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Another rainy day! This is supposed to be the Polar Bear season. Even though it's now officially winter, it continues to be more like spring with 58 degree temperatures.
This was our first run to the Sweetwater Casino. It's located in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey in the middle of nowhere right next to the Mullica River. The place is big enough to hold the Polar Bears when we show up in force. They even have motorcycle parking up front on concrete -- this works fine except when the Polar Bears show up.
Here are pictures and videos from this rainy run.
The top eight Motorcycle Views Blog posts have been selected from a total of 150 posts made in 2007. These eight blog posts were chosen for a variety of reasons. If you haven't been a regular reader of the Motorcycle Views Blog, you may be missing important information about motorcycling. You might also be missing some of the personal aspects of my life that may give you a chuckle or an insight into my take on motorcycling.
Check out my picks for the Top 8 Motorcycle Views Blog posts for 2007.
Recently, I mentioned in this blog that I had written five children's stories about a special character, Motorcycle Santa. I have just finished writing the sixth story in this series. It's based on a true incident in my life. I hope you'll enjoy this story of a little girl who is awakened by the arrival of Motorcycle Santa as he is placing gifts under her tree. Santa agrees to open one present for the girl to get her to go back to bed. The girl startles Santa by devising a game that uses the gift in a new way. I hope you enjoy "Motorcycle Santa - The Game."
A winter storm was approaching the PA, NJ, NY region this morning. Since I was still unable to put a helmet on owing to my two recent surgeries and I also had two of my grandchildren spending Saturday and Sunday with us, I was not going to the Polar Bear Grand Tour run to Montgomeryville, PA. 
Here are my Pictures of the Week as displayed on the Motorcycle Views Web site. These are taken from the Moto Pic Gallery. See Jeff on his Harley-Davidson FXRS. If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.
Here are my Pictures of the Week as displayed on the Motorcycle Views Web site. These are taken from the Moto Pic Gallery. See Dragon Rider on his Honda Gold Wing.
If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.
Pictures and descriptions for the Lewes run are located on the Polar Bear Grand Tour Web site. Take a look. The picture, above, shows a bike that was at Lewes and has many special features including footpegs made out of old pistons.
If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.
Check out the complete story and offer your comments on this new plan, below.
If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.
Harley-Davidson began selling motorcycles in 1903. In 1957, Harley-Davidson introduced the Sportster. It has continued in production ever since.
We present here a look at Harley-Davidson Sportster models from the first model in 1957 to the present as provided in pictures submitted by visitors to the Motorcycle Views Web site. A gallery called 47 Years of Sportster is provided that gives a picture and description for each model year from 1957 to 2003.
The gallery is not complete. If you own a Sportster, consider sending a picture and description of it to be considered for inclusion in the gallery.
If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.
This week finds me somewhat between two motorcycle worlds. A few days ago I received the new riding schedule for the 2007-2008 Polar Bear Grand Tour. It’s my job to convert this schedule into something readable on the Polar Bear Grand Tour Web site. Then when the season starts, I take pictures at each run and post them on the site. The season doesn’t start until October 28th, the last Sunday in October. However, over 500 participants will be looking for the new schedule shortly so it’s important that not a lot of time goes by before it’s posted. Unfortunately my wife and I were scheduled to attend a state rally here in NJ for the GWRRA (Gold Wing Road Riders Association) so all work on the schedule stopped.
As I’m thinking about winter riding again with the Polar Bears, I see many riders in the north starting to think about slowing down their riding and putting their bikes away. Of course, most riders will prolong this until riding just gets too cold. The Polar Bears see no benefit in putting their bikes away and so don heavy protective clothing, most opting for electrically heated vests, gloves, pants, and even socks as the temperatures drop into the 40s, 30s, 20s, and lower.
Meanwhile, the GWRRA rally turns out to be a pretty late rally falling this year on September 6-8. That’s after Labor Day so people have stopped thinking about vacations and are now concentrating on school and jobs. That means it’s hard to attract people to attend. Next year, this rally will be held in early August.
The GWRRA gathering we attended was small and most of the participants knew each other. Although the organization is divided into chapters located across the state and nation and even internationally, there is considerable interaction of members among chapters. That makes many GWRRA gatherings seem like family reunions to outsiders. That’s what outsiders have remarked after seeing so much hugging and kissing going on as member couples run into each other at functions. Often it’s difficult to go from point A to point B without getting stopped by other couples for lengthy conversations. After one conversation ends you almost immediately run into another couple which starts another conversation. And so it goes.
Of course, historically, GWRRA tends to attract husband and wife riding couples who ride two-up on the same motorcycle. Lately, however, in the last five or six years, I’ve seen a steady increase in the number of women riding their own bikes. Thus, where ten years ago, almost no GWRRA women rode their own bikes but instead chose to ride pillion, now many GWRRA couples have two bikes, a Gold Wing for the husband and a separate bike (not necessarily a Gold Wing) for the wife. The couple concept remains except one bike has been replaced by two in some cases.
There has also been an increase in the number of riders preferring to ride motorcycle trikes. Again, within GWRRA the Gold Wing motorcycle is the basis for the trike with the rear wheel removed and replaced by two automotive wheels and an automotive rear end. The trike part has extra trunk space needed since the normal saddlebags have been removed. Again, in keeping with the need in some cases for both the husband and wife to ride their own motorcycle, some couples have opted to ride individual trikes. Such is the case for my wife and me.
At these small GWRRA gatherings, the standard rally activities occur such as seminars, bike contests, people games, bike games, organized tours, self-guided tours, vendor sales, light parade, entertainment, and awards dinners. There’s plenty of time for socializing, admiring bikes, and eating too. The gathering we attended was heavy on ice cream, birthday and anniversary cakes, laughter, fun, eating, and picture taking. There wasn’t much drinking except for soda, tea, and coffee. That may be the reason that you won’t find many underweight Wingers. Along with all this socializing, the Wingers are very safety conscious taking skill improvement courses all the time to learn how to be safe on the road.
I’m not giving away any inside stories here. If you want to participate in all this fun, you’ll have to join your local GWRRA chapter and go to a rally on your own. However, what happens at GWRRA gatherings can be pretty tame. It’s certainly family oriented. I saw quite a few children who attended with their parents and even two girls who appeared to be about 9-10 years old who won youngest passengers arriving on a motorcycle.
Now, I’m back from the rally and need to get back working on that Polar Bear schedule. Of course, all 500 of us Polar Bears are continually having to explain to outsiders that we don’t go in the water on New Year’s Day. That’s those “other” Polar Bears.
Polar Bear picture by Walter Kern. Cake picture courtesy of Barbara Malone.
Got any comments about your own motorcycle gatherings? Post them below.
If you'd like to see your bike as Picture of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists head toward, what many feel, is the motorcycling mecca of the world -- Sturgis. The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota takes place this year August 6-12. Check out my article on this great motorcycle rally. See if you can see me waving in the picture when I attended the 1993 rally. Getting about time to go back at least one more time.
Nissan recently held a Pan-European test drive in a small Greek mountain village
called Papingo, situated not far from the Albanian border. Over 500 global auto
journalists from 30 different European countries, Australia and Japan drove the
brand new X-TRAIL on roads, off roads and on a special 4x4 track in the
mountains. It was a real adventure and a surprising discovery for them.
A question was also put to the attendees, "What is Adventure to You?"
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