PixelBrat's Blog

August 27, 2006

Our first Bike Night

I spend a lot of my online time chatting in a forum called WWR (Women Who Ride).  It's a great place for lady riders of all ages and experience levels to share their riding stories and a fun place to waste some time.  A couple of weeks ago I received an email from a fellow lady biker from the WWR asking where I lived.  Turns out she lives on the same street as me! (How funny!!)  After a few email exchanges she told me her and her boyfriend were members of the SCRC 221 (Southern Cruisers Riding Club - Stone Mountain chapter).  They invited us to join them for Bike Night at one of the local Sonic drive-in restaurants.  Tonight we hopped on the bikes and followed them down there for our first one.  We had a lot of fun and met a ton of great people, most of which I can't hope to remember their names.    It was great getting to meet many of the people in person that I've only had conversations with over the web.  There were a ton of beautiful bikes there.  Many thanks to our neighbors for the invite.  I'll close this post with a couple of crappy photos I snapped while there:

Posted by pixelbrat at 10:05 PM | Comments (1)

August 13, 2006

The perfect day for riding

My friend Tom helped Rob install a new windshield and highway bars on my bike last weekend so I decided to take the bike for a spin today.  Rob was feeling a bit under the weather so I headed out on my own.  Despite the clouds that hung overhead for the duration it turned out to be the perfect day for riding.  The temperature hovered in the 70's and traffic was fairly light, being a Sunday.  Before I knew it I had racked up 161 miles.    I love love LOVE my new windshield!  It made the ride so much more comfortable.  You can see a photo of my bike with the new stuff on below:

I think my next bike-related purchase will be saddlebags.  My Biker's Friend, that's the tube looking thing on the back seat, is a bit limited in the storage department.  Sure, it's great as a backrest but I can only fit my purse, hat and water bottle in it.  The saddlebags would give me room for rain gear, a jacket and other essentials.  Hmm... what can I sell on Ebay... 

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:13 PM

October 15, 2005

Sometimes getting lost can be rewarding...

Today started bright and early at 8AM, thanks to a wakeup call from Wasabi. (Rob slept through this of course...) I honestly can't complain about the early hour because I managed to sleep through the night, which is a true miracle. Either I was too exhausted to hear Wasabi cry or he was too exhausted and actually slept all night! Either way, no complaints from me. Shortly after waking we took him to the vet to get him checked over, much to his chagrin. After much poking and prodding I am very pleased to report that all is well! He's a bit too young for his first shots so we'll be going back for those next week. 

With Wasabi back home and a few other errands completed we decided it was too gorgeous outside to stay home. The sky was blue, there was a cool autumn breeze in the air - perfect for riding!! Rather than sticking to our usual local routes, Rob and I planned a long ride up to Cleveland, GA. We took along some directions we printed from the internet but soon found out that they were anything but accurate. After a few frustrating turn-arounds we decided to ditch the directions and headed whichever way felt good. A few fun and winding roads later and we ended up at a picturesque boat launch at Lake Lanier in Dawsonville.  It was really cool coming out of a curvy road completely shaded by trees to this vast open lake with a gorgeous blue sky.  Lesson learned... ditch the maps and enjoy the damn ride! 

My camera really didn't do this scene justice because it needed to be a wider angle to really appreciate it in all it's glory but here you go anyway.  All in all it was an awesome day.

Posted by pixelbrat at 7:41 PM

October 7, 2005

With a new obsession comes a new brat

I'm not sure why I have this fascination with altering my brat logo with each new major obsession that I undertake.  I got bored one night and decided to give my brat a biker theme, complete with leather chaps.    Heck, if I keep this up I'll be able to switch them out to match the season/holiday like Google does with their logo.

Posted by pixelbrat at 6:00 PM | Comments (1)

October 4, 2005

My new best friend...

As a little reward to myself for selling off some of my gadgets on ebay I bought a neat (and very useful) accessory for my bike. It's called the Biker's Friend. It's a funny name but let me tell ya, it definitely lives up to it in a big way!! To read a little review and see some photos of this multi-purpose motorcycle bag click the link below.

