Motorcycle Views Newsletter for 03/05/2017 By Walter F. Kern Motorcycle Views Newsletter Vol. 11, No. 3, March 5, 2017 Articles of Interest on Motorcycle Views: 1. Recent Additions to the Motorcycle Views Website:
2. Daytona Bike Week: March madness on motorcycles is a tradition at Daytona Bike Week The 76th anniversary of Daytona Bike Week is being held March 10-19, 2017 in Daytona Beach, Florida. The start of Daytona Bike Week is often announced on the morning TV news shows. You know, where somebody sticks their face in front of the camera and announces: "We're at the opening of Daytona Bike Week. Good Morning America," and then you see a whole line of bikes roar off in front of the camera. Unfortunately, most of the remainder of Bike Week will not be seen by non-motorcyclists. Most of the items described in this article have links listed below. Almost everyone has heard of the Daytona 500, the "crown jewel" of the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series held at Daytona International Speedway, but how many have heard of the Daytona 200 or the AMA Superbike Championship? How many know that there will be flat track racing, and supercross? Not many. Such is the state of motorcycle racing in the United States. Even at Daytona Bike Week where 500,000 bikers are expected, many don't know or care that these races are taking place at the same time and in the same town. Admittedly, there is a steady stream of motorcycles crisscrossing Daytona Beach from the beach area to the various racetracks but since not a lot of Harley-Davidson racing is going on, the bikers who are devoted to the brand from Milwaukee are not inclined to stop to watch the races. In the old days at Daytona when racing was done mainly on the sand, Harley-Davidson was King and their machines always won the races. Tickets for motorcycle racing are available. However, often the grandstands are half empty. Some people are interested in how Daytona Bike Week got started. Others just want to party - that's the vast majority. The scenes along Main Street in Daytona Beach haven't changed much except the crowds continue to get bigger every year. Where do all these bikers come from? Do they ride their machines from all over the country in early March just to be seen on their Harleys? There are always discussions in the motorcycle forums about whether a true biker would ride or trailer his/her machine to Daytona. Turns out, it depends on your point of view more than whether you are a true biker. The one thing that can be said is that bikers or motorcyclists love to come to Daytona. OK, the bikers get to Daytona somehow but where do they stay and what do they do? The overhead banners strung across the street read "Daytona Beach Welcomes Bikers." If you're looking for a motel at the last minute, good luck. Hopefully, you've made your reservation a year in advance. Maybe you want to rough it at a campground. There are more than half-a-dozen. Now check out the complete Daytona article and see a list of useful Daytona Bike Week links to almost anything you might be interested in. 3. Wild Motorcycle Tales: I am starting to collect more true motorcycle stories to use in a new book. If you have any motorcycle stories that you have written about your own experiences, send them to me for consideration. Here is a tale recently submitted called "Physics, My Frienemy": It was the end of one of those difficult days at the cabinet shop I worked at in Rosemount Minnesota. The shop was located in two buildings of a re-purposed World War Two ammunition manufacturing facility. It was dank and old. It still had the institutional feeling from the many "G" men that once worked there even though it was some sixty years after the war. It was opened near the end of the war and was only in operation for a little over a year. But on early mornings, when I was the only one there, I could still feel the many busy men in precisely pressed uniforms, holding cups of coffee, and going about their business with a sense of pride, honor, and duty. I have always loved woodworking, but the monotony of shaping the profiles of two hundred and thirty door panels is mind numbing. Watching that shiny shaper blade spinning round and round as my precious guitar-playing fingers passed time and time again, I just couldn't take any more. I was going home early. It was one of those hot and humid Midwestern summer days. A quick blast home on my Kawasaki Ninja 750 should do well to unravel my mind and cool my body. I was wearing shorts, tennis shoes, a leather jacket, and helmet. I have been riding many years, and a helmet has already saved my life. I lived in South St. Paul and used Highway 55 to zip between home and work. When you live in the city and commute to the suburbs, traffic is not usually a problem. On this afternoon, it was early, and Highway 55 was wide open. I opened the throttle to sixty-eight miles