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Click the above image or Click here for more 2010 motorcycle calendars to choose from. Make sure to get one before the new year arrives.

Tags: Books, Movies & Music by Jay Green
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Back when I joined First State HOG, I hadn’t even considered the possibility of taking a weekend getaway on a motorcycle.  And yet only a few months later, there I was hopping on the back of my hubby’s Low Rider® and heading off with a group of riders toward Mansfield and Pennsylvania’s Little Grand Canyon!  On that weekend I discovered that there was much more to motorcycling than local bike nights and afternoon rides around town.  Those beautiful mountains in which I had gone camping many times as a child were now seen with so much more of a breathtaking perspective.  I wasn’t driving through the hills and trees, I was a part of them.  We made great friends with members of the Endless Mountains HOG chapter, and for the first time realized the extent of the brother/sisterhood that binds us together.

Only a few short weeks later, we were off to ride through the clouds along Skyline Drive in Virginia.  And in the spring, it was back to visit our friends in Mansfield for what we all fondly refer to as the “Soggy Bottom” ride.  Travelling two-up on a Dyna®, I learned very quickly how to pack practically nothing and still have what I needed for a several-day trip.  I learned the importance of really good rain gear.  I learned not to carry a cell phone in my back pocket while riding.  And I learned just how much it sucks to ride passenger for long periods of time on a 4-by-5-inch leather-covered brick with no way to stretch out (or even move) your legs!

Motorcycle trips to Rhode Island, Connecticut, New River Gorge, and more broadened my horizons and played a large role in developing my passion for riding.  The addition of Kuryakyn Swingwing Footpegs and a Roho Airhawk seat cushion on the Low Rider® made the terror on my middle-aged body tolerable.  But I yearned to ride my own bike on an overnight adventure.

Just after returning home from five wonderful days in West Virginia, I traded in my 883 Hugger for a brand new Dyna® Super Glide®.  The new bike with its lower center of gravity, better stability, and more power was a delight to ride!  My confidence and skills grew quickly.  I rode on Interstates and even crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, but for several reasons the opportunity to take a trip didn’t arise practically all riding season…until…

On Labor Day weekend 2009, hubby and I headed off for the three-day weekend to visit an old college roommate in CT.  We had been planning this trip for several weeks – preriding portions of it and scoping out routes.  I can’t tell you how proud I was to load up my own bike that morning.  We headed out up I-95 through PA, then took River Road north along the Jersey side of the Delaware River.  Travelling mostly along CR-513 through New Jersey, the two of us then crossed into New York and onto one of the most gorgeous roads I have ever seen – Seven Lakes Drive through Harriman State Park and into Bear Mountain.  There is something romantic and almost magical about taking off on a couple of Harleys®, side-by-side with your most special someone and becoming a part of the lakes and trees while you cruise along that ribbon of pavement as it winds its way through the hills and valleys.

Across the Bear Mountain Bridge and into Clarence Fahnstock State Park we picked up Dennytown Road to US-301.  Our connecting road looked perfectly harmless on a map, but immediately after turning onto it, the pavement turned to loose gravel.  Then the road narrowed to barely a lane wide and became a severely cambered dirt road as we twisted past yellow caution signs reading “limited sight - 5 mph”.  An SUV came flying towards us from the other direction & nearly ran us off the road.  I was very glad to hit solid pavement again, and Dennytown Road did not disappoint!  The twisties and s-curves were well worth the horrific approach.  I’d have to describe nearly every turn in order to do justice to the amazing route that took us from Delaware to Connecticut and back.  Let’s suffice it to say that we couldn’t have planned it more perfectly… except for the dirt road.

We arrived just in time to meet our friends for dinner at the local Oktoberfest celebration.  They knew we were riding, but were surprised to find that I had ridden my own bike.  I would be remiss if I didn’t offer kudos to our fabulous hostess…Margie could give Martha Stewart a run for her money!  It was much too short of a visit, but a very relaxing good time.  We were treated like royalty the whole time we were there.
On Monday morning Jay & I headed towards home, making sure to stop at Washington Crossing along the way. 

By the end of the trip I was tired and a little bit sore, but extremely proud of my newest accomplishment.  Next summer we’re off to Niagara Falls for 6 days, and sure as shootin’ I will be riding my own bike!

Tags: Mrs Road Captain, Trips & Places To Go by Diana Green
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This awesome little knife is MADE IN THE USA! It’s lightweight, high quality and is packaged in a two piece Harley-Davidson gift box.

