RickkciR

You ever buy a vehicle, drive it home, and suddenly notice a few of them on the road?   You start thinking " wait a minute.. I never noticed them before!"  And , most of them are in the same colors of yours?   I'm probably exaggerating a notch, but I've felt that way before.  You weren't aware of them hardly, if at all, until you were in the mix with your own.  Happened to me more than once! Sometimes, it feels the same way with people.   We go about our merry ways in life, worried about ourselves, those closest to us, maybe our inner circle.  But, the world goes on around us, no bumps in the road, no drama.  Just , life as usual. But, when you notice someone's bad habits, flaws, lack of character .... sometimes .... sometimes.. you start to focus on them?  Especially if it's one of your pet peeves.  And if you make the mistake of focusing too much on it, you notice other habits?  Yeah, that's me.  Hell, it h...

What is a Rally anyways?   I mean we’ve all gotten used to the Big Ones …. You know... Sturgis … Daytona Beach … but … when I hear “RALLY” or “BIKE WEEK”... I think of big events.    Obviously, they all aren’t.   This is probably a good overall definition: “ A motorcycle rally is a gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts. Rallies can be large or small, and one-time or recurring. Some rallies are ride-in events, whereas some like the Iron Butt Rally involve days of riding and an actual gathering only at the end of the ride.”   For me, I think of them as open events, open to all, to promote a brand or cause, or maybe just an event established for the sole purpose of bringing folks on bikes together.    Some remain small, some have grown huge.    Bikes Blues and BBQ is probably a good example of the latter.   In just over a decade, it’s grown into one of the largest in the country, family oriented (no crazy adult antics), a...

I’ve been riding for 34 years and have had the opportunity to attend more than my share of Rallies.   My first was back in 86, and hit the mecca; Sturgis.   I rode a lil about 500 miles that day on a 1000cc Kawi, one buddy on a Honda V65 ( 1100cc) and another buddy on a HD, that was about the same size.   We blew up in there in one day, pulling up at night…without a room.   So, being the crazy bastards we were, we rolled into a ravine, pulled out our gear and called it a night.   If we’d really known what we were doing, we’d have broken out the whiskey, but none of us were bright enough to have packed any. Lets just say , it wouldn't go down quite the same way if I had a "do over?!"  Either way, we got some rest and hit the roads of the Black Hills, as soon as the sun was up. We were nutz Several things from the rally stick in my brain.   First, the riding was awesome.   We rode throughout the hills for a few days, stopping a...