Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is attempting to capture the spirit of the Sturgis Rally by shooting a large-scale photo that shows bikes and riders lined up and down along the entire length of Main Street. 

Burtynsky is known world-wide for his photos depicting natural landscapes changed by industry - quarries, urban mines, housing developments, and railroads have all been subjects in his photos.

The Sturgis photo will be used as the cover of a forthcoming book of his work that will focus on oil as a natural resource, an industry, and a social and cultural “force” that fuels our modern lifestyle. The image is intended to show the celebratory spirit of people with a common bond - in this case motorcycles - that is affected by the availability of oil and the industries that have grown up around its use. (The photo above is part of the same forthcoming book and depicts the Trucker’s Jamboree at Walcott, Iowa in 2003. Click the picture for a larger view.)

If you’re headed to Sturgis and want to be in the Main Street shot, staging begins on the street at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, August 5.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

I just could not pass this up - a new study of British women has shown that 46 percent of them rarely have orgasms. This sad news is sure to put a damper on worldwide celebrations of National Orgasm Day, coming up July 31.

Fortunately for me, I own a pre-2004, non-rubber-mounted Sportster so I do not have this problem.

In reading about the study, however, I was surprised to learn that we’ve all probably been doing our Kegel exercises wrong - unless we learned them personally from Dr. Arnold Kegel.  These exercises actually serve two purposes: they help relieve stress incontinence (if you pee when you laugh or cough, do your Kegels), and they help women achieve vaginal orgasm.  Kegel, it seems, was pretty sure that to be effective, his exercises should be done “against a resistance.” This part of the Kegel puzzle seems to have been largely forgotten, however, so they’re often taught incorrectly - unless, of course, you own a pre-2004 Sporty.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Well we did not take our bikes down to East Village - we decided to go there and drink instead. (Hey sometimes you need one kind of therapy, sometimes you need another!) We did have fun, we sat and talked to the karaoke DJ Michael, who is so worried about us and the house… and later on Steve’s nephew Ben stopped in and we closed the place down chatting with Ben and his friends.

Saturday was another story - it was a little cloudy but we decided to try to find a place for lunch that was not too far, but a nice ride. I recalled that the local HOG members ride to Baxter fairly often, so I figured there must be food there… I did a little Googling and discovered a place called OKelley’s Steak & Pub, so we gathered up Kristin, Hollie, Jenn and Amy (lucky Steve, the only boy) and went for a mid-afternoon lunch.

This is a less-than-an-hour ride along one of my favorite roads - F48 in eastern Polk County. Only trouble was when we got there, OKelley’s was closed (except for the bar) because they were waiting for a big group of bikers to arrive for the ending of a charity ride. (Must’ve been the one we heard about Friday night.) We asked the bartender for a recommendation in another town not too far away and she said there was a nice little bar and grille in Kellogg, Iowa - we took Highway 17 out of Baxter and 224 south to Kellogg, where we found Desperado’s. We almost didn’t get to eat there, either - they shut down the grill for a time between lunch and dinner hours, but they fired it back up for us and we had a great little lunch with ribeye sandwiches, chicken strips, fried mushrooms and other goodies.

Another large group of bikers came in just as we were leaving, so we asked one of them to snap our picture before we took off. (Thanks, friend!) Although we thought for a time we were going to get rained on, it actually cleared up and was sunny by the time we were on our way home. We headed south out of Kellogg just down to Highway 6, which has beautiful new paving, then east into Newton. We crossed Highway 14 and 6 became F48 again, which took us all the way home. Our route, now that I see it in the picture, looks a lot like the Big Dipper!

Only other ride this weekend was the shorty Steve and I took to breakfast on Sunday. It’s raining pretty hard as I write this, and I’m thinking about my Dangerous Curves gals and hoping they are okay.

House update: as I mentioned in my other post, the City keeps asking us to wait for them to gather some resources that might be helpful. We are thinking that perhaps they will have a plan in place early this coming week, so maybe by the end of the week we will know whether we are staying or going. Meanwhile, ‘nother few nights in the camper won’t hurt.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Since I’m unable to go on the Dangerous Curves ride this year, weather-permitting I will be going a few blocks down the road to East Village Bike Night - this is always a blast, with live music and ethnic food all rolled up into a biker street party.

