CANADA’S MOST RIDER FRIENDLY COMMUNITY CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCED

PRESS RELEASE

~~ For Immediate Release ~~

June 4th, 2018

CANADA’S MOST RIDER FRIENDLY COMMUNITY CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCED

Grande Prairie AB – The final round of public voting for Canada’s MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest has concluded and the winner, a clear a decisive victor, has been chosen!

"We at Community Futures of Grande Prairie & Region and all of the Community Futures of Alberta offices along with Community Futures Lloydminster to congratulate all of the communities that competed in the contest, especially our finalists, Lloydminster and Drumheller. AB,” said Holly Sorgen of Community Futures of Grande Prairie & Region.  It has become very clear that community spirit is alive & well our country! Supporting small business and rural initiatives is important to all Community Futures Offices across Canada and we are proud to be a part of this exciting fledgling contest!”

“I want to thank all who inspired their community to vote in the final round of the voting for Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest.

Lloydminster pulled out in the lead in the late stages of the contest and Drumheller, a much smaller community couldn’t quite rally back.

Canada’s MOST Rider Friendly Community from the 2017 Riding Season has been chosen and the community is Lloydminster Alberta!

We want to acknowledge the commitment of all of our wonderful sponsors without whom this contest could not happen: EastLink TV, The World of Motorcycling Podcast, Reality Radio 101, Biker Radio, Northern Horizon, Choice Hotels Canada, Alig8r Web Design, Belt Drive Betty Media, Ride Like a Local, Colorado Rider News, Fast Lane Biker, Delmarva Edition, The Busted Knuckle Chronicles, and our presenting sponsors, Community Futures of Alberta and Community Futures Alberni-Clayoquot!

About Canada’s MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest:

Canada’s MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest was created by Renee ”Belt Drive Betty” Charbonneau, founder and CEO of Belt Drive Betty Media.  

Canada’s MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest is a rural tourism marketing initiative whose goal is to create awareness of the wonderful businesses and communities that are there for riders to explore.

About Belt Drive Betty Media:

Belt Drive Betty Media is a diverse motorcycle media company founded in 2003. It offers the rider a vast array of ways to connect with the information on the motorcycle community they need.

That diversity offers advertisers looking to connect with the Canadian riding community a large number of advertising vehicles to choose from. Belt Drive Betty Media offers TV, web, social media, app and email marketing opportunities.

Contact:

Renee “Belt Drive Betty” Charbonneau

(780) 402-8892

bdbetty@beltdrivebettymedia.com

Visit our main site: beltdrivebetty.com

About Community Futures of Alberta:

For 30 years, Community Futures has been supporting small business development and rural economic diversification in Alberta. We are a community driven, non-profit organization with 27 offices in rural areas throughout Alberta. Each office is staffed by local business professionals and guided by a volunteer Board of Directors.

In other words, we live where you live, and reap the benefits of a strong local economy created by business entrepreneurs just you! Read about some of the many successful businesses we have helped start-up and grow over the years.

We provide a wide range of small business loans, business coaching/training services and business management tools for people wanting to start, expand, franchise or sell a business.

We also run a number of specialized business programs, and actively work with community and business leaders to foster rural economic growth.

We are funded by the Government of Canada through Western Economic Diversification Canada

There are a total of 269 Community Futures offices across the country.

Contact:

Holly Sorgen

Community Futures Grande Prairie & Region

(780) 814-5340

Holly.Sorgen@albertacf.com

The changing world of motorcycling and our Rider/Reader Surveys

We have three surveys we are collecting information from.

One for the European Rider, one for the American Rider and one for the Canadian Rider.

Take the European Motorcycle Rider's Survey HERE

Take the American Rider's Survey HERE

Take the Canadian Rider's Survey HERE

Our goal is to find out about you, as a rider and as a traveller and what news and information is important to you.

We want to know about vacations & the kinds of attractions that interest you and a whole host of things as we get geared up for a major shift in our company.  We are growing our network of people who contribute to the information we offer. We want to make sure that we are growing in a direction that appeals to you the motorcyclist.

The world of motorcycling is changing right along with the rest of the world.
We baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964 (I was born in 1960), are, sad to say, a dying breed.

Our ideas of tradition, like how you get your road handle, mean nothing to the younger rider.
They simply think our traditions are outdated and as irrelevant as our beloved GeezerGlides.
They laugh at the stories but you can see in their eyes they think you are crazy.

Were we any different when we were their age? Yeah - NO.
All though it was a lifetime ago, I remember thinking my parents and their peers were idiots who were ruining the world.  I was young and I knew it all and was going to change the world for the better. And then reality hit me, as I started maturing I realized that I could only do or change so much, that I could only influence so much.

