The Heroes Highway Ride, the Dream Ride for Larry McKenzie and so many more great events this weekend

From Coast to Coast to Coast, the 2013 riding season appears to have finally arrived and the events calendars at BeltDriveBetty.com are filled with hundreds and hundreds of great events to attend.

My home town of Redwater AB has the Ride for Hunger happening, my friends of the Alberta Lone Wolves are hosting Larry's Dream Ride - Larry AKA Loopy is dying of cancer and his wish was to ride with at least 1,000 other riders at least once in his life...I am attending the Heroes Highway Ride and Rally leaving from Whitby ON and heading to Trenton to pay tribute to our troops.

I would have loved to ride with Loopy but was already committed to the HHR when we got the news about Loopy's cancer. I pray there are well over 1,000 bikes that show up for this wonderful man.  Love you Loopy!!!!

The Heroes Highway Ride & Rally is the largest event of it's kind in Canada. It's a free ride meant to demonstrate our support of our troops and veterans and their families.

These people routinely put their lives on hold and on the line to defend the interests of our country and to protect others around the world who are not able to defend themselves, and their families sacrifice as much and sometimes more.

This year's HHR is being attended by Veterans advocate and SISIP class action hero Dennis Manuge who will be there supporting Medric Cousineau and Thai of Paws Fur Thoughts and the Long Walk to Sanity. You can buy the Long Walk to Sanity Dog Tags to support Medric's cause at the HHR - just look for the Mark Mullen/Belt Drive Betty/Paws Fur Thoughts Booth!

Artist Mark Mullen and his mom Kristina Toomey will be on hand with Mark's latest creation a portrait of Duck Dynasty's stars  Si and Phil (Below).  All the money raised from the tickets sold on this piece of art goes to Paws Fur Thoughts towards the purchase of a service dog. Draw happens during the Hillbilly Scavenger Hunt which will also be donating to Paws Fur Thought!

There will be families of fallen soldiers being honoured, silver cross moms that will be there to heal, to celebrate the lives of their children. The Portraits of Honour created by Dave Sopha will be there for you to see and pay tribute to the fallen of the Afghan mission. There will be military displays, guest speakers and all sorts of activities to take in.

Trapper Can of the C.A.V. will be in attendance and if you have never heard this man speak, you will be in for a treat!

Riders will be able to take in the Afghan Repatriation Memorial - meet our serving troops, meet some of our veterans and celebrate the lives and sacrifices made by the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces.  If you can attend - rain or shine - you will not be disappointed....even in the driving rain the military is out in full force showing their appreciation of our support - it is an utterly amazing experience that does so much for so many.

Please come out to the HHR and show our troops and veterans that we appreciate them and if you can't attend, you can support the HHR and the charities it supports by bidding here on the amazing Afghan you see below - the winning bidder pays the shipping...Bidding ends at midnight tonight Alberta Time.


Visit the HHR's Facebook Page for all of the meet up points to ride into Trenton under escort.

That's it from me for today - a ton to do to get ready to film and report from the HHR...
No matter which event, what cause or what destination you are riding to this weekend, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you...

Be blessed and stay safe...

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider.

The MCC & the CMA say NO BOOZE for Motorcyclists

The Motorcyclists Confederation of Canada and the Canadian Motorcycle Association have made a joint statement declaring that they are the voice of 85,000 Canadian riders and they say a ZERO Blood Alcohol Content initiative for motorcyclists would be supported by all of their riders.

I am beginning to see a familiar pattern when it comes to the Moped Motorcycle Industry Council (MMIC) and the Motorcyclist Confederation of Canada (MCC).  I guess it shouldn't surprise me because the MCC is supported financially by the manufacturers and it appears that yet again, they are working towards the discrimination of riders.  Remember that the MMIC are the people who brought us the J2825 Motorcycle noise Test from the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers).

I do not understand what they are doing or why.
Their vision appears to be so one tracked and it is beginning to look like they are trying to make a name for themselves, although I am not quite sure what ind of name to give them.

If it is NOT ok for me to have a glass of wine with supper and get on my motorcycle to ride to my motel when I am on holiday, then why is it ok for me to have a glass of wine with my supper and get in my car to drive home?

Impaired judgement is impaired judgement.

If I am not competent to ride a motorcycle then I am not competent to dive a motor vehicle, period.

Why this distinction by the MCC?
If you are a member of the MCC or the CMA, did you agree to the statement as an individual?

Why - yet again - single out motorcyclists?

Do you really think that a statement like that from riders is going to make it look like riders are leading the way in the campaign against drunk driving?  Wouldn't the far more balanced approach be to state that the riders of the MCC and the CMA support a ZERO BAC for ALL who share the roadways?
What say you?

In other news, Japanese racer Yoshinari Matsushita was killed during a practise for the Isle of Man TT.

And we have riders down again...

Police in Clarenville NL are investigating a fatal motorcycle crash and in Sudbury a rider is in hospital after a driver attempted to make left hand turn in front of the motorcyclist.

My prayers go out to the family and loved ones of all involved in these three incidents.

For all of the news of the day, visit www.beltdrivebetty.com where our work is keeping you informed!