Here are the official details, from the Historic East Village organization that hosts the event:

Historic East Village, Inc. presents the 4th Annual East Village Bike Night Friday, July 25, 2008 from 5-11 p.m.

Begin the evening at Blues Before Sunset from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the State Historical Building , 600 E. Locust, with Erick Hovey Band. Stick around after the blues concert for more music, food vendors, beer gardens and some of the coolest motorcycles around in the heart of the East Village – the E. 5th Street and E. Locust Street vicinity. Bike night is an opportunity for motorcycle enthusiasts from across central Iowa to show off their bikes and admire others! This is the only Bike Night held in downtown Des Moines and has become one of East Village’s most popular events.

Motorcyclists are asked to enter the event at E. 5th Street and Walnut, where they will be directed to designated street parking. No vehicles will be allowed into the event.

Food vendors will include:

Kabaab House (Greek)
Chef Joe’s
Los Primos (Mexican)
New Oriental Food Market (Chinese)
The Tavern (Pizza)

Historic East Village, Inc. will also be selling T-shirts with proceeds benefitting the nonprofit organization. The band TOASTER will play on the outdoor stage located on East 5th Street near Grand Avenue from 7-11 p.m.

The 4th Annual East Village Bike Night is sponsored by Historic East Village, Inc., Sayles Graphic Design, The Blazing Saddle and Big Barn Harley Davidson.

For more information, call (515) 281-4011.

So - am I gonna see you there??

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Although I will miss the ride this year, I want to wish sunny, safe and FUN travels to the amazing women leaving this week for the 2008 Dangerous Curves “V-Twin Voyage” ride! Don’t forget, girls, I will expect SOMEONE to do the ride reports! (Coyote, are you listening? LOL)

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Harley Davidson couldn’t have picked a better promotional campaign for the summer of 2008, as far as I’m concerned. Our lives have pretty much been on hold since June 14, while we’ve been waiting to determine whether we should move away from our flooded home or rebuild. Finally, after five weeks of waiting and no real information on which to base a decision (during which, by the way, we’ve been living in a camper in our driveway), we just said, “Screw it, let’s ride.”

So we did! On Sunday we got the bikes out of storage and took a 60-mile-or-so ride up past Saylorville Lake and on up to Madrid, Iowa, then over to Sheldahl and back down to Des Moines through Polk City. It was an absolutely perfect day, and wonderful to be out on the bike again. (Kristin and Hollie, whose home was also flooded, and Howard, who has been a God-send in the amount of help he provided during the clean-up, joined us.) One of those rides that really helps you clear your head, and reminds you why you took up riding in the first place.

Unfortunately we didn’t think to take any pictures - but, I have some shots from a couple of rides from earlier this summer that I am eager to share, so hopefully I will get those posted soon.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Wow, folks, I don’t even know where to start. The summer is proceeding without me. Biking adventures have been on hold for a few weeks, and the ones I did have, I haven’t even been able to post about yet! Here’s what happened:

On June 8, my father passed away after several months of battling the effects of late-stage liver disease. In the midst of planning for his funeral, the City here began talking about possible flooding along the Des Moines River. We live about two blocks from the river and levee system, and our home was severely flooded in 1993. At that time we rebuilt, and trusted the City when they said it would never happen again. As the talk escalated this year into a voluntary evacuation of our area, I stopped sorting through photos of Dad long enough to pack several plastic tubs full of keepsakes, mementos, important papers, etc. into our camper and car. After a couple of days of nervous levee-watching, we sent our daughter and pets to stay with her older sister not too far away.

On Saturday, June 14, one of the permanent levees about six blocks from us washed out. We received a knock on our door at 4 a.m. from the Sheriff’s department, insisting that we leave immediately. We drove out in our packed vehicles, and watched from a couple blocks away while the National Guard tried to build a temporary sandbag wall to save our neighborhood. When this wall gave way and water began rushing over Second Avenue, we knew what the ending would be. We walked away as our daughter called via cell phone and told us, “I’m watching it on TV and I just saw the water reach our house.”

