Jack Powis

NAME:  Jim Manner of Windsor, Virginia                                                                                             BIKE:  2010 Harley-Davidson Road Glide Custom.

Jim was welcomed into Long Distance Riders in 2015, with a 500-mile ride and a 1,000-mile ride from his home in Virginia, up the East Coast, and into Canada — his first trip on the motorcycle out of country. This taught him a very valuable lesson: If you use your phone as a GPS, you will lose service in Canada unless if you are willing to pay really high “international fees.” Luckily he had an old-fashioned map of Canada.

Jim is currently pastor of Liberty Biker Church in Suffolk, Virginia. He said that God has something in common with most motorcyclists: God is more concerned about where you are going, rather than where you have been. Jim is hoping to tackle the Coast to Coast challenge on an upcoming ride — if he can convince himself that there are still plenty of good, reliable miles on both his motorcycle and his 50-year-old body!

I ride Kawasaki Vulcan 900. I use it to commute and for occasional weekend rides around Bay Area. I had a license since mid-nineties, but started riding again a year ago after a long hiatus. There are a few music/fire arts festivals that I go to every year; one of them is IgNight in SoCal, Joshua Tree area. So this was a great opportunity to try a long-distance trip and have a great destination. It was my first long distance ride, both very beautiful and quite exhausting. I hope to explore more of California on two wheels; I plan to ride Route 395 next year.