Motorcycle Rain Gear

Motorcycle Traveling Man

July 3, 2010

Well here we go again! Another GREAT ride in Northern New England! Today we started out heading North. We started out on Route 2 East from my home town to Lancaster New Hampshire. Here we headed North on New Hampshire’s Route 3. This is a very nice road, well maintained and little traffic.

We wound our way up Route 3 through Northumberland and on to Groveton. We pass through Groveton and continue North. We come to the small town of North Strafford and continue to Columbia. From Columbia we continue to Colebrook New Hampshire.

Now for those who have never been to Colebrook or this far North in New Hampshire, I must tell you that I consider this area “God’s Country”! It is absolutely gorgeous any time of year in this area! If I sound a little prejudiced it is because I use to live here and I think it is the best place on earth to live! Here we gas up for continuing the ride.

Now my lady friend loves to ride my bike almost as much as I do! One of her favorite experiences riding always involves water. Not that she likes to ride in the rain, she likes to stop by lakes, rivers or streams for the view. Well being a former resident of Colebrook I know a place that my lady will love!

We head out on route 145 towards Pittsburg. This has my lady confused? She thought we were going to head East at Colebrook, not North. We only need to go a couple of miles off track to where I wanted to bring her. We arrive at Beaver Brook Falls! This place is WONDERFUL! There is a picnic area, shelter, tables and even an outhouse! The brook and falls are gorgeous and quite refreshing! We snap some photos, enjoy a cool drink and head out again.

By the way: Our cool drink was provided by the greatest piece of gear I found to date! It is a cooler saddlebag! I also offer a cooler sissy bar trunk bag and a cooler backpack. All these are designed for Motorcycle riding. There is nothing like riding on a hot, steamy day, stopping at a favorite rest area and enjoying an icy cold drink! Visit my site (listed later) and be the first of your group to have this luxury!

After a cool drink we are back on the road and back track a couple of miles to Route 26 East. This takes us on even more wondrous roads and great views. We travel out of Colebrook to Dixville. Here we go through Dixville Notch, going right in front of the Balsams Resort and Hotel. If you have never had the pleasure of staying or dinning here, it is defiantly something to add to your “to-do” list! Just make sure you dress up as this is a VERY “posh” environment and the price supports this. Just to let you know, I think it is worth every cent you pay!

From here, after a quick stop in the notch for pics, we continue to Errol New Hampshire. This is the cross roads of the North Country. This is where people traveling to & from Maine go through, people from the North Country go to Maine from here and this also connects you to Route 16 South to bring people from the North Country to the Berlin & Gorham area of the State. More a little later on this.

In Errol there is a HUGE facility which is the center of town. Here you have L.L. Cote. This enterprise offers all types and kinds of sporting and hunting gear, After all you are now in the heart of GREAT hunting lands! There are water sport items and all items for all ball sports. There is a gift shop and hardware store. There is even a Post Office in this building! Up here in the North Country this place is well known and needed. There are not a lot of stores around and here is one that has most everything you need!

From here we travel South on Route 16 towards Milan and continue to Berlin. Here we stop at another favorite, Middle Earth. This is a store with lots to offer. We like it for the over 18 section located upstairs!

We continue to Gorham and then take Route @ East towards Maine. We pass through Shelburne New Hampshire to the Maine border and cross over. It is only a couple of miles into Maine that we then turn South on Route 113. This portion of Route 113 is closed during the winter months. This road is PERFECT for motorcycles! It is paved but narrow and winds along a nice brook. There are a few pull offs to enjoy the views and the brook as well. An absolute lovely road for a motorcycle and just plain great country views.

We continue to Fryeburg Maine and cross to Conway New Hampshire. Here we make another favorite stop, the Army Barracks. This is a surplus store with a lot of GREAT deals and items available. My lady friend gets a new fleece hoody and a leather shoulder purse for her mom.

Even with our cooler saddlebag and gear, we find ourselves wanting a hot meal. We go back to Route 16 South and travel for a few miles until we arrive at “Almost There” a very nice bar and restaurant. As usual we have a great meal and are soon on our way. We back track several hundred yards to Route 112, the Kancamagus Highway. This is yet another SUPER bike road with great views, nice pull offs and brooks all along the way. There is again little traffic to hinder your ride. We continue through the Kancamagus Pass down to Lincoln New Hampshire.

By now we have traveled many miles and my lady is getting a little weary. Once again we are thankful for all our gear. Without our gear these trips would not only be dangerous, but much less pleasurable as well. Our cooler saddlebags, the cooler sissy bar trunk or the cooler back pack, these long, hot rides would really take their toll. To find these great items and even more GREAT gear, go to www.motorcycleleathervalue.com and all your riding needs can be filled!

