Here is my (very late) post about last weekend’s trip to Americade.

Did I ever tell you how much I hate riding in the rain?

I have some emotional reasons behind it, but mostly it just sucks. I don’t like not feeling in control and not being able to see very well, knowing that cagers are flying around me and might not notice I’m there.

This is what i was thinking as I headed out the Mass Pike last Friday morning at 6AM on my way to Springfield, MA to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel. My husband has this thing about starting a road trip with a Country Boy breakfast.

After we dried off and filled our bellies, we headed north up I-91 to route 2 where we got on the Mohawk Trail and the rain finally stopped (although it continued to be overcast). We meandered our way across the ass-end of MA, then cut the corner of VT up into NY. Riding through NY we rode through a plethora of farmland.

We pulled into our campground (ugh, camping) in Lake George, NY around 3PM. After unloading the bikes and setting up the tent, we made a beeline for downtown to scope out the activity. Having been there a few years ago, we knew the layout and the weird restrictions that the town has on bikes so we went to the Holiday Inn to get a parking pass (yes, you need a pass to park at this bike rally!) Once that was taken care of, we got a good parking spot and grabbed a much needed beer.

Around sundown the clouds finally burned off and there was a bit of blue sky. The temp dropped to about 80 degrees and the humidity went down a bit, too. About 10PM we were really pooped, so we got back on the bikes and hit the 8.5 miles down winding Rt. 9N (everything is route 9 up there, WTF?) and into our little home away from home. After battling the mosquitoes for space in the tent, I got as comfortable as I could and stared at the roof of the tent while my hubby fell fast asleep. The temp finally dropped around 3AM to a reasonable 50-something (and damp) degrees. In true camping fashion, we were up with the sun and back on the road.

Our first stop was the Harley-Davidson area over at the Ft. William Henry at 8AM. It was already 85 degrees out. A quick swipe of the HOG (Harley Owners Group) card and my man had his first ever HOG pin to add to his leather vest. Then we rode down to the convention center and we were the 3rd and 4th bikes parked. I guess we expected things to open a bit earlier than they did!

We hit the vendors at the expo center then took the shuttle bus to the beach, where we spent all day looking at vendors in 95-100 degree heat. It was brutal. That afternoon we went back downtown to get some food and people watch (two of my favorite activities!). That night we sat on a bench taking pictures, watching bikes go by and talking to people until midnight. We gassed up before heading back to camp because we knew it would be a mob scene in the morning.

We got up again way too early Sunday morning. I went to clean up in the lovely campground bathroom facilities (with all of the mosquitoes and water bugs) while my man broke camp down and packed up our stuff. We had breakfast at 4th Lake Diner, which was a real bargain. At 9am when we left, it was already 90 degrees out. While riding it felt like someone was standing in front of us with a hairdryer blasting on high heat. We opted to head back through NY and VT the way we came because the roads were so nice to ride on. Once we got to Rt 2, we just kept on it all the way home.

All photos copyright 2008 Rippin-Kitten.com and Forrest Frazier.

Hey everyone! I’m back from Americade and compiling my post from the weekend. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I found an interesting video clip from Daytona 2008, featuring an interesting trio hanging out together.

If you watch UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) then that scary, yet handsome bald fellow should be no stranger to you: that’s the “Dean of Mean” Keith Jardine, riding his 2008 HD Crossbones. The other guy, who is the comic relief, is BMX-er Michah Kranz. The hot blonde is Jes Rickleff, who was the “winner” (if you can call that winning?) of season one of Rock of Love with Brett Michaels.

It seems like yet another example of Harley-Davidson trying to engage a younger demographic. Hey, it got me to watch!

Sorry that all has been quiet around here this week. I had a large deliverable for work that ate up most of my time (and free time) and prevented me from posting all week. Also, my email for the site was down for two days and is finally back up.

