Been gone far too long...

I have just gotten through 5 of the most stressful days of my life - getting the community phone book ready for printing. It is the MOST nerve racking thing I have ever done. You worry yourself sick thinking you are going to miss an ad or have type "o's" (which I am famous for because you really can't proof read your own work - it just doesn't work).

None the less, I am finished, it's at the printers and good lord willing it will look as good in final copy as I feel it looks in PDF format.

The free book and membership cards will be available at the January bike shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and in February at Saskatoon's new Motorcycle Show and Red Deer - they moved to February! In March we are planning on attending the Nation Motorcycle Show In Toronto - Carolyn Neveau is one of our RFBA business partners and hosts this particular show! I am looking into creative ways to get the books to riders for free in the East so if you have any ideas!!!

Otherwise you can order them on line but it costs $7.50 for shipping and handling - plus tax.
I am stoked as this year we have a ton of new sponsors - Intercon Messaging is offering their Never Ride Alone Program to all REGISTERED BDB Club Members - (remember MEMBERSHIP is FREE!)

We also have a much grown Canadian Riders Network - and their assistance will be available to our members through the same toll free number!

In all the membership card is good for special services and savings at over 300 Canadian Locations from Coast to Coast to Coast!

We are working on a ton of initiatives that could see this little plastic membership card be good for special services and discounts at over 500 businesses before long!

If you are not a member and not using your membership card for all of the perks it offers, well, you will be missing out and that would be a shame!

We are also looking at ways to reduce the cost of delivering the community newspaper and still comply with all anti spam laws etc... speaking of which - make sure you have us white listed in your emails address list (added as a contact)!

Our 2011 Beat the PMS Blues On Line Show n Shine is shaping up to have some FABULOUS prizes this year!

A Doran Tire Pressure Monitor is the Top prize - what a nifty idea this is! With an approximate retail value of $270 - I'd say that's a pretty good prize! 

To win you just need to share your photos with us!

We have hotel rooms, meals, camping, event tickets and more to hand out to the winners in the various categories because we have some awesome sponsors! You can live anywhere in Canada - the prizes come from ALL Over Canada!

Beginning January 1 you can start loading your photos into the contest gallery...voting begins February 5th and wraps up March 5th. Official winners list will come out on March 15th. Join us. We have a blast - it's a great way to deal with your PMS - no matter how severe! January 1st 2011 - Join us for Belt Drive Betty's Beat the PMS Blues On Line Show 'n' Shine!

It is totally the prescription for coping with PMS!

Don't forget to vote on the photos in our Ride like a Local contest! There are some 60 photos or so all vying for the prize of 2 nights hotel in a Canadian Community of your choice OR $150 cash.  You have to be a registered member at www.beltdrivebetty.com to vote - but with all of the perks that membership has, maybe now is finally the time for you to register! Vote Here: Rider Like a Local Photo Contest


Ali has our on line store resurrected and has gotten it kicked off with a few of the license plates we offer, next will come the subscriptions to the Busted Knuckle Chronicles Community newspaper, the phone book and then our bar and road signs.

$1 from every license plate we sell and $2 from every bar sign/road sign we sell will go into a pool that we will then donate to the CMTA for the Injured Riders Fund...
Over time we will add patches, tees shirts and other items - and again a portion of the proceeds will be donated right back to our community. I am proud to be a rider and proud to support our charitable causes and MY brothers and sisters of the family wind!
And Ali, our wonderful web mistress feels the exact same way!

There is so much in the news. My word - from US Motorcycle Missionaries being attacked in Haiti to Harley-Davidson's new advertising agency and a new way of advertising called Crowd Sourcing - there is one broad and wide variety of interesting stuff in the what's hot section on our site!

KTM is offering up a new bike as is Honda - but we here in North America can't have the new Honda.

In Edmonton the Police service wants the city to expand the noise bylaw to ALL vehicles....HMMMM - Liane Langlois - did your pressure finally pay off?

