BMW S1000RR On Ice!

Max Stratton knows how to drum up interest!

A Mug of Coffee and an Internet Connection

A mug of coffee ($1.95) is the price I pay for admission. Today I am a roofing refuge, seeking shelter at Panera Breads. I’m not alone here. There are a half dozen laptop luggers cozied up to power plugs all around the café. Some paid the admission, some did not. I imagine many of them are economic refugees, like myself; I wonder if any of them are from my condo? The roofing project at the condo will be going on for a couple of more days, today, my unit is undergoing intensive work, the skylight will be replaced, the dormer window reworked. When I sit at my desk, it sounds like the next hammer blow will breach the ceiling. Probably a good day to get away.

Taking the bike out of the garage was out of the question, I would have had to extricate it before the protective shroud was draped at 7:00 AM; then there are the nails to worry about. No, better to enjoy the beautiful day bikeless, than to spend it getting a tire changed!

As I drove over here I started thinking about free fun things to do…some of the ideas are a little wacked.

1. Wait in line at Unemployment office to get a status of my claim (wacked)
2. Take new cars out for test drive – done right, this could take most of the day
3. Take new bikes out of test drive – ditto above
4. Visit local gyms and sign up for the one week free – do this sequentially so as to work out all month for free
5. Donate blood (not wacked)
6. Apply for jobs (brilliant, but not fun)
7. Create cardboard sign, sit in park with open computer bag: Will write HTML for $$. LMAO
8. Update blog
9. I don’t think I have 10…

Yesterday’s noise was not to bad in the AM, so I made bread pudding


Over the weekend, I collected my 3rd strike (in a row) on ADV, coincidentally it was the 3rd tag with “there are two of these signs” , I’m officially sticking to tags with only ONE STINKING DESTINATION. Ahem….yeah, it pissed me off. But I’m over it.
Sandwich Notch Road, Campton, NH

Hope your weather is favorable, and your driveway clear of nails!

Happy 14th Birthday Lisa!

Wow, that was a quick year!


Happy Birthday Lisa!

Settling in for a long winters nap...NOT

Just got word from our friends up Nawth in New Brunswick that they were socked in with snow. Seems like just last week we were up there. I couldn't resist my photoshop urges and make it so!

I've been playing a lot lately. In the Canon forum, I've been playing photoshop tennis. One person posts a picture, you take a copy and make an edit, then the next person and so on. Having a game like that makes it fun to brush up on skills.


Don't know what all the buzz is about the New Star Trek Trailer, it doesn't seem very aerodynamic to me.

It never hit 30 today, a good a time as any to resolve those pesky heated gear issues I've been having. The big guy was kind enough to hard wire a connector to my battery. It seems the BMW plug can not take a full compliment of heated gear, I was blowing the fuse with the addition of heated gloves.


We tested the gear out with a cruise to the coast. Max BMW put on his annual turkey dinner spread. About a dozen bikes braved the cold, but tons of folks showed up in cars to enjoy the free feast. Thanks again Max!


It was my second trip to the coast this week. On Wednesday I chased down a Tag in Portsmouth, nearly froze to death. 2 hours at highway speed, no electrics, 26 degrees. And someone posted up the tag before me - right as a I left the garage! . Oh well. It's all for the fun of the game.

I got a nice shot out of the deal, 30 second expose, a little blurry due to high winds.


Ride safe out there, winter is a coming.

Got Salt?

Could night riding become a chilly habit?

Update to yesterdays post...
I went back out tonight to take a pic of the next tag. I was really happy with the results, this is a 15 second exposure, it's very dark out, notice the car lights in the background behind the front wheel. Barely 40 out...I gotta find the problem with the power plug!

Night Rider

Concord NH Capital Building - 6 second exposure


I don't like to ride at night, I may be a Rounder but I'm not crazy about riding in the cold, but I do like a challenge. That is the short story behind this picture.
Adventure Riders have these threads called Tag-O-Rama. Someone posts a picture, you try to find it and you get to post the next picture, the tag. I have managed to get one for NH and one for MA, but mostly I've been just watching the fun. The MA folks have been grabbing tags at night, at this time of year, that's all us working folks have.

So there I was around 6pm, I was wrapping up my surfing, when I checked in on ADV real quick. And what did I see but the state house. Oh heck, I can find that in my sleep. I kissed Lisa on the cheek, threw on my riding pants, boots, electric jacket, and brand new electric gloves. Kevin had taken the King to work so it was easy work pulling out the GT

As I waited at the light, I realized that the controller light was not on...I had no juice from the power supply. I remember that this was an intermittent problem last year, and I'd not used the electrics yet this year. 43 degrees...no power. Oh well, I was on a mission and I happen to have a heated seat & grips. I flew up the highway, arrived in Concord, found the right spot, set up the tripod and DSLR, grabbed just two shots, and sped home. It was a fun run. I may just do it again real soon, given the right motivation.

13 Second exposure with cars

RIP MBI Motorcycle Bloggers International

This came in the eMail box today.

