360bikers.com

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.

This was our first attempt at doing a class to help prepare riders for group riding. I thought it went exceptionally well. I might look at a different place to meet so we can do the oral part a little better, but our materials, examples, and explanations were good. Rich and I tagged back and forth as we went through the list of items on my clipboard and then we did the ride. I almost want to thank the cities of Wellington, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Lantana for making such a great course to teach group riding.  I led the group as Rich rode tailgunner.  A relaxing ride down US441 provided our lane change exercises which went exceptionally well. We did our first real turn from US441 to Atlantic changing from a 4-lane highway to a 2-lane road. About a mile later we turned onto Hagan Ranch Rd., which is a suburban 4-lane at that point. Nice little curves and several round-abouts gave us the opportunity to practice the switch from staggered to single and back.  Then, we took a short connect on Lantana Rd.  to Lyons north to pick up Lake Worth and back to US441.  It was a great great ride. Great class. We’ll do it again for sure.

OK, again it has taken me entirely too long to post about this event.  What can I say?  It has been a busy week after a fantastic, relaxing weekend.  As I said before Leesburg Bikefest, this is one event everyone should attend.

The ride up was nice.  Ian and I rode together and stopped at Ft. Pierce for breakfast at the ever popular Waffle House.  Apparently the Denny’s there went out of business, but there’s enough customer base to have two WH’s within a half mile of each other.  From there we rode to Yeehaw Junction where we stopped to split up.  Ian was meeting a friend in Ocala and I was meeting my son north of Haines City.

I took SR60 west on what turned out to be a very nice ride.  Traffic was low and cruising between 65 and 70 was without interruption.   I got to US27 and rode towards Haines City.  In spite of being in town and the construction, the ride wasn’t bad.  The speed limits were 50 or better and the lights were spread far apart.

I pulled into a Walmart to refuel and wait for my son and his friend (following in a dune buggy) to arrive.  That was over 30 minutes, but after they got there we were soon on our way.  It’s only a short hour ride to Leesburg from there unless a biker lays one down.  Naturally, someone laid it down, but there seemed to be no life threatening injuries as we rode past the slightly damaged bike.

As we neared Leesburg bike traffic picked up rapidly.  Where we had been seeing dozens of bikes on the highway we now say only a few dozen cages!  It was bikes everywhere and it sounded great.  Riding US27 with its hills into Leesburg let us know there was good riding around.

We spent the day doing the carnival acts.  We looked at vendors, the Rats Hole for bikes and babes, listened to some really good bands, and just looked at bikes and people.  We met friends and made some, too.  We ate some pretty good road food and had a beer or two.

By 5:00 I was really getting antsy.  It was hot in the parking lots and I wanted to ride to cool off.  Now, David (the dune buggy guy) had to ride bitch with Wes to get over to Main Street.  Wes didn’t like the ride so I humbled to give him a ride back to his buggy.  Then, the three of us road our respective vehicles our through the villages.  It was nice and peaceful riding the back roads and through the golf course developments.  We topped off the tanks and headed back to the hotel.

After dark the old fart (me) decided it had been a long day.  I was up at 5:00 AM and rode 4 hours to meet them before they leisurely came along so I was pretty tired.  The young guys wanted to go downtown to party and I bid them good night.  They came back sometime in the night and had a few good stories, but nothing remarkable.

Sunday was great.  We started after checkout with a gourmet breakfast at the Golden Corral.  Not bad!  Then, riding out we split up as they had to attend a Rotary benefit bowling thing and I had to check out my proposed ride for the way home.  I was the winner on this one.  I rode out through hills and took a few “wrong turns” to see what was there.  I had beautiful curves and fantastic vistas.  Yeah, I said vistas in Florida!  There was one spot high on a hill where I could see for literally 30 to 40 miles.   There was one hill that went up, dipped, went up a little more and then crested to a 45-degree incline straight down about 400 yards to a traffic circle out in the middle of nowhere.  I rode past lakes and homes and was so anxious to take everyone on the route that I hooked back after I hit SR50.

I haven’t finished working on the videos for this trip.  I have an avi file that is over 6 GB that I have to bring home somehow to edit.  The ride home with friends was great even though we compromised to the turnpike to get home before dark.  It was a great weekend and I hope to see more of our riders on it next year.  It’s that good.

This is a very good piece of literature, especially from the biker perspective.

__________________

I saw you, hug your purse closer to you in the grocery store line.

But, you didn’t see me, put an extra $10 in the collection plate last Sunday.

I saw you, pull your child closer as we walked by on the sidewalk.

But, you didn’t see me, playing Santa at the local mall.

I saw you, change your mind about going into the restaurant.