per hour, in a fifty-five zone, not wanting to pay a ticket for fifteen or more miles per hour over the posted speed limit. Everyone drives close to that speed anyway. I could feel myself unwinding. The stress and monotony were blowing away with the wind that I left behind me. My body was cooling, and it was sweet relief on such a muggy day. The sound of the wind soothed me. The engine sang its lullaby as I entered a long sweeping left-hand turn. Then I saw at a distance, the outline of a light bar sitting on top of a squad car. It was parked on top of an overpass and almost completely concealed by the concrete wall of the bridge. It was a speed trap. I was still a half mile or so away, and knowing from my best friend who is an officer how hard it is to pick up a motorcycle at a distance on a radar gun, I just rolled off the throttle and coasted down to fifty-five out of respect. I was sure I had seen him in time. After I had passed under the cop, I began looking to my right, checking the on-ramp just in case it was one of those always-by-the-book cops. Sure enough, he was coming down the ramp. My few minutes of relief from my job and heat were shattered. No worries, I thought. He probably just wants to run my tag and check my record which was pretty clean. I hadn't had a speeding ticket in over two years. Before he even turned on his lights, I was heading up the next off-ramp to park so that we would not be stopped on the shoulder of the road. As I slowly rolled up the ramp, I noticed that he had turned his lights on. I already knew he was coming after me. I stopped off to the side, shut down my bike, and removed my helmet. How much nicer could I be? He approached and asked if I knew why he pulled me over. I said, "I was going a little fast back there." He took my license and insurance and went back to his car. I thought for sure that I was going to get off with a warning; at worst, a ticket for five over. I had received several warnings in the two years since my last ticket. I was familiar with the drill. When he came back and gave me a ticket for the full thirteen over, I was internally pissed. I had done everything I could to make his job easy and safe. This jerk didn't even knock it down to ten over. Outwardly, I accepted the ticket and put my helmet back on. I rode down the ramp and up to the red stop light on top of the hill going down to the Mendota Bridge. I was the first one at the light on this six-lane section of Highway 55. As I sat there waiting for the light to change, my anger festered. If I had to pay this ticket, then I was going to do the speeding to make it worth it. I checked my mirrors and saw that the cop was not in line at the light. There was no place on the bridge for another speed trap, so when the light turned green, I was off like a racer, no time for wheelies. I wanted speed. I slid forward in the saddle, sliding the clutch out at seven thousand rpm, and launched. I feathered the clutch keeping the front wheel floating just above the concrete. There is a long wide right-hand turn as the highway descends to the bridge. I shifted to second keeping the throttle wide open with a quick quarter pull and release of the clutch and simultaneous hard kick up on the shifter. A split second later, I made another power shift into third. My Ninja has always had a clunky transmission. That is to say, it was clunky except when power shifting. When I shifted at full throttle, the Ninja left me wanting for nothing. It was smooth as greased lightening. This bike was built to be raced. Just after shifting into fourth I slid off the right side of the seat maintaining a tucked position and extending my right knee out into the wind in preparation for the approaching turn. I had raced around this corner and over this bridge countless times on my way home from work. I visually checked the corner for sand, cars, and other hazards. It was all clear. I did not check my speedometer as I passed through fifth and then into sixth gear. I entered the corner from the far left lane with the engine screaming still held wide open. I began the turn and crossed over the center lane and continued moving toward the far right lane. There is no need to check your mirrors when traveling at well over one hundred miles per hour. I kept the throttle pinned as I reached the apex of the turn and far right solid white line simultaneously. Then I hit the metal expansion joint where the road and bridge connect. In the far left lane, where I usually run around this corner at around one hundred miles per hour, the bridge joint is smooth and causes no problems. But in the far right lane, the joint is uneven. I don't remember ever taking this corner in the far right lane before. I will remember forever the one time I did. Now, read the complete story. 4. Five Motorcycle Terms: I am featuring five (5) of my Motorcycle Terms in each issue of the newsletter.
