Robbie Maddison Makes Record Motorcycle Jump in Las Vegas

In case you missed it, Robbie Maddison broke the world motorcycle jumping record Monday night, soaring 322 feet, 7 1/2 inches at the Las Vegas Rio All-Suite Casino and Hotel.

His jump, originally scheduled to coincide with the dropping of the ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve, was delayed because a previous televised football game went into overtime. In fact, I had set my Tivo to record the jump, then fell asleep and missed the jump completely because the Tivo stopped recording before the actual jump.

This was a jump dedicated to the memory of Evel Knievel. It's one not to be missed and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Robbie as he tries to break his own record.

Members of my Motorcycle Views Forum did see the jump and provided links to videos of the jump. Take a look and add your own comments either in the forum or here, below, after you see the video.

Motorcycle Forums and Lots More

Motorcycle Views is more than just this blog. It has a newsletter, a main site, and a motorcycle forum.

Signup for the newsletter to keep up-to-date with site changes and important forum discussions. I always have four forum discussions listed in the newsletter.

The main site has most of the content that I created for the old About.com site. I continue to add to that content. I have many features on that site including motorcycle pictures, women on motorcycles, user reviews, motorcycle recalls, motorcycle tattoos, makes and models, and a motorcycle tests index.

My motorcycle forum is now on Delphi and has attracted most of the regulars from the old site. So, if you've missed hearing from a former member, check out the forum and see if they're now in the new forum. This is a very active motorcycle forum with a good mix of experience and we ride all brands of motorcycles. Both men and women riders are represented.

So, be sure to check out the complete site so you don't miss anything.

Paint a Triumph: 15 Year-Olds Get Creative

One of my forum members is an art teacher. She recently had her students go outside and paint various parts of her Triumph motorcycle. I think you'll find the results interesting and quite creative. MotArtCycle Student Work

It's a Two-Way Street

Over the past eight years I've written a lot about motorcycles both on the old site and on the Motorcycle Views site, forum, newsletter, and this blog. However, writing can be like riding down a one-way street. I want it to be like riding down a two-way street being able to see my readers waving at me on their oncoming motorcycles. I want to be able to stop at a watering hole and get feedback on what I'm doing right and wrong and have riders submit articles, pictures, comments, and discussions to help the total site grow. I need submissions.

This is not a site in a vacuum. Never was before and won't be in the future. It's a site that depends on you.

At yesterday's Polar Bear run, I had several people come up to me and talk about this new site. They liked it better than the old site. It still has much of the old content but it's much simpler to navigate and is not cluttered with ads. It was nice to hear people talk about the new site in such glowing terms. However, success of the new site depends basically on three things: Search engine placement, User Submissions, and forum growth.

Search engine placement is a complicated process. I'm doing about all I can to foster this process. However, search result ranking often depends on having other sites linking to a site. That proves that the site is important enough to others that many other sites want to link to it. It seems to have the effect of raising a site's ranking in the search results. So, if you happen to have a motorcycle site and like what you see here on Motorcycle Views, consider linking to the main site. As always, I will provide a link back to your site as I always did on the old site.

I have seven items on my Submissions page. These include User Reviews, Motorcycle Pictures, Tattoos, Haiku Poems, Forum Participation, Newsletter Subscription, and Blog Comments. Take a look at my Submissions page to see where you can contribute most to the growth of the site. Nearly eight years of doing this has made it readily apparent to me that "It all depends on you." I enjoy reading the submissions and processing them to appear on the site. Help me out by writing a great user review of your own bike, submitting a picture of you with your bike, showing me your motorcycle-related tat, writing a simple haiku, becoming active on my forum -- it's FUN, subscribing to my newsletter, and commenting on this blog. What could be easier?

Thanks for coming along for the ride.

Motorcycle Industry Council Comments on Wild Hogs Movie

Wild Hogs, the new movie starring John Travolta and Tim Allen, opens today. I saw a review on TV today that said to forget it. Another review in the paper gave it two stars out of four. So the reviews keep coming in. Of course, the true test is what the fans think and the box office take will be the final test.

The Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC) says, in a release to Business Wire, today that the reviews are mixed. Here's an excerpt:

"We want to give ‘Wild Hogs’ a thumbs-up for inspiring even more Americans to take a look at motorcycling and everything great it has to offer, the sense of freedom it provides, the adventure,” said Tim Buche, president of the MIC. “At the same time, we want to continue to encourage new and returning riders to go about it the right way. After you’ve taken the ride vicariously in the movie theater, enroll in a Motorcycle Safety Foundation RiderCourseSM and learn about two-wheeling in the real world."

Read the complete article.

Of course Motorcycle Views wants to encourage everyone thinking about learning to ride a motorcycle to do so but it has to be done right. That doesn't mean running out after seeing a movie like this and buying a new motorcycle and then trying to learn to ride it on your own. Check out my step-by-step procedure to do it right by reading You CAN Ride a Motorcycle.

I also have a Motorcycle Views Forum where you can ask questions about learning to ride and receive answers from our expert riders. Check out the Motorcycle Views Forum.

As I said before in this blog, I will be giving you my review of this movie soon.

