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.
Know what is a cool day? New Bike Day. One of the best days ever.
Anyone on here taken delivery of a new steed lately?
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.
What a shitty time for Black Sabbath Motorcycle Club.
Without braking the bylaws and revealing club business or politics, the MC is now divided and for all intents and purposes two separate clubs - both identifying as Black Sabbath and the new faction wearing a variation of our OG patch.
This is not good.
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."
This is the best time of year for riding. The last precious month before the southern California becomes the devil's broiler. Days in the high 70s, evenings in the low 60s, overnight chill. I'll be on my bike even more than usual between now and mid-June. Did a little off-roading today. This big bitch doesn't like the dirt, but I had to visit my favorite little stream.
And, dammit, I bought a Coke Zero by mistake. That tastes like sweetened ass.
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.
Got my one-year patch.
After several weeks of unusual cold, Christmas day broke sunny and hot. Had a great ride through the country and mountains, singing Christmas songs into the wind.
Wrenching on them is sometimes as fun as riding them.
Some fucking days...
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.
I'm a friend to bees and hitchhikers, but hitchhiking bees are no friends of mine. This one got lodged beneath my helmet straps on my way to work today and gave me a good sting on the side of my head. I couldn't get it out and I wasn't sure if it was a bee or a wasp, but since I only got one sting I decided it must be a bee. I could feel it crawling through my hair all the way to work, where he died on my saddlebag.
Rest in peace, fucker.
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
BSMC Riverside Chapter - MC, Sisters of the Cross & Auxiliary.
Changing gears slightly, I saw this yesterday.... Thoughts?
BSMC lost a patch-holder and two wives yesterday in Arkansas. Eight riders injured, three killed by a wrong-way driver.
https://www.5newsonline.com/article/traffic/crash-i-40-westbound-mulberry-diverting-traffic-off-interstate/527-562cd930-324f-491c-95b1-8f1ee0aa13e9
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.
Just for fun, following on from your question on speed @Jerseyfornia , here are a couple of cool videos to show you just how fast someone who knows what they are doing (and has no fear and HUGE nads) can do on an MTB.
This is a very cool continuous drone shot from the most recent Urban Downhill event in Valparaiso. Go to 8:13 for the money shot.
An what is widely regarded as the most legendary downhill run in history. American Aaron Gwinn snaps his chain right out of the start shoot.... And wins.
Wednesday was a public holiday here. I was invited to join my old club on the trails at the Lion & Safari park about an hour out of Joburg. The route was only 20 kilometers but it was incredibly steep and very rocky. We had a few falls, none too serious but, amazingly, no punctures or sidewall slashes.
I did not take all of these pics but it will give you an idea of the terrain... It never fails to amaze me how close we are to the bushveld from the hustle and bustle of the city.
We saw some lovely wildlife up close. Giraffe, kudu, wildebeest (3 hurtling toward me down one hill certainly got my attention) zebra, springbok, gemsbok and eland.
If you look carefully in the first pic you might even spot yours truly... 😚
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.
My 13-year-old asked during dinner if there are more wheels or more doors on our planet. 🙄
Driving into Birmingham yesterday late afternoon, about 50 bikers were going the other way, presumably heading to Stratford where I live. On our way back from Birmingham we saw them going the other way! Wish I had been able to get a photo, I think it might have been something to do with St. George's Day, as there were quite a few flying England flags, which always make me a bit suspicious unfortunately.
On the streets of San Bernardino.
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".
Just noticed....that should say "dry slap".
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.
The trip was fantastic - the event was ruined.
The rides there and back were fantastic. You know I'll never complain about a run through the desert. Hanging out with Melody - just me and her - was priceless.
These club annuals are always trilogies -there's a meet and greet at the sponsoring MC's clubhouse on Friday, a rally/picnic on Saturday afternoon, then the dance itself on Saturday night. My crew had a bad feeling at the meet and greet because there were two clubs there who shouldn't have been - wrong set. They are two whites-only 1% clubs. I've mentioned before that the white and black sets don't mix socially. So why are the insertclubname and the insertclubname showing up at a mixed-race function on the black set? They were at the picnic the next day, too. My club didn't feel right about the dance and we parked away from the venue, out on the street instead of in the lot. You can probably tell from some of the previous event photos I've posted that it can be hell trying to get out of the parking lot unless you wait until most have left. Not two hours into the party, these two clubs started jumping members of the host MC - always against protocol to bring a beef to someone's clubhouse. A couple guns came out, so of course, more guns came out. Panic ensued, everyone scattered, trying to get their bikes out and leave - my crew walked out the gate, got on our bikes and went back to an enjoyable evening hanging out at our hotel. No one was shot but there were several beaten up and apparently one stabbing. That hasn't been verified yet.
Keep in mind there were dozens of clubs represented at the event, from all different states and regions, and it was a peaceful weekend of bonding and bikes with the exception of the two clubs mentioned above.
The mistake was the hosting MC should have known enough to deny the two clubs entrance to their event.
Club ride to Arizona this weekend. I'll get to see Melody while I'm there.
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?
You guys with your weird spelling.....
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. 😊
Had to discipline a prospect for taking photos when shit's about to go down, but dammit I do like the picture.
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.
I lived through the weekend, but I have a rare hangover.