In the US - Helmets could become mandatory in all 50 states and the state of Oregon is investigating the practice of lane splitting


Well - I have a hugely busy day ahead of me and while there is MUCH MUCH more in the news feeds today I will leave it up to you to snoop and discover the gems for yourselves!

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

From Bad to worse, the news is UGLY today

On W5 there was an in depth documentary on a predator.
Caron Oderbien - a grifter, a predator - call her what you will - I will call her evil.

The W5 investigation took 10 months to complete and uncovered  a lot of dirt on this gal who is reportedly living in the Camrose AB region - or she was up until the show aired.

Our troops, people with cancer - this broad milked a whole ton of us riders and a whole lot of other unsuspecting people. I will never understand why there are people like her - what made her the way she is, what made her - drove her to take advantage of the less fortunate, the ill and the infirm? I guess until she is caught we will never know, in the mean time this gal has left destruction, hurt and empty wallets in a rather large swath right across Canada and into the northern US.

Then in the US, tragedy struck the riding community in a large way again. Reminiscent of the crash last March in Phoenix, this one in Southern California has the Saddletramps Motorcycle Club devastated.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of their club, riding down an undivided two lane highway and someone, pulls out to pass the riders with a car coming - in order to avoid a head on the driver of the oncoming car swerved to the right, went into the sand, over compensated, came back onto the highway and drive right in to the riders. The card driver who was passing the bikes in an unsafe manner was reportedly doing close to 100 mph.


 With 4 riders dead and the passenger of the oncoming car dead - this tragedy, highly avoidable is eerily similar to the Phoenix crash...I pray with all my heart for the families and friends of the dead riders. I pray for a speedy recovery of the injured and hope that the driver who never stopped - the SOB that caused the accident to get caught - SOON.

The driver of the oncoming vehicle was arrested for DUI but it is not believed that his alcohol consumption had anything to do with this accident.

As always, I love it when you wade in on the discussions of the day - today is no different.

Only thing is the discussions on FB have to take place on our Fan Page - I am at my max for friends on my personal page! So join us at Belt Drive Betty & The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
Or in the forums at www.beltdrivebetty.com or right here in my blog - I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on these two situations...what can we riders do to prevent being taken to the cleaners by the dishonest and what can we do to help prevent collisions like the on in SOCal?

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

The pros and the cons...

Social networking, Facebook in particular appears to be like the rest of us when it comes to this social networking thing. They appear to be making the rules as they go.

Although there are FB sharing tools everywhere - if they don't like the link or the article you are sharing they make it so you can't see it.

If you become "popular" with 5,000 friends - guess what - they cut you off.
I have been at the point of not being able to join a group - cause I am a member of too many groups in their eyes for at least 5 months now. I have not been able to "like" another page in about the same length of time.

Now I can't add any friends - only confirm those who had accepted previous requests or referrals. remember - I have only been on Facebook for 10 months in any kind of earnest way - 1 year since I set things up but only 10 months of active use...

I joined Facebook, kicking and screaming. My web mistress ORDERED me to join and create a group, a personal and a fan page. So I did that - now the group page is closed - what a pain to maintain that was...my personal page is there but has hit the growth wall and now I have to work my fan page and my personal page together...- what the heck happened tot the social in social network marketing?

Well - for those of who who are interested - once our community phone book is done and off to the printers I will be working my own Facebook style of components a lot harder on www.beltdrivebetty.com

I am going to get two groups going over there for sure: the RFBA one and the BDB Club one.

You can start your own social networking group on www.beltdrivebetty.com - it's free and works almost like Facebook and the best part? It just us riders over there!

So while Facebook decides my public fate on the amount of friends I can have and I finish this community phone book - I hope you my friends will join me either on my fan page or better yet, don't make a girl work so hard - become a member over at www.beltdrivebetty.com

Instead of helping a big corporation, how about helping a little owner operator..join us - our sharing tools are free and the only restrictions will be when our server starts to cost more - and even then - if we can attract the advertisers that won't have to be an issue either...

