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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.

I started this entry thinking about the things we have to do in south Florida to plan a summer ride and realized that it’s not that different anywhere else.  There are several things to do and some have to be done at different points than others.

One of the first things I did was to emphasize the need to check your bike before riding.  While this should be a standard thing to do before a ride, it’s even more important in the summer heat.  Your riding will have more wear and tear on rubber parts and your oil is not as happy in this weather.  If your bike is liquid cooled, check your fluids before leaving.  Oh, and don’t forget a toolkit.  You always need it with you, but summer is just the time to breakdown.

I always carry a rainsuit with me, but sometimes you take it out to let it dry or just because you need the room for a little bit.  Don’t forget to put it back.  That happened to one of our riders recently where he had left it hanging to dry.  Naturally, we encountered a storm and his rain gear wasn’t there when he looked.  You should also carry sunscreen on your bike.  No matter how good the stuff is, it needs to be re-applied every couple hours or you will find yourself crispy.  Never underestimate the power of the sun, even on cloudy days.

Finally, there’s the weather.  It’s unavoidable and somewhat unpredictable.  I’m fanatical about weather, especially when planning group rides where I feel responsible for the overall experience.  I check a few different forecasting sites like weatherbug.com and weather.com.  I’ll look at the forecast a few days in advance and then go to hourly forecasts starting a day or two before.  I’ve come to realize that these lack accuracy, but give you a feel for what might happen.  I also rely on radar.  Technology is great and there are several formats you can use for this.  The two web sites I mentioned will give you an animated or even an interactive radar view.  I also use a couple desktop applications like WeatherBug’s and one from our local television station that is made by  BIA Information Network (BIN).  This app lets you see radar for rain, humidity, temperatures, and wind speed and direction.  It also includes a radar and temperature view for a national look.  You can see the direction of major fronts and make a very good decision on whether the ride should take place or not.

So, there are tools out there to help you decide whether to ride.  There are things to make sure you take with you to make summer riding more enjoyable and safer.  Take care when you ride and plan for a safe return.

OK, I get into working spreadsheets and designing formulas.  So, I wanted a scoring format to show the level of participation that member have in 360Bikers on the Meetup site.  I came up with a formula that gave 1 point for every month you’ve been a member.  A reward for seniority, but a small one.  I gave a half point for each RSVP because even if you say no, it helps us plan for the number of riders to expect.  Maybe responses don’t help much because they are as much maybe-not.  But taking the time to answer is appreciated and worth something, regardless of how little.  An equitable score uses the ratio of rides to months in the group.  So, if you’ve been in the group for 5 months and taken 10 rides you’d get 2 more points.  If you’ve been in for 1 month and went on 4 rides, you’d get 4 more points.  The final points are the big ones.  For each meeting you attended you get 5 points.  That provides a direct reward for our most active members and provides reward for the time they have been in the group.

That said, our top 6 scores are me with 235, Will with 131, Ian with 114, Rich with 113, and Vic with 99.  I’m working on a system of rewards for our most active members.  It doesn’t take long to get into the 3 digit area.  It’s an added dimension to being in the group and it makes for interesting conversation.  Most of all, it’s the rides that matter.

[ NOTE TO SELF: US98 makes an unmarked left turn in Okeechobee]

Well, today’s ride was not what was planned. It started out sorta right. We got out of Wellington later than planned, but we were on track and did the zig-zag up to SR710 to Okeechobee. That’s about all that went right. (See note above) I missed a turn somewhere right after crossing Parrot Ave. in Okeechobee. No one else saw the sign either, but there might be one there. It’s just poorly marked where SR70 continues straight west and US98 goes off at an angle. Well, about 10 miles into it I’m suspicious because while the two roads overlapped in Okeechobee for a little while, I’m no longer seeing US98 signs. Well, it was only a 31 mile leg and I thought we couldn’t be too far off. I was wrong.

It is a nice road so we kept going and I kept looking for Arbuckle Road in the mileage vicinity that I expected. It wasn’t there. Now, due to the angle that US98 takes and the lack of angle that SR70 takes, we were now way off course. I had screwed up royally. (See not above) The group being supportive as they are rallied and we rerouted to find a way to Wauchula.

