360Bikers Foundation

Welcome to another after ride Blog, from the most Popular Motorcycle Club in South Florida. This was a quick lunch ride but it epitomizes the creed of club. We have rides and events for any and all bikers, no matter what you ride or how many CC’s you have. On today’s ride we had a mix of models ranging from 250cc to 1900cc. Everyone had a great time.

Our ride started at 10:15am this morning. The riders gathered at the Shell gas station on 441 & Boynton Beach Blvd. This location has plenty of room to host a meetup 5 times our group size and gas/coffee to boot. Our leader Connie, proceeded with the pre ride meeting and we were off. Connie leading and Richard being the Tail Gunner on his Triumph for the ride. Unfortunately, I was not able to ride and was driving behind the Tail Gunner in my car.

The group rode South on 441, in the beautiful 70 degree weather, toward Boca Raton. Traffic was light and we made an Eastbound turn on to Clintmoore Road. As we traveled Eastbound toward Military Trail, Clintmoore adds a few curves to make the ride interesting. We head Southbound again on Military Trail passing under Glades Road to reach Palmetto Park Road.

On Palmetto Park Road we head Eastbound again towards the ocean. We reach Ocean blvd with a nice flow and no traffic issues. The area we pass through is usually crowded and heavy with traffic but it was nice and clear today.

We head Northbound on Ocean Blvd toward Linton Blvd. The Ocean view is beautiful and A1A is made for Motorcycle riding.

We turn Westbound on Linton Blvd. as we near our destination. The group was like a well oiled machine and there are no lags or spaces in the Staggered formation all ride long.

We arrive at Duffys right on time and are quickly shown to our seats. The waitresses took orders for drinks and quickly followed with food orders. Refills and requests were taken care of expeditiously and there was plenty of time for conversation.  The Wings are great and the price is moderate.  Everyone loved their meals.

After a great lunch it was time for us to ride once again. The group headed Westbound on Linton Blvd. to Jog Road. Northbound on Jog to Atlantic Blvd. Westbound on Atlantic Blvd to 441. Northbound on 441 back to our original starting point.  Riders peeled off as we traveled Northbound and headed for home.

Finally, great weather, great people, motorcycles and a great idea (360’s), equals one more great 360 Bikers event. Until next time, Ride Safe!!

GR

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Welcome readers to another edition of our 360 ride Blog. If you are anywhere in South Florida and love motorcycles, there is no finer group of motorcycle enthusiasts to join. Of course, I could be considered biased, lol.

The night started simply enough. Get home, do some homework (with the little one), check the weather and confirm on the 360 website our ride details. While confirming I noticed our little group had gotten smaller. We had gone from 7 with 2 maybes to just 5 attendees. Undeterred by the chances of rain and a low turn out, I headed out to our meetup on 441 and SR 80, at the Home Depot.

I arrived at 6:20 pm and waited 5 minutes before being waved over by some motocyclists across the parking lot. I rode over to find Roger, Mitzi and several guest riders. Two minutes later, our fearless leader, Maverick, his co-pilot Dale and another guest pulled up. We quickly went from 5 attendees on 3 bikes to 10 attendees on 7 bikes….WOW!!

The lineup looked a lot like this; Maverick & Dale, Roger & Mitzi, Ernesto & Miriam, Chris, Nolen, Fred & yours truly Ken. I did my most serious Hawk impersonation I could muster as a Tail Gunner but I don’t think he has anything to worry about.

We started out Eastbound on SR80 and turned Southbound on Lyons Road. Lyons road is a nice shortcut through to Forest Hill Blvd. There is a round about halfway down the road to slow traffic and a a sheriff’s cruiser parked on the side of the road to help the cause.

We proceeded Eastbound on Forest Hill blvd. The traffic was heavier then expected for 7:00 pm on Thursday evening. We continued on without too many issues until the broken down vehicle at the intersection at Haverhill Rd. separated the group. Maverick handled it like a pro though, pulling over alongside the broken down vehicle and the Sheriff, to wait for the group.

