"CURVES IN THE ROAD" BOOK SERIES
Steve Murrin is the author of the “Curves in the Road” book series. It is an annually published paperback released in January of each year chronicling Steve’s biker adventures. The books contain true stories of Steve’s Motorcycle adventures out on the open road and his musings on the biker lifestyle that he embraces. Steve writes stories for several motorcycle magazines and he has included some of those stories here. He is often asked to write on a topic by his readers in a coming volume or monthly article. He encourages you to reach out and suggest topics that interest you and perhaps he’ll include you in his tales?
WWJR
I generally like to keep my motorcycle writing a mix of fun and information. This content could be construed as controversial, but at least I hope to get you thinking. Disclaimer: No animals were harmed nor child labor used in the writing of this piece. Last week I spoke to a riding buddy of mine…
Winter of My Discontent
I am in the winter of my discontent. Biker discontent. Like John Steinbeck’s protagonist Ethan Hawley in Steinbeck’s last Novel written in 1961, I yearn for more. Though my discontent is fueled by lack of good riding days. Steinbeck’s character yearned for social status and power, neither of which can get me any better riding…
Why I’m a Biker, Not a Golfer
I have nothing against golf. I have attempted this activity many times in my life. I find it a pleasant endeavor filled with polite well dressed men and women in genteel surroundings marked with civility and manners. Technically, I sometimes enjoy the “good walk spoiled”, excepting the part where I suck at it. Despite my…
West Coast Possibilities
Once in a while I have good bike trip dreams. Twice a year I try to conceive a big motorcycle trip that has real possibilities. Epic, as the kids say nowadays. Not just to dream, but to plan and to execute such a trip. I occasionally spin an old school globe perched on my desk…
VANITY Plates
Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and VANITY. The 7 deadly sins. Often quoted. Seldom understood. The ‘Cardinal’ sins as they are often called have been the downfall of many a man and perhaps a few civilizations. I’ve heard it argued that one leads to another and another and so forth. But isn’t each of…
Two Wheels Only – Gone But Not Forgotten
“Two Wheels Only,” the North Georgia motorcycle resort, that has been a great motorcycle destination for almost 30 years, is officially CLOSED. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of visiting T.W.O., it was a motorcycle only resort and campground in the North Georgia Mountains, 16 miles north of Dahlonega. The resort…
Tribute to Uncle Jeff: Biker, Woodsman, Friend
A few months ago, I think I wrote about an upcoming trip I was taking with my crew of vintage Harley aficionados. An old school ride on Panheads and flatheads up to New York’s great Hudson Valley. My annual ritual ride home. One of our stops was to visit an old biker friend, Jeff, who…
Toy Hauler to Maggie Valley
I grew up with 2 cosistant pastimes in my family. The great outdoors and motorsports. I do not think there was a weekend in my youth that did not encompass either camping or motorsports of some sort or even perhaps both of these activities wound into one. I was also a dutiful Boy Scout, an…
Too Much of a Good Thing
Last summer I had a long week of being a real full time biker. Usually, I have to mix up biker fun with lawyer duties and Dad stuff and house chores, etc… The planets simply came into alignment on the biker side of my life and the week was just full of biker activities that…
TOO MANY BIKES
I have heard it said that the happiest 2 days of a boat owner’s life are the day he buys his boat and the day he sells it. I suppose something of the same can be said of bikes. I have an old friend named Fred, who retired well and despite not riding much, has…
To ABS or Not to ABS, That is the Question
What a week! Sometimes being in the Biker Lawyer business is rough. This week, two clients run smack over on their bikes by drivers with no insurance, other clients confessing to FBI on hidden camera, and someone in my office keeps stealing my damn pomegranate juice from the fridge! Is nothing sacred? So, by the…
Couple Thousand Miles, Couple Days, and 3 Little Bears
