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It rubs me the wrong way to read about motorcyclists referring to others as Wanna Be’s. Who is born with a motorcycle? We all had to have that Wanna Be desire at some point before we made the leap. And then when someone makes the leap and buys a motorcycle they have to be ridiculed and mocked as a wanna be… unless of course it is someone you know. In that case they are more politely referred to as a Newbie. Eventually they get enough miles under their belt to become a full fledged biker and then they probably follow suit and start mocking others who they don’t consider real bikers. Personally, I miss the desire and passion I had before my dream of owning a Harley became a reality. I also miss the excitement that came with being a new rider once my dream was realized. Now I’m just another jaded Harley owner.

There was a period in my life when I was obsessed with muscle cars. At one point I had several hundred dollars invested in a 1/10th scale radio control ‘69 Mustang GT350. Even as an accomplished Harley rider I was a Wanna Be. I never thought I would realize the dream of owning an American icon on four wheels. I told myself “cars are for transportation and a muscle car is not practical.” I tried to settle my desire by convincing myself “my motorcycle is my passion.” My wife Diana is much like me and we decided to decorate our kitchen in homage to the Shelby Mustang GT350. So we have this kitchen that is a Mustang shrine and I think that alone officially made us under cover secret Mustang Wanna Be’s who happened to own Harleys. Knowing that Diana’s car was on it’s last legs I asked her in January wether we should be practical and buy a mini SUV or if we should buy our dream car. She voted practical and said she wanted a Saturn Vue. Sadly, Saturn is no more and a good Vue is hard to find.

Another cherry has been popped! Diana had a change of heart. As of this morning Diana and I took another leap of faith and purchased the dream car of our budget. Now a cherry 2005 Mustang GT Convertable sits in the driveway. Actually Diana took it to a Pink Garage Party… so it’s not really in the driveway; my Toyota Corolla is. Now that we have two Harleys, a Mustang, a house and each other… what is left to yearn for? I know! An all inclusive dream vaction package to a Caribbean Island! Yeah! I’m a Wanna Be again! Dream’n bout rum punch drinks from the poolside swim up bar.

You only live once so “Go for the Gusto!”

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts by Jay Green
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I currently do not have a communication device on my motorcycle but believe that bike to bike communication is way under valued. It is my belief that in the near future bike to bike communication using compact wireless helmet mounted bluetooth technology will become the norm and we will wonder how he got along without it. Something as simple as pulling over because you got some dust in your eye could be easily communicated to your buddy or group. Instead we usually tough it out and do the best we can until the irritation goes away, unless of course you ride by yourself. In that case you do whatever you please whenever you please.

I once went on an ice cream ride with my HOG Chapter where a member from another chapter joined us. He rode without putting any eyewear on. This is illegal and dangerous. I couldn’t tell if this was the way he liked to ride or not. I kept telling myself that it was not my problem, that if he wanted to pull over and put his eyewear on, then it was up to him. There were plenty of opportunities for him to do so but because he was new to the group he didn’t speak up. If I had a CB I could have called up to the lead Road Captain on his Ultra Classic and notified him of the situation to get his oppinion. After we got to the ice cream stop it became known that it was a mistake and he should have let us know he needed to pull over. If we could all communicate I think the experience of riding with a friend or a group of friends would be a hundred times safer and ten times more fun.

Here is a post on Motorcycle Philosophy about the impact of having to take a rest stop while riding with people who don’t take rest stops. Click here to check it out and think how different it would be if these riders could communicate.

Even though I think newer technologies will become the norm, the CB Radio will be more common for quite awhile among cruisers since most touring bikes are already outfitted with them. The sportbike crowd might adapt to FRS Radio and new technologies sooner because they are all on a level playing field. For those of us in the Harley crowd, many of our friends are already outfitted with CB on their Ultra Classics. My wife has done alot of research on the Internet and has only found one handlebar mounted CB Radio specifically for motorcycle use. It is the J&M model and can be ordered as a complete system from www.CycleAccessoryStore.com in North Carolina. Diana ordered a $600 J&M CB Radio system from them for my 2008 Christmas present but; I stupidly exchanged it for two Chatterbox FRS units. The Chatterbox system was half the price of the J&M and was supposed to be voice activiated. I thought that the hands free VOX system would be better than PTT (Push to Talk). Although the FRS radios wouldn’t allow us to communicate with our friends on CB I thought it was more important that Diana and I be able to communicate. The Chatterbox units we received didn’t work well at all and I returned them directly to Chatterbox for a full refund under warranty assuming this is not the way they are supposed to function (defective). I didn’t believe that replacements would work much better. I was tempted to buy the bluetooth Scala Rider system from www.CycleAccesoryStore.com (they have great customer service). At the moment this system is limited to communication between two bikes only. It is the most compact lightweight unit I have seen. It is a little egg shaped device you clip on your helmet. “Look Ma, No wires!”

