Search by tags The Bike Life
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Playing in the Dirt
by Ken Bingenheimer on April 18, 2010 at 02:31AMI haven’t done much dirt-biking, a deficiency I intend to rectify this summer, but I’ve had a couple opportunities. The first one was compliments of my friend John. You can think of him as the pusher. “Try this, you’ll really like it,” he seems ...
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Stayin' Alive
by Ken Bingenheimer on April 11, 2010 at 01:06AMMotorcyclists share a common understanding of other motorists that goes something like this: Remember all the others on the road are crazy and out to kill you.
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Journey to My First Bike
by Ken Bingenheimer on April 04, 2010 at 10:54AMAs a kid I was desperate to get a motorcycle, and would have done so except that my mother would not allow it. Then a friend who did have a bike lost a leg in a really bad crash, so even once I was out from under my mother’s roof my ardor was dampened ...
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Out of Gas
by Ken Bingenheimer on March 28, 2010 at 03:18AMI read an article somewhere just the other day that said, “Nobody runs out of gas any more, not with dash lights and other geegaws reminding you to stop and fill up.” Obviouslythere weren't talking about motorcycles.
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The Adventure of the Ride
by Ken Bingenheimer on March 21, 2010 at 02:28AMEvery motorcyclist gets asked why they ride. It comes with the territory. Hang glider pilots, who also hear that question a lot, have a name for the people asking: Whuffos. That’s as in “Whuffo (what for) you risk yo’ life flyin’ aroun’ in that ...
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Beware of Bambi
by Ken Bingenheimer on March 14, 2010 at 04:03AMThe most dangerous animal in North America is not the grizzly bear. It's not the moose. Not the rattlesnake or any number of other critters you might suppose. The most dangerous animal is Bambi.
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Buyer Beware
by Ken Bingenheimer on March 07, 2010 at 02:35AMMy Honda CB750 Custom has always leaked oil from the head gaskets, with the result that I go for a long ride and come home with my jeans spattered with oil from the knee down. One summer I decided I’d had enough of this and, feeling flush, took my bike ...
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Target Fixation
by Ken Bingenheimer on February 28, 2010 at 02:20AMWhatever you do, don't think about pink elephants. Ha! Right, now there's no way that you can't think about pink elephants even though they were the furthest thing from your mind a moment ago. OK, try this. You're putting down the road on your favorite ...
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Partying with the OFMC
by Ken Bingenheimer on February 21, 2010 at 03:25AMSomehow the world has changed since the OFMC was formed and we started taking our summer motorcycle trips. In the beginning it was just the three of us, John, Bill, and me, and we were young guys out for a good time. Nights would generally find us in ...
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Off the Pavement
by Ken Bingenheimer on February 14, 2010 at 03:49AMSome motorcycles are built to go off the paved road, even off any road at all. Generally, these have knobby tires for getting a good grip and serious suspension that can take big bumps without complaining.
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Facing the Inevitable
by Ken Bingenheimer on February 07, 2010 at 01:28AMThings break. It's a fact of live and we all know it. And it's a fact that does apply to motorcycles. What do you do when a bunch of guys are off on a weeklong trip and someone's bike breaks down? You're not going to abandon your buddy but at the same ...
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The Shining
by Ken Bingenheimer on January 31, 2010 at 03:46AMHave you ever been out on the road and stayed at a really creepy place? I’m not talking about dumps. Heck, we’ve stayed in plenty of those, like the place in Kemmerer, WY, where it turned out the three rooms next to ours didn’t have roofs. You see, ...
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The Ride Not Taken
by Ken Bingenheimer on January 24, 2010 at 02:46AMWhile it may be true that “A bad day fishing is better than a good day in the office,” the same is only true up to a point when you’re riding a motorcycle. Some rides are better left undone, at least until later.
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Wanting What You Have
by Ken Bingenheimer on January 17, 2010 at 03:39AMOne of the newer members of the OFMC commented a few years ago that a big part of our summer motorcycle trips, for him, is going a really long distance. It seems he liked returning from vacation and wowing the folks at work with how far we'd gone and the ...
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The Insane (or Brilliant) Practice of Lane Splitting
by Ken Bingenheimer on January 10, 2010 at 01:30AMCompared to the rest of the U.S., California is like another country. Like Europe, to be exact. That is to say, California is the only state in the U.S. that allows lane-splitting, something Europeans take for granted.
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Road Food
by Ken Bingenheimer on January 03, 2010 at 04:20AMBecause, on a motorcycle, the journey is the destination, it's common practice to look for whatever excuse you can find to ride. Happily, food can be that excuse. There aren't many things better than an eatery with terrific food that also happens to ...
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Win Some, Lose Some
by Ken Bingenheimer on December 27, 2009 at 01:32AMUsually when we’re planning the route on our summer trips we make sure to include at least one night where they have casinos. All of the guys enjoy a little gambling, although some of us do better than others. Bill is our most consistent winner, having ...
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The Breaking Point
by Ken Bingenheimer on December 20, 2009 at 07:00AMThree weeks before the OFMC planned to head out for our yearly trip, the guy in the bike shop guaranteed me he’d have the work done on my Honda CB750 Custom in plenty of time. Long story short, he lied.
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Against the Wind
by Ken Bingenheimer on December 13, 2009 at 01:40AMThe sudden blast hits you, throwing you and the bike across the lane, perilously close to the edge of the pavement. You struggle to control the bike and curse the wind, moving back across the lane so the next blast won't blow you completely off. Some days ...
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Leading the Way
by Ken Bingenheimer on December 05, 2009 at 10:17PMI was in the lead, out in front of everyone else in the race. Nobody was going to pass me.
