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Type of Bike: Ducati. Own 3 Ducati`s (ST3 2006, Hypermotard 796 2010, Diavel 2012) I fell in love with a Ducati when I saw it for the first time in 1974 and vowed that I`ll never buy something different.

Occupation: Rock Doctor for 35 years and still working 🙂

Favorite Ride: : Any long distance ride is a priority. However the most awesome short ride is Clarence Drive on the eastern side of False Bay (I`ve sent a picture before)

Future Rides:I`m planning a 4 Corners of South Africa GOLD as well as 1500 miles in under 36 hours

Interesting Facts

I’m a person of many interests. I always say that if I live to 300 years I might be able to do half the things I want to do. I`m an amateur photographer who claim that there is no better camera as an Olympus as I`ve been using these since 1974. As a rock hound I`m happy to have traveled the world and being paid for it. In 2010 I also had the opportunity and used it to do a Ride Like A Pro riding course in George after which I rode the Tail of the Dragon 3X in 24 hours and then part of the Smokey Mountain Pathway and the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was during the Fall of that year and absolutely amazing. I have 5 different long distance certifications under my belt/

I’m one of the Founder members of the THINK BIKE Safety Awareness Campaign as well as one of the Founder members of the Kalahari Chapter of CMA South Africa. During 2010 I rode 2 of my Ducati`s a total of 20 000km in 4 months of weekends.

Type of Bike: 1986 Honda Shadow VT700

Occupation: Audio engineer

Favorite Ride: The next one.

Future Rides:2012 Sturgis trip I-70 from Indiana to Denver then North to Sturgis. I want to plan a Coast to Coast possible 2013

Interesting Facts

More miles, more states. It’d be interesting to try I-90 across the US. Motorcycles were one of those things that I always wanted to get involved with as a kid. (Doesn’t everybody?) But it wasn’t until I was recovering from a bicycle-vehicle collision in late 2007 that I came to the decision that if I didn’t try it now, I might not get another chance.Since then, I’ve logged close to 30,000 miles, which I figure isn’t too bad for four years of New York winters. 2,100 of those miles so far have been for official long-distance rides, with more to come. If there’s one thing I’ve taken away from my few years’ experience on bikes, it is a sense of personal responsibility that I find lacking in a lot of people my age. Aside from being responsible for maintenance, insurance, and all the necessary paperwork, every trip on a motorcycle forces me to recognize that my life is literally In my hands–”It’s not fair!” will not alter the laws of physics when a careless driver cuts me off. When I’m old and gray, and the chrome has dulled and the ignition doesn’t fire up quite like it used to, I think it’s the idea of personal accountability that I will value most.

Type of Bike: 2006 Road Glide

Occupation: Disabled Hair Dresser!!

Favorite Ride: All of them, I guess so far my trip to Sturgis 2011

Future Rides:2012 Sturgis trip I-70 from Indiana to Denver then North to Sturgis. I want to plan a Coast to Coast possible 2013

Interesting Facts

Grew up riding all kinds of dirt bikes with 2 older brothers in the country. Never rode a street bike of any sort till 2005 when I started dating my now husband. In 2006 he took me to Sturgis and I was hooked! That December I was in a head on collision and hospitalized for two weeks. With both knees destroyed and my right foot ripped half way off the prospect of walking was not looking good. While in the hospital we received the flyer for the 2007 Sturgis. It was a goal to make it back to Sturgis. And we did. That year Yamaha had the commercial with the saying “I wanna ride” and it rang thru my head day in day out. In the spring of 2008 I signed up for our local Abate course. From then on I haven’t looked back. 2009 Sturgis I was talking to a friend He spoke to me about the Iron Butt Association. What a challenge it would be. I started to plan never thinking my husband would let me do it!. Friday, July 29 2011 my husband and 16 year old son leave North Vernon, In at 4:30pm. I stay behind with cycle packed for my adventure! Saturday, July 30 2:00am I wake up to start my ride. After no rain in the state of IN for 2 months we have rain. REALLY!!! I call my husband who informs me he has made it to Iowa and go back to bed for a couple more hours. At 4:00am I get up once again. Rain is gone. All a bundle of nerves I get dressed and head out. Once on the road a calm comes over me and the adventure begins! I start out planning on doing 200 miles each leg of the trip. Tank only would do 180 it took about 3 hours each tank full. 20 ½ hours later 1250 miles under my belt I pull into Glencoe Campground, Sturgis South Dakota where my husband and son were awaiting my arrival. A slice of pizza, drink and off to bed for a few hours sleep to awake in the morning for the final 250 miles. It was the ride of a lifetime. Cant wait to do it again.

