Leaning into Life: Lessons from the Road

This year’s road trip across the US and Canada begins at Motorcycles of Charlotte on Saturday, June 18. After 9:00 coffee and danish/donuts courtesy of the dealership, we’ll leave in the 10:00 hour for Robbinsville, NC.

Super slab is I-85 to 74 to 26 and at just about Hendersonville, NC we’ll take in 100 miles of twisties to Robbinsville.

Sunday morning we’ll ride Tail of the Dragon and then I’ll keep going to Chattanooga, TN — you’re welcome to go as far as you’d like with me.

Motorcycles of Charlotte has graciously provided us with a ride captain, Rich Lodge, who will place us in manageable groups, provide maps, etc. Please email him directly if you plan to ride with us so he knows what kind of crowd he’s in for. Also, if you’d like to take advantage of the group rate we have at the Microtel, go through Rich.

Bling your bike!

Please consider decorating your bike in honor of The Cause (breast cancer research).  Motorcycles of Charlotte will donate $25 for every decorated bike and if you decide to “ride naked” I ask that you donate $25.  Decorated bikes are a great way to raise awareness and money for a disease that afflicts one out of every eight women.

Here are some bike-blinging ideas.

Attention Conga Riders! Polish your bike, fluff your feather boas and smile! Motorcycle photographer and author Christina Shook will immortalize you at a stunning location near Shell, Wyoming during the Conga IV rally.

Christina Shook

Christina’s photographs capture the beauty and soul of real women motorcyclists. Her work hangs in sites such as the Smithsonian Institution-affiliated Women’s Museum and appears in national publications, including Iron Works magazine. She is author and photographer of the luscious photographic coffee table book of women motorcyclists, Chicks On Bikes.

Christina’s photographs will grace the book that Conga III inspired:  Live Full Throttle: Life After Your Cancer Diagnonsis.

Here’s how it works

Christina will set up an outdoor studio in a magnificent location.  You can be photographed by yourself, or with any friends, and of course with your bike.   Christina’s skills as portrait artist will put you at ease and bring out the best of the real you (and yours). We’ll convince Flo to stick around the outdoor studio so everyone who wants one can get a shot with her.

The $200 session will include a personal website of 20 or more images and two 8×10 custom prints mounted on archival board (which is how museums mount their works). Prints include a full retouch according to your wishes – from “just freshen me up” to “I want to be forever 29 and size 4!”

So many options

And what will you do with these photographs?  Besides using them as your Facebook pic, you can give them to  family and friends, frame one for your desk, make it your screen saver, heck you can even use it to make a blanket for your grandbaby or your  grandma.

The two 8×10 board-mounted photographs are suitable for hanging in your home or office or, if your children are worthy of such a gift, you can bestow it upon them.  You know they’ve been after you for something besides a snapshot and here’s your chance.

I will use mine for my author picture on Live Full Throttle. Although I intend to be slim and trim by then, I may need some of Christina’s retouch services. I know I’m in good hands there.

Think about it — when’s the last time you had a professional photograph?  Graduation?  Your wedding?  Isn’t it time you captured your spirit as a motorcyclist?

See more of Christina Shook’s work here: www.chicksonbikes.us or at www.cshook.com
and contact her directly to book your session: christina@cshook.com or 415-713-9717

My first motorcycle show was a little less noisy and a little more family-friendly than I’d anticipated. The weather was perfect for riding the 100 miles from Charlotte NC to Greenville SC — I didn’t even use my heated gear.

A Woman-Friendly Show

The Women’s Motorcyclist Foundation (WMF) is doing a bang-up job helping women join the sport, improve their skills, connect with each other, and raise money to fund cures for cancers that predominately strike women. I met Gin and Sue, the founders of WMF, this weekend when they invited me to speak at the Womens Ride feature of the International Motorcycle Show.

OK, in truth, I wrangled the speaking invitation through Christina Shook, who will be photographing subjects for Live Full Throttle: Life after Your Cancer Diagnosis.  Her photos graced the Women Ride booth. Thanks, Christina!