I am not one of those obsessive ‘iron butt’ guys. You know, the 10 day, 10,000 mile type. But you could say that I am a moderately rigid butt guy, but iron, NO, not me. To be a proficient ‘iron butt’ guy you’ve got to be kind of a loner, a masochist, a compulsive overachiever…
The Right Passenger
I’ve ridden my share of bikes in this life. I can’t think of a brand I haven’t piloted at one point or another. Even odd stuff like Ural, KTM, Garelli, Moto Guzzi, and Matchless, despite my Harley proclivities. I’ve been lucky to throw a leg over enough bikes to fill a parking deck. With bike…
The Long Push
So there I was out on the interstate with an early 40’s Harley Davidson. It chugs along surprisingly well on the modern highway. Tall rear sprocket, short front! Cars cruise by on my left perhaps slowed by the appearance of an odd character astride a 70 year old contraption clunking and banging along at 60…
The Hidden Cost of Art
My college art professor, whose name now escapes me, once said “art is whatever moves your soul.” Taken on its face, this statement allows us to appreciate many mediums as art, be they music, dance, pottery or metal sculpture or machine. Can you tell where I am headed with this? All that is necessary is…
The Ghost of FDR
Last summer my friend Dan Forrest invited me to come down to a motorcycle rally he hosts in Warm Springs, Georgia known as the “Xtreme Rider Rally”. The Rally was on a warm weekend in April, generally the same time each year. Dan’s in the business and his biker apparel shop of the same name…
The Gas Tank
Have you ever received a gift you didn’t deserve? Ever? Me either, until a few years ago. Have you endeavored to really clean out your basement? Ever? Me either, until recently. These two questions became inextricably tied together for me recently. Here is how: At the bottom of a very long ‘Honey-Do’ list at home…
THE CRASH
Well, it finally happened to me. I hear about it all day long. I represent those who have done so. I watch and cheer for it on speed channel. But, I finally had the big one. I crashed (and burned) my Suzuki Hayabusa in the north Georgia mountains on Highway 19 just outside Dahlonega. Ladies…
Thanksgiving Morning
I think back to November 26th, 2002. I remember it because it was 2 days before Thanksgiving that year. It was unseasonably cold in Atlanta with temps in the 20’s and 30’s. Good riding weather had retired for the year along with the warm summer sun. I called my brother in law Keith across town…
Sweet Maria
I love the custom of naming inanimate objects, especially vehicles. Personifying them with a moniker, endearing the object to us, identifying it as our own. Especially when we put a nametag on a bike, owned and loved through miles and years and good times and bad, when done with purpose and meaning. I’ve known many…
Survival Riding
I have ridden all my life and the only time that I have not ridden Harleys was back in the 70’s and 80’s when I couldn’t afford one. Despite the AMF days, before the big buyout (which of course, like most good investments, I did not get in on), Harleys have always been cool, even…
Sturgis – What a Great County This Is (4 of 4)
The 4th phase of my trip to Sturgis consisted of a tour of several state parks and national landmarks crammed into 1 day. The following is my recollection of day 4 of the great and epic trip west. Of the 58 National Parks in the United States I suspect I’ve been to less than half…
Sturgis – The Badlands (3 of 4)
The third phase of my trip to Sturgis consisted of a plan to ride out to the “Badlands National Park” in south west South Dakota. To me, the Badlands have always evoked a sense of rustic survival indicative of the American west. Teddy Roosevelt territory. What a perfect backdrop to an old school sidecar day…
Sturgis – The Cardinal (2 of 4)
The second phase of my trip to Sturgis consisted of a rather unorthodox endeavor. I have often heard that in the 1 week of the Sturgis bike rally, with its three quarters of a million bikers, you can be anyone you want to be. If you could transport yourself to another biker dimension who would…
Sturgis – UP (1 of 4)
I have never “done” Sturgis. I’ll be 50 in a few months and it seemed to me the next step. Daytona, Laconia, Americade, Myrtle Beach, Love Rally, been there done that. Sturgis is my elusive one. You blink, and you’re too old to do anything. So without blinking, I decide not only should the trip…
Stolen Bike Dead Neighbor!!
