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Readers' Stories
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No More Dreaming: Just Do It!
Why she wish she'd learned to ride sooner
11/2/2009: When I turned 54, I dyed my hair fire-engine red, pierced my ears with a second set of holes, and obtained my motorcycle license. Friends and family chalked it up to a mid-life crisis; I looked upon it as throwing abandon to the wind.
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Myrtle Beach Bike Week: Not Like It Used To Be
One rider's journey to see if bikers are still welcome
10/19/2009: We decided to give Myrtle Beach Bike Week a try when my friend suggested we visit her timeshare. We had read stories about how Myrtle Beach residents didn't want the "big bad bikers" and had instituted a number of laws to convince us to stay home or at least pick somewhere else to vacation. Undaunted by the bad press, we set out on a beautiful Thursday afternoon in early May to see if the press was making it out to be as bad as it truly was.
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Getting Past The Road Blocks
Physical handicaps aren't stopping her
8/26/2009: I am a flatbed truck driver. I ride a 2002 Harley-Davidson Road King that I bought from my brother and put 16,000 miles on in the first 13 months I had it. I have only been riding on my own for less than 2 years. Last November I fell from the top of a loaded flatbed, 7 feet in the air, head first. I shattered both my wrists, broke my nose and took 10 stitches in three places on my face. I had pins and external fixators on both my wrists for 10 weeks and lost all strength and flexibility on both.
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Starting To Ride --- at 68 Years Old!
Determination despite failing MSF two times
8/14/2009: It all began at the ripe age of 65 while vacationing in Pigeon Pass, Tennessee, during the spring when bikes were abounding everywhere. I decided that riding a motorcycle would be fun. I was so enraptured that I went to the Harley-Davidson dealer there and purchased a helmet. Upon arriving home in Florida, I signed up and took a rider's safety course, which I failed by riding the bike off the course and going down. Undeterred
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An Experienced Rider Takes to the Back Seat
Why she says all riders should be a passenger - at least once
7/12/2009: Growing up in suburban New Jersey, no one in my family rode motorcycles or had any desire to know about them. My father was interested in aircraft so he got his pilot’s license. My family was fortunate to be whisked away many weekends to travel somewhere in our plane: Canada for Canadian bacon, Block Island (off the coast of Rhode Island), Amish Country (Lancaster, PA) and many other fantastic places.
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Mentoring Through Mishaps
An ode to my mentor -- my husband
6/10/2009: My riding experience started by sitting on the back of my husband's new 1989 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic. While enjoying sitting on the back during 1989, I knew instantly this was not the place for me. My husband would take me to the local mall to practice. He would ride the bike there and I would follow in his truck. At first he would sit behind me on the bike and I would ride around the parking lot.
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Discovering Riding: A Russian Woman Tells Her Story
From Kyrgizstan to Wisconsin
5/15/2009: My name is Irina. I am Russian. I was born in the small but very beautiful country of Kyrgizstan, in Central Asia. The country is bordered with Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. My family could not afford car, so we bought a motorcycle instead. It was a Russian version of the WWII German BMW motorcycle, the Ural. Most Urals have a sidecar.
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Invasion Of The Brits
A NorthStar Moto Tours Adventure
4/24/2009: Two years ago, I was leading a motorcycle tour for my women's riding group, Dangerous Curves, to Lake Tahoe and one of the women asked me why I wasn't doing this as a business venture. The idea kind of took me aback however, I thought, why not? The end result birthed NorthStar Moto Tours. This is the story about our last tour of 2008 and the wonderful experiences and camaraderie gained through motor touring.
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Finding My Calling in Motorcycling
What I want to be when I grow up
4/3/2009: It probably started when as a young girl; I clipped a baseball card with a clothespin to my bicycle spokes so it would make that "motorcycle noise." At 12 years old I got a minibike that made me the envy of the neighborhood boys. At 16 I went to the DMV and got my motorcycle learners permit. With no money for a motorcycle, the dream went on the back burner until I was 34 years old.
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Making Your Bike Your Own
This bike is ready to launch
3/12/2009: In 2000 I was transferred from California to Florida to work at the Kennedy Space Center on the space shuttle program. I was an avionics technician and crawled inside and out of the space shuttles. I was very dedicated to my work as well as dedicated to riding my motorcycle. I decided I wanted to ride my own motorcycle so I took the safety class.
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Lola And Me
A great escape
2/19/2009: "Denice, before you go. . ." I hear that voice in my head, that teacher voice, that voice that does so much for me and yet drains me by the end of the day. Every paper left ungraded, every lesson plan left incomplete, every student left unsaved is forgotten as I walk out the door. I have one mission right now and it doesn't involve the vanilla world.
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Everybody Has A Story
Here's the chance to share yours
Most women experience a life changing moment the day they start riding a motorcycle. They can't believe what they've been missing all these years. So many women are inspired by the feeling they get from riding that they feel compelled to write about it. It's natural to want to share their story with others to inspire them to ride.
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