Until next time: Travel safe, ride safe, watch out for “cage” drivers and keep the rubber side down!

Buzzard, the Road Warrior!

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I am back! I told you I would continue to write about my Motorcycle rides this season. On this weekend we went to a BON party weekend. This was an event co-sponsored by BON. I say co-sponsored as the party was NOT initiated by BON but by a local group funding their activities with the handicap. BON had allowed this group to use their name and social network to advertize and to gain more support.

The event was centered or head quartered in Lincoln New Hampshire. For those who are not familiar with this town, it is located in the heart of New Hampshire’s White Mountains. So it goes without saying how beautiful the area is.

Friday started with a lot of Bikers arriving from all over Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. These were the three states the party was advertized for. The area has several types and places for overnight accommodations. All were still at “Pre-Season” rates so it was quite affordable. We chose to stay in a cottage less than a mile from the event center. People were on their own for dinner that night and drinks after were at the Beacon Inn, the event headquarters.

Saturday started the event cycle. The weather was warned to be wet, but as all true Motorcyclists, a little water does not discourage us! I for one make sure I have all my gear ready for inclement weather and whatever I am in need of I go to www.motorcycleleathervalue.com to make sure I have all the Motorcycle Gear and Accessories to address any riding situation.

We register for the Poker Run. The Run takes the rider through the White Mountains and has a route mapped out for about 110 miles. Being from the area I was very familiar with the route and the Poker stops. We join with a group of 9 bikes and they were from Southern New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts. The route and area was new to most.

We as a group decide to take the route starting with the ride on Route #112, the Kancamagus Highway. We left Lincoln on the “Kanc” (locals refer to it as this) headed for our first stop. The ride is very nice as we reach the highest elevation of the Kancamagus, pass through the Kancamagus Pass, 2855 feet above sea level. The views are EXCELLENT through this area! The group continues to the end of the “Kanc” and we turn onto Route 16 North and continue to our first Poker stop, Laconia Harley Davidson. This is located on Route 16 in Conway, NH.

Here everyone evaluates the gear they are wearing. Most dressed for the impending rain. We have been blessed, there is no rain and none in sight! Everyone strips off their rain gear and cools off. Again I am thankful for having a variety of Motorcycle Gear as www.motorcycleleathervalue.com provides many options and choices so you are prepared for every riding situation.

We leave and continue to the next stop. This stop is a very short distance from the last so the ride is quick. Although most of my experience shows that it is very long and hard to pass through the town of North Conway. The town has several shops and restaurants to offer. If you ride with a lady fiend it is hard to pass through without stopping in at least one shop! We all pass through without stopping, a first for me! The traffic was also OK as it is still “pre-season” for this area. In a later ride I will bring you along a route that by-passes this congestion and provides some GREAT riding! That is a later ride.

We make it to our next stop, Hills Top BBQ in Glen, NH on Route 302. Routes 16 and 302 share the same road until about a mile before we reach the BBQ. We now continue on Route 302. Here a few riders decide to take lunch. Our group decides to continue to the next stop on the map. We all agree it still could rain and we want to make the entire Poker Run and stay dry!

The next stop is the Irving gas station and convenience store. Here a few gas up and we all get our next card draws. At the time, Chris, a fellow biker in our group has a hand that has us worried. So far he has a pair of Aces! This could be hard to beat? My Lady and I bought 4 total Poker hands and at each draw we still haven’t gotten a card higher than a 10! We run into some riders who chose to make the run in reverse. They tell us the roads are clear and that we may want to expand the ride further than the map accounts for. We do a quick weather check and decide to cut the ride shorter than what is mapped out as we see a cloud mass heading our way.

We escape the clouds with only a sprinkle or two and it lasted less than 5 minutes. Yes it rained, but so little I wouldn’t even say we got wet. We turn off Route 302 to Route 3 and head back to Lincoln and the last stop at the Woodstock Inn. Here is where you get your last card draw. Again no high cards and no face cards. We are a little disappointed until we realize that although we don’t have any high cards or pairs, all our little cards make a Straight Flush! This is the highest card hand you can get! We are now very confident. Our Straight Flush is only a 6 high Straight, but we figure most will not beat it. Time will tell!

We go to dinner, back to ur room and prepare for the evening’s festivities. Once again we change out our Motorcycle Gear for the appropriate Leather for the night ride and party. Thanks again to www.motorcycleleathervalue.com for supplying everything a Biker needs for any riding time or condition.

The night is filled with fun, drink, music and good friends. We did in fact win the Poker Run with our Straight Flush and we also won the 50/50 cash draw! All-in-all, the weekend was great and we met some new riding friends! No one can have too many friends to ride with!

Until my next ride; Stay safe, wear the right Gear and keep the rubber side down!