We traveled through Lake Clark Shores and hit the narrowest roads in the world after I-95. The roads are so narrow on the stretch east of 95, that 2 sportbikes have trouble riding side by side in these lanes.

We turned Southbound on to Olive Avenue and followed this road into Lake Worth. At this point the road turns into Federal Highway. This road is well lit, with old fashioned lamp posts and few traffic lights.

After a few miles we reached Lucerne Avenue and turned West bound to arive at Lake Worth bike night. Lucerne runs Westbound one way and Lake Avenue runs Eastbond one way.

We circled Lucerne and Lake Avenue once and could not find parking to accompdate the group. We finally found some spots on K street. Note to self: If you want to park on Lake Ave or Lucerne, arrive at least 45 minutes earlier. Of course, then you will have to deal with rush hour traffic but I digress. The group made our way down Lake Ave to Too Jays for dinner. Along the way there are many vendors, selling gloves, shirts and other Motorcyle paraphenalia. There was even a set up for pin striping right there on the sidewalk. I was sorely tempted as I have wanted some pin striping for awhile.

Too Jays, I’m not sure if I am spelling that right, is excellent, deli style food. The sandwiches are stuffed with whatever you order and the pricing is moderate. The food is ablsolutlely fresh. I soon learned that Dale is a Too Jays afficionado.

While we were sitting down for dinner we noticed 2 familiar bikers pulling up to the curb. Daily and Lindsay had made the trip up from Broward to attend Bike night. Daily and Lindsay, ride the standard, beautiful Kawasaki’s. Daily’s Kawi has the matching saddlebags. A couple of accesories and Daily could put that bike in any show.

With the addition of Daily and Lindsay, that brought our 360 attendees up to a staggering 12 attendees. Okay maybe staggering is a little strong but if you can go from 5 to 12 on a work night you have to be doing something right.

After dinner we saw the sights. There are way too many places to eat & drink to mention. There was also the drunk, the pirate and the clown, which made the night extra exciting.  Of course, it goes without saying that hundreds of different makes and models of Motorcycles were on display. 

The weather was overcast and a cool 75 degrees. In true 360 fashion we started our return trip Westbound on Lake Ave., peeling off as we went. The route provided a true 360 back to our starting point.

Finally, I met some new friends, had some good food and took a nice motorcyle ride and once again, I have 360Bikers to thank for it. Nice Job Maverick. Until next time, Ride Safe!

GR

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After some refueling, (gas, Ice cream, yoo-hoo) we’re almost home and it’s about 4:40 pm or thereabouts. We leave about 3 riders short, as some of our crew split off here. There are plenty left for the relatively short jaunt home.

We continue east working our way toward SR 80. We have a couple more riders split off just outside Belle Glade. Though this area is relatively wide open we actually ran into some road construction to slow us down. It may be just me but they don’t spend nearly enough money in Clewiston and Belle Glade on roads. This particular road has been under construction for awhile now. We keep up a pretty good pace through here just like most of the day.

We have passed through this section before on our way to SR 80 on other 360 runs but I still can’t tell you the name. It bypasses, what goes for downtown Belle Glade. If the whole idea is to avoid traffic lights then it works out great. The weather is great, not warm and not cold. We run into a slight delay approaching SR 80. Sherrif in the middle of the road, lights on and cars pulled over to side. Must have been some kind of dispute or repair, because we barely got held up in time to light a cigarette.  I have a feeling it was the “Horde” of bikers that got that ball rolling because 2 seconds later everyone was gone.

There were some dark clouds threatening but nothing developed over us, there is some thing to be said for timing (luck). As we got closer to Wellington, traffic visibly increased and we started to wave our compadres off. We lost the majority before SR 7. The Wellington group are a bunch of good guys. Plus, quite a few of those guys ride STAR’s, so they get extra credit. We wave to our fearless leader and leave the group to continue on SR 80. There are just 2 of us and a lone biker who happened to join the group in traffic. I lose the last of our compadres about SR 80 and the turnpike and the lone biker a short while later.

