Belt Drive Betty's Blog

Thank you!

To all of those who joined our Facebook Group Biker/Rider Friendly Businesses in Canada - Thank you. 
 
I hope you will help us by joining our web site: <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> to create the BEST directory of Canadian businesses that treat riders well! 
 
Our web site is free to join. You do have to fill out a registration form, but once you have, you can not only access everything on our web site but you can also contribute to it. 
 
Every page that a member can submit something on has a little menu on the right hand of the page that says Submit your... 
 
It very easy to comment on articles and you can earn BDB Rewards points to cash in for great gifts from our various sponsors. 
 
I hope you'll get it on the discussions and help us make the BEST clearing house of information on the Canadian riding scene! 
 
If you live where you can ride today - lucky you - but please... 
RIDE like everyone around you is BLIND and CAN NOT see you! 
 
Belt Drive Betty 
Editor - The Busted Knuckle Chronicles 
<a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> 
National VP - A.I.M. Can 
<a href="http://www.aim-can.com/">www.aim-can.com</a>

Thank you!

To all of those who joined our Facebook Group Biker/Rider Friendly Businesses in Canada - Thank you. I hope you will help us by joining ou...

Harley-Davidson has BIG plans for the ladies...

Belt Drive 0 Canadian Riders, riding community, Toronto Super Show 5:57 AM

The month of May has been designated as <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/286-news-international-/2726-harley-davidson-announces-plans-for-women-riders-month-2010">Women Rider's Month by Harley-Davidson</a> and on the 22/23rd of May they have a big weekend planned for the ladies which includes meeting Karen Davidson.  I had the pleasure of meeting Karen at the Toronto Super Show a few years back - she is a sweetheart! 
 
Indian is sure getting the press these days, <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/286-news-international-/2728-abc-filming-indian-motorcycle-feature">the Anchor of ABC's Good Morning America</a>, Bill Weir is going to be riding the Dragon on an Indian! 
 
A local store owner from her in Grande Prairie sent in a <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/287-news-canadian-national/2725-keeping-jobs-in-canada">bit of a rant on Sears moving</a> their call centers to the Philippines and has got a very valid point about who we should be supporting. 
 
If you don't buy Canadian and in Canada you are not supporting our job market or our economy - so remember that the next time you go to buy outside of Canada and ask yourself - whose job did I just cause to get cut? It could be your own.... 
 
 
If you are lucky enough to be riding, (You dog you - and I do mean anyone who lives where they can ride - we have had snow for over a week) Please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you. 
 
Belt Drive Betty 
<a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> 
National VP - A.I.M.Can 
<a href="http://www.aim-can.com/">www.aim-can.com</a>

Harley-Davidson has BIG plans for the ladies...

The month of May has been designated as Women Rider's Month by Harley-Davidson and on the 22/23rd of May they have a big weekend planne...

Are you?

Belt Drive 0 Community, Motorcycle Community 6:50 AM

Are you a lover of Orange County Choppers? 
 
If you are I'd love to know why. I personally quit watching the show ages ago. 
I found the "Banter" between father and son too screwed up and dysfunctional for my taste. 
 
I also wonder at times how their motorcycles are selling here in Canada. 
They are nice machines and young Jason Pohl is a talented designer. However it appears that OCC doesn't feel they need to advertise or brand their dealers as OCC dealers - I have to wonder - is celebrity enough of a draw to make their bikes sell? Why am I showing so much interest in OCC today? Well they are the topic of two press releases today - <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/286-news-international-/2711-orange-county-choppers-glides-into-the-future-with-osram-sylvania-led-lighting-innovations">both involving their new electric chopper.</a> 
(I included the link to one article, the other should be right after - IF you have any interest) 
 
We are coming up on Rememberance Day and it appears that motorcycle manufacturers like Victory are doing their part to honor our soldiers. Victory is offering <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/287-news-canadian-national/2712-victory-motorcycles-offers-military-personnel-a-full-throttle-salute-with-1000-cash-back">$1000 discount to military personel.</a> 
 
What are your plans for Rememberance Day? 
 
I am pretty old fashioned. I will go to the outdoor service at the cenotaph regardless of the weather or temperatures. An hour in the cold as my father used to say - is nothing compared to the hardship our men and women in service deal with everyday on the job. After the cenotaph, I will go to the ANAVETS Club, have some soup and a sandwich, talk with some veterans and come home feeling solemn. It's been that way for somewhere around 45 years for me. 
 
One other thing I like to do to honor the troops is to adopt a soldier. I send a parcel filled with goodies that a soldier can share with his/her batallion ... I don't have much, but they have even less when they are on a tour of duty.  Check out the <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/422-contacts/2709-stockings-for-a-soldier">Stocking for a Soldier Program</a> 
 
If you are lucky enough to live where you can ride - please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you. 
 
Belt Drive Betty 
<a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebettycom</a> 
National VP-A.I.M.Can 
<a href="http://www.aim-can.com/">www.aim-can.com</a>

Are you?

Are you a lover of Orange County Choppers? If you are I'd love to know why. I personally quit watching the show ages ago. I found the...

What a day in the news!

Belt Drive 0 BC, Community, In the News 8:50 AM

Of course, the <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/297-motorcycle-television/2697-quebec-construction-bust-includes-bikers">Hells Angels in Quebec</a> made the news today - apparently three members are caught up in this construction scandal. 
 
Detective John McNeilly was honored as <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/292-motorcycle-television/2698-officers-volunteerism-honoured?directory=133">Edmonton's Top cop</a>....read why! 
 
