Guilty - 48 charges

70 witnesses and 500-plus exhibits and over 7 months of trial.
The Bandidos trial is finally over and as expected all of the suspects have been found guilty and face lengthy jail sentences.

The RCMP were positive that the shootings were a cleansing and after all of this time they were proven right.

Norton Commando's are beginning to roll off of the production line. It's been over 20 years since the Donington Park factory had motorcycles produced there. The newly resurected company has already sold 200 special edition Commando's to celebrate their relaunch.

Norton Motorcycles says they have secured enough orders to begin production. Here in Canada, Sam Agha is the new CEO of Norton Canada Ltd. Agha and he owns Canada's largest Suzuki dealership

I hope you all have a wonderful day and if you are lucky enough to be riding, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP A.I.M. Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Proud to be Canadian...

Anyone who knows me, knows I am proudly Canadian.

I get pretty passionate about the things I love and I scare some people off with that passion.

Well, if you are faint of heart go read someone elses blog today because I am about to get really passionate. If you are of ethnic origin and do not want to hear the truth about what living in Canada means - go read someone elses blog...

I got a copy of an article that appeared in the Calgary Sun in March of this year.

I can not find the original article to link to, but it is such a powerful, eloquent and thoughtful article on being Canadian that I am going to share it with you, along with my thoughts on this subject - section by section... Thanks to R. Dean of Wembley AB for sending this article to me.

Mahfooz Kanwar, PHD, is a Sociologist and an Instructor Emeritus at Mount Royal College.   This very wise, educated gentleman is a first generation Canadian whose parents immigrated from Pakistan.  He is also Muslim, but truly understands what it is to be Canadian first, even though he and his parents are from another country.

By Mahfooz Kanwar, For The Calgary Herald, March 30, 2009 Copyright (c) 

The Calgary Herald

Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is getting flak from the usual suspects, but he deserves praise instead.

Recently, Kenney pointed that out while at a meeting in Toronto.  Members of Canada's Pakistani community called on him to make Punjabi one of Canada's official languages.  It makes me angry that such an idea would enter the minds of my fellow and former countrymen, let alone express them to a Minister of the Crown.

(I am with Mr Kanwar here, it is unthinkable, yet people are and have tried)

A few months ago, I was dismayed to learn that Erik Millett, the principal of Belleisle School in Springfield, N.B., limited playing our national anthem because the families of a couple of his students objected to it.  

(I was not dismayed by this teacher's behaviour, I was totally incensed - Our National Anthem is a beautiful one and EVERY child who lives here, who is raised here should know it and sing it PROUDLY!)

As a social scientist, I oppose this kind of political correctness, lack of assimilation of new immigrants to mainstream Canada, hyphenated-Canadian identity, and the lack of patriotism in our great nation.

(Again, I am in 100% agreement, You are either a Canadian, about to become Canadian or a visitor)

Increasingly, Canadians feel restricted in doing things the Canadian way lest we offend minorities.  We cannot even say Merry Christmas without fear of causing offence.  It is amazing that 77 per cent of the Canadian majority are scared of offending 23 per cent of minorities.  We have become so timid that the majority cannot assert its own freedom of expression.  We cannot publicly question certain foreign social customs, traditions and values that do not fit into the Canadian ethos of equality. Rather than encouraging new immigrants to adjust to Canada, we tolerate peculiar ways of doing things.  We do not remind them that they are in Canada, not in their original homelands.

 (It is high time we start reminding them as to why they moved here - in MANY cases what was going on in their country of origin wasn't working for them so well...)

In a multicultural society, it is the responsibility of minorities to adjust to the majority.  It does not mean that minorities have to totally amalgamate with the majority.   They can practice some of their cultural traditions within their homes -- their backstage behavior.  However, when outside of their homes, their front stage behavior should resemble mainstream Canadian behavior.  Whoever comes to Canada must learn the limits of our system. We do not kill our daughters or other female members of our families who refuse to wear hijab, niqab or burka which are not mandated by the Qur'an anyway.  We do not kill our daughters if they date the "wrong" men.  A 17-year-old Sikh girl should not have been killed in British Columbia by her father because she was caught dating a Caucasian man. 