The Harley-Davidson Vector knife features a 2.5″ tanto blade made of 420HC stainless steel. The blade has dual thumb studs for ambidextrous one hand opening. The bead blast silver anadized CNC machined 6061-T6 aircraft aluminum handle is 3.75″ closed. It has a black rubber insert that says “Harley-Davidson” and a Bar and Shield logo on the pivot. The handle also features a linerlock and a lanyard hole. Can be ordered with and without pocket clip while supplies last at www.Shop.RoadCaptainUSA.com

Click here for more information. 

Tags: Product Reviews by Jay Green
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What is the most important thing you can spend money on after buying a motorcycle, insurance and the essential riding gear? Is the answer a custom paint job, a truck load of chrome and high performance accessories? No! Unfortunately that is not the answer. The answer is training!

I want to be the best motorcyclist I can be. I have been riding and racing motorcycles since I was thirteen and am a patched HOG Road Captain. Even with years of riding experience do I think I know it all? Of course not! No one rider is so good that he can’t learn to be better. If you are serious about riding, you will seek out training and training materials.

Ride Like A Pro V is a simple straight forward training DVD that I consider a must see. It is produced by Jerry “Motorman” Palladino; a motorcycle police officer and instructor with a corny sense of humor. Jerry felt the training that motorcycle officers receive should be available to the public so he started teaching classes based on those techniques. This DVD focuses on three simple techniques that motor officers have been using for sixty years. These are the skills that allow motor officers to out ride 98% of the riding public. Some of the skills in this video are counter intuitive, in other words they do not come naturally. You have to watch the video and you have to go out and practice.

Since watching this DVD my riding has improved tremendously. There is not a day that I ride my motorcycle and do not reflect on the skills demonstrated in this video. I recommend you watch it, and then go out and practice it. For a sneak peak visit YouTube and search for Jerry “Motorman” Palladino or Ride Like A Pro.

Ride Like A Pro V can be purchased at www.Shop.RoadCaptainUSA.com as well as several other companion DVD’s. Click here!

Purchase the DVD now for $29.95 plus $2.95 shipping and handling through PayPal by clicking the “Buy Now” button.

Ride Like A Pro recently published all the information on the well known DVD in a coil bound book also available at www.Shop.RoadCaptainUSA.com the book is excellent in outlining the excercises and how to set them up. To master these skills buy both the book and the DVD. Click Here!

Tags: Books, Movies & Music, Product Reviews by Jay Green
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I recently received this cool little moneyclip pocket knife as a gift. I liked it so much I was inspired to write a little piece about it.

The Levitator moneyclip pocket knife fits in the palm of your hand and makes for a functional gift. Manufactured by BenchMade and designed by McHenry and Williams the innovative design is sure to please. An ingenious patented mechanical LEVITATOR system is integrated into the handle and leverages the spring/pin system to effectively lock the blade open and closed. To open or close the knife you press on the Harley-Davidson Skull logo to release the lock. The tanto blade is AUS8 High Carbon Titanium coated stainless steel. The moneyclip which can also be used as a carry clip is stainless steel. Measures 4.75” open and 2.8” closed. All Harley-Davidson Benchmade knives come with the outstanding Benchmade lifetime warranty and LifeSharp® service. The LifeSharp® Service is a free factory sharpening, cleaning, and tune-up of your H-D® Knife. Send Benchmark a check or money order for $5 to cover the return shipping and handling fees. Your knife will always perform like you expect.

This is a high quality piece that will put a smile on any nife-o-maniac. The warranty and LifeSharp® service sound great. Available at your Harley-Davidson dealership. This one came from Mike’s Famous Harley-Davidson in New Castle, DE.

Tags: Product Reviews by Jay Green
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October 7-9, 2009.  The Harley-Davidson Motor Company held a 2010 Model Launch Party in New York City.  My husband and I were invited to attend, though due to our work schedules we could only swing an 18-hour jaunt.

We arrived in Manhattan on Thursday evening, and attended the private party held at The Ainsworth in Chelsea.  There were several brand new 2010 models on display at the club (including the CVO™ Street Glide® shown below), DJ, open bar, fabulous hors d’oeuvres, a tattoo artist, and free airbrush tattoos.  It was a splendid evening spent making new friends with members of the press, fellow riders, and some local Harley-Davidson® dealers not to mention Paul James, Director of Communications for Harley-Davidson.

But the best part of the trip was Friday morning.  Amidst a light drizzle we arrived back at The Ainsworth where our choice of eight brand new Harley-Davidson® models awaited.  The models available included the Cross Bones™, XR1200™, Nightster®, all-new Fat Boy® Lo, the newly redesigned Wide Glide®, V-Rod Muscle®, Road Glide® Custom, and the first ever CVO™ Softail® Convertible.  The Convertible comes with easy-detach sissy bar, saddlebags, & windshield so you can convert from a full touring bike to a street cruiser in a matter of seconds!