5. Motorcycle Picture of the Month for March 2017: Motorcycle Picture of the
Month - March 2017 - 1995 Honda Gold Wing Interstate: 6. Latest Motorcycle Pictures:
See the latest received pictures by category. (Send me a picture and description of your bike.) 7. My Memoir, Normal Secrets - Update: I have finished my memoir called Normal Secrets and am waiting for a proof of the book that should be here March 6. The paperback edition has 253 pages including pictures in the back of the book. I started thinking about this more than a year ago and have been writing almost fulltime on it for all of 2016 and most of 2017. It covers much of my life and reveals some secrets that almost no one knows about me, in fact, many I didn't even know myself until recently. You'll also find out how fate changed my course in life many times as I struggled to find out who I was, what I wanted to do, who I would love, how I came to become both a motorcyclist and a moto-journalist, and how I came to become an author in my late seventies. It's a story that begins in the Midwest and spans more than a hundred years. It's my true story and it's ready to publish. I should have the memoir available on Amazon by April 2017. The Kindle edition should be ready within two weeks after the paperback edition. The Audible audiobook edition will take longer. The front cover is shown below:
Hopefully, the next issue of the Motorcycle Views Newsletter will announce the release of Normal Secrets in both paperback and Kindle editions. 8. Norway Winter Rally (Video): Check out how Norway riders rally on motorcycles in the winter. 9. My Four Motorcycle Books: I hope you will take a look at my four motorcycle books, available in paperback and Kindle editions on Amazon.com. These books make great, inexpensive gifts. In fact, you can purchase all four for less than $30 total. I have reduced the price of my four Kindle editions to $0.0 (FREE) IF you also first purchase the corresponding paperback edition. That way you can always have the book with you if you have a tablet or smartphone with you. None of the paperbacks has color pictures in them owing to the high price of producing a book with color. However, every Kindle edition has color pictures, so the Getting Started Riding a Motorcycle and Motorcycle Haiku Poetry Kindle books are in full color.
10. Here are some very popular articles on the Motorcycle Views Site. Take a look:
11. Newsletter Archive: I now have a Motorcycle Views Newsletter Archive to store all my newsletters. The archive gives the year, month, day, and subject for each newsletter. Each newsletter contains many links to the Motorcycle Views website. A link to the archive will also be included on the Home page of the site and on the page where users can join the newsletter list. Visit the Motorcycle Views Newsletter Archive 12. The Motorcycle Views Website is also on your Smartphone or Tablet: Are you relying more and more on your cellphone or tablet and less and less on your PC or MAC? Remember that all that great motorcycling information on Motorcycle Views is as near as your cellphone. It's also in a new format designed to fit your portable screen. Check us out anywhere you need motorcycle information. 13. Social Media: See me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube. 14. 2016-2017 Polar Bear Grand Tour Motorcycle Runs
All the pictures and videos for these four runs can be found by clicking the following links:
Franklin House Tavern - Feb. 5, 2017 The Polar Bears consist of 550 riders from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Delaware, who ride each Sunday to a different prescribed destination where they sign-in and receive points. There is, usually, a restaurant at or near the destination. It gets cold, windy, and snowy on these rides. I've been a Polar Bear member for more than 20 years, and I built and continue to maintain their website. The picture to the right was taken at Hooters, Wayne, NJ. 15. Help Grow Motorcycle Views: The Motorcycle Views Website is here for you. We encourage you to submit a story, picture, poem, salvage yard recommendation, user review of your own bike, tattoo, YouTube video you made of your bike, motorcycle tip, etc. These will be evaluated for inclusion into one of our major features. Send us a submission today and share part of your motorcycling experience with our many readers. Read how to make a submission.
For New Subscribers: Expect newsletters on the first Sunday of each month. Please understand that the Motorcycle Views Newsletter is NOT the Motorcycle Views website. The newsletter provides a few links to content on the Motorcycle Views website. Once you click a link in the newsletter, you'll be getting access to content on the Motorcycle Views site. If you'd like to view any of our past newsletters, just go to the newsletter archives page. Thanks for signing up for the Motorcycle Views Newsletter. Using this Newsletter, I'll keep you up-to-date with what's going on in the Motorcycle Views Blog, the Motorcycle Views Website, and the Motorcycle Views Forum. Not sure what a blog is? It's like a daily readout of what I'm thinking about, similar to a diary at times. Most often, I'm using mine right now to tell my visitors what has been added to the Motorcycle Views site. See me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube. The Motorcycle Views Website is also on your Smartphone or Tablet: Are you relying more and more on your cellphone or tablet and less and less on your PC or MAC? Remember that all that great motorcycling information on Motorcycle Views is as near as your cellphone. It's also in a new format designed to fit your portable screen. Check us out anywhere you need motorcycle information. END OF NEWSLETTER All Previous Newsletters:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2017 Walter F. Kern. All rights reserved.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
