Motorcycle Pastimes in the August Sun

It's been a slow week. Maybe people have finally decided to take a motorcycle vacation since gas prices are starting to inch downward again. Some have gone to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally but I hear that vendors and attendance there are taking a hit this year.

A lot of people are taking staycations this year. I guess I'm one of them. I have to save up to be able to participate in the Polar Bear Grand Tour that starts the last weekend of October. Gasoline for two trikes could end up costing $1000 for that six month tour throughout the winter. I take all the pictures at the various runs and maintain their website.

For those not out on their motorcycles, here's a few things you can do on my website:

• Take my Motorcycle Quizzes to test your knowledge of bikes.
  
• Play around with my online Motorcycle Jigsaw Puzzles. These puzzles use pictures I took on Polar Bear runs.
  
• Check out my Motorcycle Tattoos gallery. Got your own tattoo? Send it in.
  
• Look at my Women on Motorcycles gallery. Be inspired by women who ride their own motorcycles.
  
• Look at my Antique Motorcycle Ads gallery. See how motorcycles were advertised when they sold for only a few hundred dollars.
  

Now if only they had motorcycle racing or motorcycle trials in the 2008 Summer Beijing Olympics, there would be more to do.

Motorcycle Tattoos - Art or Ego?

I have a Motorcycle Tattoos Gallery that is quite popular. I make it a requirement that each person submitting a tattoo must be a motorcyclist and must state what bike they currently ride.

Now some think that tattoos are done impulsively without much thought. Others create whole galleries of tattoos on their bodies to reflect their own outlook on life or to characterize their experiences. Still others view tattoos as art -- motorcycle art.

What's your take? Leave your comments below.

Have you got a tattoo to place in our Motorcycle Tattoos Gallery? Send it in and see your art on our site.

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.

GoDaddy OCC Bike, Moto Terms, Pics, Forum Talk

I was watching American Chopper last night and found out they were building a chopper for GoDaddy.com. That was interesting since I have my Motorcycle Views Web site on GoDaddy.com and have been quite happy with their service so far. I was amused to see the CEO of GoDaddy.com, Bob Parsons, as he invited the OCC guys to his Customer Service area. Seems Bob likes to award his group with bonuses by letting each person spin a wheel with dollar amounts around the outside and then giving them the amount the wheel stops on. Fortunately, Mikey was standing next to the wheel and made sure each person's wheel landed on $500 and Senior had a pile of cash that he kept doling out to the winners. Everyone seemed happy and apparently Bob Parsons runs a pretty happy shop. I know I had a few problems when I started up my site and I called GoDaddy. I expected minimal help but instead got a very nice young lady who walked me through a 30 minute process and answered all my questions.

I continue to build the Motorcycle Views site. I had all my motorcycle terms and definitions in five files but wanted to separate out each term into its own file so I could link to definitions directly when I'm writing articles. So, I spent the better part of three days creating over 200 files and the result was worth the effort. I also created my top 20 terms based on stats I got from the old site. Here are my Top 20 Motorcycle Terms. Some of these terms are Crotch Rocket, Naked Bike, and Ride Bell.

I'm actively looking for submissions to grow my Moto Pic Gallery. I need pictures of you and your motorcycle. This was a popular feature on the old site.

I'm also looking for pictures of your tattoos for my Moto Tat Gallery. Send them in today.

While you're on the Motorcycle Views site, please take a moment to subscribe to my Newsletter.

Finally, I'm going to be providing links to current discussions going on in the "Still Cruisin' The Curves Motorcycle Forum." Most of the regulars from the old place are now posting there. Here's an excerpt from a discussion by PHIPSD entitled, "What do you look for in a bike?":
"When you go shopping for a bike what features or design elements do you look for? For me the most important by far is comfort and the ergos. In my 50s pain doesn't go away like it used to. Next would be good lighting. The eyes, especially with my night vision, don't work as well either. Third is brakes. Modern traffic and inattentive drivers make this more of an issue every year. Nothing more needs to be said. What would be your list of must haves on that new ride?"
Read the complete discussion