Belt Drive Betty's Blog

Patience...upgrading never goes 100% smoothly!

<span style="color: #e69138;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We have just finished upgrading our web site's content management system and it's template.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #e69138;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.beltdrivebetty.com/">www.beltdrivebetty.com</a> is the online home for everything that Belt Drive Media Media does. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We want our users to have a great experience - BUT...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With a site as large as ours there ARE going to be challenges and issues. (Almost 600,000 pages deep)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We still have content to get re-added, sections that need to be activated and tweaked and it will all happen, but it will take a bit of time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">You can help us shorten the time it takes to make things function as perfectly as technology allows by emailing our web mistress, Ali at ali4evr@gmail.com or by using the chat module on the bottom of the site whenever you see something that isn't working the way it is expected to.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Let her know what browser you are on, what page the problem happened on and any other detail you can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">We ask your patience for the next couple of weeks as we work as hard as we can to get everything the way it needs to be.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I <i>leave you with a few funnies, shared with me by friends..</i></span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thanks</span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Belt Drive Betty</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Editor & Rider</span></i></b>

Patience...upgrading never goes 100% smoothly!

We have just finished upgrading our web site's content management system and it's template. www.beltdrivebetty.com is the online h...

Creative Solutions for when stuff goes sideways with a paint job.

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<i><span style="color: #e69138;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Many of you know about the heartbreak I have experienced over a paint job gone wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: #e69138;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">After picking up my tins and seeing the mess they were, I became paralyzed.  I was stuck in the most awful mental loop.  One minute angry, one minute sad – the next fearful about the extra expense this could cost me, just before this big trip.  <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #e69138;">After trying several body shops, only to be told Mid May – June before I could get in – well, I had run out of ideas – the only thing I could think of was to slap some stickers with the name of the paint shop on it and ride it…</span></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">YUCK – but – I didn’t see anything else I could do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">When I threw the idea out there on my Facebook community – I got some responses back like – let it go – don’t humiliate the shop further etc…when I explained that I had 10 days before I start filming and needed my bike together and asked people for ideas and was not wishing to be vindictive - that wasn't my motivation at all – well man the ideas came back hot and heavy!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">1 idea was having the tanks and saddlebags sprayed with box liner for a rat rod look. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Another involved me spray bombing everything in camouflage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Yet another suggested flat black spray bomb for tanks and bags.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I was told about plastic kote and hydro painting and then Terry Rae suggested powder coating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Jeff from Kreater Kustoms recommended talking to my local dealer to see if they had any take offs…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I got offers from painters as far away as Ontario and all sorts of support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Talking to the people in our community who have had bad experiences and others who work in the industry made all the difference.  The ideas and offers of help were utterly amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Because of all of the wonderful ideas, my tanks are being powder coated by Lee’s Sheet Metal & Powder Coating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Apparently because my tanks have been empty for so long, there is no risk of fire etc. so one hurdle down as I can have them back on Friday!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">While driving into Grande Prairie I saw the guys from Chaotic Customs outside – they hadn’t called me back yet. I wheeled in and talked to Mark and I was in luck – they are spraying gloss black paint today and can have my tins back to me by Friday. WOW.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Some creative thinking and a little bit of luck made a horrible situation so much better – is it ideal?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">No.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Is it what I wanted, No.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But at least I don’t have to stare at a reminder of a really bad experience every day I am on the road and I don’t have to feel bad about how my bike will look on camera either.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I’ll be able to hold my head up and that is all thanks to the people who helped me get my brain un stuck and out of that awful place it was – in neutral  - with not an idea of how to resolve this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If you ever find yourself in a position where you are stuck on how to turn a bad situation around – ASK.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Ask everyone you can, you just never know who or what is going to be the answer you seek…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Thank you riding community – you saved my peace of mind, warmed my heart and helped me to not look like a vindictive bitch, cause really – that is not who I am and I really did not want to have to look at that paint job every day for 91 days on the road.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">With much gratitude to all who pitched in with ideas…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Belt Drive Betty<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Editor & Rider</span></i></b></div>
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