Dirt Bike Gear

This is the beginnings of my ensemble:

The Oakley o-frame tribals for the eyes

For my hands, Thor gloves



For my head, a Shoei V-MT Savage helmet


The pants by Fox



Chest protection is Fox (looking at other stuff though)

My Alpinestar Tech 6 Stella Boots

Oh My. . . Big Girl Toys ROCK!!!

99 yz250 two stroke
black powder coat frame
black plastics, black Clarke gas tank, Applied triple clamps with Renthal thick bars, Works connection adjustable clutch perch

Procircut complete exhaust, cylinder bored .010 over then replated, new piston, new crank and bearings, rejetted with JD Jet kit





aftermarket suspension, frame guards, black axle blocks, Renthal gold chain with Renthal front sprocket and black rear sprocket

More pics to follow

I gotta get this t-shirt

I stumbled upon a t-shirt with this on it at David & Goliath's Tees. It is great! I almost spit my drink on the laptop when I read it.

Police Motorcycle Rodeo at 1st Annual Bay Area Rally

Yesterday, a group of us rode to Space Center Houston for the 1st Annual Bay Area Rally. This rally is a sister rally to the Golden Aspen Rally that is held in Ruidoso NM each year. Maybe next year we can visit that one as it is absolutely gorgeous in Ruidoso. I'm adding 2 videos (with sound) and a few pics of the events and folks that were there.

This is a BMW with a sidecar. That's funny! And the sidecar has a spoiler, psuedo exhaust, and is convertible.

This is a view of only a portion of the competition track. There were roughly 500 cones for the police officers to go through or around. I didn't grab a map of the route to scan in. I'll see if anyone that was there saved one. It was a really extensive course. This is a video of some of the police bikes sitting behind the competition field. We were scoping them out while we could. There were Harley-Davidsons, BMWs, and a Honda ST in the competition. I may have missed a bike though.

This is a video of one of the very first competitors. As you can see, it seems to take for ever for them to bob and weave through the series of cones, but in actuality, it takes less than 3 minutes. Sorry for the language at one spot in the video. This cop did a great run. I can't imagine being the first person thru. He did a second run later on that seemed to be flawless.

Jess and Danny
Anna, Kim, and RickAmy and Darrel

A View of the Bluebonnets Up Close

Yesterday a few of us did a day trip to Austin and back. 2 of us road to Round Rock and Marble Falls and then met back up with the rest of the gang. We then headed back to Houston. Round Rock and Marble Falls were awesome roads to ride. It was curve after curve after curve. I scraped floorboard a few times. It was SWEET! There was a particular 20mph curve that both Kim and I hit some soft dirt on the road and slid just a bit. Following is a shot of our bikes as we took a break on the side of hwy 71.
After about 2 hours of being on the side of the road, the sun started to set. Amy reminded me to get a shot of the sunset. It was very beautiful. This is a video of Kim and me on our way to Marble Falls. These back roads were so much fun. We'll have to do them again. Maybe next time we'll do an over night trip and camp when it's not so crazy cold when the sun goes down.

The name of this blog is a View of the Bluebonnets up close since we were actually broken down on the side of the highway for about 2 hours and Amy decided to get up close and personal with the flowers. My camera sux or I'd post the photo. I didn't even realize that over 2 hours had past since we called for a ride to get the broken down bike because we were entertaining ourselves so much. If only I'd gotten a picture of Amy in Kim's handball goggles with her pants pulled up to almost her armpits. :-) ROFLMAO! That image is forever burned onto the back of my retinas.

Oh, and the helmet cam was having issues. I missed the best videos because it just randomly didn't record and it's sideways in it's holder. *shrugs* oh well. Turn your screen sideways :P HAHAHA!

SuperCross Houston

Last night we went to the SuperCross at the Reliant Stadium. This was a blast. Only 1 of the 5 of us had ever been to one before. We had really great seats too...so good in fact that they had been sold twice apparently. (We didn't move...that's all I'll say.) I REALLY want a dirt bike now, or a dual sport bike. This looks like it would be so much fun.