I've mentioned before that accessories for my motorcycle are prohibitively pricey, so being on a budget, I have to choose my toys wisely. I had two must-haves on my wish list, one of which costs in excess of $600, so I had my work cut out for me. First on the list was some type of storage to hold my purse, rain gear, jacket, etc. I didn't really like the look of saddle bags and didn't want a large tank bag in front to be in my way.  Second on the list was a new seat with a backrest to take some pressure off my hands and back on long rides.  I don't have a windshield so at higher speeds I was having to really hang onto the grips with a lot of  pressure, causing pain in my hands after a while. Also, with no backrest I felt I was always tensing muscles or hunched over rather than being able to just lean back and enjoy the ride.  The Biker's Friend bag combines both the storage I need and is a nifty backrest, all for a fraction of the cost that both items would cost me separately.  Sure, it's not an entire new seat so I'll still get numb-butt occasionally but this will certainly do until I can afford to upgrade.

Rather than try to describe it I've put photos below. You just strap it to your passenger seat or luggage rack and away you go! You've got your storage and you've got a removable/adjustable backrest!  Brilliant.  The hubby and I took a long ride on Sunday afternoon and I swear this feels like a new bike to me.  Words can't describe the difference.  I couldn't be happier.    If you're interested in one of these you can visit their website by clicking here.

Posted by pixelbrat at 12:07 PM | Comments (2)

September 26, 2005

I made a scary realization today...

I am actually selling some of my gadgets on ebay, not to buy more gadgets as I would normally do, but to buy stuff for my motorcycle. Yes, it's true. Don't get me wrong, I haven't given up my gadget habit just yet. I just can't afford all the cool bike accessories that I want so I gotta cut back somewhere, right? Unfortunately, having a bike like a Victory, which isn't nearly as popular as Harley's or Honda's, means that there aren't many vendors out there selling accessories for your bike. Less competition for your money means higher prices. Bummer, eh? I certainly don't regret my Victory purchase at all, quite the opposite actually, it's just not fun when "Chrome Disease" hits you and you can't give in to the temptation. It's especially difficult when you have two bikes to accessorize! Oh well. I am honestly thrilled to even be riding so I guess I shouldn't complain. Now where did I put that lottery ticket...?

Posted by pixelbrat at 6:55 PM

September 23, 2005

A Milestone Reached!

Rob and I reached a new milestone today... we rode the bikes to work!  

I know this probably sounds trivial to most but for newbie riders like us, who are very cautious on our bikes and deal with a LOT of commuter traffic, this is a major accomplishment.  As many of my regular readers know we have a pretty heinous commute, lasting upwards of 90 minutes (one way) when school is in session.  To avoid the worst of it we left our house at 6AM.  Leaving so early posed a new riding challenge for us... darkness.  I'm not a big fan of driving a car in the dark... much less riding a motorcycle in it.  All in all it wasn't too bad, just new and different.  We met up with our friend Tom at the halfway mark and followed him in the rest of the way.  My nerves were a bit tweaked by the time we got there, especially after watching Tom get cut off by some stupid lady not paying attention, but we made it and felt good for the accomplishment.  Riding home brought us more traffic but it still wasn't bad.  We did learn one thing from this experience... we need new seats!!  The stock seats are fine for short 20-30 minute rides but anything inching into the 60 minute range is hell on your butt!

The picture below shows the bikes in front of the building where we work.

Posted by pixelbrat at 5:40 PM

June 11, 2005

What is love: A shiny new tach!!

Six years ago today Rob and I pledged our love to one another till death do us part.  We don't usually celebrate anniversaries or birthdays, usually opting to just buy stuff we want, when we want it, rather than waiting for special occasions.  I made the assumption that we would just do that this year.  Well, after spending most of the day with my sister and 3 nieces at the local swimming hole I came home to the hubby.  There he was, waiting for me with a big guilty looking grin on his face.  Much to my surprise, rather than spending his day playing his computer game he went to the Victory dealership and bought me an anniversary present!    I ripped open the paper eagerly and guess what I find... a shiny new tachometer!!!  I am so excited!!!  Some women want jewelry, others want appliances... not me!  I want toys!  Toys for my bike are a bonus!  Isn't she a beauty?