It was refreshing to be with people who don’t get sucked into the factions of cruiser vs dirt biker vs sport biker etc. Gin and Sue just want women to ride, ride well, and ride for a cause.

I met some wonderful women motorcyclists from the region’s motorcycling clubs, including Motor Maids the Hi-Definition Motorcycle Club and my own Carolinas BMW Owners Club.

Then there were my fellow speakers, Alisa Clickenger, who solo-traveled from RI to Argentina, and Sharon Cancel aka”Lady Ninja,” who owns Full Tilt Motorsports.  If you ever want to feel inspired and supported, these women will do the job. Love ‘em.

My friends at the BMW Performance Center had a booth to introduce people to their motorcycle- and car-driving programs AND my training program on April 2 & 3 (which I hope you’ll join).

Special thanks to my friends at 1060 Creative. Anthony Proctor, a fellow cyclist, taped my presentation. I don’t have the nerve to look at it yet, despite his assurances.

This-n-that

I was pleased to see so many educational seminars, not just in the Womens Ride area, but on two other stages. Topics ranged from riding techniques to motorcycle maintenance and travel tips. Vendors also had videos and demos from their booths.

I saw lots of families there, and the vendors were really indulgent about parents putting their kids on bikes for snapshots.

For some reason, there weren’t many African-American faces at the show.  In South Carolina, where the overall black population is 28%, I can’t quite figure that out. Any ideas why motorcycling is not proportionate to the population?

The venue was big enough and they managed traffic very well. Bikes parked FREE!

I hate going to over-crowded events and this one was just right. I had no trouble getting help from the vendors but neither did they fight over me for lack of other people at the show to talk to. Call it “Goldilocks attendance.”

I was happy to finally lay my hands on a Shuberth helmet, which is back on the American market after a few years without an American distributor. I see what all the hoopla is about — the C3 is a wonderful helmet, but not sure it’s worth $200 premium over my Shoei. Can anyone weigh in on that?

Party Prompt: What social gathering rocked your socks off in 2010? Describe the people, music, food, drink, clothes, shenanigans.

It started sprinkling some 80 miles outside Cheyenne and I knew I wouldn’t arrive until after dark. My ears were still burning from the lecture by a sheriff who’d pulled me over for speeding through open grazing territory. I couldn’t wait to get to the Holiday Inn, where my fellow Conga Riders were convening from across the US and Canada.

Pulling under the canopy at the Holiday Inn,  I knew I was in the right place by the dozens of  motorcycles festooned in pink.  Yes, festooned  – a couple even had feather boas wrapped around the handlebars.

I had eyes for one person and there she was in the middle of the action: Flo Fuhr, a vision in pink jeans, pink boots and a pink T-shirt. I jumped off my bike to give my newfound sister a hug. I made it!

This is the inimitable Flo Fuhr, co-founder of the Conga fundraisers for breast cancer research. In this video we talk about the three-day party that was Conga in Cheyenne, some of which I missed with my bad head cold, no doubt brought on from the cold ride in the rain.

OK, here’s your chance to do well by doing good.

BY NOON ON MONDAY 8/9, guess my odometer reading when I hit Caribou Coffee on Sunday, 8/8 and you’ll be rewarded with a $50 gift certificate to spend right there (or at any Caribou location for that matter).  Each guess costs $10 and it all goes to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Click here, donate at least $10 and leave your odometer guess in the form.

Here’s what you have to work with:

• On Monday I began with 5919 from Norton, Kansas.
• If you’re following my Facebook Fan Page or Twitter hashtag #tamxc you can see where I’ve been since then.
  • From Kansas I traveled through Missouri to Hannibal, where I missed some miles to St. Louis due to mechanical issues. BMW took 100% care of me and the bike.
  • St. Louis I traveled through southern Illinois to Lebanon KY.
  • Saturday morning (8/7) after a fundraising breakfast for the National Breast Cancer Foundation,  I rode to Asheville, NC.
  • Sunday I landed in Charlotte and The Charlotte Observer’s Eric Frazier witnessed my odometer.

FINAL: Anthony Proctor came closest to my actual odometer reading of 7505 and won the grand prize from Caribou Coffee.