I am sure that if someone in their 20's today, stumbles across this blog post 20 years from now they will read it and sigh realizing that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Here are a few traditions from my parents and grand parents eras that we no longer adhere to:

• Plastic seat covers on the good furniture - we never implemented that tradition in my house.
• Eating fish on Fridays, after Fukashima, I don't eat as much fish as I used to unless it's farm fish. And even then I am iffy on it so, the tradition fell to the wayside.
• Passing beers between racing cars with kids in the back seat, that's a tradition we modified and then finally let go. We ditched the kids in the back seat because we didn't have kids as early as they did and as the roadways got busier and drinking and driving laws got tougher, we weren't as inclined to drink and drive much less speed while doing so.  The invention of the Motorola radio also slowed those traditions down.

With the changing of traditions and attitudes spurred on by youth, social media and technology we are seeing huge shifts in what riders want by way of riding experiences and the kind of riding they want to do. 

The world is open to our youth in ways it was never open to us. 

When I was 18 and 20, heck even 30 a lot of the distances that we could afford to ride were determined by what was in our pocket for money. It's really no different today, but what is different is that a lot of these young people have massive debt from higher education institutes and a lot aren't finding jobs that allow them to move out on their own.  That has slowed their entry into motorcycling, or has restricted them to smaller bikes due to financial constraints.

As a company, we want to find that balance and a way to provide a broader range of information that appeals to the younger and older reader alike. We want to ensure that we are uncovering the kinds of experiences that you want to partake in and that you are finding the service and support you need when travelling.

It is our hope that you will take our survey.  It shouldn't take you much longer than 5 minutes and if you decide to leave us your email, your name will go into a draw for coupon from Choice Hotels for 10,000 reward Points. That should get you a hotel stay anywhere in the world that Choice is.

#RiderFriendlyContest

And don't  forget to vote for your favourite community in Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest - final round of voting starts May17th!

If you are blessed enough to be riding today, please remember to ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty,

Editor & Rider

Round 2 of Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community is getting set to kick off!

With over 140 communities to vote for this year, the riding community got busy!
We are pleased to announce that we have the results of the first round of voting.

From what we watched in round one voting, I think there are some pretty stiff competitions shaping up for round 2!

The following communities had the most votes in their province of region and they are now being featured in a web advertising package at www.beltdrivebetty.com provided by Belt Drive Betty Media (worth $800 each) that touts them as the winners for their province/territory:

• Peachland is BC’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Drumheller is AB’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Swift Current is SK’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Snow Lake is MB’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Peterborough is ON’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Saint John is NB’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Mahone Bay is NS’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Summerside is PEI’s MMOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season
• Stephenville is NL’s MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 
• Yellowknife is the Territories MOST Rider Friendly Community of the 2017 Riding Season 

The following 10 communities got the highest number of votes over all and advance to round 2 of the voting:

Anaheim Lake BC

Peachland BC

Prince George BC

Sicamous BC

Acheson AB

Drumheller AB

Lloydminster AB

Peterborough ON

Saint John NB

Yellowknife NT

Round 2 voting begins April 26^thand runs through to May 12^th.  

For all of the details visit the contest website: www.riderfriendlycontest.ca

#RiderFriendlyContest

I am looking forward to seeing which community I will be filming in this summer!

Belt Drive Betty, 

Editor & Rider

Hugs to Humboldt

Our country just experienced a tragedy involving the Humboldt Broncos.

The Humboldt Broncos like so many hockey teams in Canada was comprised of young people from all over Western Canada.

Our good friend and the man who conceive Road Trip Rita and Flat Tail Freddy for me, Paul Jamiol (An American) sent us a beautiful condolence message in his unique style - a cartoon.

Paul is the author of the children's book series Bikers Are Animals and as a cartoonist, he has brought the grief we all feel, home.

There are no words that can possibly express the grief that our country and all of the families affected are feeling.

I don't think there is a truck driver alive who isn't feeling the horrendous grief or pain that the Calgary  truck driver must be feeling. I am pretty sure he/she never got up that fateful morning thinking they would kill 15 and injure over a dozen more.

My mind can not comprehend what that poor driver has to be thinking and living with in the prison of his/her mind.

I know that for us here at Belt Drive Betty Media, it's been really hard to even think of promoting Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest  given the sadness that everyone is dealing with.

So with that in mind, we are going to extend the voting out by one week, hopefully it will allow everyone a little bit of time to deal with everything that faces them right now. It means our contest will end one week later than originally scheduled.

Sending a heartfelt hug to all who are affected by this unthinkable tragedy.

Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider
#RiderFriendlyContest

Community, what does that word mean to you?

Presenting Sponsor Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest

Community...it's a big word, what does it mean to you?

I have been working diligently along with my web mistress, our sales gal and our two admin assistants to promote and spread the word about Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest. All of us are riders, just FYI!


