Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Greg

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 30
16
General Banter / The Pickle Factory
« on: August 20, 2019, 08:16:57 PM »
In all my years riding just a stone's throw from this joint, I've never been. Per the pictures on Yelp I'm not real impressed, though the setting looks great. Is it better than the normal bar food fare?

17
General Banter / Tour de France / Yamaha Nikens
« on: July 15, 2019, 06:41:17 PM »
File this under FWIW. Julia and I enjoy watching the Tour de France which is taking place right now. We are both bicyclists, so it's fun watching the top riders do their thing, as well as all the wonderful views of France. The tour officials, as swell as some of the camera crews are riding Yamaha Nikens. Kind of cool seeing them in a real environment. (They look sluggish, heavy and awkward to me  :P)

18
I'm not leaving, just dialing back even more the amount of time and energy I'm going to commit to leading/organizing rides. Mostly because I'm tired and getting older.

19
Other than organizing the Tri-State Boogie" later this year, I'm done hosting group rides. I will reach out to friends and host closed rides. Please feel free to reach out to me as well.
Cheers!

20
General Banter / Random bytes, worth what you paid to read them.
« on: June 17, 2019, 01:30:37 PM »
Hello Fellow Riders. I thought I’d drop in, say hello and broach a few topics.

On a person note, I’m going to mention this. As I discussed in this thread, http://mn-msta.com/index.php/topic,1960.0.html, I fulfilled my promise (mostly) last year with 3 open forum rides, and one large private ride. If others don’t step up and post a ride, this forum is effective dead regarding group rides. Organizing a ride takes a lot of work and it does open you up for slings and arrows thrown by those in the peanut gallery that never post rides. A few of the complaints will be deserved, most will not. 

Ray and I have organized more open forum rides, via this group and the 3 other dominant groups over the last 17 years, than any other person. Others have posted rides, some more than others, but none more than Ray and I. This isn’t boasting (lol, believe me!), just stating fact. These opinions I’m about to write about are worth what you paid to read them.  Zip, nada, the big goose egg. :)

The national MSTA FB group had a recent post that caught my attention. The fellow mentioned that we are a very diverse group of people, sometimes with nothing else in common other than our shared love of motorcycles / motorcycling. And even with my previous sentence, you see some of these differences. Some of us love the motorcycle more, and some love motorcycling more. (Neither is better than the other, just different).

That fact that we are a VERY diverse group of people in our personality makeup, in addition to our differences in what constitutes a “group ride”, mandates that what makes a “group ride” effective is INFORMATION. 
If a person were to post on a skiing forum, “Hey, let’s get together and go skiing”, most would show up at the resort, and then splinter off into subgroups. The black diamond skiers, the blue square and green circle (expert, average, and beginner) skiers will rarely ski together. This is an example of why I feel it’s important to lay out what exactly your posted ride is going to be.

These examples are presented only to show the vast differences of rides and I’m not applying worth to any of them over the other.
1.   Iron butt ride! Let’s get out and do a 1000 mile day!
2.   Twisties all day: Let’s get out and do 75 miles legs, few short gas stops, one hour lunch. Speeds reasonable in the straights, “do your own thing” in the corners
3.   Flying kites! Let’s get out, listen to some Peter, Paul and Mary, smell some flowers and enjoy the day.
4.   Kickstands and kicking tires: Let’s get together for lunch on our motorcycles and swap riding stories.

Just as a beginner skier doesn’t want to ski the mogul hill and the black diamond skier doesn’t want to ski bunny slopes, riders of different tastes as described above will not want to ride the other styles of rides. (AGAIN, I’m not assigning worth to these styles)
Given all of us have various commitments outside riding, the days we DO get off to ride should be as we hoped them to be. Hence: Information.

I’ve learned 2 important things from RR and RK (abbreviations to protect the guilty, but you know who these folks are) regarding group riding over the past 17 years. The importance of stressing the “ride your own ride” philosophy as well as the fact that people like to ride WITH others. BOTH can be accomplished via the methods I laid out above.




21
General Banter / Work / Fun
« on: May 26, 2019, 06:21:14 AM »
There is a LOT of work involved in our version of fun. But it is worth it.  :)

22
General Banter / Re: WHERE ARE THEY?
« on: May 23, 2019, 07:21:43 PM »
Several years ago, I started a thread that was strictly focused on motorcycle accidents from stats published by the State Patrol.  It was simply a thread to show riders how accidents occur and convey the message about proper training.  I posted these stats for almost a whole season and was shocked how large the thread view count had grown, (132,250 as indicated today).  I suspect the member list might have grown from people who don't even ride and were drawn by the tragedy factor of that thread  I discontinued the practice as these stats are already public on the State Patrol site anyway.
Bots come in and out of "unsafe" websites like this one. That view count is hard to believe without mechanical involvement of some kind. FYI: Check if a site's connection is secure
To see whether a website is safe to visit, you can check for security info about the site. Chrome will alert you if you can’t visit the site safely or privately.

In Chrome, open a page.
To check a site's security, to the left of the web address, look at the security status:
Lock Secure
View site information Info or Not secure
Dangerous Not secure or Dangerous
To see the site's details and permissions, select the icon. You'll see a summary of how private Chrome thinks the connection is.

23
General Banter / Huh? What?
« on: February 15, 2019, 07:48:22 AM »
Recently had a hearing test, 40% hearing loss in my right ear. Most likely due to a lot of loud music, both live and recorded throughout my life. I'm sure motorcycling played a part in it as well.

Good things have a price. I wouldn't change a thing. :)


24
General Banter / Re: How many motorcycles is to many?
« on: December 09, 2018, 08:15:19 PM »
If garage space and bank account limits aren't an issue I would love:  a long distance BMW, a dirt bike, an early 70's Honda CB350, current model CBR1000rr, a vintage Vespa, a vintage Triumph, and yes even a Harley. 

25
General Banter / Curious Thread
« on: November 15, 2018, 07:16:35 AM »
Curious thread over at the national MSTA Facebook page of posting a picture of yourself and referencing your age. A person finally posted a counter thought on the trend, which has provoked a lively debate. I see both sides of the argument.

26
General Banter / Re: Various Ozark Bliss
« on: October 24, 2018, 10:42:27 AM »
More bliss.
Hwy 9 from Melbourne to Allison. Run it either direction. Do not make any mistakes on this one. Zero run off and very tight. Blink and you're dead.  ;)

http://www.motorcycleroads.com/75/31/Arkansas/The-Melbourne-Run.html

27
General Banter / Various Ozark Bliss
« on: October 24, 2018, 10:06:34 AM »

28
General Banter / Re: If
« on: October 19, 2018, 09:29:50 AM »
What prompted this discussion?
The continued lack of activity both in conversational postings as well as posted rides. 

29
General Banter / Re: If
« on: October 16, 2018, 08:17:31 AM »
Don't know, just a preemptive "heads-up" for everyone.
(Given how quiet things are)

30
General Banter / If
« on: October 16, 2018, 08:11:51 AM »
If this website falls off the face of the earth without warning, remember the parent MSTA can be found here.

http://www.ridemsta.com/mstaforums/index.php

Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 30