So for all of you who love "crackbook" so much: http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1484667758435&sk=messages#!/pages/Belt-Drive-Betty-The-Busted-Knuckle-Chronicles/201980414908  that's the link to our fan page...

For those of you who wouldn't working on building a "bikers" community on www.beltdrivebetty.com

Our NEW Groups components are done BETA testing and are ready for you to use!
They are brand new and clean and all they need is you - your pictures, your videos, your laughter and sharing...to become a home - so come on and help us grow our own community where the only restriction on how many people you can have as friends is going to be how many advertisers we can attract to help us grow! Go on your profile tab and then to community groups....Join us - WE'D LOVE TO HAVE YOU THERE!

Remember all BDB Club members have the ability to print off their membership card for savings at close to 300 Canadian Businesses and use the NEVER RIDE ALONE program from Intercon Messaging for FREE!

Let me know your thoughts on social networking for we riders - what is important to you?
Photo galleries, sharing tools, videos etc - what makes a social network work for you?
I'd LOVE to have you in on this discussion!!!!

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Thank YOU

To the young men and women of our country who have given their lives in service to this country.....And I do not just refer to those who have lost their lives, but the ones who come home who live with tortured minds and souls and those with broken bodies too....

Thank you.

If not for you, I would be riding around big gaping holes in the pavement where a bomb had landed, or I'd be in hiding when a band of insurgents came to raze my town or I'd be being beaten...

If not for you the kids of my community/country would be begging for food or learning how to kill to protect themselves.

If not for you, the horrors of war would be here - in Grande Prairie AB or Toronto ON or Vancouver, or Churchill...

Your willingness to lay your life down for this country will never be forgotten.

And to the families of our soldiers an even bigger thank you for supporting your soldiers decision to defend this country even though you know it will forever change them.

THANK YOU.


Every day needs to be Veteran's Day - Every day, people who live in relative freedom should be remembering to say Thank You ...

Two little words to go with two short minutes - on the 11th day of the 11 month at the 11th hour - for two short minutes FEEL THANKFUL - FEEL GRATEFUL and remember that today a mother is missing her son or daughter, a wife is comforting a restless child who misses her daddy and a father is consoling his son as he feels the loss of his wife...

Remembrance day is a day of GRATITUDE for we, the people who benefit from those who have chosen to serve us and our country.  Think of where we would be if it were not for them.

With love, honor and respect... Thank You - to all of the Veterans and our serving personnel. I am humbled by the depth of your love and respect for this country.

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Publish Post

More decisions to make...

Since the news feeds are nice and quiet other than for sports, I thought I'd take some more time to ask you for feed back on glasses and goggles.

You have all been so helpful in talking about the jackets, chaps, boots etc...and I appreciate ytour taking the time to talk about good gear with me.

Now - glasses...I have some from an outfit called Chaotic Choppers - hands down they were the best glasses I have ever owned but they were expensive - $300 a pair. They had interchangeable lenses and were ultra light weight made from CNC machined aluminum.

Chaotic Choppers is not around from what I can find out and sadly though the frames and lenses are great still the nose pieces are buggered on both pairs and I can't seem to find anyone who can re foam them.

So - I am in the market for a really good set of glasses and or goggles - now I have one more kink yet to deal with. I was just prescribed glasses...so how do you deal with that?

I wear a half helmet...any suggestions?
What should I be budgeting for this particular purpose?


That's all I have for now...I would LOVE your feedback on this topic...you can join the discussion here in my blog, on my Face Book or in our forums on www.beltdrivebetty.com

By the way - have YOU voted on our photo contest photos? No - well I hope you will take 5 and go vote - some lucky human being is gonna win wither two nights hotel or $150!

In the News today:

On Vancouver Island a spokesman for the HA finds himself facing charges

The Old Bike Barn offers some winter storage tips

In Milan Italy the EIMCA show has wrapped up

In Sports, Rossi rides Ducati

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Riding Boots...