Motorcycle Pictures of the Week

Here are my Pictures of the Week as displayed on the Motorcycle Views Web site. These are taken from the Moto Pic Gallery. See Alicia with her Ducati S2R and Ed on his Honda Shadow ACE. Both riders are members of my new Motorcycle Views Forum.

If you'd like to see your bike as Pic of the Week, submit a picture of you and your bike along with a description of the bike.

Motorcycle Views Forum - New Feature

After I left the old site, there was a certain amount of confusion among the members of the motorcycle forums that I hosted at the time. All the moderators had been shutout and no one was in charge. Of course, some members liked not having anyone in charge. Fortunately, no trolls have arrived and no heavy SPAM has occurred so the old forums are still relatively sane.

It must be mentioned that the old site and forums have been unguided for two months now. Also, the site is still being advertised to find a new Guide. It could be many months before a new Guide is found, trained, and allowed to build the site from scratch. That's right, the old site will disappear and a new site will be constructed from scratch. The forums may be allowed to stay the same, or some forums may be deleted, or the forums may start from scratch. No one really knows.

However, many hundreds of the forum regulars departed and attached themselves to two existing forums and one newly created forum. The latter forum is now being run by a former "corner host" and the vast majority of the regulars have set up housekeeping with that forum.

In the beginning, I was happy to see that the regulars were attached to a forum that would stay around. Many were worried that the plug might be pulled on the old forum and everyone in the community would lose touch with each other. The new forum solved that for the most part.

I was also not ready to be responsible for another forum when I was trying to establish the new Motorcycle Views Web site. I first created this Motorcycle Views Blog. Then I established the Motorcycle Views Web site. Next came a Motorcycle Views Newsletter. I'm currently getting subscribers for the newsletter from a sign-up form on the site. After I had established a huge number of articles and features for the Motorcycle Views Web site, I started thinking about creating a forum.

The Motorcycle Views Forum is now attached to the Motorcycle Views Web site. It can be reached from any page of the site. Having the forum allows me to stay in touch with a very large community of riders, both experts and beginners. I can now run Polls in the forum and link to them in the newsletter. I can also provide links in the newsletter to important forum discussions as I used to do in my former newsletters. I can also put links to forum discussions in my articles to enable people to discuss important points in the articles.

The net effect is that I finally have back the major pieces of the old site and that's a good feeling.

I hope you will visit the Motorcycle Views Web site and the Motorcycle Views Forum and also subscribe to the Motorcycle Views Newsletter. Together, we will all continue to learn more about motorcycling and develop a great motorcycle community. It all depends on you.

Walt

My Life is Mostly Motorcycles

I think it was yesterday that I saw on TV that a local resident found a strange rock lodged in a wall in her house. Apparently it came from a meteor shower and just decided to crash through her roof and cause almost instant neighborhood commotion as TV trucks, cops, and firemen converged to help figure it all out. Guess it could have been my place. It was very close. Ever think about getting hit with a falling rock while riding your motorcycle? Man that would've hurt!

Yesterday, I saw a story about motorcycles on World News Tonight with Charlie Gibson. It was a piece about the Patriot Guard. They showed the bikes rolling into town and the bikers lined up with flags to both protect the family of the fallen soldier and to honor him as only bikers can. The news reporter lady said, "The bikers were all dressed like ... like bikers." It was moving to see these tough looking motorcyclists offering their support to our country's greatest heroes and their families. I know a few Patriot Guard riders from the previous forums that I hosted. Many of these Guard members are former military too. I'm happy to see riders giving of themselves to help their country. It's just what we do.

I'm happy to report that the majority of the regulars from the old forums have found their way to a new forum being hosted by a former "corner host" of mine, Carrie. Everyone seems happy there although most of us do look in the window at the old place from time to time to make sure no one has made a mess over there. The new forum is called Still Cruisin The Curves and it has the same moderator I used to have. Do stop in sometime and get to know the greatest bunch of riders you'd ever want to meet.

I went out in the garage today and hooked up the Battery Tenders on my two trikes getting ready for a Polar Bear Grand Tour run this Sunday. It's a 70 mile ride down to Vineland, NJ. My wife, Jane, wants to ride but it's only been two months since she had a total knee replacement of her left knee. She did take a short ride before Christmas on a Polar Bear Toy Run but that was only three miles from our house. I'm not sure about her taking such a long ride on her trike but maybe I'll give in if it doesn't rain.

Oh, the wonders of the Internet. The street light just outside my window keeps cycling on and off every 30 seconds. I found a form on the Internet to fill out to get it fixed. I got an email today saying they now had a work order to fix it. Still waiting to see if it actually gets done.

My wife and I are co-treasurers of our local GWRRA chapter this year. I didn't know it was going to be so much work. I told them in November that the only job I would consider was the treasurer's job since I was working so hard on my Motorcycles Web site then. Little did I know that by Christmas that job would be gone and I would be off to seek my third career. Well, you are seeing the beginnings of that third career here. It's progressing nicely but my previous work load has mysteriously returned as I get deeper into this. I'm feeling much better than I did just a week ago. It must be the effects of the New Year.