Times Like These - Foo Fighters
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Is there such a thing as TOO much violence?
A blogger writes about Sons of Anarchy, and attests that the storyline has gone out of control with violence. Do you agree?
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Turn Up the Volume!
Chris's exhaust came in Monday
Brytin got to help him "fix" the bike :)
He decided not to put the heat shields back on; he used exhaust wrap instead.
Down with the baffle!
Betty
Brytin got to help him "fix" the bike :)
He decided not to put the heat shields back on; he used exhaust wrap instead.
Down with the baffle!
Betty
Friday, September 11, 2009
A Street Bob: The Evolution of Betty
March 2009 - Original
April, 2009 - For his birthday, Chris got the Bare Bones seat by La Pera. He also tilted his handlebars back a smidge.
June 2009 - He removed the emblem from his tank.
July 2009 - He fabricated a side-mount plate holder so he could move his license plate from the rear fender.
Sept 2009 - He removed the reflectors in the front and rear and removed the front fender.
He still has more he wants to do, but for now, he is satisfied.
April, 2009 - For his birthday, Chris got the Bare Bones seat by La Pera. He also tilted his handlebars back a smidge.
June 2009 - He removed the emblem from his tank.
July 2009 - He fabricated a side-mount plate holder so he could move his license plate from the rear fender.
Sept 2009 - He removed the reflectors in the front and rear and removed the front fender.
He still has more he wants to do, but for now, he is satisfied.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
The Prospect: A Day in the Life of the Not-Yet-Operational MC
The bikers Chris rides with – James and Jason – are friends he met at work. They are good guys. They have been riding motorcycles for a long time and have helped Chris become an excellent motorcycle rider.
The guys have talked about starting a Motorcycle Club (MC) for months, but have not yet got anything up and running. (I will talk about their stint with the VFW MC in another post.) Even though the Unseen Scorned Hawks Riding their Forsaken Iron Spades Together (USHRFIST) is not yet operational, the guys did manage to obtain a prospect – Mr. Martin.
He bought his 1200 Sportster a couple weeks ago. Ever since, we have had a lot of fun helping him learn how to ride it. First he rode around in the small parking lot at Jason’s apartment. Then this past Saturday we took him to a (mostly) empty large parking lot.
Chris had the (un)pleasure of being the one to ride Martin’s Sportster from Jason’s house to the Mervyn’s parking lot (approximately five miles). Apparently, a Sportster is a lot different than Chris’s Street Bob…he stalled it, he got passed by Jason, and he could not stop complaining about how it controls. BUT! He did get the opportunity to wear his new helmet. That’s right! We now have 7 helmets!
We had Martin weave around the barriers in the lot and make some turns (previously he had only ridden in straight lines and then walked the bike through a U-Turn). He got pretty comfortable with those tasks (and only almost got hit by a car once or twice). Two-year-old Hagen was on cue with his “Uh oh” every time Martin drove past us.
We wrapped it up for the night and agreed to meet at James’ house the next morning.
SIDE NOTE: Somehow, James the Hermit avoided the 45-minute conversation we got trapped in with his neighbor – a black woman named Sheniqua (or something ghetto-fabulous like that), who was a born-again Christian with a psychology degree. Literally, she spent 45 minutes psycho-analyzing my husband while telling us all about the miracles God has performed in her life and making sure we all KNOW she wears the pants in her marriage.
Eventually we all arrived at the “club house” Sunday morning. The guys chatted for a while and then adjusted the gear shifters on both my bike and Martin’s bike. Chris, James and Jason wanted Martin to work on his emergency stop. A little rough at first, but after the third of fourth attempt, he got the hang of it.
Apparently bored out of his mind, James suddenly decided to come blazing out of his garage with his Harley Rocker. Loud as all get-out with his after-market Vance and Hines Big Radius 2-in-2 exhaust, I was worried that he would piss off his neighbors. Even more worried that they would call the cops, I ran out in the street flailing his helmet and sunglasses.
And suddenly, they all mounted their horses and decided to take Martin around the block. I am pretty sure it was a cool moment for all of them. (Finally adding Dudley to their group makes them official, right?)
Jason left to go work on his 13-window VW bus, and the rest of us returned to the vacant parking lot. I worked on my right turns – who knew right turns were more difficult than left ones? I did not, until James said something, and I realized I was making all left turns. So, I forced myself to go round and round and round a barrier clockwise until I was dizzy. I did improve my right turns, but I am sure I looked like an idiot.