I can't wait for him to install it so I can test it out!  Thank you my love!  You have given me the best 6 years of my life and I love you with all my heart.

Posted by pixelbrat at 6:22 PM

June 7, 2005

Quick lunchtime post: Cool additions made to my logo design

I've made some really cool additions to my logo design that I am completely stoked about! I decided that the plain black logo needed some extra punch. After several failed attempts I decided that a flame design would be best. Again, I picked up the sketchbook and proceeded to draw flames by hand... which completely SUCKED, I must add. I scanned it into Photoshop last night and cleaned it up. After 3 hours and no dinner I came up with the following two designs... and I must say, I am completely in love with both. I say that not in a boastful way but rather in a completely surprised sort of way! I am extremely critical of my own work, more than anyone else ever could be, so for me to be this happy with a design is very unusual for me.

I've already begun adding the new stuff to my store but I ran out of time and energy last night to do it properly. Midnight snuck up on me quick so I kept it simple. I'll probably spend most of tonight revamping the store. On a side note, I got an email from CafePress a few days ago stating they had picked my store to be featured on their coveted Grand Openings page this week so I'm in a bit of a hurry to get it done before that happens. Wish me luck!

Posted by pixelbrat at 12:00 PM | Comments (2)

May 31, 2005

The store is now open!

Much to my surprise I've gotten some really good feedback on my new design. I decided to run with it and opened up a new online store over the weekend! You can visit by clicking here. (It will open a new window)

I was sort of in the "sticker biz" once before, selling mostly through Ebay. Well, that proved to be cumbersome and quite honestly, a pain-in-the-@ss.  I went a different route this time by using CafePress.com. The really cool thing about them is they do almost everything for you with zero upfront cost and zero inventory investment!  All I had to do was supply my artwork, do some setup work for the store itself, tweak each of the product designs and then WHAM... I have an online store!  What makes it even better is this... they take over from here.  To be more specific I've quoted the following from their website:

Does it get any easier than that?  No more Ebay auction listings to create or the ever-increasing auction fees that eat up your profits. Plus, unlike Ebay, if no one likes my design and I never sell a thing, I don't lose a cent! I won't be stuck with boxes of t-shirts or stickers that I can't get rid of. I'm smacking myself for not doing this sooner!    It would have saved me many headaches... but then hindsight is always 20/20, right?  Anyway, I'd love to hear any comments or feedback, including any suggestions anyone may have.  In the meantime I'm also working on a sport bike (aka crotch rocket) design to compliment my cruiser design.  I hope to have that done by the weekend.  Wish me luck!

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:08 PM | Comments (1)

May 29, 2005

What's a girl to do when she can't find the sticker she wants...

Well, she breaks out the sketchbook and designs her own of course! Let's back up... To celebrate my new cycle ownership I decided to go shopping for some cute stickers and t-shirts for us "biker chick" types. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to choose from. I did find some cute stuff here and there but none of it was really what I had in mind.  After a day and a half of sketching, tweaking, and fiddling, I think I got it the way I want it.  What do ya think?

Just for grins I think I may get a small batch of stickers made and put them up on Ebay just to see how they do.  If they bomb, no harm done and I still have a design I can use for my own purposes.  If they do well I may just expand and make some t-shirts or something... but then I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

Posted by pixelbrat at 5:09 PM | Comments (3)

May 23, 2005

Just a quickie post today...

I got the hubby to take a photo of me on my bike this afternoon so I figured I'd post it. Yes, this is really just another excuse to talk about my bike. Have I mentioned how much I love this thing? I think I'll sleep in the garage tonight...

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:05 PM

May 22, 2005

The second and third rides: Much better!

Rob and I took Saturday off from riding. When Sunday came we decided to start the day by watching the Ride Like a Pro DVD by Jerry "Motorman" Palladino. It's a pretty cool video with some really good tips. He suggests finding an empty parking lot and practicing several skills that he outlines in the video. Sounded like a great idea to us but we decided to do some laps around our neighborhood first.