Finally riding alone after 10 hours, is kind of strange and almost lonely. I had gotten so use to checking for Hawk and Terri in my rear view or watching Mark, Trudy and Maverick in front of me, that riding alone was almost wrong. I always get the same feeling at the end of a ride, as my fellow riders are peeling off. I actually want to stop and talk to each one and tell them what a great time I had and how cool it was to ride in the group with them. Sometimes, there is not even time to wave to each individual fellow 360er. Our group, of course, has the Post Ride comments on the web and I hope I have expressed my appreiciation and gratitude for my compadres there. Finally, no rain, great weather, slow riding, fast riding, curves, pot holes, alligators, toll roads, fuel island jams, good food and great people equals another great 360 ride. Ride Safe!

GR

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We had lunch at an Irish place called Erin’s Isle. Highly recommended as the food was good and the prices extremely low.  We also have to compliment the waiter for taking on 24 customers he wasn’t expecting, doing individual checks, serving us, and keeping everything straight.  He was impressive as the owner, who was very accommodating for our group.

After refueling at the gas station next door, we organized again and got underway.  I had gone over the route because with a group this size traffic lights make it tough to stay together.  We had a couple riders that did not keep the group tight and sure enough we got split.  After turning at Immokalee Road we waited for the rest of the group before getting underway.

Now, we were out of the traffic and headed towards Immokalee on a nice road that disappeared into old South Florida. I remembered this part of the ride from the previous year and the nice turns in the road as it twisted from running east to a northward path.  Once in Immokalee I took a route that avoided traffic lights so our gappers wouldn’t split the group.  In minutes we were on the road headed north.

— Video Coming Soon —

About 13 miles north of Immokalee I was looking for Keri Road.  This would lead us through our fourth or fifth park of the day and take us on two roads I had never seen before.  The park is Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest (yeah, you say it three times real fast) and the road was nice with little turns.  A couple road patches did make it rough, but overall I’d ride it again.  This road gave us a left turn at the end of it to get on a road that led us to SR80, a familiar road to most of the riders in our group.  From here, we road to Clewiston for our last fuel and rest stop before heading home.

LK

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Well, the lure of free coffee didn’t get anywhere there between 7:00 and 7:30, but by 8:00 everyone but the breakfast group with Ian had arrived.  When all was said and done, we had 19 bikes in front of my house as everyone commented on how great my neighbors are. Children were walking by and looking at all the motorcycles parked on the street.

About 8:25 Ian’s group pulled in and we did our discussion of riding rules.  I do have to note that I can’t stress enough the importance of quickly passing back signals and executing lane changes from the back to the front.  Keeping the group tight became evident as more important as the day wore on, too.

Today’s ride was the 2nd Annual SoFla 360.  This year our route was 330 miles and went through Palm Beach, Broward, Dade, Collier, Lee and Hendry Counties.  We passed along or through five national and state parks including Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, The Collier-Seminole State Park, Picayune Strand State Forest and Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest.  We ended with 21 motorcycles and 27 people on the ride.

There was a little fog, but our late start actually helped the ride in safety as the fog began to lift more and more as we rode south.  We stopped at Starbucks in Hillsborough to pick up another rider.  From there, we rode a few miles to the Sawgrass Expressway.  My most significant challenge came when I suddenly realized the exit for I595 West didn’t exist and we had to take I-75 North.  It was last ditch to make the exit ramp and I felt badly about not having the right information.  Strike one against Google Maps.

Once on the I-75 we rode to US27 which led us down to Krome Ave.  The ride was relatively peaceful except for a major piece of debri in the road as we off-ramped from I-75 to US27.  There was so little time to react to it that was I put my foot out to point to it for other riders I actually kicked it.  Fortunately, I was not moving fast and it didn’t knock me off the bike.  It seemed to be a pull-cart with a piece of luggage.  That was a dangerous moment.