It is winter time again and I find myself surfing the Net for an affordable compact CB capable of being rigged up to a motorcycle. The J&M is considered the top of the line but it is expensive, unattractive and might not be compatable with my split view mirrors. I came across the Midland 75-822 which appears to be the second most most compact CB radio on the market. It is a complete 40 channel CB radio system in a small handheld unit. It will accept a variety of accessory headsets. The Cobra 75 WX ST is smaller but I do not know if you can attach an accesory headset to it.

The Midland 75-822 can be used as a portable (like a walkie talkie) or changes to a mobile unit. It has a belt clip, two battery attachments, a detachable antenna and the mobile attachment. The normal battery attachment holds 6 standard AA batteries. The rechargeable battery attachment holds 8 NiCad rechargeable AA batteries and comes with a plug to charge them up. It also comes with a short flexable detachable walkie talkie size antenna. The mobile attachment has connections for a base mount antenna and cigarette lighter plug. The idea is you can us this CB as a mobile unit in your car, jeep or truck and then take it with you as a portable outside the vehicle. Imagine using it to go on a camping trip. You can use it in the vehicle and then stay in touch with other users and listen to NOAA weather reports from your tent. You can use my 12 Volt Power Port to connect the cigarette lighter plug to your battery tender quick connect on a motorcycle. That means you just gotta figure out how to mount the base antenna and where to keep the radio. You might just want to clip it on your belt. It would be really cool if the little antenna worked well and you didn’t need the base antenna… but I doubt it. We’ll find out when it gets a little warmer. You can find this radio on eBay and Amazon.com for less than $90.

A company called www.HiTechWireless.com sells a motorcycle headset that is compatable with the Midland 75-822. It is called RiderComm and is made by RocketScience. You need to order it with the S1 connector. It is currently on sale for $89.95 and includes the headset with boom microphone, weatherproof PTT button and connecting cables. They told me the only customer complaint they hear is the length of the cables isn’t as long as some people would like and there are no extensions available. I bought the unit from HiTech Wireless and it arrived the next day via Federal Express. I was impressed considering there was no shipping or handling charge.

I bought the Midland CB with a Cobra 300 watt magnetic base antenna from Amazon for $101.72 with Free Super Saver Shipping and received the merchandise in about three days. Click here for more details on the Midland 75-822 CB radio at my Amazon store.

Now I am off to surf the Net for a magnetic tank bag to stash the radio in. “Hang Loose!”

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts, Road Captain Stuff, Technical Stuff by Jay Green
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Only two more days left in 2009. This year will be etched in my mind forever. It was marked by numerous accomplishments and one horrific loss.

I began the year by taking on a leadership role that was a daunting but welcome challenge. The Director of my HOG Chapter resigned to start a new MC. It was agreat opportunity for her, unfortunately for me she took several of our key officers with her. I had been the Assistant Director for only a few months when I was asked to step up to Director. Not only was I a fairly new member taking the healm of a twenty year old HOG Chapter, but I had to put together a leadership team to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward. Luckily an enthusiastic Ed and Karen Fortner came to my side and joined forces in the task. Ed became the Assistant Director and Karen was already the Activities Officer. Together with my wife Diana we spent many January and February weekend nights discussing how to increase particaption in our chapter and planning a spring trip to Outer Banks North Carolina.

The four of us went to North Carolina on Valentines Day weekend to nail down the details of the trip. We got along in a way that I can’t explain very well. I guess it is hard  enough to find a guy friend you see eye to eye with, but to find a couple that have the same likes and dislikes as you and your spouse… well that’s probably twice as hard to find and twice as valuable. We had a blast that weekend and over the next couple months we got to be closer and closer as friends.

