LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

I just love the big-ole State of Texas. We have some of the best winter riding in the United States, and a wide selection of roads to ride. We have 100-mile stretches out across the Big Bend area that have no turns or side roads at all if you are inclined to check out the top speed of your bike. In our hill country, we have twisties that will put a smile on the face of any hard core canyon craver. Maybe your thing is dirt roads, way too many to cover in a lifetime. But there is one more thing that we have---HEAT. WOW, can it get hot in this state!

Today 10 of us went for a frolic in the outback on our street bikes. We started the ride off with and finished it off with tree-covered twisty country roads and in between these we rode some amazing high-speed sweepers that kept us on our toes.

You might remember my blog titled CLUTCHED IN THE JAWS OF WINTER, where I described what I wear in the winter. But the thing that I want to share with you now is how I and my buds stay alert and comfortable in this 102 degree Texas heat. I start off by leaving my Alpine Stars on the shelf – fabulous boot but way too hot for summer. I instead wear my Red Wings that have a steel toe, steel shank, no liner and they breathe. I wear mesh pants and jacket from FirstGear. Under the pants just my whitey tightys—can I say that here?—sure I can, it’s my blog. Under the jacket I wear a mesh athletic shirt. Just before I depart for the ride, I soak two CoolMax wet vests and put each in a one-gallon zip lock bag, throw them in the saddle bag, and use them just after lunch one at a time. This really works, and here is another little trick you need to try. Call me crazy, and plenty have, but each time the group stops for gas or rest I look around and nearly always find a garden hose on the building. Take the hose and soak your mesh pants and jackets completely, this is a great way to have air-conditioning for about another hour as the wind and heat dries them out.

Ride safe and ride often—but remember, riding safe also eliminates a lot of options.

Can You Hear the Banjos?

Well, my friends, it's been awhile since we spoke, but the two wheels have still been turning. One of the many highlights of the year for me is the Hillbilly Dualsport in Arkansas each April. This ride is put on by my friends in Kansas, David Hemphill and Larry McGillivary. These guys are a great asset to the Dualsport community.

This year's ride was, as in the past, one heck of a blast, with fellowship, deep water, rocky trails, magnificent scenery, and the best bologna sandwich at Turner's Bend. One great time in the mountains of Arkansas!

The official ride is on Friday and Saturday, but as usual, we arrived a day early to do a little pre-ride warmup. On Friday, we had a turnout of about 70 riders. David and Larry held a riders meeting, then the riders joined groups according to ride level and pace: Picture Takers, Medium Pace, and my group, which is fondly referred to as the Over-Caffeinated Bunch (O.C.B.). :)

Friday was a wonderful day, with mild temperatures and sunshine. At 8:00 a.m., the groups started to roll out for a tour of the Arkansas mountains on the forestry roads and backroads. The night before, there was a large amount of rain, so the creeks were a real challenge at points. Fifteen miles into the ride, we encountered a creek that couldn't have been crossed in a john-boat. Where else can you have an adventure in every mile except on a motorcycle? I just love it.

Thank goodness for GPS. Using the GPS, I was able to lead the O.C.B. 5 miles to the east, then back on track on the other side of the swollen creek. As the day progressed, we encountered a number of challenges and adventures. I had a newbie in my group this year, and I always enjoy sharing in their excitement. About 150 miles into our 200-mile ride, I had a flat on the rear. As I parked my KLR and stepped off my bike, the newbie ran up to me, and with a concerned look on his face, asked, "What are we going to do now?!" With a smile, I said, "Watch this." Twenty-two minutes later, we drove off with a new tube installed. I just loved his response: "Man, I need to get some more tools!" You know, that might be a good blog -- what to carry into the mountains and outback.

Well, to wrap up, all I can say is, 450 miles in two days left us all with a feeling of peace and accomplishment, and plenty of stories to talk about as we drove back to the great State of Texas. Enjoy the pictures. Be sure to look at the slideshow to the right, and double click for larger pictures. Thanks, Brad, for the great pics.

A Day In The Life of a 10%er

WOW_WOW_WOW what a day! I got up early that morning and just had a feeling it was going to be a special day in the life of a motorcyclist—me. That week I sold my Vulcan and ST1100, so for the ride that day I’d take my KLR. (My new ST1300 would not be ready for pickup till 3pm.) I rode into town and met up with 6 of my scooter trash friends for a wonderful down-south type of breakfast: fried eggs, bacon and pancakes. Now that’s the way to start a ride day. So after breakfast 7 of us rode over to the place where we would meet up with the TWT group (Two Wheel Texans). Now, what I’m about to tell you is a story about a whole bunch of events coming together to make one weird day.