Speaking of looking like an idiot, Chris got on my Honda Rebel to try out a course he had set up of figure 8s. I do not know if the pictures accurately portray the reality, but he truly looked like a circus act running figure 8s on my 250cc motorcycle. (Did anyone see the episode of Sons of Anarchy where Half-Sack rode a mini-bike to tail the deputy?)
We spent a couple hours running drills in the parking lot. Martin actually got much much better at making turns than that first night in Jason’s driveway when he almost drove through a garage door.
When we were all tired of running circles around cones and trees, we took all the bikes back to James’ house. Martin really wanted to wash his bike, but James did not have a hose. After contemplating the repercussions of stealing Sheniqua’s hose, Chris hopped on the Bob and disappeared. He returned about 20 minutes later with a hose wrapped around his handlebars.
I voted that the Prospect should have to clean my bike, but Chris (aka The Prez, Eddie Zero or DJ Easydick) said that Martin is a full-patch member now, so we have to go back to picking on Squidward. So, I made The Prez wash my bike. Just kidding. He volunteered – Thank you, Baby!
Martin bought us pizza and then spent three hours washing and polishing his bike. I am not exaggerating. Three hours.
Meanwhile, I took a nap (which I was so very cruelly awakened from), and Chris did a bunch of random customization on his bike. He removed the reflectors from his forks; he removed the reflectors from his rear fender and then removed the front fender. Call me crazy, but don’t fenders and reflectors serve a purpose?!
Jason ditched us to work on the Iceman Charger bus. The rest of us watched the final five episodes of Season One of Sons of Anarchy. Season Two started Sept 8! Woo hoo!
Not as exciting as a cross-country trip, but yet a totally awesome day in the life!
The guys have talked about starting a Motorcycle Club (MC) for months, but have not yet got anything up and running. (I will talk about their stint with the VFW MC in another post.) Even though the Unseen Scorned Hawks Riding their Forsaken Iron Spades Together (USHRFIST) is not yet operational, the guys did manage to obtain a prospect – Mr. Martin. 
He bought his 1200 Sportster a couple weeks ago. Ever since, we have had a lot of fun helping him learn how to ride it. First he rode around in the small parking lot at Jason’s apartment. Then this past Saturday we took him to a (mostly) empty large parking lot.Chris had the (un)pleasure of being the one to ride Martin’s Sportster from Jason’s house to the Mervyn’s parking lot (approximately five miles). Apparently, a Sportster is a lot different than Chris’s Street Bob…he stalled it, he got passed by Jason, and he could not stop complaining about how it controls. BUT! He did get the opportunity to wear his new helmet. That’s right! We now have 7 helmets!
We had Martin weave around the barriers in the lot and make some turns (previously he had only ridden in straight lines and then walked the bike through a U-Turn). He got pretty comfortable with those tasks (and only almost got hit by a car once or twice). Two-year-old Hagen was on cue with his “Uh oh” every time Martin drove past us.
We wrapped it up for the night and agreed to meet at James’ house the next morning. SIDE NOTE: Somehow, James the Hermit avoided the 45-minute conversation we got trapped in with his neighbor – a black woman named Sheniqua (or something ghetto-fabulous like that), who was a born-again Christian with a psychology degree. Literally, she spent 45 minutes psycho-analyzing my husband while telling us all about the miracles God has performed in her life and making sure we all KNOW she wears the pants in her marriage.
Eventually we all arrived at the “club house” Sunday morning. The guys chatted for a while and then adjusted the gear shifters on both my bike and Martin’s bike. Chris, James and Jason wanted Martin to work on his emergency stop. A little rough at first, but after the third of fourth attempt, he got the hang of it.
Apparently bored out of his mind, James suddenly decided to come blazing out of his garage with his Harley Rocker. Loud as all get-out with his after-market Vance and Hines Big Radius 2-in-2 exhaust, I was worried that he would piss off his neighbors. Even more worried that they would call the cops, I ran out in the street flailing his helmet and sunglasses.
And suddenly, they all mounted their horses and decided to take Martin around the block. I am pretty sure it was a cool moment for all of them. (Finally adding Dudley to their group makes them official, right?)Jason left to go work on his 13-window VW bus, and the rest of us returned to the vacant parking lot. I worked on my right turns – who knew right turns were more difficult than left ones? I did not, until James said something, and I realized I was making all left turns. So, I forced myself to go round and round and round a barrier clockwise until I was dizzy. I did improve my right turns, but I am sure I looked like an idiot.
