If I'm gonna hang out here, there has to be a motorcycle thread. I thought I'd just make it a two-wheeler thread to include Steve's insane bicycle adventures. I figure, pedals or a V-twin, all two-wheeled vehicles are powered by the soul.
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Where the banned are
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I went in to buy a big touring bike, but a few test rides later and I was sold on this sporty blacked-out model. 2023 Harley-Davidson Low Rider S.
I'll be 58 in seven weeks. This is the first brand new vehicle I've ever bought.
Are you OK Mr H?
Got hit by a car this morning. This is the fourth time in 30 years that a driver has crashed into me, proving I'm tougher than death.
I haven't posted here for ages. Some pics for fun, just to balance out the non-motorised half of the two wheel thread.
My brother from another mother, Gregg, and I farting about on the trails. He is off to Ireland permanently soon. The emigration attrition rate here at the moment is unbelievable.
Rode an E-Bike for the first time this week. Gregg got this beautiful Cannondale Habit as a test loan unit. Up one of the longest, steepest hills in the prison, on a badly rutted trail I was a full minute faster than my personal best time in optimal conditions... And it barely felt like it.
Not right now, and I definitely don't have the hundred grand to afford one, but in the next 5 to 10 years I reckon this is definitely the way to go....
Winter starting to take hold of the veld. Soon all this will be various shades of brown.
"There ain't a lot that you can do in this town
You drive out to the lake and then you turn back around."
Today, my MC is having the first officer elections since I joined. When I patched in, I was appointed, not elected to the Secretary office. Let's see if I retain my post now that they have a choice.
Wrenching on them is sometimes as fun as riding them.
It's been a rough year for Black Sabbath Motorcycle Club. We lost an entire chapter in a head-on collision with a wrong-way drunk driver. A club founder passed away - leaving one living OG. Several patch holders were severely injured in accidents and another two died on the road. In my own chapter, we had to vote a longtime member out bad and another good brother left because of it. A few months ago at a big event, I saw something happen twenty feet from me that I'll never, ever get out of my mind and I can't do the one thing I know is right because...well, because that's not how things work on the MC set. I'm bound by a code of bylaws, for better or worse. I can't choose which rules to follow and which to disobey. Since then, I've questioned my patch a time or two, but it's still on my back.
Because it's been a good year, too. We on the west coast settled an internal beef with the broader BSMC nation that nearly had us at civil war. We've had eleven babies born to brothers and sisters. We gave winter coats to seventy five local kids in need and we are supporting our angel tree kids again this Christmas with toys and books. Our community Halloween party will offer a safe, spooky afternoon for needy families. We've had desert campouts, backyard barbecues, long rides and good times. We have been there for each other over and over - anytime a brother called.
So I remain, even when I'm conflicted.
As bad-ass as it gets in Marlborough, Wiltshire:
Not a role model for all, but an infamous legend in the biker world. For better or worse, the man was a true outlaw.
Tribute run.
Steve, do bicyclists use hand signals to communicate when riding in a pack or is the action too fluid for that sort of thing?
We use a lot of hand signals, initiated by the Road Captain and repeated back through the pack.
Tap hand on top of helmet - cop ahead
Raised fist - stop for yellow light ahead
Raised fist pumping - go through yellow light ahead
Point at road, either side of lane - object in the lane
Raised hand, point left or right - indicates lane change on highway or a turn on surface street
Raised hand - 1 to 4 fingers extended - indicates an upcoming exit from highway, the number of fingers corresponds to the exit's listing on the sign
Flat hand lowered, left side, motion up and down - slow the pack
And then of course, there is Red Bull Rampage. An annual event that takes place in Utah, invitation only... I've been watching for 8 years and it never gets any less insane.
And if the POV above looked crazy...
Last one.... A great POV video to show you what it's like from the riders seat.
So you guys might recall me blathering on about riding in 'The Prison'... Well, that's Leeuwkop (Lion's Head) Prison, and it used to have a thriving gold club/course which closed in the pandemic and they allowed someone to start a MTB park, still in it's infancy. It's called Asidlale, which means Let's Ride in Zulu.
A mate I ride with made a video in the park, of a new part of the flow line.
I thought would be cool for you guys to see a little of the terrain I ride... When he rides in the gate at the beginning, that used to be literally meters from where I lived, but now a few kays further away. At the start of the Black trail, if you turned around completely you'd have the top of the Kyalami race track behind you.
I'm the guy in our chapter who puts the babies to sleep.
If I'd gone down that road it would've been "a clout in the coupon".
He looks like a guy I wouldn't fancy a dry from.
"Sleep" is an awesome nickname, what's the back story?
For me, it's always about the ride and my crew more than some other MC's event. And I got the opportunity to tell them a story around the hotel firepit - one from my hitchhiking days that happened not far from where we were staying. The kiwi incident.
Grabbing some shade at a fuel stop. Clockwise from bottom left - Lady T, Me, Sleep, Murdoch, Big Mike, Unknown MC prospect, Lee Man, Becca, my bike.
Clockwise from top left - one of Unknown MC's prospects we found lost on the highway and took into our pack, me, Bacon, Becca, Murdoch, Big Mike, Lee Man.
Bustin' some moves there Rick!
In all fairness that's music that ain't remotely designed for folks our age.
So I never expected I'd end up in a rap music video one day.
Y would you think that?
Had the old girl serviced last week and finally put some new boots on her. Was shocked to realise how much grip I was missing with the old tires. Now it feels like I have four wheel drive.
