Breaking into a formation

I recently was asked my opinion on what I thought about breaking into the line of a biker formation with a car. Meaning when a group of motorcyclists is riding in staggered formation, clearly riding together as a group, has a car merge into the formation. The person who asked me used to ride, so he does have a clue, and does respect bikers. He said he was following about 15 bikers riding staggered formation, on a long winding hilly road. The group of riders was going about 5 M.P.H. under the speed limit for a very long time, and were holding up quite a line of traffic behind them. It was a difficult road to pass, with little opportunities to do so. He said there were four other cars in front of him, and the opportunity came to pass, and as a group of 5 cars, they all went to pass the biker group. He said just as the other four cars made it, a vehicle was coming around the next curve, and he realized he was not going to make it. He said he could not merge back into traffic behind the group, because he was so close to the front already, and would hit the oncoming car head on if he waited that long to fall back. He said he had no choice but to turn on his right turn signal, and pray that the group of bikers would let him merge into their formation. They did, and he did. He said not so much by either of their choice, but it had to be done. He felt they would understand, and give him a break, and as first opportunity would come, he would let them resume without him in their line up. The lead biker (Lets say Road Captain) Freaked the Fuck out. (He could not confirm if this was a HOG organization, or MC, or just casual group of friends riding together. He said he thought the latter, as no one had on any colors. Anyway, the leader would not let him pass. Would not let him do anything. Every time he went to get out of there the biker sped up, and got in front of him and slowed way down to like 30 in a 55 M.P.H, zone, furthering the traffic delay they were creating in the first place. He said this went on for about 15 miles or so, before he finally turned off. I said etiquette wise, probably not wise to break biker formation. Consider it one unit, like a really long truck. Watch as most times at an intersection if a group is riding in formation, they will proceed through an intersection as if they were one vehicle. I did mention that the lead biker sounds like he had his undies in a bunch though. I would have given the guy a break.

What do you think?

Biker joke - The crusty old biker

A crusty old biker out on a long summer ride in the country pulls up to a tavern in the middle of nowhere,
parks his bike and walks inside.



As he passes through the swinging doors, he sees a sign hanging over the bar that reads:



COLD BEER: $2.00



HAMBURGER: $2.25



CHEESEBURGER: $2.50



CHICKEN SANDWICH: $3.50



HAND JOB: $50.00



Checking his wallet to be sure he has the necessary payment, the ole' biker walks up to the bar and beckons to the exceptionally attractive female bartender who is serving drinks to a couple of
sun-wrinkled farmers.



She glides down behind the bar to the ole biker.



"Yes?" she inquires with a wide, knowing smile, "may I help you?"



The ole biker leans over the bar, "I was wondering young lady," he whispers, "are you the one who gives the hand-jobs?"



She looks into his eyes with that wide smile and purrs "Why yes, yes, I sure am".



The ole' biker leans closer and into her left ear whispers softly, "Well, wash your hands real good,

‘cause I want a cheeseburger".

Custom paint repairs

Another recent project that I worked on was a repair to a gas tank, and a cracked fender weld. Blending into existing custom paint.

Click on the image below to watch my video with step by step photos.

2009 Spring Flood Run

Couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather. It was an awesome ride with some beautiful scenery.

Here's a few Pics.

Warming up my bike in the morning getting ready to roll.

The starting point at the Beach Bar, The Bikes rolling in.

Retired St. Paul, MN Police Chief Finny's Indian Chief Motorcycle.

A nice Old Skool

A Gene Simmons KISS Bike!

A dog or a log?? Maybe a log dog.

Beautiful Lake Pepin.

One of my latest projects.

I know I've been absent as of late, and to those who might actually enjoy my ramblings, jokes, pictures, etc. I apologize. I've been swamped with the usual everyday life things, and then trying to accomplish three projects simultaneously. Here is one of the three. The rest will follow when completed, and I find time to breathe and post them.

This was a bike that the owner bought a custom racing kit for, and then bought a used gas tank and wanted the graphics custom painted to seamlessly tie in with the existing. I had some pretty shoddy photos of the original racing bike to work with, but It turned out just like the original.

Here she is. Click on the photo below to watch video of start to finish.

really cool murals, and bathrooms

These are not motorcycle related, but I could not pass up sharing these with you!

YOU GOTTA LOVE THIS ONE.
THIS IS A CEILING MURAL IN A SMOKER'S LOUNGE.

BATHROOM PAINTED FLOOR
IMAGINE YOU ARE AT A PARTY.....
On the tenth floor of a hi-rise building.....
AND....
THEN YOU HAVE TO VISIT THE BATHROOM...
You open the door...

Would this mess up your mind? Would you be able to walk in to this bathroom? Or do anything else?

