There are a bunch of rides I do every year, day trips that I look forward to. I’ve talked about some of them in my previous posts and now it’s time to talk about peeping the leafs.

Living in Massachusetts, it’s easy for me to hop on my motorcycle and be in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island or Connecticut in an hour. Some of the most beautiful fall foliage around is in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The Green Mountains of Vermont are fun to ride, but since all the trees are pine they don’t change color and it’s just not as pretty.

So each year, along with thousands of other bikers (and way too many cagers) I try and ride up to the Kancamangus or out to the Mohawk Trail in the Berkshire Mountains for a brisk ride and soak in all the wonders of nature in New England.

This week is peak foliage time. Unfortunately, the weatherman says that this weekend we will get bamboozled with a rain storm. Trying to peep leafs on twisty mountain switchbacks in the rain with leaves all over the ground is not my idea of fun. I guess if I can’t go to New Hampshire this week I’ll probably try and head to a more southerly Massachusetts or Connecticut Valley location for next week. Either way it will be time to slap the windshield on my bike and wrap myself head to toe in black leather so I can be nice and toasty for the fall riding season.

If you read this blog then you’re probably not surprised that I like the big, burly tattooed-biker boys. So, I am pleased to report that my favorite custom motorcycle builder, Jesse James, has signed a deal with my favorite big, burly-tattooed TV network (think UFC) Spike TV.

His first pilot is called “Metal Church.” It will showcase his talents as one of today’s best welders and fabricators. Having seen his bikes in person, I can tell you his welds are vastly superior to any other custom bike builder out there.

I don’t know what happened to the “New Mayor in Town” show and it’s too early for a clip of “Metal Church” so on this video Tuesday here’s a little Jesse clip. It’s a small history of why his bikes look the way they do.

One of the things I love about “biker culture” is the twisted sense of humor and the ability to look at ourselves and laugh. You might remember this funny Herbal Essence commercial.

Today I am serving up another commercial that made me chuckle (I can’t help it I work in the industry). It’s male focused, unlike the previous one, but I’m guessing that over 90% of Big Dog sales are to men.

I’m not a super-fashionista by any stretch of the means, but I do think that I have a semblance of style. I know what I like and why I like it. And here’s a couple of things that I’ve found recently that I like:

From mooshoes.com: this is a non-leather engineer boot. But I don’t like them because they’re vegan-friendly. I like the style, the rubber sole of the boot and the matte black finish on the buckles. They’re comfy and really easy to break in. I wish I got them earlier on in the riding season, but at least I will be able to enjoy them for fall riding.

Chopper Couture has some really cute clothes with biker-esque designs on them. I don’t love everything they have to offer, but I could see myself in a few of these shirts.

And of course, there’s Juicy Couture. I would never normally spend my hard earned money buying anything “designer”, but these gloves are really frickin’ cute.

Do you guys have some “biker” fashion that you like and want to share with me?

I said goodbye to my new friend, the 2007 Kawasaki Vulcan Custom. We were only together for one short month, but I will never forget our time together. (You can read all of our adventures together here.)

If you’re a woman looking into getting a cruiser, I think this is a good option. I put on a little over 600 miles during the time that I had it and I got really great gas mileage out of it. It’s a nice looking bike, rides smoothly and handles really well. Plus, it doesn’t feel like a heavy motorcycle. I never worried about dropping it (ok maybe I did worry, but mainly because it wasn’t my motorcycle to drop!). I also fund that I leaned much farther in my turns than I usually do. Some people with back problems commented that they didn’t like the forward foot pedals but I had no problems, especially after riding for a couple of hours straight.

The only drawbacks that I found with this bike: it kicks out a lot of heat on higher temperature days and there’s a lot of vibration at higher speeds that I never really got used to.

Bye, bye little red motorcycle…live long and prosper!

I’d quickly like to say thank you to Greg White for finding my site and pitching the idea of giving a motorcycle to a virtually unknown blogger to Kawasaki. And of course, thank you Kawasaki for giving me the opportunity and for trusting me with your fine-ass motorcycle!