What you guys think? A cute girl I know referred to my new tires as 'sexy'... I'll take it. 😊
Two days ago was a freezing rainstorm, yesterday it never got out of the low 50s, but today it was 70 and sunny.
Look like awesome fun Rick. Glad you went, glad you had a good time, glad you got home safely.
Are there female members encouraged in motorcycle clubs? Diversity and inclusion and all that……
Sounds a giggle Rick.
As my Dad used to say to me when I headed off on a lads' tear up of one sort or another -
"Nae speaking when you should be listening".
Mother Chapter Annual this weekend in San Diego.
Chapters from all over the country will be sending reps. I imagine there will be some drinking and smoking.
If it isn't a story about a cyclist being stabbed or shot for his phone and bike, it's one being hit by a car, almost always driven by someone under the influence.
Saturday morning, in the Cradle, an area always full of cyclists, on and off road, and in which drivers usually know to be extra careful, a speeding motorist hit two cyclists so hard one almost went through his windscreen and the other was horrifically dragged for 500 meters before the driver stopped. He then tried to escape the scene but, fortunately, his Porsche was too damaged to move. That cyclist was declared dead at the scene by shocked emergency workers and the other was airlifted to hospital where he remains in ICU.
Congrats JF. Its like you were born to wear that and you fit right in, in all the best ways. Look forward to hearing more club tales. 😊
Hi @Jerseyfornia, I have sent you an email to your Richard Holeman writes address - not sure this is the one you use regularly, so sending you this to ask you to check it. Never been able to quite work out the PM's on here!
Thanks x
I was interested in what you said about bingo up above and the fund raising aspect of the clubs.
For years we had a huge MC meeting at a disused airfield just outside Stratford, The Bull Dog Bash. You always knew when it was coming up as the supermarkets would have huge piles of cans of beer displayed by the entrance! A lot of bikers would ride to the town, some cafes welcoming them for breakfast, some with 'no bikers' signs on the doors (typical Stratford!) The Bash raised a lot of money, mostly for children's charities as I recall and there was never any trouble, until...
Sadly, it must be at least 10 years ago now a huge fight broke out between two rival gangs, which ended with one rider being shot and killed on the motorway on his journey home. The next year the event was cancelled.
The airfield is now a housing estate so it would have come to a halt anyway, but it was a sad ending to a tradition which had brought something different to our town.
The club voted me in as a full patch today. My new road name is Ol' Smokey.
Was away for a few days at the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains. Managed to get some mileage in every day despite 35 and 36 degree temps with 90 degree humidity and really heavy rain on some days. So much more I could have explored. Was on a few farm roads cycling past Zulu kraals where I drew some incredulous looks from the locals. 😁
If all you know of MCs is what you see on TV and in the movies, here's a bunch of badasses playing BINGO on a Friday night. BINGO, bikes and beers at the Desert Brothers MC clubhouse raising money for their Thanksgiving food drive.
I'm not going to lie. There is a deadly serious aspect of the MC set, but it's mostly riding, eating and having fun...until it isn't. Our club is considered to be on the next tier down from the dominant 1%ers so there's a lot of mingling with them on our set. When the 1% club we're closely associated with has problems, our club is affected by that and can be drawn into it. In the short time I've been prospecting, I've already been in two dangerous situations, but here we are at another club's place, all races represented, peacefully playing some BINGO, raising money for people who can't afford a turkey dinner.
I was born to walk the fine line between the light and the dark and that's where the MC set exists.
If I can just not get shot, this will be one of the best adventures of my life. And I've had a few good ones.
Doesn’t make you a bad person 😎
I love Patti's singing.
I did something.
Cats do seem to find you Bud.
That's one brave Kitty to ride all that way on a bike! Are you keeping him or re-homing him? My bet is he's a keeper...
Ah, it was a great time.
The ride up was incredible. For all I have to say about riding solo, and that's a lot, there's nothing like riding in a pack with a traditional club that rides in formation, 2 abreast, using hand signals to keep the pack together and its movement fluid. The road captain knew his job. Not being a member of the MC, I ride at the back with the tail gunner and I never mind that because I have the whole pack in front of me so I'm not only part of it, but I get to watch it.
We didn't have any problems until we got within twenty miles of Fresno. Lady Gee ran out of gas and then Dulow, the road captain, had a breakdown that sent him back to L.A. on a flatbed truck.
I expected to be riding home solo today, but I picked up a little pussy on the road.
Most bikers come home from a run with an STD or a black eye, maybe a speeding ticket or even a court date. At the least, a hangover. I bring back a kitty. I'm hard like that.
Found him crying and alone at a roadside rest area. I hung out with him for a good hour or so and no momma cat came by so I asked him if he'd ever thought about hitching a ride out of there and he pretty much said he hadn't, but it wasn't a bad idea so he did the first two hundred miles tucked under my vest and the last hundred sleeping in a saddlebag. His name's Prospect.
I was having too good a rebel time to bother taking pictures, but here's the initial pack getting ready to head out. We picked up another pack of nine when we hit the grapevine.
I never could sleep well the night before a big run.
When you start hanging around a group of bikers, you have to be mindful of everything you say, every story you tell, because they're going to give you a road name at some point and you're likely going to be the one who suggested it to them.
Any road name, though, is given out of love and would only seem insulting or belittling to an outsider who doesn't know its origin.
Coffee & cake pit-stop on yesterdays ride.....