Once we saw a few of the big boys round the track a number of times, they brought out the big guns...well...maybe just the crowd pleasers... 8 year olds on 60s or 80s. Oh, it was a riot. Easily 1/8 the speed of the other folks...these are their Mini Me's *insert pinky in mouth* Mwuhahaha! Check out the video, and pay attention to the first 45 seconds where the big dog pile happens at the bottom of the screen.

View from the Back Seat

I decided today's ride would be from the backseat. I wanted to have some fun with videos so I road in the backseat.

This video was shot just after the helmet cam battery died and I didn't want to change out the battery while booking it down the road so I started video'ing with just the camcorder. It's a little crazy wobbly, but I thought it was fun... wave to the camera!

On our way to Yankee Tavern in Carlos TX we stopped by the Confederate Memorial Plaza. I cannot remember who this is, but I got a snapshot of us together.

This is the view as we arrived at Yankee Tavern. It was a really nice day today so it seems every bike within a 100 miles was at the Tavern. Bikes came and went the entire time we were there. This really felt like a mini ROT testosterone fest.

As we were leaving Yankee's Tavern, Danny was blasting some crazy music, Rachel motioned to turn it down, so Danny turned it up. :) HA! Jess and Danny have CB Radios and headsets so they can communicate with each other on the road. Rachel has an iPod she's listening to and I have the silence in my head as I use fancy earplugs to block all the noise.

In front is Bob on his V-Strom, then Danny and Rachel on the Venture, then Jess and me on her Venture (of course we're not in the picture cause I'm taking it).

Danny and Rachel at our last gas-up.

Danny and Rachel right before we got home.

A Windy Ride

It's so awesome to be out on the bike on a nice day hanging with a cool friend. Can life get any better than that? Why yes it can. We had bar-b-que sandwiches to die for, I think Amy had a heart attack, as it was called, and MAN were the sandwiches delicious. This place was awesome and I hate that I can't remember the name. (Check out a tiny BBQ place between 90 and 5th in Brookshire TX.) We both did the prairie dog motion as we passed by with the fantastic smell that wafting from this place. So we took an immediate right and circled the block to go check it out and it was well worth it. The seating was all out in the elements, but that was really cool. They were very nice folks and I hope to go back again soon.

Having Fridays off rules the world cause it allows me to get in some riding like this. We went south down 59 to 90 to 359 (which is an awesome road) up to 1093 to Fulshear to Simonton (detoured for a minute to see that town) to 1489 to 90 into Brookshire. Grabbed the sandwiches in Brookshire then headed back up 359 thru Monaville to Pine Island (where we passed a cool looking biker bar so we'll have to go back and check it out and somewhere in the mix passed Hardtimes BBQ so we'll have to make a trip there too) on to 290 for a few minutes where we about got blown off our bikes by the wind to Magnolia than on to 249 into Tomball. Then we headed back in to town to the Heights to take a rest and hang out at Onion Creek on 6th street. I love that place.

What a fantastic day followed by a fantastic evening of Country and Western dancing with friends. We were learning to 2 step. I suck at it but had a blast.

An Impromptu Ride

2 of us did an impromptu ride today. It was chilly, but it was really pleasant. We ended up doing a bit of the route from the beginning of the year, mixed with a bit of a change. I'm wearing the video camera. This video was taped at the end of the ride so we were messing around a bit having a good time on hwy 90. I really need to learn how to edit these videos to add music and such to them.

My new signature

I know you can tell just by looking at my face, A word about my weakness... I'm totally addicted to my ACE

So here's the full version (Puretone's Addiction modified here):

I got two pale hands holdin' on the handlebars
I'm shaking with the heat of my need again
It starts in my feet, reverbs up to my brain
There's nothing I can do to reverse the gain
I'm looking down to the street below
There's nothing in the way they move too slow
They don't know what I know
They don't hunger for the beast below
Listening to the roadnoise I feel so out of place
There's a certain something missing that the traffic can't erase
I know you can tell just by looking at my face
A word about my weakness
I'm totally addicted to my ACE

The Forbidden Ride of 2008

This is a video of our first ride this year. I was really excited to pull together a route and a group of folks to go visit the Forbidden Gardens in Katy TX (http://forbidden-gardens.com/). Surprisingly the weather worked out in our favor. We got a bit wet from the roads at the start of the ride, but just as soon as we were out of the Stafford/Sugarland area, the roads were nice and dry.