So last night Yvonne is out with our daughter who has freshly become a teenager to so some ‘girl stuff’, whatever that is. I don’t ask. I’m home with my boy sitting on the couch in our underwear watching the Braves beat the Cubs, eating popcorn. ‘Boy stuff’. The drama and stress of the day…
Sleeping with the Witch
You meet the damndest people on the open road out on your bike. I would venture a guess that you’ve never met a witch. Well, the same cannot be said of me and 3 of my pals two summers ago. We had ventured to a bike show in New York City, and not had the…
Six Encounters on a Weekend Bike Trip
If you log onto YouTube and punch in my name with “Fall Foliage Iron Butt” you will find a short video of a trip made this fall on my Harley bagger 2,500 miles in the course of a very long weekend. The true purpose was to get in one last breathtaking view of the changing…
SECRET TESTING
Several years ago, some pals and I were at the Talladega Speedway Grand Prix Track , ripping around the track on sport bikes with the relative proficiency of 40ish wannabe racers. Our bikes hailed from all over the world. A collection of Ducatis (from Italy), a few speed triple Triumphs (from England), a gaggle of…
Rippin on the Banks – Atlanta Motor Speedway
I have had a great life of motorcycling. If it were to all end today, I can’t say that I have had many regrets. The Baja Peninsula on a 500 single, Steve McQueen style perhaps. The Pan American Highway on a dual sport, right through to Mexico. Yea, I would have liked to have gotten…
1,000 Miles to Get a Good Bagel
Those of you that have read my ‘Musings’ know of my occasional proclivity for long distance rides. I’ve done them in themes, races, fundraisers, and contests, but never as an excuse to get a good meal. It is an unfortunate fact that getting a good bagel in Atlanta can sometimes be a chore. I’ve put…
Reminiscing The Fonz
I was born in 1964. The last official year of the baby boom and three months after John Kennedy was assassinated. I’m too old to be a Gen X’er and certainly feel too young to be a ‘Boomer.’ However, I was 10 years old in 1974 when the character Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli first appeared on…
Pikes Peak
There are certain 2 wheeled phenomenons in a biker’s life that unfortunately, can slide by without notice. If you have not yet done at least 5 of the following 10 biker events or venues you are selling yourself short on true life altering biker experiences: (1) Daytona Bike week, (2) Sturgis, (3) Laconia, (4) The…
Pick One Bike
My buddy, George, came down to Atlanta to ride in the mountains last year and was dragging all weekend, like a hung over college freshman. I rode his butt three days straight for being a lightweight. “Man, you’re turning into an old fart!” We rode a bunch of miles and he couldn’t keep up. I…
Paris Breasts, on My Bike
Isn’t it odd how you associate certain sights or smells of youth with events or times in your life that trigger memories? The smell of bleach always brings me back to my grade school cafeteria, and Sister Vincent/Teresa. Diesel fumes to my father’s work truck, idling beside our house on winter mornings before school. Certain…
Out Front
I once tried a criminal case on behalf of a client where the facts were awful against us, the law was not on our side, and my client was guilty in every conceivable way, including in his taped confession. Despite the 6 witnesses testifying against him and the FBI Agents who watched him commit the…
Getting OLDER
Have you ever look around your office or your job site and noticed that everyone is getting younger and younger? Or perhaps look across at the driver next to you in traffic and realize it’s likely a teenager, in Mom or Dads car. Those drivers look younger and younger, the older I get. Sometimes disconcertingly…
Of All the Bikes I’ve Loved Before
