360bikers.com

We’re down at Fudruckers and saw this great looking Indian.

When the iPhone came out I wrote about how it was the perfect device for motorcyclists. It has the cellphone, GPS, mapping, email, and many more features. With the release of an SDK several months ago more applications are now available. One is the one I’m using now to enter this from my phone. Made by Wordpress, it allows bloggers to enter text and photos right from the phone so you can post about your ride during your ride! OK, so I’m a geek, too. This is nice.

This is too good to leave off a site.  Everyone should post this one.

Motorcyclist really are a social group. Rides are a nice mix of solitude and socializing that gives you the opportunity to be alone and with a group. The support you get from fellow bikers is unmatched and I know of no other group that takes care of each other as much.

After six months of riding together and growing as a group, 360Bikers had a celebration that Will has been waiting to do for a long time. More than twenty of us descended on his house bringing food and beverages to get us through the night. From 7:00 till dark we ate and socialized, meeting new members, their girlfriends and wives, and generally just having a great time. After the sun was down we watched “Wild Hogs” on an outside theater with hi-def and surround sound, courtesy of Rich. Will’s wife even let me do some grilling while she met with people and took care of other behind the scenes needs.

Vic had gone out earlier in the week and shot a small wild boar. Yes, to go along with our “Wild Hogs” movie we actually ate some wild hog. Will’s crowning moment was when he unveiled the bleached skull of the pig as the center piece of the party. Steve (”Slick”) gave some musical parodies and earned a few part recognitions in the movie. Somehow, it’ll never be the same watching that movie again.

It was a great evening with really great friends. Those that missed it should make plans for the next one.

I had to attend a workshop today in Melbourne.  The weather was nice, so I packed appropriate clothing for the meeting and put on the jeans for a quick 130-mile each way ride.  The workshop started at 8:30 so I left the house around 6:15 AM.  Going up was nice, cool, and with relatively low traffic volume.  It was a nice ride.  The workshop produced a lot of good notes and by 3:00 I was on the road home again.  The temperature had risen considerably and traffic was very heavy… as anticipated.  Still, it was a nice ride.  Personally, I’d rather ride with our group on those distances.  We might not make good time, but it’s a lot more fun on a Class 2 with friends from 360Bikers.

Lee Keller

You couldn’t ask for a better day.  We started out at Starbucks, one of our more popular meeting locations.  It’s not for the coffee, but more for the central convenience of a lot of riders, especially organizers.  We got out of there a little after 7:30 and stopped at a gas station to pick up Connie.  A couple riders had forgotten to top off and did so then.  From here, it was the concrete ribbon (Turnpike) to Snake Road.  On the Sawgrass, one of our new riders lost her Sun Pass.  It just fell out of her pocket and crumbled on the highway.

At Snake Road we stopped at the gas station, refueled those that needed it, picked up drinks and snacks, and socialized while waiting for Yarka and Mark.  After a period of talking with everyone we got underway.  The road was nice and had a more turns than your typical South Florida road.  It led us to the Seminole Reservation called Big Cypress through which we had great respect for the speed.  We zigzagged north through road changes to SR80 and then to Clewiston.

Rich, our birthday boy today, had been telling me about the nachos there.  They lived up to expectations.  The group was in rare form (thanks, Slick) and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Afterall, it doesn’t get much better than beautiful weather, great friends, great riding, and great food.

After filling ourselves we gave the others another fuel stop and then went on to South Bay to ride up to the dike on the rim of the lake.  We took pictures and rode home.  It doesn’t sound like much, but it was one of those nice, relaxing rides with lots of friends.  We had 12 bikes and 15 people on this one.  You can see photos, get screen savers, and learn more by clicking here.

Today I was at our neighborhood Walmart killing time while I had tires put on the car. I walked through the entire store while waiting endlessly for them to get to my car. While in the final stages I revisited the tools in automotive. I had been looking for some tools to carry on the bike since my shifter went loose a week ago and I had to rely on my good friends for a tool kit. Actually, I took some of my home tools and put in the trip pak to make sure I had something I could use in the future.

Some bikes, especially the Japanese bikes, come with a tool kit that is designed to take care of most minor needs on the road. It also seems to be designed to frustrate anyone that actually wants to accomplish anything with them. The quality is low and only the most desperate can actually accomplish anything with them. Usually, the ending is not good. But the fact is, they are better than nothing. For the price of a Harley-Davidson you’d think they could put in a Stanley tool set that included the standard sockets, screw drivers, and allen wrenches you need to service your bike at the side of the road. Yet, there’s nothing.

Today I found a cheap set of sockets. Cheap because they aren’t some big name brand. Untested might be a better word. The 22-piece set includes BOTH metric and SAE sockets in the sizes I’m likely to need to do repairs on the road. The cost was less than $5. Now, a real Harley owner probably spends a couple hundred on a Snap-On Tools set or something like that, but I don’t have that kind of green, especially in today’s economy. I also picked up a set of allen wrenches that will meet almost every need I have. That cost me 97¢.  So, for under $6 I got everything but the screw drivers and the Harley takes those other drivers anyway. I bought a set of those (and every other type of head) for $8 on Black Friday last year.

So, the bargains are out there if you look. It’s good to have tools with you, even if you only wander a few miles from home. If you know of any bargains on tools, post a comment. You might have to register, but that takes a minute and your fellow bikers would love to know where to find a good value to help keep safe on the road.

Well, I’ve always sorta looked at it that way, but now more than ever I can prove that buying a nice, small commuter bike is like getting it for free.  Now, I admit, I’m using my own numbers here to prove the point.  You can substitute your own and you may find you could get a bike for free even faster than me.

First, how far do I drive and how many days do I work a year.  My round-trip to work is 34 miles and I work about 240 days per year.  That comes to 8,160 miles per year.  I have a Chevy Avalanche, not exactly on the dean’s list of fuel economy.  I get about 16 MPG.  That means in 1 year just going to work it takes about 510 gallons of gas.  Now, we’re not quite there yet but at $4.50 per gallon that costs me $2,295 to go to work in gas money.

Now, I just checked Ebay and it seems you can get a Kawasaki Ninja 250 or a Honda Rebel 250 for about $2,000, plus or minus $500.  You see where this is going already, don’t you.  Yeah, these bikes get 65 to 75 MPG CITY!!!!  Now, you still have to buy gas so at 65 MPG this will cost you less than $600 for the entire year.  That’s a savings of about $1,700 per year.  By 18 months your little commuter bike is like riding for free.

Now, not everyone can do this to the extent we have available in South Florida where riding is almost year-round.  But every little bit helps and a little bike like this could save you enough money to fuel that Harley-Davidson Ultra, Honda Gold Wing or VTX, or countless other bikes that struggle to stay in the 30 to 40 MPG range.  Either way, the numbers above save me $7.21 every day I ride a little commuter bike over the Avalanche.  If I ride just 100 days a year that means I save over $700 in gas.  I can live with it.  Even at that rate, the bike is free in just 3 years.