Air Force Veteran 25 years Fighter Pilot – F-4 Phantoms & F15C Eagles Current occupation: Pilot flying international routes for UPS airlines

I began riding in 1972 on a Yamaha 350 street bike. After an extensive time period without motorcycles while overseas in the Air Force (13 of my 25 year career) we now ride an HD Ultra Classic Electra Glide. Dianne and I bought it new in 2008 from Adamec HD in Jacksonville, FL. Riding the backcountry canopy roads of South Georgia and North Florida is a great stress reliever after coming home from my 10-12 day flight schedules. I’m blessed to live where I can ride year round.

I have three Bad to the Bone LDR designations, all Easy Rider 500/12 awards: The first was a solo ride from Tallahassee to Louisville, KY to go work. Louisville is my home base for UPS. The second was accompanying our younger son on his 2008 Street Bob from his home in Palmdale, CA to Napa Valley. Once there, we all had a great weekend in the wine country! My third award was for another solo run, this time from Tallahassee to Roanoke Rapids, NC on my way to visit our oldest son and his family in Hartford, CT.

I also rode to Washington D.C. for the Ride to the Wall over Memorial Day weekend 2010, although, it wasn’t an LDR ride. I have ridden to both Sturgis and Daytona for their rallies, as well as all over Colorado. There is absolutely nothing better than the Harley “potato-potato” sound echoing through the Rockies!

My next LDR goal is the King of the Road award, 1500 miles in 36 hours. That seems easier than the Full Throttle 1000/24 ride since you have time to get a serious rest stop of about eight hours in the middle of the 36 hour time limit. Also on my “bucket list” are the Born to be Wild coast-to-coast award and a non LDR group ride to Alaska. I fly to Anchorage, AK once or twice a month for UPS and I see how beautiful the ALCAN is from the air. It’s time to see it up close on two wheels.

Perhaps my 39-year history of flying airplanes instilled in me the value of good, proper planning. As a result, I enjoy the planning phase of long distance riding almost as much as the ride itself. Investigating routes and stop points, and alternative options, goes a long way to building confidence that the ride will go safely as planned. I’ve also learned you need two things to successfully achieve long distances on a motorcycle, comfort and understanding. By that I mean a comfortable bike and an understanding spouse.

I am a member of National H.O.G., Tallahassee H.O.G., and the American Motorcycle Association, in addition to LDR. If you see us out on the road, stop and say hello. We’ll be on the air force blue Electra Glide with a Florida plate “3LOVES,” which stands for, strangely enough, my 3 loves: 1) Dianne and our family, 2) the F-15 Eagle, and 3) the HD Ultra Classic that we ride. I encourage you to Live Free, Ride Free!

Type of Bike: Kawasaki ZX9R

Occupation: Self Employed – Refrigeration

Favorite Ride: Not really sure which ride is the best, I just like riding and things change with the mood from day to day. It does not really matter as long as it’s a ride 🙂 Recently did a ride of about 8000 kilos which took me to 24 points around south Africa, it was really interesting and got to meet some and see a lot of people and things one would never see in the usual way of life.

Future Rides: 2012 I want to do the full throttle ride, hopefully early in the year

Interesting Facts: I have a thing about bikes and the ZX9 Ninja, I have started a project to build a ZX9 ninja street fighter now and hopefully I will get to do a long distance ride with it, the road and long distance is the ultimate in life for me and I just wonder what people do with them selves if they do not have bikes to ride, strange I guess – www.ericchill.blogspot.com is a bit more

People say I have a sickness… I pretty much enjoy everything that has to do with motorcycling. I am a member of a AMA chapter motorcycle club called the Iron-Knights. And their overall membership is based on long distance rides. I also find and repair vintage motorcycles. Wrenching on them is something I like to do, but going for a long trip is therapeutic. My mile eater is a 2000 ZX-6R which was once upon a time setup for supersport riding but know has a few sport tourer attributes. Such as bar risers, gel seat pad, custom gps mount, stock gearing with steel sprockets, Vaio touring windscreen, cruise control, throttle rocker and power adaptors. I think this summerizes my addiction. So as I alway say: “Ride On Ride Hard.”