If you are new to motorcycling, or are too young to have owned more than a bike or two, this article may not be of any interest to you. To appreciate these words, you must have a few years of biking and few miles of riding and perhaps earned that road taught wisdom that inevitably…
Odometers
Odometers are a funny thing. We want ours to show lots of miles to prove our metal and illustrate the miles we have logged on our bikes. However, a ‘low mile’ bike is a thing to covet for collectors, or when purchasing to ensure good value, or when selling to get top price. It’s the…
North Georgia on a Pan
As I write this article, tapping away on a small laptop, I sit in a pub in Helen Georgia called “The Hay Loft.” It is reminiscent of an old German Inn tucked into the countryside of the ‘black forest.’ I last rode there in 1984 aboard a ’76 Ducati GT 750. Today, I am on…
Noise or Music
I just got off the phone with my riding buddy and fellow lawyer, Dan a.k.a. “007.” Dan’s a devout Moto Guzzi nut and won’t ride any bike newer than 1985. I’ll bet Dan owns 20 bikes, all piles of crap if you ask me, but hey, one man’s crap is another man’s “classic.” Nonetheless, he…
NO SLEEP TILL BROOKLYN
Once in a while a motorcycling event presents itself and yearns to be attended. Some friends and I have been hearing about a growing bike show in Brooklyn, New York, called the “Brooklyn Invitational.” Only in its fourth year it has been gaining steam and becoming one of the preeminent vintage motorcycle shows in the…
Flat, Nuck, Pan, Shovel, Block, NICKNAMES
I have been known as “Irish” since childhood. Nicknames as they are, were a staple of my childhood. Bones, Mick, Stone, Red, Gimp, all names given childhood friends short of proper monikers evidencing some abbreviated surname to dispense with the formality of actual God given names. Why? I don’t know. I’m sure the parents of…
NAME THAT BIKE
What’s in a name? In the motorcycle industry, a lot it seems. All manufacturers have research teams to study names of new model lines. These committees study social trend and cultural norms and language terms and how these possible bike names affect the bikes’ marketability. The Harley-Davidson “beer gut” or the Honda “limb shredder” or…
My Upside Down Leather Belt
Certain things you keep in your life, sometimes for love, sometimes for habit, sometimes for nothing other than you’ve simply had them a long time. People, pocket knives, your Army uniform, a favorite coffee mug and certain bikes, you just hold onto. Perhaps because they just fit. The “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”…
My Ride to Fitzgerald, Through Small Towns
I picked up the phone and a familiar old voice was on the other end. My long time pal Earl ‘The Pearl’ Perry from down near Fitzgerald, Georgia was calling to say “Hi”. A man of God, from God’s Country. Preacher Earl and I had known each other from his Sunday morning sermons at ‘Angel…
My New BIKER Deck
Have you ever wondered why it is that certain groups flock together? My grandparents came from County Donegal, Ireland and moved into an Irish neighborhood in New York City, to find a better life. They didn’t move to an Italian neighborhood or a Polish one or a Chinese one. They moved to an Irish one,…
My Country Bike, My Friend’s City Bike
I have some friends that do not see the point of migrating from the city where conveniences are a few steps out the door to the country where raccoons topple my garbage cans nightly. They are hung up with excellent cuisine, a convenient commute, hopping theatre districts, bars and pubs crawling distance from home and…
My Birthday Ride
I was born in the last year of the baby boom, 1964. I missed being a President Kennedy baby by only a few months. Killed by a madman in Dallas shocking our country, thrusting a whole nation from innocence. The baby boomers I know are not much like me, as I am at their chronological…
MY 1,000 mile HOG Ride
So I concoct this plan to organize a group ride with my local Harley Owner (HOG) Group, Killer Creek Chapter #0746, Roswell, Georgia. At our June monthly meeting I invite the ‘few hundred’ members to ride with me on a “double iron butt”, 1,000 miles out and a thousand miles back to and from my…