Speaking of looking like an idiot, Chris got on my Honda Rebel to try out a course he had set up of figure 8s. I do not know if the pictures accurately portray the reality, but he truly looked like a circus act running figure 8s on my 250cc motorcycle. (Did anyone see the episode of Sons of Anarchy where Half-Sack rode a mini-bike to tail the deputy?) We spent a couple hours running drills in the parking lot. Martin actually got much much better at making turns than that first night in Jason’s driveway when he almost drove through a garage door.
When we were all tired of running circles around cones and trees, we took all the bikes back to James’ house. Martin really wanted to wash his bike, but James did not have a hose. After contemplating the repercussions of stealing Sheniqua’s hose, Chris hopped on the Bob and disappeared. He returned about 20 minutes later with a hose wrapped around his handlebars.
I voted that the Prospect should have to clean my bike, but Chris (aka The Prez, Eddie Zero or DJ Easydick) said that Martin is a full-patch member now, so we have to go back to picking on Squidward. So, I made The Prez wash my bike. Just kidding. He volunteered – Thank you, Baby!
Martin bought us pizza and then spent three hours washing and polishing his bike. I am not exaggerating. Three hours.
Meanwhile, I took a nap (which I was so very cruelly awakened from), and Chris did a bunch of random customization on his bike. He removed the reflectors from his forks; he removed the reflectors from his rear fender and then removed the front fender. Call me crazy, but don’t fenders and reflectors serve a purpose?!
Jason ditched us to work on the Iceman Charger bus. The rest of us watched the final five episodes of Season One of Sons of Anarchy. Season Two started Sept 8! Woo hoo!
Not as exciting as a cross-country trip, but yet a totally awesome day in the life!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Our Bikes Chose Us
We did a LOT of research before we purchased the motorcycles we have. Our ideas and plans changed 1,000 times. Neither of us had our motorcycle endorsements yet and so test-driving was not an option, but we certainly sat on a lot of bikes. We talked to a lot of different salesmen at a lot of different stores.
I needed a bike that was low to the ground and lightweight. Chris wanted a Harley, but had heard somewhere that a Sportster was a girl bike, so Harleys were a bit out of our price range. The first bike he wanted was an HD Rocker.
He likes the chopper look. Then, he found a website that sold kits to turn almost any bike into a chopper. http://www.chopper-kit-usa.com/ He spent weeks looking at those websites and pictures and talking about all the things he wanted to do.
Meanwhile, because my bike would no doubt be less expensive, we started really looking (figuring Chris could also ride it a bit to gain experience before settling on what bike he wanted). My first choice was a Honda Rebel 250. It is so lightweight, that I can kind of manhandle it if something goes awry on the road. It is so low to the ground, that I can touch both feet flat on the floor. The motor is small enough that I won’t be scared by its power and yet strong enough to keep up with bigger cruisers. Plus, they are very inexpensive.
We went to San Diego House of Motorcycles to check one out. http://www.houseofmotorcycles.com/ Convinced that I would quickly grow out of the Rebel, the salesman convinced me to sit on a Suzuki Savage, and I liked it. Chris and I went home to research our options in the 600cc range.
I very much love the look of the Yamaha VStar Classic.
It looks a lot like my mom’s bike (well, it’s at least white with big fenders). The next time we went to San Diego House of Motorcycles, I sat on one…I think it’s beautiful, but it felt too big for me. At that time, I hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in over a decade, and most of my memories were of NOT enjoying the actual driving of the motorcycle – it’s scary, it’s complicated, it’s dangerous…I much preferred being a passenger.
The next bike I sat on was the Honda Shadow Aero. It was PERFECT (except for that particular bike’s paint scheme).
It was not too big; it was super easy for me to maneuver. I loved it! I wanted it! We drove to a different bike shop that had an Aero for a little less – I hated it. I do not know if the handlebars were different or my mindset was different or what, but I hated the exact same bike at a different store. I cannot even remember the store’s name because I hated that Aero so much!
Chris, on the other hand, was falling in love with Yamaha’s Raider (rival to the HD rocker) at that store. I tore Chris away from the Raider and made him take me back to SDHM. I needed to know if my mind was playing tricks – did I want the Aero or not?! When we got to the store, I made a beeline for “my” Aero, and suddenly I was NOT sold on it. It felt big, awkward, I knew I was just nervous, but I did not want to buy a bike that made me nervous.