Type of Bike: 2000 ZX-6R
Occupation: A@P Mechanic, Lead Mechanic at Montgomery Aviation, Inc.
Favorite Ride: Last summer went and did the Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway and Blue Ridge Parkway. Miles and Miles of Curves!
Future Rides: Would like to do a North/South Coast to Coast (Mexico to Canada Border.)
Interesting Facts: This Coast to Coast was practically on three cylinders.

It all started as I was going thru Atlanta, GA heading for Jacksonville, FL that I ran out of gas at 158 miles. Which I usually get 180 miles before reserve. And that the bike was running sluggish. At a steady throttle setting the bike would lag then run and so on for miles. Assuming bad gas, or pinholes in vacuum slides, or just that it was 113 degrees I new something was up. I said to myself once I’m in Jacksonville I would take apart the carbs to see if I could repair the vacuum slides and change spark plugs. But once I found a hotel close to the beach I did not work on the bike since it was a super nice clean hotel. But starting out the bike was running fine but the gas mileage was not where it was supposed to be. So right before I crossed into Texas I bought a gallon fuel can and strapped it to my luggage. I think I used it only twice when I pushed a little further. I had planned on eight or nine stops but ended up doing fifteen fuel stops. Made it too San Diego, CA in 43 hours and 48 minutes. But on my way home in New Mexico the bike had no power at all. So I changed spark plugs (used) at a truck stop parking lot. Still no power. I was trying to make it too Albuquerque, NM but only made it too Grants, NM. I found a auto parts store and bought brand new spark plugs. I noticed that #1 plug was not being used like it was not firing. So I assumed it was a coil. I checked the vacuum slides by pushing them in and listening for air, everything seemed good. So I found a motel to start calling dealerships, no coil to be found. Plus it was after closing for most places. I camped out in Grants, NM for two more days waiting on a coil to arrive thru mail order. Expedited means 3-5 working days, after the third my girlfriend and I tried other resources. Still nothing except she wanted me to get a part number off the coil. Not looking forward to take apart my bike again I went too work. I tried my vacuum slides again and was not gentle with them this time. Rattle, rattle… I heard something loose inside the slide. I took the carb top off and noticed loose parts and nothing holding the needle down. The needle holder and spring were just bouncing around inside the slide and nothing holding the needle down. So I put it back together and took off on a test drive. Hooray it was fixed, and could have been fixed earlier if I troubleshot better. So journey continues with a kinked chain even though I was lubing the chain every stop. Gas mileage was back to normal and everything was running good just having the worn chain in back of my head worried me. After nine days on the road 5,408 miles later I made it home. Wanting to do it again with the much improved gas mileage. Just to see what my time would have been then. Maybe some other time.

Dwight built his first bike starting in ’64 as he was being discharged from the Marine Corps, a ‘55 Panhead Chopper. Riding over 40 years, supervised the building of a touring Harley without a front fairing in ‘91. Shown in the H-D Ride in Show in Sturgis that year then Daytona. H-D introduced the Road King in ’94. Dwight worked on the first MotorClothes show in Sturgis for Karen Davidson, was a model in the Harley catalog and guest of the Davidson family for a ZZ Top Sturgis concert that year (‘91) In ’03 showed his latest, an ‘Ultra King’, a Road King with everything from the Ultra Classic except the front fairing. Showed at the H-D Ride in Show, Sturgis that year. Though Dwight has talked with the execs of H-D, they have yet to introduce this model. In honor of Harley-Davidson’s 100th, Dwight took the year to criss-cross the US, including, the Lincoln Hwy, Route 66, Santa Fe Trail, Lewis & Clark Trail and rallies like Daytona, Laconia, Laughlin, Sturgis, Milwaukee, over 20,000 miles.

Best known in the hair industry, as instrumental in building some of the largest professional hair care companies, creating hair trends and headlining major industry hair shows worldwide.