(Again - the traditions and culture that many have moved to Canada to get away from should not be being relived and reaffirmed here in this country - 100% behind you so far Mr Kanwar)

We do not practice the dowry system in Canada, and do not kill our brides because they did not bring enough dowry.  Millions of female fetuses are aborted every year in India, and millions of female infants have been killed by their parents in India and China.  Thousands of brides in India are burned to death in their kitchens because they did not bring enough dowry into a marriage.  Some 30,000 Sikhs living abroad took the dowries but abandoned their brides in India in 2005. This is not accepted in Canada.

(We Canadian women have a lot to be thankful for - I wished more of the women who move here really embraced the freedoms we have here.)

 

In some countries, thousands of women are murdered every year for family or religious honour.  We should not hide behind political correctness and we should expose the cultural and religious background of these heinous crimes, especially if it happens in Canada. We should also expose those who bring their cultural baggage containing the social custom of female circumcision.  I was shocked when I learned about two cases of this barbaric custom practiced in St. Catharines, Ont.  a few years ago.

(I agree, whole heartedly with this man thus far, women should not be marginalized in these ways)

I have said it on radio and television, have written in my columns in The Calgary Herald, and I have written in my latest  book, Journey to Success, that I do not agree with the hyphenated identity in Canada because it divides our loyalties. My argument is that people are not forced to come to Canada and they are not forced to stay here. Those who come here of their own volition and stay here must be truly patriotic Canadians or go back.

(HERE, HERE to that! If you don't like it here, if you want to live the way you did in the Old Country or the Mother Country - then go BACK!)

I am a first-generation Canadian from Pakistan.  I left Pakistan 45 years ago. I cannot ignore Pakistan, because it is the homeland of my folks, but my first loyalty should be and is to Canada.  I am, therefore, a proud Canadian, no longer a Pakistani-Canadian.  I am a Canadian Muslim, not a Muslim Canadian.

(Wow - if we could get everyone of any ethic origin to feel that way - to feel that kind of pride, wouldn't that be fabulous? Our children might again feel some pride in being Canadian) 

I do not agree with those Canadians who engage in their fight against the system in their original countries on Canadian soil.  They should go back and fight from within.  For example, some of the Sikhs, Tamil Tigers, Armenians and others have disturbed the peace in Canada because of their problems back home.  Recently, a low-level leader of MQM, the Mafia of Pakistan, came to Canada as a refugee and started to organize public rallies to collect funds for their cause in Pakistan.  On July 18, 2007, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that MQM is a terrorist group led by London-based Altaf Hussain, their godfather.  As a member in the coalition government of Pakistan, this terrorist group is currently collaborating with the Taliban in Pakistan. That refugee was deported back to Pakistan. 

(If you love your home country so much that you want to see change, he's right, go HOME and effect that change from within, don't fight your wars and bring your ageless feuds with you here)

Similarly, I disagree with newcomers who bring their religious baggage here.  For example, Muslims are less than two per cent of the Canadian population, yet in 2004 and 2005, a fraction of them, the fundamentalists, wanted to bring Sharia law to Canada. If they really want to live under Sharia, they should go to the prison-like countries where Sharia is practiced.

(This man is on the mark. I agree with every word he has said so far...and you? How does this article make you feel so far?)

I once supported multiculturalism in Canada because I believed it gave us a sense of pluralism and diversity.  However, I have observed and experienced that official multiculturalism has encouraged convolution of the values that make Canada the kind of place people want to immigrate to in the first place.
Here, we stand on guard for Canada, not for countries we came from.  Like it or not, take it or leave it, standing on guard only for Canada is our national maxim. Remember, O Canada is our national anthem which must not be disregarded by anybody, including the teacher in Springfield, N. B. 

Mr Kanwar, I tip my hat to you for telling it like it is. I wished that more people, naturalized or otherwise loved Canada the way you obviously do. Many immigrants come here for a new life. What they left was not working for them. Embracing something new, something different HAS to be part of changing your life and coming to a new country - why else would you come here? To live more of the same but have indoor plumbing and other mod cons while doing more of the same?