Eventually, we’d discover that our home – a sort of makeshift split-level consisting of two homes butted together and joined by a short interior staircase – had about five feet of water in the master bedroom. It came to just below the countertops in the kitchen. Everything we couldn’t save that was under water was ruined.

Since that day, we’ve been trying to figure out whether to rebuild again or move. The City government has been involved from Day One with myriad rules, inspections and always the promise of a possible buy-out - but we are stalled. The present rules of the buyout would leave us homeless and owing a large chunk to our mortgage company. To rebuild, the City says we must first fix the foundation - estimated to cost at least $32,000. 

We do not have the resources to pursue either option, and so we wait. Our family is still apart – Steve and I are living in a camper in the driveway, our daughter is still living with relatives. It has already been one month, but it seems like much longer. The stress of not being able to make progress down either path is overwhelmingly frustrating.

One of the important questions, of course, is “What happened to the Picky Bitch?” Well, she is fine - she was moved to higher ground along with my husband’s bike and our 1959 Ford - and she remains tucked away in a high, dry garage not too far from here. I miss her, and I really think a ride would do me good. Hopefully soon!

For now, my head hurts. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Maybe I can blog a little more about this soon – there is so much to talk about.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Whoever said “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey” never rode a Sportster on a four-lane highway in 30 mph cross-winds. It sure seemed like a beautiful day when we were standing in the driveway… there really didn’t seem to be any wind, the temperature was around 70 with a clear blue sky.

Our original plan was to collect Garry and Shirley in Carlisle and then make a loop to the southeast and then back up to Newton and home on old highway 6. When we got to Carlisle with Howard and Brenda, Garry & Shirley suggested that we go a little farther on to Pella, where the annual Tulip Festival had just concluded. Since I’m not as familiar with that area, we had Garry take the lead to get us there.

We rode south on Highway 5 out of Carlisle, and I was really noticing the cross-wind pushing me around on the road. We turned left onto Marion Co. highway G40 at Pleasantville and took that to Lake Red Rock. G40 ends at highway 14, just shy of the entrance to the Mile Bridge going over the lake. We crossed the bridge and turned southeast onto G28, which we took into Pella. This was a really scenic ride that took us past Cordova State Park, where the water tower-turned-observation-tower is located. (Lake Red Rock is an Army Corps of Engineers lake farther downstream but part of the same system as Polk County’s Saylorville Lake.)

We parked on the square in Pella and took a little time to walk around and look at the tulips in bloom. The Pella Tulip Festival is a long-standing Iowa tradition. The town has a distinctly Dutch heritage, and every year they build a community festival around the thousands of tulips planted around the square and in a variety of gardens around town. Although we missed the official festival by waiting til Sunday to ride down, the tulips were still beautiful - a few were fully bloomed and blown, and some will peak in a few more days. Most, however, were in full regalia and it really was a lovely time to visit. (Full photo album here.)

We decided to take the faster, less scenic route home - we took Highway 163 from Pella into Des Moines, and this was where I really got sick of the cross-wind. I swear I have never been pushed around so much as I was on this 40-mile stretch. (Even our first day of riding home from Sturgis in 2006 wasn’t this bad!)

One of the most annoying things for me is that I seem to have a problem with my jacket ballooning up from the wind. I don’t know if it’s the fact that my sleeves don’t fit snug, or that the jacket’s not vented… it doesn’t even matter which jacket I’m wearing, I always have this problem in strong wind. So I was battling the balloon, and had to keep my jacket zipped all the way up to my chin - only to find that this caused the little fabric zipper pull to whip me repeatedly on the chin and mouth. My solution was to clench the fabric pull between my teeth. I must’ve looked like a dog pulling on his chew-rope. At least it kept me from getting whipped in the face. (Turns out, Garry had a whipping problem too - the radio antenna on his ‘Glide kept catching him on the back of the head and ear!)

In all we rode a hundred miles - and I am FINALLY sporting that “sun-burned from the forehead, down” look you get from wearing a do-rag and sunglasses!