We have an auction we are supporting for the Heroes Highway Ride & Rally - a beautiful afghan done in a cammo look!  Check it out and bid on it!

I leave you with a few funnies shared with me by friends on Facebook and by email...
I need a laugh after somber news like that.

Have a good Tuesday everyone, and remember, ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
Editor &  Rider

Social Media - staying safe from key board warriors

Social media can be a great way for people to stay connected and informed, BUT and it's a really BIG BUT...

Do you know everyone on your friends list?

Do you know if they are real people and by that I mean, are they who they say they are?

If you are a business owner, do you know who you are connecting yourself to and what their intentions are?  Yah, I know, sounds like a bad dad commentary, but seriously - DO YOU KNOW WHO you are connected to?

The internet, as I have learned has a very, very dark underbelly. A place where people have multiple identities, claim the hard work of others as their own and scam and hurt people in ways that can take years to repair.

Because I seldom stray off of the topics that interest me when I am surfing the net, I tend to not see that side of things too often.

Recently I have had cause to be investigating some people for an article that I intend to write in the future and a few that I have already written.

While doing that research, I found out just how desperate and deranged some people can be.

People can pretend to be some one they are not and hide behind a key board and say what ever in the HE Double Hockey Sticks they want to say about you and you have very little recourse is most cases.

Internet crimes like impersonation, plagiarism, photo theft, slander, stalking, bullying go unreported too often because even when reported, a lot of these scary things aren't considered crimes when they happen on the internet.  A lot of things we think are crimes - like impersonation - are not criminal unless the person doing the impersonating is getting some financial gain, the same for plagiarism.

Did you know that you could steal whole articles that other people have written and go undetected for years?

Did you know that seasoned journalists don't know that there are plagiarism checker tools or that you can use images.google.com - and in the search bar there is a little camera, click on that, upload a picture and you can find articles on and variations of those pictures if they have been shared lots?

It's amazing what happens when you do that - the things you learn about the people that you think you know....

Did you know that often times the profile images of Porn Stars are stolen and used by others to pass themselves off as pretty girls or handsome guys?

Did you know that there are people out there who are so good at Photoshop that unless you see the original photo you would NEVER suspect that the photos they produce to you as theirs are phony?

Did you know that all of the tools that people like me use in their day to day work, are used by jerk offs looking to take you for a ride, scam you, or just make themselves feel superior because you were stupid enough to believe them?

Motorcyclists are not the only community that gets a black eye courtesy of the disrespectful or deceitful.

There are some tools that you can use to protect yourself out there.

Before you accept a friend request from anyone, vet them. Find out who is at the table...

Check to see who else they are connected to, what kind of things they post about and if you can't find that information or get a true recommendation from a friend you know and trust via PM, then don't accept their requests.

There are so many scammers and con artists just waiting in the wings for that break, that chance to infiltrate all of your data and that of your friends.

If you think that someone is trying to scam you about who or what they are...

If your spider senses are tingling - pay attention to them. Even people you know personally can change due to life situations like divorces that see wounded people trying to drown themselves in all sorts of ways...people change and not always for the better.

If you are in the dating game, check the profile images ( images.google.com ) of the guy or chick, cause guess what, they probably look nothing like their profile picture. There are tons of sites out there dedicated to protecting the porn stars from having their photos ripped off, be they female or male.

There are tons of scammer checker sites now days. Use them.

Keep your computer and emails safe with a top-drawer security system like Kaspersky - which is what I use. It's a little more expensive than some programs out there but think of how expensive life will become if someone hacked your computer and stole your identity....

I am not a trained journalist and I tend to trust people far too easily.

I write about our community, my feelings towards it and when I need to I dig hard to find out the truth of a situation, I look for as much info to provide balanced reporting...investigative journalism is not something I have been trained for but, I do the best I can and am continually reading and learning.

I use the tools I have tripped across to protect myself, because no one wants to take someone like me under their wing - so I learn everything the hard way...hence why I am sharing these tips with you.

I don't want you learning the hard way - it hurts - a lot.

People have duped me because I take people at their word, at face value. I am too old school for a world that connects you to so many. I am, however, learning at a rapid rate an art I would never have thought I'd wanted to learn - How not to trust.

And so...

I have gone to great lengths recently to learn how to protect myself out there even better, because the more I am in the "public eye" the more the freaks are coming out of the closet.

In every community there is someone who seems to need to destroy everything that others do or hold dear.   I am not sure why we can't all just be happy for each other, why there are so many broken and dead souls walking around - but there are.

In the riding community:

You have those who use their loud pipes to show off instead of for safety.

You have people who hold events and then don't pay their bills.

In almost every community:

You have people who volunteer and then don't show up.

You have people who take on a job but never really show up.

You have people whose word isn't worth the paper it's written on.

In government and policing:

You have politicians that lie and steal from the Canadian Taxpayer.

You have police officers that ruin the name of the force by their conduct while the good ones have to put up with the brunt of the anger...

Yes, there are nut jobs everywhere you turn and the Internet makes them more accessible than ever.

Just like riding, the best defense is a great offence.

What say you?