I had never ridden a bike with floorboards and heel-toe shifter before, and I decided that the streets of New York City were probably not the best place to be trying out something new!  I currently own a Dyna® Super Glide®, so I opted for the Wide Glide® because it was most similar to what I was used to riding.  Jay chose to ride the Fat Boy® Lo.  We got geared up, took a few photos for posterity, and threw our legs over the iron steeds. 

At that point I realized we had a problem…my feet could not comfortably reach the forward controls!  Alright, now we were on to Plan B – I had to ride the Nightster®.  Not that there is anything wrong with a Nightster®, mind you…but I had begun my riding career on a 2001 XLH883 Hugger.  I have since moved up to my big-twin, and was a little disappointed that I had to go back to a Sporty.  Alas, they handed me the keys, and we were off for an amazing ride.

OK, the first block was a single lane, one way, construction zone with beat up pavement – we pretty much duck-walked the bikes up to the corner.  Maneuvering around the next few blocks was even more stressful.  There were pedestrians, taxis galore, traffic lights, and all kinds of distractions…not to mention the fact that I had no idea where we were going!  Construction and road closures made our trip “around the block” quite unnerving.  Then just as I saw a sign for Rt-9A, my husband and I got separated by a red light.  I probably could have made it through, but given that I thought we were going to die that morning when our cabbie tried to play chicken with an oncoming fire truck, I was not going to try.

Once the light finally changed, I found Jay waiting on the Fat Boy® Lo in a median area marked off with diagonal yellow lines.  Our turn was immediately to the right, and there was no way he could make it back across the traffic to make the turn.  So we continued straight and ended up going south on Rt-9A.  For a few moments I felt at ease.  I actually got into third gear and cruised for a few blocks past the Chelsea Pier toward downtown.
Soon we hit traffic and stoplights.  As annoying as this normally would have been, it allowed me to take in some of the sights and sounds in the area.  At one point, Jay turned over his shoulder, pointed, and called out to me “Go left!  Go left!”  So with every ounce of my being I managed to eke out a position in the left lane for us.  After that very stressful move (cutting in front of a taxicab), I became even more stressed that my husband was not moving over even though I had blocked the lane for him.  We were stopped in traffic again, and then he did move over.  But then he said “LOOK left, not GO left!”  He pointed emphatically to the left side of the road and said, “It’s Ground Zero!”  Oh my goodness, we were at Ground Zero!

A few blocks later we reached the U-turn at Battery Park.  Coming back up this section of the road we spent more time with our feet on the ground than the pegs, and the air-cooled engines began to get hot.  We were stopped so much that we were able to pull out the cameras while on the bikes and snap a shot or two as we motored back past Ground Zero.

Now heading north (as was the original plan), we were able to cruise fairly well going past the ship terminal where we had boarded a cruise ship for our honeymoon to Bermuda two summers back.  We continued almost all of the way to the George Washington Bridge as the traffic eased up and it didn’t really seem like we were in the city any more. 

We tried to turn around and found ourselves on Riverside Drive.  The shoulder was closed off to parking at the time (perhaps for street cleaning or something), so there was plenty of room to easily pull over and snap a few pics.  Jay asked me if I wanted to switch bikes and try the Fat Boy® Lo for a bit.  At this point I was feeling pretty comfortable, so I agreed…but not until I got a quick lesson in heel-toe shifters!

This bike really is low!  It was very comfortable, and I could reach all of the controls easily.  I very nervously took off for the first block or two.  It took a bit of getting used to when I needed to reach my foot forward in order to shift, but all in all it was great.  The floorboards were so comfortable that as I approached the first stop sign I almost forgot to put my feet down on the ground!

I rode the Fat Boy® Lo about 5 miles or so down Riverside.  Then we started to get back into some heavier traffic, and I decided to trade back to the Nightster®.  It was good to be on a bike I didn’t have to think about riding while maneuvering through the streets & traffic that needed my undivided attention.  There was one point where two streets were merging.  Jay managed to jump to the left and zip up the street while I was stuck between two cars each trying to push me out of my lane from opposite sides at the same time!

I had a fantastic time.  The rain didn’t even phase me.  At times the traffic stressed me out, but mostly it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  Looking back I still can’t believe that I was riding a brand new 2010 Harley-Davidson® with Wisconsin manufacturer plates on it through the streets of New York City!  The whole 18-hours still seems surreal.  Now I can’t help but feel that if I can ride a bike there, I can ride anywhere!

Tags: Mrs Road Captain, Trips & Places To Go by Diana Green
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