I am with Mr Kanwar - you need to be CANADIAN first if living here in a country of relative freedom and abundance is at all important to you.

Thank you sir for having the guts and the pride to tell it like it is!

Mahfooz Kanwar, PHD, Is A Sociologist and an Instructor Emeritus at Mount Royal College.

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

www.aim-can.com

www.beltdrivebetty.com 

 

So Harley is not alone...

Cycle Canada is reporting that Yamaha is bleeding so much red ink that their President is handing over the reins to the Chairman. Apparently their losses for 2009 are going to be around 2.1 Billion dollars US.

I am unclear how changing the upper echelon yet leaving the same people at the table will change the ebb of money - that remains to be seen.

And Harley has quashed the hopes and dreams of Buell riders everywhere.

According to reports from the various news sources like Cycle Canada, that a group of private people wanted to buy Buell. In an announcement, H-D's spokeswoman Pat Sweeney said H-D will NOT sell Buell to anyone. "We chose not to sell Buell, and simply end production, simply because of the interdependencies that exist between Buell and Harley-Davidson. That is the decision we made, and that is not a reversible decision."

Hmmm,  I have, over the years seen big companies get dismantled and sold. Big companies with intricate interdependence issues...it makes me wonder about what else might be going on that we the general public won't hear about for months. If money is really an issue, why would you not want to sell? It appears to me that something else is in the works here.

Not much else in the news really worth noting so far today. The Hell's Angels/Bandido's jury will be deliberating - when we hear of the verdicts we'll let you know.

Until tomorrow, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP A.I.M. Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Many thanks

Many thanks to the people on my Facebook who answer the questions I pose here with so much thought and care.

The last round of questions regarding leathers really answered some questions for me.

Perhaps I should have you guys and dolls as a screening committee. Before an advertiser is approved to advertise with us they should have to answer questions on their products or something...

Poor Brad Pitt got his new chopper all banged up trying to get away from the paparazzi in LA the other day. What a life that must be - living in a fish bowl. It's bad enough living in a smaller centre with busy bodies...

Anyway, I have event calendars and ads to work on so...
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
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Congratulations are in order!

Have you read the newsfeeds over on www.beltdrivebetty.com today?

If not you should! Our very own Jay Burnham from Freakshow Choppers has been invited to the Playboy Mansion in California to display his bikes for Halloween!

Pretty impressive stuff for a guy who only a few short years ago wasn't even a blip on the custom bike building scene.

Congrats Jay, your dedication, hard work and meticulous attention to detail are gaining you a great name in the business.

Speaking of business...

How many of you shop at your local bike shop/dealer for leathers?

Do you go to independent shops or custom leather shops?

Do you go to chain stores like Boutique of Leathers & their Open Road stores?

Do you wear leather of Kevlar theses days?

These are but a few of the burning questions I have...can yah help me out?

I share this blog to my Facebook page - and many people get in on the discussion there.
I periodically copy the comments from there to my blog here as I feel that the comments made by my Facebook network warrant being shared. If you comment here on my blog, those comments get shared with Facebook. Maybe one day Facebook will let us share the other way, but until they do, when I have time I will copy some of the comments here so you too can get in on the discussion.

Have a great day and IF you are fortunate enough to be riding today, please - ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP AIM-Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Electric and Hybrid Motorcycles - here is what we will be riding in the future...

Quiet motorcycles, low and no emissions. NO/LOW NOISE.

This is the future of the motorcycle and whether we old dinosaurs embrace them or not, electric and hybrid motorcycles are here to stay, that is until the next advancement relegates them to the bone yard they way our machines will be.

Out of the Tokyo Motorcycle Show comes the new Yamaha Hybrid preview:
It won't matter how much you turn the sound up, you aren't going to hear much.
But watch - it is impressive and informative and it IS our future.




I know a lot will scoff and make fun but just this week a fully electric motorcycle set a land speed record at Bonneville.

I for one will miss the day when the rumble of a well tuned engine and pipe combination no longer fill the air when I am riding. I know that my ears will never get used the high pitch whine that these new breed of motorcycles produce.