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Jackie H. in Panora, IA just got this beautiful red/red Road King, and came over to Big Barn HD for the 2008 Blessing of the Bikes and Mystery Ride. She’s also a new member of the Des Moines HOG chapter, so I got to introduce her to the group this past month as well. (It’s a nice scenic ride over to Jackie’s house, btw… though I had a little trouble with that last year! LOL)

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Readers of this blog know I’m all about V-Twin cruisers… particularly Harleys and my Picky Bitch of a Sportster… but, I can appreciate any kind of bike for the freedom it affords the rider and the sense of camaraderie it inspires. So I’m happy to be included on a list of “Top 100 Motorcyle Blogs” over on the Honda Motorcycles Blog, where the CB750 Nighthawk and the CBF600s are celebrated. The list covers lots of kinds of bikes - not just cruisers, and not just sportbikes - and it makes for some really good reading!

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Thought I would just show off the new configuration of my speedometer. I’ve never been crazy about the black, pebble-textured speedo housing. And, we found after we put the pullback risers on that the speedo was sitting at an angle where I could barely read the speed and couldn’t read the mileage at all. So a new configuration was needed.

Steve turned the black housing around so that a bend in the shoulder area would put the speedo at a better angle. He switched out the original black handlebar bracket for a chrome “Live to Ride” version, and bought the neat chrome bezel as well. The problem was, the black housing was supposed to lay on top of the chrome L2R bracket, and when it did, it covered part of the eagle design. Steve’s solution was to bolt the speedo housing to the back of the chrome bracket rather than the top.

The whole thing required a little fabrication on the housing as well as a re-setting of the lights that go across the shoulder piece, and some further noodling to figure out how to show the entire eagle design. What’s neat about it is that the black housing really fades into the background, while the chrome bezel and bracket kind of pop forward, visually. I’m not sure I’ve accurately described it, but the whole setup looks really neat. The L2R bracket matches two other L2R items I have on the bike.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

We took a 60-mile ride on Sunday from Des Moines down to Carlisle, over to Martensdale and then back up to Des Moines. It was chilly, but it was so great to get out and ride that we didn’t really notice til the very end. Well, most of us didn’t.

Six of us - Steve, Kristin, Hollie, Howard, Cassie and myself - left Des Moines around 2 p.m. My car had told me it was 53 degrees at 1 p.m., so we figured it might hit 55 even though it was overcast and clammy.

We rode down to Carlisle where we collected Garry and Shirley, then the 8 of us took off down Highway 5 to County Road S23, south down S23 to Highway 92, west on 92 to Martensdale at Highway 28, then north on 28 back into Norwalk and then Des Moines. This is a really nice loop, one we have done a few times before as an alternative to riding “up around the lake.” Our only stop, once we met up with Garry and Shirley in Carlisle, was a Casey’s in Norwalk. By the time we got there, everyone was noticing the chill a little - especially Shirley, who wasn’t wearing gloves. (Okay, it’s really not enough to say she was “noticing the chill a little.” Her comment was that she was glad she didn’t have to do any sudden maneuvering of the clutch or brake levers, because her poor hands couldn’t have managed it. We need to get that girl some proper handwear!)

We milled around Casey’s for a half hour or so, got warmed up, and then headed home. By the time we pulled into our driveway, we were all feeling the cold a bit. I mentioned to all that it felt like the temperature had dropped five degrees in the time since we’d left Norwalk. As it turns out, I was pretty much right: I looked up the 24-hour temperature history on Accuweather.com and it showed that at 2 p.m. the temp was 50. That means it had already dropped 3 degrees from the day’s high of 53 before we even left home! And at 5 p.m., when we pulled into our driveway, it said 45 degrees! Now eight degrees might not feel like a significant difference when you’re talking sub-zero. (Does minus-28 really feel all that much different from minus-20?) But when you’re talking 53 vs. 45, it’s HUGE - especially when it’s cloudy.

Despite the chill, it was great to finally get out and ride. WOOHOO!! Riding season is here!

