanted to ride that thing for myself. After listening to me whine and beg for what seemed like all day, he relented. He got on the back with me and showed me how to pull in the clutch and shift the gears. We took off and while still in first gear, he hopped off. He failed to show me how to brake, or even where the brakes were. I rode around the block over and over. I was having the absolute thrill of my life. My older sister saw me go by on about the 20^th trip and freaked out. She came running after me, demanding for me to get off that thing. Of course, I had no idea how to do that. I don’t remember figuring out how to stop, but somewhere along the way, I got stopped safely and from that point motorcycling was in my blood for good. Flash forward many years, I took the MSF course!

What was your first motorcycle? When I was 15 years old, my dad bought me a Honda 125, just like the one I “learned” to ride on. Unfortunately, I only saw it once in the back of my dad’s truck as he changed his mind and decided he didn’t want to put his little girl on a motorcycle.

My next first motorcycle was a Buell Blast. I put 1500 miles on and took it straight back to the dealer demanding that they sell me a real motorcycle.

How many have you owned? Five – including a Suzuki Hyabusa with 205 horsepower. It was just plain stupid fast.

Janis at Deals Gap Triumph

Why did you want to ride a motorcycle? From my first experience to my own first motorcycle, I cannot remember ever wanting anything more than to just ride. I love the sound, the smell, and most of all, the thrill of the ride.

Tell us about your riding. Commuter, pleasure, vacation, racing, or ? I ride for every reason you can name and probably some you cannot.

What advice do you have for women who ride or want to ride a motorcycle? I have often been asked for advice from women who want to ride, and I always tell them that riding is something that will provide them with an independence unequaled to anything else in life. Riding will touch you to your very soul. For me, I can solve my problems while riding. I can create a “think tank” that will provide me with the quiet time necessary for my deepest, innermost personal dilemmas. I get in touch with God, as well as myself. If I am stressed, and who isn’t, I can get on either of my motorcycles and within a very short period of time, my stress is gone. My advice is just do it!

Janis at San Rafael Swell Utah

What is the longest trip that you’ve taken on your cycle? I take an extended trip every summer. Two summers ago, I shipped my bike and flew to San Jose, CA. I rode back from San Jose, CA to Perry, GA. I intended to do the whole trip solo, but got stuck with another rider to Grand Junction, Colorado. So from Grand Junction to Perry, GA, I was solo.  I wanted to make a coast to coast trip out if it and travel on to the coast of Georgia, but by the time I was near home, I found the extra eight to ten hour round trip a little more than I wanted to do at that time. I rode almost 5,000 miles that summer as I criss-crossed my way across the states. In June, I will be taking off for Montana and hope to travel to Oregon and maybe Washington too.

Do you belong to any motorcycle groups? Off or online? I belong to Women On Wheels, a fantastic organization for women who love motorcycling. We accept all women who love motorcycling regardless of the make of their motorcycles and which part of the seat they occupy. We have real life meetings, rides and events as well as an online forum. I also belong to AMA.

Janis’ Fatboy at Niagara Falls

Do you have a favorite riding story? One of my favorite stories is about a trip to West Virginia from Florida with friends, a married couple. We were about two hours from our destination when we were hit with a deluge and soaked to the core before we could manage to get off the road and into rain gear. Not wanting to unpack my whole bag for dry clothes for such a short distance, I decided I could just wear my Frogtogs rain suit. My friend’s husband was horrified by that prospect and let me know that if I should “go down,” I would expose everything my mamma gave me to whomever would be witness. Well, we were only another hour away and I would be fine. Off we went. I was getting pretty tired of the circular tan on my hands from the cutouts of my gloves, so I took them off and stashed them in my bags. I will say that I never ride without a helmet, but saw no concern for my skin. We got to within a half mile of our destination and had to ride on “Loop Road.” Loop wasn’t quite accurate for this road’s name. It was a loop with switchbacks, it was also a steep climb up, and it was slanted at about a 30 degree angle. Half way into the arc of the switch-back, I froze. After a berating from my friend’s jerk-husband, I attempted to proceed. It is a very difficult task to take off in the middle of a circle going straight up at a slanted disadvantage. I dropped my bike. I rolled down the road which meant I was rolling down a mountain in West Virgina – the mountain state. And I had zero protection for my body, especially my hands! My Frogtogs ripped, but thankfully only at the knee, and my hands, which I instinctively put out to break my fall, were gouged full of gravel, dirt, and mud. My hands were bleeding and so was my knee, but hurt most of all was my pride. The lesson I learned was to never ever ride without gloves, and a Frogtog rain suit offers protection only from the rain!

What do you do when you’re not riding? For my career, I am a high school English teacher. I just completed my Master’s in instructional technology/media specialist, so I am hoping to land a job next school year as a media specialist (librarian). For pleasure, I am an avid reader, and currently writing the next great novel!

P.S. Ladies! Let me know if you’d like to share your story too! Email me at: pamela(dot)court(at)gmail(dot)com < Trying to keep the spammers at bay!

Back on the VStrom!

Back in January I signed up for the Color Run 5K in July and started training on my treadmill. I also started using a BodyMedia Fit arm band to help me hit my target aerobic levels. More recently hubby and I started eating a plant based diet. All of this has resulted in some weight loss as well as feeling great! And then the snow ended and it warmed up so hubby and I took a motorcycle ride. Life is good.

Saturday hubby and I rode to Whole Foods. It is about 23 miles away and all freeway. Freeway. Did I mention freeway? Up until this point I haven’t done too many freeways. Well I have now. Not to mention several cloverleaf interchanges. Felt good. Really good. A confidence builder for sure.

One of the reasons we went to Whole Foods is to get ingredients for Mighty Bean Muffins. I had to try these after reading what Char had to say about them. The batter was tasty and the muffins were too!

Might Bean Muffins

Hard to believe this recipe didn’t have eggs or oil. I used black beans and dried cranberries. Tummy-lious!

We spent most of Saturday riding. It was so good to be back on the VStrom!