We have 140+ communities that have been nominated this year, which meant tons of creative to build, videos, promotional memes and the like. We still have tons of phone calls to make to the various community futures offices and to share news of the contest to all of the riding clubs and charities we support.

WHAT A TASK!!! But we are loving it. Why?

Because this contest celebrates OUR COMMUNITY.

If I am going to make my living, if the riders who work for this company as contractors are going to make their living from work in the community we live in, the rider community, then we need to always be giving back into our community and that's what this contest is all about.

COMMUNITY - GIVING BACK to all of the little businesses that support we riders, no matter where we live, for every poker run, rally and show 'n' shine we host for charity.

It's about giving back to every volunteer who has done something selfless, every event coordinator that busts their butts to give us great events to attend.

The reactions to the contest have been incredible and it is wonderful to see how many Community Futures Offices are now coming on board as sponsors as are small tourism offices.

Why is an economic development non profit involved? Simple, they help entrepreneurs start and expand their businesses. They offer services to coach, teach and mentor small business people, they offer financing and they offer special supports for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities!

They know that the riding community is filled with small business owners and they know that small communities and their business owners need to take advantage of the custom that riders can bring to their area.

Simply put, Community Futures wants to help grow rural Canada.
Helping small businesses become more rider friendly, helping them with strategic planning, to take advantage of our needs and help them identify what are the right services for them to provide to us!

We have many incredible media sponsors on board as well:

Out of Washington State we have World of Motorcycling Podcasts with Steve Johann and Rev Walt.
Out of Colorado, we have Colorado Rider News.  From Oshawa Ontario we have Lou DeVuono from Kickstands Up on RealityRadio 101, Man Wants Digital Magazine out of Great Britain and in Northern BC and Alberta we have the Northern Horizon/Mirror Newspaper. EastLinkTv has donated the air time for us to promote the winning community and the runner up with commercials and for us to air what we film when Ride Like a Local comes to an event to film the volunteers, community leaders, attendees etc...Then there is all of my company, Belt Drive Betty Media.

Our newspaper, the Busted Knuckle Chronicles and all of its provincial news pages inside of Facebook, the TV Show Ride Like a Local, the Facebook online talk show, Rider Friendly Report, our events calendars www.canadianmotorcycleevents.com our mother site, beltdrivebetty.com and all of it's Facebook pages, this blog and a the Rider Friendly Business Association and it's Facebook Pages and group.

In all, Belt Drive Betty Media alone gives out over $60,000 in free marketing to these communities, that does not include the work we do to get ready for the contest, the highway signs,  trophy, plaques etc....that's straight up the advertising prizes we give away.

Everything that our sponsors donate for space, save for EastLinkTV's air time, is a bonus to our communities.

Rural Canada, small communities under 100,000 in size, it's where we ride, where we as riders yearn to go to when on our motorcycles, this contest helps us to discover wonder places that other riders love...

Vote for your favourite community at www.riderfriendlycontest.ca

#RiderFriendlyContest

Have a blessed day and if you are lucky enough to nee riding, think of me, here in Grande Prairie Alberta Canada in -14 with three feet of snow still on the ground and thank your lucky stars you live where you can be riding.

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

Anger over Sikh Helmet Exemption in Alberta

I have heard nothing but anger and in some cases outright ignorance over the helmet exemption in Alberta. (http://driving.ca/auto-news/news/sikh-motorcyclists-get-helmet-exemption-in-alberta)

The problem with the riding community here in Canada is we are comprised largely off people who are too busy to do anything meaningful to affect change so we whine instead and let our resentment and anger grow.

No one is passionate about the rights of motorcyclists it seems, at least not in Alberta, BC or Manitoba.

OH, People bitch and make stupid racist statements like "them damned Muslims"...only problem Sikhs are not Muslims. Let's face it, if you like riding lidless, if you are not Sikh, you are jealous and pissed off right now. BE HONEST.

But you aren't looking at this situation in a thoughtful way, you are looking at it through the lens of emotion; hurt, frustrated, feeling discriminated against emotions.

Right?

So here are some things to consider:

1) If we had any real riders rights groups in Manitoba, BC & Alberta, any group that had some teeth and drive, this would open the door for helmet exemptions for all, since no requirements for additional medical insurance exist, it would be a fairly straight forward argument.

2) Riders in BC, Alberta and Manitoba need someone in each province to stand up a credible rights organizations and lobby the government hard.

Are you willing to stand up to do the work that needs to happen? Do you have the money to fund this push? If not are you willing to help raise the money?

3) Battles like what needs to happen to repeal a law are expensive and time consuming, the wheels move slowly, but it can be done.

What are you willing to do? Provide money or put in some grunt time?

