Negative Waves

There’s snow in the forecast. Actually, when I looked online, it said it was currently snowing, but it doesn’t appear to be. Of course, like every year, I’m behind on my pre-winter projects and I’m hoping that this snow isn’t the real thing. By real thing, I mean that it doesn’t accumulate on the ground. The real reason that I want winter delayed is that I really want to ride and was hoping to have at least one more good one.

Part of my wanting to ride is the fact that I haven’t been able to ride as much as I’d like this year. Actually, I haven’t ridden this little in about twenty years. I can point to a lot of of excuses why I didn’t take the time to get out and ride, but the reality is that they don’t matter. I’m not ready to be done for the year.

If I look at it optimistically, I can recall years that it snowed in October and then stopped for quite a while. The year I bought my first Ducati, I drove through a blizzard to bring it home. A week later, all of the snow melted and I was able to ride five or six times before it snowed again. Let’s hope that if we do get accumulating snow, that it’s a year like that one. Keep your fingers crossed! “

Why don’t you knock it off with them negative waves?” - Oddball in Kelly’s Heroes

Edit: it did snow after I wrote this, but no accumulation yet. Keeping those positive waves

Just Like Batman

Have you seen Tim Burton’s Batman? The Michael Keaton Batman. I believe it takes place in the Autumn. I am a huge fan of the character Batman, but I must admit that it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie. I originally saw it in the theater in 1989 when it was released and I later bought the VHS tape and watched it often, but it’s probably been ten years since I’ve seen it. Anyway, riding in the fall always reminds me of that movie.

 

The reason why it reminds me of the movie is that in many of the scenes with the Batmobile, a cloud of fallen leaves swirls behind it. For some reason, as I ride my motorcycle in October and November, when many of the leaves have fallen, I picture the same swirl of leaves trailing me. I’m sure this doesn’t actually happen, but it’s always a cool picture in my mind.

 

Anyway, this weekend is supposed to be a nice one. I’m planning on getting out and riding. Make sure you wave to the guy on the black Ducati with cloud of leaves following in his wake.

 

“I’m Batman.” - Michael Keaton in Batman

Motorcycle Magazines

If you noticed the last post on the KLK Cycles Facebook page you'll know that I recently had an article published in a motorcycle magazine. The magazine is called Backroads. It is mainly distributed along the east coast of the United States, so it's definitely not one of the main motorcycle magazines, but it's still a point of pride for me.

 

I actually wrote the article over a year ago having another magazine in mind, but that fell through. The other magazine was Roadrunner, which is a much larger magazine than Backroads. I followed Roadrunner's writing guidelines when I created the article and hoped it was what they'd want. Also, my friend Jeff Frenette is an outstanding photographer and he took some great photos of the ride detailed in the article. I hoped that by submitting both outstanding images and following their guidelines to the best of my ability would give us the best chance to be published.

 

I submitted the article and images on a Thursday evening. On Friday, the latest issue of Roadrunner arrived in the mail (I was a subscriber). As I browsed the new features, I noticed something that made my heart sink. One of the main stories was detailing the exact ride that I wrote about! I cursed my bad luck. I waited six months for someone at the magazine to respond and they did not. Was the reason they didn't use the article the fact that they had just released a similar one? I'm not sure, but it definitely didn't help the situation.

 

After the six months, I emailed a representative of the magazine and politely asked them to remove my article for their consideration. They did and told me to consider them again for a future submission (I still might do that). I did a Google search for other motorcycle magazines that would accept article submissions and came across Backroads. With a little correspondence back and forth with the editors, I was told that they accepted the article to be published. That was last April. Since it detailed an Autumn ride, I wasn't surprised that they waited until now to publish it. I received an email last week saying it was published and I'd receive copies of the magazine along with payment.

 

A few days later a package came in the mail and I was thrilled to see the article in print. My thrill subsided when I noticed that the article said words and images by Josh Karvakko. I clearly remembered telling one of the editors that the photos were taken by my friend Jeff Frenette. I nervously browsed all of my email correspondence to find out if I had failed to give proper credit for the images. I did give credit to my friend. They messed up, not me. I called Jeff and told him the good and bad news and he was far less worried than I was. We decided not to call them out on the error. The best they could do would be to print a retraction, which barely anyone would see.

 

Like I said before, I am thrilled about the article being published. I was just disappointed that the proper credit wasn't given for the photos. Well, that and the fact that they changed the title of the article to, "Touring the Colors - NOT." Cool title...NOT.

 

Careful what you wish

You may regret it

Careful what you wish

You just might get it

 ⁃ "King Nothing", Metallica

Self Balancing

Photo from TIME Inc.