Miles, Miles and More Miles
Let me start by saying I’ve always considered myself a good long distance rider. I’ve done many “iron butts” and have put a good 15,000 on just my touring bike each year. In fact, last September, I did 14 states and 4,000 miles in 5 days and frankly, when I look at real long distance…
Mechanical Gods
It was a glorious day for motorcycling today. 230 miles of twisty mountain roads, cool temps, sunshine and familiar old black leathers, with only minimal mechanical interruption. With all the headaches of business and the needs of a family, it’s hard to take long rides every week. So when I get the chance, I go…
Occupational Hazards of Vintage
I love my new Road Glide, it is head and shoulders above my last. Infotainment is seamless, tour bags now open with ease, 103 inches of power WAY smoother than the old 96, and the ergonomics of seat position just make sense to my ass. Not to mention the ‘Amber Whisky’ paint scheme name the…
Calling Chuck Dodson
I once knew this biker named Chuck Dodson. He was a friend of mine. Always smiling. Always happy. He lived in Senioa and volunteered a lot for ABATE and rode with the Delta riders. He worked at Delta Airlines and was a dedicated employee for many years. He gave me his phone number one of…
MAPS
What have you got in your saddlebag? Look down in the bottom. Some old plugs long void of spark. Maybe a few receipts for an overpriced impulse buy at the local H-D dealer. Did you really need that Harley coffee mug or that Harley underwear? If you look really down deep, you may find some…
Mal’s Wreck
I have permission to publish this story. Despite the obvious momentary lapse of judgment and the possible embarrassment that goes along with it, my pal Mal has authorized me to write this story because it is mainly about him. It is about him and how he, after riding all his life, let his guard down…
Lobster
There are a plethora of reasons to ride your bike. The mundane is easy. Last month I decided to break the monotony of the weekend rides to the North Georgia Mountains. My pal Rick and I decided we’d eat some fresh Maine lobsters at the end of a long day’s ride, and I mean a…
Levi 501’s, Biker Jeans
When was the last time you wore khakis out riding on your bike? Or perhaps a pair of suit pants? For that matter those black tuxedo pants with the silk stripe up the leg that your sister made you rent when she married that jerk? Oh, — NEVER? I thought so. If my calculations are…
Lesson: Easier to Pick on Rich Women that Leather Clad Biker
I recently came across a story published in a Pennsylvania newspaper. The story was about a group of animal rights activists protesting the wearing of leather. It seems the activists had expanded their focus from furry clothed rich women to leather clad bikers. It seems to me a fatal flaw in calculating the reaction of…
On The Road – After 50 Years: The saga of Me and Jack Kerouac
I have always loved the classics. Classic movies: The Godfather, The Shining, Ben Hur, The Quiet Man, Easy Rider, Goodfellas, the list goes on. Classic beauties: Sophia Loren, Greta Garbo, Maureen O’Hara, Ava Gardner, etc… The same holds true for classic bikes: old HD ‘Panheads’, Triumphs of the ‘Bonneville’ variety, Vincent ‘Black Shadows’ and the…
IS IT STILL WINTER?
Here we are just about half way through the winter and I trust you are about as sick of cold weather riding as I am. Well, at least here in the Southeast we get to run ‘em all year round. I tell my boys who ride about six or seven months (tops) up in New…
IRON BUTT
Well, I’ve done my share of Iron Butt runs, but my ride up the Blue Ridge last month took the cake. Out of the garage on Friday morning, back by sundown on Saturday. I hit seven states, did most of the Blue Ridge Parkway, traveled through the middle of Atlanta, Chattanooga, Roanoke, Washington, Charlotte, and…
INDIAN WARS