4) If having choice is really important to you and going through the legal fight isn't worth it to you, then form a religion. It's expensive to do, it's time consuming, but it can be done.

Either way it's time riders start learning to work together.
If we don't learn how to protect our rights, we won't have any.

We are after all citizens and taxpayers, we have a right to a vote, to a voice and to lobby...we can also do what we have done for years, sit back, bitch, whine and snivel and get on with the new normal.

The choice is yours.

In other news, Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest has begun it's hunt to find the most rifer friendly community from last riding season.

Over 140 communities to vote for...

Who will win?  We find out May 31st...

www.riderfriendlycontest.ca

And visit our sponsors pages please - they make this contest happen!!!!

#RiderFriendlyContest

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

When Murphy Strikes...

This is our second year hosting Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest and while last year provided a learning curve, it providing nothing like the challenge we faced last night.

Murphy struck hard yesterday.

Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest experienced a technical problem that we did not anticipate.

Our web mistress, Ali, the hardest working web mistress in the country set things up so that our contest would automatically end at 11:59:59 last night.

What she did not know, is that there was a setting that made it so the server would cut the contest off at 11:59:59 Ontario time not Mountain Standard Time. Our servers are located in the east.

YEAH - the contest was cut off  TWO HOURS early.

I started getting calls at home and I was already in bed!
I got up and called Ali.  She was emailing people and attempting to appease them but took a minute to explain to me what happened.

She was crushed. Totally devastated.

In spite of a few challenges with confirmation emails hitting spam folders and people frustrated at times because they couldn't log in or register, she had managed to stay on top of everything and help people with all of their issues.

This was a wonderful contest until last night.

We did what we thought was best, and extended the contest out to 11:59:59 tonight to ensure that no one from yesterday got left out. It also gives both communities a final chance to push, a bonus, so we thought.

Short of calling the contest off for technical difficulties and just giving each community $15 or $20K each in free marketing and calling it good, we couldn't think of a better way to handle this challenge.

It's discouraging and frustrating - Ali and I spent hours calling and emailing people back last night and again this morning.

We've done everything we know how to do, but sadly, it seems like we can't make everyone happy so we are focusing on making as many as happy as we can.

We wanted this to be a community building experience for people. We wanted them to feel pride in their community and be glad to have gotten focus placed on their communities. That free marketing is the best you can get!

We wanted these communities to have a healthy, fun rivalry, hence every community that gets this far in the contest wins some free marketing from Belt Drive Betty Media.

But now we have people calling us scammers, saying the fix is in for Drumheller if they are from Port Alberni and for Port Alberni if they are from Drumheller.

There are those who think that extending the contest out was wrong.

The amount of times I have been called a scammer and other names I can't and don't want to mention, boggles my mind.

We donate 90% of the prizing, do 95% of the work to host this contest all to help the riding community and rural Canadian communities only to be denigrated and abused verbally by some and while it's a small number of people being hurtful and abusive, it still hurts, stings.

If I was asked at this moment will this contest continue on after this year I'd say no.

But I know me, and I know that once I get over the feelers being hurt, I'll probably want to press on.

I love our country, the rural communities in particular, they are the heart of our country, but I also like my sanity and my dignity...so we shall see, after we get this contest done and have crowned a winning community, how I feel and whether or not our sponsors are going to want to continue on.

This technical glitch was a blow, we sure didn't need.

Anyway, let's git'er done...

www.riderfriendlycontest.ca

This is the Final Day to vote to see which community will meet Cape Breton for the finals.

If you are blessed enough to be riding today, please remember to ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

And the HUNT IS ON!

Our second annual "Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community Contest" is now under way!

We already have three nominations, two are for Two Hills, Alberta, the reigning Canada's MOST Rider Friendly Community of 2015 and one is for a runner up community from the 2015 contest, Nisku Alberta!

With over $60K in marketing prizes to be won, this free contest is meant to help riders find those wonderful smaller communities that have a lot to offer a rider.

Nominate your community today!  Nominate a community you love riding to - tell us why and share your knowledge with the rest of this community! 

It's FREE, it's easy and it helps our entire riding community from coast to coast to coast.

The contest is brought to you by Community Futures of Alberta and the Rider Friendly Business Association.


The Rider Friendly Business Association helps Riders find Rider Friendly Businesses and Community Futures helps small business in rural communities.

Speaking of the Rider Friendly Business Association - the new online, fully mobile directory was just recently launched!  Check it out at www.riderfriendly.com 

Today, Episode 8 of Ride Like a Local airs and if you were touched by the Fort McMurray Wildfire, the next few episodes are something you aren't going to want to miss! Watch it below!

Have a great day everyone and if you are blessed enough to be riding today, HUG AN OILFIELD WORKER.

Belt Drive Betty,
Editor & Rider





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