Buzzard

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Traveling Man

06/18 & 19/10

I am back. I am going to take you on a couple of different trips today. Both will take us to and through Laconia Bike Week.

Let’s start by talking about the weather. Anyone who has been a patron of Laconia Bike Week knows that the week almost never passes without us bikers getting wet due to rain. Yes I used the “R” word, sorry. On Friday, June 18th I went to visit my “brother” bike rider who lives in central Vermont. The day promised to be in the 80′s to low 90′s, a perfect riding day. I got to his house with a path all determined and I was ready to ride. The bigger surprise was that my friend was also ready to ride. Don’t get me wrong, he loves to ride as much as I do but he is seldom ready to go when I get to his house. He lives about 65 miles from me.

I let him know of our planned route and he was questioning the plan. I asked what he wanted to do and his thought was to ride in New Hampshire so we could ride in a little more comfort ………………………… no helmet! So we decided to go to Laconia for the day and check out the crowd. Off we go!

We proceeded East on VT. route 302 to route 25. We continued on VT. route 25 and crossed into New Hampshire into the town of Piermont. From here I decided to travel NH. Route 25C, through Warren (take a look at the missile!) and then back to route 25 to Plymouth. We then went on route 135 through Ashland and continued to New Hampton. All the travel thus far has been excellent scenery and only one pretty bumpy road. If you can, try to avoid NH. Route 25C as this is like a goat path for a motorcycle. Thank goodness for my comfortable riding gear and the comfort of my custom seat.

Once in New Hampton we start to see bikes and I mean bikes! Route 135 intersects with route 103 and this is a very popular route to gain access to the bike week festivities. As we worked our way towards Laconia, going through Meredith we notice the traffic is backed up! We are surprised as the traffic we are seeing is leading away from Laconia and the bike week activities? We continue forward and get to the intersection of route 3 and Roller Coaster Road where the Broken Spoke Saloon and the world famous Tamarack restaurant are located. By this time the temp is well into the high 80′s and close to 90! We are hot & thirsty.

We decide to go to the Broken Spoke for cooling refreshments and some lunch. We enter the parking area to find even more bikes. We work our way around the lot and could not find adequate parking. We had decided to leave and try another place when I spotted two places right next to the exit. We rush and take the places before anyone else realizes they are there!

We have a nice, icy cold beer and some lunch. By now the crowd at the Spoke is growing even bigger. Bikes are now parking across the street to get into the Spoke. We look at the time of day (remember I started in Central Vermont at 10:30 am) and it well past 2:00 in the afternoon. My “brother” and I like to ride relaxed and under no pressure. This is the most relaxing and gratifying way for us to ride. We decide to start back without ever actually entering the Laconia, Weirs Beach area!

On the way out of town we remember the backed up traffic we saw when we came into town. We did NOT want to suffer through all that. I knew an alternate way to get out of the area while avoiding the traffic on NH. Route 3. We cut across Roller Coaster Road to route 106. Now here most would turn right to go to Meredith, but there is where the traffic is. I turn left to go towards the center of Laconia. At the intersection of route 106 and Elm Street and Meredith Center Road we turn Right to go towards Meredith Center. Once there we turn onto route 103 and go back to New Hampton. We again travel route 135 to Plymouth and then 25 to Warren. This time we remember the “goat path”, route 25C and decide to continue to route 25B. This route will also bring us close to Piermont so my “brother” can continue home to Central Vermont.

All in all, a GREAT ride, GREAT weather and my GREAT friend and brother out for the day. We both pride ourselves on having the correct gear and accessories for every ride we take. This trip was no exception. We were well prepared and had all our necessary leather, gear, accessories and everything a true blooded motorcyclist would want or need. To find all this and more, shop my favorite site: www.motorcycleleathervalue.com

Next Day’s Travel

06/19/10

Today is another WONDERFUL motorcycle riding day! Today my lady friend (believe this or not, I have the luck of finding a lady friend who loves to ride almost as much as I do!) wants to do a day trip to ……………………………………………… yeah go ahead and guess …………………………. Yup, that’s right, she wants to go to Laconia Bike Week! Go figure? She has never experienced a true biker event so I say why not? I mean to go to Laconia two days in a row isn’t all that bad! LOL

For this ride I want to get to Laconia as quickly as possible. My lady friend wants to see everything! Now for anyone who has ever been to Laconia for bike knows to see everything in a onetime day trip is VERY hard to accomplish. So I get her up and going and we seat ourselves on “Baby” (my nick name for my ride) for departure at 7:55 am! My lady is GREAT when it comes to riding! J

To expedite the trip to Laconia I opt to proceed down Interstate 93 to New Hampton. This is again another great road in New Hampshire, but it is an interstate. I generally do not like to ride the interstate as it is faster than prefer to ride. We make Laconia in record time and we are parking “Baby” by 9:45 am!