Member: LDR – Lifetime HOG – Patriot Guard – Marine Riders – ABATE – Confederation of Clubs

Way too many years ago, several of my middle-school friends started riding motorcycles. More truthfully, they were riding scooters, mopeds and a few of the old dual-purpose Honda CT Scramblers. It did not take long for the bug to bite and I talked my dad into buying me a used Honda CB 100. It was a street bike, but it saw more than its share of off-road action! I took the front fender off just to make it look “cool”. A few years later my little brother wound up with a 185 Suzuki dirt bike and man did we have a blast! In our part of rural central Texas, there were plenty of gravel roads, lake shores and dirt fields to explore. We made our own jumps and pretended to be great motocross riders. We also managed to bog those poor little bikes to their axles more than a few times in either deep sand or mud.

As I grew older, bikes came and went. I spent most of my 20’s on a Suzuki 650 street bike. To me, the best sounding bike has always been the old Honda CB 750 Four (sorry Harley). The most awesome crotch rocket I’ve ever seen was the old Kawasaki KZ 1000. It sounded mean and it would really move! I never owned one, but I always wished I had.

Time moves on and I eventually graduated to the big Harleys. I ride a Softail Deluxe these days. As the wife and I are “empty nesters” now, we have more time to explore and enjoy the backroads and we attend a few bike rallies each year. We enjoy the mountains and we’ve ridden the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado and toured most of the mountains of New Mexico. Not long ago I stumbled across an article about long distance riding (Thanks, Sean Kester) and thought I might give it a try. The first one, the 500 mile Easy Rider, was….easy. A few weeks later, the 1000 mile Full Throttle was…hell! When I got home around midnight, I was stumbling, mumbling, and swore I’d never try to do 1000 miles in 24 hours again in my life. A few weeks later…yes, I managed to capture the King of the Road, 1500 miles in 36 hours. Truth be told, it was actually easier than the 1000 mile ride because of what I’d learned along the way.

Now I have my sights set on the coast-to-coast Born to be Wild ride. Maybe fall, maybe spring, but I’ll get there. Motorcycling has never ceased to amaze me, to thrill me, or to provide me with a sense of pride, accomplishment, satisfaction, and freedom. And while times have changed and the world seems to be standing on end these days, I know that motorcycling adds something special to my life and it makes it easy for me to drift back the those carefree days on that old “Honda ‘Hunderd”. Good riding to all.

Randy

Ps; Don’t let the 1000 mile Full Throttle scare you. It’s really not all that bad. It just takes a lot of planning and about 18 hours in the saddle!

I’ve been riding the crazy streets since the mid ’80’s, but only got super serious about the lifestyle in the last 5 years. In February of this year, I bought my dream machine and I’ve averaged better than 1500 miles per month with Wolfie II.

Type of Bike: Harley-Davidson Road Glide Ultra, in the fastest color – vivid black.

Occupation: Director, Supply Chain Management, for a 1000 bed hospital in Dallas, TX. I’m the guy who makes sure the nurses and docs have everything they need to help people heal, while constrained by budgets. I work so I can ride!

Favorite Ride: April 2011, my bro Ron “Scrapes” Clanton and I ran out west (over 3000 miles). That trip is where I certified the 1000 and 1500 mile rides. Within that ride, we picked up our wives in Vegas and rode up to Zion, UT for a few days of absolutely beautiful riding.

That was my favorite, but I love riding anywhere, anytime, for any reason. I commute on my bike, and take short and long trips regularly. A lot of fun is had running to various rallies and benefit rides. Any time I get to have the Harley running strong and the wind in my face makes for a better day.

My 500 mile intro into this sport was in October ’10. On that journey I rode a Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster – a Hugger no less! – from LA, CA back to Texas. That was a fun, solo journey and it set my addiction to do more of these challenging rides.

Future Rides: Ron and I are planning our C2C in 48 for the Spring of ‘12, but I’m really looking forward to making a 500 mile/12 hour run this September with my youngest son and my little bike buddy, Ryan.

Interesting Facts: I’m completely blind and ride using an advanced, military grade, sonar system located in the shark nose fairing. Just kidding, but wouldn’t that be cool!

Now the true part: When I bought my first street bike (’84 Honda V30 Magna) in Phoenix, AZ, I somehow bypassed my stupid teenage brain and signed up for riding lessons. Being young and cash poor, I found a very reasonably priced individual who provided private, one-on-one, lessons. I took lessons from a lady older than the grandparents I was living with, and she had a funny English accent. She knew her stuff, and to this day I recall the lessons and points she made. She told me a tiny bit about her adventures, but I was too young and dumb to really appreciate her. I took riding lessons from Theresa Wallach.