Belt Drive Betty's Blog

Enough - it's sunny and gorgeous

And I am going for a ride...been working since 3:30 am so I can get out on the bike for a bit. 
 
I hope if you can get out to go for a putt that you will take care, there is so much crap on the roads and man some of those cagers...please - enjoy the day but stay safe. 
 
And Blackie, my 07 Street glide says..."All work and no play"..."fire the witch you work for, let's go play"... 
 
Ride like they can't see you - because they can't. 
 
Belt Drive Betty

Enough - it's sunny and gorgeous

And I am going for a ride ...been working since 3:30 am so I can get out on the bike for a bit. I hope if you can get out to go for a putt...

Web sites and servers

Belt Drive 1 Motorcycle Community 8:08 PM

Our web is hosted on Godaddy and I gotta tell ya I am frustrated. 
I spent the better part of a day I should have been riding and doing a hundred other things...but oh no, these geniuses had me on ignore - long distance to the USA off and on all day. 
 
My complaint? Our site loads so painfully slow. 
 
Ali has gone over it to ensure it's nothing on our end - it's not - they want us to move to a dedicated server at the cost of $175 US a month. 
 
So we are going to be moving to Host Gator... 
 
We'll get is sorted... 
 
Ride safe, 
Belt Drive Betty

Web sites and servers

Our web is hosted on Godaddy and I gotta tell ya I am frustrated. I spent the better part of a day I should have been riding and doing a hu...

I feel GRATEFUL!

Belt Drive 0 Motorcycle Training, riding community 7:24 AM

From comments like Berge Baronian's to the fact that I just signed our first PEI sales rep/reporter for the province of PEI I am feeling grateful. 
 
I have, over the years picked up some survival skills and habits that don't serve me well. 
We have all had our sack of hammer handles to drag around with us in life. Everyone has a story! 
Dysfunction is something that most of us are familiar with - intimately! 
 
Mine hammer handles were sexual abuse and rape as well as an alcoholic mother and - yada, yada, yada. 
 
The survival skills of someone who has been abused range from self sabotage (I don't deserve anything good) to hiding and swallowing pain (I deserve to have bad things done to me). 
 
In my case, self sabotage and time management skills have been the biggest hurdles for me to over come. 
 
For years I have worked on bettering myself, breaking the chain. 
I did not want my child to experience what I had at my parent's hand and I did not want her making the same dumb assed bad choices I had made as a result of the training I had received from my family environment. I went to counseling, I read self help books. (Still read self help and self enlightenment books today.) 
 
Kid's don't come with an instruction manual. 
No where does it say that child A likes this but hates that. 
 
All I could do was try something different. I remember one day teaching my kid how to skate. 
I loved skating as a kid almost as much as I love riding my motorcycle now as an adult. 
 
Anyway, she wanted to learn, I had the skills and teaching background - perfect bonding time right? WRONG. 
 
There we are on the ice at Mara Lake BC...she's being a clown, goofing off, not taking this seriously. I am furious - how dare she...keep in mind that she's five years old. 
 
I go to back hand her on the fanny, I raise my right arm and all of a sudden I get this flip card rolling through my minds eye of my mother doing exactly the same thing to me...immediately I felt the pain of the hit on the behind, the humiliation I felt because hey, I was just having fun and feeling free...down went my right hand. I stopped and looked at my daughter and I joined her in being a clown. After we were done, we took off our skates, I put her in the truck and we went in to Sicamous and I registered her in skating classes. I changed the outcome of that horrible time for me, by changing it for her. 
 
Yes, I have been working at changing me, my programming, my interpretations of the world around me for a long time. It is amazing how what you are taught as a kid, the values you learn, the beliefs you hold on to, how they stay with you - how long they impact you until you discover that they are really aren't serving you all that well. 
 
Sometimes I get it and sometimes I am a slow learner. 
 
I go though spells of working at improving me, getting complacent and then getting back on the treadmill so to speak. Self improvement is like exercise, you need to be consistent with for it to have lasting impact and value. 
 
Working with the Law of Attraction, watching the Secret, reading books, practicing every day at being a better, more loving, more abundant person. I have to tell you, no matter your religious beliefs. No matter where you are today, you can change things in your life quickly if you choose to. The Laws apply to everyone, kind of the way the law of gravity does. It doesn't matter if you are Christian or Muslim, whether Judaism or Buddhism is your faith. The laws are the laws... 
 
