Motorcycle Camping

Pulling a camper or trailer is probably the best way to safely increase your hauling capacity. If you’ve already decided that you need to carry more gear than you can safely strap to the bike , Maybe it’s time to make the move to a trailer or perhaps even a camper. When we go on motorcycle camping trips, Sherri always rides with me so there’s just no way we could get all the gear for both of us and ourselves on one bike.

We first tried camping pulling a trailer, carrying a tent and our other camping gear.This is actually not a bad way to go. It was a lot lighter than the camper we are using now. The pop up motorcycle camper is just so much faster to set up, plus you’re sleeping on a real bed off the ground and you don’t have to spend a lot of time looking for the “perfect place” to put a tent. As long as the ground is somewhat level the camper can be set up in minutes. The biggest drawback to pulling a trailer or a camper is manuverability especially on winding roads in the mountains. You just have to get used to the fact that you can’t travel as fast.we have been pulling our camper for about 5 years now and have racked up over 10,000 miles with it behind the Gold Wing. I’ve just gotten used to the fact that it goes with us on vacation and have adjusted accordingly. There are things to be careful of when pulling a trailer. Your stopping distance is increased substantially so always be aware of this and leave plenty of room between yourself and other motorist. Also you have a much wider footprint, be careful not to run the trailer off the shoulder of the road. This will get your attention very quickly.

Motorcycle Camping

The weather is starting to get nice here in South Carolina. Soon it will be time to drag out the camper and get everything ready. We already have reservations for Riverbend @ Lake Toxaway,N.C. in May, so I guess that will be our first motorcycle camping trip for this year. We bought a Goldwing in 2004 and started out taking weekend trips on it to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Charleston and Myrtle Beach, staying in motels and cabins. Soon after I talked Sherri into trying camping. She agreed so we bought a pop up camper to pull behind the bike and she loved it. Most all of our vacations since then have included the Goldwing and the camper. To date the longest trip we've been on was to Lakeland Florida during the Sun n Fun Fly in. While on that trip we made our way on down to Clearwater Fl. to visit with some friends. The entire trip was 1600 miles. We had planned to tour the country on the bike this year but the economy has put a hold on that trip. Maybe next year.

Latest Take on Myrtle Beach Bike Week

Back in March I posted a news release that stated the Carolina Harley Dealers Association was moving their rally to New Bern Fairgrounds. While this is apparently true, most business owners say this has little effect on Myrtle Beach Bike Week. As before, all the news I hear is that Myrtle Beach Bike Week is not canceled and will go on as usual with the exception of the city limits of Myrtle Beach. Most bikers as I hear from have said they plan to avoid the city limits as much as possible. More news, Horry County Council voted to reduce the number of vendor permits issued this year and raised the fees on the ones that will be issued so expect a lot less vendors than usual. All in all I think the the whole county just wants the rallies to go away. The businesses that rely heavily on the rallies for their exisistance are trying to play it off like everything will go on as usual. I suspect all this bad publicity will cut the attendance of the Myrtle Beach Bike Rally substantially. It wouldn't surprise me if a lot of riders that attends the event collectively agree to move elsewhere or just forget about the Myrtle Beach Bike Week Rally all together. I guess time will tell. As for me I still plan to attend so far.

Getting the Most out of Riding Leather

Any time you are riding a motorcycle it's always a good idea to be prepared . Now I know a lot of people in S.C. including myself enjoy the fact that we don't have a helmet law, but that doesn't mean I don't think about the possibilities of being involved in an accident or think that I'm above getting hurt. Leather riding gear does a lot more than protect you from the cold , it can save some hide should you take a spill. The pavement is a lot tougher than flesh and a short slide down a gravel road can quickly remove large sums skin. Leather motorcycle jackets can protect body parts that stick out ,,like the elbows , one of the first things to come in contact with the road when you go down. Leather chaps aren't much for saving the tail end but they are efficient at preserving the knees. The internet is a great place to start a search for some decent prices on nice leather riding gear. There are many vendors online so what I do is check out all the prices and write down the brand name of product that I like . Then I visit local shops searching for the same item. When I find what I'm looking for I try it on for proper size and fit. Then I'm prepared with information to give me some bargaining power . If the local dealer won't compete with the price then I just order it online. Now I don't like to take advantage of local sales people and I don't mind them making a living. If they come within a reasonable amount of the online price I'll still buy local. So next time you're in the market for leather jackets or leather chaps, do you're research online first. You'll be amazed at just how much bargaining power a little information will buy you.

Myrtle Beach Bike Week Rally

May biker rally moves from Myrtle Beach to N.C.

MYRTLE BEACH -- The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association is moving its May motorcycle rally to New Bern, N.C.

In a press release issued this morning, the association said it had been welcomed by the mayor of New Bern and has a 40-acre site for the rally, which will take place May 15 and 16 -- a shorter event than the ones that are usually held in Horry County each May and draw nearly 500,000 people.