This time around the neighborhood was a much better ride than Friday's. We felt much more confident and got a good bit of riding in. By the time we took a break we had about 16 total miles (since Friday) on the bikes. A few hours later we decided to try finding an empty school parking lot to try out the techniques from the video. Well, apparently it's graduation time in Buford because the high school lot was packed. We headed for the elementary school but the lot was too small to be useful to us. Bummer. Guess we'll have to wait until next weekend for that.

We took the long way back, winding our way through some fairly deserted country roads. (some of the few still left in our area!) Hmmmm, the mental wheels began to turn... maybe we could try hitting these roads for some practice. We headed home for the bikes. We did some quick laps around the neighborhood just to get the feel for everything, stopped to quickly plan our route in case we got separated and then off we went. Wow, it was exhilarating! Admittedly it was a bit scary but the excitement of going 50 mph on an open road was awesome! Towards the end of our planned ride some jack@ss got on my butt and wouldn't back off. This got me a bit frazzled. Fortunately we came up on the church parking lot we had planned to turn around in and got off the main road. We took a few moments to chill for a bit then headed for home.

We made it home, safe and sound. We were a bit frazzled by the time we got in our driveway but I think this is normal after your first true ride on public roads. It's one thing to drive in the "comfort" of your own neighborhood with little to no traffic at all. It's a completely different animal to be out there among the "cagers". (Folks in cars)

All in all it was a great day! We had about 35 miles on the bikes (since Friday) when we got home, which probably isn't much in the grand scheme of things. That's OK with us though because we're taking this slowly and only doing what we're comfortable with. We're excited and feel pretty good about our riding, yet we know we still have much practicing ahead of us.

Posted by pixelbrat at 5:41 PM

May 20, 2005

The first ride and some reality checks...

Much to our surprise, the weather decided to cooperate Friday evening so Rob and I decided it was finally time to test out our new toys. Enter reality check number one... this bike is heavy! This was no Honda Nighthawk, the bike we learned to ride in our MSF class. Just to give you an idea of the weight difference..

Honda Nighthawk: (dry weight) 291 lbs.
Victory 8-Ball: (dry weight) 620 lbs.

Just trying to "duck walk" this bike down the driveway was a bit of a challenge for me. Thank goodness I got it lowered before bringing it home.

Enter reality check number two... this bike neither rides nor feels the same as the Nighthawk, which I should have realized shortly after reality check number one. Off we headed down our neighborhood street towards the cul-de-sac. Rob was in front of me going a bit slower than I was expecting. At this point I figured out (too late) that we needed to put more space between us. This is also where I make my first mistake of the day. As I began my turn going way too slow, down I went. Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, I dropped my beautiful and precious bike. What made it worse was the crowd of landscapers down there watching me do it. Can you say embarrassing? Actually, I think mortifying better describes it. Nothing major was hurt but my pride. This really angered me because I was so determined not to drop it, especially since everyone just expects you to drop your first bike. Despite this frustrating and humbling experience I got back on and off I went.

About 7 miles of neighborhood riding later, and one more bike drop thrown in for good measure, we were done with our first day. We came away knowing that we have a lot more practicing to do before we even think about venturing out on public roads. We are even more determined to play this safe and ride smart.

Posted by pixelbrat at 5:37 PM

May 19, 2005

We brought home the bikes today!!!

Many, many thanks go out to our friend Tom, who agreed to ride the bikes home from the dealer for us today. (we are definitely too new to try that ourselves!) It obviously took 2 trips but they are safely in our garage now.  Unfortunately, by the time both bikes arrived at the house, it was too late/dark to try them out for ourselves.   Anyone want to take a guess at what the local forecast will be tomorrow... if you guessed RAIN then you would be correct.  Can you say TORTURE? 

Here are the first photos of our bikes.  The top one is mine and then Rob's below it.  It was getting kinda dark by the time Rob's bike got home so the photo is borderline crappy.  I'll post better shots when the weather permits.

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:08 PM | Comments (1)

May 18, 2005

We bought two new bikes tonight!!!