BCCOM is having a rather important meeting on Novemeber 25th - if you ride in BC, you might actually want to attend this meeting, <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/index.php/component/content/article/293-motorcycle-television/2701-bccom-meeting?directory=130">ecspecially if you are in the Lower Mainland.</a> 
 
Do you rely heavily on your internet? I know I do and I have to tell you that I am fed up with the extremely poor customer service offered to me as a customer by Telus. In fact I am not overly pleased with my Bell cell phone experience either. 
 
If you have had really awful customer service from this company or any other wireless/internet/telephone company in Canada - I'd love to hear about it. Perhaps if we presented them with enough bad stories - they'd start training their staff better. At the very least, perhaps we'd have something we could present to the CTRC and see if we can't get more Internet, Mobile and TV/Satellite providers made available in this country. 
Competition is what we really need in my humble opinion. 
 
I am tired of High Prices for bad service and customer service and my experiences with my Bell cell phone have been equally as awful as my land line and other services from Telus. It's like there is an epidemic in the wireless/tele-communications services community and it's called BAD Customer Service. 
 
If you have had good experiences, I'd love to hear them as well. 
But in order to affect any change we need to show them what's wrong.... 
 
If you are riding today, PLEASE, ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you. 
 
Belt Drive Betty 
<a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a>

What a day in the news!

Of course, the Hells Angels in Quebec made the news today - apparently three members are caught up in this construction scandal. Detectiv...

Another busy week ahead

Belt Drive 0 Great Canadian Day Ride's Site, Motorcycle Community, PMS Blues Online Show ‘n’ Shine 7:33 AM

Although the news feeds are for the moment relatively quiet, I am busy like a beaver as is Ali. 
 
She is putting the finishing touches on our<a href="http://www.greatcanadiandayrides.com/"> Great Canadian Day Ride's Site</a> upgrade. Over the next couple of months we will finally have all of our articles in there and we will be hosting some contests for that site as well. 
 
We have a few more tweaks we want to make on www.beltdrivebetty.com - Ali and I will be talking about the last few things on the community side of things that we need to deal with. 
 
In December we will be hosting another round of the Beat the Winter Blues - PMS Show 'n' Shine on www.beltdrivebetty.com 
 
We are looking for sponsors and are trading web advertising in return for prizes - any of you small business people interested? Drop me a line: bdbetty@gmail.com 
 
The 2010 events calendars are starting to shape up but we could use volunteers from the NWT, YK, MB, QC, NB, NFL, PEI to step up and give us a hand. 
 
These national events calendars are really important to tourists, local, regional and antional event coordinators, vendors and riders - help us make sure YOUR riding club, YOUR community events, YOUR Business events are in there. We are here to serve you but we can to do the work alone folks!There are two of us on this end and over 900 events, 600,000 riders and 3,500 Canadian businesses. We can't help everyone with out YOUR involvement!  Sign up at <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> - it is FREE! Once you are registered you can add your community events to the calendars but please search them first so we don't have duplicate information! 
 
If you are fortunate enough to be riding today, PLEASE - ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you. 
 
Belt Drive Betty 
National VP - A.I.M. Can 
<a href="http://www.aim-can.com/">www.aim-can.com</a> 
<a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a>

Another busy week ahead

Although the news feeds are for the moment relatively quiet, I am busy like a beaver as is Ali. She is putting the finishing touches on ou...

Where are we heading?

Belt Drive 0 Community 7:10 AM

Today as I was going through the news feeds more than one item had me shaking my head and wondering at humanity and where we are heading. 
 
 
The first of such head shaking events came when I read about the book "The Fat Mexican: The Bloody Rise of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club", by Alex Caine. <a href="http://www.lfpress.com/news/bandidos/2009/10/31/11588536-sun.html">The book chronicles the massacre in Ontario </a>and speculates on why it happened.The trial is only just completed, the verdicts just delivered, the ink not even dry but there you have it the book is already available. 
 
The next thing that had me truly shaking my head in utter amazement was the news about Facebook and their decision to keep the profiles of people no longer with us... <a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/article/718254--online-mourning-evolves">On Tuesday, Facebook announced that profiles of the deceased would remain online, with a few adjustments. Only people already on the dead person's friends list will be able to find them in name searches, and the profile will be locked to new comments. The decision came after a slew of users complained that Facebook's "suggestions" function – a list of people an algorithm thinks might be your friends – kept suggesting they connect with dead loved ones. Presumably, pages of people known to be deceased will now be kept out of the feed.</a>  
 
Confusion... 
 
<a href="http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/103009/Com_img18_001.shtml">We are being told by one set of experts to twitter and blog and join social networks as they will help us in our careers </a>but others are telling us to watch how we behave on them as more an more employers Google your name, look you up on  social networks BEFORE they call you for that interview. 
 
 
The other set of experts will tell you that social networking can and will damage your career if you you get caught partaking at work. And yet others are urging employers to create social networking policies. One very interesting article is: <a href="http://www.keloland.com/News/NewsDetail6373.cfm?Id=92016">Social Network Work:</a>  Technology can play a role in harassment, discrimination and other problems in the workplace. 
 
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From texting to tweeting, the technological revolution is affecting every segment of our life, including work. “Technology has moved a lot faster than employer, employee policies have been able to keep up with," employment attorney Sue Simons said.</h2>
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So there you have it, my daily dose of confusion, now I am ready to go to work! Social networking is a huge part of what I do every day. I have my Facebook update, My twitter update, my own site's status feed to do and then a paper to build.</h2>
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If you are lucky enough to be riding your motorcycle today, PLEASE, ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.</h2>
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Belt Drive Betty</h2>
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National VP - A.I.M. Can</h2>
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<a href="http://www.aim-can.com/">www.aim-can.com</a></h2>
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 <a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> 
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Where are we heading?

Today as I was going through the news feeds more than one item had me shaking my head and wondering at humanity and where we are heading. ...