I leave you with a few funnies shared with me by friends on Facebook and via emails:

No matter which event you are attending this weekend PLEASE ride like everyone around you is blind and cannot see you.

Have a safe and pleasurable weekend...

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

A veteran and his service dog....R.A.G.E. and Classy Chassis...

Paws Fur Thought
Folks here is yet again another article about Thai..... so this weekend when you are celebrating with friends and family, I would like you to consider doing 2 things. 

1. Could we each recruit a another person to come join the cause. 
We double our awareness... and we can only hit our goal if we have the money to force a governments hand. 

2) So the Bluensoe Charity Challenge,(Link in the article) is a great way to do it... 
Have a Pawsitively Pawsome Weekend, Thai & I

From R.A.G.E. in Saskatchewan:
JUST A REMINDER ABOUT THE *MAY IS MOTORCYCLE AWARENESS* RUN TOMORROW
  
REGINA - WILL LEAVE THE LEDGE AT 12 NOON AND RIDE TO A&W IN DAVIDSON - WILL BE LEAD BY R.A.G.E.

SASKATOON - WILL LEAVE THE GRASSWOOD ESSO AT NOON AND RIDE TO DAVIDSON TO MEET THE REGINA GROUP - WILL BE LEAD BY THE LONEWOLVES AND R.A.G.E.

MOOSE JAW - WILL MEET REGINA IN CHAMBERLAIN AT 12:45 AT THE ESSO AND CARRY ON TO DAVIDSON
  
 NORTH BATTLEFORD - LEAD BY THE CANADIAN LEGION RIDERS - LEAVING SPLISH SPLASH CAR WASH AT 11 AM

YORKTON - LEAD BY THE YORKTON HOG CHAPTER - LEAVING YORKTON HD 
AT PRINCE ALBERT - LEAVING TIMS ON MARQUIS - KICKSTANDS UP AT 10:30 AM (WILL BE MEETING UP WITH NORTH BATTLEFORD)
  
 IF ANYONE IS ABLE TO COME OUT AND TAKES PHOTOS AND VIDEOS OF ANY OF THESE RUNS IT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED - ALSO IF YOU HAVE R.A.G.E. GEAR PLEASE WEAR IT!! WE REQUEST THAT EVERYONE RIDE WITHIN THE LAW AND STAY ALERT AS YOU WILL BE RIDING IN A GROUP - IF YOU DO NOT KNOW GROUP HAND SIGNALS PLEASE DO YOUR HOME WORK!

WE WANT AS MANY BIKES OUT PROVINCIALLY AS WE CAN - SO IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A RUN IN YOUR OWN COMMUNITY PLEASE POST YOUR LEAVING TIME ON THE EVENT PAGE - THERE IS NO COST FOR THIS RIDE - HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL THERE AND KEEP THE SHINY SIDE UP :)

Classy Chassis in Lakefield Ontario is having their season opener event soon: 

Belt Drive Betty
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Belt Drive Betty

From our Linked In Network:
Kimpex has launched a new contest!
Answer this soft shell jacket survey and have a chance to win one of the great prizes that are up for grabs:http://fr.surveymonkey.com/s/softshellcontest

Visit their facebook page to see the details.www.facebook.com/kimpex.inc 

From our news feeds:

If you live in or are visiting Toronto, don't park your scoot on the sidewalk

Manitoba is targeting the Hells Angels

In Vaughn Ontario a rider has passed away after a crash.

In Langley BC a man shares his passion for the old bikes

In Sports news - there will be fewer western races for MotoGP 

In Event News the World of Wheels is on in Peachland and the Barrie Construction Association Caner Ride is gearing up in Ontario

In Support Our Troops News - Vets are frustrated at lack of funding for PTSD dogs

I leave you with a few funnies shared with me by friends on Facebook and via emails...I need something to giggle at...it's been a rough start to the day.

If you are lucky enough to be riding today, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you - Motorcycle Awareness - Do Your Part - Ride Smart™!

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider

Another Monday...

Today is typical of pretty much any Monday during riding season.

We have another rash of rider fatalities/crash news to deal with.

On the weekend in Edmonton AB,  a rider was killed when he ran from police - he was on a stolen motorcycle. I lift a prayer for his family.
Karma got him, but sadly it is his family that will pay the price for his misdeeds.

Also in Alberta, a lady rider was killed in Okotoks.

Then news out of Penticton is that two riders were killed between OK Falls and Penticton.

My prayers go out to those affected by these crashes.

In Newfoundland, a menace rider is off the street thanks the the RNC...the man has over $30,000 in unpaid fines!

I am tired of the death and mayhem already and the season has only just begun.

Now, I want to address a video that I came across.

What would you do if you came across a police officer breaking the law?

How would you expect that officer to conduct him/her self?

In every community there are those who feel that they are somehow superior to others and conduct themselves in selfish and arrogant ways that affect the perception of the rest of their community.

The police services are no different.

Watch this video and then please, tell me what you think of the young man who filmed this and the police officer's conduct.

I WANT YOUR feedback!

Have a good Monday, and PLEASE, Do Your Part and Ride Smart - ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
Editor & Rider