It's hard work working with the laws - yet it's not. It's more like it's joyful work. The more you concentrate on the things that make you feel happy, the more things to feel happy about you attract to you. 
 
The more of your energy you devote to anything, the more of that you will attract - good or bad. 
 
Working with the riding community, focusing on the good things in life, the things I am grateful for has brought me so much. My life, as I work on the housecleaning in my brain and my soul, is becoming richer, better and more abundant because of it. 
 
I am following my passion in life, I hope that you are following yours. 
 
When you are happy, grateful and joyful, it makes living and working so much fun! 
 
Stay safe and ride like they are blind and can't see you... 
You are important and valued! 
 
Belt Drive Betty

I feel GRATEFUL!

From comments like Berge Baronian's to the fact that I just signed our first PEI sales rep/reporter for the province of PEI I am feeli...

A love affair with the motorcycle community...

Belt Drive 3 Community, Motorcycle Community 7:17 AM

I have had a love affair with the motorcycle community for well over 20 years. I have been part of the community for over 30 but the love affair began for me Christmas 1988... 
 
My old man and I had separated, he was out of work having been laid off and staying with his brother in Alberta and looking for work. 
 
My daughter and I were on our own for a while and things weren't looking too rosy. 
I had gifts for my daughter, a book, a doll. Money was tight and I was scared. 
 
On the 24th of December, a couple of the local riders showed up at our home. They knocked on the door, I invited them in and offered them a coffee. They said they stopped in to see how me and my girl were doing. We visited for a bit and Doug McPherson went out to the truck, he brought in a box with some groceries and a couple of presents wrapped up for my girl. 
 
At first my reaction was I don't need that - that's charity, I started to protest but Doug who had set the box down on the table, grabbed me by the shoulders and looked me square in the eye and said "Girl, this ain't charity. When you and Ronnie are good again and you are in a better place we expect you to pay this "Loan" forward." 
 
I cried. The coffee that was in the box was for me, the best gift. I was out of coffee (having made my last pot to share with them). I gratefully cooked the chicken, invited a couple of our old bachelor buddies for Christmas dinner and celebrated Christmas with a happiness I had not felt in a while. 
 
Well, time passed, things got better and I never forgot the "Loan" I was given. 
 
I have done my best, every year to pay that loan forward. 
 
The fact that the two riders who came over knew my "Bikers" heart well enough to know I was proud and stubborn. They left me with a feeling of dignity, a sense of family and a sense of pride. 
 
Since then, every Toy Run Season - I participate in the planning of the parade, volunteer to work during the event, help out wherever I can. 
 
It touched me deeply, profoundly and forever altered the person I was and put me on this path. 
I am in a position to really give back to my community. To make a difference, to give of myself and to be of service. 
 
That is why I donate 30% of the available space in the paper to the charities and causes that riders support, why Ali and I donate free web sites to 6 riding clubs and or their charitable causes every year. 
 
It's why we donate $1 from the retail sales of the Little Black Book to AIM-Can, the Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists. 
 
Paying it forward has become my Mantra, it's what drew me closer into this community, it's why I am so passionate and loyal to this community. Every week of the riding season I get to be around people who do the same thing I do. Give back, pay it forward, lend a helping hand and do it gratefully and happily. 
 
Is our community perfect? NO - far from it. But it is a wonderful community filled with talented, generous and caring people. I have been blessed many times in my life for being a part of this community. 
 
Ride safe, you are important - VERY important. 
 
Belt Drive Betty

A love affair with the motorcycle community...

I have had a love affair with the motorcycle community for well over 20 years. I have been part of the community for over 30 but the love af...

Loud Pipes and your rights

Belt Drive 0 Community, Law & Politics, Motorcycle Community 6:57 AM

Well, it's that time of year again. The annual crackdown on loud pipes is here. 
 
So - are you one of the proponents that thinks Loud Pipes Save Lives? 
 
It's your right to buy and install pipes as loud as you want but remember, as with any right, it is also your right to pay the price for infringing on the rights of others. 
 
Now don't get me wrong, I love the deep throaty rumble of a good set of pipes as much as any one, however - there is deep and throaty and then there's loud and obnoxious. 
 