 

 

Over the past summer, my mom mentioned multiple times that my dad isn't recovering as well from long rides. She says his back locks up, his legs cramp, and he needs to rest more often. She fears that his ability to hold up his motorcycle at a stop is also starting to fade. We're talking about a guy that spends a huge portion of his life touring the country on his motorcycle. He's ridden through all of the lower 48 states in a single trip (it did take two months). He's ridden to Alaska by himself. He has gone over 1000 miles in a single day multiple times. I think of these things and I fear what he would do if he couldn't ride.

 

I mentioned my mother's comments to my dad. "She's exaggerating," was his reply. He said that it was nowhere near as bad as she said. I imagine the truth of his ailments lies somewhere in between my parents' statements. He probably still has years of enjoyable riding left in him, but not that many.

 

This article that I came across has alleviated some of my anxiety. It is about the self balancing motorcycle that Honda is bringing to the Tokyo Motor Show. It will balance itself at slow speed and stops. The great thing is that this motorcycle exists, it's not just a concept on paper. With any luck, this will be in production by the time my dad gets to the point of not being able to hold up his own motorcycle. He has enthusiastically stated that he will not ride a three wheeled motorcycle (I'm not sure I totally believe him), so this would be a great alternative. Maybe it'll keep him riding into his nineties!

 

"The older the bull, the stiffer the horn." - Marlboro Man from Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man





Moto Wisdom

Last week I said that it was predicted to be unseasonably warm on Friday. Predictions were wrong. It was around 70 degrees and rainy. I did not go for a motorcycle ride that evening. As disappointed as I was, I was assured that the weekend was still going to be hot and rain free. My wife and I went for a nice motorcycle ride on Sunday afternoon. It was quite the enjoyable ride, but as I reflected on it later that day I came to a realization...I must be getting old.

 

Normally, when no other motorcycles are with me and I don't have to worry about people keeping up, I tend to ride pretty aggressively. On Sunday I was pretty content taking a leisurely ride without trying to drag my knee on every corner. Maybe I'm just mature, not old.

 

A conversation that I had with my dad earlier in the weekend may have persuaded me to take it easy. He made a passing comment that no matter where, or how fast you are riding it will still be fun. My dad is usually full of wise comments like this, so I'm not surprised that I let this sink in and it influenced me on my ride. I've learned that, as much as I failed to notice in years past, when he gives a bit of wisdom, it is smart to listen.

 

So my wisdom for you is, listen to your dad, or your elders. Wisdom is earned through time and they've been around longer to gain it. More times than I'd like to admit, I could have avoided some inconvenience if I'd just listened to some wise advice.

 

"Don't gain the World and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold." - Bob Marley

Fall Fun

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but fall is my favorite time for riding. Don't get me wrong, I love the hot temperatures and sunshine of the summer, but the colors, smells, and overall feel of fall make me want to get out and ride. An unseasonably warm fall day might just be the best.

 

As I look at the forecast, I notice that this Friday, the first day of autumn, is predicted to be 83 degrees. That sounds like the perfect day to go for a nice long motorcycle ride. Unfortunately, a project deadline will keep me from taking the day off. However, my mother-in-law has volunteered to watch my kids that night, so my wife and I may be able to enjoy an evening ride. It would be the perfect start of the weekend.

 

Let's hope that this fall continues to be warm and lasts for a while. I know the length of the season is the same no matter what, but you know what I mean. As far as I'm concerned, winter starts as soon as snow starts accumulating. Hopefully that's not until December.

 

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." - Albert Camus

Generations on Motorcycles

Yesterday evening I had a couple hours alone with my son (he's almost 4 years old). We played baseball in the yard for about twenty minutes and he lost interest. I asked him if he wanted to do anything else and he said he wanted to play a video game. I refused. It was a beautiful day and we won't get many more before winter comes, so I demanded that we stay outside. Then he said he needed to use the bathroom, so I told him I'd have something for us to do outside by the time he was finished.

 

I quickly ran to the garage and got his dirt bike out (in this blog post I described the Honda that I bought for my kids). By the time he came out of the house I had it started, warming up, and waiting right outside the door. He excitedly ran over to me and we began to ride around our property. It's still a little big for him, so I placed him in front of me and he held on to my hands as we rode around.

 

I went extremely slow for the most part, but I had the greatest time. I'm pretty positive my son did too, because he didn't want to stop. We rode around for at least thirty minutes, possibly more (I wasn't really keeping track). At one point my dad actually rode by on his motorcycle. He didn't stop, but he noticed us and had the biggest smile on his face. What an outstanding evening! Three generations enjoying motorcycles!

 

"Our most treasured family heirlooms are our sweet family memories." - Unknown