We all have great biker stories of the people we have met and the places we have been. This is what makes this biker lifestyle so exciting. You never know whether the guy in that diner on Route 66 in Vega, Texas is really Elvis or just an impersonator. You never know if the guy…
IF I WERE A BIKER, 1 LIFE AGO
I am a biker. It is 2016. I thumb my starter and go. I can cross a continent for the price of a few tanks of gas. Effortless, —–relatively. My phone tells me how to suit up for weather I’ve not stepped foot in. My GPS tells me where to turn and where there’s traffic,…
Hunter S. Thompson and Me
I hope that if you are reading my stories you understand who Hunter S. Thompson was. I say was, as he departed this earth on February 20th, 2005 at the age of 67, by his own hand (which happened to have a .357 revolver in it!). An act that surprised me then, but makes perfect…
Homo-Motocyclistius Bi-Wheelius
As a human race, we are constantly advancing in achievements of medicine, art, technology, sciences and yes, motorcycles. We bikers likewise benefit from the evolutionary process that hurls us forward. Dynamic suspension, traction control, electronic ignition and much more, give us reliability and comfort never imagined just a decade before. I trust as a subspecies,…
Home to HOG
My friend and mentor Judge Daniel Lalor told me once “Home is where you buy a burial plot.” A thousand variations of the “Home is…” proverb exist and I’ve even heard it said “Home is where your HOG chapter is”! I guess it depends on which chapter you belong to? Mine is Killer Creek Chapter,…
The Hitchhiker
How many of you have ever picked up a hitchhiker? Responded to the universal sign of right thumb out, side of road, facing traffic, right shoulder? Hitchhiking is a social phenomenon that has become far less prevalent in the past few decades. I don’t know why nor have I fully investigated its demise but you…
HELMETS, They May Be Killing Us
It seems to me that helmet laws are an exercise in ‘natural selection’. A quick reference in any scientific journal sets forth the proposition that natural selection is the process by which natural genetic variations within a population or organism may cause some within the populace to survive and reproduce, and some to die off. …
Harleys and Winchesters
I head west at dawn on state route 14 between Sheridan and Cody Wyoming across a magnificent landscape and the bike putts along nicely. I’ve crossed 15 states and I’ve had no mechanical issues. If I had an odometer it would probably show about 3,000 miles crossed in the last week. The August weather is…
Halloween Ride and The Headless Horseman
It’s about 50 degrees and the sun is setting. A perfect autumn ride: leaves peaking in the Northern United States, temperatures dipping in deference to the impending winter. We’re crossing a mountain ridge where we know the temperatures drop 15 or 20 degrees topside. My friend, Kevro, calls this stretch of road “nipple pass” as…
GREG ESTES, Reminiscing an Ol Biker
We pull up the driveway past the old mailbox, past the pond, past the grandchildren scurrying happily, not grasping the gravity of the day. First gear chugga, chugga, chugga and lean left, kickstand down, motors sputter to a halt under the car port, then quiet. The quiet strikes me. Apropos. We are at our friend…
GOTCHA!
Have you ever noticed that despite generally being a law abiding citizen, whenever you see a police cruiser while riding, you instinctively roll back off the throttle a bit? Or, perhaps pull your foot off the gas when in your car? Thereafter, you check your speedometer in hopes of being within acceptable limits. We’ve all…
Going to Nova Scotia
Here I am, sitting on my garage floor, gearing up for Friday’s big trip. I am in a place as I sit here, that all bikers figuratively and literally love to be. It’s a great place not just in my garage but in my mind. I’m going through my luggage in anticipation of the next…
God Protects Drunks and Children?