I spent some time over the weekend implementing a couple of new features: one failed miserably, the other was making space for private advertising on my sidebar, which worked out just fine. So, if anyone is interested in advertising on this site, email me and I’ll gladly send you an ad pricing list.

Motorcycle Blogger Beware
You may have seen a button for BikerKiss.com in the sidebar for a few days earlier this week. I was approached by their affiliate program about advertising on this site a few weeks ago. After a lot of emails back and forth (and implementing their button/banner) the experience turned sour when the person who I was working with told me they had expected a large banner running across the top of my site (which was never discussed or asked for and for very little monetary compensation). When I told them I was not willing to compromise my layout for that and was only implementing smaller button sizes that fit in my sidebar, they backed out of the arrangement (not to mention throwing a parting jab at me). Needless to say, BikerKiss can kiss off as far as I’m concerned.

Off for a fun weekend
While most of you will be slumbering (or just getting up for work) at the butt-crack of dawn Friday morning, we will be heading out to Lake George, NY for the last weekend of Americade. It was a last minute decision to go, but we decided we need a break from day to day life. Unfortunately making the last minute decision means we’re going to have to do one of the things that I dread: CAMP. Did I mention that it’s also going to be about 90 degrees this weekend? Oh well. At least I’ll finally get some time in the saddle.

The 85th anniversary of Laconia Motorcycle Week is coming up on us fast (not to mention that it’s a little late this year-starting on Father’s Day rather than ending on it)! In my neck of the woods it’s a clear sign that summer is finally here and what better way to kick it off than to gather thousands of bikers for the oldest rally in the country, in a sleepy New Hampshire town?

Even though the town itself is small, there’s definitely no shortage of events: ranging from New England-style clam bakes, lots of motorcycle demos, music, The Ride to the Sky up Mt. Washington (which I could devote an entire post to, it’s so amazing!), hill climbs and races, beautiful scenic roads to ride on and of course, lots of vendors.

Rippin-Kitten, Ride to the Sky, June 2007

Last year I was able to attend the rally for almost a week. Unfortunately I won’t have the same luxury this year, but I do plan to go up for at least a day trip. If you live or are going to be visiting a near by area, I suggest you do the same.

I came across this article the other day and my inner sci-fi geek thinks it’s just too cool to not pass along! It’s definitely not a design that will hit mainstream, but it plays to my imagination. If you saw this being demonstrated at a rally, wouldn’t you want to try it out?? -RK

Art Center College of Design shows Yamaha-branded wearable motorcycle concept

Challenged to rethink motorcycle transportation, Art Center College of Design student Jake Loniak decided the idea of a machine as an extension of the body should be taken literally. Inspired by Biomechatronics and called the Deus Ex Machina (not to be confused with that other Deus Ex Machina from Australia), Loniak’s concept is an electric, vertically parking motorcycle controlled by 36 pneumatic muscles with 2 linear actuators.

The Yamaha-branded Deus Ex concept is worn as an exo-skeleton with seven artificial vertebra as well as the pneumatically attached helmet. The motor is in-wheel, powered by ultra-capacitors and doped nano-phoshpate batteries similar to those already used in hybrids. It’s also capable of 0–60mph in three seconds. Top speed is 75mph with a recharge time of 15 minutes and cycle time of one hour.

As an exercise in urban transportation, we love the engagement a machine like the Deus would require. That said, the lack of storage or securement for a briefcase, purse or satchel means that even the average urban commute is beyond the Deus Ex Machina’s current capabilities.

Source: Hell For Leather magazine, written by Grant Ray

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend! I know that I sure did, even though they never seem long enough!

Over the weekend, as most of us know, the Rolling Thunder rally was underway with thousands of motorcycles heading toward the Pentagon to honor the fallen. The President was even made an honorary member of the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group.

While this video says it’s 9+ minutes long, it’s really only about five minutes long with a lot of dead space at the end. Despite that it’s put together well and still worth watching all of those that took part in the ride this year.