We bought 2 Victory motorcycles tonight!!  (For those of you who aren't familiar with the Victory name, they are made by Polaris)  Rob got a Vegas and I got an 8-Ball.  We haven't brought them home yet because we are having a few changes made to both.  Mine is getting lowered and getting some extension handlebars.  Rob's is getting a "face-lift" of sorts.  Actually, the bike is bright yellow right now...  It will be black before we bring it home.  Apparently, all they have to do is take all the yellow parts off and replace them with black parts so no biggie.  Rob just couldn't live with a bright yellow bike and frankly I don't blame him.  I think he might lose his "guy card" for that. 

We got a helluva deal on the bikes and couldn't be happier!!  Below you can see some photos from the Victory website.  Hopefully I can post some real photos by the weekend.  The top photo is the 8-Ball (mine) and the one below it is the Vegas. (Rob's)

Yes, I know they look nearly identical but there are some subtle differences.  Technically they are the exact same bike but Rob's has more chrome on it.  That's basically the only difference, besides the price.  WE CAN'T WAIT TO GET THEM HOME!!!!  If all goes well we'll have them by the weekend.

Posted by pixelbrat at 8:10 PM

May 16, 2005

WOO HOO!!! Rob and I passed the MSF course!

Rob and I took the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) course over the weekend to get our motorcycle riding licenses and we passed!!!    The class started Friday evening and went from 6 - 10 PM, and then on Saturday and Sunday from 8 AM - 6 PM. If I had to describe the experience in a nutshell, I'd say it was fun, frustrating, wet, hot, painful, exhilarating, nerve racking, enlightening, exhausting, and somewhat expensive. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. And I highly recommend it, even for the experienced riders out there. Just be prepared as it was a lot of work.... at least for a couch potato like myself. 

Both Rob and myself are now nursing sore butt's and a painful condition that I have dubbed "clutch claw".

clutch claw - (klŭch klô) Adj.  A condition caused by the repeated squeezing and/or gripping of a motorcycle clutch by a new rider for extended periods of time, causing pain and discomfort to the left hand.

My poor hand seems damn near unusable this morning!  If I'd known it was going to be this sore I might have grabbed one of those hand grip exerciser thingy's long ago to prepare for it. I also understand now why people are willing to spends upwards of $600 on new seats for their bikes.  The ones we were sitting on were one step away from vinyl covered concrete.

I took a few photos of the facility where we took the course.  It was held at the Honda Rider Education Center in Alpharetta, GA.  It's a pretty cool place, offering not just courses for street bikes, but dirt bike and ATV courses as well. Below are some shots of the bikes we were riding.  They were all the same model, 250cc Honda Nighthawks.

The class went on, rain or shine. Saturday was sunny and hot, with a temp of about 82 degrees. (Ugg!)  It rained almost all of Sunday but this was a good thing!  Boots, gloves, long pants and long sleeved shirts were required so the rain was quite welcome.

Below is a shot of the dirt bike range. There were a bunch of kids riding out there yesterday making me completely jealous. I would have loved to have been out there in the rain and mud on those bikes!  Now that I know how to ride I might just have to look into a dirt bike later down the road...  Hmmmm....

Below is a shot of a little kid on a tiny little bike that I just thought was absolutely adorable!!

Lastly we have a shot of my hubby.  Sorry, no shots of the photographer (me), unfortunately.

Now that the course is over I'm relieved and very excited that we passed.  I have wanted to ride a motorcycle as long as I can remember so this is a true accomplishment for me.  Being on the back of a bike is fun but it is definitely time that I take the controls.  Our licenses should arrive in about 10 days... which is about 10 days too long for my liking.  We can't wait to get bikes of our own, which will hopefully be in the very near future.  We still have lots of practice to do before we hit the highways so once we get bikes we'll be sticking to empty school parking lots and neighborhood roads for a while until we get comfortable.  The thought of getting on the freeway with the typical soccer mom in her minivan, holding a cell phone in one hand and applying her makeup with the other still scares the beejezus out of me.  Fortunately, the course taught us all sorts of skills for defensive driving and staying alert for just such a thing so I think we are fairly prepared.  I'm sure with time and practice we'll be old pros.  We just can't wait to get out there and ride!! 

 

Posted by pixelbrat at 7:27 AM | Comments (1)