Hi fellow MBI bloggers.

MBI is brain dead, and I'm pulling the plug. It had started quite well a few years ago, but it's dead in the water. Even the topic I posted a few months ago if we should continue had a few responses and views. 80% of the members never even showed up at the forum, nor participated in the awards process.

Many people offered to help Richard with the PHP side of the site, but none actually did anything, except Ken in China.

MBi was initially started to become an industry award, but even that caused more problems last year than what it was worth. Since MBI costs money to run and maintain, time & effort, it doesn't make sense to continue with 5 or 6 people contributing to MBI.

The main site itself has not been operational for a while, and not one person has come forward and let us know. I know that we're all very busy, and the MBI is just another of the many forums we participate in.

So thanks to the original founding team for all your efforts. Richard, our gratitude can never be enough for all the programming efforts, getting a complicated awards program working. Ken, thanks for lending Richard a hand. Cecilie, thanks for administering the awards program.

I'll stop the payment for the domains, so when they finish, there shouldn't be any sign of MBI left...

Have fun on your bikes, and maybe hope to see you at some event in the future.

Have fun, stay safe.

Mike

MBI and its quirky motorcycle awards will be no more. It's no surprise to me. I don't know why others failed to participate but for me, I suffer from online overload. We all prioritize our time and energies, and some things don't make the cut. It's not a reflection on the concept or quality of MBI, but I think we tend to do self serving things first, like maintaining our own blogs, or riding; for me I've been spending more time on non riding activities, such as photography.

MBI had a fun run, we enjoyed it while it was here. Thank to the folks who put the energy in, I met several new riders via MBI. But I'll still see them around, it's a small community. We hang out on forums, Flickr, Smugmug, ADV, Blogger...oh yeah, and the roads of the world!

DOT Planter

When I first met Kevin he was the kind of New Hampshire rider that rode with no helmet. His idea of gear was a Harley Davidson half helmet. He even had one of those "for novelty purposes only" helmets. Over time my riding gear habits and those of my friends started rubbing off on him, and he bought his first full face helmet. For a while he switched between the two.


The tipping point came in 2006 when a close friend of mine was creamed by a U-turning jeep. As we walked out of the rehab center after visiting her Kevin declared he would never again ride without his full face helmet. I was sad for my friend in rehab but this was something good that came of it.

Less than a month after his declaration, Kevin was on his way to work, came over a rise in the road and found traffic stopped, he broke hard and high sided the bike. He flew over the handlebars and came down face first. His full face HJC helmet saved his bacon.

Shortly after that, he agreed with me that it was time to get rid of his half helmets. Now I'll sell just about anything in the house on Ebay, but I would not sell those helmets, I feel very strongly that no one should be wearing them.




So one spring morning, I spread out some newspaper, grabbed a drill and put some drain holes right through the Harley helmet and made myself a planter. Last year I had a successfully geranium and this year we're growing DOT Basil.

Segway Motorcycle Hybrid

It's a bird, it's a plane, I don't know what it is, but the UNO looks like fun!

Bite Me

Isn't this just the best T-shirt Offering ever? You don't have to be a rider to love this dog's attitude!

If you don't follow Ara & Spririt's blog, you are missing some awesome pictures and adventure. But even if you skip all that, check out the Bite Me T-shirts, and mouse pads they are offering.

Can you merge like this?

Comfort Food

It's 12 degrees out and the snow banks are 3 feet high it's a good time to catch up on my reading. The ON came in today. The “ON” is the BMW Owners News. This is a top flight motorcycle publication, and if you can’t beg borrow or steal one from a BMW owning friend, you may just want to spend the $35 to join BMW Motorcycle Owners of America so that you can get a subscription to the ON. Sure I’m prejudice, not only am I card carrying member, but I’m also on the board of directors. But that is not why I like the ON. You don’t have to be a fan of the Roundel to enjoy the stories in the ON. They are written by members for members and they are primarily about motorcycling; serious motorcycling, not posing. There are always several trip reports, some feel good letters to the editor, technical information and safe rider articles. You don’t have to own a Beemer to appreciate that kind of stuff. And if you like to wrack up your miles in all types of conditions, the ON is home to vendors that serve riders like us.

The ON is a terrific companion to Road Runner Magazine, my second favorite motorcycle publication. I like Road Runner for its glossy color ride reports. These people ride, they tour interesting places, and they tour their back yards. Every issue includes tank bag cards of a trip, offering you route ideas for places you may want to visit. One of the first issues I bought had pull out cards for Vermont, offering me fresh ideas for a place I ride regularly.

To round off my winter reading, because god knows I don’t manage to read these magazines during the summer, is Motorcycle Consumer's News. This is an expensive publication, no glossy pages, its black and white and ad free. This allows them the freedom to review what ever bike or product they want and speak their mind about it. What got me hooked on MCN is the non-sexist language they use in their editorials and articles. It really catches my eye, and gained my loyalty when a magazine can speak to me as a woman rider without so much as a hint of patronization.
Pull the blanket up a little higher and enjoy some light reading!