Everything but the bike

The ride never happened.

I left the last blog entry of biker diaries with the hopeful thought of getting out on the Deuce for a Sunday morning ride. At that time, the weather looked promising, there were no other plans and I even had a willing riding partner.

How quickly things can change.

What should have been a quick changeout of hard drives on my sisters computer after a traditional dinner of fish and chips turned out to bringing her computer home with me and working on it into the early hours of the morning. I had to get some bits and pieces from CompUSA Sunday morning to make her computer work like it really should and during the drive I was thinking of being on the bike, bringing in a lazy day the right way. By the time the computer was up and running, the riding buddy had lost interest, sort of blaming it on the ominous weather. Sure there were some occassional light showers, but what happened to living life on the edge, riding through all mother nature could throw at you. At least until you could duck into the next gas station for cover anyway.

I had a fallback plan of taking the motorcycle to a friends house for some dinner plans, but the skies were more focused on rain than a beautiful South Florida evening and since the girlfriend would be on the back, it didn't seem like such a great idea.

Just as well, the friends started to complain halfway through the night about some noisy nieghbor who started his loud Harley at the crack of dawn every morning without any consideration for the nieghbors.

Damn bikers.


Hear me roar.
As big as it is, the world can be a really small place. I wrote yesterday about the increasing number of women taking up riding and not only heard from a die hard female biker, but she also hails from California (I was just there 2 weeks ago) and has her own blog!

Kathy decied to jump on her Harley at the young old age of 50 and started her blog, KT Did, back in November 2005. It's packed full of pictures of her and her riding buddies, a really fun site.....check it out.


Tough break
The legal decision came down in the State of Louisiana against Bourgets of the South for selling recreational vehicles without the proper license. If you missed this in the news, the motorcycle company landed a contract to supply FEMA with trailers for the displaced residents in that state after Hurricane Wilma. The fact they didn't have a business license to do so and that Bourgets is owned by the father and uncle of state Rep. Gary Smith, D-Norco raised some eyebrows and tempers.

So did the law prevail? Let's see, the fine for this infraction was $46,000 and Bourgets was paid a total of $105.5 million for travel trailers by the Government.

Oh yeah, the law really stuck it to them.

Read the full story in the Louisiana Weekly.


Heard it here first!
Only the most clever of readers may remember way back on November 14th's Biker Diaries Blog I wrote about Harley Davidson and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett urging George Bush to help the company break through China's tangle of motorcycle license restrictions and urban rider bans, which have prevented the Milwaukee motorcycle maker from opening a single dealership in the world's most populous nation.

Not sure who exactly has the clout but Harley Davidson says it plans to announce before summer that it'll open its first retail outlet in China since at least World War II.

The company says there are still major hurdles -- about 170 Chinese cities limit or ban motorcycle use or ownership, largely because they are viewed as underpowered, cheap, polluting machines that clog traffic and endanger others.

Even when it opens it shops though, riding the American Legend won't be affordable by everyone. In the same story Associated Press reported the trade break-through, it also wrote about a Hong Kong dental surgeon and other members of his 35-bike riding group who had to pay 10,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,290) per bike in escort and paperwork fees last fall to make their trip to Guilin city a reality.

Wow.

Two thoughts on this story. I wonder how much the HD Apparel will cost there and when do you think we'll see the first counterfiet Harleys hitting the marketplace?

Read the entire story in the El Paso Times.