Wednesday, October 17, 2007

We Did It!

$10,000.00 raised for the Susan J. Komen Foundation!

http://www.mountainshadowriders.com/

Thursday, October 11, 2007

20th Annual High Country Toy Run


Bikers riding two up in a procession stretching as far as you can see in both directions is an amazing site, especially when they have toys strapped to their bikes for children from El Paso and Teller Counties. The United States Marine Corp sponsored the 20th Annual High Country Toy Run on October 7, 2007. The weather chilled down from a high of around 80 degrees on Saturday to a chilly fifty or so the day of the ride, but the chrome on the bikes and the biker spirit of giving brought the temp up so many could ride without jackets.

Hundreds and possibly more than a thousand riders gathered at the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum on north Nevada. Santa was there on his beautiful bike, and along with all of his biker helpers were Marines from Denver, soldiers from Fort Carson, and Boy Scouts selling raffle tickets.

After a short ceremony at the museum complete with the pledge of allegiance and a blessing by the Christian Motorcycle Association, the v-e-r-y long procession left headed for Cowboys on Academy Boulevard. We were escorted by motorcycle cops from the Colorado Springs Police Department on their speedy Honda 1100 sport bikes.

I was actually glad that I was about two-thirds of the way back in the procession. I got to see all of the people who had come out from their homes to wave and cheer us on and the riders in front and behind me. Watching the motorcycle cops riding around 70 MPH in the left lane was a lot of fun too. When we reached Cowboys there was a nice $5.00 meal and great stuff for the raffle and auction.

We left early hoping to get out of town before the rain storm that was moving in. We got a little wet, and it was chilly, but we had a great time and will attend the ride again next year.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Mountain Shadow Riders Seventh Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Ride

The day started out beautifully. It was already seventy degrees when I left the house at 7:30 AM bound for Colorado Springs on 115. The temp was uncommonly warm for an October 6th morning in Colorado. It is also my mother’s birthday; today she would have been seventy-five. This year I decorated my bike’s windshield with pink ribbons and a picture of mom, and I attached a pink feather boa to the antenna.

Thirty years ago in 1977, I stood in Mom's hospital room while she denied that she had breast cancer. She didn't know that I had already spoken with her doctor, and he was pretty sure the lump he biopsied earlier that day was malignant. I was expecting twins and my beautiful but stubborn mother was determined she would shield me from the journey she was
about to take. Mom was only forty-four at the time. She had a radical mastectomy, and there was quite a bit of lymph node involvement discovered in the tissue they removed. The doctors predicted mom probably wouldn't live longer than another two years. My mother was strong though, and after several years of chemo therapy and radiation she won her fight against cancer. Unfortunately, chemo therapy can be hard on the heart, and I believe it contributed to her death from heart disease one month to the day after her birthday in 1993.


Breast Cancer has touched the lives of almost every member of Mountain Shadow Riders, and every year the members spend roughly five to six months preparing for the annual Breast Cancer Awareness ride. This year over two hundred riders attended our "Test Your Memory Run."

This year's route took the riders from Western Omelet on the
west side of Colorado Springs in old Colorado City, to Larkspur, through Black Forest, out to Falcon and back to the Dublin House at the north end of the Springs. The route was just under 100 miles, and while the weather was beautiful, it was windy.

Last bike in was at 3:00PM, with the post ride auction and ceremonies concluding at around 5:00PM. A lot
of beautiful people attended the ride again this year.




The members of Mountain Shadow riders will know this Saturday, October 13, 2007, how much money we earned for the Susan J. Komen Foundation. Our goal was 7500.00 and it sounds like we may have passed that amount.


