Back in 2002, the Discovery channel ran a documentary called “Motorcycle Women” which followed six ladies on a 1500 mile road-trip. Seeing those six ladies, featuring Goth Girl, Sasha Mullins, Betsy Huelskamp, Claudia Barasch, Michelle Dell and Qian Ma, inspired myself and many other women out there to learn how to ride and enjoy the freedom, respect and confidence that comes with it. I wish more television shows were dedicated to highlighting women riders.

This video is a follow-up from that documentary and shows the “Magnificent 6″ regrouping for another ride together.

Taylorblue from the Mom’s Out There blog nominated yours truly for the “Rockin’ Girl Blogger” award. Isn’t that kick-ass?

She kindly said:

If there was ever a rockin’ blogger it has to be her!!! I love how everything revolves around her motorcycle…

Now I must choose 5 women bloggers worthy of the “Rockin’ Girl Blogger” award - so if you get tagged, place your pretty pink badge on your site and then list 5 of your favorite Rockin’ Girl Bloggers. (only if you want to-no pressure!) There are a lot of great bloggers to choose from, but here I go:

VampireFaust-horror is near and dear to my heart and “Eternal Vigilance” showcases her writing, graphic design and knowledge of the culture keeps me going back for more.

Thrift Shop Romantic-she’s got the best home decor ideas with a Victorian flair. It’s all stuff that you can do yourself, doesn’t cost a lot of money and the end result is lovely & unique!

Cooking with Anne-as a self-proclaimed foodie, her site has a lot of great recipes & insights. This is one of her three blogs. Oh, and she has seven children! Seven…whew!

Logotree Design Company-great resource for many aspects of smart business design including logos, web & print. As I am a web designer by trade, Natalie’s site is a great resource for inspiration.

Corset Girl-Corsets are cool. End of story. She hasn’t updated since May, I hope she hasn’t abandoned this site! I dig it!

Pulled this from a forum I frequent, I thought it was cute!

• A motorcycle can go for more than one ride in an hour.
• Motorcycles never develop spare tires.
• Motorcycles last longer.
• Motorcycles don’t get you pregnant.
• A motorcycle doesn’t care what time of month it is.
• Motorcycles don’t have parents.
• Your motorcycle will let you know if something is wrong.
• You don’t have to kick your motorcycle to get it going.
• Your motorcycle won’t judge your friends.
• If your motorcycle is loud, you can buy a muffler.
• You won’t have to put your motorcycle through grad school.
• If your motorcycle smokes you can do something about it.
• Motorcycles don’t care about how many other motorcycles you have ridden.
• When riding, you and your motorcycle both arrive at the same time.
• One motorcycle will satisfy you every time.
• Your motorcycle won’t ogle other motorcycles.
• Your motorcycle won’t care if you have a poster of your fantasy
  motorcycle.
• If your motorcycle has high mileage, you can just get a new one.
• Motorcycles don’t care about breast size.
• If your motorcycle is too soft you can get new shocks.
• If your motorcycle is misaligned, you don’t have to discuss politics to correct it.
• You don’t have to drink beer before your motorcycle looks appealing.
• You can be proud of your motorcycle regardless of the model.
• You don’t have to go to Tiffany’s to register your motorcycle.
• Your motorcycle won’t beat you or try to make you feel inferior.
• You can ride a motorcycle as long as you want and it won’t get limp.
• Your parents won’t keep in touch with your old motorcycle after you dump it.
• Motorcycles always feel like going for a ride when you do.
• Motorcycles don’t insult you if you are a novice.
• Your motorcycle never wants a night out alone with the other motorcycles.
• Motorcycles don’t make you late.
• You don’t have to primp before riding your motorcycle.
• Your motorcycle won’t complain when you use protection.
• If your motorcycle doesn’t look good, you can paint it or get better parts.
• You can’t get a disease from a motorcycle.
• Your motorcycle won’t care if you fake it.
• Motorcycles are always ready to stop when you are.
• Your motorcycle has a built in vibrator.
• Your motorcycle doesn’t have to show off in front of other motorcycles.
• Your motorcycle won’t lie to you.
• Your motorcycle doesn’t care how heavy you are.
• In the morning, your motorcycle won’t poke you in the back when it wants to go for a ride.
• You can turn the petcock off.
• Your motorcycle won’t shrink when it’s cold.
• If your motorcycle can’t fire up, you can just replace the battery.
• You don’t have to cook for your motorcycle.
• Your motorcycle can’t ride around behind your back.
• If your motorcycle is cold you can choke it.
• Your motorcycle is always the right size because if it seems too small you can just get a new one.
• You can keep photos of your old motorcycles.
• Your motorcycle would rather go for a ride than watch sports.
• Your motorcycle can go for multiple rides.
• Motorcycles don’t need pick-up lines.
• You only have to ride your motorcycle when you want to.
• Your motorcycle won’t go for rides by itself.
• If baldness occurs, you can replace the tires.
• Motorcycles don’t snore.

Whew! I’m late posting my video this week but I have a good reason for it: this week’s video (that I created myself) is a bunch of my photos from Laconia!

(music: “Push Push (Lady Lightning)” by Bang Camaro)

If you want to check out the actual photos in addition to the video, check out the Laconia photo set on my Flickr page!

I returned from Laconia yesterday safe & sound. We had a great time, although it seemed like the crowds and traffic were light this year. The weather was great Friday and Saturday (ok, it was a tad bit on the warm side).