God protects drunks and children. Have you ever heard this saying? I have. Though I am not sure where. It’s lodged in the recesses of my childhood memory. Stated perhaps by an adult standing at a bar with me and adolescent peers scampering about in the bar room sawdust. I was for all intents and…
Biker Gloves
There is something about a pair of motorcycling gloves. Ones that grip the throttle and conform to you hands and give you that ready for action feeling, and look. Old enough to be worn and scuffed and hold the shape of your hands when pulled off and laid on the seat of your bike. I…
Form over Function – Function over Form
Ever since I’ve been collecting bikes I’ve always wanted the not so ubiquitous ‘36 knucklehead. It has been the year and model that has eluded me. I am not sure why this year and model is so esteemed by collectors but it may have to do with aesthetics. It may have to do with form. …
Followed by the Moon
As I threw a leg over my bike outside Bodock’s Pub in Canton, Georgia, I felt an early summer warmth that made me smile after a long winter of bundled and zippered riding. It was one of those nights that made you realize that southern living is sometimes a blessing that Alaskans or Canadians or…
First Bike
Who amongst us does not hold their first bike in reverence? The Honda 305 Scrambler, the Triumph Trophy, that Harley Sportster, maybe even a dirt bike like a CR 125 or a YZ 80. Whatever your initiation into “the life,” that particular bike is parked in the shadows of your imagination forever. Occasionally, when you…
Dragons Tail
Got a call from some of my old college riding buddies wanting to come down and ride the ‘Tail of the Dragon’ next week. I thought it was a great idea as the weather has cooled and I had not ridden with these guys in a while. The Dragons Tail, as if you didn’t already…
CARLESS for a month
I love a good challenge. Especially if it involves a motorbike. Who amongst us does not? An iron butt ride 1,000 miles through a foggy night, an old tank shifted Panhead, up a mid western canyon, an ominous mountain pass serpentine on my ‘76 Bonneville, good times. All challenges made easier through the assurance that…
Cali – Mojave Dessert…(3 of 3)
I have ridden many places in my life where motorcycle travel was inhospitable. Certainly not for the weak of heart or the weekend rider. It is a challenge accepted by the biker to get to the sunny place, the curvy place, the better place. Parts of Central America, Downtown Manhattan, Tijuana, the Jersey turnpike… I…
Cali – Napa to Yosemite (2 of 3)
Napa on a motorcycle was a fun jaunt, but really not our cup of tea. The food and accommodations were world class. The vineyards were full of history and interesting people. The wine was ‘fab’ as they say. But the riding was mediocre. Simply stated, IT CONTAINED NO RISK, NO FLAW, NO CURVE, and NO…
Cali – PCH to Napa (1 of 3)
So the pilot dips low right and says: “There you see it ladies and gentleman, Welcome to The City of Angels”. We are no sooner gathering our riding gear from overhead bins and from under seats and we deplane and we’re off to Hollywood to mooch a guest room from my homeboy George (GPK) and…
My Biker Bucket List
Whether you know it or not, you have bucket lists. The cars you’d like to drive. The jobs you’d like to have. The vacations you’d like to go on. All products of the basic human trait we call ‘want’. The want to succeed is inherent in our nature. The want to achieve and to feel…
The Biker Word: BROTHER
I have 3 three sisters. I am grateful to God for each of them. Patti, Coleen and Kerry, three more Irish female names you couldn’t make up. Three better sisters, you couldn’t imagine. They each have quirks and traits and habits that reflect our collective upbringing. They are not bikers nor married to bikers although…
Booze and Timing
One Month Ago: The light turns green and I toe the shifter down into 1st gear and let the clutch out till I feel the plates touch, nudging the bike ready to roll, but I wait. The black Lexis in front of me hesitates then goes. I catch a motion in the corner of my…
BOAT TAIL Archeology
So there I was, straddled over the musty boxes in the old barn, flashlight in hand, peering under a filthy tarp. Moments before the lumps and protrusions beneath could have been an old motorcycle, could have been a cord of wood. The dark building smelled of spilled oil soaked into moldy cardboard. I half expected…
The Blue Shovel SITUATION
So it’s Sunday night, mid June and I’m sitting on my back patio listening to the frogs down at the pond, cigar burning in my big ceramic ashtray. Pecking away at my Mac, which I hate, bouncing ideas around in my head for my next biker story for you to read. I keep a list…
Piloting a Boat versus a Bike
Riding a motorcycle is not for everyone. Notwithstanding the risk it takes to throw a leg over, there are physical demands precluding some people from even attempting the feat. Assuming arguendo that the average motorcycle weighs about 6 or 7 hundred pounds, it is a wonder ANY of us can do this while simultaneously balancing…