At the corner of Krome and US41 we stopped at the gas station where almost 100 other bikes had met.  A couple groups were almost ready to leave as we gave our smaller bikes time to refuel for the ride across the state.  You’ll read about that in part 2.

LK

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As everyone has noticed, winter is upon us.  Even here in Sunny South Florida.  It’s not a problem though, Florida is still the ride all year state!  Since the weather is cold I just wanted to share my thoughts on typical riding gear.  One of my favorites, and the one I get the most grief about, is my leather chaps.  Besides looking like i’m dressed for halloween or a refugee from a YMCA video, people wonder where your horse is. I tell them the HORSES are parked outside and there’s about 76 of them!  Unless you’re heading for a biker meet or it’s freezing outside, you may be a little sensitive about wearing them.  I have to say, when I first got them, I felt a little self conscious, but really, the benefits far outweigh loss of dignity, lol.  Seriously, for long trips or cold weather, chaps can’t be beat.  I actually didn’t know what I was missing.  My first 2-3 hour ride with the chaps on, showed 2 major differences.  The first is obviously my legs were warmer and I was more confortable during the ride.  The second was bit of a surprise.  I did not realize how the wind resistance affected my legs.  After a ride wearing chaps and spending the day at an event, I felt less stress and less tired then before the chaps.  More comfort and less weariness adds up to a safer ride!  Of course, being able to enjoy your entire day’s ride with less aches and pain is great too.  Motorcycle pants serves this purpose as well but won’t last as long and won’t keep you as warm.  So, for those of us who have chaps, keep enjoying them.  For those who don’t, give it a shot, they really work, you will really appreiciate them on your next long cold ride.  If you find it works and this was helpful, pass it on to  your ride buddies.  After all, if we are all wearing chaps, there will be too many of us to make fun of.

Ride Safe,

GR

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I pull up to work on my 2007 Triumph Daytona and coworkers and my boss marvel at my audacity and nerve. I ride my 2008 Royal Star Venture with my wife and brothers and extended 360 family on the weekends and people just stare. I know what they are thinking because the people I actually talk to all ask the same thing. They want to know how I have the nerve or guts to ride a motorcylce. Don’t I realize how dangerous it is? Don’t I realize that I risk my life each and everyday? It’s the same question. Hidden in a compliment about how nice the bike looks or stated outright as a greeting of sorts. I can never explain to a non rider what the motorcycle experience is. Sure its been described in everyway imaginable….(pause here to fondly remember and pick out your favorite ride)…always the feeling of freedom and the call of the open road. Long sweeping curves, hills, 5 mile long straights, to test your bikes capabilities. Everything that makes a biker smile.

There is something else there though. It’s something deep that some of us don’t even know is there. It’s the point where the risk is no where near as great as the reward. Riders put on their helmets, jeans and gloves and ride. WE ARE UNAFRAID! It’s amazing actually. My wife is deathly terrified of the smallest spider but will twist the throttle and summon life saving speed without a second thought. I don’t think she knows its there because she still won’t watch a horror movie…lol. It’s bond of sorts. I see bikers everyday. I wave to each as a show of respect. There goes someone else who is UNAFRAID. It doesn’t matter what you ride. It doesn’t matter how you ride. Surfing on the tank of your Gixxer in rush hour traffic or freight training 60 bikes strong for lunch. All are bikers and all are UNAFRAID. Of course, let’s not mistake courage for stupidity. The aformentioned Surf through traffic is one I have seen many times and from a safe distance. I will respect them no less. I can no more control their actions as control their fate. As for me, I will ride UNAFRAID until I can ride no more. When I am done, please line up every biker you can find and freight train them right up the nearest and busiest roadway. I want them all to know. I was UNAFRAID!

No one wants to be hurt.  No wants to lose a friend or loved one.  Unfortunately, I been down more times than I can count.  Fortunately, I am still here and I am still UNAFRAID! Next time your friend, your neighbor, your coworker or your family, ask you why you still ride…….Tell them!!!

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