HOWEVER...
Young people 20 years from now will look at the motorcycles we dinosaurs once rode and they will laugh and wonder how we could put up with them, the noise the lack of sophistication and engineering.  20 years from now when we are in old folks homes and using walkers, young motorcyclists will feel that way about us and our machines - we did with our parents machines and technology.

Companies like Harley-Davidson, Victory and all of the British and Asian manufacturers will end up coming on line. Eventually they will have NO choice.

As we move to protect our environment from both air and noise pollution, governments will start either offering such attractive incentives for these electric machines to become the norm that most manufacturers will be enticed to get rid of their loud gas engined relics and when that doesn't work the government will just create a law that will force them to.

Get used to it - it's the way we are headed and no matter how much you balk at it, no matter how much you may hate it...you might as well embrace the new, quieter machines because no matter how much you fight it - they are here to stay.

They are proving themselves at motor cross races, the Salt Flats and at drag strips right around the world. The performance riders are loving the handling, the responsiveness and the speed and while there may be a lot of development and fine tuning to do to make them the norm - make no mistake...


The future DOES NOT HOLD Loud pipes...as I and many others before me have predicted - loud pipes will be legislated out of existence and the only places you will find gas powered, loud piped motorcycles will be in museums and in parades bearing antique license plates and of course the garages of collectors world wide.

Enjoy the safety of your loud pipes while you can - it won't be all that many years before they are gone - if not for good - for sure they will be the minority and the oddity.
Our motorcycles of today, well, they will be the equivalent of the 72 Challenger 440 CID Six-Pack, balanced and blue printed machines that we drool over today but seldom see around much.


If you are riding today, please...Ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.


Belt Drive Betty
National VP AIM-Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Harley-Davidson gets SLAMMED & Victory is experiencing NO Victory...

In a scathing article Michael Vaughn of CTV News denigrates the Harley-Davidson management team for their backward way of thinking and their lack of forward thinking.

After reading his article, if I was a shareholder in H-D, I would be demanding resignations and looking for a new marketing team and a fresh approach to building and selling motorcycles.

He cites the fact that H-D is planning on moving many of it's build facilities over seas and the fact that Harley Credit is hemorrhaging red ink as part of his questions of the "Genius" of the upper management. (MY question - isn't this the same company that back in the 80's asked the US government for tariffs on import motorcycles?)


"Now that they've abandoned Buell sport bikes and the younger generation, what's Harley-Davidson's plan for the future? It looks like the iconic made-in-America brand intends to build motorcycles overseas. By 2014 more than 40 per cent of the company's sales will be outside the United States according to Harley executives.

India is in Harley's plans where it believes the growing middle-class aspires to big, iconic American bikes. There's China and Eastern Europe too where Harley plans to market its heavyweight motorcycles with that outlaw image. Rather than change what they're doing, Harley plans to do the same thing they've always done but do it somewhere else." Says Vaughn

Read the rest of what Mr. Vaughn has to say - you might find it enlightening.

I too, have some thoughts about Harley-Davidson, their lack of regard for their customer as a corporation, their lack of common sense when it comes to attracting new riders to their brand and the elitist attitude that really doesn't serve them or the motorcycle community very well. But I'll keep most of it to myself. (And yes - I ride a Harley)

Then CMG ONline has some harsh words for Polaris and their Victory line up of motorcycles!
As part of their reduction of costs, Victory has slowed production of their motorcycles in an effort to help dealers clear their show room floors - new motorcycle sales of the Victory brand were down by over 50%.
Says CMG Online: Sales of parts, garments, and accessories were down only 11 per cent, representing the best sales performance of the entire company line. Expect to see more T-shirts and fewer motorcycles at Victory stores. 

The Hells Angels are in the news again.

Manitoba's Court of Appeal has ordered a new trial in the case of Ernie Dew, the alleged former president of the Manitoba Hells Angels.

In other news, the Peace Country Chapter of AIM-Can is holding a Fall Social tonight with a free buffet dinner and entertainment - to get in for free all you have to do is show your AIM-Can card or your class 6 motorcycle license at the door! Where? BJ's Q Club - Grande Prairie AB at 6:30 with dinner at 7pm. Hope to see you out there!

The comments below are from my Facebook page....

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 AIM-Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com