Another Awesome Toilet

THE LADY IS GETTING READY TO ENTER!!
This is a picture of a public toilet in Houston :

Now that you've seen the outside view, take a look at the inside view...

It's made entirely of one-way glass!
No one can see you from the outside, but when
you are inside it's like sitting in a clear glass box!
Now would you... COULD YOU....?

2009 Donnie Smith Bike show

In my opinion, these were the best bikes there. I'm a bit of a bobber fan.

I didn't even bother taking pics of all of the extreme bikes.

Some of the choppers now days are getting so long, so low, so covered up in plastic, fiberglass, sheet metal, what have you, and then being over done in themes that they don't hardly even resemble bikes anymore.

They make me sick. I wanted to vomit at the site of most of them. Thus not even worthy of photographing in my opinion.

I really like the bobber, because it brings you back to the basics of what I think a bike is.

This first red one here The "Retro Rocket" was built by Kings Of Custom Mid-States Power Sports.

It was truly a work of art, and the paint is nonetheless satisfying to look at.

The next four bikes are all Sucker Punch Sally's

And the last one "Green With Envy" A wicked old school, I forgot to get the builder, Sorry.

Click Here to go to my YouTube video and see them. Enjoy the eye candy!

How many things can you spot in this picture that are just Plain wrong?

I'll give you some hints.

1) There is a red arrow in the photo. That doesn't belong there.

2) They are wearing sandals and flip flops. They might get wind burn on their toes if they ride too fast.

3) Her purse is not black leather, which is almost a must if you are going to carry one on a motorcycle!

4) Their helmets don't match the bike.

Uh, I could go on and on!

But seriously folks, Can you believe this! What a bunch of Mucking Forons!

This photo puts a spin on an old term, "Rocket Launcher".

Ooohh Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!

I'm back in town.

Hey all, I'm home, and hopefully will be able to stay here for a while. Relief was sent in from our company with fresh adjusters. If the dikes don't do their job, I will likely be going back. I checked my Google reader, and I have nearly 300 unread posts. I must apologize, and inform you there is no way I will ever get caught up. I will likely have to mark all as read and start fresh. Now I am about a weeks worth of "work" behind. I must get caught up on that first. In the mean time, Take care all.

Moorhead, MN, and North Dakota floods 2009 slideshow

Click on the title below to watch the YouTube slideshow.

"If it keeps on raining,snowing the levee's going to break."

Fargo, ND flood

I must apologize to those of you whose blogs I regularly read and comment on, and apologize for lack of posting. I've been swamped with work as of late, and been working 12-13 hour days away from home. For those of you who don't know, I am an insurance adjuster. I've been away at Fargo, ND, and outlying suburbs handling claims for flooding. The Red River is Fargo's main concern right now, although other rivers, ditches, and just about anything that could flood here has. The Red River is now being estimated to crest at 43 feet. If this happens, and they don't get the dikes built high enough, fast enough, the whole city of Fargo will potentially flood. The dikes were only going to be able to handle 41 feet. Thank God for the fact that Fargo has three colleges around, and almost all of the students pitched in to lend a hand for several days sand bagging, and building up the dikes. There has been help from all over the country helping sand bagging. It is truly amazing what people will do for each other. Regarding sand bags, some trivia for you...From what I'm told, it takes approximately 70 sand bags to raise the dike one foot, and that is only for one foot of width. This is due to the pyramid effect of the sand bag dike construction. That my friends is a lot of friggin sand bags. Right now, I'm dealing with flooded basements, failing sump pumps, and sewage back up claims, not whole flooded houses. Hopefully I won't have to deal with whole flooded houses. I hope it doesn't go there. The flood waters are right up to the road sides in many areas, and fields look like the great lakes. Furthermore to insult to injury, we just had a blizzard two days ago, and it has snowed almost continually since then. Only the main roads are getting any plow service, as they have the city crews concentrating on building and maintaining dikes, not plowing streets. This makes for some awfully slow going, and the roads are slippery with compacted snow turned into ice. If you slide off the road, in many areas, you're going to go right into cold flood waters. I saw a truck in a flooded ditch yesterday. I've seen flooded tractors, and all kinds of things like it here. Then to top it all off, there are closed roads that are under water all over. The detouring you have to do to get around here, on top of the poor road conditions, is making the claims handling process go very slow. There are some areas with claims that we can't even get to until the water recedes. Oh yeah, don't forget about the fact that more snow, means more melt off to help feed the river. It's been really cold, so hopes are it stays this way until the river recedes a bit, and then melts SLOWLY. One problem they are having with the cold though is that frozen sand is not as water tight as wet soft sand. They dikes are leaking in some areas due to this. There was also an ice flow that damaged part of one of the dikes that needed repair. All in all this is just plain NOT GOOD!