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Took me a few days to get it posted to the blog, but I did get to go on a very short ride on… hmmm, think it was Monday of this past week. Just a couple miles, but had to get out as it was really nice out and I hadn’t had a chance to test out my new pullback risers that we added to the ape hanger handlebars a few weeks ago. One of these days soon I’ll pull the bike out into the driveway and take pictures of all the goodies that got added this winter - the bike doesn’t look drastically different from 10 feet away, but the details are sure looking good!

subscribe to my RSS feed!

WOW - we had a terrific membership meeting with the Des Moines HOG chapter last night, in which over 100 people were in attendance including 24 new members. (Special welcome to Hollie, Marla, Denise, and Susan/Coyote and her hubby Paul!) That’s twice as many new members as the past two months. (IowaHarleyGirl, where are you?? )

One of the items on last night’s agenda was a report from the Big Barn Harley-Davidson service manager, who gave us a short list of the five most important items to check on the bike as we get ready to ride this Spring. Certainly this info is helpful to all riders, so I thought I’d share it here with thanks and credit to Tom Reed for sharing his expertise!

Check these items before your first ride:

1. Tire pressure. The single most common reason for tire failure, says Tom, is inadequate tire pressure.

2. Indicator lights. Make sure your signal, brake and headlights are functioning, and replace non-functioning bulbs.

3. Gasoline. “Old gas” is bad, m’kay? Especially for carbureted bikes. What’s old? Tom says gas starts to deteriorate in the tank within three weeks. If your gas has been in the tank since last fall, time to siphon it out and replace it.

4. Oil. Start and run the bike for a few minutes, then check the smell of your bike’s oil. If it smells like gasoline, you’ve got fuel leaking into the oil tank and the oil should be replaced. Tom says an oil change is likely a good idea anyway - your owner’s manual probably recommends an oil change every 3000 miles OR every 3 months. That includes time the bike’s been sitting in the garage, waiting for good weather.

5. Brake pads. Look for wear and replace if needed. Some groaning/squeaking of brakes is normal on the first ride of the season, but the noise shouldn’t last. If it does, time for a service call.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

We took advantage of the 60-degree temperature on Sunday as best we could… putting all the chromey bits on the Picky Bitch that I’d gotten for Christmas! Here’s what we added:

• Belt guard cover
• Front axle nut covers
• Rear master-cylinder cover
• Pullback risers

A note on the pullback risers… last fall, my wonderful husband purchased and installed Ape Hanger handlebars for me (you might remember the story about how I didn’t seem to notice!). I noticed after a little riding that my shoulder blades were kind of aching, so we talked about pullback risers. The bike is looking awesome with the risers on there, so I’m really hoping those solved the shoulder-blade problem. Guess we’ll see… in a MONTH or more! (What IS IT with this @#$ winter??)

subscribe to my RSS feed!

… but  we couldn’t ride… the first picture below shows what’s at the end of our driveway - an 8-foot wide swath of ice! This end of our yard and driveway are not in the sun, so they won’t be clear until probably late April! (Also, we are getting another winter storm tonight so the whole @#$ yard will be back to ice by tomorrow morning!)

Then, this picture shows the road on the other side of our house. It’s unpaved, and the picture doesn’t even begin to tell the story of how rutted and sloppy it is. So, while we did see a few bikes while we were out and about today, we certainly didn’t get to ride.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

UPDATE Feb. 12: Wow, Stephanie at Iowa Harley Girl has a HUGE selection of photos from the Capitol City Customs Bike Show! Be sure to visit her blog to see all the neat customs from this past weekend!

If a crowded swap meet is a sign that Iowans are getting sick of winter, then this year we must all be on the edge of insanity. Not only was it nearly impossible to find a parking spot, it was difficult to even walk the rows of merchandise - I’d say this event has outgrown the 4H building at the Fairgrounds, where it’s been held for many years. As always, this event featured many used parts, leather dealers, and other bike-related booths, plus the custom bike show that I thought was a little larger this year. We missed one bargain - a quick-release windshield that might’ve fit Kristin’s bike for only $65 - and ended up not buying anything at all. But it was nice to get out and shop for bike-related stuff anyway. I took a few pictures of some of the custom bikes and put them on Webshots. Have a look, but don’t be fooled - the swap meet is wonderful but it’s no substitute for getting out there and RIDING!

subscribe to my RSS feed!