We spend the entire day walking, sitting and taking in a lot of fluids (it is hot on the pavement!) up and down the Wiers. One thing I start to notice is the lack pof vendors. I see areas that are usually full of vendor tents empty. The bike traffic is much less than I have seen in the past. The crowd also is smaller; Perhaps it the heat? Perhaps it is the time of year? But I think it is due to the atmosphere. If you go back in history and look at Laconia Bike Week from 15 years ago, it has changed a lot! The event is turning away from a “true” biker event and transforming into a family event. I think this is why the crowd has dwindled and the bikes are fewer.

OK, we have a good time and my lady is wiped out! We walked a lot in the heat! Off we go to travel home. This time we ride the way we prefer, slow and easy. We take just about the same route that I took the day before with my brother, but in Warren we take yet another path out. We stayed on route 25 all the way to Haverhill to route 10. We travel up 10 to Woodsville and merge with route 302. We take that back to Littleton and then onto route 135! Yes the same route 135 we traveled yesterday in the Southern part of the state! This takes us to Dalton, NH. We then cross the river to VT. And continue through Gilman to Lunenburg and home.

Another fine motorcycle riding day. Again with being prepared we had all our equipment, accessories and gear we needed for our motorcycle ride. For you to get all you need go to www.motorcycleleathervalue.com and all your riding needs can be fulfilled!

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Motorcycle Traveling Man

05/31/10

This is the first of a series of stories about Motorcycle rides and riding. Each story will take you on a wonderful journey as well as provide many road tips along the way.

To start the day I always check the weather forecast for conditions. It is important to make sure you have the proper Motorcycle Gear, Apparel and Accessories with you for each Motorcycle ride you take. On this day, Memorial Day, the forecast was for a wonderful weather day; partly cloudy, less than a 20% chance of rain and temperatures in the mid to high 70′s. Anyone who has ridden much knows this is ideal weather to go out on your motorcycle. I will go out and not expect to hit rain with a forecast of 30% chance of rain or less. If I see a forecast that exceeds 30%, I will need to make sure to pack my Motorcycle Rain Gear, forego my ride for the day or just take my chances and get wet! It is so very important to make each and every ride you take as safe and enjoyable as possible. Anytime I need new Motorcycle Gear or Accessories to enhance my riding pleasure, I go to www.motorcycleleathervalue.com to find what I need.

Checking the weather is just one step but you must also make sure your Motorcycle is all set and prepared to ride as well. Are your tires in good shape and properly inflated? Are all you vital engine and drive train fluids at proper levels? Is your Motorcycle running well and no performance issues? If you answered yes to each question above, then your Motorcycle is ready to ride!

For each ride I take on my Motorcycle I at least evaluate my time frame for the day. We all would like to live a life where time did not matter and the worry of the next day’s events did not exist, but most of us do have other responsibilities and obligations to fulfill and live up to. So on this day it was decided the trip would need to end somewhere around the 6:00 pm time frame. The weather is a little cool this morning and it is overcast slightly. The trip start is delayed to about 10:30 am to allow for clearer skies. One more referral to the area maps and a travel route is determined.

Off we go! By “we” I mean myself and my lovely girlfriend. She loves to ride almost as much as I do! We embark and head West on Route 2 from Lunenburg Vermont. We travel through some rural areas to the city of Saint Johnsbury. We get to town just at the end of the Holiday parade. What GREAT timing! We did not have to sit and wait at all as the parade had just finished. We then proceed to West Danville and turn to Route 15. This takes us pat Joe’s Pond, a wonderful little lake with great swimming, boating and fishing. We continue on Route 15 to Hardwick and pass through. There were no activities and few businesses were open for any shopping. We continue to Morrisville. On the way we stop at a fishing access on the Lamoille River. It was a great place to stop and have a little break. The river was nice and there were few if any bugs!

In Morrisville we turn off to Route 100 South. This takes us to Waitsfield Vermont. On the way we find another rest area near another little brook, yet another lovely stopping place. In Waitsfield we find a place for a late lunch as it is now almost 3:00 pm. We eat at a place that is a movie theater with a restaurant and bar as part of the operation! Later on in the season I want to find a movie playing there and go for a dinner and drinks while watching the movie. Sounds like it would be a lot of fun.

It is now late enough in the day for us to alter our original route so we can get home by our designated time. We take Route 100-B to Middlesex where we take Route 2 through Montpelier (the Capitol of Vermont) and back home to Lunenburg.

All-in-all, it was a very nice trip, stopped at a few places for eating, shopping and just for a rest. The weather was perfect and my Motorcycle performed flawlessly. Again my thanks to www.motorcycleleathervalue.com for all my Motorcycle Apparel, Accessories and Gear needed for a great ride!

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