But, you didn’t see me, attending a meeting to raise more money for the hurricane relief.

I saw you, roll up your window & shake your head when I drove by. But, you didn’t see me, driving behind you when you flicked your cigarette butt out the car window.

I saw you, frown at me when I smiled at your children.

But, you didn’t see me, when I took time off from work to run toys to the homeless.

I saw you, stare at my long hair. But, you didn’t see me, and my friends cut ten inches off for Locks of Love.

I saw you, roll your eyes at our leather coats and gloves.

But, you didn’t see me, and my brothers donate our old coats and gloves to those that had none.

I saw you, look in fright at my tattoos.

But, you didn’t see me, cry as my children where born and have their name written over and in my heart.

I saw you, change lanes while rushing off to go somewhere.

But, you didn’t see me, going home to be with my family.

I saw you, complain about how loud and noisy our bikes can be.

But, you didn’t see me, when you were changing the CD and drifted into my lane.

I saw you, yelling at your kids in the car.

But, you didn’t see me, pat my child’s hands, knowing he was safe behind me.

I saw you, reading the newspaper or map as you drove down the road. But, you didn’t see me, squeeze my wife’s leg when she told me to take the next turn.

I saw you, race down the road in the rain.

But, you didn’t see me, get soaked to the skin so my son could have the car to go on his date.

I saw you, run the yellow light just to save a few minutes of time.

But, you didn’t see me, trying to turn right.

I saw you, cut me off because you needed to be in the lane I was in. But, you didn’t see me, leave the road.

I saw you, waiting impatiently for my friends to pass.

But, you didn’t see me. I wasn’t there.

I saw you, go home to your family. But, you didn’t see me.

Because, I died that day you cut me off.

I was just a biker. A person with friends and a family.

But, you didn’t see me.

Negligence of writing here has been a bad habit of mine lately. Last week we had a great ride and over 60 photos posted on the meetup site. It was relaxing and when I got back I just zoned out. There’s been a lot on the plate lately.

Today, we had a ride that Rich came up with quite awhile ago. It’s about time we actually did the ride and it proved to be everything he said it would be. We started at the Harley-Davidson store in West Palm Beach. It’s a common meeting place for our group because it’s right off I-95 and makes it easy for all our riders to get there in time. We left at 8:30 as scheduled and headed towards Okeechobee, another standard leg that we do on many rides. Once there, we kept on US98 north and started the route we hadn’t done before in our group. After moving north awhile, we hit back roads that took us west to Punta Gorda. It was a nice, relaxing ride on country roads We rode into the Fisherman’s Village area and to the restaurant on the water where we had a nice lunch with friends.

As food went, it wasn’t that great. The key was the location. On the water we watched catamarans and yachts cruise by as we ate, drank, and talked with our friends. We had a superb waitress who dazzled us with her incredible memory (she took no notes with orders for 13 people and never slipped once!) and had a nice lunch in general. This Fisherman’s area has several buildings with shops in it and we walked through it after lunch. Trudy and Mark were taken captive by a store and finally escaped so we could leave.

Keep in mind that we’ve traveled about 150 miles to get there and now have a bit over that to get home. Weather played games with us on the way up and wasn’t done with us for the ride home. Rich led us to the roads he planned for the way back and everyone was very pleased with this part of the trip. It was great. Winding back roads with forests, estates, and great views all the way back. We even saw a gator sitting by the corner at one turn. The roads took us all the way into La Belle. This is a route we’ll work into a ride again. It was just to good to not revisit.

On the way back there was an edginess in the group. I’m not sure why. It could have been the occasional spritz we had or the major rains that surrounded us as we rode the last leg home. After Clewiston we hit some rain in Belle Glade, but all in all, it wasn’t bad at all. It turned out to be a great day for a great ride. If you can’t get wet, you can’t really ride… especially in South Florida.

We had a new rider, Guz, who came on his 1200 Sportster. This was a tough ride to start with our group, especially on the Sporty, but he did a great job. It was great that with 8 bikes we actually had 3 occupied by couples. I think that’s pretty cool and everyone was great. Connie was our only female bike rider as the other girls didn’t make it. It was a great group that rode tighter than our group usually does. Our group is growing and so are our rides. The quality and planning is paying off as we near 80 members.

Ian, one of our most respected members, sent me this link so I could determine if I was a real biker.  I took the short survey, almost holding my breath as I tried to figure out what the hell some of those questions had to do with reality.  I finished it and waited for the verdict.  Damn, what if it turned out I was something less? What if it labeled me a noob or a Poser?  What if it… well, it was fast and the results were favorable.  I have no idea if any thought really went into the survey, but you’ll have fun with it.  Just click HERE and enjoy.