Back in February I wrote a an honest review about Sara Liberte’s new online venture, GarageGirls.com that garnered some harsh feedback not only from me but from other readers. Sara, herself, responded to the feedback and informed us that the site was fresh out of the box, that she was working hard on adding more content and we should cut her some slack.

It’s now three months later and my curiosity has led me back to check in.

Here’s what I’ve found:

The homepage is now streamlined with digestible information, the footer links work and the content about Sara and Jody are in the appropriate “about us” section.

The Body & Machine sections have a lot more content broken out by monthly updates and reads sort of like a newsletter with info about nutrition, fitness tips and the latest news in circulation. On the Machine side, there’s info about motorcycle maintenance, advice and tips and general motorcycle news/info (with lots of videos sprinkled through to help break up the content). Again, I like how Sara is trying to make the correlation of taking care of your body and also your machine as an extension of your body. My only criticism for this section is that it’s not very obvious what month you’re reading, it’s not clearly labeled (which is more a criticism for the web team).

The Events page shows where you can next see Sara and the Garage Girls (although perhaps calling it something other than “events” might help users understand what they’re going to see when they come to this page), Sites2See is pretty much the same and Cruisin’ companions has some additional photos of fuzzy kind, with a link to donate to her local animal resource center-a topic near and dear to my heart.

While Garage Girls may not be the epicenter of information for women on the web, the site has improved and is forming a distinct personality of it’s own. Bravo to Sara for being tenacious in building her site up and showing us what she’s made of. I look forward to seeing where it is in another few months.

This summer Harley-Davidson will be celebrating their 105th Anniversary with a large event taking place in Milwaukee from August 28-31st. The big finish to the celebration is the weekend-long concerts that are happening on the 29th and 30th with a multi-generational, eclectic mix of talent including the likes of: Foghat, ZZ Top, Dr. John, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Black Crowes, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Dierks Bentley, Puddle of Mudd & Daughtry just to name a few. Up until yesterday the main headliner to the event was Bruce Springsteen (who is a favorite amongst many in the biker community-I personally am not a fan). But now HD has announced that they’ve added The Foo Fighters and Three Days Grace to the event.

“Foo Fighters and Three Days Grace are incredible additions to our already stellar line-up for the 105th Anniversary,” said Ken Ostermann, Harley-Davidson’s general manager of Outreach Marketing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep on saying it, Harley-Davidson definitely is trying it’s hardest to market to a younger generation and it’s blatantly obvious when looking at the full line-up of bands at this event. On one hand I think it’s great that us “younguns” can finally listen to musicians of our generation at a biker event. But I would think it would give the actual concert a feeling of disjointedness and that the generation gap of those in attendance would be glaringly obvious. It’s just another instance that shows times are a’changing.

We finally got a NICE weekend here in New England for a change (it’s been raining for about the past EIGHT!). Despite the best efforts of the meteorologists to tell me that it was going to rain they were thankfully proven wrong.

It was nice to spend some good, quality time with my metal-baby, giving it a good detailing since I busted it out of winter slumber. I know that everyone has a different method to their madness when it comes to cleaning their bikes, but I still swear by my own method (which I wrote about in detail last year). There’s such a great amount of gratification to see all of that chrome glistening in the sun after you spend time cleaning it up (here’s the pictorial from last year so you can see the difference!).

Gloucester Fisherman’s Memorial Statue

Yesterday we (along with everyone else and their motorcycles) went for a nice, relaxing ride up the coast to Gloucester. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect (although there were those few jackasses that you see riding around in short sleeved shirts, shorts and sandals…*sigh*). We stopped off for lunch: embarking on the the first of the summer seafood season that is paramount in this region, and soaked in some afternoon sun before heading back home.

This drawing was done by Norweigan artist, Eivind Josefsen. His website hosts many of his pencil drawings, videos and if you think you have the chops to become an artist, there are also some tips & tutorials.

This video was done in February 2008 and took 15 hours to complete. But you get to watch it all happen in just two minutes!