Springtime came and we hit the ground running. The new leadership team created a fun atmasphere that made eveyone feel welcome at our HOG chapter events. We focused on the HOG mantra to Ride and Have Fun. Particpation shot up immediately in March and we ran straight into April. We had record turnouts for our first dinner rides and poker runs taking home the most particpation awards at the first two regional poker runs we attended. Then the four of us went to HOG Primary Officer Training with our Secretary and Head Road Captain. The six of us had a great time and got a glimpse of how impressive the HOG organization is. We got home from POT just in time to host our one big fundraiser of the year: our annual First State HOG Spring Poker Run. It was a huge success thanks to all the officers and volunteers… and the weather was pretty good to us.

We gathered on April 24th for the spring trip that Karen and Ed had planned so well. It was a beautiful day! Ed took the lead Road Captain Position with his proud wife and Activites Officer riding wing. Their son Justin and two of his friends followed directly behind them. Diana and I were at the rear, me in the Sweep position wearing a flouresecent safety vest.

We were riding about twenty bikes strong with smiles pasted on our faces as we headed to North Carolina. Four hours into the trip we found ourselves in Cheriton, VA approaching the Chespaeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. In a flash lives changed forever! A deranged women in a Ford Taurus sped out from a driveway and plowed through our pack of motorcycles killing our dear beloved friend Karen! It was a horrible thing and there hasn’t been a day since then that I haven’t thought about it.

The motorcycle community gathered around the Fortner family and offered their support as best they could. Our HOG Chapter became closer. We didn’t want to let Karen down, so we valiently continued on through the year succeeding at everything we set out to do. We won 10 awards and doubled chapter participation over the previous year!

Becoming Director and succeeding has been one of the best experiences of my life. It is a huge accomplishment and an honor to have people follow me voluntarily. It’s nothing like my job where my staff do what I ask them to because I’m their Supervisor. Being Director of First State will probably be the closest thing to fatherhood that I will experience. When our chapter succeeds at putting on an event or wins an award I feel like a proud parent. Our chapter has flourished this year and for that I am proud. My blog and online store have also done extremely well. My mail order business is a success, we have exceeded 6,000 hits per month and I am seeing some advertising income. I even started getting paid to write for other online publications. Diana and I have been recognized by Harley-Davidson and received a special invitation to come test ride their motorcycles in NYC and write about it on RC USA. The accomplishments have been many!

The numerous victories of the year however are overshadowed by the loss of a dear friend. The vivid memories of the carnage on Route 13 will be with me forever. April 24th, 2009 was the worst day of my life. If Karen were still here to relish in what we accomplished… then perhaps it would have been one of the greatest years of my life. But she is not here, the accident really did happen and it is difficult to savor the victories without her.

2009 was a bitter sweet year.

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts, HOG by Jay Green
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                         “This is not Liberty State Park!” 

When I first started riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles in Delaware a few short years ago my idea of riding was going to the Hooters in New Castle, DE for Bike Night. During my second season of riding I was introduced to the concept of day trips and back roads after joining the local HOG chapter here in northern Delaware: First State Chapter. A few of the initial day trips I went on ventured into New Jersey. Those trips mainly visited Wild Wood, Cape May and Atlantic City… otherwise known as the Jersey Shore.

Riding was still new to me back then. I followed my HOG Chapter to many places and it was always an adventure… because I was a newbie. We traveled throughout the tri-state region of Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The Delmarva Peninsula and Chesapeake Bay are now familiar stomping grounds. Lancaster and York, Pennsylvania have also become familiar. Sometimes we travel north of Philly to the quaint little town of New Hope, Pennsylvania on the banks of the Delaware River. For some reason we stopped traveling into New Jersey. Our rides into Jersey have become limited to the dreadful dash up the Jersey Turnpike to Fort Lee where we hop onto the scenic Palisades Parkway which leads to New York, Connecticut and the rest of New England.

Due to a series of events the sense of ADVENTURE has eluded me this summer. For emotional and financial reasons I stayed in familiar territory following my HOG Chapter on local excursions. Please don’t get me wrong, these are enjoyable trips of respectable distances and I love riding with First State. These are not short rides; we put a lot of miles on the motorcycles this summer. We can ride all day and come home well after sunset with a million or so dead bugs stuck to the front of our helmets and bikes. But now I find myself wanting to break that routine. I want to get on the motorcycles with Diana and head into unchartered territory with no Road Captain to follow. I want to get lost. I need to get lost. I need things to be new and exciting again without the safety net of following someone who knows where they are going. Where can I get lost?