The New Bern rally will be held at the New Bern Fairgrounds at 3700 E. U.S. 70.

In the press release, Mark Cox, president of The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association said, “We feel it is in the best interest of The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association and our customers to leave the Myrtle Beach rally venue...This new venue will allow us to get back to basics and offer our existing and new customers a rally experience they will appreciate without restrictions and with the ability to enjoy the freedom of riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle."

The dealers' association said it had given the issue serious thought and decided to go where it would be welcomed. “We are pleased and honored that you have chosen to hold your rally in our city, and we pledge our total cooperation in making your rally a most pleasurable and memorable occasion for all in attendance, said New Bern Mayor T.A. Bayliss III.

Myrtle Beach Bike Week

Well Bike Week at Myrtle Beach may be in more trouble than I originally expected.
Seems that just last week Horry County council voted to limit the number of vender permits to 250 this year.
Is this a sign that the Horry county council wants to see bikers going elsewhere for their rallies?
Maybe they're taking sides with Myrtle Beach city council and just feel like we're too much trouble and nuisance.
The talk I'm hearing is a lot of bikers are just going to forget about MB bike week altogether this year and just look for a new place to hold the rally.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see how the turnout is.
We plan on being there at least for the beginning but we haven't made any long term reservations just in case we decide to abandon it as well.

Choosing sunglasses for motorcycle riding

In most states it is required that motorcycle riders wear some sort of eye protection be it in the way of a face shield on a helmet or sunglasses.
Since I've personally never been a big fan of face shields I've always opted for the sunglasses route for eye protection. For many years I wore aviator sunglasses but the wind coming in around the glasses caused my eyes to dry out so I found a pair of cheap wraparound sunglasses that helped keep the wind down. Now I know it's cool to have the best, most expensive sunglasses you can get your hands on but for riding motorcycles I always go with the cheap sunglasses for the simple fact that I've lost too many pair to count over the years.
One thing to keep in mind when buying sunglasses is make sure they offer UV protection. No UV protection can be worse for your eyes than not wearing sunglasses at all.
Anyways ,something to think about when picking out sunglasses for motorcycle riding ,,get something that wraps around to help keep the wind out of your eyes and don't spend a fortune on them because they are probably gonna blow off or get lost at some point in time.

Myrtle Beach Bike Week

I've seen people writing that there won't be a bike week at Myrtle Beach this year.
I've seen several posts that MB bike week has been cancelled.
That is not the case. Every site I've seen promoting Bike Week makes it clear that Myrtle Beach Bike Week will go on as usual and that no events have been cancelled. The only difference is this year there have been some new ordinances for the Myrtle Beach city limits. While it does seem true that the city of Myrtle Beach no longer wants bikers in it's town , all of the businesses that support Bike Week have made it clear that they will be open and bikers are Welcome. Again all of the events are held outside of the city limits of Myrtle Beach and they will do "business as usual".Hope to see you there. Keep it safe and have fun.

Motorcycle News

After missing out on a few events that I really wished I could have attended except for the lack of knowing ,,I thought , wouldn't it be great if there was a website that listed all the events,poker runs, bike shows,charity and benefit rides,get-togethers and just plain bs sessions in one place.
Sure you can go online and find out what's happening in BF Egypt,next month but all I want to know is what motorcycle events are going on in South Carolina right now or in the not so distant future.
After giving this some thought I built a website just for that purpose, but since I can't be at all places at all times and can't possibly know all that's going on in the way of motorcycle news all over the state of South Carolina, I have made the site easy to use so any member can add events to the calender. I have several pages that members can write their own stories and post photos if they so desire.
So what I'm saying here is if you would like to have a site that you can find all the latest news and upcoming motorcycle activities in one spot ,then come join me at http://the-steed.com/ and help get the news out.
I'm not asking for blood,sweat or tears, just a few minutes of your time to add an event that you know about .
It's free to join and I promise you won't be bombarded with worthless e-mail, in fact if it wasn't for spammers I wouldn't even require a membership.
That being said I'll include some links here to other sites that also offer news and information relavent to our area.

1. http://southcarolinamotorcyclenews.com/
2. http://www.rd-ranch.com/
3. http://abatesc.com/
4. http://www.abateoflexington.com/
5. http://dixiethunderaiken.com/
6. http://fastfreds.com/

That's enough for now, I'm not gonna spend all day looking for links to post
Ofcourse anybody happening upon these pages are welcome to to add your own links provided they follow some guidelines:

1. they must be relavent to motorcycle news and events(preferrably for South Carolina)
2. they must link to legitimate sites or blogs
3. they must not be links to commercial sites
4. they must not be spam

Hopefully that's enough to keep it safe for now ,,if not I'll revise the list later