Saturday, September 29, 2007

I'll Never Ride a Motorcycle

I’ll never ride a motorcycle. At least that is what I thought in 2001 when I won a shiny new pearl white Harley Davidson Sportster with chrome spokes. I promptly sold that bike and bought my husband a used Wineberry GL1500 Goldwing. Something happened to me while we were riding that year. I enjoyed the air on my face, the smell of everything around me, and the feeling of freedom. I started thinking it might be fun to ride a bike.
Riding as a passenger on the Goldwing was far different and much more enjoyable than my previous rides. Technically my very first ride was at the age of eight or so, when I rode around my grandparent’s yard on the back of a scooter my aunt was driving and nearly got my toe cut off when she came too
close to something metal in the yard. In my late twenties, I rode a friend’s dirt bike around once or twice, but it didn’t really appeal to me. Finally, in my early thirties I dated a guy who owned a Harley. We rode up the pass a time or two, and he always insisted I wear this one piece suit that was kind of sexy. Then I found out he only dated women he thought could wear the outfit, what a riot! So, my experiences with motorcycles were nearly always brief and not always positive.

As a passenger I began to think maybe it would be fun to ride my own machine. We took a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico on Memorial Day in 2001.
It was our first long trip on the Wing. Along the way,we kept seeing bikers all over. It was Green River weekend, and we took a slight detour to stop there for a while. I was impressed by the bikes, but I noticed that there seemed to be some sort of biker dress code.

We stayed in Santa Fe a few days but it was hot, and we did not wear safety gear or our helmets. On the way out of Santa Fe, we stopped and put our helmets on, but that was all. Back on the road, I had just about fallen asleep when Curtis yelled, “look out Janet.” When I looked up, it was to see a huge pickup with a horse trailer pulling out from a side road into our path. The pickup driver hadn’t registered that we were there. Fortunately, he did stop in the middle of the road when he realized what he had done, and Curtis was able to swerve around him. Later Curtis told me he was getting ready to jump. He hadn’t told me to jump; he thought it was funny, but I didn’t. I could picture him jumping and me riding to a collision with the truck on the back of the Wing. I began to think more and more about riding my own bike. Riding as a passenger on the rear of a bike requires a lot of trust, and I think mine was running out.


So, in the fall of 2001, I went down and bought a brand new 2002 Honda Shadow VLX 650, which I didn't get to ride until 2002 (see my first post). In 2003, I traded that bike in for a 2003 Honda Shadow Ace 750. In 2004, not even a week later I realized I needed a bigger bike, but I waited until the next model year to buy one. In 2004, I traded the Ace in for a VTX 1300, which I had custom painted with a Phoenix to match a new tattoo. About a year and a half later I decided I wanted my own touring bike and bought a Yamaha Royal Star. My husband decided that we did not need two touring bikes and talked me into trading the Star for a Honda Rune for him. I inherited the 1800 Goldwing we purchased the previous year.


I have never really liked the way Wings look preferring the look of cruisers, but the Wing handles unbelievably well. It is also very comfortable. Earlier this year, I was rear-ended on the freeway while driving my car and my upper neck is pretty hosed. I can ride the Wing pretty well without tiring or causing too much stress to my neck, but at slow speeds the weight is a bit much for me to manage right now.

Recently, I started thinking about trading the Wing for a cruiser. I test drove a 2002 Harley Davidson Road King Police cruiser. It handled very well, but, for the price, I think the Wing is a better bike. I have also ridden an 800CC Suzuki Boulevard, which is a perfect beginner’s bike, but not for someone used to big bikes. I tried a Yamaha V-Star 1100, but it just did not seem to fit right and I really was not impressed with the way it handled. I also tried a Triumph 900CC
America model. I like the America, but it just does not seem big enough. I have no interest in the Rocket III, because I would get into issues with the weight of the bike again and it feels too top heavy when I sit on one. I hear that Triumph will come out with a 1500 in 2008 that I would like to check out. I would also like to test drive a Victory. I want a bike that handles as well as the Wing with the same comfort level, but weighs a few hundred pounds less. I will keep sampling what is out there.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