This is the first statue you see as you are entering the parking area of the Forbidden Gardens.

There are two of these statues guarding the entrance to the statue garden.

The size of these statues is breath-taking. I'm not sure I expected them to be so big.

The attention to detail is phenomenal.

This was a fantastic place to visit to start out the New Year. The route to and from the Forbidden-Gardens is as follows:

I'd suggest cutting off the leg south of 59 as it seemed to suck with stop sign after stop sign.

Fun with my new camera

While Jess was re-installing the heated gear wiring, I was playing with my new video camera. This camera is what records the stuff my helmet cam sees. I totally plan on going to a go-kart place, wearing my helmet, and recording the hours of fun we'll have.

Some of the Greatest Inventions in the World...for a Motorcyclist that is

Starting from the coolest to the hottest...literally ;)

So here is one of the sweetest things I received this Christmas. It's a helmet camera and oh does it ever ROCK! Jess and I had a good time installing it on my helmet today. I'll be having some sweet videos of my rides now.

Last Thursday, Jess installed my new floorboards. I hadn't had a chance to try them out until we took off for a 700+ mile round trip to Dallas midday Saturday. It was very different to ride Annie with a place to rest my feet instead of trying to hold on to a tiny peg. Going 90+ on the way to Dallas rushing to Allen TX before the Honda shop closed was proof enough for me that the floorboards totally ROCKED to keep my legs from fatiguing on the long trips at high speeds.

On our way to Dallas, we were literally Chicksicles. We were so crazy cold that we begged and pleaded with the folks at Maxim Motorsport, a Honda shop in Allen TX (7 miles north of Plano TX), to stay open for us so we could buy some heated gear and not freeze to death. At one point in the night while we were riding it was around 36 degF. We were going about 80mph. Let's just say, it was CRAZY cold.

Once we got to Maxim Motorsports, we purchased gloves, a jacket liner, and a dual troller for both of us. Then we marched...no ran right outside and began installing them. Mind you, the folks at Maxim stayed open at least 2 extra hours for us. When we went to remove my seat, the bolt tried to strip. I asked the folks of Maxim if they could spare an 8MM rachet. They were more than agreeable even as they were shutting off the light. I have to say, I don't know that I've ever had such great service. These folks went out of their way for us.

As we were installing the wiring to our batteries, Maxim closed down, and as each of the folks were driving away, they all stopped to make sure we were doing okay. HOLY MOLY those are some great folks.

This was the controller unit that we installed to allow us to control the gloves independently of the jacket. We got the items installed, donned our heated gear, cranked up those puppies, and away we went. We were no longer Chicksicles, we were nice and toasty.

The addition of the floorboards and heated gear will make the rides much more comfortable. The addition of the helmet camera will make rides more exciting. It'll be fun to see what kinds of video I can capture while out on the open roads.

Corpus

Well there I am riding to Corpus taking pics of myself. Also the reason the picture is so crooked. Which to me is really funny. Well, I had someone take a pic of me once we got to Corpus cause I needed to status Chuck and Christi on my progress. I'm doing really well with my workouts, so much so that I was able to climb a light house while in Corpus without even breaking a sweat.

I guess I felt the need to play the part of King Kong for a while. I don't think I was actually swatting at anything though. Well, we'd just dismounted the bikes and I was a bit loopy from all the rattling around in my brain. So it is possible I was seeing stars or something. Thanks Chuck and Christi for helping me reach my potential...climbing a light house.

And finally, another "hands on hips" moment was brought to you by DynaGrrl.

New-to-me Tank (and fender)

I recognize this is not the greatest picture. I usually do much better with the photos I post. However, in my defense, I didn't take this one and I haven't had the forethought to take one of my own with the tank sitting in my living room. It's actually in the shipping box, slightly cocked to the side, and the cats keep trying to jump in with it. It's rather amusing actually. But I've digressed...

