The sunburn from Wednesdays ride has calmed down to a less glaring and better looking color. Forgot to mention in Thursday's blog that all my prep and planning for the ride skipped right over the most important part and what should be every bikers best friend. Sunscreen.

Apply, reapply and reapply.

It was funny though watching the facial expressions of co-workers wondering if they should mention the reddish hue accented with a raccoon effect caused by my sunglasses.


How many bikers does it take?
Call it an unofficial think tank, or maybe a cyber version of how bikers chew the fat, but a group of us biker-bloggers have been bouncing back and forth over women in riding.

Originally spurred by the Motorcycle Industry Council's report that out of 6.6 million motorcycle owners, 635,000 of them are women. After mentioning the considerably scarce numbers in my area of these lady riders, Gymi over at Gymi's Place wrote on January 29th that not only are the numbers at 10 men to 1 women bikers in his area up north, but they seem to be growing. Even the 10 to 1 would put more women on two wheels than the numbers we seem to have in sunny South Florida. Sparx left the following comment on Gymi's blog;

Why don't more women ride bikes? I'm desperately trying to get my wife to take her licence but to no avail. She'd rather perch on the back with me. On the plus side though, I work part-time as an instructor and there are several women taking their basic training. Just need them to step up for their full tests.

KT answered this question with a wonderful and insightful look at her own lifes trip that led to the saddle of her good-looking Softail Deluxe.

What was the conclusion of this shit-shooting session? Like every good conversation among friends there was no answer. Some women do, some women don't and those that do can't understand the ones who don't.

I guess like riding, the best conversations aren't about the destination, but getting there.

Enough of this fluff, wheres the stuff about motorcycles!
Found a really great article about that person that can make a motorcycle into something much. With an unlimited imagination and equally abundant amount of talent the custom bike painter can turn piece of machinery into a work of art.

SignonSanDiego.com has an article on custom motorcycle painter Glen 'Slim' Olson in Escondido. It wasn't just the eclectic music he listened to when painting that surprised me (from swing and big band to bluegrass and punk rock...btw) but how he approaches each job.


Before he starts on a bike, he likes to get to know its owner.

"That's the big thing, because I would build and paint a motorcycle for my father completely different than I would for a 21-year-old dude with a mohawk," Olson said. "If I'm not into the paint job, I will turn it on to someone else. I don't want to do anything that I'm not passionate about and inspired to do because, to me, it'll show in the work."

It's a great read with the final paragraph really hitting home when 'Slim' Olson comments about the growing number of 'Rolex' bikers coming onto the scene.

"There's a good quote about it: 'When you start riding, you start with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of skill.' You hope the bag of skill fills up before the bag of luck runs out."

Amen.

Read the full article here.


Does it wave for you too?
Ridley Motorcycles recently announced the production of 'The first ever fully automatic transmission Chopper'. The company already manufactures a line automatic motorcycles and its new chopper certainly looks the part.

Although the engine weighs in on the small side with its 750 V-Twin the upside is its lightwieght of only 450lbs. Don't expect to see too many on the road and I'm not talking about the debate of automatic transmissions on motorcycles. The production run will be limited to only 100 bikes.

You can visit Ridley Motorcycles website for more information on this and the other models they produce.


Lazy rainy Saturday
So the promised rainfront that prompted my midweek ride came late last night and like all visitors to this paradise we call South Florida, it wants to hang out and enjoy the sights. The weathermen are saying it'll move on by tomorrow, so maybe I'll squeeze in a ride before the superbowl. Would it be such a crime to miss the game?

The roads would certainly be clear!