While I was hemming and hawing over the Aero, Chris found a totally custom GORGEOUS Raider. He LOVED it. I loved it. Unfortunately, used non-Harleys were more difficult for us to get financed. Ray Bilbrey, our most awesome salesman, presented Chris with two options:
1. A new glossy black (non-custom) Raider
2. A 2008 matte black Harley Dyna Street Bob
For Chris, the choice was almost instantaneous. He felt like it was destiny that there was a matte black Harley at this metric bike shop.
So, March 7, 2009, we bought a 2009 Honda Rebel and a 2008 Harley FXDB (Street Bob). We still did not have our endorsements, so the bikes were delivered the next day. It was such an awesome moment at the Broussard house when the delivery truck pulled up with our bikes on the back!
We spent the afternoon sitting on them (while Channing took photos).
The only time I’ll ever sit behind Chris (he has since removed the passenger seat from his bike).
Isn’t my bike the cutest?!!
Both of us are very happy with our final choices.
I needed a bike that was low to the ground and lightweight. Chris wanted a Harley, but had heard somewhere that a Sportster was a girl bike, so Harleys were a bit out of our price range. The first bike he wanted was an HD Rocker.
He likes the chopper look. Then, he found a website that sold kits to turn almost any bike into a chopper. http://www.chopper-kit-usa.com/ He spent weeks looking at those websites and pictures and talking about all the things he wanted to do.Meanwhile, because my bike would no doubt be less expensive, we started really looking (figuring Chris could also ride it a bit to gain experience before settling on what bike he wanted). My first choice was a Honda Rebel 250. It is so lightweight, that I can kind of manhandle it if something goes awry on the road. It is so low to the ground, that I can touch both feet flat on the floor. The motor is small enough that I won’t be scared by its power and yet strong enough to keep up with bigger cruisers. Plus, they are very inexpensive.
We went to San Diego House of Motorcycles to check one out. http://www.houseofmotorcycles.com/ Convinced that I would quickly grow out of the Rebel, the salesman convinced me to sit on a Suzuki Savage, and I liked it. Chris and I went home to research our options in the 600cc range.
I very much love the look of the Yamaha VStar Classic.
It looks a lot like my mom’s bike (well, it’s at least white with big fenders). The next time we went to San Diego House of Motorcycles, I sat on one…I think it’s beautiful, but it felt too big for me. At that time, I hadn’t ridden a motorcycle in over a decade, and most of my memories were of NOT enjoying the actual driving of the motorcycle – it’s scary, it’s complicated, it’s dangerous…I much preferred being a passenger.The next bike I sat on was the Honda Shadow Aero. It was PERFECT (except for that particular bike’s paint scheme).
It was not too big; it was super easy for me to maneuver. I loved it! I wanted it! We drove to a different bike shop that had an Aero for a little less – I hated it. I do not know if the handlebars were different or my mindset was different or what, but I hated the exact same bike at a different store. I cannot even remember the store’s name because I hated that Aero so much!
Chris, on the other hand, was falling in love with Yamaha’s Raider (rival to the HD rocker) at that store. I tore Chris away from the Raider and made him take me back to SDHM. I needed to know if my mind was playing tricks – did I want the Aero or not?! When we got to the store, I made a beeline for “my” Aero, and suddenly I was NOT sold on it. It felt big, awkward, I knew I was just nervous, but I did not want to buy a bike that made me nervous.While I was hemming and hawing over the Aero, Chris found a totally custom GORGEOUS Raider. He LOVED it. I loved it. Unfortunately, used non-Harleys were more difficult for us to get financed. Ray Bilbrey, our most awesome salesman, presented Chris with two options:
1. A new glossy black (non-custom) Raider
2. A 2008 matte black Harley Dyna Street Bob
For Chris, the choice was almost instantaneous. He felt like it was destiny that there was a matte black Harley at this metric bike shop.
So, March 7, 2009, we bought a 2009 Honda Rebel and a 2008 Harley FXDB (Street Bob). We still did not have our endorsements, so the bikes were delivered the next day. It was such an awesome moment at the Broussard house when the delivery truck pulled up with our bikes on the back!
We spent the afternoon sitting on them (while Channing took photos).
The only time I’ll ever sit behind Chris (he has since removed the passenger seat from his bike).
Isn’t my bike the cutest?!!Both of us are very happy with our final choices.
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