On Becoming a Motorcycle Fairy

The next time you get separated from the group you are riding with, have a little fun! Curtis, my husband, and I were left behind at a light on the 2nd annual Hawgs for Hounds run given by the Teller County Animal Rescue. The leader of our group was going at or about the speed limit, so we knew we could catch back up with them fairly quickly. We caught the group and waved as we went by them in Woodland Park and headed down Ute pass in front of them. At the next light, my husband suggested we pull off and hide and then catch up with them again. So, we pulled off at the Manitou exit and did a u-turn back onto the on ramp for Highway 24. I laughed so hard while we waited for them to go by us on the over pass. It was even more fun passing them the second time. They laughed too and called us Motorcycle Fairies. They changed Curtis’ nickname from Blinky to Tinkerbelle. I told some other friends about his new nickname at a recent meeting of Women on Wheels and suggested they shorten it to The Tinks, but they seemed to like Blinky better…and how did he get the nickname Blinky? Well, that is another story.

Thursday, August 9, 2007

Sportsters and Wings

Looking back on my first ride after more than twenty years, I am surprised I kept trying to learn to ride. My first solo ride wasn’t quite what I had expected. A few months earlier I won a Harley Davidson Sportster 883. It was a pretty little pearl white bike with chrome spokes, and it was loud, or it seemed at the time that it was loud. It had all of four miles on it when I sold it a few weeks later on E-Bay. I never rode it; although, a woman co-worker had tried to get me to learn. I used the money from the sale of the Sportster to buy my husband a used Wineberry GL 1500 and, for a few months, I was content to ride on the back of the Wing. You can’t beat the Wing for co-riders, it is a very comfortable touring bike. My husband was so proud of that bike. It had more chrome on it than P Diddy has bling-bling.

We rode as often as we could that spring and summer, and while we were touring I noticed there were more than a few women on their own bikes. I started thinking about riding my own bike. I’d learned in the Army I could do any thing I put my mind to, and I went out and bought a brand new Honda Shadow VLX. I still laugh when I think how fast I thought that 650cc bike was going on the little trip across my neighbor’s yards…

And so the ride begins!

It looked like a scene from a melodrama: a man rides up on a shiny new red motorcycle that is obviously too small for him, parks, and gets off of the bike. His wife throws a leg over the bike and sits astride it with a grin seemingly larger than her face.

The bike is in neutral and the husband starts it up. With exaggerated movements, he shows his wife the controls. He keeps a hold of the handlebars and revs the bike a time or two. Nodding their heads the man and woman come to some sort of agreement, and the man lets go of the forward controls. His wife shifts the bike into first gear and several things happen simultaneously: the woman lets go of the clutch too quickly and as she is thrown back, she inadvertently revs the bike’s throttle. Her head swings back and she looks at her husband with that same look of panic the damsel in distress who is roped to railroad tracks had in an old silent movie.

The husband starts jumping up and down yelling, “Hit the brakes! Hit the brakes!” The wife is headed right for the garage wall of the house two doors down. A car is parked in its drive just a few feet away.

The neighbor girl, who hears the commotion outside of her home, throws open an upstairs window and looks down upon the scene beneath her. Realizing the woman on the red motorcycle is headed straight for her house she turns and vanishes from the window shouting the news about the run-away motorcycle to her mom.

Meanwhile, the woman on the motorcycle somehow manages to steer the bike between the garage and the car parked in the driveway. She runs right through the entry garden of her neighbor’s house. The planter she takes out on her unplanned route through the prim foliage helps slow the bike, it loses impetus, and the woman drops it on the lawn. Her husband catches up to her in time to pick the motorcycle up and turn to face his angry neighbor who is yelling at him and demanding to know who destroyed her garden.

Yep, that was my first ride. It took me some time to overcome the fear from the near miss I had with the brick wall, but I kept at it and eventually passed the second Motorcycle Safety Course I took. That was five and a half years ago. I’ve ridden between forty and fifty thousand miles in that time and hope to ride many more.