This tank, though not a pretty sight at the moment, should become an incredible new addition for Annie. Not pictured here is the rear fender that came in the mail 2 days after the tank. It's solid black just like the current fender on Annie. If only I could locate a front fender that doesn't cost me the equivalent of my first born child. I located one in the Northeast, however it seemed the deal was a kidney for the fender. I thought it was rather pricey, eh? So my next adventure should be to hit the junk yards. I wanna see if I can find a fender and for the price of the part, have a new-to-me front fender without all this other madness.

New Seat

So here is the new seat on Annie. Wow! She looks so different. The seat is really comfortable. The weekend Jess installed the new-to-me seat on my bike, we ended up doing 450 miles with 350 on the new seat.
Some peeps went with me: Kim (Cooler), Amy (DynaGrrl), J-Dawg in the background, Jess with her helmet on, and Darrell, who avoided the photo. It was a fun day. I rode sweep (tailgunner) for this ride. This "Hands on Hips" moment brought to you by Cooler and DynaGrrl.

The next day Jess and I rode with some folks from our neighborhood and did crazy insane speeds around the water. AAAAAA!!! It's been a while since I white knuckled the bike like that. Even though they were going crazy fast, Annie with the new pipes, mod'd airbox, and rejet was able to hang with the Big Dogs...WAY TO GO ANNIE!!!

The New Seat

I'm so excited, I head to College Station tomorrow to pick up my new-to-me seat. Check this out...Corbin Stinger in grey Ostrich.


I think this will look so sweet especially once I get the new paint job. I have a new-to-me tank and new-to-me rear fender coming. I haven't found the front fender yet...ugh! But I'm sure I'll find one soon.

Oh She Purrrrrs So Nicely

So this past weekend, the rejetting began. And let me just say, it was awesome! Who'd have thought that 2 chicks could rejet a bike and not totally screw it up? All I can say is, this next pic sums it up really well...
In this pic, the lower right piece is the jet...and it's only about a 3rd of an inch big. Yup, that's it. All the fuss over something smaller than a dime. Unscrew that puppy and screw in the new bigger jet.

I felt like my very own pit crew. This is the first time I have felt this intimate with my bike. I guess if someone was holding my heart in their hands drilling on my valves they would feel very intimate with me too.

This is such a neat mod to the bike. The sum total package of mods is: new clutch springs (4 weeks ago) to stop the slipping, new tires to stop the slipping ;), new brake pads cause momma gonna need 'em, new pipes cause they sound awesome, airbox mod cause Annie could hardly breath, new jets to give her more power, signal tripper for those pesky Houston lights that never detect bikes are present, iso grip throttle boss for hand relief on the long hauls, more blue lights to show of the back end of the bike, and finally a modulator to control all lights at once.





Fun with the dog :) A fan, a long beard, and a well behaved dog that listens when you tell him to sit. This picture is priceless.

My pipes are here, my pipes are here

Oh.... yummalicious, the pipes sound so wonderful. No more baffles, and no more hearing. The world is sweet! On Thursday after surviving Jury Duty, I snuck up to work and rode through the underground parking garage to see just how many car alarms I could set off. I'm such a little kid when it comes to things like that. Mwuahahahah!!! Well, that was Thursday, however Friday, the baffles went back in because there was such an extreme power loss and I was leading a pack of riders Saturday morning, so I needed that power back.

Today, Sunday, after doing some yard work, I got encouragement to do an unconventional airbox mod. I disassembled the airbox from the bike and proceeded to perform the mod. I soaked the air box in hot soapy dish water cause it was nasty and greasy. Now it's all shiny and clean. I removed the snorkel and thought about doing the rest of the mod, but I think before cutting and doing major modifications, I'm just going to stick with that and see how she performs. I am going to cut off some extra stuff from the airbox that seems to be hindering major airflow to the engine.

Now I have to take her in to get her rejetted. Monday! That's the day. Oh she's such a fun bike. Anyone that's considering a Honda Shadow...DO IT! They are awesome.