May 17, 2023
Well, maybe not the first event, but the first organized group ride. Prior to this I did a bike night in Kingston but this ride was bigger. It started in Poughkeepsie and I did it for the first time last year. It was mayhem last year and I went there planning to deviate from the groups route to avoid the headache. There was another twist this year. The amount of people who came were at least double the number that were there last year and there was no Police escort this time. So picture a couple of hundred motorcycles thundering down the road, running stop lights with no one to block traffic. I planned to cut off from the groups route if I felt things were a little too nutty and the first few miles convinced me. I turned off in Poughkeepsie and rode a parallel route to the halfway point where the group would stop for a break. It was funny as when I got there people who had started ahead of me arrived fifteen minutes later.
I hung around at that location and noticed that smaller groups were leaving at a time to return to the starting point. I hopped on my Honda and set off alone having a wonderful time at my own pace on the lovely, twisty roads of Dutchess County. Returning to the event headquarters there was a very good barbecue in progress which I partook of with gusto. The ride home was equally amusing and all in all the day was quite enjoyable. Sadly, I heard later, another rider had an accident on one of those lovely roads and passed away. It put a shadow on a day that helped a good charity and a great route to traverse and group gathering.
More events are coming and it should be a good year for riding.
Posted by Jim Zeiser.
February 24, 2023
The weather hasn't been conducive to riding but I managed to sneak in a couple of rides in February. Since it's the lightest and easiest to get out of the garage I took the 250 Nighthawk out for a pair of short rides to just to shake off the rust and winter doldrums. It is always a lot of fun and makes me feel like a better rider than I am these days. I would take out the pesky scooters since they're even easier to ride but since they are perennially hooked up to trickle chargers I leave them...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
October 26, 2022
That's a strange title, isn't it? Bear with me while I explain. A few weeks ago, the weekend of Tropical storm Ian, there was an event to benefit the local Police K9 Unit. The weather and Doppler radar reports said that rain would not arrive until later that afternoon. After much stalling and hesitation I finally made my way to the event on my Honda Nighthawk. In the off chance that the weather turned unexpectedly I wanted my smallest motorcycle under me.
I arrived with about ten minut...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 20, 2022
Every so often I'll do a ride with over a hundred entries that leaves a fond memory in my head. This past Sunday was one of those rides. There was a ride for St. Jude's Hospital that started in Kingston that was fairly well promoted by the Hudson Valley Biker Network (HVBN) on their Facebook page. Since the ride was advertised as going through the Catskills I opted for horsepower in the form of my 750 Kawasaki. I was glad I did.
I didn't know what to expect and was amazed when I pulled up to...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
September 13, 2022
This past Saturday the Hudson Valley Biker Network (HVBN) held a ride in support of a rider named Sal Carbone who was hit riding his motorcycle by a drunk driver. Eddie Ramirez, head of HVBN, heard about it and went to the Facebook page to announce the ride which started in Hyde Park, a few miles from my house. The ride also found space on the local newspaper's website so even non HVBN members showed up. No less than our State Senator, Sue Serino appeared and made a donation in support of th...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
August 17, 2022
Last week I went down to the garage to do my weekly motorcycle startup which began a new dilemma. The new scooter would only click when I pushed the starter button and the lights would turn off. Perplexed, I removed the battery cover to begin to investigate the problem. With Linda's help I finally felt that somehow the ground wire for the battery had failed somewhere inside the scooter. With that churning in my head I put it away for the night determined to fix it the next morning.
The next ...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
July 20, 2022
This passed Sunday there was another local ride. So local in fact that it started and ended eight miles from my house. It was the infamous Suicide Prevention Ride. I call it infamous because the last two times I did it there were moments when I felt the ride had gone awry. I even labeled the first time "Unsatisfactory".
Not this time. I learned over the last two times that horsepower was required as certain V-Twins would push the pace to the strain levels of my 250cc motorcycle and scooter. Th...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
July 7, 2022
One task that I have been putting off for a long time is replacing the drive belt on my 250cc scooter. I noticed almost two years ago that it was giving signs that the belt had begun to stretch. Last year I did a visual inspection but it looked good so I didn't replace it then. A couple of weeks ago I resolved to replace the belt and am I glad I did. It showed early signs of cracks in the rubber which means that a breakage will come along when you least expect it. I had a new belt in stock a...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
June 27, 2022
Looking back at my last entry I see I've fallen behind on my news to. After the last event I decided to use the big Kawasaki on another ride in my backyard. This one was to benefit children with cancer and started in Poughkeepsie. I've ridden this event twice before, once on the Kawasaki and once on the CF Moto scooter. Each time I enjoyed the ride, music and food served at the end of the ride. This year was no exception. There were about as many bikes as usual, somewhere around eighty, and ...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
May 5, 2022
This past Sunday there was a Suicide Prevention Benefit ride in LaGrange and I had to decide which of my steeds was going to carry me. After much consideration I used the Honda Nighthawk 250. I haven't had the big Kawasaki out yet this year and I wanted something manageable in case the crowd threw me a curve.
After filling up the Honda's tank I rode over to PC's Paddock where the event was beginning. Despite its diminutive engine the Honda was running quite well. On the way over I caught up...
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Posted by Jim Zeiser.
If you wish to comment my e-mail address is h1500e@hotmail.com. I'd like to hear anything-good or bad-that anyone would like to say. As they said in college, we're all lifelong learners.