We set out on US27 towards SR66 & SR64 (The Florida Cracker Trail) to connect with the roads that lead to Wauchula. We missed again. It sucked. I felt terrible as nothing was going as planned. Everyone in the group said, “It’s fine! We’re having a good ride!” and I just felt lousy. I like things to goes as planned. I had studied the plan submitted by Sue T., who couldn’t ride due to illness. I missed one turn and it destroyed the plan. Well, other things happened, too.

First, this is the first time we have ever had a ride where every bike was a Harley-Davidson. I thought that was interesting in itself, but it actually paid off big time as we rode aimlessly trying to find a route that would get us back on track. We had three Electra Glides (2 of them Ultra’s with the 6 speed), a Dyna Glide and a Soft Tail Deluxe. Now, the Electra Glides are made for touring and typically get almost 200 miles to a tank of gas with no problem. But I wasn’t sure of the range of the other two bikes. While going across SR66 and SR64 we were approaching the 200 mile mark on our tanks. Ian’s bike had almost 230 miles since he last got fuel. I was really concerned about the other two bikes with Yarka and Mark. Long story short, we pulled into the first gas station we found ( it’s a long, desolate road) at 199 miles. I was very relieved at that success. I’m also impressed at the range that all the Harley-Davidson bikes seem to get. Sure, you can pump them up for more power and less mileage, but as a bike out of the box with just a few modifications, it rides the distance.

Well, things didn’t get much better when we tried to find a place to eat. We headed south back toward SR70 and found a Deli Cafe. Vic was really ready to eat and Ian was right there with him. But… the deli was closing. We rode west looking for the first restaurant we could find that wasn’t associated with a fast food chain. There were none! We got all the way to Arcadia before we found a place to eat. We barely made it there as they locked the doors 10 minutes after we got there. The buffet was good, home-style cooking at Boo-Boo’s. We ate and got back on the road to home. We took fast roads (SR70 to US27 to SR80) and got home with a net loss of about 3 hours. It just wouldn’t have been any fun without friends, though.

Connie is a regular rider with our group. She is an active rider with other groups and assists with organizations. I wanted to get some perspectives from her in an online interview. Here is what we talked about.

Lee: Where are you from?
Connie: Originally from Philadelphia but living here about 20 years !!

Lee: Did you ride motorcycle when you lived there?
Connie: No, I didn’t.

Lee: How long of you been riding?
Connie: Going on year 5 now.

Lee: What is the longest ride you’ve been on? (elaborate)
Connie: I rode up to visit friends In Georgia who live 45 minutes north of Jacksonville. It was quite an adventure…..a bit scary alone…..but an achievement…..Also, rode to Mt. Dora here in Florida, and of course the West coast of Florida.

Lee: What do you like most about riding in South Florida?
Connie: I would say the weather ….. it’s almost perfect all year round; longer rides in the winter, shorter ones in the summer heat.

Lee: What do you like least about riding in South Florida?
Connie: lol…..it’s flat !!! and we do have some crazy “snowbirds” driving down here in the winter.

Lee: What is your favorite kind of ride?
Connie: Humm….. I really enjoy overnighters….to me it’s like a mini-vacation over a weekend….as having my own business… it’s not easy to just take off whenever I feel like it….. I like all types of rides, some with a bit of challenge is good also, and especially enjoy riding through areas like LaBelle here in Florida with the tree-lined roads and also through horse country.

Lee: What are your opinions on the helmet / no-helmet laws?
Connie: Personally, I prefer not wearing one as I love feeling the wind, and the freedom of riding without one…however, it can save you from becoming brain damaged or a spinal injury in the event of am accident if you are wearing one.

Lee: Do you always wear a helmet?
Connie: Sometimes……I do wear one always on 95 or on highways…..If I am taking a shorter ride along the beach say early morning when there are not many people out driving, or on a very unpopulated country road, I prefer not to…..However, they do say most accidents happen close to home !!

Lee: If you were to describe a general common attribute about women motorcycle riders, what would it be?
Connie: They’re hot !!! They are independent and free spirits…….I think they are very careful riders…. I do feel some men are intimidated by women motorcycle riders…. and that’s a shame…..

Lee: If you could say one thing to all the women bikers out there, what would it be?
Connie: Keep on riding !!!! Look and act like a woman … I dislike tattoos and/or hard looking women riding motorcycles….it brings a bad connotation to the rest of us.