When we arrived at the meet-up, (1st) I saw a Aprilla motorcycle and realized that was the bike of Ryan, a fellow rider who had broken his leg and ankle a few months before. He had hit drillers mud in a corner that had been dropped by one of the many trucks that use our backroads going between drill sites. It sure was good to see Ryan out riding again.

Now there were 11 of us ready to ride—(2nd) as we started to leave the parking lot, one rider ran into another and they both went down softly. Next on the list, (3rd) one of the bikes stopped running, so the rider pulled off the road and put the kickstand down. I stopped to assist, and as I was parking, I watched as one of our big Texas winds blew the bike off its stand, over into a ditch. That’s bike 3 down. He called his wife to hook up the trailer and come get him. We left him and continued the ride. (4th) As we entered a section of tight country roads, the pack got split up at an unmarked turn. I was in the lost group, and since I live by the rule that as long as I’m riding I’m having fun, I was just temporarily displaced. As we rode along, enjoying the great roads we found while trying to find the other group, my cell phone in my helmet rang ( if you haven’t checked these out yet, take a good look at the CARDO Q2 system. It installs into your helmet easily and gives you mp3, intercom for up to ¼ mile, FM radio and voice activated cell phone). Anyway, back to the story—the cell call from the other group led us to a rendezvous.

So, after a great hamburger at Burgundy Pasture Beef, we launched off for the completion of the ride, which would be about 30 miles of backroads. I had positioned myself in about the middle of the pack so as to cruise on to the end. (5th) As we were making a 45 degree left turn on one of Texas great backroads, at a speed of only about 45mph, I asked myself—“why is the rider in front of me locking up his front brake and starting the process of a high side crash?” I watched as the events unfolded in front of me and I asked myself, “do I hit him, the bike or go to the ditch?” (I talk to myself a lot.) The ditch had a nice clean roll to it so I took option three. As I exited the ditch on the other side of the downed rider, I came to a stop, got off my bike, and ran back to see how he was. I reached down and removed his sunglasses so I could see his eyes and asked him how he felt. He said he was OK but hurt all over from the fall. Now you’ve got to understand that I really am a caring person, but my rule is if you’re not bleeding too bad—GET THE CAMERA—and start shooting. After a while the rider was able to get up and we as a team got him and his bike home. It’s rather ironic that at breakfast I was saying to a couple of riders that you should always DRESS TO SLIDE, THEN GO ENJOY THE RIDE......this guy was really happy he was dressed properly.

So in conclusion, I have to say as I did in my last post called 10%, motorcycles just stir my emotions all up and down the spectrum. I must go now and get ready for the next ride. Below you will find the way I feel. LET’S RIDE!

Little General


I LOVE TO RIDE
By Robert E Lee

The feel of the engine between my feet
The wind in my face
The smells of the road and countryside
The sensation of speed as the asphalt glides by
The sight of my fellow riders leaning into the turns
The sense of danger, either perceived or real
The fellowship shared with other riders
The envious look from the mini-van driver as I pull up next to him
The solitude
The responsibility

Motorcycling is a very personal thing; it stirs the soul in a multitude of ways. I have been lucky to have the opportunity to have so many of my emotions stirred by this beast called a bike, a scooter, a motorcycle.

It has exercised the emotions of:
EXCITEMENT—each time I ride off
PHYSICAL PAIN—each time I fall off
MENTAL PAIN—each time I see a rider down (and some never got up again)
FEAR—for that deer or car just barely missed
SOLITUDE—each time I see nothing but highway in front of me
JOY—as we gather around the table to tell our stories
DISAPPOINTMENT—if for some reason the bike doesn’t start

10 Percent

Hey fellow riders,
On this, my 49th year of motorcycling, I sit pondering upon the large list of motorcycling friends that I have all over the USA. I truly believe that each and every one of you are SCOOTER TRASH, and oh, how I love scooter trash. ST are a special breed of people who see life in a completely different way. But I have also noticed that about 10% of the ST are what I’d call hard-core ST. I think that I probably fall into the 10% and believe that the following poem permeates to the core of the 10%---my feelings on paper.