I have a lot of photos to download from my camera and I’ll try to get those online sometime this evening.

Until then, here’s a little tease. This was taken last Thursday on my way up Mt. Washington!

Oh man, I have been so busy since I got here and only have a few minutes to write!

The ride up here was long, cold and wet! We took the “scenic route” up and while the ride was gorgeous it was difficult to enjoy in the rain…We’re staying at the Naswa Resort, which is really close to the middle of everything!

Yesterday we rode up Mt. Washington. It was a little bit scary to get up it. At certain places the road turns into DIRT road and tryng to keep control of the motorcycle while hammering on the throttle to get up some of the steep parts was dicey. The payoff was worth it, the view were amazing. We got lots of pictures up there. I felt bad for this one old guy though. He was telling the employees up there that he was in trouble because he didn’t think he could get off of the mountain. He was totally spooked. They had to arrange someone to take him down in a van while they rode his Harley down for him. The irony is that going back down was much easier!

After we left Mt. Washington we rode on the Kancamangas highway for a little bit. Oh and did I mention that the weather was gorgeous? It was great. We rode a little more than 200 miles yesterday. I was exhausted last night! We had a bite to eat at the Smokehouse and then I put my sorry butt to bed!

Today there were noticably more and more bikes arriving. There is a steady stream of rumbling motorcycles day and night. Today we hit all of the vendors on the beach, ate yummy sausge & pepper subs and had a few beers. It was a hot day today and my dogs are barkin’ from all the walking we did!

OK-it’s getting late and I’m sure everyone around me is wondering why I’m in the lobby typing on a computer when I should be drinking and singing “Wheel in the Sky” at the top of my lungs…

I’m off to bike week. Check here for regular updates with plenty of photos.

And don’t forget to track my riding in real time by going to the “where am I” page.

So, it may surprise some to learn that Pee Wee’s Big Adventure is one of my all-time favorite movies! Some people might say that their favorite scene is when Pee Wee is doing the Big Shoe Dance to “Tequila” in the bar. That one is good, but one of my favorite scenes is this one, after he has won the bikers over. (Check out how he flies off of the bike after he crashes, it’s classic!)

This weekend Laconia Bike Week kicked-off. As has been the case for the past few weeks the weather sucked yesterday. But today, it is gorgeous outside. I had a list of projects to do before I head off to bike week on Wednesday and they have been postponed. Today I finally got do to some work.

My bike comes stock with a HUGE air cleaner, lovingly referred to as “the football” and a “pair valve” (California emissions control device). The plan was to rip off the pair valve, replace the football with a hidden K&N air filter, re-jet and debaffle the exhaust pipes (since I have not made a decision on what style of new pipes I want). I realize this was ambitious, but I started over a month ago and figured I’d be done by now. The problem is that I still don’t have all the parts that I ordered! The one big thing I’m missing is the jet kit. But I couldn’t wait, so I started anyway!

Getting half-naked.

When you remove the pair valve and the football on the Volusia, it allows you an unobstructed view of the V-twin cylinders (or “jugs”) so some smarty-pants refers to them as having “Naked Jugs“. I began to set my jugs free today by removing the pair valve. Things went fairly smooth except for the front air breather, that’s a bitch.

Once that was done I figured since I can’t re-jet yet that there was no reason to replace the football. My bike runs lean anyway so the last thing I want to do is give it more air.

The top row of pictures is the pair value before and after I removed the casing. The second row is me tackling the “football.”

Voila! Naked jugs!

So now the bike is half-nekkid. I’m going to have to wait until I get back from bike week to re-jet and go au naturale.

Baffled that I haven’t debaffled before now.

I decided to do a partial debaffle of the exhaust pipes. There are 3 separate baffles in the Volusia. My goal was to remove the first one.

We picked up 2 hole saws to cut through the plates in the massive pipes. You cut out a doughnut and the baffle becomes unrestricted. Then put a dowel in the baffle and wiggle it around until the metal fatigues and breaks off.

Pull the baffle out: lather, rinse and repeat on the other pipe.

What a difference! The sound coming out of those pipes now is unbelievable!

So, as I mentioned before I will be at bike week from Wednesday to Sunday and will try to post updates while I’m there. I’ve been working on a special feature that uses a GPS that I put on the bike and Google maps so you can see me riding in real time. Look for the “Where am I” link under pages in the right hand column. When it’s there, that means I’m on the road! Check back soon and check often…

Questions and comments from people seem to come with the territory when you’re a woman motorcyclist. Here are some of the most common (and some ridiculous) ones I’ve experienced:

• You have your own bike?
• Your rode your own? (I heard this one a lot when I did the 900+ miles from Boston to Myrtle Beach)
• Your man lets you ride? (could it be more insulting?)
• Isn’t that bike too big for you? Don’t you want something smaller?
• Can I ride bitch? (usually from some wise-ass guy)
• Are you a lesbian/dyke/femi-nazi? (um, no-and that’s not nice)
• You’re too good at parking that thing. If I didn’t just see you do it, I’d never have believed you parked it yourself. Now at first I found that comment a bit insulting, until…I witnessed many women at a bike rally having their husbands or boyfriends park their bikes FOR them in a tight spot! Puleeze, girls!
• Will you show me your tits? um, you…absolutely not.
• Good for you! -or- Go Girl!
• Damn, you’re HOTT! -or- That is the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. (these are favorites, of course! ha ha!)
  

Ladies, want to share some you have heard?