The news feeds are once again very quiet and so today I am going back to the topic of gear and am asking you about riding boots.

During the January and February bike shows I will be looking for new gear to replace my tired stuff.

So - I wear braces on both feet. The mechanical ankle makes it super tough for me to wear very many kinds of boots.

My requirements are zippers, preferably outside of the boot not inside. Lace ups are a must to adjust the tension. They must be ankle height minimum.

My one season old Harley boots have just about got a hole worn in the back of the left heel from the heel toe shifter. While I only use that shifter rarely, it holds my foot in place and helps take the strain off of my weakest knee...the left one.

If any of you have suggestions as to what boot I should consider trying I'd appreciate it.
Out of all of the riding gear I have to choose this winter - this is the one investment that for me - it's one of the MOST important...

I'd also be curious about the footwear you have invested in and why - because by your sharing, some rider who reads this blog and the comments might find some solutions to their footwear decisions.


There is one thing of interest in the news for Albertan's. If you live here and you enjoy road racing your future may not be too bright.  Stratotech has announced that it is up for sale. So that will mean NO road racing in Calgary or Edmonton...what a freaking shame that would be.

The track in Edmonton - if I remember right from the article is worth like 7 million dollars (that might be what it had cost to build)  Anyway - whatever the price tag is - I think it would be phenomenal to see this track be bought - I think all of those high powered machines out there that need a place to play, that is safe and free from outside factors as much as possible. A place where people can test their limits and that of their machines...

So everyone, let's pray that the Stratotech park gets purchased by someone who really loves motorsports.

And this one is for ALL Canadian Riders...Cycle Source Magazine is running a survery on their site and our very own Mark Mazerolle of the BMHS Bike Klub in Moncton is up for the man of the year award.

I would take it as a personal favor if you would consider taking the time to fill out the survey and vote for Mazz - the work this man does with the kids of the Bike Klub is inspiring. http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=57dada25-661e-431e-9cce-9f250d20353a

That's it for me today - final proofing and layout of our 2011 phone book - the next 5 days - that's all I do...

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Drunk Driving is OK for some in BC is seems

While BC has just implemented the toughest drinking driving laws in Canada - it appears that the  BC court system wasn't involved in that decision making process.

You see, there is a shortage of judges, cases are so backed up that a police officer in North Delta got off of drunk driving charges because of too many delays.
The right to a speedy trial being the argument.

So tell me something folks - is it me or is there something fundamentally wrong with this picture?  The entire food and beverage industry in BC has just been decimated by this new .05 rule, where in your vehicle is impounded and you face a 72 hour suspension and in total it is going to cost you somewhere around $5K to insure your vehicle AND get your steering papers back ....and yet drunk drivers are seeing their charges stayed because of court delays?  Is the there some kind of time delay for those who are killed by drunk drivers or whose property is destroyed?

Seriously - is there anything right with this system?
I guess this is why they are opting for road side justice in BC and giving the RCMP such sweeping powers - their court system is broken.

If you read the entire article that is linked in the first paragraph you will also see that cocaine traffickers are getting off on their charges for the same reason....court delays.

Folks is there such a thing as a Mike Holmes for broken political and judicial systems?
If there is - we need to find that person and get them in to rip, tear and pull hair and "Make it RIGHT" cause this travesty of justice...this HAS to stop.

That's my two bits on the subject...what are your thoughts? I would love you to wade in on this topic...here in my  blog, in the forums on www.beltdrivebetty.com or on Face Book!

In other news:
In Alberta a rider was killed by Cochrane

In Ontario the OPP claim that the Outlawa MC is rebuilding near Peterborough

The Welland MC Club held their big year end banquet

Husqvarna has a new concept bike on the show block that will make your head turn...

If you are riding today, you luck dog...PLEASE ride safe, and put on an extra few for me K cause - yah this sucks being without my ride, it sucks harder than you know.....

Belt Drive Betty
Rider & Editor

The Busted Knuckle Chronicles
www.bustedknucklenews.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com