I LOVE TO RIDE By Robert E Lee
The feel of the engine between my feet
The wind in my face
The smells of the road and countryside
The sensation of speed as the asphalt glides by
The sight of my fellow riders leaning into the turns
The sense of danger, either perceived or real
The fellowship shared with other riders
The envious look from the mini-van driver as I pull up next to him
The solitude
The responsibility

As I prepared to depart on a trip, my non-rider friend asked, “How can you go when the temp is 56 and light rain?” I pondered this question as I cruised down the highway in the rain, and thought, how could I not go? This is the most relaxed that I’ve been in days, I thought—just me, the Lord, and my bike rumbling below me.
Motorcycling is a very personal thing, it stirs the soul in a multitude of ways. I have been so lucky to have the opportunity to have so many of my emotions stirred by this beast called a bike, a scooter, a motorcycle. It has exercised the emotions of:

EXCITEMENT—each time I ride off
PHYSICAL PAIN—each time I fall off
MENTAL PAIN—each time I see a rider down (and some never got up again)
FEAR—for that deer or car just barely missed
SOLITUDE—each time I see nothing but highway in front of me
JOY—as we gather around the table to tell our stories
DISAPPOINTMENT—if for some reason the bike doesn’t start

In a two-part interview done by Cycle News 38 years ago, I told the reporter: “Every time that I get on a motorcycle I grin inside. When I get depressed or sick, all I want to do is get on a motorcycle, because it will make me feel better. I’ve been that way since I was 11 years old.”

To this day when I’m feeling low and full of the blues, my precious wife packs me a sack lunch, puts me on my bike, and says “take a long ride.” Nothing has changed, and I hope it doesn’t---as I sit here writing this little note, I’m also thinking about our next ride. I can’t wait.

Little General

My Favorite T-Shirts

Hey riders, I know how we like our T-Shirts and I wanted to share with you a great place to get some of the best T’s I’ve seen. Don Miller at Metro Racing has high quality retro T’s that are made by Hanes. These shirts are pre-shrunk 100% cotton. And of course they look extra good on the professional underwear model that we used for the pic. :)

Give Don a call at Metro racing (1-877-74 metro) or go to his link at http://www.metroracing.com/. Tell Don I said Hi.

Little General

A Texas Legend

How often in life do you get the chance to share part of your life with a real legend? I was thoroughly blessed by having one of the greatest men Texas had to offer be a part of my life, Johnny Allen. Johnny was quite a man, with gunfighter eyes and absolute nerves of steel.

<---Click on article to make it large enough to read.

When Johnny hooked up with two other legends by the name of Pete Dalio and Jack Wilson, he won 38 dirt track races in his first season. (I could go on forever about Dalio, Wilson, and also Stormy Mangham, but this is about a kind, good man named Johnny Allen.)

Johnny is best known for piloting Stormy Mangham's Texas Cigar. It was tuned by Jack Wilson to a speed of 214 mph at Bonneville Salt Flats on September 6th, 1956. His fame was such that in November of the same year, he toured Europe to tell of this great achievement.

Besides this kind of fame, Johnny was involved in the motorcycle community at every level. He was the Triumph dealer in Ft. Worth, Texas, and added Suzuki to his store later on. The Trailblazers Motorcycle Club met in his store and they still are meeting in Ft. Worth to this day.

As a young racer, Johnny supplied me with a Triumph Roadracer for our Texas races, and later on a Suzuki 500cc Twin, so as to promote his new brand. Not only was he generous and kind, he was tough as a boot. I will never forget the time back in 1966 when I was racing in the Wooley Bugger Enduro and John was on an X6 Hustler, the TC250 high pipe model. Not much of an enduro bike, and I couldn't believe he was riding it.

We were flying across one of the Trinity River levies when the trail all of a sudden veered off and down the sides. Johnny fell for what seemed like forever. I stopped and ran back to help him up, and as I approached him, I could see that he was bleeding down both arms and knees, and he still had that short cigar in his mouth as he jumped up and started the X6 and left me standing there wondering how an old man could do that. After all, he was 36 years old, and to me that was really old.

When John passed away on February 7, 1995, his wife Reva gave me some of his keepsakes and I wanted to share a couple of them with you. The picture of the streamliner was taken in Smithfield, TX, at Stormy's airport -- Mangham Field. In the picture from left to right are Stormy Mangham, Jack Wilson, and Johnny Allen. The dirt track picture is of Johnny after one of his many wins on Texas half-mile tracks.

I would ride my motorcycle out to the airport and just stand next to the streamliner and try to imagine the feeling that he must have had piloting that rocket at 214 mph. I'm sure that he was a lot cooler than I would have been.

Oh, yes, one more thing. We are all so familiar with the legendary Triumph Bonneville. FACT - three years after Johnny's 214 mph run, Triumph named that bike the Bonneville in honor of what a 26-year-old from Texas did.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings!

Little General

No Whining!!--Just riding

WOW--Take a look at these pictures that Kim H. sent me a link to. These guys knew how to have fun, and they aren't exactly riding dirt bikes are they? I just love pictures like these, they draw me back to a time when things seemed to be much simpler, long before we spent so much time polishing our bikes and spent more time in the saddle. Click below and enjoy the link.