I'm getting excited that I get to go home this weekend to see my family. But I am behind on home life in general, so no chance to get caught up on the internet.

I miss all of you, my internet buddies. I look forward to getting caught up, "someday". I'm on call to go back up to Fargo, and handle claims again depending on volume. I pray for the folks here that I don't have to come back to handle a total city flood.

When I get a chance, I'll try to post some pictures. I've got some really cool ones.

TTFN

AN IRISH BLONDE IN A CASINO

Sorry this one is so late on St. Patty's day, but just had my first chance to sit at the computer today at 8:30 P.M. Central.

Anyway, I just got this emailed joke, and thought I would share.

Enjoy!


An attractive blonde from Cork , Ireland arrived at the casino.. She seemed a little intoxicated and bet twenty-thousand Euros on a single roll of the dice.
She said, I hope you don't mind, but I feel much luckier when I'm completely nude.

With that, she stripped from the neck down, rolled the dice and with an Irish brogue yelled, Come on, baby, Mama needs new clothes!
As the dice came to a stop, she jumped up and down and squealed...YES! YES! I WON, I WON!

She hugged each of the dealers and then picked up her winnings and her clothes and quickly departed.

The dealers stared at each other dumbfounded.
Finally, one of them asked, 'What did she roll?
The other answered,
'I don't know - I thought you were watching.

MORAL OF THE STORY -

Not all Irish are drunks,
not all blondes are dumb,
but all men...are men.

Cystic Fibrosis Run

If you are in the Upper East portion of Kansas, or Lower East portion of Nebraska, or Upper West Missouri, then this is the run for you.

Please click on image below to enlarge if you are interested.

Finally after all this time, the puzzle is complete!

Back on April 29th, 2008, I did a post called Motorcycle Puzzle has whole family puzzled.

Motorcycle Scramble Squares not in order


My 13 year old daughter had a friend over this last weekend for a sleep over, and one of the things they accomplished was completing this puzzle that no one has done until now. We've had it for over two years.
I just had to post it for the record.

Motorcycle Scramble Squares in order!

Happy Friday the 13th all! As bikers we should all know about Lucky 13.

It's Friday, so lets talk FAT TUESDAY!


Or at least, Lets take a looksee at a funny Fat Tuesday Photo!

Spread the word

If you ride motorcycles, or are into motorcycles, please take the time to check out this blog. It is a definite keeper. Well worth the read.


Better Motorcycling

FaceBook

Say, Just what we bloggers need is one more thing to consume our time right?

Anyway, If you haven't noticed on my right side bar, you will see a "Find me on FaceBook" link. I just recently started F.B. for short. I've found lots of old friends from High school, etc, and lots of fellow bloggers as well.

I just had a fellow blogger ask me how to get the badge for his own blog.

Well, her's how:

Go to your FaceBook profile page. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page, and on the left hand side you should see "create a profile badge". Click on it and follow the steps. Select the one you want, and then you add it to your blog like any other HTML add on.

For those of you who have not signed up for the FaceBook Time/life sucker, I encourage you to do so.

Warning! Explicit photo! Dangerous breed dog category...

For those of you who follow my blog regularly, you know how much of an animal lover I am. Good care between our children and our pets must be taken. I find the picture below disturbing,and give you fair warning that what you are about to see is explicit.
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If you are the owner of a dog that belongs to a "dangerous breed" category, and you also have a small child , or children, please take this as a warning.

Do not leave your small children with a dog unattended under any circumstances. It only took a few short moments for the following to happen.

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But seriously folks, vicious dogs are in every breed, and so are nice dogs. It's all in the way they are trained, and loved. I've seen vicious chihuahuas. You don't see them on a dangerous breed list.

New Vs. Old, or shall we say educated.

A very self-important 20something year old was just dying to show off the new crotch rocket he had recently acquired.
He was attending his very first biker rally ever. He was chumming around with some of his young biker friends, and took it upon himself to explain to an elderly group of bikers with their full dressers
why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his generation, and why their bikes were so much cooler.

'You and your Geezer Glides grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one,' the young man said, loud enough for many of those nearby to hear. 'The young people of today are much more advanced than people your age. We grew up with television, jet planes, space travel, man walking on the moon and the Internet. We have cell phones, nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers, automated manufacturing, amazing technologies, ...and,' pausing to take another drink of beer.

The old biker took advantage of the break in the kid's litany and said, 'You're right, son. We didn't have those things when we were young.....so we invented them. Now, you arrogant little shit, what are YOU doing for the next generation?'

The applause amongst the crowd was resounding...

I love old bikers. You can learn so much!