Not as aesthetically pleasing as your restaurant dishes, but my God I bet it smelled and tasted great. Still working on the vegetarian thing here, but no way I’d be able to resist a platter of that with a couple of beers. So this soul food you talk of is a southeastern coastal-states sort of a thing? Guess there’ll be places in that there London, but here in rural Wiltshire…..not so much.
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.
Just for shits and giggles, the outline in red is the prison grounds, green is Kyalami racing circuit, to give you an idea of the size. I'm sure by international standards its tiny but I still think it's a huge piece of (mostly undeveloped) land.
Felt like posting on here... As those of you familiar with this and the old bike thread may remember, I used to ride often in the prison grounds near to where I then lived. Leeuwkop (Lions Head) Prison is over a hundred years old, and the grounds cover an enormous expanse. Apart from the Kyalami race track on one side, it is now surrounded by residential homes. Having spent quite a bit of time riding around there, I am convinced many parts of it look no different to what they may have done a hundred or two hundred years ago... rocky koppies and indigenous plants, few, if any, human footprints have been put down.
Part of the prison was a golf course, maintained by inmates as an income generator. A clubhouse fire and then, a short while later, the pandemic, saw to the closure of the golf course. Now, as I had hoped for so long, some kindly and enterprising soul has managed to negotiate and open a bike park using the disused course as well as the grounds. Now we pay, so the prison makes some funds again, and we are legitimately allowed to be there, within certain areas, of course. Its a long way from perfect, but hopefully with enough support it will be a really great bike park with good trails. For most people in the area, it will be the closest, safest place to ride.
It's hard graft, lots of steep climbs, rocks and rutted dirt roads, but it's excellent training and after only 40 kilometers yesterday I felt I'd had a really decent ride.
Single track cut, literally, through what used to be golfing greens:
The recent heavy rains have taken a toll though... This used to be a usable road for cars, now only mountain bikes and off road motorbikes, if they were allowed in...
Cellphone pics don't do it any justice but the view from the top of the koppie of Midrand, Sandton, Randburg, and Johannesburg way off in the distance is just amazing. Few people get to see this unless they are on a MTB.
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.
When I'm out in the street oh oh oh oh, I walk the way I wanna walk.
Earned a new patch last night. The hard way.
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.
Name and officer flashes should be ready in a day or so.
The BSMC back patch is well known and respected on the MC set, but it's also considered by some to be outdated and crude. It's all about tradition. While many long-standing clubs have redesigned their patches over the decades, BSMC has kept the original design, leather not cloth, hand drawn by one of the Founding Fathers of the club. This patch has been around since 1979 and in a few months, when the dust settles from an internal club beef, all west coast chapters will revert to the original 1974 patch.
Patch In (club birthday) parties can get a bit out of hand. In celebration of mine, I'll allow you all this once to see something rare; a drunken Jerseyfornia.
Roulette...you're playin' with my life...
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. 😁
Half Cocked crashed his bike last night riding in the pack. I was riding beside him on his left. Always a heart-stopping moment watching a rider go down, made even more stressful when he's three feet off your right shoulder and you have no idea which way his bike or he is gonna slide. He's bruised up, but alright and none of the others in the pack went down because of it. A bit heartbreaking for him as he just got his body and bike back on the road after three month's downtime since his last crash.
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.
Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, practically applied.
MC trick-or-treat day in the park for homeless kids from the local shelter. Three MCs raised enough funds to make sure each child got the costume they wanted and we provided a game truck, bounce house and tons of candy, pizza, hot dogs and juice. It was so fun.
Helping lil' dude with his shoes.
Black Sabbath MC, Riverside Chapter riding out after a great day for the kids and for us, too. I'm the fool with two tents and a chair strapped to my bike.
Caffeine, nicotine and gasoline.
Then a nice spot to pull over in the countryside.
And a little getting in tune.
A great ride on a very warm afternoon.
Roadside respect.
Doesn’t make you a bad person 😎
I love Patti's singing.
We’ve all done that
Nice one.
My only experience of prospects is watching Sons of Anarchy.
Presumably there will be less illegal demands made of you in advance of "Full Patch"? (If I have the lingo right.)
I did something.
OMG, you carry on paying to ride safely @SteveInJoburg
I usually refrain from posting stuff like this.. But this one hit close to home because I was two blocks from Bowling Road yesterday. I know this can happen anywhere but between this and the bike jackings it's not hard to see why we mountain bikers are willing to pay 50 bucks a day to go ride in safe and secure bike parks.
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.
Hitting the road at 5 am for the California Halfway Run to Fresno. Thousands of bikers from all over the state meeting in the middle. I haven't gone to a big rally in several years so I'm looking forward to pounding the highway with a dozen or so riders from Black Sabbath and Buffalo Soldiers MCs.
This reminds me of my brother (a biker back in the day). He and all hist mates had nicknames. As a child I rarely knew their real names. My brother's was Gotty, but I don't know it's origins.
Oddly enough, my dad's was 'boss'!!
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.
Great long day of riding with a couple friends from Black Sabbath MC. Left the house at 10 am and rode 70 miles south for soul food, then a 140 mile ride north for a hangout bonfire and finally home at 4 am after another 70 mile ride back to my place and a good warm sleep.
Bacon, D Rock, me.
Coffee & cake pit-stop on yesterdays ride.....