I for one do not believe that loud pipes save lives, I think defensive riding saves lives. 
At one time the "Loud Pipes Save Lives" motto rang true, back in the day before increased sound proofing of vehicles. Hell in most vehicles today you can barely hear an ambulance or fire truck coming. In today's day and age, the only thing that's going to keep you safe on your motorcycle is your own skill and your ability to stay focused on the job at hand - riding your motorcycle. 
 
I know that many will disagree with me and that's just fine with me - it'd be a boring world if we all liked the same things or all believed the same things. 
 
If you are one of those individuals that feels it's your right to use your right hand in such a way that you are setting off car alarms and rattling windows - if you don't know there is an appropriate place and time to do that...then be prepared to pay the fine. 
 
There is an old adage - If you can't do the time then don't do the crime...so it goes with pipes and helmets. You are bucking the system and it will cause you grief. You know that from the outset so if you choose the behaviour.... 
 
Ride safe - ride like they are blind and can't see you... 
Belt Drive Betty

Loud Pipes and your rights

Well, it's that time of year again. The annual crackdown on loud pipes is here. So - are you one of the proponents that thinks Loud Pi...

It's Monday and I am ready for it!

Belt Drive 0 Canadian Motorcycle events, Rider Safety, riding community 6:20 AM

Although it was only a small ride, about 30 kms...it was exactly what this girl needed. 
 
Spring has finally started showing us that it still exists and the snow is slowly receding. The roads are treacherous, lots of pea gravel and sand. The drivers of the cars and trucks I pulled up beside were all smiling - I wonder if the dumb assed grin that was on my face was responsible? 
 
When I rode past Timmy's there were at least 30 bikes in the parking lot, everyone sharing the happiness of being out I am sure and probably having hot coffee to warm them up - it was a bit chilly, but nonetheless a wonderful experience - being back on the road! 
 
This coming week's paper is filled with some incredible stories and 4 pages of Ontario's events. Now that we have blanketed the country for the events calendars once and have gotten the corrections in for AB and BC's events along with a couple for Saskatchewan, well - we can start all over printing them one more time for you before the bulk of riding season gets under way. 
 
It's a wonderful, demanding job I have chosen and one that thoroughly fills my heart. 
I enjoy helping other people be it to promote their events or clubs or to help a fellow rider hook up with the information they need to enjoy their riding season more. 
 
I hope you'll join us over on <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> - there is always a lot going on over there! 
 
We are running three contests right now...the McCool's Street Bar & Grill Logo Contest, The Slack Alice's "My motorcycle moves my soul" contest and the Great Canadian Day Rides Contest. 
 
Come join us for your chance to win some fabulous prizes and get hooked up with the most extensive calendars for the Canadian Motorcycle Riding Season of 2009! 
 
I'm going to sign off for now... 
 
Ride like they are blind and out to get you, because they are! 
 
Belt Drive Betty

It's Monday and I am ready for it!

Although it was only a small ride, about 30 kms ...it was exactly what this girl needed. Spring has finally started showing us that it sti...

Going for a brain clearer! YAHOO!!!!

Belt Drive 0 Community, riding community 3:05 PM

Well, other than I am waiting for one article to come in, this coming week's paper is done and she is a beaut! 
 
Just shy of 4 pages of events for Ontario, all kinds of stories, some great jokes and the best thing of it all? I am done in time to catch some of this fine Sunday and go take my girl for a spin. 
 
Yahoo, spring is finally springing here in the North Peace Region of Alberta and I can now get out on the road, even if it is only around town for a brain clearer. No more putting up with my "Friends" ahem, not mentioning any names but GATOR, teasing me about the riding on the Island, or tormenting me like my sisters in Ontario - the Chrome Divas do with their articles about riding to motorcycle shows...I get to ride too! 
 
Event corrections and cancellations have been coming in so watch the on line calendars for up dates - we'll print the runs pages again really soon! 
 
Anyway gang, sorry to cut this short but I have a date with this really good looking black beast...all 96" 
 
Ride like they are blind and can't see you... 
Belt Drive Betty

Going for a brain clearer! YAHOO!!!!

Well, other than I am waiting for one article to come in, this coming week's paper is done and she is a beaut! Just shy of 4 pages of ...