Sometimes we joke that our Road Captains must be wanted in New Jersey for criminal acts because we don’t cross the border. It’s strange because our sponsoring Harley-Davidson dealer is at the foot of the Delaware Memorial Bridge a stone’s throw from the Delaware River that separates Delaware from New Jersey. We even have a few members in First State from the Garden State. They joke that they belong to our chapter because there is nowhere to ride in Jersey. Most of New Jersey does seem to be congested with urban sprawl. Are there any back roads in New Jersey? Are the only two roads that can take you through the state the NJ Turnpike and the Garden State Parkway both of which are pretty scary?

             “The other Newark” 

There it is… the ominous New Jersey state border. What lurks on the other side of the Delaware River besides airports, factories, cities and super highways? It reminds me of the border to The Forbidden Zone in the Planet of the Apes. On this side of the river lies familiar territory with many great undiscovered roads to find, but I won’t get lost. On the other side of the river lies the call of adventure.

I’m fortunate that my spouse loves this sport also. We can get lost together, make some memories and have some adventures. Off to New Jersey we go! Don’t give us any hints… we want to get lost. This is about the adventure of going where you don’t know where you are going.

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts by Jay Green
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There have been a number of motorcycle accidents this year within my circle of influence. Of course most notable is the tragic accident that occured on April 24th while I was riding sweep on the way to the outer banks of North Carolina. A friend was killed and two were injured with broken bones. I have been to the local hospital on three other occasions to visit friends who have gone down. The thought of a motorcycle accident happening to one of my friends while we are out riding is no longer a wild notion of what could happen but a reality that I expect to reoccur at any moment. It is a heavy burden on my mind and keeps me from enjoying the ride like I used to. At the moment I ride, but it is not a relaxing ride. I’m not writing this to bring anyone down… I’m writing this in hopes that some of you have experienced this feeling and can tell me how long it lasted. When will I return to a normal state of motorcycle bliss? Please do share your stories.

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts by Jay Green
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Thank you to everyone who has been concerned about Diana, myself, the Fortner family and First State HOG. I have received many e-mails and phone calls from people representing HOG chapters and individuals who have offered support and caring through messages of hope and prayer.

Two weeks ago today a terrible thing happened and we are still dealing with it and still grieving. Diana and I lost one of our best friends in an accident caused by a reckless driver. Unlike most incidents of motorcycle fatality that we have heard or read about, we were actually there and felt helpless as we waited for emergency workers to arrive on the scene.

We were on a trip to the Outer banks of North Carolina for OBX Bike Week. We had a group of twenty or so motorcyclists excited about a three day excursion on a sunny weekend. The group was very diverse. Some riders were young men on their first motorcycle trip, others were veteran riders who have taken trips across the country and back. It was Diana’s first motorcycle trip riding her own motorcycle. The sun was shining and we were traveling down Rt 13 South approaching the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel with grins on our faces from ear to ear. We were in our glory. Then in a split second lives changed forever!

A women named Dawn Marie Williams of Cape Charles, VA drove a red Ford Taurus straight through our pack of 20 Harley-Davidson motorcycles killing our very dear friend Karen and injuring two young men, one was her son. Dawn came out from a gravel driveway on the right side of route 13 and darted almost straight across to the turn lane without hesitation or looking to check if traffic was coming. She is being charged with vehicular manslaughter and if her blood test comes back positive she will be charged with vehicular homicide.

Dream as if you will live forever… Live as if you will die tomorrow.

James Dean

Riding motorcycles is dangerous, we all know it. It’s a rush and we are proud to spit in the eye of convention knowing that we are living life as an adventure and sneering at the cowards who play life safe. Everyday is a gift and we should continue to live life to the fullest, unfortunately there is a reality to living on the edge. This is the reality.

There was nothing we could do differently to avoid the unthinkable. This was totally outside our control. We couldn’t stop Dawn Marie from killing our friend anymore then we could stop the attacks on 911. None the less, we are heart broken and miss her immensely.

We will not forget Karen; her spirit was bigger than life. She touched and inspired hundreds of people. We will honor her by continuing to live life to the fullest, riding our motorcycles, making other people laugh and smile… and giving those who need a hug a hug before they even know they need it.

Tags: Deep Biker Thoughts by Jay Green
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