In researching a state legislative bill on a non-motorcycle-related topic, I found out that last year’s Iowa Legislature introduced two biker bills that could come back for debate this year: one was the obligatory helmet law, requiring motorcycle riders under the age of 18 to wear helmets (HF465). The other proposed a “safety helmet surcharge” (appropriately, HF666) on motorcyclists - $5 or $10 per year of license validity.

That’s right, a tax on being a biker.

I was livid. For years the argument for requiring helmets on all bikers was that “the public” shouldn’t have to pay their medical bills if a rider has a helmet-less accident and happens to be uninsured. (”Why should we have to pay for your stupidity?” has been the cry, as if helmets were the key to preventing all death or serious injury on a motorcycle.) So, our state apparently wanted to charge $5 extra per year of license validity if the biker declared s/he and all passengers on her/his bike would always wear helmets. $10 per year if they wouldn’t make such a guarantee. Point being, as a biker you were going to pay extra whether you wore a helmet or not.

This is absolutely an unfair proposal that singles out one group of legal vehicle operators for no reason. Except for this: the state of Iowa offers a deep discount on vehicle licensing fees to people who drive pickup trucks. In the old days, when pickups were used as farm vehicles, lawmakers of this largely agricultural state thought it would be helpful to offer this price break to poor farmers who couldn’t afford to pay the standard annual registration fees on their “working vehicles.” These days, of course, Iowa’s urban areas are large and growing. All kinds of people drive pickups for all kinds of purposes - even as family vehicles. But the state doesn’t have the balls to reinstate the normal registration fee because the ag lobby is still very powerful. So they’re looking for any and every way to force other vehicle owners to cough up more money to make up the difference.

Which is chicken-shit, especially because bikers get the short shfrift when money goes out, too: another bill in the 2007 session would have offered tax credits to individuals who purchase “fuel-efficient vehicles.” But guess what: motorcycles, which typically get anywhere from, what, 30-50 mpg? - are excluded. So bikers get hit with the helmet surcharge, but they don’t get the benefit of the tax reduction for riding a 40-mpg vehicle. Nice.

When you put this with the disturbing trends in road repair I reported on last summer, it adds up pretty quickly: Iowa legislators view bikers as some sort of expendable cash cow. We don’t deserve a smooth ride on the highway, we don’t deserve help with medical bills if we are uninsured (even though non-bikers who do stupid things probably do), we don’t deserve the tax credit for our fuel-efficient bikes. But we DO deserve to be stuck with an exhorbitant fee tacked on to our driver’s license just because we choose to ride, and we DO deserve to have our freedom of helmet choice taken away.

Four words to sum this up: Thank God for ABATE.

And two words for the Iowa Legislature, but I’ll let you guess which two they are.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

The Iowa Motorcycle Safety Forum takes place on Friday, March 14 from 7:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. at the Sheraton West Hotel in West Des Moines. Participants will have an opportunity to ride the Impairment Simulator, get a legislative update from the American Motorcycle Association, visit a variety of vendor booths and see the Orange County Choppers E-85 Farm Bureau Chopper. Pat Hahn, author of Ride Hard, Ride Smart and How to Ride a Motorcycle: A Rider’s Guide, will also give a presentation.  You can register for the event at the Iowa Motorcycle Safety Network website.

subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tom Binyon of BaggerWorks Custom Touring Motorcycles in Wichita, Kansas has announced he’ll reveal his charity bike, “The Dakota,” on Saturday, February 2, at 9:30 a.m. at the Duke Energy Center during the V-Twin Expo in Cincinnati, Ohio.  If you are in that area, I really hope you will go and see Tom’s creation, which benefits the Children’s Home Society of the Black Hills Region as well as the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame.

“The Dakota” will be the featured auction item during the Kids & Chrome 2008 benefit dinner and auction on Wednesday, August 6, in Spearfish, South Dakota at the Spearfish Holiday Inn and Convention Center. 

subscribe to my RSS feed!