Biker Thoughts, Quotes and Quips
The biker life is chock full of clichés. We also have our fair share of jokes, quotes, stories and tales, legends, parables, lies and yarns. Call them what you will, we bikers are a funny and clever lot. I’ve written some clever biker banter over the years, in hopes that someday someone will care enough…
Biker T-Shirts
Contrary to popular biker culture, I have steadfastly resisted the urge to wear the ubiquitous black biker T-shirt. I have never been one to blend in with the crowd, although I confess, I must own 5 dozen of these black cotton shirts stuffed, stashed and crammed all over my house, garage, barn, office, etc… They…
Bike Memories of Childhood
I remember certain things from my youth vividly. Like the year I received a “Big-Wheel” under the Christmas tree (1968). I remember the road trip to Minnesota in my parents’ Volkswagen Micro-Bus to visit an odd-smelling aunt who frightened me (1971). I distinctly recall the tiny green plastic army soldiers scattered about the backyard that…
Bike Investments
I’m sitting in my home office immersed in my usual Thursday night routine. Kids asleep, Yvonne upstairs pecking away at her computer, Dachshund Jack Russell mix fast asleep at my feet. All is quiet in what my neighbors call the ‘terrace’ level, that which I call —- ‘a basement.’ Nonetheless, this is my refuge from…
Bar Stools and Their Occupants
So, I pull out the bar stool and peel off my leather jacket to sling it across the back of the stool. I couldn’t help but notice the couple sitting in the next two stools, clad in black with Killer Creek Harley t-Shirts, with similarly slung leather jackets. They were obviously the riders on the…
August in Vermont
There is something about the water, particularly lakes for me. The sound of waves, the babble of headwater streams, gentle waves lapping up against a pebbled shoreline of a great lake. Sounds not typically associated with riding a motorcycle unless you ride your bike to a lakeside retreat or to your mountainside cottage on a…
Atlanta Motor Speedway
A few of months ago I spent the weekend down at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. It was that time of year again, the ABATE spring Rally. It was a great rally this year, subject of a whole separate story. There was greasy food and used parts strewn about tarps and loud rock music and dust…
Air Traffic Controllers
I do not recall the exact year. It was certainly a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. My best recollection is that it was the ‘mid’ maybe ‘late’ eighties. I say that because the one detail that is very clear to me is the bike I rode that year. A recycled Harley…
A Tale of Two Rallies
My life is sometimes filled with dichotomies. Being a “Biker” “Lawyer” itself can sometimes be a contradiction in terms. An Oxymoron if you will. Lawyers are typically thought of as genteel aristocratic types with French cuffs and wingtip shoes in a Mercedes Benzes while Bikers are thought of as typically leather clad roughians donning tattoos…
A Ride Through Ireland To The Past
Technically, as I sit astride this 1952 Sunbeam motorcycle, I am 3,937.7 miles from home, as the crow flies. Dublin City, Ireland, a few hundred miles from my destination, Donegal, my ancestral home. A long ride on a bike although I confess, I flew here. Alas, an old bike is no less fickle in a…
A Man’s Boots
My father once told me: “When you judge a man, start from the ground up.” He may have been offering a foundational metaphor for a man’s character, but I doubt it. You see, he was a tough plain speaking Irishman. A smart man, though with little education, his schooling was street learned, Marine Corps hardened.…
A Head in a Helmet, Bike on Fire
As bikers we all understand that there are certain risks we have in common. Risks that our car driving brothers and sisters of the byways and highways of the open road do not have. I’ve often theorized that this risk is the glue that binds bikers together and formulates our metaphoric commonality. A fender bender…
A Curve in The Road
I am trying to understand why a curve in the road is so revered by the motorcyclist. The same person in a car would rather avoid it. To understand the word itself we must explore its origins. There is an interesting development in our roadway system here in North America over the course of the…
A Big Pile of Keys
A collection of assorted keys are piled before me in a lump. Motorcycle keys. As I sit quietly in the corner of my man cave at home in a place where I ponder the universe, the keys occupy the far corner of my desk. A simple desk, with an old office chair too high for…
138 Road Signs
Its beginning is less than a mile from my favorite rocking chair on earth. The roadway of my dreams. Not far from the place where I find contentment at the end of a ride in a warm fire, a small garage with the Fat Boy parked inside and a fresh cup of tea. This rocking…