Click here: Superheroes of Old for link to a really cool site.

A Day in the Life

Saturday was to be a big day of motorcycles and Scooter Trash, riding dualsport and going to Dallas with the ST people. I started my Saturday off in a strange way. I was going to meet the other riders for our dualsport ride at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast, so with great excitement I jumped out of bed at 7:00 a.m., put on all the winter riding gear (it was 30 degrees outside), went to the shop, pulled out the KLR, fired it up so as to be warmed up and ready to ride by 7:40 a.m. I threw my leg across my trusty steed, plugged in my Gerbings, and, just as I started to put it in gear, I stopped and looked around -- "Hey, it seems to be awfully dark out here for 7:40." I reached down to my GPS and flipped to the time page -- it was 6:40 a.m.! In all the excitement of a new adventure, I misread the clock. Oh, well, that just meant I got 1 more hour in a great day.

After breakfast, we departed for our adventure. We were only going to ride until 2:00 p.m. because at 4:12 we needed to be on the train heading for Dallas. I had sent out an email inviting both dirt and street Scooter Trash to join Debi and I at the train station for a field trip. Sixteen people showed up for the ride to Dallas on the big iron horse. When we arrived at Dallas, we all went to the Cadillac Bar and Grill for a wonderful time of Mexican food and fellowship.

After dinner we walked to the arena for FMX Freestyle Motocross. Oh, those young men and their flying machines, what a great time was had by all. By the time we arrived back home, it was midnight and I had myself an 18-hour motorcycle day. I still say that Scooter Trash are the best people. I fell asleep with a smile on my face, instead of egg as usual. I thank God for America and the great state of Texas.

Clutched in the Jaws of Winter

Well, here we are, January 2009, and the Southern cruisers had their annual Polar Bear Ride on New Year’s Day. The turnout was pretty good at 50, and it was made up of different chapters and riding groups. It’s real hard to say Polar Bear Ride when the high temp of the day was 80. You’ve just got to love thisTexas weather, 80 on the 1st and then the electricity at my home was out for 16 hours on the 5th due to ice. Oh well, they say that variety is the spice of life.

Since we do ride all year round here in Texas, and sometimes the weather is quite cold, I wanted to tell you how I survive comfortably on these cold days. ELECTRIC GEAR--I have used the electrics with a great deal of success. I use them for both street and dual sport riding. There are a large number of brands to choose from, about ten if you count what you can get out of Canada. Out of the ten, eight are priced about the same. I personally have used two different brands and my friend Mark uses a third. The one that most of us use is Gerbing, which has kept a big wuss like me very comfortable on all my cold rides. I have a multitude of jackets and with the Gerbing jacket liner I was able to remove all the liners and store them away and use just the Gerbing liner. It also doubles as a light jacket for kicking around in after the ride. It is also washable and has a life time guarantee on it. With the liner you don’t have to fool around with extra wire,s as it has the wires for the gloves built into the sleeve, unlike the heated vest where you run wires down your jacket sleeve.

GLOVES—I also use Gerbing gloves because they are so supple. I prefer the classic model with the gauntlet for extra warmth and wind protection at the sleeve area.

This is what I have learned about fit. The liner needs to be of a snug fit so as to transfer the heat to the core of the body, but use caution with the gloves so as to not get them too tight. The gloves need to be just a little looser then your other gloves. I find that the next size up works for my buddies and me. When you pull or squeeze on the handlebars, your gloves pull up tight to your fingers and hand. I suggest that you need a little extra room from the heating elements and your fingers so as not to have any hot spots or feel the wires.

TEST—A test that I have tried a multitude of times to prove how important it is to keep the body core warm: While out riding in temperatures of 25 to 32, I will be comfortable all the way down to my feet. I just turn off the electric heat and within a short few minutes my feet and legs start to get cold, and next my hands and arms get cold. I turn the heat back on and the whole body starts to warm back up by pumping warm blood from the heated core to my extremities.

So here is how I dress for those cold rides:

· Warm socks that wick moisture away from my feet and Alpine Star boots.
· Long underwear with the Joe Rocket Ballistic overpant.
· Long-sleeved shirt made of cotton under my heated Gerbing Jacket liner, topped off by the jacket choice of the day.
· A full face helmet,
· then my electric gloves and I’m ready for all weather including rain since all the outerwear including the boots are waterproof.

One other thing is that when you are warm, dry and comfortable, you are a more alert and a safer rider. Remember: dress to slide and enjoy the ride.